How not to have peace in the Mideast

Israel assassinated Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Monday, striking its heaviest blow against the Palestinian Islamic militant group and provoking threats of bloody revenge.

Israeli security sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon personally ordered and monitored the helicopter attack on the paralyzed cleric, whose wheelchair lay smashed in a pool of blood after three missiles exploded outside a Gaza mosque.

An Israeli helicopter gunship fired missles directly at the quadripelgic sheikh who was being pushed in his wheelchair, killing several innocent bystanders. He, according to some, was a moderating force (yes, moderating) force on Hamas.

The blowback on this will be extraordinary.

And it appears to have already started.

Hezbollah fires on Israeli troops.

Major world stock markets have dropped sharply after Israel’s killing of a leading Palestinian militant.

More:

The killing of Sheikh Yassin has drawn widespread international condemnation.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said it was not only against international law, but did nothing to help find a peaceful solution.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak described it as cowardly and King Abdullah of Jordan called it a crime.

In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers condemned Israel for an “extra-judicial killing”, which they said undermined the rule of law.

And the reaction of the White House?

But the US State Department avoided direct criticism of Israel, urging all parties in the conflict to remain calm and show restraint.

Uh, huh…

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Ex- counter-terrorism head says Bush ignored al-Qaida

The former White House head of counter-terrorism said last night that President George W Bush refused to take al-Qa’eda seriously before the September 11 attacks, preferring to focus on Iraq instead.

Richard Clarke, who resigned a year ago, told CBS television that Mr Bush had “ignored” the terrorist threat in the months before the 2001 attacks despite unprecedented alarm in intelligence circles.

Lord, when an ex-head of counter-terrorism says the President is incompetent and worse, well, this indicates a rather serious split in the ruling elite, doesn’t it?

Predicting, correctly, that Bush loyalists would denounce his claims as sour grapes and partisan politics, Mr Clarke said: “I am sure they will launch their dogs on me. But frankly I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he has done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it; he ignored terrorism for months.”

Condoleezza Rice was asleep at the wheel.

President Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, “looked skeptical” when she was warned early in 2001 about the threat from al-Qaida and appeared to never have heard of the terrorist organization, according to Bush’s former counterterrorism coordinator.

And why did Bush ignore al-Qaida? Because he wanted to invade Iraq and didn’t care what the facts were, that’s why.

<Clarke> said that in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks Bush took him aside, pressing him for information about alleged links between the al-Qaeda terror network, the chief suspect in the strikes, and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, despite reports from the intelligence community that Baghdad was not involved.

“The entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this,” Clarke told 60 Minutes.

PS. John Kerry said “he has asked for copies of a new book in which a former White House counterterrorism coordinator accuses the Bush administration of manipulating America into war with Iraq with dangerous consequences,”

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Jmmy Carter says Iraq war based on lies

“There was no reason for us to become involved in Iraq recently. That was a war based on lies and misinterpretations from London and from Washington, claiming falsely that Saddam Hussein was responsible for [the] 9/11 attacks, claiming falsely that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

And I think that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair probably knew that many of the allegations were based on uncertain intelligence … a decision was made to go to war [then people said] ‘Let’s find a reason to do so’.”

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