Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda

CQ.com ^ | December 9, 2006 | Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor

[justshutupandtakeit]

In spite of this hit piece and the sentiment here for Harmon I am not that concerned about this choice since I do not share the regard for Harmon expressed by others. She has never impressed me as being any but another well-tanned Democrat more concerned with being slick than anything else.

Reyes is not your typical Congressman lawyer and has served in Vietnam so his coming form a lower class background is not all bad. His district is not made up of those who think like the Elites.

[torchthemummy]

On the day in 2003 when Iraqi mobs toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, Bush was said to be unaware of the possibility that a Sunni-Shia civil war could fill the power vacuum, according to a reliable source with good White House connections.

If President Bush and some of his closest associates, not to mention top counterterrorism officials, have demonstrated their own ignorance about who the players are in the Middle East, why should we expect the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee to get it right?

While this article seems to make a good point about the new Dem to be in charge and his lack of knowledge, I will not accept another anonymous source that purports proof that Bush's war planners (Rummy, Franks etc.) had no knowledge or made no consideration for the possible strife between the vaious Islamic factions. How those reactions played out is another story but to claim a pure ignorance about this is simply unproved by the anonymous sourcing this writer utilizes.

[La Enchiladita]

It's Jane HarMAN. I live in her district; she would have been the far better choice. She is not slick, but knowledgeable. Her sin has been that Democrat colleagues have seen her as too "pro-Bush" or not enough "anti-Bush" for their liking.

It's called D.C. politics, so we get this dangerous dummy Reyes instead.

[Cindy]

You're welcome Pepper 777.

[steve8714]

Kill them all. Let God sort them out.

[Lurker]

Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda Helmet When He Rides The Bus.

Fixed it.

L

[lepton]

That's the thing. Al Queda is not Shiia. It is complicated and their has been a deliberate effort by the Saudis to confuse things even further.

You're blaming the Saudis for this? They do "diplomacy" all of the time, but if they've tried to confuse me as to Al Queda being Sunni, they've done a particularly poor job.

[outofstyle]

Read "Future Jihad" by Walid Phares for a very detailed explanation of how the Saudis have created confusion and intellectual lethargy in this country. Ask yourself why, when our embassy was even threatened in Haiti we did an immediate regime change. At the same time, the Afghan Talaban-Al Quada actually bombs our embassy in Sudan and Kenya we do virtually northing. The answer is the Saudi's. Please read the book it is incredible.