British SAS (Special Air Service) commandos engage in a firefight in Afghanistan.
SAS would be at the heart of any hostage rescue mission in Iran.
** THE JESSE JACKSON FACTOR. Barack Obama just scored a very key endorsement in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Reverend Jesse Jackson said today that he is supporting him. Jackson, of course, was the first major black Democratic presidential candidate, finishing third in the 1984 Democratic contest and second in the 1988 Democratic contest. I could write thousands of words about Jackson, but we’ll keep it short for now. Jackson is very important because he represents the black American, as distinguished from the multi-culti American, experience of African Americans, the latter of which is more in the somewhat exotic Obama mode (white mother, Islamic Kenyan father). He was a top aide to Martin Luther King, and was there when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, embracing the civil rights leader as he died.
Jackson is one of the most important figures in the history of African American politics. I remember 1984 very well, when my friend Gary Hart was somewhat unaccountably running late for the Iowa debate, which was utterly key to the emergent success of his dark horse presidential candidacy. It’s a much longer story, but we had to delay the start of the debate — which required some fast talking, I assure you — and convnce Hart’s Secret Service detail, driving him in from Omaha, Nebraska rather than the snowed-in Des Moines airport, to drive at very high speed on icy roads to get him to the Des Moines convention center in order to make the delayed time. It all worked, and when Hart arrived, he immediately went into his friend Jesse”s dressing room to chat. When they emerged, good things happened. For them. Hart emerged from the debate as a major figure, going on to move from fifth to second in Iowa, winning New Hampshire and another 25 states after that. Jackson took a half-dozen states and became the most important black political figure in America.
Jackson has long been associated with the Clintons, and his endorsement of Obama is a major blow to their effort to block Obama’s emergence with a massive black vote in the primaries. I think it is safe to say now that if Obama wins in either Iowa, Nevada, or New Hampshire, he will then win in South Carolina, which will set off a cascade of Southern victories for Obama. Barring, of course, a major mistake by the rookie candidate.
** FOX NEWS DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE IS SET. The Congressional Black Caucus and Fox News will partner on a Democratic presidential debate scheduled for September 23rd in Detroit, Michigan. Elements of the “netroots” attempted to dissuade the Congressional Black Caucus from this move, but were unsuccessful, with caucus officials saying their goal is to present the debate their issues discussed therein to the broadest possible audience.
** MORE REPUBLICAN TROUBLE WITH A.G. GONZALES. Still more trouble for Republicans with embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Contrary to his earlier claims, according to his former top aide, he personally decided to fire the eight U.S. attorneys dismissed in the controversial sackings. At least one, San Diego area U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, was zeroing in on big-time Republicans, having already won the corruption conviction of notorious Congressman Duke Cunningham, who was so brazen in his shakedowns he had taken to driving about in a Rolls Royce. She had just indicted a major Washington lobbyist and the former executive director of the CIA before being fired. It’s hard to imagine Gonzales lasting to this point in office were he not an old Texas friend of and longtime aide to President George W. Bush.
** IRAN DIVESTMENT BILL LOOKING GOOD. California Democratic legislative sources say the prospects for legislation by San Diego area Assemblyman John Anderson, a Republican, and Orange County Assemblyman Jose Solorio, a Democrat, look good. The bill passed the state Assembly’s retirement committee yesterday on a 4 to 1 vote. It would require the state’s two massive public pension funds, the Public Employee Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System, to divest from foreign firms doing business with Iran. The firms affected would include Daimler Chryslter, Hyundai, and Siemens. The Teamsters union is stongly in favor of the bill. The Service Employees International Union dropped its early opposition. But the state’s two teachers unions unsuccessfully opposed the bill at yesterday’s hearing, arguing that the pension fund board should make investment decisions independent of the political environment. Not a stance they took during the struggle to divest state funds from firms doing business with the late apartheid regime in South Africa.
