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The Fifth Column's Return to Iraq-Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of parliament
FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | August 30, 2006 | Ben Johnson

Posted on 08/30/2006 7:14:21 AM PDT by SJackson

Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and the Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of the Iraqi parliament to discuss “peace.”

TO FIND PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AS MUCH AS THEY DO, the Fifth Column Left had to go halfway around the world to meet with Iraqi political leaders who call terrorism “honorable national resistance” and say foreign jihadists “are guaranteed Paradise” – and at least one of whom has ties to militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. By the end of the trip, the American leftists would echo these sentiments.

Somehow most of the media – occupied with interminable coverage of Hurricane Katrina and JonBenet Ramsey’s non-killer – neglected to report that earlier this month a contingent of infamous American radicals including Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and Medea Benjamin traveled to Jordan to meet with eleven members of the Iraqi parliament. According to Benjamin, the parliamentarians invited the group Code Pink for Peace after hearing of their 28-day “fast” (in which members reportedly gorged themselves on ice cream).

 

Leaving on August 2, this was something of a return trip for the Hate America Left. In December 2004, Code Pink distributed $600,000 in cash and supplies to “the other side” in the terrorist stronghold of Fallujah, recently the site of a fierce battle between the United States and a milita loyal to Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. (Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, signed the letter to get them to the recent battlfield.) That followed its previous direct intervention on the behalf of America’s enemies in July 2003, when Medea Benjamin and longtime Communist Party USA member Leslie Cagan established International Occupation Watch in an effort to convince U.S. GIs to become conscientious objectors and get sent home.

 

The goal this time was, in Benjamin’s words, “for the U.S. peace movement to meet directly with Iraqi parliamentarians working on a peace plan. We hope to return to the U.S. to build support for their plan.” Team member Geoffrey Millard referred to this trip as “diplomatic communication.” Of course, such a trip may well be illegal, violating the prohibition for private citizens to conduct their own foreign policy.

 

In this, Medea is following the blueprint she laid out in her April 2003 Nation magazine essay “Toward a Global Movement,” in which she counseled left-wing “grassroots teams” to “link up with appropriate local and regional groups” in terrorist states to “channel the bursting anti-American sentiment overseas.” Then, Working with local communities where U.S. troops are based, let's start a Bring All the Troops Home campaign to stop the expansion of U.S. bases and start dismantling some of the hundreds of existing bases overseas.” Al-Sadr’s enablers constituted one such “appropriate” group; terrorism’s elected cheerleaders comprised another. (As they were in the area during the Hezbollah-Israel War, they visited Syria and stopped by Lebanese refugee camps, as well.)

 

The 12-person U.S. delegation included:

 

More shocking than the self-appointed Secretaries of State negotiating the terms of our surrender in Jordan were the Iraqi VIPs with whom they bargained.

 

This leftist motley crew met with Sheikh Ahmad al-Kubaysi, a Baghdad-based cleric who “almost certainly is affiliated” with the Naziesque Muslim Brotherhood. He once declared:

 

These young men who came here from other Muslim countries to defend Iraq are very brave. They left their homes and comfortable lives to protect fellow Muslims. That is the most important form of Jihad. These Mujahideen are guaranteed Paradise.

 

In addition to echoing Cindy Sheehan’s views on this topic, the Sheikh had another commonality with his guests: his Association for Muslim Studies in Iraq also collected food and supplies for Fallujah’s terrorists. No slacker, Kubaysi is said to have given al-Sadr $50 million. Al-Sadr, in turn, offered to work with him. The AMS leadership explicitly condones armed “resistance” against U.S. forces as an Allah-given Iraqi right and has sanctioned the murder of civilian hostages as collaborators.

 

The leftists’s prime sponsor, however, was the Iraq National Dialogue Front, a coalition led by Saleh al-Mutlaq, the Sunni who led the charge against the Iraqi constitution when it guaranteed the Shi’ites an autonomous region. Other coalition members include Hasan Zaydan of the National Front for a Free and United Iraq; Minas al-Youssefi of the Iraqi Christian Democratic Party; Farhan al-Sudayd of the Democratic Arab Front; and Ali al-Suhayri of the Sons of Iraq. Although the Code Pinkos boasted that they met with the fifth largest faction in the Iraqi parliament, the INDF holds only 11 out its 275 seats.

 

Like al-Kubaysi, the INDF leader condones armed “resistance,” has offered to join the “insurgency,” and regularly calls upon the United States to disarm itself in the face of terrorism. In his May 18 op-ed in Asharq Alawasat entitled, “Our Problem with America,” al-Mutlaq wrote:

 

The biased people are trying to shuffle cards to brand as terrorists the honorable national resistance movements, which should have a peaceful role in building the country and preserving its economy, unity, security, and the dignity of its people. We cannot give peace, because someone cannot give what he does not have. (Emphasis added.)

