Is This True?

The Times of London has the following report:

ISRAELI commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.

Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.

Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.

But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.

Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.

News of the secret ground raid is the latest piece of the jigsaw to emerge about the mysterious Israeli airstrike. Israel has imposed a news blackout, but has not disguised its satisfaction with the mission. The incident also reveals the extent of the cooperation between America and Israel over nuclear-related security issues in the Middle East. The attack on what Israeli defence sources now call the “North Korean project” appears to be part of a wider, secret war against the nonconventional weapons ambitions of Syria and North Korea which, along with Iran, appears to have been forging a new “axis of evil”.

So, is it true? I have no idea. Neither, I suspect, do the reporters. What we do know is this: the Israeli government is not saying much of anything. In a country where leaking to the press is considered an art form - nothing. What is even more important: Syria, after a brief bit of whining, has shut up completely. They are silent about this whole incident. If they were innocent, they would be screaming from the rooftops. But, no, they are quiet.

Logically, the conclusion then is that something very, very important was hit by the Israelis. Syria does NOT want the world to hear about what exactly got pounded. So this could be the real deal. Maybe yes, maybe no. But it is - completely - plausible.

The BBC Does Duranty

(Walter Duranty, The New York Times. 22 June 1931) 

PARIS. June 21—It may be said without fear of contradiction that the Stalinist machine is better organized for the formation and control of public opinion in a great country than anything history has hitherto known. Perhaps Mormonism during the flourishing period of Brigham Young might be offered as a rival, but that was on a relatively tiny scale and failed to endure.

Stalinism, on the other hand, has three tremendous instruments – first, the Communist party plus, the Communist Youth and the Young Pioneers to a total of fully 10,000,000 of the most energetic section of the population highly centralized, sternly disciplined and trained to fluent speech and the subtle art of propaganda.

Second, there is the press from the great central organs like Pravda and Izvestia with circulations of millions, to the village and factory newspapers, multigraphed or handwritten by the tens and twenties of thousands. All follow the same line, obey the same control and preach the same gospel.

(The British Broadcasting Company, 22 September, 2007 )

In the middle of this industrial plant, a temporary studio had been created.

Giant gazebos had been erected, seating arranged, and a few props strategically positioned. A desk in front of a suitable backdrop was surrounded by lights and cameras.

It is an impressive business. This TV roadshow is broadcast every Sunday live on state television.

With just a few days' notice of the location, the programme's producers rig up the outside broadcast, never quite sure what Mr Chavez will be planning.

In the audience today, there are mainly workers from the state energy company.

They are all dressed in red T-shirts, a few in red jumpsuits, all wearing red caps. It is the uniform of Mr Chavez's supporters.

"We're here to support the revolution and the president," one group of technicians said to me.

"We're all rojo, rojito (red, red)," said Ivones Martinez, referring to the name given to Chavistas.

It refers to the red of the revolution and their 100% commitment to their leader.

Oh, do read both fawning pieces. We simply report, you should be able to figure it out all by yourselves.

Oh, do read both fawning pieces. We simply report, you should be able to figure it out all by yourselves.

The Company You Keep

Well, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming to visit. He'll visit Columbia University, that has lower standards of tolerance than Dwight Eisenhower did. Much lower. Then he'll go and speak at the UN again. Which, as even the Associated Press admits, has been tolerant of some very, very intolerable people.

The show has been going on practically since the United Nations was founded in 1945 after World War II.

Soviet Premier Khrushchev banged his shoe on his desk after a diplomat criticized the U.S.S.R. in 1960. On his first visit to the U.N., in 1960, Castro warned the world about American "aggression" in a speech that lasted more than four hours.

Arafat came to the General Assembly in 1974 and delivered a fiery oration while wearing an empty holster, trying to legitimize the Palestinian struggle.

"I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," Arafat said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hands."

A year later, the murderous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin exhorted the United States "to rid their society of the Zionists" and called for the "extinction of Israel as a state."

Last year, Venezuelan President Chavez called Bush "the devil," "an alcoholic" and "a sick man."

For his part, Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a "myth" and has said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Mahmoud, Yassar and Idi. What a team, eh?

Incendiary Bunnies Behaving Badly

Well, we hope California is bracing for this. The Animal Uprising has deployed a fearsome weapon in the San Joaquin Valley. The Tulare County fire department has responding to a flaming bunny spread fire around the area.

Flaming rabbit spreads brush fire

It happened shortly before 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the 2200 block of Avenue 320, where a planned, controlled burn of brush was under way, according to a Tulare County Fire Department report. The person conducting the burn told the firefighters that a rabbit hiding under a burning brush pile caught fire and ran away.

"The burning rabbit spread the fire as it ran into areas not intended to be part of the controlled burn," a fire department report said.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard believe that the Animal Uprising™ has started a breeding program for a breed of rabbit thought long extinct, the Sylvilagus arsonistus or brushfire rabbit.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard believe that the Animal Uprising™ has started a breeding program for a breed of rabbit thought long extinct, the Sylvilagus arsonistus or brushfire rabbit.

Stop Greenhouse Gases! Stop Using Biofuel!

The true believers have demanded that we stop burning petroleum-based fuel and switch at once to biofuel. This, they told us, would save the planet. There is, however, one teensy, little problem:

Biofuels emit more greenhouse gasses than equivalent petroleum fuels - and they are much worse ones at that.

Rapeseed and maize biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists found that the use of biofuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realised. The research team found that 3 to 5 per cent of the nitrogen in fertiliser was converted and emitted. In contrast, the figure used by the International Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the extent and impact of man-made global warming, was 2 per cent. The findings illustrated the importance, the researchers said, of ensuring that measures designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are assessed thoroughly before being hailed as a solution.

“One wants rational decisions rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon because superficially something appears to reduce emissions,” said Keith Smith, a professor at the University of Edinburgh and one of the researchers.

Why, no Dr. Smith. The true believers do not want rational decisions. They want what they want imposed by government fiat right the hell now. It is perfectly ok with them if you rape the planet, so long as you do it in the name of fighting global warming. Ask the orangutans. If you can find any left, that is. Pretty soon now the environmental disaster will truly be upon us. It won't be the one they are supposedly fighting, though. It will be the one they caused in the name of saving the planet. Rainforests gone, species eliminated, air fouled - all with the very best of intentions. The kicker to the story:

Dr Dave Reay, of the University of Edinburgh, used the findings to calculate that with the US Senate aiming to increase maize ethanol production sevenfold by 2022, greenhouse gas emissions from transport will rise by 6 per cent.

Do something right now. That something is more damaging than the status quo, but they're going to impose it anyway.

UPDATE: Incidentally, the true believers (and their sockpuppets!) might want to take a look at the Nobel Prize of one of the authors of the paper in question before they try to explain why they are right and Dr. Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize winner, is all screwed up. (Here's the paper.) Just saying. Others: Don Surber, Sister Toldjah, The Strata-Sphere, Small Dead Animals, Waste of my Oxygen, Tim Worstall,

Bobby’s Corner: Luau!

Hey guys! It's me again, Bobby Mugabe, socialist icon and all-around great guy. Greetings to all my internet buddies who have been following my series of letters that tell the real truth about life in Zimbabwe, millionaire capitol of the world!

Well, I just wanted to write a short letter today to get the word out about what a fabulous job my Wildlife Management Authority officials are doing. Just the other day they saved a giraffe from some of my misguided citizens. The confused animal wandered into the southern suburbs of Harare and the locals thought it would be a nice treat fried up. But my steadfast officials stopped them in time.

Zimbabwe is suffering chronic food shortages and the animal protection society is investigating claims that a number of pets have been slaughtered.

It is not known how the stray giraffe ended up in the southern Seke district, Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper said, but police had to restrain those who wanted to kill the animal.

"We had to guard the animal until National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority officials arrived. Some villagers wanted to slaughter it so we had to remain here until it was taken to a safe place," one of the officers told the Herald……

…..It was not immediately clear where the giraffe was relocated.  

