The Democrats seem to be pursuing a strategy of implying that Senator McCain is getting senile. They tried it with Reagan and it backfired in one debate. The latest is a series of statements disputing a comment McCain allegedly made confusing Sunni and Shia. Everybody paying attention knows that al Qeada is Sunni and Iran is Shia. The subtleties of radical jihadism seems to have eluded the masterminds of the Democratic Party. We know that the new chair of the House Intelligence Committee, a Democrat from Texas, doesn’t know the difference between the two divisions of Islam. If you look at his website, it’s easy to learn what is important.
4/2/2008 – The federal government has awarded more than $1 million in federal funds to the El Paso community for programs at UTEP, the El Paso Collaborative, and the Opportunity Center for the Homeless.
The issue is whether Iran is assisting the al Qeada Sunni terrorists in their war against us. The NY Sun agrees with McCain. Certainly, we know that Iran assisted al Qeada fugitives when they were fleeing from Afghanistan after we defeated them and the Taliban in 2002. The NY Times, true to its agenda of opposing the war, attacks McCain for “misspeaking.”
This report from 2005 on connections between Iraq and Afghanistan attacks does not mention how the jihadis travel between Iraq and Afghanistan. Do they fly ? What is between Iraq and Afghanistan ? Iran.
In 1996, after the Taliban seized power, Osama bin Laden relocated to Afghanistan where he established a number of terrorist training camps. Al-Qaeda training attracted a steady stream of young Islamists, many of whom transited Iran. While Iranian border officials normally stamp passports, they made an exception for many Al-Qaeda terrorists. The 9-11 Commission explained how this facilitated Al-Qaeda operations.
The 9/11 Commission seemed to think Iran and al Qeada cooperated.
Between 1991 and 1996, Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan where he was protected by Hassan Abdullah at-Turabi, the leader of Sudan’s National Islamic Front, an Islamist movement. According to the 9-11 Commission, Sudanese officials facilitated meetings between al-Qaeda operatives and Iranian officials, a relationship which blossomed into tactical training: Turabi sought to persuade Shiites and Sunnis to put aside their divisions and join against the common enemy. In late 1991 or 1992, discussions in Sudan between al Qaeda and Iranian operatives led to an informal agreement to cooperate in providing support—even if only training—for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives.
In the fall of 1993, another such delegation went to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon for further training in explosives as well as in intelligence and security. Bin Ladin reportedly showed particular interest in learning how to use truck bombs such as the one that had killed 241 U.S. Marines in Lebanon in 1983. The relationship between al Qaeda and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shia divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations.
So who is senile ? McCain or the people who get their intelligence from the NY Times?
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