What's in ICSQ-2003-00025586 and why doesn't senator Levin want us to know?

Come on Carl - why are YOU "cherry picking" intel? IF this ICSQ-2003-00025586 doc supports democrat contentions, its is certain it would be front page news. That it is not is damning.

References:
Weekly Standard
Stephen Hayes
Stephen Hayes (page 2)

There are many such documents in a U.S. intelligence database known as HARMONY. One example: Document number ICSQ-2003-00025586 was captured by the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Here is the synopsis of that document that appears in the database:

Category: Al Qaida
Title: Letters, logbook, training manual from Al Qaida Chemical Plant regarding Chem Warfare
Short Description: Contains papers concerning Iraqi officials, prices of equipment, training plans, and actions by high level officers all concerning chemical warfare
Agency: DIA
Document Date: Feb-02
Document #: ICSQ-2003-00025586

What does it mean? I'm not sure. On the one hand, any document under the heading "Al Qaida" that mentions "chem warfare" and "Iraqi officials" is inherently interesting. On the other, we don't know what the document tells us. Just as it is possible that the document reveals Iraqi complicity in al Qaeda's efforts to secure WMD, it is conceivable that the "papers concerning Iraqi officials" include indications that Iraqis rejected al Qaeda overtures for assistance on chemical warfare. Although some HARMONY documents are flagged as being of suspect authenticity, this one is not flagged. Still, it is possible that it is a fabrication and was entered into the database without an assessment of its authenticity.

I can't answer these questions. Someone probably can.

As Sen. Roberts and Rep. Hoekstra push their proposal to declassify the untranslated Iraqi documents, the White House might seek to obtain and release those documents already translated and evaluated.

The document above has been translated. It has been summarized. It has been entered into HARMONY. We'd like to know: Is it authentic, and what else does it say?

This kid catches on quick!

Up Town Girl

...The teacher explained to him, kindly I might add, that at times he gets a bit out of line and if he’d work a bit harder he could win. This wasn’t acceptable to him as he reached into his pocket pulled out a dollar bill and offered it up to her stating, “Will this help”?

But don't question their patriotism!

Grey Eagle

Congratulations To Those Who Oppose The Soldiers

I wish to express my congratulations to the hackers, vandals, and anti-war visitors who successfully blocked my ability to post any further tributes to the soldiers. I am sure you find victory in preventing myself and others from having a place to read and pay our respects to the Fallen Female Soldiers, and my brother’s in arms, the brave soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division. I can only imagine your satisfaction in justifying the disgrace of men and women who died for this country. You may not feel it was justified, but they gave their lives believing in what they were doing. Apparently freedom of speech is merely a phrase to you, not something you believe, in unless it applies to you...

The democrats 2006 "plan": spend, spend, spend, spend

TIME

Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois had a nice moment on Meet the Press about a month ago. He said Democrats would run on their "ideas" in the 2006 congressional elections...

Expand support for higher education.

Create a National Institute of Science and Engineering

Use government contracts and tax incentives to boost solar and wind power

"You got a job, you got health care." Give the uninsured vouchers

Everything on the table—loopholes, pork, Bush tax cuts.

The Bush tax cuts have resulted in increases in treasury revenue, not decreases as predicted. Democrats won't cut pork - pork is what their whole existence depends on. With the major spending growth in politically "untouchable" entitlement programs, and democrat's historical aversion to pork elimination, this all sounds like quite a pipe dream to me.

Asian "superhighway"

The price of building materiels is going to go up even more now...

Ace Of Spades

...The treaty was signed by 23 nations at a UN meeting and outlines a network that will link the continents in some 140,000 km (87,000 miles) of roads...

File under weird shit - frat house full of dead critters

Jeff Dahmer was unavailable for comment...
Ball State Daily News

Authorities are still investigating why four dead animals – a doe, buck, coyote and possum – were found scattered throughout the house of an off-campus fraternity on Nov. 10....

The OSM Fraud Revealed

The nefarious nature of this OSM scam is revaled by Iowa Hawk (who is also a participant). Seriously, I don't blame any of them for cashing in on this obvious fraud while it lasts - I would too. I've been looking for a good scam for years that wouldn't land me a berth at Club Fed.

