GOP Vixen

News flash: The Iran-Iraq war is back on -- to Iran's advantage

Check out my Los Angeles Daily News column today on why the Iraq Study Group should NOT recommend chitchatting with Iran:

"It appears the Iran-Iraq war is back on, except this time Iran is stoking civil war within Iraq to its advantage.

Shiite militia strongman Muqtada al-Sadr would like you to think that the sectarian tension is caused by the U.S. military presence, and a whole cabal of progressives have bought into this. Meanwhile, his Mahdi Army is reportedly getting training from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran is also reportedly providing equipment such as explosives and triggers to the Shiite militias for roadside bombs - no less than an act of war on coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.

Iran, meanwhile, is projecting the facade of wannabe peacemaker, luring Iraq into a sit-down to purportedly work out solutions. And some are convinced that Iran can play a meaningful role in stemming the sectarian conflict - including, maybe, the Iraq Study Group.

In reality, it's like Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, where the mother makes her child ill and hides her nefarious deeds behind a facade of caring. Iran is making Iraq ill, and simultaneously posing as the great caretaker who will heal the region's ills where the U.S. has failed."

Read the whole thing! Because instead of saying that if we lose in Iraq the terrorists win, it's more accurate to say Iran wins -- particularly against us.

Italian sushi poisoner?

The plot thickens in the case of the poisoned Russian ex-spy, that is if you believe the British tabloids, which I do religiously:

"Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko feared he had been poisoned by Italian academic Mario Scaramella, it was revealed yesterday.

Pal Yuri Felshtinsky, who wrote a book with Litvinenko, 43, says the stricken ex-KGB man named the Italian in a deathbed phone call.

He told Felshtinsky, 50, that Scaramella seemed nervous and ate nothing when they met in a London sushi restaurant on November 1, after which the Russian fell ill.

Police believe a tiny grain of radioactive Polonium-210 was dropped into Litvinenko’s food. Scaramella, who headed an organisation which tracked dumped nuclear waste, has denied being responsible for the ex-spy’s agonising demise.

Yesterday he was being quizzed by police at a safe house in the Home Counties.

Felshtinsky, a Russian historian who moved to the US in 1978, penned the book Blowing Up Russia with Litvinenko — who died in a London hospital last week. He believes top-ranking Russian secret service officers ordered the 'hit' to send out a warning to defectors — especially billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a critic of President Vladimir Putin."

See, I'd be nervous and eat nothing in the sushi restaurant because I hate sushi. But this is the first time I heard that the Italian brother worked in the nuclear biz. Litvinenko had also said that current premier Romano Prodi was the KGB's man in Italy. The plot thickens even more...

Benedict being gutsy

The first thought that comes into my mind with the pope's trip to Turkey is, will someone try to assassinate him? In pre-popemobile days a nutty Turk shot John Paul II. And the pope reportedly refuses to wear a bulletproof vest. But what I really like is that Benedict isn't being intimidated by the Muslims rallying in the streets against him. It doesn't help that news agencies are still not clarifying the fact that the quote linking Islam and violence didn't come from Benedict but a 14th century emperor, but it's not like the protesting hordes comprehended that to begin with. And there are more elements of the ridiculous:

"(Muslims) are also furious at the pope's plan to tour Hagia Sophia, a 6th century Byzantine church converted to a mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul, then transformed into a museum in 1935.

Islamists, who want Hagia Sophia to become a mosque again, say the pope's visit is an indication of Christian ambitions to reclaim the Istanbul landmark as a church."

Oh good Lord... yeah, Benedict's gonna bring the Swiss Guards to take over Hagia Sophia.

Remember, too, that as Cardinal Ratzinger he opposed the entrance of Turkey into the European Union, arguing that the Muslim nation was incompatible with the EU. But this visit is a good test of whether Turkey is fit to join such a community of modern nations: How will they treat the pope? This story from the Financial Times doesn't bode well:

"A book called Attack on the Pope has made a sudden appearance on certain bookshelves of Turkey in the past few weeks. Subtitled Who will kill Benedict XVI in Istanbul?, the book describes how Pope Benedict XVI might be assassinated during his four-day visit to the country, which begins on Tuesday."

What message might Europe be able to glean from this example of not letting Islamists send you into hiding?

'Braveheart' redux

You can almost hear William Wallace running up and down the field yelling "FREEEEEDOM!" -- except, according to a poll today in the Sunday Telegraph, voters in England are pretty much in favor of a United Kingdom divorce, too:

"The United Kingdom should be broken up and Scotland and England set free as independent nations, according to a huge number of voters on both sides of the border.

A clear majority of people in both England and Scotland are in favour of full independence for Scotland, an ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph has found. Independence is backed by 52 per cent of Scots while an astonishing 59 per cent of English voters want Scotland to go it alone.

