02/15 Morning Report

Here was a really odd news story. Do you think we have highway congestion problems in the states? Well, the British government thought of a way to deal with it. How about a $2 per mile congestion tax? No lie. This was actually proposed in Britain. The cost to motorists—combined with satellite tracking to ensure compliance—raised a popular revolt against the idea.
(…something light to start the day with…)

Well, I spent the morning poking around at the NY Times. And, in a no big surprise move, the NY Times is once again revealing it’s bias on things Iraqi.

On Monday the NY Times said our military claims Iranian involvement in Iraq.

In a news briefing held under strict security, the officials spread out on two small tables an E.F.P. and an array of mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades with visible serial numbers that the officials said link the weapons directly to Iranian arms factories.

That’s pretty substantial evidence. Now, I will grant the denial of US claims, without proof, of direct control of Iranian officials is fair. I will also state that it is lame. I should believe that the Iranian government has no involvement with the Shiite insurgents who are openly using Iranian weapons—but not other nation’s devices? (…hhmmm…I can say Iran-Contra..can’t you?...)

So, the next day, the Times reported that skeptics doubt US claims because of the failure of pre-Iraq War US intelligence failures. Again, lame! There is even an additional reason. This time, we have hard intelligence on the ground. Pre-Iraq, there was little to none—allowing lots of hearsay evidence to be used.

And today, the Times reports Bush’s pronouncement that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been supplying these weapons to Iraqi Shiites militias and insurgents. Interestingly, early in the article, the Times points out that assertions of Iranian involvement have been made, up to now, by “anonymous military and intelligence officials.” The point, of course, being to discredit any information by the administration—and by extension—the military.

(…what happened to tables full of items from Iran…on Monday…that Congressional officials all got to see?...)

Then there are the US claims that Moktada al-Sadr is already living in Iran--and has been for a while. Isn’t that encouraging! The man who has been doing so much to keep the Iraqi government from becoming established may be living in Iran?
(…of course…that’s just speculation…there couldn’t be any truth to it…heaven forbid there should be any truth to the idea that Iran would want to keep things destabilized…)