What are they hiding?

Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard has an incredibly important article on the files seized in the raid on bin Ladin’s compound in 2011:

Slow Release

A few more documents from the bin Laden raid are finally revealed. They do not flatter the judgment of the Obama administration.

The released documents are only a small fraction of the total material seized by the SEALs. Hayes details many convenient omissions of potentially crucial documents. Any reasonably honest observer has to ask if the White House is trying to hide something.

For instance the relationship between Iran and AQ has the potential to dynamite the Administration’s opening to Iran. Hence, this is no surprise:

Five intelligence sources familiar with the documents tell The Weekly Standard that the broader collection includes explosive documents about al Qaeda’s relationship with the regime in Iran and its dealings with Pakistan’s intelligence services. In one of the files, bin Laden goes into great detail about al Qaeda’s arrangement with Iran—an arrangement the Obama administration itself has cited in designations of terrorists on both sides of the relationship. That relationship spans more than two decades, and while there are signs in the documents of antagonism between the two, it’s clear their disputes did not preclude cooperation. Another document in the possession of the U.S. government describes the support al Qaeda received from the Iranian regime in the years before the 9/11 attacks. The 9/11 Commission highlighted Iran’s support for al Qaeda and noted that several hijackers traveled through Iran on their way to participate in the attacks. These documents were not part of last week’s release and have not been made available to lawmakers, though they would have significant bearing on how the American public and its representatives view the current nuclear negotiations with the Iranian regime.

This revelation demonstrates the bankruptcy of the administration’s counter-terrorsm strategy and their policy toward the Medeast:

The CIA and the Obama administration misjudged al Qaeda in another way as well. They believed the Arab Spring would sound the death knell for al Qaeda’s ideology, because the uprisings that began in early 2011 were largely peaceful, while al Qaeda had long argued that political change in the Muslim-majority world was only possible through violent jihad. The bin Laden files show that al Qaeda correctly believed the opposite—that the turmoil sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa would be a boon for its operations. The security vacuums caused by the fall of dictators meant that the jihadists now had the room to operate and spread their ideas with a freedom they had never before enjoyed.

“[O]ur duty at this stage is to pay attention to the call among Muslims and win over supporters and spread the correct understanding,” bin Laden wrote just days before his death, in a letter dated April 26, 2011. Bin Laden believed “the current conditions [had] brought on unprecedented opportunities” for the jihadists. Bin Laden and Rahman discussed sending senior al Qaeda veterans to their home countries, where they could take advantage of the newly permissive environment. Senior al Qaeda operatives were dispatched to Libya and elsewhere.

There are threads here that hint at a scandal worse than Watergate. Such a shame that modern journalists prefer to merely praise Woodward and Bernstein rather than emulate them.

"Ayo Gorkhali"

Good podcast on the Gurkhas and the British Crown:

Ayo Gorkhali: The Gurkhas Are Coming!

Related:

Couldn't let this pass

Why the MSM can’t die fast enough

Shot:

‘Dear Reader, The Editor Hates Your F—ing Guts’

Chaser:

A badge of honor, but maybe not the best business model

Related:

Logic only a journalist could love

Way-points on the path to irrelevance and oblivion

The Kardashian/Jenner circus provides more reasons to cheer MSM lay-offs, cutbacks, and closings.

The Cult of Caitlyn confirms that there is nothing progressive in transgender politics

There is a palpable religiosity to the wild hailing of Bruce/Caitlyn as a modern-day saint, a Virgin Mary with testicles. Within four hours, more than a million people were following Bruce/Caitlyn’s new Twitter account, hanging on her words like the expectant horde waiting for Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. Her every utterance, all banal celeb-speak, was retweeted tens of thousands of times. Celebs and commentators greeted her as a kind of messiah. ‘We’ve been waiting for you with open arms’, said an overexcited editor at Buzzfeed. Across the Twittersphere Caitlyn was worshipped as a ‘goddess’, a ‘goddess in human form’, a ‘goddess made manifest on Earth’. ‘Caitlyn Jenner could fucking stab me right now and leave me for dead and I’d die fucking overjoyed we are not WORTHY OF THIS GODDESS’, said one trans tweeter, and she wasn’t joking.

In the media, the talk is of how Caitlyn and her iconic likeness might give an adrenalin shot to humanity itself. A writer for the Guardian describes Caitlyn as a ‘queen’ and instructs us to ‘bow down, bitches’, telling us her icon on the front of Vanity Fair is ‘life-affirming’. Treating Caitlyn as a kind of Christ figure, only in a push-up bra rather than smock, Ellen DeGeneres says this goddess brings ‘hope for the world’, and we should all try to be ‘as brave as Caitlyn’. Susan Sarandon celebrated Bruce/Caitlyn’s mysterious ‘rebirth’ while Demi Moore thanked him/her for sharing with humanity ‘the gift of your beautiful authentic self’. A writer for the Huff Post says the name Caitlyn means ‘pure’ – ‘what a perfect meaning, right?’ Truly, yes, for St Caitlyn, reborn to educate us all, is most pure.

