Rule One: If the Agency selects a non-Arabist and a specialist in Canadian-US relations to head its Bin Laden unit, you might want to ask CNN for a second opinion.

Rule Two: If you're President, and the Agency says there are WMDs in some particular country, don't nuke that country.

Rule Three: If after you nuke that country, the Agency says there were no WMD there, nuke the CIA.

The only thing the CIA did right in the last forty years was to convince Hollywood to write their PR.

Can you imagine what the U.S. would now be dealing with,
if Arabs knew just how incompetent the CIA really is?
Far better for them to believe that the CIA knows precisely how many times
each and every Arab male -- between the ages of 14 and 54 -- has had intimate relations with his hand.

Perhaps we shouldn't be so hard on the poor CIA.
After all, the Ayatollah said he was a 'theocrat' -- and that sounds an awful lot like 'democrat'.
It's an easy mistake.

Remember, too, the CIA had duties in Iran that included far more than just figuring out what was going on.
The cocktail parties alone far surpassed the strength of mere mortals.

Nice article. Thanks, Ms. Lopez

I'm still trying to make sense of events in Libya. But as an exercise, and for what it's worth,
let me offer a Plan-B interpretation of recent events in Libya -- just for fun.

There may be reasons not to be overly concerned with the mention of Islam and shariah in the constitution's preamble -- at least, not without evidence that the authors of the document actually meant the mention to be taken seriously.

The wording is standard in regional constitutions: eight call shariah 'the source' of legislation, nine call it 'an important source', 12+ give it lesser roles. I suspect that this part of the document was lifted from the Egyptian constitution.

Such language is just an obligatory bow to Islam -- to preface a document that's got little or nothing to do with Islam.

Reading the rest of the draft constitution, I'd note that there's little that resembles the typical demands of jihadis. Indeed, most of it is directly opposed.

Jihadis such as Zawahiri and OBL are correct on at least one point: States with such laws are not Islamic states, and they don't have legal systems based on shariah.

I don't mean to suggest that Islamic law would be completely irrelevant. While most such states have western codes of law, there's still a place for shariah in matters of family law, inheritance, and religious endowments.

I'm no fan of traditional Islamic family law. It's grossly unfair to women and children. Endowments (the waqf) are an economic disaster. Mandatory inheritance distributions are also unfair to women, and make the accumulation of capital difficult. Any society that keeps such laws in their traditional forms will wallow in economic backwardness, with only the beating of its women to provide solace for being poor.

What Libya is to become is still an open question to my mind. And frankly, a constitution means nothing in most Arab states. Mere dressing for windows of corrupt, military dictatorships. There are also other, more immediate concerns.

At the top of my list would be making sure the rebels don't massacre tribal supporters of G and the very many defenseless sub-Saharan Africans stranded in Libya. If those temptations can be avoided, I might begin to be a little optimistic, especially as Libya may be in a better position than other Arab states to make a go of things in the modern, global economy.

--- It's got money and a working infrastructure for its gas and oil production. So unlike Egypt or Syria, millions are not likely to die from starvation.

--- EU states have an interest in getting Libya's economy up and running again, as they've got billions of their own worthless euros heavily invested there.

--- Libya has other options for the future. There's potential for a sustainable economy based on a tourism. It'll be attractive for weekenders from the EU. It's something that'll be needed as Egypt descends into chaos. (I'm assuming the EU can find a bit of money in Germany's cushions to pay for the vacations.)

--- The population of Libya is small. They'll not be good for much in the global economy, given their levels of education, but it's a far better starting point than most other countries in the region.

--- The population is relatively homogenous, tribally and religiously.

--- G was a SOB and drove out those who were well educated. They've been living in the US and EU for decades. If they go back to Libya, they can teach what they've learned: Working's a good thing; If your life sucks, blame yourself; Better to play well with others than to blow them up; etc.

--- G and the jihadis hated each other, and G's guns were bigger. He decimated their ranks. Always a good thing. G's killing means that Libya's in a better place than Egypt, where Mubarak had far more patience with feral jihadis. Mubarak left loads of Gama and IJ members alive. Most now roam the Sinai and Cairo. (A valuable object lesson there.)

--- In Libya, the total number of jihadis was relatively small -- compared to Egypt or Jordan, or to Saudi, where it's easier to count those who are not jihadis.

--- Secularism has struck some roots in Libya. Not deep, but they are real.

--- The exiled Senussi clan, Royals sent packing by G, still enjoys a lot of support in Libya, and it is moderate, democratic, and pro-western. Support is said to be especially strong among the tribes.

Then again, I might be wrong. And caution's the better course, no doubt.

One thing's sure: It'll be good to see the end of the last of the pan-arab thugs. It's been a long fifty years, for the West and for the Arabs whose lives were wasted to fulfill the fantasies of these thugs. Now, if only we can see the Mad Colonel hanging from a lamp post, as the final curtain falls....

There's a reason the Media's not covering the many accomplishments of Pres. BO.

I was reading about this thing called the Tea Party over at the Huffington Post.
They say it's a secret cabal of white cannibals, child-molesting vampires, and wife-beating orcs,
who want to destroy life on earth in service of the lord Sauron, and make old folks eat cat food.

A story of that magnitude has to take priority.

This you know because you're a party boss? a reader of minds? an angel of the Lord Almighty?

How? Do tell?

Judging from your spelling, I'd guess you don't actually have a job, much less one with responsibilities beyond making sure the ditch is deep.

You can also stow your anti-Christian bigotry. If you're afraid of a United Methodist, you really shouldn't be going out of doors, as folks will think that you and yours are some sort of fanatics.

If Perry's got skeletons, you might think they would've been found by now --
what with thirty years of Texas politics behind him, and Rove and the whole Bush team out to get him.

If you know better, do tell.

If you know nothing, shut your supercilious hole.

Das ist klar?

"Fall off"?
"Face off"?
"Finally better-off"?
"Football kick-off"?
"Funny goof-off"?
"Fish die-off"?

I'm stumped, gunny. Help me out?

Isn't Shibley a hoot? He's like "Gosh, duh, I just can't imagine, duh, why anyone don't love us, duh."
That dopey, steroid-addled grin's just the cherry on his merde Sunday.
Hamas? Wha dat? Some kinda hummus?
Just vile, rumor-mongering by nasty i-phobes, eh?

Brother West, he da man!
For chrissake, of course he's alluding to the Battle of the Bulge.
It's the third most memorable line of the entire war.
West even puts the gorram word in quotation marks --
you know, those little curly things that indicate they're not your own words.

Perry said: not all Muslims are killers
wildjew said: that's wrong
questions adds: weren't no hijacking of islam, this is islam
I asked 'questions': What then does you propose the U.S. do with the followers of Islam in the US?
He'd surely not want them to wander the streets, if they're at war with us.
That all. Not trying to be funny. I'd really like to know his view.

Personally, I doubt this is how most religions work. There's no such thing as the one true Judaism or Christianity, just different kinds of Jews and Christians. Works the same with Islam.

Even in the case of American Muslims. 50% of them are Shiite, and they've hardly been inclined to blow us up domestically. 50% are Sunni, and that's a different matter. Though even the Sunnis can't be taken as a single thing. Naqshabandis were driven out of mosque leadership in the 1990s, for trying to convince the FBI to start helping root out militants.

Would you have preferred we execute them? Or were you one of the liberals suggesting concentration camps?

I was beginning to feel lonely. Thanks, Penny.