Conviction, Defection, Insertion...

Today’s Big, BIG News is the Libby verdict. Actually, it was yesterday, but because I usually only blog once or twice a day it will be today, for all intents and purposes.

Since I’ve only been following this story haphazardly I don’t have a whole helluva lot to say about it, except that I agree with the WSJ:

The word "guilty" had barely crossed the airwaves yesterday in the perjury case of Scooter Libby before critics were calling it proof that President Bush "lied us into war" and demanding that Dick Cheney be strung up next. Maybe now Mr. Bush will realize that this case was always a political fight over Iraq and do the right thing by pardoning Mr. Libby.

The conviction is certainly a travesty of justice, though that is not the jury's fault. The 11 men and women were faced with confusing evidence of conflicting memories in a case that never should have been brought. In the end, they were persuaded more by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's story line that Mr. Libby, a former aide to Mr. Cheney, had lied to a grand jury about what he knew when about the status of CIA official Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush critic Joseph Wilson.

The most interesting thing about this whole affair is there was no crime committed until the special prosecutor’s investigation began, as Libby was convicted for lying to a grand jury. No special prosecutor, no grand jury, no crime. Pretty damned sad, if you ask me…which, of course, you didn’t. Ask, that is.

Still, one wonders what Hamsher, Hardin, and their various partners-in-crime (quite the world-class Leftie rant, there, at least as far as word count goes) are going to do in future, now that their whole raison d’être is gone. Do ya think they’ll fold up the tent and go home, now that the show is (nearly, save appeals) over?

Nah. Me neither. Because there’s just so much to be outraged over!

On the other hand, Libby’s conviction may have “larger consequences.” I use the scare quotes because…well…some in the Republican party just might be experiencing a twinge of apprehension. Captain Ed discusses:

However, Cheney and his office will have to answer a lot of questions over the next few weeks, and perhaps some of those may be in Congress. The Libby conviction will present a major distraction for at least a while, and the Republicans will have to answer for it in the next election. That's not a demand by me, but just a cold, hard, political reality. Libby lied to investigators who were probing the administration, and he was not some junior flunky at a folding table. Libby was an inner-circle man, and this will hurt. A lot.

Good stuff there, if one is interested in examining tea leaves or goat entrails.

This isn’t just good news, it’s frickin’ GREAT news…

A RETIRED Iranian general who went missing in Turkey last month has defected and sought asylum in the US, according to a well-connected Arabic newspaper published in London.

The newspaper, al-Shark al-Awsat, cited "high-profile" sources saying former Iranian deputy defence minister and Revolutionary Guard commander Ali Reza Asghari had gone over to the West.

Reports from Istanbul that General Asghari's family had also disappeared in Turkey support the likelihood that he defected rather than was kidnapped by either the CIA or by Israel's Mossad, as has been speculated. The general went missing from his Istanbul hotel a month ago.

Iranian authorities, who have been silent on the disappearance until this week, claim he has been abducted. "It is likely Asghari has been abducted by Western intelligence services," said Iran's top police officer, General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam.

Defection of such a high-ranking figure would leave no external enemy to blame and would be seen as a rejection of the Islamic state by someone who well knows its inner workings.

If it’s true. Ya never know. Still, one hopes it’s true because the general would be a veritable intelligence gold mine, not to mention The Mother of All Embarrassments to Tehran. Much more here, including this:

Soon after his disappearance was discovered, Iran dispatched an operations team to Ankara to help the Turkish authorities to look for him. At the same time, a public relations campaign was launched with Iranian minister Mottaki has doing his best to downplay Asgari’s importance as an official in order to reduce the damage to the Iranian government’s image.

He wasn’t fooling anyone. It is clear that Asgari is a man privy to numerous secrets which Iran desperately does not want revealed. As well as being a former deputy defence Minister, Asgari was also a General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC). The IRGC, more than any other branch of Iran’s armed forces, is aware of, and has access to Iran’s nuclear program. Its members are in charge of monitoring and protecting Iran’s nuclear installations, and scientists.

Wow. This is sooo much better than talking about Scooter, nu?

And this is pretty danged funny:

Ordinarily I try to come down on the side of law enforcement when it comes to homeland security. But this time DHS has crossed the line. Evidently, they are harassing decent people who simply want to exercise their right to board airplanes with magnets up their butt.

According to Reuters, Atlantic City resident Fadhel al-Maliki was searched while trying to board a plane, and they found the suspicious iron in his rectum, where--let's be honest--it wasn't bothering anybody. Except maybe Mr. al-Maliki. I have to ask. Is Islamism this guy's problem, or is it just that he's from Jersey?

Fadhel al-Maliki...isn't that the skinny guy who played the doctor on the coincidentally named show, Deep Space Nine? I wouldn't be too surprised if that guy turned out to have random pieces of hardware up his rear end. But that's a matter of personal choice, as the ACLU would surely tell you. It's one thing if he had a phaser up there and was running around bending over at people in the name of Allah. It's another if it's a purely recreational item, such as an Emmy award or a plastic Dr. Bashir action figure.

Steve does some great good things with words and dumb stuff from time to time, but this one is a classic… The real news story as at the “up their butt” link.

Today’s Pic: Another shot of SN3 taken at the Mickey Dee Play Palace. Note the tee shirt...

You don’t wanna know just how many shots I took that day. Or rather, I don’t want to tell you. Embarrassment, ya know.

Still in South Florida. Still March, 1998.