JunkYardBlog

DICK MORRIS ACCUSES BILL CLINTON OF ASSAULT

It was 13 years ago, and thankfully wasn't another sexual assault, but Hillary also defended Bill after the Morris attack and ran damage control for him -- just like she did after Juanita Broaddrick said Bill assulted her. Surprising, huh? Now Dick Morris has come forward to set the historical record strait and correct the lie in Hillary's book.

I'm sure Dick Morris was OK after he "put some ice on it."

WHO IS GREG PACKER?

I'm guessing he's the anonymous source for all NY Times articles, but Ann Coulter has only determined:

...he is apparently the entire media's designated "man on the street" for all articles ever written. He has appeared in news stories more than 100 times as a random member of the public. Packer was quoted on his reaction to military strikes against Iraq; he was quoted at the St. Patrick's Day Parade, the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Veterans' Day Parade. He was quoted at not one – but two – New Year's Eve celebrations at Times Square. He was quoted at the opening of a new "Star Wars" movie, at the opening of an H&M clothing store on Fifth Avenue and at the opening of the viewing stand at Ground Zero. He has been quoted at Yankees games, Mets games, Jets games – even getting tickets for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He was quoted at a Clinton fund-raiser at Alec Baldwin's house in the Hamptons and the pope's visit to Giants stadium.

Are all reporters writing their stories from Jayson Blair's house?

Weird. He was found in line for Hillary's new book with this guy:

First in line for Hillary's book at Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center on Sunday night was Charles Greinsky, who told the New York Daily News he rushed out at midnight to get one of the first books because he supported Hillary's health-care plan. A few years ago, the Associated Press identified Greinsky more fully. It turns out he is "a longtime Clinton campaigner" from Staten Island, who has been the Clintons' guest several times both at the White House and at their home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

It looks like the reported lines for Hillary's book were corked with these people, because her book is only third on Amazon.com's bestseller list.

UPDATE: From The Prowler:

Simon and Schuster is thrilled with the initial sales of Hillary Clinton's Living History. But internal memos indicate that that feeling of good cheer will be short-lived. Part of the plan to generate buzz on the book was the leaking of some of the most sensational tidbits that had been pulled together by three ghostwriters for the former first lady.

"That was really to jump-start the sales," says a Simon and Schuster editor. "It's a tried and true technique."

But, says the editor, there are real concerns this book won't have staying power. "All the people that really love her and want the book have already gotten it. We know we are not going to be seeing hundred thousand sales two weeks from now."

Link via Lucianne, who adds:

We are adding this to a statement we received from deep inside the mighty publishing house from an executive in a position to know (always trust the working bees in life): "No way would we publish a million copies of anything. It's only necessary to say we did. Besides, where would we put them?" Asked about the astounding 200,000 copies sold on the first day of publication. "There is no possible way for us to know that."

Get ready to see the bargain bin overflowing very soon.

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus found out more about Greg Packer, the "first guy in line."

But that begs the question of why the NYT would write about this semi-professional line-stander and quote machine as if he were a typical man on the street. You'd think he'd be notorious by now and "No More Greg Packer" signs would be posted next to the Metro desk....

TAXPAYER-FUNDED ANTI-SEMITISM AT NPR?

NPR was recently exposed for making a blatant exception in their coverage and editorially excusing terrorism against Israeli civilians. They've created an upside-down world where terrorists are innocents and Israeli Jews are legitimate targets. Why isn't this seen as essentially anti-semitic? Here's a suggestion for a U.N.-inspired truth in advertising slogan: "NPR: Where Jew-killing is just freedom-fighting."

I wonder if NPR newsreaders also pronounce Wolfowitz as Vulfervitz like the BBC?

DEMOCRATS ON IRAQ'S WMD THREAT

Lots of recent juicy quotes from Hillary Clinton, Bob Graham, John Kerry, John Rockefeller, et al. Everyone was convinced Saddam was a threat.

Here's another good argument against the conspiracy theorists, along the lines of the one I made earlier.

Failing to act in time is the haunting refrain of human history. If only we had seen, if only we had known, if only we had….

The price of failing to act in time has always been inordinately higher than the price of acting too soon.

And if you wish to beat up on the Bush administration, that is what you should be charging them with. You can denounce them for having acted too soon.

(Links via Instapundit)

UPDATE: Stanley Kurtz says "there was no conspiracy, and the press knows it."

The United States has discovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I know this because I read it on the front page of the very liberal New York Times.

