Mahdi Defeat More Extensive Than First Believed

The Mahdi Army has suffered a more significant blow during fighting against Iraqi and Coalition forces this year than earlier reported according to an Iraq intelligence report. "More than 2,000 cadres from the Mahdi Army leaders were killed recently," an Iraqi intelligence official told the Gulf News. More than 1,000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in Sadr City alone, according to a Mahdi Army commander in Baghdad. Another 415 were killed in Basrah. More than 400 were killed during fighting in the southern cities of Najaf, Karbala, Hillah, Diwaniyah, Amarah, Samawah, and Nasiriyah in late March and early April, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal.

Sadr has been portrayed as a freedom-loving democrat by some but after his militia has been decimated he remains in hiding under the protection of Iran's Quds Force in exile.

Released Gitmo Suicide Bomber Update

One of the released Guantanamo detainees, Abdullah Salih al Ajmi, was behind a March suicide truck bombing at Combat Outpost Inman in Mosul, an Iraqi Army base that served as the headquarters for the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Iraqi Army Division. Thirteen Iraqi soldiers were killed and 42 were wounded after Ajmi drove an armored truck packed an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of explosives through the gate of the outpost and detonated in a spot between the three main buildings of the compound.

Al Furqan used footage taken by Bill Roggio from the Long War Journal who was on scene in the aftermath of the suicide attack.

I noted before that the 23 June 38-minute-long video clip obtained from al Qaeda's media arm in Iraq, Al Furqan's "The Islamic State is Meant to Stay," which shows the attack on Combat Outpost Inman. Al Qaeda in Iraq, through its puppet organization the Islamic State of Iraq, released the propaganda video.

Nibras Kazimi, a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute, noted on his website, Talisman Gate, that propaganda has slowed to a trickle. In fact, according to ThreatsWatch.org's Nick Grace, stated: "By this time last year," he said, "they had produced exactly 90 videos. . . . U.S. operations against their media cells inside Iraq late last year have had a profound impact." Al Qaeda has not even refuted reports on the death of senior leaders, including Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, and Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq's leader and the Islamic State's defense minister.

As early as March, an al Qaeda leader admitted that its position in Iraq is tenuous. Abu-Turab Al-Jaza'iri, a senior al Qaeda commander in northern Iraq, said al Qaeda "lost several cities and have been forced to withdraw from others," but was still fighting. "I do not want to paint a false picture: Our position is very difficult."

Obama’s Communist Mentor

Frank Marshall Davis Graphic source: Trevor Loudon

What is “coalition politics” and what is behind Obama’s rise to power?

As recent information has come to light, Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist and this may be the connection.

Because of Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an openly admitted relationship with a person who publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Obama lived in Hawaii from 1971-1979 where he considered Davis as a mentor. In his book, Dreams From My Father, Obama repeatedly refers to his mentor, "Frank."

Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand-based libertarian activist, posted evidence that "Frank" was Frank Marshall Davis in a posting in March of 2007.

Davis was an identified communist according to the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, which identified him as a Communist Party in the USA member (CPUSA). Moreover, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.

Obama hides quite a bit of his past and his affiliations but he does reveal his relationship with "Frank" in his book, Dreams From My Father. He describes "a poet named Frank," who he visited in Hawaii, read poetry, and was full of "hard-earned knowledge" and advice. Only indirectly does Obama identify "Frank" when he states that this figure had "some modest notoriety once," and was "a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago..." but was now "pushing eighty." Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an African-American author of many controversial writings, mostly about race; Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) of course was an American writer known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. Obama writes of "Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self."

John Edgar Tidwell, an expert on Davis and a professor at the University of Kansas, notes that in Davis's case, his political commitments led him to join the American Communist Party during the middle of World War II. In addition to Tidwell, another book, Black Moods: Collected Poems of Frank Marshall Davis, confirms Davis's Communist Party membership; and another book, The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946, by James Edward Smethurst, associate professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, names Davis as a CPUSA author.

