Implausable Deniability

Nightline devoted last night to the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and then C-Span followed up with a replay of the morning briefing. I'll get to the hatchet job on Richard Clarke in a subsequent post, but McClellan's responses to the assassination were, in a word, troubling.

McClellan asserted that Bush was NOT told beforehand about the killing. Hm. On the one hand, he may be right: this could be a case where, like in the movie "Z," where we've held up our hands and said, "that's for YOU to know, NOT ME." On the other hand, it could be either just another lie the Bushistas proffered to the sheep, or worse, MAYBE WE REALLY DIDN'T KNOW. That scares me. Now, don't get me wrong: last September, Israel made an initial attempt on the life of Yassin. At the time, our public response was short of condemnation (remember, there's an awful lot of diplomatic gamesmanship here). But we, or at least she (Condi) expressed "concern."

Who knows what was said behind closed doors. But if the US DIDN'T tell Israel to call off the dogs, then the administration will have only themselves to blame if we become targets of Hamas' rage. And, as noted above, if we really didn't know, it means that our intelligence in the region is worse than abysmal.

Anyone who thinks the US doesn't spy on Israel (and vice versa) has put their cranium in an anatomically impossible position, as the New York Times would say. We spy, they spy. Recall Jonathan Pollard? If our spies in Israel couldn't alert us to this action then it calls into question our entire intelligence apparatus in the region. Israel is now our closest ally. If we can't spy capably in a friendly country, who knows how shitty our intel is in other, less friendly nations.

Normally, when you have an intel deficit, it's possible to balance out your data with the help of friendly governments. That's one reason alliances are made. Duh. But Bush's increasingly isolationist stance lessens the chance that other governments will assist our agents--hell, they've shown that they're more than willing to sacrifice an agent's cover for a minimal political gain. So, we may have to face the troublesome fact that we DIDN'T know. Or, if we DID know, that our government is so stupid that it didn't give an emphatic thumbs down to what was a really, really stupid decision by Sharon.

Yassin was no angel. But the fact is that VIRTUALLY ALL of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders have blood on their hands. Sharon is just as horrible as the Sheikh, if not worse. I think world opinion recognized this, and took the position that it is more important to STOP THE KILLINGS. By not stopping them, Sharon has guaranteed that plenty will live and die by the sword.

Guess he didn't read the part about turning it into a plowshare.