...in the course of trying to embarrass the administration, the Times has inadvertently raised a very important point in the administration's defense. Saddam's nuclear-weapons program contained sufficient material to pose a serious threat to the United States.

...It would have harmed American power to note in too much detail just how vulnerable we were to nuclear blackmail. The same dynamic helps explain the administration's relative silence about the barrel over which the North Koreans now have us. We do our best to pretend that Kim Jong Il has not got us in as difficult a situation as he in fact does.

THE "CYCLE OF VIOLENCE" CONTINUES

When will it ever end? It's so unfair that warplanes are being used to attack "militants" in the "occupied areas" where the people are economically depressed and hurting. This is not helpful to the cause of peace and will just make the "Arab street" more angry. The international community must speak out for the "innocent" Muslims being attacked.

Iraqi forces shot down a U.S. helicopter gunship in western Iraq on Thursday, just hours after U.S. fighter jets bombed what they said was "a terrorist training camp" in central Iraq.

The incidents came as U.S. ground troops wound up a massive sweep in a Sunni Muslim enclave north of Baghdad, aimed at routing out the organizers of attacks on occupation forces. Thursday's events marked a sharp escalation of U.S. military operations in central and western Iraq, where guerrillas have intensified attacks on U.S. troops in recent weeks.

"It's one of the largest operations since the war," U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald said.

Oh, here's the latest on the other "cycle of violence" if you thought I was talking about that one:

An Israeli missile strike killed a senior Hamas militant, his wife and 3-year-old daughter in the Gaza Strip Thursday amid a surge of bloodletting that has plunged U.S.-led peace efforts into turmoil.

The helicopter attack, which killed seven people in all, was launched after a Palestinian suicide bombing killed 16 on a Jerusalem bus and Israeli air raids killed 11 in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, one of the bloodiest days in months of conflict.

An Israeli security source said Thursday's strike followed an order from the Defense Ministry for the army "to use everything they have" against Hamas, which had claimed responsibility for the bus bombing and vowed further attacks.

It's unfortunate that civilians are unintentionally killed in war, but it's far more unfortunate when terrorists slaughter civilian targets. Accidentally killing the family members of terrorists is not necessarily a bad thing either. If you look at the result of our strike on Libya when Khadafi lost his infant daughter, her death helped convince Khadafi to stop randomly killing the family members of other people.

The subject of killing the family members of Hamas terrorists was discussed last year:

Sheik Salah Shehade could have protected his family by keeping away from them. He didn’t and owing to his clear legitimacy as a military target, they are dead too. So tough luck, fella. War is hell.

NUKES AND CANNIBALISM

North Korea is a bizarre nation trying to become a nuclear power as the population descends into cannibalism. They now say they need nukes:

...to reduce conventional weapons and divert our human and monetary resources to economic development and improve the living standards of the people

This is almost as disgustingly cynical as someone like Saddam saying he needs WMD to stop torturing people. Just as with the Iraqi sanctions, the whole reason their living standards are so low is because the economic aid they get is diverted to the regime.

Richard Perle warns that we'll probably attack and destroy their nuclear program for them if others can't stop them first. It's likely that North Korea is next on the clock when it comes to the War on Terror.

You won't hear this admitted often, but we didn't attack Iraq instead of North Korea first because Saddam was the more imminent threat. Democrats were right about that part, but they were also being disingenuous in pretending to actually care about the N. Korean threat--they never cared. Some in the Clinton administration even wanted to feed them a nuclear program as a deterrent to future U.S. attacks by a Republican President. Bill Richardson is still talking up their nuke program in order to deter the U.S. He's saying we can now only talk to them and appease them--never fight them.

The war in Iraq was partially designed to set a clear example for Kim Jong-il (and Iran's mullahs) in hopes that we could deter a more dangerous conflict on the Korean peninsula (or with Iran). If we and our allies can't deter N. Korea now though, we have to strike them and prepare to fight a full-scale war under threat of a tactical nuclear attack. We really have no choice, and it would also help free a nation of captive brainwashed cannibals. As long as a Republican is still president in 2004, there is zero chance that we allow Kim the technological chance to nuke Los Angeles. If Dems get back in the White House you can bet on more appeasement until L.A. is under threat of a Korean ICBM attack.