Dr. Kathryn Takara, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa also confirms that Davis is the "Frank" in Obama's book. She wrote her dissertation on Davis and in an analysis posted online, she notes that Davis, who was a columnist for the Honolulu Record, brought "an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world" and that he openly discussed subjects such as American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation. She described him as a "socialist realist" who attacked the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee. According to Takara, Davis "espoused freedom, radicalism, solidarity, labor unions, due process, peace, affirmative action, civil rights, Negro History week, and true Democracy to fight imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. He urged coalition politics."

The Communist connection between "Frank" and Obama is also identified by Professor Gerald Horne, a contributing editor of the Communist Party journal Political Affairs and a history professor at the University of Houston, whose remarks are available online as "Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party." Horne notes that Davis moved to Honolulu in 1948 "at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson," came into contact with Barack Obama, and became the young man's mentor. Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976), of course, was the Communist Party USA member, entertainer, and civil rights activist who was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. Horne describes how "Frank" and a young student from Kenya, Barack Obama, got acquainted and the young man followed Davis to Chicago. As Davis advised before Obama's educational career, college was "An advanced degree in compromise" and warned Obama not to forget his "people" and not to "start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that ####."

Once in Chicago, Obama became affiliated with two former members of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), William Ayers and Carl Davidson. The SDS was a leading anti-Vietnam War organization theat eventually produced the even more radical and terrorist Weather Underground. Ayers was a member of the terrorist group who turned himself in to authorities in 1981. Now a college professor he serves with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago. Davidson belongs to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, an offshoot of the Soviet American Communist Party (CPUSA), that helped organize the 2002 rally where Obama came out against the Iraq War.

Indeed, Communists have continued to support Obama. Frank Chapman, a CPUSA supporter, has written a letter to the party newspaper hailing the Illinois senator's victory in the Iowa caucuses.

As Chapman wrote, "Marx once compared revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface. This is the old revolutionary ‘mole,' not only showing his traces on the surface but also breaking through."

Obama is that mole.

That Obama is advocating socialist politics is not really debatable. He campaigned for socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and since he was raised as an occasionally practising Muslim Obama

Obama with his schoolmates. Graphic source: Daniel Pipes

not surprisingly favors international concerns more than Americans and their issues. And, although he has accomplished little in Congress, he has sponsored a "Global Poverty Act" designed to send hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world, in order to meet U.N. demands.

The question that should be posed is that why would so many fall so gullibly for an avowed communist fellow-traveler? This should be a time when Americans advocate American interests and concerns.

Trouble in Jihadist Paradise

Is it any wonder that ex-Guantanamo prisoners and suicide bombers advocate jihadists to obey al-Baghdadi?

A recently released Al-Furqan 38 minute video, which was posted on the Al-Ekhlaas jihadist internet forum under the title ‘The State of Islam [Shall] Endure,’ jihadists promoted the head of state, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, identified as Hamid al-Zawi.

Most of the video is a rehash but the new material may reveal why jihadists have been so glum during the past six weeks as Iraqi government conducted Mosul's Operation ‘Umm Al-Rabi’ayn. Analysts have wondered why the jihadists had such a poor showing in Mosul.

The last part of the video showcases a Kuwaiti suicide bomber, `Abu Omar al-Kuwaiti’ (identified elsewhere as Badr Mishel Gama’an al-Harbi).

Al-Harbi rebukes other Iraqi jihadist groups, such as the Islamic Army of Iraq that had turned against the Islamic State of Iraq, for allowing their honor to be desecrated through cooperation with the Americans, adding “we are not from Iraq, but we are Muslims, and we couldn’t sleep” over what was being allegedly done by the Americans on Iraqi soil. Al-Harbi says that it is useless for young Muslims to sit behind the keyboard and that they must flock to the Islamic State of Iraq and fight under its banner since “in it is the nucleus of the Islamic Caliphate on this earth.” Cf. http://talismangate.blogspot.com/2008/06/ex-guantanamo-prisoner-encourages.html.

