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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (64848)	3/19/2008 12:53:38 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Who's Ignorant? Power Line One of today's minor news stories is a kerfuffle over a supposed "gaffe" by John McCain. McCain, talking about Iraq in Amman, Jordan, said: <<< Well, it's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That's well known. And it's unfortunate. >>> He corrected himself almost immediately, saying "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda." And it sounds as though he did, in fact, simply misspeak. What is more significant is how the Democrats and the mainstream media reacted to this non-event. They condemned McCain for ostensibly failing to understand that Iran couldn't possibly train al Qaeda terrorists, since al Qaeda is a Sunni organization and Iran is a Shia country. This is what passes for sophistication in the lamest precincts of the media. From the Associated Press: <<< Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country and has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaida fighters of the rival Sunni sect. Iran has been accused by the United States of funding, training and arming Iraqi Shiite militants in their uprising against the United States. But there have been no allegations by Washington and no evidence that al-Qaida has benefited from Iranian assistance. >>> It is the AP (and other media outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times) that fails to understand the relationship between Iran and Sunni terrorists, not John McCain. The AP's statement that there is "no evidence that al-Qaida has benefited from Iranian assistance" is flatly wrong, and shows a breathtaking level of ignorance. In fact, there is a long history of assistance and cooperation flowing between Iran and al Qaeda, as Tom Joscelyn summarizes [in the link below]. To take just one example, the September 11 Commission found that there was "cooperation on operations" between Iran and al Qaeda: <<< On Iran, by contrast, the report concludes that al Qaeda's relationship with Tehran and its client, the Hezbollah militant group, was long-standing and included cooperation on operations, the officials said. It also details previously unknown links between the two, including the revelation that as many as 10 of the Sept. 11 hijackers may have passed through Iran in late 2000 and early 2001 because Iranian border guards were instructed to let al Qaeda associates travel freely, sources familiar with the report have said. >>> Note the contrast; the AP writes: "Iran...has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaida fighters of the rival Sunni sect." The September 11 Commission found: "[A]s many as 10 of the Sept. 11 hijackers may have passed through Iran in late 2000 and early 2001 because Iranian border guards were instructed to let al Qaeda associates travel freely...." The AP's report on McCain's "gaffe" is pitiful even by its low standards. Does the AP report the news, or just make it up? In Iraq, the Iranians have been aiding not just Shia groups opposed to the United States and its allies, but Sunni terrorists as well: Citing testimony from detainees in U.S. custody, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Iranian intelligence operatives were backing the Sunni militants inside Iraq while at the same time training Shiite extremists in Iran. "We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support," Caldwell told reporters, adding that he was aware of only Shiite extremists being trained inside Iran. As far as I know, Iran hasn't recently been training al Qaeda terrorists, but if that's true, it is only because they haven't needed it, not because of some supposed inability of Sunni and Shia terrorists to cooperate in attacking the United States and its interests. The reporters who solemnly assure their readers that Shia/Sunni collaboration is impossible, notwithstanding that it is a documented fact, are the direct descendants of those who thought that fascists and communists were irreconcilable foes, only to be stunned by the Nazi-Soviet Pact. In fact, one group of thugs is very much like another, and thugs have never hesitated to find allies where they can, when it suits their interests. powerlineblog.com weeklystandard.com