** GIULIANI LEADS IN IOWA POLL. In the new Zogby telephone poll of likely Iowa Republican presidential caucus voters (not the unreliable Internet survey), Rudy Giuliani has the lead, 25% to 19% over John McCain. Mitt Romney, still working to win over conservative activists, is in third with 11%. And new potential prospect Fred Thompson has 7%. Giuliani’s lead is due to his edge among young voters and women voters.
** BRITAIN-IRAN STANDOFF CONTINUES. Dashing hopes of an early resolution, Iran has refused to release the lone female prisoner among the 15 British sailors and marines seized by radical Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval elements as they executed a routeine merchant vessel search in the Persian Gulf. While British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he wants a swift and peaceful solution to the crisis, multiple sources indicate that planning is well underway for a special operations solution involving British and US special forces in a search and rescue mission inside Iran. At the core of the operation would be the British SAS (Special Air Service) — seen in action in the video above — which served as the model for many of the world’s top special operations forces, including those of the United States, beginning with the Green Berets established by President John F. Kennedy and continuing through the super-secret Delta Force.
One notable element of the present crisis is that a low-intensity but very real “intelligence war” seems to be already underway between Western and Iranian forces. A leading Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated, some say by the Israeli Mossad. A top Iranian general and leading intelligence official defected recently, apparently after several years of providing intelligence to the US and others in the West. A leading Israeli defense ministry official was apparently assassinated in Europe. Iranian agents have been discovered — surprise! — operating inside Iraq, and five Iranian officials, ostensibly diplomats, but operating without proper diplomatic credentials, have been captured and detained inside Iraq by US forces. Then there are the guerilla attacks inside Iran, carried out by Iranian dissidents, of whom there are many, and reportedly backed by US and British special ops forces.
How might an SAS-led hostage rescue mission go inside Iran? Well, SAS has carried out many operations which remain secret. One that was not, in 1980, involved the taking of some 20 British citizens, who were held inside the Iranian embassy in London by a half-dozen Islamic jihadist militants. SAS assaulted the embassy and rescued the hostages, swiftly killing all but one of the Iranian radicals in the process. But operations in another country are more problematical.
The Israeli Sayeret Matkal, working against very poorly-trained Third World soldiers in Uganda, pulled off the fabled raid on Entebbe in 1976, rescuing over 100 hostages at the airport there. 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed in the operation, verus only three hostages and just one Israeli — the commander of the operation, future Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s brother. But an attempt to rescue American hostages at the US embassy in Tehran in 1980 failed due to a mishap with helicopters in a sandstorm at the rendezvous point known as Desert One. Much has been learned since then, of course. On both sides. The Israeli military, for example, suffered notable setbacks in its largely unsuccessful war last year against Hezbollah. All Israeli hostages taken last year remain in the hands of Hezbollah.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are at or near six-month highs — in the $64 to $67 barrel range — as the British hostage crisis in Iran drags into a sixth day.
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| Comments (89) |
Why hasn’t there been more coverage of this “intelligence war?”
It’s not easy to cover a secret war taking place 4000 miles away.
If the Brits want to tighten the screw on Iran and retaliate for the seizure of their sailors and marines, the logical thing to do is to start seizing Iranian ships throughout the world. We should help as a fellow member of NATO. 15 ships for 15 citizens ought to be a good start. Issue Letters of Marque too. In dealing with pirates and outlaws, the old ways are the best. Release the crews and sell the cargos splitting the booty between the government, the crews of the ships seizing the Iranian vessels and the families of the hostages. I wonder how many ships seized it would take to convince the Iranians to release their hostages?
Speaking of the old ways another British option is the blockade. Apparently Iran imports a good deal of its refined petroleum products including gasoline. Declare a cordon sanitaire. A blockade designed to reduce those imports should have an interesting affect on the Iranian economy. Should their smallish navy seek to interfere, sink it. No need to engage in a ground war.
Interesting.
Why is the British guy with the big gun standing up in the video?
Why do the American SF guys in the video wear uniforms and chatter on their satphones so much? They don’t look very relaxed or in to it.
The Brit with the heavy caliber machine gun is betting that the relatively sporadic fire from the not especially well-trained Taliban will miss him when he does the quick stand-up, as distinguished from spending a little more time exposed using the tripod.