Matt Labash has my favorite take on the press reaction:

Transjennered America

The pronoun police at GLAAD distributed a helpful tip-sheet for journalists who should now see that Caitlyn “is—and always has been—a woman.” GLAAD commanded journalists to “avoid the phrase ‘born a man’ when referring to Jenner.” And the fierce guardians of free speech in the press did what they always do in such situations—they hung their heads and bleated obediently, cisgenders terrified to misgender. The Washington Post’s LGBT/straight etiquette columnist (yes, they have one) highly recommended GLAAD’s tips. And a Post colleague went so far as to set up a Twitter bot that would automatically correct anyone using “he” instead of “she” when writing about Brucelyn.

The instant unanimity of the MSM reaction would make Stalin’s Politboro blush; North Korean State television is embarrassed by the hosannas that greated the Vanity Fair cover.

VDH:

Building the New Dark-Age Mind

A pre-Enlightenment Age is not just the absence of uncomfortable free expression. It is also a sort of groupthink acceptance of a lie in place of the truth on grounds of social utility.

Added bonus:

Labash remembers why Jenner is a celbrity:

By the mid-2000s, however, Jenner had become much more difficult to ignore. He’d plighted his troth to the Kardashian clan, America’s First Family of publicity tapeworms, who are as long on fame’n’money as they are short on talent, unless you consider leaked sex tapes and Instagram butt-selfies a talent. As the paterfamilias/house eunuch of the Kardashian seraglio—both in real life and in the fake reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians (now in its tenth smash season)—Jenner allowed viewers to witness him getting ignored by his daughters and serially humiliated by his wife. “Momager” Kris (her self-appointed nickname as her daughters’ tireless manager) would leave him behind on trips, confiscate his ATM card, and generally keep his huevos in her purse

Related:

A totalitarian wind

Why Twitter?

A little shot of Chesterton

Do not be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which your are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked. ... It may be that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital animal and that you are a paralytic.

Journalists and spies

John Keegan:

As defence correspondent, then defence editor of The Daily Telegraph, i decided that entanglement with intelligence organisations was unwise, having concluded, by that stage of my life, through reading, conversation and a little personal observation, that anyone who mingled in the intelligence world, in the belief that he could make use of contacts thus made, would more probably be made use of, to his disadvantage. I continue to believe that to be the case

Intelligence in War

Now, about CNN's scoop about Bandidos seeking revenge for Waco:

Narrative Of Convenient Paranoia – Waco Police Claim Threats From Non-Existent Motorcycle Gangs….

Just like the violent sovereign citizens report, aka “right-wing extremists”, this latest claim of threats against law enforcement appears completely fabricated.

In a just world every CNN anchor would have to read this on air

Massad Ayoob on George Zimmerman

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: THE SAGA CONTINUES

At this and that discussion forum, we keep hearing that Zimmerman has become a “shit magnet.”

If so, it’s because a clueless, sensationalist media has so magnetized him.

When the world hung in the balance

This BBC podcast by Clive James is a wonderful appreciation of Sir Keith Park-- one of the key commanders in the Battle of Britain.

The Man on the Fourth Plinth

Related:

Six weeks that saved the world

Oh, I think we've met her type many times before

ABC News:

Meet the College Democrat Who Told Jeb Bush: ‘Your Brother Created ISIS’

Ivy Ziedrich little partisan stunt made me think of something Mark Steyn wrote a decade ago:

In the days after September 11, I ran into no end of college students eager to lecture me on the "root causes"-- poverty breeds despair, despair breeds anger, anger breeds terrorism, terrorism breeds generalizations-- yet unable to name the capital of Saudi Arabia or find Afghanistan on a map.

Inconvenient truths every marketer needs to hear

The Ad Contrarian: 10 Facts From The Real World:

Check out the author's new book:

Apologists for treason

From Intelligence Analysis and Reporting

In 1953, Rees became principal of Aberystwyth University. In 1956, a series of articles appeared in The People. They described their anonymous author as a “Most intimate friend, a man in a high academic position.” Guy Burgess appeared in them as a corrupt man, spy, blackmailer, homosexual, and drunk. The Daily Telegraph then revealed Rees was author. The university held an enquiry into the matter (1956-1957). Despite student support, university staff did not support him. Rees resigned before the enquiry ended, thus also ending his academic career. The enquiry’s report was very critical of Rees. Moreover, “It turned out that a great many old acquaintances of Burgess and Maclean were much more horrified–felt, indeed, much more betrayed–by the fact that the late Goronwy Rees gave a version of their flight to the People than by the flight itself. When Stephen Spender showed the Daily Express a friend’s letter about Burgess, he was held to have disgraced himself.”

