THIS MODERN WORLD

The man who once informed us that “neocon” (a term coined by the neocons themselves) was a secret liberal code word for “Jew,” now chooses to enlighten us on the UAE/port controversy. In the world according to Mr. McBobo, looking askance at a secret deal which circumvented normal procedures in order to hand over control of U.S. ports of entry to a company owned and controlled by a government whose royal family used to hang out with Osama bin Laden — all of this is just anti-Arab racism, pure and simple.

There you have it.

(Edited per updates below).

Here’s an interesting little quote:

General Wayne Downing, Bush’s former national director for combating terrorism, says: “They would go out and see Osama, spend some time with him, talk with him, you know, live out in the tents, eat the simple food, engage in falconing, some other pursuits, ride horses. One noted visitor is Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, United Arab Emirates Defense Minister and Crown Prince for the emirate of Dubai.” [MSNBC, 9/5/03]

Problem is, it’s no longer archived on MSNBC anywhere that I can find. The only source I’ve got for it is this site, and I just don’t have enough context to judge its trustworthiness. Further problem is, MSNBC transcripts aren’t archived on Lexis, at least not the version to which I have access.

So–any journalists, anybody at MSNBC, or anybody else with super research skills who can verify this quote?

…Update: August and Atrios have both come up with transcripts from Hardball which suggest the above quote was doctored slightly — the quote’s very similar but it’s a discussion of Prince Turki al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and there’s no reference to Dubai. This is exactly why I don’t take anything I read on websites I’ve never seen at face value.

This is still pretty significant, at any rate. (Here’s a secondary source.)

Second update: The problem here is that the site in question smushed two different quotes from two different stories together. Sharp-eyed reader James F. forwards a story from the Nov. 18, 2001 edition of the Los Angeles Times about Osama bin Laden’s activities in Afghanistan, headlined RESPONSE TO TERROR; SUNDAY REPORT; Long Before Sept. 11, Bin Laden Aircraft Flew Under the Radar. (Did you know that Osama once owned a surplus U.S. Air Force jet? I didn’t.)

Anyway, here’s the relevant section:

For years, Persian Gulf state elites hunted rare birds of prey, houbara bustards, in the bleak hills surrounding Kandahar. In the late 1990s, according to former U.S. and Afghan officials, a number of prominent Persian Gulf state officials and businessmen flew into Kandahar on state and private jets for secret hunting expeditions.

For days at a time, the hunters would roam the hills, releasing falcons trained to catch the bustards. Some satisfied hunters heaped donations on their Taliban hosts, officials said–and on Al Qaeda leaders who occasionally joined them.

Among the reported visitors were high-ranking UAE and Saudi government ministers. According to U.S. and former Afghan civil air officials, the hunters included Prince Turki al Faisal, son of the late Saudi King Faisal. He headed that nation’s intelligence service until late August, maintaining close ties with Bin Laden and the Taliban. Another visitor, officials said, was Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, the Dubai crown prince and Emirates defense minister.

Persian Gulf state officials cast doubt on the reports. “People go hunting in Pakistan. They don’t go to Afghanistan,” said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Similarly, the UAE’s Alsadoosi said he did “not recall” any Afghan hunting trips made by Sheik Mohammed.

Iraq took a lethal step closer to disintegration and civil war yesterday after a devastating attack on one of the country’s holiest sites. The destruction of the golden-domed Shia shrine in Samarra sparked a round of bloody sectarian retaliation in which up to 60 Sunni mosques were attacked and scores of people were killed or injured.

The bomb attack has enraged the majority Shia population, who regard the shrine in the same way that Roman Catholics view St Peter’s in Rome.

In a number of respects civil war in Iraq has already begun. Many of the thousand bodies a month arriving in the morgues in Baghdad are of people killed for sectarian reasons. It is no longer safe for members of the three main communities ­ the Sunni and Shia Arabs and the Kurds ­ to visit each other’s parts of the country.

– The Independent

“January 2003 the President invited three members of the Iraqi opposition to join him to watch the Super Bowl. In the course of the conversation the Iraqis realized that the President was not aware that there was a difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. He looked at them and said, ‘You mean…they’re not, you know, there, there’s this difference. What is it about?'”

– former U.S. dilpomat Peter Galbraith

I’m going to repeat something I said a week or two ago, because the post went up over a weekend and a lot of you probably missed it — please be sure to click through the ads from time to time. It’s probably the easiest thing you can do to support this site, and as I said before, they’re usually pretty self-selecting, so chances are you might find something you’ll be interested in anyway.

I especially want to encourage you to click through the altweeklies.com ad running over in the right hand column. The fortunes of my strip are tied closely to the alternative press, so with one click you (a) support me, (b) support the altweeklies, and (c) demonstrate to the latter your support for the former.

I know a lot of you will ignore this, but my sincere thanks go out to those who don’t ..

From Human Rights First. PDF file here.

This groundbreaking study describes more than 20 detainee deaths in detail, to illustrate both failures in investigation and accountability. One such case involves Manadel al-Jamadi, whose death became public when prison guards were depicted in a photograph from Abu Ghraib giving the thumbs up over his dead body. No U.S. official has been punished for this death.
 
As long as commanders can get away with this unlawful behavior, the problem of torture and abuse will persist. Not only did commanders fail to give troops clear guidance, they inadequately investigated the cases – and they must be held accountable for unlawful acts about which they knew or should have known.