It is interesting how the Brits blend in much better than do the Americans.
>Capitol Boy :
Why do the American SF guys in the video wear uniforms and chatter on their satphones so much? They don’t look very relaxed or in to it.
Mar 29, 2007 08:58 AM
I have heard that the rumormill is working overboard and the right wing blog world is full of special ops entebbe talk …I think it is very unrealistic in in this case…Also, very rarely are intelligence wars covered and for good reason …they are supposed to be clandestine and if they are apparent and able to be covered by press …well simply put, lives are in danger because of poor risk management …I think that is what happened here, i.e. very poor risk management…the other reason they are hard to cover is that governments never go on record that it is going on …the Brits will never admit that the Iranians have an agent IF that is true and Israel government will always maintain publicly that the Israeli defense ministry official committed suicide…but that is what they should do…
It’s Thurs night in the ME and I am pretty sure that the Muslim “Sabbath” like the Jewish Sabbath runs sunset to sunset…if I am correct…there will most likely be no breaking news on this story for at least another 24 hours till after the Muslim Sabbath ends, as I doubt there is anyone of consequence picking up phones in the Muslim world that could assist or broker a deal …
Newt Gingrich suggested on the radio yesterday that SAS should take out the only gasoline refinery in Iran, then the Brits and the US should follow with a blockade to ensure no gasoline tankers arrive in their ports. He thought they should be notified of the proposed action diplomatically, giving them an option to save face and quietly release the hostages ahead of the military option, or face the prospect of having everything in Iran transported by oxen very soon. Sometimes simple, logical strategies come from unexpected places.
Oh, yes, they are all very devout over there … Haha. When they are in Monte Carlo with the supermodels.
>there will most likely be no breaking news on this story for at least another 24 hours till after the Muslim Sabbath ends, as I doubt there is anyone of consequence picking up phones in the Muslim world that could assist or broker a deal …
I may count out Newt Gingrich as president but never as a thinker. He is a very smart guy, co-founded the Congressional Military Reform Caucus with Gary Hart. Early post-partisanship …
>Hap Hazard :
Newt Gingrich suggested on the radio yesterday that SAS should take out the only gasoline refinery in Iran, then the Brits and the US should follow with a blockade to ensure no gasoline tankers arrive in their ports. He thought they should be notified of the proposed action diplomatically, giving them an option to save face and quietly release the hostages ahead of the military option, or face the prospect of having everything in Iran transported by oxen very soon. Sometimes simple, logical strategies come from unexpected places.
Mar 29, 2007 09:15 AM
Gingrich was a university history professor an academic in one of his lives, wasn’t he?
I just saw a report that Putin has publically called for a timetable on the exit of foreign troops from Iraq…I wonder if Putin is trying to telegraph a little something about how he feels about the US missile defense shield project in Europe and Kosovo…The world polictical scene is so intriguing at the moment! just one thing after another…we all hav eto keep on our toes!
Mr. Bradley: Oh, yes, they are all very devout over there … Haha. When they are in Monte Carlo with the supermodels…
Very true! …some but not all of them…that is a bit of a sterotype Mr. Bradley…anyway, regardless of how they live privately…I doubt if anything significant happens much in the next few hours
Oh, Barbara, you’re so smart. But none of those guys are turning off their cell phones.
How many times was Gingrich divorced? He is the one who told his wife he was divorcing her when he visited in the hospital room where she was being treated for cancer, right? Giuliani is the one who announced he was divorcing his wife in a press conference and she found out watching it on Tv, right?
I just want to have this straight with the family values Republican Party. lol
Well it is quite possible that they are not required to by Mulim religious law on a Sabbath Mr. Bradley, especially in their position …I really don’t know about turning off cell phones…my point was a major news break….
The Brits are threatening to go to the UN about this and they are not happy about that …so in between prayers they will be monitoring that!
No using one of a million religious holidays as an excuse! lol
Gingrich is twice divorced.