Apparently it works kinda like this: a bunch of bloviating blog whiners collectivize (Soviet Style) to extract serious jack from unwitting advertisers who were liberally plied with ruffies before contracts were signed. At some point, the advertisers wake up and realize their wallets have been raped and the perps have vanished into the ether. This is of no consequence of course. The deed is done, the cash extracted and distributed, and everyone on their way to Tahiti laughing like maniacs.

It is a thing of beauty.

Shocker: Aristide was corrupt

IOL

Port-Au-Prince - A probe of former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide's administration turned up evidence of embezzlement and other irregularities, according to a report by the country's central economic and financial investigation agency...In July, another probe also found evidence of corruption and embezzlement within Aristide's administration, noting that nearly $20-million in public funds had been diverted to private accounts in Haiti and the United States between February 2001 and February 2004

Mayor candidate: homeless to work for crack

I don't know about the cleaning up the streets aspect of such a proposal, but I'm 100% certain any existing garbage dumpsters in the city will be picked clean in a heartbeat if this moron gets elected. When asked why he robbed banks Willie Sutton replied: "that's where the money is". Well...dumpsters is where the garbage is concentrated...and I'm quite sure street people are aware of this fact.
Edmonton Sun

Andrew Uitvlugt..."So what I propose to do is to possibly motivate people with drugs to do constructive work, like get them out there picking up garbage, and then we'll give them some crack,"

H/T The Jawa Report

Giant camels found in Syria

Modern camels are lothsome creatures as everyone knows. They smell, are stubborn, and can have vile dispositions. Were it not for their unique capabilities, most people would consider them no better than huge landroving wharf rats. Now we find that they used to come in a "super size" model as well?!? I'm having a hard time getting my head around the implications of a giraffe sized camel. Would you run away? Worship it? Harness it? Eat it? Maybe stake it out and use it for shade? The concept just shatters all notions of everyday prehistoric man's life as we have understood it thusfar. Giant. Freaking. Camels.
ADNKI

Swiss researchers say they have found the fossil remains of gigantic camels - as tall as giraffes - that roamed the steppes of central Syria some 100,000 years ago ... "We immediately realised that the bones belonged to a previously unknown, extinct species," ... found more than 20 fossil remains ... suggest that the prehistoric camels were almost double the size of their modern-day relatives.

More fun critter stories:

Beheaded Wiccan Parrot
Frat house full of roadkill
Dinosaur: Koolasuchus
Rampaging Moose
Thousands of rotting sea urchins
Cows tailcapitated
Vicious attack squirrels
Fairies under rock stop developer (I guess fairies are critters, right?)

Orange county NAACP chief makes switch to GOP

Orange county NAACP head defects to republicans

...As of this week, Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP, has switched parties -- to become a Republican.

"I've thought about this for two years," Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday."

It is, however, a decision that rang out like a shot among political circles.
...

A Romanian speaks out about the USA

I'm constantly amazed that we Americans appear to take for granted what others gaze at in wonder and awe. Why is it that they recognize that its worth saving and defending when many of our own citizens don't? We aren't perfect, but apparently it takes someone who lived under communism to realize that you could certainly do a lot worse.
READ IT

...What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace.

I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion...
Only freedom can work such miracles.

MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA

Only freedom can work such miracles.

MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA

General Vernon Chong's letter to the senator about WOT

Too long to reproduce here. Go READ IT ALL.

The general hits a home run. He "gets it".

H/T California Conservative

Iraq's WMD and terrorist ties revealed?

I know Newsmax is a flakey source...but... It is well within the realm of possibility though, because translating millions of documents takes time. There's still significant revelations coming out of the old KGB archives and they were opened up many years ago. We only got started on Saddam's stuff a couple of years ago.
NEWSMAX

Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks...

PRC car sales skid, reveal internal issues

XINHUA

...A rash of car purchases by Chinese individuals a few years ago have persuaded most global auto giants to pin their hopes on the Chinese market. But the sudden slowdown of car sales since last year, largely due to worsening traffic and rising oil prices, have made many of their ambitious capacity-expansion plans look like pipe dreams...

...Though some have recently scaled down their investment for the coming years, the forecast for the industry's output implies that most automakers are still reluctant to acknowledge reality...

...But the current Chinese conditions of a widening urban-rural income gap, poor urban planning and emerging problems of resources and environment all mean the market now, and in the foreseeable future, is not as huge as predicted...