You see the lies I have to put up with? Here I go and make sure the people have plenty of pet food and some busybodies want to investigate. So, anyway the officials managed to drive the greedy people back and saved the giraffe from being fried up. (Geeze. Everyone knows frying giraffe makes the meat tough.)

Hey, while we're on the subject, if any of my new internet buds are in the area, you're all invited over to my place tomorrow. We're having a little luau to inaugurate the new super-long barbecue pit. Stop on by. (But it's BYOB, kids. Even I have to keep expenses down, you know.)

Anti-imperialistically yours,

Robert Mugabe

Glorious Bolivarian Efficiencies Achieved!

The Government of (T)Hugo Chavez is pleased to announce a new, glorious efficiency achieved in the new socialist worker's paradise: Preemptive Autopsies!

An error in paperwork sent a man in Venezuela, who was knocked unconscious in a road accident, for an autopsy.

The confusion occurred after ambulance workers reached the scene of the accident, between a lorry and a car.

Officials completed a form requesting an autopsy rather than one requesting treatment for injuries, and the man was sent to the morgue.

Venezuela's highways police confirmed that the two hospital forms look almost identical and can be easily confused.

It is not every day that someone wakes up from their own autopsy, but that is what happened to driver Carlos Camejo.

The technique will be especially useful when political opponents seek medical treatment! Top that, you capitalist lackeys.

Drug Kingpin Arrested

Police in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada have broken up a large drug operation. For once, they even captured the viper in charge of the whole operation.

As the result of a lengthy multi-jurisdictional police investigation two males were taken into custody yesterday after allegedly completing a drug transaction in a commercial parking lot on Ontario Street in St. Catharines.

Niagara Regional Police said those arrests led to the seizure of large amount of marijuana valued in excess of $100,000, cocaine worth about $5,000 plus a quantity of cash.

Police also seized a 2007 GMC pickup truck and a 2004 Ford pickup truck as offence-related property.

The morality unit and guns, gangs and grows unit subsequently executed a search warrant at a home on Four Mile Creek Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake where they allegedly found a large quantity of marijuana and a quantity of cocaine and cannabis resin.

Police said they also found a replica AK-47 assault rifle, two handguns and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition.

The total value of the items seized is in excess of $200,000.

The search was hampered by the fact the home contained a highly venomous Gabon viper reptile, police said. The snake was removed with assistance of the Lincoln County Humane Society.

Reptiles have a long history of dealing drugs, of course.

Rather Amusing

Boy, there sure are a lot of items about Dan Rather popping up. Jonah Goldberg tears Rather up over at NRO. And it's funny as all heck.

But you know what? I say, “You go, Dan!”

Frankly, we need this. And by “we,” I mean a grand coalition of people who delight in watching one of the 20th century’s most pompous gasbags fall from the top of the laughingstock tree and hit every branch on the way down. These are dour times, and if Gunga Dan and Hurricane Dan and What’s-The-Frequency-Kenneth Dan want to trade their Afghan robes, yellow windbreakers and enormous tinfoil hats for some baggy pants, bright-orange wigs and floppy shoes, I say let them. I just hope all of the Dans show up at the courthouse in a teensy-weensy clown car.

But we also need this because Rather’s “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” routine will help us get to the bottom of a story that was actually under-covered. CBS News, under Rather’s direction, ran with fake documents - or, to be fair, documents so shoddily verified that no unbiased journalist would have run with them. When confronted with the rank incompetence and bad faith of the team he led (the lead producer tried to coordinate with the Kerry campaign), Rather first allowed three of his colleagues to be thrown under the bus, while he took a few more face-saving laps around CBS before he was quietly escorted out the door like the muttering office old-timer who’s gone off his feed.

I rather like that image of Rather wearing a red rubber nose emerging from a clown car to fight for justice. Frankly, I hope CBS has the guts to fight it in court. It would really clear a lot of things up, wouldn't it, Danny? Just remember: Courage. And clown shoes.

Rather Pathetic

Newsweek doesn't appear to be all that impressed with the lawsuit Dan Rather just brought against CBS. They have interviewed a number of people who are less than complimentary about the disgraced former anchor.

Hewitt says he had questioned whether the reporting was biased at a CBS meeting convened to discuss the controversy that began to swell after the story aired. “Let me ask one question,” he recalls addressing the gathering. “If this had been John Kerry, wouldn’t you have been more careful about the story?” A senior CBS News insider said Rather is further damaging his reputation by suing. “I think it looks pathetic,” this executive told NEWSWEEK on condition of not being identified. "It looks like the musing of an older man who can’t let go. This will have no winners. But the biggest loser will be Dan.”

And another former colleague questioned Rather’s motives, declaring that the former anchor is seeking to raise his profile in his post-CBS career at HDNet, a cable channel controlled by billionaire Mark Cuban. “Had he been a big success in his new life” at HDNet, this person speculated, “I don’t believe this would have happened. How do I get myself back into the news? Sue CBS, of course. All of a sudden, people are now talking about Dan Rather again.”

I mentioned when this first broke that this could be a calculated publicity stunt. Obviously, others suspect that as well. He is getting attention, but it isn't good attention, even from print media.

Bearly Educated

School officials in Ashton, Idaho are having problems with a new potential student. He keeps scaring the other kids at the Ashton Elementary School. It seems black bears make them nervous.

ASHTON – When the Idaho Fish and Game Department said bears were plentiful in and out of towns lately, it was not exaggerating.

A black bear wandered onto the Ashton Elementary School grounds Wednesday about lunch time.

The bear, a cub weighing about 30 pounds, caused mostly curiosity.

According to Principal Jaci Hill, a couple of students spotted the bear on the northeast corner of the school grounds during lunch recess.

The students went inside the school and told the secretary about what they had seen.

An announcement was made for the teachers to get the students inside, Hill said.

"All the children came in fairly orderly with just a little pandemonium," she said.  

An Ashton police officer was called, and he chased the cub out of town, Hill said.

Representatives from the ACLU immediately served notice that they would sue the Ashton school district for discriminating against bears.

“There is no question that this young cub's rights have been violated,” said Byron B. Badger, Legal Director of the ACLU Animal Uprising™ Support Project. “School officials and the Ashton police deprived him of his basic rights to an education and caused him deep humiliation as well. We intend to sue the pants off these people. In fact, we may just go after the pants next. Since bears don't have any apparel, it is discriminatory for humans to wear any. And just wait until you see what we have planned for Christmas this year, pal.”

The bear was unavailable for comment.

Holding On To Hsu

Norman Hsu has been jailed without bail after being returned to California. And in a case of legal chutzpah, his attorney asked for the $2 million bail money he skipped out on back from the court.

Hsu appeared briefly in San Mateo Superior Court on a 15-year-old grand theft conviction, one day after federal authorities charged him in New York with bilking investors out of $60 million. Investigators say he donated some of that money to numerous Democratic candidates and causes over the past several years.

Hsu did not speak while his attorney asked a judge to return the $2 million Hsu had posted as bail before skipping a court date earlier this month. The judge told attorney Jim Brosnahan to file formal court papers and scheduled Hsu's next court appearance for Sept. 28.

Deputy Attorney General Ron Smetana said prosecutors would oppose the return of the money.

"If the federal charges are correct, then the money is stolen," Smetana said outside court. "It would be inappropriate to return it to Mr. Hsu."

This is almost descending into farce at this point. Hsu's lawyer is also contesting the confession the FBI obtained about the scams he had been running.

After a week in the hospital, he was transferred to jail where, according to a federal complaint unsealed Thursday, he summoned FBI agents and confessed to another, grander Ponzi scheme than the $1 million caper he pulled off in California 15 years before.

According to the complaint, he admitted taking $60 million from investors to fund "phony" companies and used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle and considerable campaign contributions. The complaint alleged that Hsu had written about $40 million worth of checks on an account that contained only about $83,000.

Brosnahan attacked that confession Friday because it came while he "was still under the influence of the pills he was taking." It was also given without a lawyer present, he said.

"It is a legal scandal," Brosnahan said.

Well, there should be no shortage of witnesses, there were lots of people fleeced, apparently.