The enemy of my enemy is my … enemy
by digby
As the word “barbaric” quickly becomes the most overused word in the English language and we see the threat of ISIS being raised to hysterical levels not seen since Orsen Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast on the cusp of World War in 1938, this strikes me as interesting:
On the bottom floor of the United States Capitol’s new underground visitors’ center, there is a secure room where the House Intelligence Committee maintains highly classified files. One of those files is titled “Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters.” It is twenty-eight pages long. In 2002, the Administration of George W. Bush excised those pages from the report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. President Bush said then that publication of that section of the report would damage American intelligence operations, revealing “sources and methods that would make it harder for us to win the war on terror.”
“There’s nothing in it about national security,” Walter Jones, a Republican congressman from North Carolina who has read the missing pages, contends. “It’s about the Bush Administration and its relationship with the Saudis.” Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, told me that the document is “stunning in its clarity,” and that it offers direct evidence of complicity on the part of certain Saudi individuals and entities in Al Qaeda’s attack on America. “Those twenty-eight pages tell a story that has been completely removed from the 9/11 Report,” Lynch maintains. Another congressman who has read the document said that the evidence of Saudi government support for the 9/11 hijacking is “very disturbing,” and that “the real question is whether it was sanctioned at the royal-family level or beneath that, and whether these leads were followed through.” Now, in a rare example of bipartisanship, Jones and Lynch have co-sponsored a resolution requesting that the Obama Administration declassify the pages.
I’d be shocked if they did it. Prince Bandar’s self-righteous proclamations in the piece about how they have nothing to hide and want the truth out so they can properly rebut it clearly come from a man who knows this information will not be released.
This is why all the fulminating among the war hawks, particularly those in government who know very well that the story is far more complicated than a bunch of Ninjas in the desert threatening to kill American babies in their beds, is so clearly disingenuous. Lindsay Graham and Mike Rogers and all the rest know very well that the threat of terrorism is very much linked to our other relationships in the Middle East and our desperate thirst for oil. They have other agendas.
And the reason I brought up the word “barbaric” is because of this, which I’ve been writing about for some time.(And if you think the Saudi “system of justice” means the subjects of their beheading are guilty, consider that they are beheading people for using drugs, homosexualty and stealing.)
This is why we must be clear headed about this latest threat of Middle Eastern terrorism. There is a lot of smoke and many mirrors in this thing.
Update: Consider this as well:
Steven Sotloff, the American journalist murdered by Islamic State militants last week, was sold to the terrorist organization by supposedly moderate rebels in Syria, a family spokesman told CNN on Monday night.
“For the first time, we can say Steven was sold at the border. Steven’s name was on a list that he had been responsible for the bombing of a hospital,” Barak Barfi said on “Anderson Cooper 360.” “This was false, activists spread his name around.”
“We believe that these so-called moderate rebels that people want our administration to support, one of them sold him probably for something between $25,000 and $50,000 to ISIS, and that was the reason he was captured,” Barfi told Cooper.
Barfi credited “sources on the ground” for providing the information, including details of the capture.
“Somebody at the border crossing made a phone call to ISIS and they set up a fake checkpoint with many people and Steven and his people that he went in with could not escape,” he said.
Barfi also described relations between the Sotloff family and the Obama administration as “strained,” and railed against what he called “inaccurate statements” put out by the U.S. government.
“We know that the intelligence community and the White House are enmeshed in a larger game of bureaucratic infighting and Jim and Steve are pawns in this game and that’s not fair and if there continues to be leaks the Sotloff family will have to speak out to set the record straight,” he said.
“Jim” refers to James Foley, an American photojournalist also murdered by Islamic State militants. Islamic State is sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL.
Both Foley and Sotloff were beheaded by the terrorists, who released videos of the killings online.
I know that comic book superheroes and video game warriors all have special powers to know the “good guys” from the “bad guys” but unfortunately, in real life, in a situation like this, no such powers exist. Such complexity argues for skepticism and caution. Obviously.
*And yes, it would be awhole lot better if the US Government didn’t cover up crimes, hide its real agenda and lie constantly. The old fable about the boy who cried wolf applies to powerful governments as well.