Unconventional warfare lessons - from Tom Sawyer

SOCOM.MIL(PDF document)

“I want you to move into that province, oust the al Qaeda, co-opt the locals (click here for a good example of this), and bring security to the region. Take as many Afghan forces as you can muster and be ready to move as soon as you can. What are your questions?”

Those were the orders I gave the Special Forces A-Team commander as he and his 12-man
team moved into the Lware District in Afghanistan during the winter of 2003/04. In short, I tasked him to conduct unconventional warfare in that region by fighting the terrorist by, with and through the indigenous forces rather than by using primarily U.S. military might. What is unconventional warfare? The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military...

...After reading through Joint Publications, Army Manuals and military history, I realized I learned much of what I need to know about unconventional warfare in the eighth grade. It was then that I read Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer.” In that book, Tom Sawyer was tasked to paint the fence in front of his aunt’s home. In order to accomplish this task, Tom co-opted his friends and neighborhood pals to paint the fence for him. He painted just enough himself to inspire and instruct his surrogates. In the end, the fence got painted, the whole community had bought into the project, and he did not get paint on his overalls.

In a nutshell, Tom Sawyer was demonstrating unconventional warfare tactics. He was accomplishing his goal working by, with and through his community members. In war fighting, if you are fighting by, with and through indigenous forces or if you’re collecting...

The US Army in Yemen -- hearts, minds, and sheep

Classic SpecOps -- develop eyes and ears you wouldn't otherwise have within the local populace. If the American come and cure some sick animals, that is the kind of news that spreads among locals. That is the kind of local news that can erase a lot of Al Jazeera propaganda. Direct action, on the ground, bypassing the government kleptocrats.

You know terrorists aren't bringing vets to keep the local's flocks healthy.

Might this be a precursor to some SpecOps operations in Yemen? Yemen has been a hotbed of nutjobs in the past -- nutjobs that have been giving the Saudi's a hard time.

SOCOM.MIL(PDF doc)
96th Civil Affairs Battalion helps treat livestock herds in Yemen

By Marine Corps Cpl. Jeff Nagan
Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Public Affairs

One of the most effective ways of measuring the wealth of the people within the Horn of Africa and surrounding regions is the health of their herds. Animals provide the people with vital food and are a chief source of commerce. A small bit of medical care for their herds goes a long way in improving the lives and future of the people in the area. For the first time, U.S. servicemembers deployed to Yemen, at the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, to assist the local people in strengthening and healing their livestock....

...“Nobody has come before,” said Ahmed Salih Ali Muthana, a local herder. “I’m very happy. It’s beautiful to see the Americans working with the people of Yemen.”...

...The mission wasn’t without its hurdles, said Capt. David E. Fleming, 96th CA Bn. veterinarian. Although the herders could see and feel the impact of the mission, many of the political leaders had little idea of what the Americans were doing.
“We have had to work hard building relationships at the local and central level,” Fleming said. “We have to constantly reinforce our relationships, explaining that we are here to help the local and central government.”...

...The 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, volunteers from Camp Lemonier and local Yemeni veterinary students treated more than 24,000 animals, which included sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys and camels.

UAE to allow women to vote and hold office

Dominos falling...
Would this have happened without all those female purple fingers in Afganistan and Iraq?
Gulf News

A highly placed source confirmed to Gulf News that work was going on at the topmost levels on the planned reforms. "Women will be able to elect, and be elected to, government positions. There will be a complete change in the political scenario next year. Top officials are already working on this project," the source said.

Canadian liberals to use "tax cuts" to spur economy

USA democrats must be slashing their wrists about now. Those ingrate leftist Canucks just blew holes in the democrats mantra about tax cuts.

Brandon Sun

The beleaguered Liberal government will promise significant cuts to personal income taxes and a sprinkling of corporate tax reductions today in a pre-election mini-budget that offers something for everyone.

Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will promise to lighten the tax burden on Canadians, reiterate an earlier plan to cut billions from corporate taxes and introduce other business tax changes as part of a broader plan to boost the economy, sources say.

If Clinton lied, did thousands die?

If this is true, Hillary is finished.
Factor-8

For more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profi ted from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received transfusions of a product called Factor 8 made from this blood died as a result...

...People are still dying. Around the world major classaction lawsuits have been filed and criminal investigations are underway. While the rest of the globe looks to America for answers, the story remains largely untold and no one has ever been held accountable...

“In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected so rapidly. This shocking documentary tells why.”

Dr. Donald Francis/ former head of AIDS Laboratory
at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention