U.S. Envoy to Meet With Iranian Nuke Negotiator (UPDATE)

They’re going to do what?!?

…..a top U.S. diplomat will join colleagues from other world powers at a weekend meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in a break with past Bush administration policy.

……William Burns, America’s third-highest ranking diplomat, will for first time attend talks with the Iranian envoy in Switzerland aimed at persuading Iran to halt activities that could lead to the development of atomic weapons.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imG-Gmyrfld190llCL7AdcThgngAD91UKMC00

The Bush administration shouldn’t even give the Iranian crapweazels the time of day. I don’t know what they expect to accomplish with this, other than granting Amahdinejad attention he doesn’t deserve.

If Burns has any balls, he’ll tell Iran these terms of “negotiation”; stop producing weapons grade nuclear material, or our B2’s will reduce their facilities to a little glowing stain in the desert sand.

But I won’t hold my breath.

And just to prove my point:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday vowed that Iran would not yield in the crisis over its nuclear drive as world powers awaited a response from Tehran to a proposal aiming to end the standoff.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080723105224.tisqv4n4&show_article=1

Say it ain’t so.

Iraqis View of the Presidential Election

If Obama ever decides to visit Iraq, he’ll get an earful about his cut-and-run plans.

From Bret Stevens at the Wall Street Journal:

……”The Iraqis are really fearful about some of the positions the Democratic Party has adopted,” says Sheik Ahmed Abu Rishah. “If the Democrats win, they will be withdrawing their forces in a very rapid manner.”

Mamoun Sami Rashid al-Alawi, the governor of Anbar province, agrees. “We have over a million casualties, thousands of houses destroyed,” he says. “Are we going to tell [Iraqis] that the game is over? That the Americans are pulling out?”

Messrs. Abu Rishah and Awani, both Sunni, have possibly the toughest political jobs on the planet. Sheik Abu Rishah inherited the leadership of the Iraq Awakening movement when his brother was killed by al Qaeda last September. Gov. Awani’s immediate predecessor was kidnapped and killed by insurgents, and he has survived more than a score of assassination attempts.

Today, the governor speaks with a mixture of confidence and foreboding. He insists al Qaeda has been vanquished. But, he adds, “Iraq is in a strategic location and has huge resources. There are a lot of eyes on Iraq.” Later in the conversation, he makes his point more precisely. “Liberating Iraq is a very good dish. And now you are going to hand it over to Iran?”

They are more appreciative and understand fully, the sacrifice and purpose of American troops in Iraq and the WOT:

A sense of incredulity hangs over the way Iraqis see the U.S. political debate taking shape. The governor tells a moving story about their visit to Walter Reed hospital, where they were surprised to find smiles on the faces of GIs who had lost limbs. “The smile is because they feel they have accomplished something for the American people.”

Contrast that with this:

But the Iraqis came away with a different impression in Chicago, where they had hoped to meet with Mr. Obama but ended up talking to a staff aide. “We noticed there was a concentration on the negatives,” the governor recalls. “The Democrat kept saying that Americans have committed a lot of mistakes. Yes, that’s true, but why don’t you concentrate on what the Americans have achieved in Iraq?”

Obama, being the chicken shit he is, doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to meet, face to face, with the benificiaries of America’s efforts in Iraq. Not only that, but witness the bellicose, fatuous denials on the part of the staffer. Standing right in front of him was proof that the war in Iraq is a success, yet the moonbat still spouts the party line.

They also understand the implications of Obama’s views on Iran:

The Iraqis are even more incredulous about Mr. Obama’s willingness to negotiate with Iran, which they see as a predatory regime. “Do you Americans forget what the Iranians did to your embassy?” asks the governor. “Don’t you know that Ahmadinejad was one of [the hostage takers]?”

Here Hussein Ali al-Shalan, a Shiite from Diwaniyah in southern Iraq, offers a view. “For a long time, Iran has felt like Iraq is theirs. Our fear [about U.S. negotiations with Iran] is, you will be giving them something that we believe would prolong our agony……That’s why we need the army to give a final push so the Iraqis can feel the fruits of our democracy.”

And the impact of a democracy in a sea of Islamofascist nation-states:

……It’s not just Iran. “There is no other country that supports us,” says Gov. Awani. “What is happening in Iraq scares everyone,” by which he means the neighboring autocracies that have something to fear from a successful democratic model in their midst.

……The administration and the Iraqi government are now wrangling over a status-of-forces agreement — evidence that Iraq has reached a point where it can once again act like a sovereign nation. But the Iraqis leave no doubt that they want a deal, not least “so Iraq would be able to protect U.S. interests in the region,” as Sheik Abu Rishah puts it. Having lost 4,100 Americans for Iraq, the Iraqis are offering to return the sacrifice — assuming only that the alliance endures.

Throughout our interview, the men did not stop fingering their prayer beads, as if their future hinges on their ability to make their case to the American public. They’re right: It does. Which is why Iraq, all but alone among the nations, will be praying for a McCain victory on the first Tuesday in November.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121366622024479591.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Now, imagine what will happen if Obama gets into a position to eviscerate everything that has been gained in this war.

The Iraqis realize all too well.

Al Sadr’s Peons Protest, Iran Lobs Missiles

Baghdad - Hundreds of people loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protested the long-term Iraqi-US security pact on Friday, while Iranian forces shelled two border villages it claimed harboured a militant Kurdish nationalist group based in northern Iraq. The Sadrists demonstrated in Karbala, 110 kilometers south of the Iraqi capital, after Friday prayers, the director of al-Sadr’s office in Karbala said.

……Al-Sadr has previously called on his followers to hold weekly protests against the proposed US-Iraqi deal, which would set the terms for a long-term US military presence in Iraq after the bulk of its forces withdraw.

