Khobar Towers: Ten Years Later

Ten years ago terrorists blew up Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. troops. Former FBI director Louis Freeh blasts the Clinton administration for doing little to investigate and placating to "moderate" Iranians when the evidence pointed directly at the Shia state.

The aftermath of the Khobar bombing is just one example of how successive U.S. governments have mishandled Iran. On June 25, 1996, President Clinton declared that "no stone would be left unturned" to find the bombers and bring them to "justice." Within hours, teams of FBI agents, and forensic and technical personnel, were en route to Khobar. The president told the Saudis and the 19 victims' families that I was responsible for the case. This assignment became very personal and solemn for me, as it meant that I was the one who dealt directly with the victims' survivors. These disciplined military families asked only one thing of me and their country: "Please find out who did this to our sons, husbands, brothers and fathers and bring them to justice."

It soon became clear that Mr. Clinton and his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, had no interest in confronting the fact that Iran had blown up the towers. This is astounding, considering that the Saudi Security Service had arrested six of the bombers after the attack. As FBI agents sifted through the remains of Building 131 in 115-degree heat, the bombers admitted they had been trained by the Iranian external security service (IRGC) in Lebanon's Beka Valley and received their passports at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, along with $250,000 cash for the operation from IRGC Gen. Ahmad Sharifi.

We later learned that senior members of the Iranian government, including Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the Spiritual Leader's office had selected Khobar as their target and commissioned the Saudi Hezbollah to carry out the operation. The Saudi police told us that FBI agents had to interview the bombers in custody in order to make our case. To make this happen, however, the U.S. president would need to make a personal request to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

So for 30 months, I wrote and rewrote the same set of simple talking points for the president, Mr. Berger, and others to press the FBI's request to go inside a Saudi prison and interview the Khobar bombers. And for 30 months nothing happened. The Saudis reported back to us that the president and Mr. Berger would either fail to raise the matter with the crown prince or raise it without making any request. On one such occasion, our commander in chief instead hit up Prince Abdullah for a contribution to his library. Mr. Berger never once, in the course of the five-year investigation which coincided with his tenure, even asked how the investigation was going

It took former President George H.W. Bush to get FBI agents to question the bombers locked in Saudi prisons.

When evidence linked Iran to the bombing Freeh says the Clintonians didn't seek justice:

Upon being advised that our investigation now had proof that Iran blew up Khobar Towers, Mr. Berger's astounding response was: "Who knows about this?" His next, and wrong, comment was: "That's just hearsay." When I explained that under the Rules of Federal Evidence the detainees' comments were indeed more than "hearsay," for the first time ever he became interested--and alarmed--about the case. But this interest translated into nothing more than Washington "damage control" meetings held out of the fear that Congress, and ordinary Americans, would find out that Iran murdered our soldiers. After those meetings, neither the president, nor anyone else in the administration, was heard from again about Khobar.

From Iran's perspective they see a United States that talks tough but doesn't end up doing anything. Iranian-linked Hezbollah killed 241 Marines in Beirut in 1983. President Reagan ordered them to pack up and leave. We know Iran supported the Khobar Towers bombing yet did nothing. Then there was the shame of President Jimmy Carter looking powerless while Iranians held Americans hostage at our Tehran embassy for 444 days. Based on that track record the Iranians shouldn't expect any harsh response for their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"Khobar Towers"

Marotta Involved with Another Bidding Process

Marc Marotta, Gov. Doyle's former Administration Secretary and now campaign chairman, is alleged to have interfered in another state bidding contract. Spivak & Bice, who are much better investigative reporters than webloggers, have the details:

But an irate vendor, using newly discovered e-mails, is arguing in an Ozaukee County lawsuit that the long arm of Marotta reached into the bidding process for a $55 million-plus building deal awarded by the state in 2004, kicking it to a competitor.

Prism, a three-member partnership that bid on the deal, is pulling no punches in the allegation it is leveling against Gov. Jim Doyle's administration and Marotta, who left the governor's cabinet last year and is now his campaign chairman.

"The State simply opted for a Mulligan, or do-over, when the winner, Prism, was not politically popular with the person who made the key decision," Prism argues in court documents filed last week. "Such is exactly the behavior which the statutes and regulations are intended to bar."

Elsewhere in the filing, Prism charges: "It was Marc J. Marotta . . . who made the improper decision to abandon the selection of Prism."

An e-mail from a member of Building Commission member points straight at Marotta:

"Committee discussions indicate that one developer is significantly 'better' than the others," wrote Andrew Richards, finance director for UWM to Peter Maternowski, a staffer in Marotta's agency.

Richards continued, "If for some reason the Secretary's choice is another developer, I would expect that you would contact the team immediately as there would be a very large need for additional dialogue."