Iran is not next on our list, despite harboring al Qaeda coming from Iraq. We will still try to push for revolution there and block nuclear development, but the chance that we fight a war anytime soon is slim. The Iranian support for Hezbollah must be stopped through strong diplomacy before Iran gets close to a nuke, but the nuclear clock is ticking louder with North Korea. An attack on N. Korea will be the final warning for Iran's nuclear-terror ambitions.

UPDATE:N. Korea is assisting Iran on how to hide their nuclear bomb development program.

TIMES GONE WILD

Here's the latest snapshot from the never-ending NY Times Gone Wild series. After Howell Raines finally resigned under pressure from bloggers and the Internet in general, you would have thought the remaining editors and writers would lay low and stop spinning for a while. Instead, removing Raines was just like pulling off their top and exposing the Times' liberal underbelly.

The front pages are still spinning, Tom Friedman is pulling a Paul Krugman and Paul Krugman is now using multiple source quotes to create Dowdesque lies on top of his usual ones. Donald Luskin shows how Krugman Gone Wild is more out of control than Dowd Gone Wild.

UPDATE: Bill Clinton recently paid Howell Raines back for his editorial support in creating the Clinton Gone Wild presidential series. Although, John Derbyshire argues that it was more of a Seinfeld Presidency about nothing.

THE ROADMAP TO NOWHERE

The latest attempt by Bush to bring peace to the Israeli conflict was well intentioned and politically smart in the short term, but ultimately it has lead right back to where it began. Bush will probably get credit for trying to play peacemaker after Iraq, and before our next war, but he made the same mistake Clinton did for different reasons. Bush was not rushing things in his haste to win a Nobel Peace Prize for his own glory, but he was rushing the process nonetheless. He failed to give Abu Mazen time to sink in and develop a secondary base of power before pushing him into an attempt to "kill the king" and marginalize Arafat. Now it's Abu Mazen who's having his power marginalized, and who may soon be literally killed off.

The problem comes when any U.S. President becomes overly desperate for an immediate fix. The Palestinians know that's their opportunity to demand more, while they attack Israel, force a response and drive a wedge between the U.S. and Israel. The U.S. always responds reflexively by cracking the whip on Israel and fingering them as the culprit for defending themselves--a source of endless amusement for Palestinians I'm sure. No justification provided by Israel is ever enough it seems.

In the last round of peace talks, Arafat made the mistake of not forcing Israel into the screw-up role by ratcheting up the terror, and instead revealed his true desire to never accept a Palestinian state even if it's on a silver platter. He lost the propaganda battle that time. This time he learned to let the terrorists do the talking so he can come out on top. Bush has responded by blaming Israel as not helpful, and he still wants to keep Arafat on location. Arafat knows that he's still an untouchable terrorist leader.

We should always be seen as willing to walk away from any deals to diminish terrorist regimes, and provide the alternative of just obliterating terrorists and their support structure. Otherwise, we're negotiating from desperation and weakness, and we send the message that terror is working and we want to sue for peace.

UPDATE: After the major new terrorist attack on a Jerusalem bus today, Bush realized blaming Israel was counter-productive and decided to condemn the terrorists instead. 90% of the pressure should be put on the terrorist-supporters, since the non-judgmental "cycle of violence" stuff is just propaganda. Even then, if Palestinians pause the bombing for show and get their state, when they renew the attacks on Israel and demand Jerusalem, etc., they will continue to be attacked in response. Then you just have Israel at war with a terrorist state that wants to kill all the Jews. There needs to be a limiting of terror as the Middle East approaches infinite utopian peace.

CRIMES OF THE CLINTONS BACK IN THE NEWS

Speaking of high crimes and impeachment, I wonder if John Dean is at all concerned about this new addition to Bill Clinton's long list of real crimes?

In 1996, Bill Clinton's White House directed a politically motivated Internal Revenue Service audit against me and my news organization. It was one of many such investigations launched against those viewed as enemies by the White House and Democratic National Committee.

The charge, ironically, was that I was using a non-profit organization to report unflattering news stories about the president of the United States in an election year.

After many months and great cost, the IRS gave me a clean bill of health. The First Amendment ruled the day. But the irony of this investigation is best illustrated in the findings of a new, independent probe of Clinton's support of a very political non-profit organization – one used specifically to affect the election results of a foreign country.

...Bill and Hillary Clinton and other top U.S. political operatives laundered money for Ehud Barak's campaign to become prime minister of Israel through Americans for Peace Now, a 501(c)3 tax-deductible "educational" charity strictly limited from such activity.

