The Blog from the Core - Saturday, November 15, 2003

Core: noun, the most important part of a thing, the essence; from the Latin cor, meaning heart.

		The Weblog at The View from the Core - Saturday, November 15, 2003

Saddam-Osama Link: Case Closed?

The New York Post today cites this Weekly Standard article dated Nov. 24:

OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda — perhaps even for Mohamed Atta — according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

The memo, dated October 27, 2003, was sent from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith to Senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller, the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was written in response to a request from the committee as part of its investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the administration. Intelligence reporting included in the 16-page memo comes from a variety of domestic and foreign agencies, including the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency. Much of the evidence is detailed, conclusive, and corroborated by multiple sources. Some of it is new information obtained in custodial interviews with high-level al Qaeda terrorists and Iraqi officials, and some of it is more than a decade old. The picture that emerges is one of a history of collaboration between two of America's most determined and dangerous enemies....

Why is it we get to hear something about this only when a publication obtains a secret memo? And will it make front page on NYT? Will Peter & Dan & Tom lead with it? Will they even mention it? Somebody let me know, okay? :-)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 11/15/03 04:36:32 PM
Categorized as International.

"Remove Dennis Kucinich's Feeding Tube!"

A couple of people have called my attention to the latest column from the Blonde Bomb~~shell~~thrower.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 11/15/03 04:28:53 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

Vociferous Yawpings on Just War

Mark Windsor contributes some much needed depth to the current discussion, yesterday. Here's just a bit:

.... I want to make one statement upfront that may put off some people, but hear me out. It is this: Reading DJW [Doctrine of Just War] in the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a fine start, but it is insufficient to simply rattle off each point and see how it applies to a given conflict. It is absolutely necessary, for proper understanding, to look at where DJW comes from and why it exists at all....

Amen, brother! Early this year, I started a near flame-war on a normally very peaceable e-mail list to which I subscribe when I wanted to analyze the Catechism in this respect, and argued for the same conclusion: the Catechism is a compendium, and its discussion of Just War is incomplete and was not meant to be complete. Discussion of Just War that begins and ends with the Catechism is, therefore, truncated and simplistic and (dare I say it?) fundamentalistic.