Put this e-mail together with the phone calls from Marotta's office to Adelman Travel during that bidding process and the idea that Marotta stayed clear of bidding processes just went up in smoke.

Since this is the Doyle administration campaign contributions are involved:

Not mentioned in the suit are campaign finance records that show execs from the eventual winning group - which didn't even compete in Round 1 of the bidding process - contributed $51,000 to Doyle's campaign, including $13,000 in the two months after the pact was awarded and $1,000 days before the final vote.

By contrast, the folks with Prism donated no money to the Democratic governor.

That's amazing. The winning bidders got in late and won the bid. It's the Doyle pay-to-play modus operandi at work.

There's no need for Rep. Mark Green to run negative ads when the the MSM does it's job and publicizes the Doyle administration's misdeeds. At this rate Team Doyle will have to start launching nuclear shots at Green just to frustrate voters. A Doyle spokesman told the Spice Boys, "Mark Green has spent his career behind a desk exchanging votes for special-interest campaign cash." The mud will be flying soon. Team Doyle can't continue to keep taking these hits in isolation.

"Marotta Intervened in UWM Project Bidding Process, Lawsuit Contends"

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June 24, 2006

ACLU Opposes Financial Surveillance

The slowly-healing Captain Ed (get well soon) points out the ACLU stuck their nose into the Swift story. It should be no surprise they're not happy:

The revelation of the CIA's financial spying program is another example of the Bush administration's abuse of power. The invasion of our personal financial information, without notification or judicial review, is contrary to the fundamental American value of privacy and must be stopped now.

As Captain Ed notes even though the ACLU has access to many highly-skilled lawyers on a host of technical legal subjects they don't point out a single piece of law the Bush administration violated. It's hard to call the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program an "abuse of power" when the traitorous NY Times reported, "Swift and Treasury officials said they were aware of no abuses" and could find no abuses themselves.

So we have the ACLU which offers nothing to support their argument against an administration that has the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as well as other laws as Andrew McCarthy writes,

And unlike the last vital program the New York Times compromised — the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, which the same reporters, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, exposed last December — there is not even a facially plausible concern that the TFTP violates statutory law. The provisions germane here (mainly, the Right to Financial Privacy Act that Congress enacted in 1978 in reaction to Miller) do not even apply to the nerve center at issue, the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

That’s because SWIFT, as it is better known, is not a financial institution at all. It is a consortium, centered not in the U.S. but in Belgium, which simply — albeit importantly — oversees how funds are routed globally. It is a messenger, not a bank. Nevertheless, in an abundance of caution, the government uses administrative subpoenas — which were expressly provided for by Congress in the aforementioned Financial Privacy Act and the Patriot Act — when it seeks SWIFT information. That’s not just legal; it’s hyper-legal.

In their press release the ACLU continues to bloviate:

Once again, this administration has performed an end-run around the legislature, allowing for no Congressional approval or oversight....

Someone must tell the civil liberties organization to keep up with the news. This from the scandalous NY Times story:

While the banking program is a closely held secret, administration officials have conducted classified briefings to some members of Congress and the Sept. 11 Commission, the officials said.

No, there's weren't public hearings broadcast on C-SPAN. Since it's been an effective tool in following the financial web of Islamist terrorists it's understandable Congressmen were told on a need-to-know basis.

Someday, there will be another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. There will be investigations, and hearings, and discussions of what went wrong and how to prevent future attacks. More than likely some blue ribbon panel will chastise the government for not doing more to track terrorists' financial dealings. When that happens I will be on the frontline showing nothing but contempt for the ACLU for not realizing we are at war.

"ACLU, Right On Schedule"

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Surveillance at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wisconsin Artist Win National Art Award

There's hope for the art world. David Lenz won the first National Portrait Gallery portrait competition for his photo-like painting of his son in a field.

Will realism become "cool" again? One can only hope.

"In a Father's Experience, Perfection"

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Wisconsin at 01:33 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

June 23, 2006

DPW: Gard Trying to "Trick" Voters

When there isn't any real news in an election it's the job of a campaign to snipe at their opponent. That's what Joe Wineke did to day in a press release attacking State Assembly Speaker John Gard:

But the families of the 8th Congressional District aren’t fooled by John Gard’s efforts to hide the fact that he lived in the suburbs of Madison until just a few months ago. While he supposedly “represented” Peshtigo in the state Legislature, Gard and his family lived in a home he bought in Sun Prairie in 1999.

Gard is obviously trying to cover up just how out-of-touch he is with the families of the 8th Congressional District, with ads that attempt to pass him off as a Northeastern Wisconsin farm boy, said Joe Wineke, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Gard can change addresses, but he can’t change an out-of-touch record that doesn’t represent the priorities of Northeast Wisconsin.