...Last month, the Israeli media began reporting on how Americans for Peace Now was a major illegal source of funding for the Barak campaign. At least $100,000 went directly to Barak's successful campaign, engineered by political consultant James Carville.

I wonder if this story is in Hillary's new book? Maybe she forgot about it along with those billing records.

Juanita Broaddrick, a victim of Bill Clinton allegedly going beyond his usual sexual assault habit to bite and rape her, is going to break her 4 year silence and refresh Hillary's memory Tuesday night on Hannity and Colmes.

WMD "LIES" NOW LEADING TO IMPEACHMENT TALK

John Dean is the leading the charge for Democrats and Saddam, saying that it could be worse than Watergate if we can't find Saddam's hidden or destroyed WMD. As Dean cries crocodile tears over Bush's "lies" he continues to use the lie from the the Vanity Fair misquote of Wolfowitz to tell us the real reason we went to war.

Wolfowitz added what most have believed all along, that the reason we went after Iraq is that "[t]he country swims on a sea of oil."

...this Administration may be due for a scandal. While Bush narrowly escaped being dragged into Enron, it was not, in any event, his doing. But the war in Iraq is all Bush's doing, and it is appropriate that he be held accountable.

To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.

These people are losing it, but I'm not surprised. I actually predicted calls for impeachment would be next. The call for George Bush and Tony Blair to face a war crimes trial will probably come from someone at the UN.

UPDATE: The NY Times uses the trusted word of al Qaeda terrorists to expand the conspiracy. Then Paul Krugman uses the reliable Times and al Qaeda sources to say that Bush misled us about al Qaeda as well. James Taranto's Krugman headline: "Al Qaeda Says It, Paul Krugman Believes It, and That Settles It."

Robert Kagan mocks the kooky Democrats in the new "paper of record."

So if you like a good conspiracy, this one's a doozy. And the best thing about it is that if all these people are lying, there's only one person who ever told the truth: Saddam Hussein.

BREMER NOW SEEKING SHIITE SUPPORT IN IRAQ

Following Paul Wolfowitz' positive meeting with Shiites in the U.S. that I blogged earlier, and after restructuring of our own leadership posture in Iraq, we've ditched the ineffective Chalabi exiles and are now reaching out to moderate Shiites.

US overseer Paul Bremer ate lamb and rice with tribal sheikhs in the Iraqi countryside today as he stepped up efforts to woo moderate traditional leaders in the Iranian-influenced Shiite Muslim south.

In a whirlwind helicopter tour, Bremer also visited a US-backed interim governor and a moderate Shiite cleric whose university has a Christian teacher and has even enrolled one Jewish student.

..."We are intent on correcting those past wrongs by achieving a government that is representative of all Iraq," he said in reference to the repression of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

...In Hilla, Bremer visited moderate Shiite cleric, Sayed Farquad Qizweeni, who has established a religious seminary in the former Saddam Mosque which he says is "based on peace and justice".

The US overseer hailed Qizweeni's efforts to reach out to Iraq's Christian minority and its tiny Jewish community. "I have told Sayed that we are very pleased to see such a good example of an all-faith institution," he said.

...Bremer has increasingly distanced his administration from the established politicians who have returned from exile, some of them in Islamic Iran, and has sought to dilute their influence by co-opting a raft of independents into his consultations on Iraq's political future.

I'm for whatever works for both the U.S. and Iraq. It was definitely worth bringing in the exiles to attempt a jump-start, but since it wasn't happening on the ground there's no need to wed ourselves to them. The exiles can now just fade into the rest of the political muddle.

Michael Ledeen says we should, among other tactics, support moderate Shiites in order to turn the tables on Iran.

It is impossible to win in Iraq or to block the spread of weapons of mass destruction throughout the terror network without bringing down the mullahs. Iran is not only a participant on the other side; it is the heart of the jihadist structure. If we are really serious about winning the war against terrorism, we must defeat Iran.

...we need to use Iraqi Shiism against Tehran. The Shiite tradition long insisted on separation of mosque and state, but this tradition was abandoned by Iran's fanatical Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the anti-shah revolution of 1979. The most important Iraqi Shiite clerics (and a surprising number of leading Iranian ayatollahs) are opposed to the Khomeneist doctrine, and we should support them, both in Iraq and in Iran itself.

UPDATE: One of the Hashemites just returned to Iraq, and revived the monarchy option.

Sharif Ali's arrival injects a fresh element into a political ferment as the U.S. and British occupying powers try to set up an Iraqi interim administration to help run the country until a fully sovereign government can be formed.

