Articles
How will al-Qaeda mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11?
We are less than a year away from the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As that milestone approaches, a dangerous view is taking hold in Washington that al-Qaeda no longer has the intent or capability to repeat the devastation of that terrible day. In February, Vice President Joe Biden announced that "the idea of there being a massive attack in the United States like 9/11 is unlikely, in my view" and that we need only worry about "small bore" attacks.
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Safer than We Think? Would Be a Pity to Be Wrong
In today’s Washington Post, my friend and colleague Fareed Zakaria writes that our response to 9/11 has gone too far and that we are really “safer than we think”:
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Another Victim of ObamaCare: Sheriff Andy
Another public figure has taken a plunge in the polls thanks to his vocal support for ObamaCare. North Carolina’s very own Andy Griffith recently cut this TV ad promoting President Obama’s healthcare plan:
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Obama Joins the Tea Party
During his speech in Cleveland, President Obama made it official: He is joining the Tea Party. Or, at least, he’s aping the Tea Party’s rhetoric—hoping to convince Americans that after a 20-month miasma of spending, the Democrats are concerned about fiscal responsibility, spending, deficits, and debt too.
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A speech from the Far Side: What our enemies heard
Years ago, Gary Larson published a Far Side cartoon called "what dogs hear." Two identical panels, side-by-side, showed a man speaking to his dog, Ginger. In the first, the man tells the dog: "Okay, Ginger! I've had it! You stay out of the garbage! Understand, Ginger?" In the second, we see what the dog actually hears: "Blah, blah, GINGER." For the terrorists, President Obama's Oval Office address last week came across much the same way. While the president made some obligatory references to our responsibilities in the war on terror, what our enemies heard were his declarations that America is withdrawing and refocusing on domestic priorities.
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‘You Got Belgians Running Europe?’
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s memoir A Journey: My Political Life hits bookstores today, and Blair has a big profile in today’s Style section of the Washington Post. The book includes many fascinating anecdotes about former President George W. Bush, but one stands out. The scene is Bush’s first G-8 meeting in Genoa in 2001, where he has just been lectured by the prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, on America’s responsibilities to combat global warming:
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Democrats and the 'evil eye'
Much attention has been paid in recent days to a poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showing that 18 percent of Americans incorrectly believe that President Obama is a Muslim. But the results of another Pew poll on religion released last December were far more shocking. It turns out that 36 percent of Democrats claim to have communed with the dead, and that 19 percent believe in casting a curse on someone using the "evil eye." Think about that: According Pew, more Democrats believe in the "evil eye" than Americans believe Obama is a Muslim.
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Democrats and the 'evil eye'
Much attention has been paid in recent days to a poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showing that 18 percent of Americans incorrectly believe that President Obama is a Muslim. But the results of another Pew poll on religion released last December were far more shocking. It turns out that 36 percent of Democrats claim to have communed with the dead, and that 19 percent believe in casting a curse on someone using the "evil eye." Think about that: According Pew, more Democrats believe in the "evil eye" than Americans believe Obama is a Muslim.
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Mark Kirk, the lame-duck killer
Last week, House Republicans took a united stand against the Democrats' plans to push through the most unpopular elements of their agenda in a lame-duck session after Election Day. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) introduced a resolution barring Congress from convening between November and January, except in case of a national emergency. Every Republican save one supported the ban.
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Time for Obama to shut down WikiLeaks' Assange
Yesterday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced in London that he is preparing to release the remaining 15,000 classified documents he possesses, in defiance of the Pentagon’s demands that he return and delete all copies of the classified materials he illegally possesses. Asked point blank if he plans to publish the remaining documents, Assange replied: “Absolutely.”
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Squandering the Success of the Surge in Iraq?
The Guardian newspaper reports that al Qaeda is aggressively wooing the Sunni fighters who joined forces with America in 2006 during the surge. The Awakening Council, or Sons of Iraq, helped turn the tide of the war. And as part of the U.S. drawdown in Iraq, responsibility for the Awakening Council was handed over to the Iraqi government. Since then, the government has reportedly alienated many Awakening Council members by failing to pay salaries and failing to protect Awakening leaders who have been targeted for assassination. Now, with the end of U.S. combat operations, al Qaeda is taking advantage of the transition to reach out to Awakening members—using both threats and financial enticements to get them to rejoin the insurgency.
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Serve His Sentence at Guantanamo?
