Posted on 12/11/2006 8:02:34 AM PST by woofie
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to head the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January, failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."
That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.
Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon.
Stein's column about Reyes' answers was published on CQ's Web site Friday evening. In an interview with CNN, Stein said he was "amazed" by Reyes' lack of what he considers basic information about two of the major terrorists organizations.
"If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball," Stein said.
"You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with." While Stein said Reyes is "not a stupid guy," his lack of knowledge said it could hamper Reyes' ability to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community, Stein believes.
"If you don't have the basics, how do you effectively question the administration?" he asked. "You don't know how is on first."
Stein said Reyes is not the only member of the House Intelligence Committee that he has interviewed that lacked what he considered basic knowledge about terrorist organizations.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
OFGS, was that sarcasm ?
Of course, we all know men don't have any interest in pretty faces or hot bods. (that is sarcasm)
I don't know....ahhhh......
Yep, what a charmer,huh?
...into the pit of peril for you.
Isn't that type of cat?
Mmm Hmm. Mikulski aside, which hot chicks have been voted into Congress recently?
Nope. That would be "Leo the Lion"!
Mole?
Tomato?
Gallows humor........
"Lovely plumage, Norwegian Blue."
Bingo!!
I'm too young to hang....
You're hanging here...........
Let's also not forget this may not be just "a couple of years"
The media has been given free rein to take sides in the political process, and this last election showed just how unfettered and unashamed they are to do just that.
Beginning again very soon, the media will begin to spin the giant wheel every day, and each day they will select a subject to hammer the current President and any conservatives (or other non-liberal Republicans...)
It may be "The culture of corruption" one day, it may be Iraq, Iran or North Korea another day, it may be the economy, immigration, health care, prisoner abuse in Gitmo, "domestic" spying, some sex scandal, Republican links to the "Religious Right", abortion, homosexual rights or any other unlimited number of things.
It makes absolutely zero difference whether the charges and allegations are true, whether liberals are equally bad, or whether the Democrats even have any plan whatsoever to combat, fix, change or overhaul anything.
The media will do what they did leading up to the last election, because...it worked. What they did was the equivalent to throwing spaghetti against the wall. They did not take more than a quick look to see if anything was sticking, if it looked like it was sticking, they would throw more of that. Otherwise, they would grab a different subject nearly at random and bring it back to the forefront of the news, throw it against the wall and see what was sticking. They hardly took a breath in between handfuls of crap.
The effect on the "undecided" middle block of voters was the equivalent of Chinese Water Torture...drip...drip...drip...every day, all day 24x7 365 days a year. It had that same depressing effect on nearly anyone who took the time to read papers and watch the news. (Neither of which I do, BTW...I simply keep tabs on what they talk about and how they talk about it)
The cumulative effect is a negative one for the particular target of this campaign...which we all know is NOT the Democrats. So...we need to both get used to this, and find a way to counter it. The dinosaur media will eventually step into the tar pits (and, in many cases are already mired and sinking but do not know it) but until they do so they still wield a power over the spineless, mindless "Undecided Voters".
Yep.
great. Thank you conservatives who stayed home.
ping
That's Haile Selassie of you.
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