re: "Terrorist group’s supporters throw party in U.S. Congress"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") reported from bizarro-world (which is to say: Capitol Hill).

Money quote(s):

"It's not every day that groups supporting a State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization hold a party in the U.S. Congress, but that's exactly what happened today when the friends of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) threw their Nowruz party in the hearing room of the House Foreign Affairs Committee."

Okay, they didn't bill themselves as the FOMEK (friends of the MEK), but that's essentially who they were. See below.

"(T)he event is sponsored by "Iranian American communities" from around the United States, but the mention of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty is a clear reference to the MEK, a group designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization that has about 3,000 members living in the secretive Ashraf compound in Iraq.

The U.N. and the State Department are working to move them to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport, but the MEK is resisting that move, and has enlisted its many supporters in the United States to decry the conditions at the former military base. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani even went so far as to call Camp Liberty a "concentration camp." "

Normally, I have every respect in the world for the former mayor, but in this case he's either a willing dupe or being played.

No shame in being played by the PMOI; they're quite good at it after all.

"(T)he Treasury Department's counterterrorism unit has issued a subpoena to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell for records related to his paid advocacy of the MEK, as part of an investigation into the web of organizations that support the terrorist group.

There is a long list of Iranian-American organizations that fund pro-MEK events and pay speakers fees to MEK supporters. Many of these organizations - such as the "Global Initiative for Democracy, whose homepage is entirely devoted to the MEK's concerns and who hosted an MEK conference in January -- seem to have no other function other than to advocate for the MEK, and the actual sources of their money is unclear.

Receiving funding from a terrorist organization or even providing it with "material support," which could include advocacy, is a crime." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

Crime is in the eye of the prosecuting (nor non-prosecuting) attorneys, it would seem.

"The campaign by the MEK's supporters to disparage Camp Liberty and lobby for the MEK's removal from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations has included huge rallies outside the State Department, massive sit-ins at Congressional hearings, and an ongoing vigil outside the State Department's C Street entrance."

The vigil seems to have evaporated of late, just to give an update on that.

"Congressional aides attended the event on Thursday in the hearing room both out of curiosity and hunger for free food. But multiple aides told The Cable the event was bizarre, even by Congressional standards." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

CAA has never worked on Capitol Hill, himself, although he's worked in the vicinity at two different executive departments. Still, at least some the of the "hill rats" got a nice kabob lunch out of this.

3/22

re: "Meanwhile, in other news..."

Bill at Castle Argghhh! ("just retired warriors and fellow-travelers") had some interesting news awhile back.

Money quote(s):

"Iran got tired of just shelling Iraqi Kurds and launched a raid into the area around Suleymania (S'leymani, if you'd prefer it in Kurmanji). The Revolutionary Guards evidently got their butts kicked good -- not surprising, since we've been training the Kurds since '03, at least. The RG's target was one of the towns where a lot of Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) members make their home, because PJAK openly sides with Iranian Kurds agitating for an autonomous homeland in Iran. In what would normally be a puzzling move, in 2009 the Treasury Department declared the PJAK a terrorist organization -- right before Obie's "peace overtures" to Tehran. Got that? The *Treasury* Department -- not the State Department, and not the Justice Department, and not in coordination with either -- made that call, evidently based on an *Iranian* TV newscast linking PJAK with the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK)." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

7/20

re: "China: Please Repudiate Your T-Bills That We Own And Impose Trump-Level 1000% Tariffs On The Shoddy Crap We Sell You"

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ knows (as does China) that warfare is fought in many dimensions.

Money quote(s):

"This was sort of inevitable, and it's pretty bad. China has long supported every indecent country in the world, because America has alliances with most of the decent ones."

China has, and has had, for decades, a Non-Interference Policy (NIP). That essentially meant that it would do business with you and not worry overmuch about your internal affairs. Sort of the stance China would like the rest of the world to take regarding China's internal affairs.

"China has now made it official: an attack on Pakistan (terrorist hunting) is now to be taken as an attack on China.

They have extended their own security zone to the terrorist state of Pakistan, which means China is now officially a terrorist sponsor."

Ace is, as usual, a few steps ahead of the rest of the United States, including with regards to treating the state of Pakistan as an actual enemy of the U.S., rather than as a partner in the war on terrorism, &tc.

I'm not saying he's necessarily wrong, but perhaps prematurely right.

"(L)ucky us. We just found a trillion and a half dollars we thought we were in the hole for, but now we're not."

Chinese strategists plan for assymetrical operations in all theaters, all dimensions, of war, particularly against peer or near-peer opponents. Included in those battlefields will be the financial and economic dimensions. Being prepared to return fire effectively isn't the worst idea I've ever heard.

S&S - GAO: AFRICOM must end misperceptions. Report says agency must better convey its mission, focus.

Stars and Stripes



GAO: AFRICOM must end misperceptions


Report says agency must better convey its mission, focus


By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Friday, April 3, 2009

Matthew Bookwalter/Courtesy of U.S. Navy
Lt. Cmdr. Shay Razmi, a dental officer, examines the teeth of students from the Twin-City Special School for the Mentally Handicapped on March 5 during the USS Nashville’s 18-day port visit to Sekondi, Ghana, in support of Africa Partnership Station.

U.S. Africa Command needs to do a better job of conveying its mission and focus, if it is to overcome lingering concerns that the Defense Department is trying to militarize U.S. foreign policy in Africa, according to a government report issued last week.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Combating those misperceptions about its role on the African continent is one of three hurdles to the ultimate success of the Pentagon’s newest combatant command, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The GAO found problems with AFRICOM’s efforts to integrate its headquarters staff with personnel from other agencies, such as the State and Treasury departments. "