It sounds like there is trouble in paradise and that the recent Iraqi military operation has been successful.

Web Shattering Politics?

I've long been skeptical that the Web is making much difference in political campaigns but there may be evidence that the 2008 political campaign is shattering records in the U.S. A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the Internet, e-mail or cell phone text messaging to get news about a campaign or to share their views, according to the "The Internet and the 2008 Election" report compiled by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. At this point during the 2004 election, only 31% of Americans had used the Internet to get political news and information. The report noted that the difference between the elections is more than the total number of Americans who used the Internet during the entire 2004 campaign for political information.

18 Year Old Faces 38 Years for High School Hack

Omar Khan, an 18 year old teen faces 38 years in jail for his grade-tampering hack as he was charged with 69 felony counts including 34 for altering a public record, 11 for stealing and secreting a public record, and 7 for illegal computer access and fraud. Khan and an accomplice are seniors at Tesoro High School, a Rancho Santa Margarita, California institution recently ranked among the Top 1,000 high schools in the U.S. by Newsweek. He was charged with stealing personal log-in credentials from teachers to break into school computers and change current grades from advanced placement (AP) tests as well as grades from past semesters.

Congress Chips Away at 4th Amendment

The U.S. House of Representatives has again approved legislation to continue the controversial surveillance program at the U.S. National Security Agency with limited court oversight. At the same time, this legislation will likely end lawsuits against telecommunications carriers that participated in the program. The House voted 293 to 129 to approve a bill that was a compromise between Democrats and Bush.

The bill extends NSA surveillance of phone calls and email messages going in and out of the U.S. The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court also will review Bush administration requests for wide-ranging surveillance powers. The bill, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act, allows the NSA to receive blanket surveillance orders covering multiple suspects of terrorism and other crimes.

The Bush administration began the NSA surveillance program after 9/11 but the existed for about four years before news reports revealed its existence.

105 Democrats agreed with Bush, who voted with his position, while 128 voted against it.

The NSA program, in my view, violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

The surveillance of Americans is increased but no one has been able to demonstrate the connection between provisions of the bill and the ability to nab terrorists.

There are 47 outstanding lawsuits related to the surveillance program and 35 lawsuits with telecoms as defendants, including AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel, stated Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Mars Ice, Ice, Ice Baby

One of the major developments in the Mars story is that dice-sized pieces of whitish matter dug up in a trench appears to be ice, according to Ray Arvidson, a co-investigator for Mars Lander's robotic arm team and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The material was dug up in a 7-to-8-cm-deep trench by the Lander's robotic arm and the matter disappeared after being exposed to sunlight which leads scientists to believe that it was ice that simply melted. If the scientists can confirm that there is water or ice present, it will reveal that there is a potential for life. Water is one of the main elements of life and this relates to one of the fundamental questions that people ask: 'Are we alone in the universe?' Or, is there a possibility that life existed on the Red planet? If even microscopic life exists elsewhere, other life could or did exist elsewhere. More to follow apparently as the scientists initiate a major series of tests.

In a dramatic situation U.S. Special Operations Forces killed al Qaeda's leader in Mosul. The house of al Qaeda's emir, or leader, was being raided in a supposed safe house when violence erupted. The emir was not identified but Special Operations Task Force 88, the hunter-killer teams assigned to take down terrorists in Iraq, stormed his house. The commandos opened fire when attacked and after one of the terrorists attempted to detonate his suicide vest was shot. A woman with the group also attempted to detonate the vest on the dead al Qaeda operative. Mosul is systematically being cleared of al Qaeda's emirs as on June 20, Coalition forces detained al Qaeda's security emir in Mosul, his predecessor was captured just two months prior, and the previous emir was captured in February.