When I visited Guantanamo Bay last September, President Obama’s order to close the facility by January 2010 was prominently displayed in the detainee recreation area for all to see. No word as to whether the order is still posted, but apparently neither the terrorists nor Obama administration officials believe that the facility is going to close anytime soon—at least if you are following the military commissions convening this week on the island.
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WikiLeaks' blow to the surge
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made clear that his objective in releasing tens of thousands of classified documents was to "end the war in Afghanistan" and "oppose an unjust [war] plan before it reaches implementation." He may well achieve his goal. Assange's illegal disclosures are helping the Taliban to undermine Gen. David Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy before it has a chance to work.
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A final warning to WikiLeaks?
The Hill is reporting that the Pentagon has demanded WikiLeaks immediately hand over all the classified documents it illegally possesses, including those it has not yet published, and that the website delete those records from its computers. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell made clear this was not a “request”:
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WikiLeaks must be stopped
Let's be clear: WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a criminal enterprise. Its reason for existence is to obtain classified national security information and disseminate it as widely as possible -- including to the United States' enemies. These actions are likely a violation of the Espionage Act, and they arguably constitute material support for terrorism. The Web site must be shut down and prevented from releasing more documents -- and its leadership brought to justice. WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, proudly claims to have exposed more classified information than all the rest of the world press combined. He recently told the New Yorker he understands that innocent people may be hurt by his disclosures ("collateral damage" he called them) and that WikiLeaks might get "blood on our hands."
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No, I'm not suggesting drone strikes on WikiLeaks
My colleague Eva Rodriguez notes that I state in my column today that because WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a non-U.S. person operating outside the United States, the government “can employ not only law enforcement, but also intelligence and military assets, to bring Assange to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business.” She asks: Am I suggesting a drone strike or special ops raid?
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Shut Down WikiLeaks’ Icelandic Safe Haven
In the Washington Post today, I write that the Obama administration has an obligation to stop WikiLeaks from releasing any more classified information that can endanger the lives of American troops and our allies. One important way to do so is to eliminate the legal protections foreign governments provide to WikiLeaks.
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The threat from East Africa
The recent terrorist attacks in Kampala, Uganda, and the court hearing Monday of an American charged with trying to join the jihad in Somalia, are worrisome signs that a new transnational terrorist network is taking shape in East Africa -- one that may have its sights set on the United States. That's the bad news. The worse news is that President Obama ordered the killing of the man who could have helped us to disrupt and destroy this network.
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The GOP's counterinsurgency by spenders
The Republican establishment in Washington is bracing itself for an influx of fiscally conservative insurgents this fall, as Tea Party candidates from Utah, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Nevada and other states have either secured their party's Senate nominations or are running strong. Bemoaning the earthquake their arrival on Capitol Hill portends, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told The Post this past weekend, "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples" in the Senate, adding "as soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them."
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The fading embers of Obama's coalition
With midterm elections less than four months away, Republicans are fired up and ready to go. But they are not the only ones upset with Barack Obama. The president has also angered many of the key Democratic constituencies he needs to keep control of the House and Senate, and now Democrats are blowing furiously on the fading embers of their electoral coalition, hoping to stave off disaster this November. In the process they are abdicating their responsibilities to govern -- failing to pass a budget or any of their annual spending bills, while using their executive and legislative powers to appease their special interests instead. It is a far cry from the hope and change they promised two years ago.
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Soccer and Socialism: English Soccer Star Says I’m Right
My recent post explaining why soccer is a socialist sport has come under rabid attack from soccer aficionados, defending the capitalist dignity of their beloved game. (Apparently some didn’t get that it was a joke). So imagine my surprise driving home the other night as I listened to this hilarious story on Public Radio International’s “The World” in which an English soccer star says I’m right.
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Tea Party time across the pond
This past weekend Americans celebrated a revolution that began with a tea party in Boston Harbor -- and today's Tea Party movement takes its inspiration from those early protests against the economic despotism of George III. So it is ironic that the first Tea Party government seems to have been formed in, of all places, London -- and it is a Tory-led government no less.
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Politicizing Justice, Obama-Style
Remember the days when the Left constantly accused the Bush administration of politicizing the Justice Department? Well on Sunday, we got a taste of politicizing Justice Obama-style.
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President Obama's detrimental deadlines
What is it with President Obama and artificial deadlines? First he set a deadline for shutting down Guantanamo by January 2010 -- yet the detention center remains open and the New York Times reports that the White House has given up on closing it before Obama's term ends. Instead of learning from that experience, Obama set another misguided deadline -- this time to begin an American withdrawal from Afghanistan by July 2011. Whether the president realizes it or not, he is going to have to abandon that deadline as well -- and the sooner he does so the better. The Guantanamo deadline only cost him some momentary embarrassment; the Afghanistan deadline could cost us a war.