If Gard had stayed in an apartment and rarely saw his kids who stayed in Peshtigo Wineke would have issued a press release criticizing him for not making his family a priority. That's life in the tit-for-tat world of politics.

"Dems Call Gard's Farm Ad a Trick"

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Bush Basher Reaction to Financial Surveillance

Bush bashers are shaking with glee and launching attacks against an effective tool against Islamism:

The Huffington Post lies with its headline "Bank Data Secretly Reviewed By Bush Admin. Without Warrants Or Subpoenas...." (Click for a full-size image.)

In the linked NY Times story it reads,

Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift.

Why be accurate when you can bash the President?

Helen Thomas decided to badger Press Secretary Tony Snow about what laws allow the government to search financial data. Snow didn't know the specific law but would get lawyers on the case. That wasn't good enough for the old bag who interrupted Snow during another question. That got him to blurt, "Helen, will you stop heckling and let me conduct a press conference?" Crooks & Liars has the video.

Taylor Marsh decides Republicans and conservatives are "fat, self-satisfied and self-absorbed."

Rep. Ed Markey is troubled saying, "If the administration wants to fight terrorism legally, then it should ask for the authority it needs and then follow the law that Congress passes." If the program is on "rock-solid ground" then that's based on laws passed by Congress--the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to be exact. Markey should find some specific objection before attacking the President in front of the media.

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Surveillance at 04:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Charlie's Show Prep #123

• Gov. Doyle leads Rep. Mark Green 49-37%. But among people who actually have an opinion of both men Green whups Doyle 52-42%.

• Vice President Cheney doesn't seen the need for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.

• The state hopes to have a tiny, tiny $10.3 million budget surplus by next week.

• The president of the WIAA asks a great question: Should schools be in the athletic business?

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Wisconsin at 04:07 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Papers Out Classified Financial Surveillance Program

The U.S. government is going after the financial foundation of her Islamist terrorist enemies. This isn't news since the Bush administration has said often they would use diplomatic, military, and financial weapons in the war. What's news is two major U.S. newspapers told the world, including the enemy, how they do it. This from the LA Times:

Under this effort, Treasury routinely acquires information about bank transfers from the world's largest financial communication network, which is run by a consortium of financial institutions called the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT.

We know what side the NY Times and LA Times are on. They're neither pro-America nor anti-America. They're each on their own side, a side where their claim of the "public interest" (as they solely define it) transcends mere national borders. The NY Times and LA Times see themselves as above the confines of patriotism. That would be too Red State of them. Too much for the sensibilities of Fly-Over Country. Patterico declares the NY Times "actually dangerous" and "These people are in a race to undermine our national security." It's hard to disagree.

I'm sure there were quite a few rah-rahs in the newsrooms when Dixie Chick Natalie Maines wondered what the big deal is about patriotism. They could relate. The papers have internalized the Mike Wallace notion that they "don't have [a] higher duty... [they're] reporter[s]". Worrying about what harm telling the enemy about our efforts to defeat them is less important than impressing oneself among peers who also drink deeply from the Mike Wallace kool-aid.

There's the possibility of an anti-American European backlash that forces the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) to end its cooperation with U.S. intelligence. It's not out of the realm of possibility even though the NY Times story states, "Swift and Treasury officials said they were aware of no abuses." Lack of abuse won't stop the anti-American Europeans and domestic Bush Basher from looking to take another shot at the U.S. for her "unlawful," "immoral," "unilateral" foreign policy.

The program has been effective. From the NY Times' story:

Among the successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said.

In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said.

The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said.

I wonder what role Swift data played (if any) in the arrest of the Miami terrorist cell that sought to destroy the Sears Tower.

It would be a grave mistake if the U.S. lost access to a rich source of intelligence just because two newspapers allowed their arrogance to trump national security. There's a time and a place for everything. There is something called History. That's when issues like this could be examined without the fear of tipping off the enemy.

"Media Refuses to Hold Surveillance Story" [via Drudge]

"Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror"

"Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank Transfers"

"NYT: We're Still Above the Law" [via protein wisdom]

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Surveillance at 03:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 22, 2006

Child Support Problems

Semi-old news is still juicy news. It seems a certain popular conservative state legislator is in a tiff with an ex-girlfriend over child support:

Rep. Frank Lasee (R-2nd) has asked to reduce the child support payments he must make for a child of his born out of wedlock to a DePere woman. A friend of the mother of Lasee's child called www.milwaukeeworld.com, with the permission of the mother, to discuss the matter. She said Lasee wrote to the mother saying that child support payments were too onerous for his modest legislative salary, to which the mother replied that the payments barely covered day care for the infant. Lasee also has not seen the child in five months, according to the caller. While the mother would like the Green Bay Republican to be a part of her child's life, Lasee, she says, is unwilling to make a commitment of his time for such a purpose. "It would take too much time and effort," he said, according to the caller.