Since AQ was cleared from Baghdad, the terrorists attempted to re-insert themselves in Mosul as noted by yours truly. However, fourteen of the thirty senior most al Qaeda operatives identified have been killed or captured by Multinational Forces Iraq between February and May in Mosul.

War on Terror Not Important Enough to Cover

Ever wonder why you don't hear about Americans engaging terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or, more precisely, why don't you hear about American success in the wars on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan? The answer is not easy to find: just ask American reporters. CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, states Lara Logan,

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the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News.

An article in today's New York Times notes:

according to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

Cable news channels like Fox News and CNN have considerably more time to fill with news than the networks thus both CNN and Fox each have two full time correspondents in Iraq.

The New York Times article noted though that:

coverage of the war in Afghanistan has increased slightly this year, with 46 minutes of total coverage year-to-date compared with 83 minutes for all of 2007. NBC has spent 25 minutes covering Afghanistan, partly because the anchor Brian Williams visited the country earlier in the month. Through Wednesday, when an ABC correspondent was in the middle of a prolonged visit to the country, ABC had spent 13 minutes covering Afghanistan. CBS has spent eight minutes covering Afghanistan so far this year.

Nonetheless, no American television network has a full-time correspondent in Afghanistan, although CNN recently said it would open a bureau in Kabul.

If you are looking for news on the war on terror don't expect to find it on American televisions.

Michael F. Scheuer On His Latest Book

As always, former CIA Chief analyst of Bin Laden,

Michael F. Scheuer, provides a gloomy account of our situation

in the Middle East while discussing his latest book.

White Europeans Poised to Attack the U.S. for al-Qaeda

In a move that has been widely anticipated, although not easily defended, dozens of white Europeans have trained in Pakistan's terrorist camps, according to U.S. intelligence sources. The adaptable tactics of al-Qaeda have shown that the organization is nimble, lethal, and resilient.

For example, "Eric B." is a German national plotting attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Europe.

Graphic source: IntelCenter

The alleged terrorists were recruited in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Romania, and Estonia.

Sadr Out

The earlier conservative estimates of the losses that the Mahdi Army experienced has now been supplemented by documenting the heavy casualties the Sadrists suffered. In Basrah and Sadr City during March - May more than 1,000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in Sadr City, another 415 were killed in Basrah. Several hundred were killed during fighting in the southern cities of Najaf, Karbala, Hillah, Diwaniyah, Amarah, Samawah, and Nasiriyah. The Mahdi ceases to exist as a fighting force and recent Iraqi security efforts have gone unopposed.

Iraqi Kurdistan Support for Coalition Troops

In the debate on the continuing presence of Coalition troops the Kurdish Parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barazani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of President Talabani, are the most loyal allies and they support permanent U.S. bases in Iraq. Bush has already stated that he does not favor permanent bases but in the Iraqi Parliament, these two parties would advocate strong allied bases. Kurdistan could host these bases. The same offer was recently reiterated by Parliament member Mahmoud Othman.

Start of Campaign

A list of new items and summer blogs will be forthcoming. Stay tuned.

Sign iPetition for Ian Hunter to be Inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame

Graphic source: ianhunter.com

I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I
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All The Way To Cleveland, Ian Hunter for the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you
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Thank you!

History Textbooks & Islam

An excellent survey of the problem in describing Islam in American textbooks was written by Gilbert T. Sewall, Director of the American Textbook Council, a former history instructor at Phillips Academy, and an education editor at Newsweek. Sewall states his major conclusions:

History textbooks should stress that:

The Islamic conquest of the Mediterranean defined the Middle Ages and Europe. Arabic conquests and expansion occurred in the seventh and eighth centuries. The Turks who conquered the Balkans and Asia Minor, the Mongols in Central Asia, and the Delhi Sultanate in South Asia were Islamic expansionists who were not Arabic, and their conquests occurred centuries after the Arabs took control of what today is called the Middle East.