>Ann :
How many times was Gingrich divorced? He is the one who told his wife he was divorcing her when he visited in the hospital room where she was being treated for cancer, right? Giuliani is the one who announced he was divorcing his wife in a press conference and she found out watching it on Tv, right?
I just want to have this straight with the family values Republican Party. lol
Mar 29, 2007 09:33 AM
OMG, another fake right wing candidate for the wingnuts. lol
Newt Gingrich is only slightly higher on the evolutionary scale than Denny ‘Mr. Toad’ Hastert.
He’s just another chickenhawk arm-chair general willing to sacrifice more lives to capture control of middle eastern oil. Or is commando Newt going to be leading the charge on that refinery? Then when the smoke clears, he’d be working on a road crew cleaning up toxic waste, with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice (and ‘king’ Abdullah..)
And what branch of the armed forces were you in, Paul?
It’s actually an interesting idea.
Meanwhile, I’ve been dealing with a PJ Media colleague — not a vet, of course — who was attacking the Brits as cowards and losers. Very exciting stuff …
Typical chicken hawk.
>Bill Bradley :
Meanwhile, I’ve been dealing with a PJ Media colleague — not a vet, of course — who was attacking the Brits as cowards and losers. Very exciting stuff …
Mar 29, 2007 10:57 AM
Re: PG media colleague…
which one? …I can see Hanson, Ledeen and Simon… all doing that…
NOTA.
Well maybe Tony Blair is reading your colleague whoever he/she is …he just announced the Brits will not negotiate with Iran over the sailors…really now!…I guess its another thing Putin and the Saudis will have to sort out…with a special envoy or something Geesh!…and Putin is right in the middle of another oil and gas grab and he will probably have to drop everything for this!
The British might be a little pissed off that the captured sailors were displayed on TV as trophies. Of course, these are clear Geneva Convention violations, especially the humiliation of the woman sailor by dressing her up in Muslim garb. I think the British are trying to be reasonable and restrained, with rhetoric and actions kept to a minimum, thus giving opportunity for Iran to find a face-saving way out of this.
I wouldn’t think that Britain should have to start negotiating with themselves and give concessions to Iran, when they are not the wrongdoers here.
It seems unfair to disqualify doves who haven’t served from pointing at aggressive hawks who haven’t served (and, in particular, those who found creative ways to avoid service). The point is the inconsistency, not the service. The point is that there are quite a lot of hawks who would become decidedly less hawkish if it was their own kids (or themselves) being sent off to war, and there’s something troubling about their apparent willingness to back a violent solution to a problem, as long as they know it won’t impact them personally.
Is this ever right!!!!!Rabbi Hier is NUMBER ONE TOP RABBI!!!!
” Marvin Hier (Orthodox)
Hier is one phone call away from almost every world leader, journalist and Hollywood studio head. He is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Museum of Tolerance and Moriah Films.”
NEWSWEEK America’s Top 50 Rabbis!4/2 edition
Mr B: what branch of the military I did or didn’t serve in is irrelevant since, unlike Newt-boy, I’m not advocating sacrificing American youth for the imperialist aims of the Bush cabal. The troops who have put forward the Petition for Redress, as well as Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Mothers for Peace, the War Resisters League, and Lt. Aaron Watada have more credibility as ‘thinkers’ than the washed up neo-con Newt.
Here are C-span highlights’s for tonight !
BTW Brenner (see: c-span 2) is all over the Friday 3/30 Russian Press at the moment because he said:
“”The Russians are now back at Cold War levels in their efforts against the United States,” he said at an event held by the American Bar Association, a lawyers’ group. “They are sending over an increasing and troubling number of intelligence agents.”" Moscow Times 3/30
I guess some Russian spies belong to the ABA!
C-SPAN Tonight (for PT subtract 3 hrs)!
C-Span (1)
Senate Hearing on the Hiring & Firing of U.S. Attorneys (8pm)
ยท Arab League Summit (12am)
C-Span 2
Counterintelligence Official Joel Brenner Speech to ABA (10:15pm)
Newt Gingrich isn’t a neoconservative any more than you are a Marxist. Let’s consider his ideas on their merits.