"Rep. Lasee: Child Support is Costing Me Too Much"

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Wisconsin at 03:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Charlie's Show Prep #122

• General Sen. Feingold sees the Iraq War as "fruitless."

• Washington County board members reject asking voters if a half-cent sales tax should continue. It should no longer be called a "conservative" county.

• Israel joins the Red Cross when the humanitarian organization allows the use the "red crystal."

• 80-year-old Bill Wambach will try to break the national high jump record. Here's hoping he doesn't break his hip.

• The South Park duo is working on a Mormon musical. [via Netscape]

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Wisconsin at 03:33 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

June 21, 2006

Conservatism's Encyclopedia

American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia has been out a few months. The massive, 997-page tome gets reasonable coverage in the NY Times:

Sixteen years in the making, American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia appears with American conservatism, the political movement, warring over its future direction.

"We've gone from history's adversary to destiny's child, but governing has brought a whole new level of challenge," said Jeffrey O. Nelson, publisher of ISI Books, the conservative press in Wilmington, Del., that produced the encyclopedia. Criticizing what he called the "big education, big spending, big war, big government" conservatism of Republican leaders, Mr. Nelson said he hoped that the book, whose list price is $35, would help the movement return to its small-government roots.

"If conservatism is going to succeed and thrive in the 21st century," he said, "it's got to look more like the conservative tradition as expressed in this book than the conservatism currently practiced in Washington."

Those people toiling in the capital trenches may not recognize the conservatism represented here. The book omits familiar names like Ann Coulter, Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove.

It includes the journals University Bookman, circulation 2,600, and First Things. It gives Willmoore Kendall, a political scientist who died in 1967, three times as much ink as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Those proportions are appropriate, said a former student of Mr. Kendall, William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of National Review, who called the reference book "terrific."

Reporter Jason DeParle focuses too much on what was left out: Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, conservatism and race relations. Like most encyclopedias this is a living project with future editions in the works. The ability to dig deep into American conservative thought without needing 50 years of National Review issues is a wonderful accomplishment.

"An A-to-Z Book of Conservatism Now Weighs In"

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Books at 02:01 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Charlie's Show Prep #121

• General Sen. Feingold's plan to ditch Iraq in 2007 isn't playing well with fellow Democratic Senators. Sen. Kohl doesn't back his collegue.

• Midwest Fiber Networks has failed to do anything to cover Milwaukee in wi-fi. The Common Council voted to open up the project to other companies.

• Technology has changed a younger generation's mores and social behaviors. Informality and individualism are the thing.

• Dwyane Wade gets his first NBA title in only his third professional season. And I thought his triple-double against Kentucky in 2003.
  

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Wisconsin at 01:20 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 20, 2006

Rather Era Over at CBS

CBS News and Dan Rather have agreed to part ways. Rather still wants to report and might sign with Mark Cuban's HDNet network and reach the half-a-dozen sports and movie geeks who have spilled a few grand on HD televisions.

"Rather Leaving CBS"

"WaPo's Shales: Rather Was 'Very Activist Anchor' [I'll Say!]"

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Media at 07:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Missile Defense Activated on North Korea Fears

The intelligence coming out of North Korea must be sketchy. There have been reports since Sunday that a Taepodong-2 was fueled and ready for launch. Yet there's been no launch. What we do know is the U.S. missile defense is on alert, and a lot of people are freaking out.

"Report: U.S. Activates Missile Defense System" [via digg]

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Foreign Affairs at 03:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Local School Needs Help After Tornado

I'm quoting this letter to Charlie Sykes in its entirety:

Hi Charlie,

I am hoping you could help us out at Sycamore Tree Christian Daycare in Hartford. Sycamore Tree is next to and in the Lincoln School in Hartford, which as you know, has lost its roof. The daycare has lost its playground worth approximately $18,000. Also, as I stated the daycare had a site in the cafeteria at Lincoln School for the "school age" children, during the Summer and before and after school during the school year. They have lost all their games, books and puzzles due to asbestos contamination. Is it possible to announce that they are looking for these items for children 6-12 yrs old and possibly cash donations to replace their playground for the little children at the daycare site?

If you have any questions I may be reached at 414-507-3302 or the directors of the daycare are Becky and Amy 262-673-0161.

Thank you

Lisa Sutrick

Posted by Sean Hackbarth in Wisconsin at 03:26 PM | Comments (0) |