Containment of Islam was European policy from Tours to Vienna. Landmark encounters occurred between Europe and Islam from the early Middle Ages to modern times: Battle of Tours (732), First Crusade (1095), fall of Constantinople (1453), and Battle of Vienna (1683). In each case textbooks should explain how and why the West was threatened. Likewise, textbooks should explain that the so-called age of discovery and the voyages of Columbus to the New World in fact were a European search for maritime trade routes to Asia designed to circumvent Muslim territories.


Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 began the push of "the West" into Islamic lands, for strategic and, later, economic reasons. In the nineteenth century European imperial powers took sovereign control of Islamic territories and introduced laws, political values, and educational systems into colonies with varying responses. From the 1920s economic imperialism prevailed. The presence of oil in Islamic lands has uniquely affected geopolitics and global transportation ever since. Additionally, the influence of Western entertainment carries an aspect of cultural imperialism.



When textbooks cover Islam as a geopolitical and cultural force in the world today, they should explain:

Islam is aggressive in a postcolonial world. The Arabic union against Israel since 1948 and the creation of Pakistan after World War II provide vivid historical illustrations. In today's world Islam has several power centers: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The idea of Islamic unity is constrained by the vicious division and power struggles of Sunni and Shia sects, as contemporary Iraq makes clear. Muslims include the Taliban of Afghanistan and the bankers of Abu Dhabi.


Yet Islam sees a world split into dar al-harb and dar al-islam. Dar al-harb (territory of war or chaos) is its term for the regions where Islam does not dominate, where divine will is not observed, and therefore where continuing strife is the norm. By contrast, dar al-islam (territory of peace) is Islam's term for those territories where Islam does dominate, where submission to God is observed, and where peace and tranquility reign. This ideation constitutes-to what extent, experts disagree-a rivalry of alternative worldviews, metaphysical ideas, and conceptions of evil. But these ideas, if acted upon by the Islamic revivalists who are rapidly growing in number, might constitute a clear and present danger to global security, particularly in the West. Al Qaeda is the orchestrated global effort to re-establish Islam's historical and mythic supremacy worldwide through jihad. The international community has immense collective self-interest and incentive to avoid nuclear terrorism as a holy struggle.

Islam's ability to embrace modernity and secular society remains an open question. Many leaders in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan - and many more than in the recent past - are ambivalent about or reacting to twentieth-century secularism. Almost a century ago the eminent medieval historian Ferdinand Lot concluded that Islam's legal and political outlook made a modus vivendi with the West unlikely. Specialists today point out that Islam has no real institutional or theological mechanism to facilitate religious liberty. It has no element that allows the individual or society to explore, criticize or deny doctrine without fear of punishment or reprisal. At its extremes, it raises the prospect of thought control.

Sewall also lists reliable resources:

Cf. Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's "Terrorists, Despots and Democracy: What Our Children Need to Know" (2003);

Watson Institute for International Studies's, "Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy" (2003).

"Fighting for the Soul of Islam" (April 18, 2007), U.S. News and World Report.

Columbia History of the World.

Dead Insurgency, and Live Upcoming Elections in Iraq

Since the insurgency died around May of this year, the fractious upcoming elections might well become a free-for-all but it will be indicative of parties and individuals who can represent a free Iraq.

Eurydice in the Orpheus Myth

The Orpheus myth is one of the most convoluted stories from the Greek stock of stories. Nonetheless, the myth persisted in various forms for centuries. In this modern adaptation by Sara Ruhl, the myth is examined from the less well-known view of Eurydice, wife of Orpheus. The most dramatic element, ironically, was the clever set design of Mimi Lien.

Iraqi Security Tested Against Iran

If the Iraqi security forces can stop the Mahdi Army in the southern border province of Maysan, specifically in Amarah the provincial capital, this is probably where senior Mahdi Army leaders retreated after security forces moved into Sadr City last month. Amarah is critical becasue it is a forward command and control hub for Iranian operations in southern Iraq. This will be a good test of the Iraqi security forces if they are able to stop Iran's influence in the region.