 

When asked in a radio interview if he supports the “insurgency,” he took his first conspicuous pause before answering: “I don’t support the insurgency, but I must be very frank with you. If the American strategy will stay as it is, maybe one day I will be part of the insurgency.” (He then referred to himself as a “moderate.” You can listen to the brief interview here.)

 

Like Saddam, al-Mutlaq is a Sunni used to institutional privileges. Today, he strongly opposes proportional representation, suggesting all groups have equal representation, although Sunnis make up only 20 percent of the population. His party opposes “sectarian” religious divisions, embracing instead a muted Pan-Arabism. Al-Mutlaq’s rhetoric closely parallels the Ba’ath Party’s fascistic mystical view of the State. In one menacing extract he wrote, “our country should be viewed as an undividable historical, geographic, social, cultural, and civilizational fabric. Any tendency to tear up this fabric would have negative repercussions for the world peace movement.” He added the United States erred in dismantling “an Iraqi Army of a heroic and glorious history and state institutions that are no more than 80 years old.

 

As such, he has been a dependable voice for Ba’athist interests in liberated Iraq. Last May 14, he demanded the release of all Iraqi prisoners – which would include a massive number of foreign jihadists and Saddam loyalists – saying all were held “on the basis of suspicions and false reports.After a joint U.S.-Iraqi anti-terrorist sweep last September that killed 157 Fedayeen and jihadists, captured 683, and uncovered 64 arms caches, the leftists’ host told Al-Jazeera, “The Sunnis are the target of a campaign of genocide.” He could not rule out “a movement of civil disobedience if these massacres continue.Last October, he “strongly” urged the U.S. to halt all anti-terrorism measures for 10 days before the election. True, the “insurgents” will not suspend their violence, “but I think somebody has to be more wise.”

 

He wants to “to open a dialogue with the Iraqi resistance and the non-Saddamist Baathist to involve them in the political process and stand as one front against terrorism.He went so far as to insist, “Without the presence of the resistance and the Ba’athists, we will not be able to have a true reconciliation.” His INDF comrade, Al-Youssefi, agrees, saying including former Ba’athist Saddam loyalists in a future government is an important step we have to take. He regards the present Iraqi constitution, approved by valiant Iraqi voters, as “a fabrication coming from the occupation forces.” At the Arab League hearings on the Reconciliation Plan of Cairo, one delegate accused al-Youssefi of having worked in Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency (though there is no additional confirmation). A spokesman for the Iraqi government said Youssefi supports the insurgency “in a way or another.”

 

U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested another of al-Mutlaq’s INDF confederates, Sheikh Hasan Zaydan, last December 1 before releasing him.  Zaydan, in turn, accused the Iraqi government of trying to kill al-Mutlaq on February 7.

 

In the end, the Iraqis and the leftists agreed on a plan: get out and leave your wallet behind. Drs. Habib Jabar and Salman al-Jumaili, university professors both, joined Code Pink in demanding a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops, no permanent bases, and America must “pay for rebuilding Iraq.”

 

Code Pink came to accept nearly the entire Fedayeen platform:

 

The common thread among this diverse group of Iraqis and Americans was a desire to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, ensure no permanent bases in Iraq, and secure a U.S. commitment to pay for rebuilding Iraq. Other issues that emerged in two-days of intensive talks include the need to dismantle militias, provide amnesty for prisoners and the various armed groups, compensate victims of the violence, revise the Constitution and preserve the unity of Iraq, and reverse U.S.-imposed de-Baathification and economic policies. We left this historic meeting with a commitment to make sure that the voices of these Iraqi parliamentarians are heard here in the U.S., and we will bring a group of them to the U.S. in the Fall. (Emphasis in original.)

 

In other words, pre-emptive surrender, amnesty for terrorists, compensation for newly freed terrorists, Sunni dominance, socialism, and turning the country back over to the Republican Guard.

 

Code Pink members got to work early assuring these voices were heard. Jeeni Crescenzo, blogged on the Daily Kos:

 

It is important to distinguish between the militia, or death squads and the resistance, particularly when considering the amnesty aspects of the Reconciliation Plan crafted in Cairo last month. Over 95% of the Iraqi people oppose the presence of the U.S. troops in their country and consider the people the U.S. call "insurgents" to be patriotic freedom fighters – no different that how we look at the people who fought in our Revolutionary War. Heroic titles go to the victors and if justice is to ever come to the people of Iraq, the people we call insurgents will have to be recognized as the ones who are actually defending their homeland.

 

Crescenzo, who is running against Darrell Issa, R-CA, is endorsed by:

 

 The last will get its money’s worth from Crescenzo, who offers the:

 

Bush cabal is moving full-speed ahead in their plans to establish the Global Empire of Halliburton…Our only chance to stop this nightmare is to take back Congress THIS YEAR. That means winning a majority in November AND making impeachment of Bush and Cheney our first priority.