There is also further evidence of rising English nationalism with support for the establishment of an English parliament hitting an historic high of 68 per cent amongst English voters. Almost half – 48 per cent – also want complete independence for England, divorcing itself from Wales and Northern Ireland as well. Scottish voters also back an English breakaway with 58 per cent supporting an English parliament with similar powers to the Scottish one.

The poll comes only months before the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between England and Scotland and will worry all three main political parties. None of them favours Scottish independence, but all have begun internal debates on the future of the constitution.

The dramatic findings came as Gordon Brown, the favourite to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister, delivered an impassioned defence of the Union at Labour's Scottish conference in Oban yesterday."

GOP Vixen predicts that if Scotland does break away, it will be done without disembowelment, heads in baskets or fiery arrows soaring through the air. There may be a lot of haggis consumed, though.

NOTE: On the subject of movies, though, I'm currently preferring "Out of Africa"

Palestinians keep truce for a few hours!

Way to go! It could be a new Gaza record! From Al-Jazeera:

"Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing three rockets and said it would not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli military activity also ended in the occupied West Bank.

Israel said the truce did not cover the West Bank.

The armed wing of the governing Hamas movement also said it fired two rockets at Israeli targets, arguing Israeli troops were still inside Gaza despite a statement from the army that all had withdrawn.

... Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president had earlier told Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, that he has arrived at an agreement with all Palestinian factions that rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip will stop."

Here's a revelation: Abbas has no control over the armed factions. And whatever "truce" he brokers will only be observed when they feel like it. There will always be some excuse to keep up the violence.

(By the way, where's Cpl. Gilad Shalit? Anybody?)

CIA tells you your personality

You may have heard some of the new advertising by the CIA, eager to fill its ranks. Their careers Web site now includes a personality quiz that tells you what kind of person you are, with no direct correlation as to how that fits with their career recruiting. After a few mindless questions, you come out Daring Thrill-Seeker, Curious Adventurer, Thoughtful Observer, Impressive Mastermind or Innovative Pioneer. After picking answers that I didn't necessarily feel strongly about, I was dubbed an Innovative Pioneer. What that means for my life or CIA aptitude, who knows.

I like the disclaimer: "Responses to the quiz are not saved, and the CIA has no access to your personal information. This quiz will not affect your ability to qualify for a career with the CIA." And if you believed otherwise, your cranium is too empty to work at the CIA in the first place.

Perhaps the quiz would better excite prospective spies by classifying them as James Bond, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Leslie Nielsen in "Spy Hard" or Jennifer Garner in "Alias."

GOP Vixen: Innovative. Pioneering. The CIA says so.

Mysterious deaths hint at Cold War redux

The news cycle has really kicked my butt this week -- my first column got killed when Fox canceled the O.J. book/show, and my second Los Angeles Daily News column was on the page and then the poisoned Russian ex-spy died yesterday. Luckily I was working on Turkey Day and was able to update and chase it. The plot, as they say, thickens:

"As the new James Bond debuted in 'Casino Royale,' a new espionage thriller was unfolding that gave serious pause to Russia's progression in emerging from its Cold War past.

The plot begins not with a shaken martini, but with a journalist murdered in cold blood. The plot thickens not with bedroom dalliances, but with a former spy perishing in a London hospital bed. And the villain? Fingers point toward the former Soviet Union - no stranger to the role.

Anna Politkovskaya was a reporter for the independent weekly Novaya Gazeta and an opponent of Vladimir Putin's administration, covering the Chechnya region, where few other Russian journalists dared to go. Two days before her expos on torture in the region was set to be published, Politkovskaya was found shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. Evidence pointed to a contract killing. Police seized her computer's hard drive and other investigative materials she'd compiled from often furtive meetings with sources; photos of the suspected torturers also reportedly disappeared.

'As long as he's in power, Russia won't be a democratic country,' Politkovskaya once said of Putin.    

Enter the spy, Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant colonel in the Federal Security Bureau (the KGB's offspring) who defected to Britain in 2000 and has also been an outspoken critic of Putin. While at the FSB - helmed at the time by Putin - Litvinenko claimed there was an attempt afoot to assassinate Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. Blowing the lid off the security service's activities made him a thorn in the side of the Kremlin and a marked man. Two years ago, Litvinenko survived a Molotov-cocktail attack on his London residence.

Three weeks ago, Litvinenko had a meeting at a restaurant with a source who claimed to have information on - you guessed it - the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. ..."

Read the whole thing!

Hamas says, It's never too late in life for a second career!

So maybe these 20-year-old jihadist punks were sitting around realizing that they had years of jihad in front of them, and maybe it was more effective to send grandma out there instead. From AFP:

"A Palestinian grandmother blew herself up in the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding three Israeli soldiers, in the first suicide attack claimed by Hamas in almost two years.