This BBC recent podcast is also less than critical of a man who loved Stalin more than his own country:

Great Lives: Guy Burgess

What hope is there for a nation when its self-styled intellectual leaders defend traitors, protects child rapists (Jimmy Savile, Rotherham, Lord Janner) but is driven mad with anger toward someone like Jeremy Clarkson?

A thread that connects Baltimore to Garland

David Gelernter:

Between lawmen and reporters on the whole it is impossible, however, not to notice this difference: Most lawmen seem to hate criminals, and most reporters couldn't care less.

If you are not reading XX Committee...

You are missing out on some of the best geopolitical analysis available.

Putin’s Balkan Offensive

The Truth About Gallipoli

Woodrow Wilson’s Great Folly

Thought for the day

For, more than other men, we whio dwell in the heart of solitude are always the victims of self-doubt. Forever and forever in loneliness, shameful feelings of inferiority will rise up suddenly to overwhelm us in a poisonous flood of horror, disbelief, and desolation, to sicken and corrupt out health and confidence, to spread pollution at the very root of strong, exultant joy. And the eternal paradox of it is that if a man is to know the triumphant labor of creation, he must for long periods resign himself to loneliness, and suffer loneliness to rob him of the health, the confidence, the belief and joy which are essential to creative work.

Thomas Wolfe, “God’s Lonely Man”

Politics and the fearless he-men of the the Internet

Michael Bane is speaking specifically about Second Amendment activism, but his remarks have relevance for a lot of issues.

It's in the the first fifteen minutes of the podcast.

Down Range Radio #415

The foolishness of God

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,

so that no one may boast before him.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

I Corinthians 1:25-31

Hilliary's MSM provided tailwind

Must read by Ace:

For the Media, Democrat Scandals Can Never Be Reported Straight, But Must Always Be Controversialized/Partisanized By Noting that the GOP is "Seizing" on Reports of Scandal

Some time ago, Sharyl Attkinson introduced a new concept to me: that when she wrote about Republican malfeasance, her media employers were perfectly willing to run her stories straight, but when she reported on Democrat malfeasance, the left immediately began to "controversialize" her reportage, and her employers often gave in to their narrative.

CNN's Carol Costello makes his point:

CNN’S COSTELLO: ‘CLINTON CASH’ BOOK ‘REAL VITRIOL’

“CNN Newsroom” anchor Carol Costello characterized Peter Schweizer’s upcoming book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich” as “real vitriol” on Monday.

Speaking of the Doolittle Raid

The naval commander for the raid was Adm. William Halsey. Everything that made that man great was on display on the raid.

The man was a fighter in the tradition of John Paul Jones and David Farragut. That was a rare thing in the dark days after Pearl Harbor.

On Wednesday, January 7, the Enterprise force returned to Pearl from patrol and its commander, crusty warrior VAdmn Halsey, came ashore. Halsey's ferocious scowl, which announced to all that he hated the enemy like sin, could not conceal a twinkle in his eye that bespoke his affection for his fellow sailor's, particularly those who served under him.

We lack eyewitness records of what happened next, but we know that Halsey barged into the CinCPac conference that day or the next and cleared the air by sounding off loudly, and no doubt profanely, against the defeatism he found. He then and there permanently endeared hismself to his commander in chief by backing him and the raiding plan to the hilt. Because he was a vice admiral and Commander, Aircraft, Battle Force, and was liked and respected by all, his words carried decisive weight. Long afterward, when Halsey came under criticism, Nimitz recalled this difficul period and refused to participate in the general censure. "Bill Halsey came to my support and offered to lead the attack", he said. "I'll not be a party to any enterprise than can hurt the reputation of a man like that."

E. B. Potter, Nimitz

Amen

God Bless the Doolittle Raiders

It may have been the most unexpected, certainly one of the most heroic wake-up calls in history. It should be remembered and honored more than it is.

The spring of 1942 was not a happy time for civilization. Hitler and his Nazis owned or controlled most of Europe. After committing mass murder and mayhem at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy was rampaging unchecked in the Pacific, pitching a shutout against the underequipped and undermanned Brits and Americans. Almost as much of America’s Pacific fleet lay at the bottom of Pearl Harbor than was available to engage the Japanese.

The game-changing sea battles at Coral Sea and Midway would tilt the Pacific equation more in the Allies’ favor in May and June. But in April, Americans were starved for good news. Starved for any indication that we could strike back at our enemies. Enter 80 American heroes, volunteers, who managed to do what no civilian and almost no one in uniform thought was possible in April of 1942, to bomb the mainland of Japan.