Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Duncan Hunter, come clean, admit guilt

* haaretz:
"Rice has been here six times in the course of a year and a half, and what has come of it? Has anyone asked her about this? Does she ask herself?

It is hard to understand how the secretary of state allows herself to be so humiliated. It is even harder to understand how the superpower she represents allows itself to act in such a hollow and useless way. The mystery of America remains unsolved: How is it that the United States is doing nothing to advance a solution to the most dangerous and lengthiest conflict in our world? How is it that the world's only superpower, which has the power to quickly facilitate a solution, does not lift a finger to promote it?
[]
As things appear, America can and does not want to. No government in Israel, and surely not the most recent ones, which are terrified of the American administration, would stand up to a firm American demand to bring the occupation to an end. But there has never been an American president who wanted to put an end to the occupation. Does America not understand that without ending the occupation there will be no peace? Peace in the region would deliver a greater blow to world terrorism than any war America has pursued, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Does America not understand this? Can all this be attributed to the omnipotent Jewish lobby, which causes Israel more harm than good?

The declared aim of U.S. policy in the Middle East is to bring democracy to the region. For this reason, ostensibly, the U.S. also went to war in Iraq. Even if one ignores the hypocrisy, self-righteousness and double-standard of the Bush administration, which supports quite a few despotic regimes, one should ask the great seeker of democracy: Have your eyes failed to see that the most undemocratic and brutal regime in the region is the Israeli occupation in the territories?
[]
In the Middle East, the U.S. has an opportunity to fundamentally change its image, from a warmonger to a peacemaker. And how does the U.S. respond to the challenge? It sends Rice to tell the excited Ehud Olmert how she falls asleep easily on her unnecessary and ridiculous flights to and from the Middle East."
ten bux sez we won't see that reprinted in the US.

* Raw:
"Reuters editor Joe Maguire has parted ways with the news agency after it reviewed a copy of his upcoming book, Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter, according to a report in today's New York Times."
malkin will be ecstatic.

* via calipendence:
"San Diego, CA - John Rinaldi, Democratic Candidate for 52nd, District-California, is planning a community forum to discuss the issues surrounding the financial questions about Republican Duncan Hunter's Alpine home. Rinaldi is also expressing his outrage over Rep. Hunter's violation of the Resolution Trust Corporation.

"This story isn't done," said Rinaldi. "It's the tip of the iceberg. I believe this is the first issue in a string of improprieties that will come to light as people really look into the Republican Congressman's financial dealings. I also think the fact that Rep. Hunter was in clear violation of the conflict of interest clause comes as no surprise to people who know the way this man does business. He believes he is above the law. At some point, we have to say, enough is enough. And today we are well past that point."

"When a Baptist minister admits that he repeatedly told Hunter about the home for over two years prior Hunter's purchase, it's clear that the Congressman had plenty of time and access to inside information about the Alpine home," continued Rinaldi. "It's clear that he had information that allowed him to buy a home below market value, and that's to the detriment of every tax payer and a clear violation of the insider trading rules of the RTC. Perhaps it's a good time for Hunter to learn a lesson from Cunningham and just come clean, admit he is guilty and save the taxpayers the time and money of an investigation, trial and ultimately a special election.""

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peter Lance's stuff comes back again in this article by Peter Dale Scott about Ali Mohamed:

1) a key planner of the 9/11 plot, and trainer in hijacking, was simultaneously an informant for the FBI.

2) This operative trained the members for all of the chief Islamist attacks inside the United States – the first WTC bombing, the New York landmarks plot, and finally 9/11, as well as the attacks against Americans in Somalia and Kenya.

3) And yet for four years Mohamed was allowed to move in and out of the country as an unindicted conspirator. Then, unlike his trainees, he was allowed to plea-bargain. To this day he may still not have been sentenced for any crime.


and

Ali Mohamed. …. trained most of al Qaeda’s top leadership – including Bin Laden and Zawahiri – and most of al Qaeda’s top trainers. He gave some training to persons who would later carry out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing…. From 1994 until his arrest in 1998, he lived as an American citizen in California, applying for jobs as an FBI translator.

and

It is now generally admitted that Ali Mohamed (known in the al Qaeda camps as Abu Mohamed al Amriki — "Father Mohamed the American")8 worked for the FBI, the CIA, and U.S. Special Forces.

Track said...

From what I've read, Lance is suggesting that US intel is covering their incompetence. Huh? Does he really believe the CIA and the FBI are this clueless? Come on. I recently read his (very good) book 1000 Years for Revenge in which he repeatedly points out bizarre actions of the FBI. Yet, he concludes the book by suggesting the FBI is simply incompetent. Strange.

Did the Feds know exactly who Mohamed was and what he was doing? IMO, the answer is yes.

Anonymous said...

I agree.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the GOP is trying to hide the few news hits showing up about Duncan Hunter's real estate problems that still haven't received MSM attention by putting out other stories with his name on it on them resurrecting an investigation of Sandy Berger, starting up new legislation on a missile defense system, and issues around erecting a border defense. You can still weed through this crap in google if you do the following search instead. Useful strategery at other times, when the GOP does this sort of masking of other stories too and you want to weed through the crap...

"Duncan Hunter" -Berger -fence -missile

lukery said...

thnx D & N. Fp'd.

Calipendence, googlebombing?

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, they've been distracting us with everything else on Hunter now...

But hey, we just got some new news on Brian Bilbray here. Apparently there's a grand jury being formed now to investigate whether he's guilty of falsifying his qualifications for local residence here. Check this DU thread from autorank. Of course the "compliant" MSM news around here doesn't say a word on this, but it is on the local Democratic Party site, etc. that this is happening.

Daily Kos thread on this as well.

Also, I note that there's some issues about pages from San Diego area (Jordan Edmund is one of them) being approached by Foley. I also note that in a story on another local page here I saw some months back, note these paragraphs here...

Applicants must be in their junior year and have at least a 3.0 grade-point average. Matt was required to fill out a 20-page application and submit a résumé and an essay on why he wanted to be a page. His paperwork was then sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. His internship with the Poway Chamber of Commerce also factored into his selection.

Pages may volunteer to work late. Matt said he was on the clock until 11:30 some nights, when lawmakers were still casting votes.

During downtime he engaged in spirited debates with other pages.

“We talked about everything – abortion, how President Bush is doing, Iraq, gay rights, immigration. I tried to voice my opinion but also to be open-minded to other people's opinions.”
...


Interesting... Staying late into the evening sometimes. Discussions on gay rights (though of course we know that that isn't equivalent to pedophilia like Foley was into). But I wonder if this was some "code" he was giving us to hint at what was going on.