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Thirty Valedictorians? Seriously?
Recently, I wrote here about a report in the New York Times on the latest egalitarian trend in schools across America: breaking up best friends. Students, it seems, are no longer allowed to develop any special relationships, but instead are expected to be friends with everybody. Now, on its front page this Sunday, the Times reports on yet another frightening egalitarian trend in American education: everybody gets to be a valedictorian.
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New levels of presidential disrespect?
In his column today, my Post colleague Dana Milbank tries to link Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s comments about President Obama to recent Republican criticism of the president, declaring “Republicans… have reached new levels of presidential disrespect.” His evidence? Comments Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) made defending BP, which were roundly criticized by his GOP colleagues, and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) criticizing Obama at a political rally “over comments he says (and the White House denies) the president made in a private meeting.”
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Will Charlie Crist be Florida's Arlen Specter?
Can Charlie Crist accomplish in Florida what Arlen Specter failed to do in Pennsylvania -- woo Democrats to his cause after bolting the GOP to avoid a tough primary?
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Wonder Why the Surge Is Failing?
If you have wondered why the Iraqi surge succeeded but the Afghan surge is struggling, you need only look at yesterday’s interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on “Fox News Sunday.” Gates was asked by Chris Wallace about Vice President Joe Biden’s recent comment that “a whole lot” of American troops will be leaving Afghanistan one year from now, when the deadline to start the withdrawal arrives in July 2011. “Who’s speaking for the administration, you or the vice president?” Wallace asked. Gates told him, “That absolutely has not been decided.” He tried to walk back Biden’s statement, telling Wallace, “I also haven’t heard Vice President Biden say that, so I’m not accepting at face value that he said those words.” But Gates acknowledged that “we clearly understand that in July of 2011 we begin to draw down our forces.” The pace of that withdrawal, however, “is going to be conditions-based.”
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Harry Reid's strategy, and Sharron Angle's path to victory
Last week, Internet ads started appearing on conservative Web sites attacking Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle. A group calling itself the "Patriot Majority" -- replete with a logo of a Minuteman holding a musket -- declared Angle "Nevada's WORST legislator!" and a "professional politician" who is in the pocket of Wall Street. An attack from Tea Party detractors on the right? Quite the opposite. The Patriot Majority was formed by a former spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid and is funded by organized labor. Why would Reid supporters use a faux Tea Party group to attack his opponent? It gets to the heart of Reid's reelection strategy. To win, he must divide the Republican nominee from her electoral base.
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In CIA's drone mission, who will protect the CIA?
CIA Director Leon Panetta made an unusual visit to the agency's Counterterrorism Center last year to buck up his troops. Morale had been devastated by the release of highly classified details of the CIA's interrogation program and the growing calls for prosecution of those involved. According to one top intelligence official, a senior officer involved in targeting terrorists asked Panetta what would happen to him in five years when the political winds shifted. Would he be hung out to dry like those in the interrogation program? Panetta said he could not promise the officer would not be hung out to dry -- only that it would not happen while President Obama was in office.
Read More »What They're Saying
An important book 
Senator John Cornyn
Absolutely superb!
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey
One of the most important books of the year. Courting Disaster is a must-must-read.
Michelle Malkin (michellemalkin.com)
A terrific and important book
Debra Burlingame, (sister of AA Flight 77 pilot Charles Burlingame)
[Thiessen is] the most forceful, serious and articulate new spokesman for hardliners around – one who can back up his opinions with facts that can influence the debate.
William Safire
In Courting Disaster, Marc Thiessen sets the record straight.
Donald Rumsfeld
You Must Read Courting Disaster.
Former CIA Director Mike Hayden
If you want to know what really happened … at the CIA interrogation sites or at Guantanamo Bay, you simply must read this book
Dick Cheney
RT @RumsfeldOffice: On Ronald Reagan's 101st birthday, let's remember what strength abroad, confidence in the private sector & optimism ...
Posted on Twitter about 5 hours ago
My new @WashingtonPost column: @MIttRomney should heed #Reagan on poverty http://t.co/ygtLoVu9 #tcot #reaganday #p2
Posted on Twitter about 5 hours ago
LoL MT @martybiron43: Here's what a @nygiants win looks like in the NYRangers locker room!!!! Sorry Boyler... http://t.co/DaqLr83K
Posted on Twitter about 6 hours ago
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