Frolicking on Planet Bananas

My vote for Best of the Web today goes to Mark Steyn: “With friends like the Saudis…” Steyn notes the relative ease with which enemy agents have infiltrated American institutions including the military and its Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility.
Steyn writes: “Infiltration-wise, I’d say that’s pretty good. The arthritic bureaucracy at the CIA say oh, no, it would be impossible for them to get any of their boys inside al-Qaida. Can’t be done. But the other side has no difficulty getting their chaps set up in the heart of the U.S. military.
“What kind of chaplains did Alamoudi’s American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council pick out to serve our men and women in uniform? Well, among them was Captain James ‘Yousef’ Yee, recently detained under suspicion of spying at Guantanamo Bay. Also arrested were two Arabic translators, found with classified documents from Gitmo on their CDs, etc.
“Infiltration-wise, that’s also pretty good. The CIA say sorry, folks, the best we can do with all the gazillions of dollars we get is monitor phone calls from outer space. But the other side has no difficulty getting their boys inside America’s most secure military base and principal terrorist detention center.
“The Pentagon, of course, is taking this subversion of its chaplaincy program seriously. It’s currently reviewing all its chaplains. By ‘all,’ I mean not just all the Muslim chaplains, but also all the Catholic, Episcopalian, Jewish ones. After all, it might just be another one of those coincidences that the chaplain detained for spying is Muslim and that the organizations that certified him are Muslim. Best to investigate the Catholics just to be on the safe side.
“If the Democrats hadn’t decided to sit out the war on terror by frolicking on Planet Bananas for the duration, they could be seriously hammering the administration on this…”
In his conclusion, Steyn makes a related point about Joseph Wilson: “Here’s an easy way to make an effective change: Less Wahhabism is in America’s interest. More Wahhabism is in the terrorists’ interest. So why can’t the United States introduce a policy whereby, for the duration of the war on terror, no organization directly funded by the Saudis will be eligible for any formal or informal role with any federal institution? That would also include the pro-Saudi Middle East Institute, whose ‘adjunct scholar’ is one Joseph C. Wilson IV. Remember him? He’s the fellow at the center of the Bob-Novak-published-the-name-of-my-CIA-wife scandal. The agency sent him to look into the European intelligence stories about Saddam Hussein trying to buy uranium in Africa. He went to Niger, drank mint tea with government flacks, and then wrote a big whiny piece in the New York Times after the White House declined to accept his assurances there was nothing going on. He was never an intelligence specialist, he’s no longer a ‘career diplomat,’ but he is, like so many other retired ambassadors, on the House of Saud’s payroll. And the Saudis were vehemently opposed to war with Saddam.
“Think about that. To investigate Saddam’s attempted acquisition of uranium, the United States government sent a man in the pay of the Saudi government. The Saudis set up schools that turn out terrorists. They set up Islamic lobby groups that put spies in our military bases and terror recruiters in our prisons. They set up think tanks that buy up and neuter the U.S. diplomatic corps. And their ambassador’s wife funnels charitable donations to the 9/11 hijackers.
“But it’s all just an unfortunate coincidence, isn’t it? After all, the Saudis are our friends. Thank goodness.”

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