Some Iraqis say a revived monarchy could help unify Iraqi Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims since both respect Sharif Ali's Hashemite family, descended from the Prophet Mohammad.

SADDAM'S POST-WAR PLANS

First there's the fictional account:

Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had written a new novel but the US-led invasion of Iraq prevented its publication.

A copy of the manuscript called "The Great Awakening" has been obtained by the Iraq Press.

In it, Saddam seems to be alluding to his humiliating defeat at the hands of the US, and his disappearance to mount underground struggle to regain former glory. If printed, the novel would be the fifth book, thought to be written by Saddam.

Officials at the now dissolved Ministry of Information say, Saddam was quite keen to have his new book printed before the start of the war. But he was not so lucky.

The plot is based on waging a secret war from a neighbouring Arab state, following a decision by the novel's main character to step down as the President.

Turning into a fugitive, the hero, Bahloul, tries to recruit supporters and partisans in a bid to bounce back to limelight.

Then there's the reality:

A document from the Iraqi intelligence service in Basra — which was captured in April as coalition forces gained control — orders agents to start campaigns of sabotage, looting and murder should Iraq lose the war.

The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, also orders intelligence agents to infiltrate political parties and religious institutions, should the Saddam Hussein regime be toppled.

...The document first fell into the hands of a leading Iraqi religious movement after its members, along with other Iraqis, ransacked Basra's intelligence headquarters.

...It then lists 11 measures. At the top is "looting and setting alight of all government offices." It urges the destruction "in particular" of intelligence and military security buildings. It also urges that its operatives "cause damage" to electrical power facilities and water plants, and "cut internal and international communications." In addition, it orders its agents to "assassinate religious scholars and preachers from the mosques and places of prayer."

The document makes clear a desire by Saddam's security apparatus to regain influence and control in postwar Iraq. It urges its operatives to "buy stolen weapons from the citizens" and to "make contact and become close" to returning exiles.

...The document's disclosure comes amid mounting evidence that elements of the old regime are behind the current wave of unrest in the country.

...A Shi'ite Muslim religious party, Al Dawa, announced this weekend that it had snatched a senior Ba'ath Party activist outside its party office in Basra, the country's second-largest city.
The detained man, identified as Haidar Yassin Daoud al-Tamimi, told interrogators he was part of a five-member cell of Saddam's fedayeen fighters, and that the party and fedayeen possessed a large network of activists and a cache of arms, including heavy weapons, stashed in a village near Basra.

...Secret Ba'ath Party meetings in the area were being organized, he told interrogators before they handed him over to coalition forces.

MEETING SALAM PAX

Nick Denton notes that his friend, The NY Times Magazine's Peter Maass, returned home from an encounter with Salam Pax in Baghdad (he had no idea who Salam was at the time). He was grilled eagerly by Salam's followers.

Peter tells us a lot about Salam's taste in music (The Cranberries), books (Man in a High Castle), and carpets. Man in a High Castle, incidentially, takes place in an alternate universe in which the Nazis won. Salam revisionists -- American hawks who don't like the Baghdad blogger's critical tone -- can read into that what they will.

...On Thursday night, his first evening back in New York, a bunch of us went out for dinner. Peter, who was taking some time to realize what a celebrity Salam had become, would tell his war stories. But all anyone wanted to know, gallingly oblivious of media status, was this: "So, Salam, what's he like? What was it like working with him?"

In the full story, Salam gets disturbed by his cult following:

Salam, who is chubby and cherubic and hip and speaks beautiful English, and often says "thingy," had everything you would want in an interpreter, save one trait. When I asked about his road skills, he blushed slightly and said, "To be honest, I am not much of a driver."

...When he was told by the Austrian interviewer that his fans had begun making "Salam Pax" T-shirts and coffee mugs, his response was frank—"Are you kidding?" Nobody is kidding.

That's the disturbing part—nobody is kidding. Reading a guy describing him as a cherubic, blushing, chubby, hip, little beautiful-speaking "thingy" was like hearing Dan Rather describe a dictator. If Salam can sing, he's clearly the male version of Kelly Osbourne.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine blogger on the ground in Iraq has some choice words for Salam. I'm sure it bothers him that Salam is more of a hero to some Americans than any Marine, dead or alive.

(Via Jeff Jarvis, who has an idea that could end the Salamonopoly with more Iraqi bloggers—like Salam's friend, G. in Baghdad.)