>Paul Burton :
Mr B: what branch of the military I did or didn’t serve in is irrelevant since, unlike Newt-boy, I’m not advocating sacrificing American youth for the imperialist aims of the Bush cabal. The troops who have put forward the Petition for Redress, as well as Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Mothers for Peace, the War Resisters League, and Lt. Aaron Watada have more credibility as ‘thinkers’ than the washed up neo-con Newt.
Mar 29, 2007 01:42 PM
Good for the Black Caucus. I guess the Kos Kidz couldn’t convince them they weren’t really Democrats. lol
“I guess some Russian spies belong to the ABA!”
My suspicions are at last confirmed.
Brasky, a report of his little talk certainly hit the Russian press pretty quick!!!
Alright! We’ve got another round in the DNC, netroots, FOX free-for-all. This should be fun to watch.
Oh wait, I’m a Democrat. Actually, this kind of sucks…
I have a feeling that the Congressional Black Caucus doesn’t really care what a bunch of white guys tapping at their keyboards thinks.
“Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani says if elected, he’d be open to his wife attending Cabinet meetings”…
This is the candidate whose strength is supposedly national security?…this hits me as a silly thing to say…
“I have a feeling that the Congressional Black Caucus doesn’t really care what a bunch of white guys tapping at their keyboards thinks.”
I thought the same thing about Nevada. Even with Edwards pulling out (which I still think was shrewd), I didn’t think they would cancel the damn thing.
Let’s see what heat is applied to the candidates and how they respond. If someone caves, this thing is far from over. If no one caves, the issue is dead.
However, the netroots would be wise to heed your caution. They should change their definition of victory to something less than cancellation, like simulcast on Public Radio or something. If they try to go for the Big Enchilada again, they risk seriously coming-up short and further reducing their already crumbling credibility. Better to declare a string of two victories, even if the second is insignificant.
The Nevada Fox debate, as I reported at 2000-plus word length in the LA Weekly, was only cancelled because of a perfect storm of events.
I can tell you from experience that, let us say, black politicians do not operate from a position of moral inferiority with whites. I remember having just directed a winning presidential primary and having several black politicians absolutely insist that they be given delegates they had in no way won. They were quite unhappy when they did not get them.
If Markos whatever, who never worked in a Democratic campaign before starting his daily bitchfest of a blogging echo chamber, thinks he is going to impress these folks, he has another think coming.
Well, I think Rudy is being a very sensitive man. I have no idea who that guy was who told his second wife he was divorcing her via press conference …
>Barbara :
“Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani says if elected, he’d be open to his wife attending Cabinet meetings”…
This is the candidate whose strength is supposedly national security?…this hits me as a silly thing to say…
Mar 29, 2007 03:25 PM
Which wife was Rudy referring to?
Re: Gonzales, keep an eye on Arlen Specter. he looks about ready to blow. When he does, Katie, bar the door.
Ginggrich has been married four times, I think He met his wife in a computer dating service.
Debate in Detroit? I hope this doesn’t mean I have to listen to all the candidates discuss the wretchedness of the place.
Actually, Gingrich has been married three times. It was not he, but Rush Limbaugh, who met his wife through a computer dating service. Limbaugh’s marriage failed.
>Capitol Boy :
Ginggrich has been married four times, I think He met his wife in a computer dating service.
Mar 29, 2007 03:53 PM
So, the man who once called New York City “Hymietown” has endorsed Mr. Obama. Very interesting.
General Cortina, think of it as the Robocop debate …
> Juan Cortina :
Debate in Detroit? I hope this doesn’t mean I have to listen to all the candidates discuss the wretchedness of the place.
Mar 29, 2007 04:19 PM
Frankly, I dont think the clintons and jackson are close at all. They had a highly publiscized spat in 92 when Clinton thought Jesse had endorsed another candidate and said many disparaging things about him. Jesse, since he is now post civil rights and more about Jesse, just goes with whomever gives him the most-publicity, money whatever. Moreover, Jackson had no choice. was he really going to endorse a White person over the most serious black presidential candidate in history?
I just hope that it doesnt hurt barack!