You know it’s just never safe to assume that authority figures actually know what they’re doing or that their access to confidential information is an explanation for seemingly stupid strategic decision making. They must know something that we don’t right? Well sometimes, too often really, they’re just stupid. Jeff Stein sat with Silvestre Reyes and asked him a few basic questions about the threats we face:
And Hezbollah? I asked him. What are they?
“Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah…”
He laughed again, shifting in his seat.
“Why do you ask me these questions at five o’clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?”
“Poquito,” I said—a little.
“Poquito?! “ He laughed again.
“Go ahead,” I said, talk to me about Sunnis and Shia in Spanish.
Reyes: “Well, I, uh….”
I apologized for putting him “on the spot a little.” But I reminded him that the people who have killed thousands of Americans on U.S. soil and in the Middle East have been front page news for a long time now.
It’s been 23 years since a Hezbollah suicide bomber killed over 200 U.S. military personnel in Beirut, mostly Marines.
Hezbollah, a creature of Iran, is close to taking over in Lebanon. Reports say they are helping train Iraqi Shiites to kill Sunnis in the spiralling civil war.
“Yeah,” Reyes said, rightly observing, “but . . . it’s not like the Hatfields and the McCoys. It’s a heck of a lot more complex.
“And I agree with you — we ought to expend some effort into understanding them. But speaking only for myself, it’s hard to keep things in perspective and in the categories.”
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Joins Twitter
Congressman Mike Rogers is Tweeting – or perhaps his staff is tweeting – it’s too early to tell. Either way, if you’re using Twitter to follow national security topics this...
Nada Nadim Prouty & The Sorry State of Counter-Intelligence
The woman was a giant walking red flag and while she was caught (eventually) you have to wonder how she obtained a clearance in the first place: Never mind those...
Intelligence Community Eyes Virtual World Analysis Tools
I stumbled across an interesting article while researching a presentation on virtual worlds and healthcare that I’m putting together: The research arm of the U.S intelligence community has kicked off...
RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman Not Up for Another Term
Get used to familiar faces moving on to new projects. We could see a lot of it in the coming days and over the next two years: Republican National Committee...
RNC Chairman Asks Democrats to Apologize
Ken Mehlman does a great job reminding everyone just how quickly the Democrats rushed to declare Karl Rove guilty. Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share on...
I’ve linked to you here.
You guys are even more ill informed than reyes.
Mullah Cimoc has been wanting to know if you morons (alleged military experts on Iraq) know the difference between the black and the white turban.
Not one of you knows the answer.
Speaking of Chairman Nancy, her choice for Intelligence Committee Chairman, Sylvester Reyes who has had just a little time to bone up on terrorists since the 9/11 attacks, allowed today to a Congressional Quarterly interviewer that Al Qaeda were Shi’ites.
That must be news to Usama, who has issued a death fatwa to all Shi’ites, who are to be killed on sight or any occasion when it seems fit to advance the agenda of the Religion of Peace. But UbL might have done a double-secret resignation of his AQ duties and the organization might have changed completely personnel-wise, and only Reyes and Harman and Alcee babester and a few Repubs are party to the secret. Or not?
Or maybe Reyes makes George Bush Jr. look like Henry Kissinger? Is that remotely possible?
Or is someone, as the genteel mataphor employed in Texas to describe such a situation, dumber than a bucket of hair?
torture77,
I can answer that question.
In Islamic culture, the white turban (Arabic: ????? imamah, Persian: ????? dast?r, Hindustani: ????? ???? s?f?) is an important spiritual element of the cultural faith.
Islamic leaders can be seen wearing turbans, in particular Shia Muslim scholars who have become famous for them
(e.g., Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khamenei, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, and newcomers to the world stage, like Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani).
The black colour indicates a “sayyid”, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
Finally an answer. And the correct one at that.
Wonder why muqtada sadr has such a devoted following?