The mother of nine and grandmother of 41 became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber at the age of 57, selecting as her target troops operating near her northern Gaza home in Jabaliya, seeking to curb near-daily rocket attacks on Israel.

'Troops saw a woman approaching them in a suspicious manner and identified her carrying an explosive device,' an army spokeswoman said.

'They then threw a stun grenade in her direction but she managed to blow herself up,' she added, adding that three soldiers were lightly hurt.

Within minutes the armed wing of the Hamas claimed the bombing. This was the Islamist group's first suicide attack since January 2005, when a bomber wounded seven Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

'The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claims the martyr operation carried out by Fatima Omar Mahmud al-Najar, aged 57, in the middle of a group of Zionist soldiers,' an online statement said.

... 'We are really happy. It's a big operation. She told us last night that she would do a suicide operation... We are proud,' said Zuheir, Najar's 20-year-old son. '"I don't want anything, only to die a martyr." That's what she said.'"

She didn't manage to kill anyone but herself, so how will this affect elderly martyrdom positions within Hamas in the future?

Hamas: Leaving the dirty work to kids and grandmas!!

Bridget bashing on Turkey Day!!

One thing I've always noticed about the far lefties is they can't get a joke. One may have noticed that I'm an equal-opportunity goofster when it comes to politicos -- like in my National Review column yesterday, I picked on George Allen as well as Nancy Pelosi because they both deserve it. That seemed to fly over the heads of readers at CBSNews.com, which reprinted the column today. Some of the comments:

"Wow! This is a REALLY SAD PIECE OF 'JOURNALISM'. The Neo Cons are still in denial about their failed political agenda. Iraq is the cornerstone of their bullethead philosphy. I guess they didn't fail though if you work for oil companies or Halliburton - they are laughing all the way to bank and their pockets are bulging with the Middle Class' money."

"What a pathetic piece of pulp. If this is the best the National Review can come up with, this is a good sign that the country is heading in the right direction"

"Dear Bridget Johnson:
Quite the mean-spirited, bitter article. You are definitely still in the anger phase over the big neocon *** whuppin."

"What a negative divisive, mean spirited article. We don't need this kind of journalism. Happy Thanksgiving Bridget Johnson."

"I am saddened by this commentary, by Those who do not wish to Unite for the common good. America has spoken. Instead of suggesting true optimism 'the us and them' mentality of fear and division seaps through."

"Don't get upset everybody Bridget always talks like this when it's that time of the month."

Just for the record, it's not that time of the month. But is this the humorless rhetoric we'll have to put up with for the next two years? When you write political humor you're divisive and mean-spirited? Oh, that's right, it's because I didn't goof on Bush, the PC-accepted target. But I sure have in the past, because at times he's deserved it.

What really made me laugh was the "Those who do not wish to Unite for the common good." Is that like Those We Do Not Speak Of in "The Village"? Are Pelosi and Murtha "Those We Are Not Allowed to Mock"?

Borat vs. Nazarbayev

Check out my World Politics Watch column today on the international incident that is Borat:

"... When all is said and done at the box office, a peek inside the Kazakh government lessens one's sympathy for it. According to Reporters Without Borders, journalists deemed too critical of Nazarbayev & Co. have often been physically attacked, threatened and abused. A 24-year-old French journalist was stabbed to death in Kazakhstan in August, and journalist Kenzhegali Aytbakiyev of the opposition weekly Ayna-Plus was beaten unconscious by attackers in April. 'The independent press was gagged all last year to ensure President Nursultan Nazarbayev's reelection with 90 per cent of the votes in December,' Reporters Without Borders stated.

Even Borat's Web site, Borat.kz, was taken down. 'We find . . . that the Kazakh government sees to it that websites that mock or criticise it are rejected,' Reporters Without Borders, which protested the move against Borat, wrote in a letter to Franck Fowlie, ombudsman for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which registers domain names. The International Herald Tribune reported at the time of the shuttering that the government and the president's security service had complained to the Association of IT Companies of Kazakhstan that the Borat site soiled the 'international image of Kazakhstan.'

They may not drink fermented horse urine or have 'The Running of the Jew' in Kazakhstan, as Borat advertises, but they don't have a golden human rights record, either. 'Kazakh authorities continue to interfere with citizens' rights to free assembly and expression, use politically motivated lawsuits to silence independent media, and limit access to opposition and independent Internet sites,' reports Human Rights Watch. In one incident last year, reported HRW, law enforcement beat up and arrested dozens of young people rallying with orange scarves and balloons, telling detainees that the color display was too much like Ukraine's Orange Revolution. ..."

Read the whole thing!