UPDATE #2: More evidence of Obama’s diplomatic priorities as the US releases 100 Iranian backed terrorists for one British hostage.
The US military has freed Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq, or League of the Righteous, as well as his brother Laith, several Qods Force officers, and more than 100 members of the terror group, in exchange for Moore. And that isn’t all. The British also received the corpses of three security contractors who were working to protect Moore when he was kidnapped at the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May 2007. The three contractors were executed by the Asaib al Haq; another is also thought to have been killed.
Qais Qazli wasn’t just some run of the mill Shia thug; his group is backed by Iran. Qazali’s men were trained by Iranian Qods Force to infiltrate and assault the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala in January 2007. Five US soldiers were killed during the kidnapping attempt. The US soldiers were executed after US and Iraqi security forces closed in on the assault team.
Iranian civilians try to overthrow the tyranny while Obama supports them.
UPDATE: Fouad Ajami has more to say about Obama’s diplomacy.
US diplomatic cars are refusing to identify the occupants at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. They have been caught transporting a Palestinian without identification or permission between Israel and the West Bank. The most recent incident was when they attempted to run over an Israeli guard.
A dispute is rumbling between Israel and the US Consulate in Jerusalem after a US diplomatic car allegedly tried running over a Defense Ministry security guard recently at an IDF checkpoint in the West Bank. The car had been stopped after the occupants refused to present identification papers.
Israel is also furious that one of the consulate cars was found to have transported a Palestinian without permits between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The identification of American diplomats from the consulate at IDF checkpoints has been a major sticking point for several years.
In January 2008, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria filed complaints with the Foreign Ministry after both US Security Coordinator Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton and then-consul-general Jacob Walles refused to roll down their windows or open their car doors and show identification papers at a checkpoint.
However, Israel’s ire reached a new level after an incident on November 13 in which a five-car convoy of consulate vehicles with diplomatic plates arrived at the Gilboa crossing.
According to a detailed official Israel Police description of the incident obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, the drivers refused to identify themselves or open a window or door. The drivers, according to the report, purposely blocked the crossing, tried running over one of the Israeli security guards stationed there and made indecent gestures at female guards.
The entire incident was documented by cameras at the crossing.
Maybe Obama plans to ally himself with Iran and declare war on Israel. He seems to have allied himself with Venezuela in the Honduras incident. More and more, he is going out on a limb with the American people. Of course, the Arabist State Department was doing this before he was elected but I expect them to be emboldened now.
More results from Obama’s foreign policy. Sickening.
Lebanese Prime Minster Saad Hariri just spent two days with Syrian strongman Bashar Assad in Damascus, and you’d think from reading the wire reports that Lebanon and Syria had re-established normal relations after a rough patch. That’s how it’s being reported, but it’s nonsense. Hariri went to Damascus with Hezbollah’s bayonet in his back.
Assad’s regime assassinated Saad Hariri’s father, Rafik, in 2005 for just gingerly opposing Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. There is no alternate universe where Saad Hariri is OK with this or where his generically “positive” statements at a press conference were anything other than forced.
And the reason ?
No one has Hariri’s or Lebanon’s back, not anymore. He and his allies in the “March 14” coalition have sensed this for some time, which is why Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has grudgingly softened his opposition to Assad and Hezbollah lately. When Hariri went to Damascus, everyone in the country, aside from useless newswire reporters, understood it meant Syria has re-emerged as the strong horse in Lebanon.
How many more of Bush’s wins can this president reverse ?
Now I know we can’t trust Israel to place American interests above their own – that’s a given; the problem is that since Obama has taken office we can no longer trust the AMERICAN GOVERNMENT to place AMERICAN national interests above the personal and ideological interests of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reid.
What a mess.
They are hostile to Israel and favor the Muslims who are trying to blow us up. This is ideology, not self interest.
I see our foreign service as analogous to our journalistic corps: it tends to attract left leaning people who want to change the world by doing good. This often involves criticizing America and helping opponents.
My college roommate went into the Foreign Service after not getting into medical school. He retired a few years ago and was working for John Kerry in 2004 the last I heard. In retrospect, I can see this coming. He was going to study Russian but gave up because it was too hard. he didn’t get into medical school, although he gave me good advice about how to do so. I think many of them choose the life but then don’t do much with it. His family was well off while I worked my way through. That seems to be a pattern.
Back during the blessed days of the Age of Reagan, Secretary of State George Schultz used to summon newly minted foreign service functionaries to his inner sanctum where he directed them to a globe of the world and asked them to point out which country they hoped to be chosen to serve.
Some would point to England – expressing their hope for a London posting. Others France, a posting to the City of Lights. Others would point to the Soviet Union or China or perhaps a South American nation.
When this happened Schultz would say “no” and shake his head. He’d then point to the United States. He’s then tell them that wherever they were posted throughout their career, what they must bear in mind was that they served but one nation – their own… the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Alas… we now abide in the Age of Obama. The Age of Reagan is no more.
BILL
“Clientism” has been a hazard of FS officers for a hundred years or more. We have never seen it in the White House, before though.
Just dropping by to wish everyone a prosperous New Year.
peace
James
Same to you, James.