……Elsewhere, two border villages in Sulaymanyah province, 365 kilometers north of Baghdad, came under heavy Iranian artillery shelling on Friday morning, a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s guard forces said.

“No information is yet available on possible casualties resulting from the shelling,” the source was quoted as telling VOI.

Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/210698,sadrists-protest-us-iraqi-deal-iran-shells-border-villages–summary.html

Not satisfied with the Mahdi army getting its ass handed to them, Al Sadr is still throwing hissy fits from the sidelines. We should have put his head on a stick and placed it in downtown Baghdad a long time ago.

The gargoyle in Tehran wants to provoke us into a fight. I say we we lob something back…a neutron bomb would be good.

Ayman al-Zawahri to Iran: ‘How Dare you Take Credit for our Attacks’

Won’t the moonbats at “Loose Change” get their panties in a wad?

From the latest installment of “Ask Ayman”:

Osama bin Laden’s chief deputy in an audiotape Tuesday accused Shiite Iran of trying to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida terror network by spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
The comments reflected al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri’s increasing criticism of Iran. Al-Zawahri has accused Iran in recent messages of seeking to extend its power in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and through its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

……As he often does in his messages, al-Zawahri denounced the “Crusader invasion” of Iraq, but in Tuesday’s tape he paired it with a mention of “Iranian complicity” or “Iranian agents.”

That’s funny, since Iran has been helping to smuggle in and plant IEDs. Not very complicit with us, are they?

In the latest tape, al-Zawahri was also asked if the terror group had further plans to attack Western countries that participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and subsequent war.

“My answer is: Yes! We think that any country that has joined aggression on Muslims must be deterred,” he replied.

The feeling’s mutual, raghead.

……In another answer Tuesday, al-Zawahri said it was against Islamic religious law for any Muslim to live permanently in a Western country because in doing so they would “have permanent stay there under the laws of the infidels.”

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080422/ap_on_re_mi_ea/al_qaida_al_zawahri

 

Oh, Really? That means the members of the terrorist front known as CAIR, need to leave the U.S. for their respective Islamofascist nation-states.

Fork-Tongued Iranian Snake Visits Iraq

Says: “We’re brothers”.

BAGHDAD — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday his landmark visit to Iraq opened a new chapter in “brotherly” relations between the two countries, which were once bitter enemies.

Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president to visit Iraq. He went from Baghdad’s airport straight to a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who gave him a red-carpet welcome. The two kissed four times on the cheek in the traditional fashion and a band played the two countries’ national anthems.

“We had very good talks that were friendly and brotherly. … We have mutual understandings and views in all fields, and both sides plan to improve relations as much as possible,” Ahmadinejad said in a joint news conference with Talabani at the Iraqi president’s residence, which is located across the Tigris River from the new U.S. Embassy in the fortified Green Zone.

Ahmadinejad’s visit here gives him a chance to highlight the relationship his country has with post-Saddam Hussein Iraq — both countries are led by Shiite Muslims — while also serving as an act of defiance toward the United States, which accuses Iran of training and giving weapons to Shiite extremists. Iran denies the charges.

Hey “bro”, wouldja mind stopping with the terrorism? It isn’t “brotherly” to supply Shiites with IEDs.

……Ahmadinejad stressed that Iran wanted a stable Iraq that would benefit the region.

That’s funny…stability hasn’t been Iran’s strong suit.

The news conference appeared to end abruptly after a reporter asked about the Mujahedeen Khalq in Iraq, which opposes Iran’s ruling clerics. The group, also known as the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, was allied with Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq during the war between the two countries. The U.S. and European Union list it as a terrorist group.

Talabani interjected and volunteered to answer the question, saying: “This issue has been discussed earlier and the presence of those as a terrorist organization is constitutionally not allowed. We will endeavor to get rid of them out of the Iraqi territory soon.”

Ahmadinejad’s Iraqi interpreter translated the name of the group as the Munafeqeen, which means “hypocrites” in Arabic and Farsi. The Mujahedeen Khalq is called the Munafeqeen by the Iranian government.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,334373,00.html

What irony. The Mujahedeen Khalq too “terrorist” even for Iran….

A brief backgound on the Mujahedeen Khalq:

What is Mujahadeen-e-Khalq?

Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) is the largest and most militant group opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Also known as the People’s Mujahadeen Organization of Iran, MEK is led by husband and wife Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
MEK was added to the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups in 1997 and to the European Union’s terrorist list in 2002 because its attacks have often killed civilians. Despite MEK’s violent tactics, the group’s strong stand against Iran —part of President Bush’s “axis of evil”—and pro-democratic image have won it support among some U.S. and European lawmakers.

What are MEK’s origins?

MEK was founded in the 1960s by a group of college-educated Iranian leftists opposed to the country’s pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The group participated in the 1979 Islamic revolution that replaced the shah with a Shiite Islamist regime led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. But MEK’s ideology, a blend of Marxism and Islamism, put it at odds with the postrevolutionary government, and its original leadership was soon executed by the Khomeini regime. In 1981, the group was driven from its bases on the Iran-Iraq border and resettled in Paris , where it began supporting Iraq in its eight-year war against Khomeini’s Iran. In 1986, MEK moved its headquarters to Iraq, which used MEK to harass neighboring Iran. During the 2003 Iraq war, U.S. forces cracked down on MEK’s bases in Iraq, and in June 2003 French authorities raided a MEK compound outside Paris and arrested 160 people, including Maryam Rajavi.

http://www.cfr.org/publication/9158/

We have to be careful when applying the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” concept. The lesser of the two evils isn’t always the best choice.