 

She also vows to “insist that our National Guard come home now.”

 

As a contributor to the Left’s favorite blog, Crescenzo engaged in psychological operations, painting the Coalition as all-but inhuman. “Some of the things I heard in the past few days made me sick and ashamed of my country,” she wrote. She heard from the Iraqi parliament that “the United States was deliberately instigating the conflicts so they would have an excuse to stay” in Iraq. Another man displayed scars from American torture in darkest Abu Gharib, telling Code Pinkos, “We have tens of thousands of our sons in prison being tortured.

 

Tom Hayden vouched in Nation that an unnamed “American contractor” told him, “There are 10,000 or 12,000 Sunnis, mainly teachers, lawyers and professionals, being held without charges in Iraqi prisons, and the [Iraqi] guards are drilling holes in them.

 

Jodie Evans took the challenging road of portraying Saddam Hussein as a hero:

 

Let’s go back to the Iraq before we invaded, there was a good education and health care system, food for everyone. That system didn’t belong to Saddam it belonged to the Iraqi, it belonged to years of creating what a civilization needed. If your parents didn’t send you to school they could be put in jail.

 

Then came the familiar, anonymous “eyewitness” testimony of American malfeasance:

 

The whole election in Iraq was a false thing…“We witnessed with our own experience how American tanks used to break Universities and asked people to loot them. These people who started looting in the beginning were not from Iraq but other countries, Kuwait was involved.”

 

Cindy Sheehan related that a “Dr. Nada” told her “Americans, even though they don't kill every innocent Iraqi, are responsible for ‘100 percent of the deaths.’”

 Not 100 percent of the deaths; Ba’athists and jihadists killed many innocent Iraqis, as well as Americans and British. But Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, and the Iraqi MPs whose message they bear apparently find those deaths justifiable.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 200412; 200608; 20060802; abugharib; abughraib; aflcio; ahmadalkubaysi; airamerica; alialsuhayri; aljumaili; alkubaysi; almutlaq; alsudayd; alsuhayri; alyoussefi; amsi; angelides; baathists; baathparty; barbaraboxer; benjamin; billlockyear; bobfilner; boxer; bustamante; cagan; cantwell; cindysheehan; cleland; codepink; cpusa; criscenzo; cruzbustamante; daf; dailykos; dallamanga; darrellissa; drnada; evans; fallujah; farhanalsudayd; filner; gaelmurphy; geoffreymillard; globalexchange; habibjabar; hasanzaydan; hayden; henrywaxman; huffingtonpost; icdp; iis; impeachpac; inbedwiththeenemy; indf; iow; iraq; iraqiconstitution; issa; jabar; jarrar; jeenicriscenzo; jodieevans; jordan; judithleblanc; jumaili; kubaysi; lamanga; leblanc; lesliecagan; lockyear; mariacantwell; maxcleland; maxinewaters; medeabenjamin; millard; minasalyoussefi; muqtadaalsadr; murphy; muslimbrotherhood; mutlaq; nazi; nazis; nffui; pda; philangelides; progressivegov; raedinthemiddle; raedjarrar; sadr; salehalmutlaq; salmanaljumaili; seiu; sheehan; sonsofiraq; suhayri; terrorclerics; tomhayden; ufpj; waters; waxman; youssefi; zaydan
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1 posted on 08/30/2006 7:14:23 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also

2006israelwar or WOT

..................

2 posted on 08/30/2006 7:16:56 AM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn't do!)
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To: SJackson

What I want to know is why these people are not being prosecuted for treason and sedition?


3 posted on 08/30/2006 7:22:52 AM PDT by stm (Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence)
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To: SJackson; tgslTakoma; Doctor Raoul; armymarinemom

Thanks for posting this. Ben Johnson wrote an excellent eye-opening piece (partially based on Freeper research, natch.)


4 posted on 08/30/2006 7:24:41 AM PDT by kristinn
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To: SJackson

Better check this out. It is against the constitution to meet with a foreign enemy of the United States and discuss peace. Kerry did it with the Viet Cong , what he did and what they are doing is an act of treason. The left knows this and if Cindy steps out of line with Hillary they will get her on this . Just watch and see if I am right!These lefites should be brought up on treason charges.


5 posted on 08/30/2006 7:26:02 AM PDT by betsyross1776
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To: stm

Is there any way the gov can pursue this against them ? We better bring this out , if the demos take over congress this will get worse. Next thing you know they will be spitting on our troops in person. Bad enough they do this while they are in theater of operation.I saw this during Viet Nam , these are the same people that did it in airports. Beleive me!


6 posted on 08/30/2006 7:28:53 AM PDT by betsyross1776
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To: kristinn

LOL. It is a good article. The more the news gets out the better.


7 posted on 08/30/2006 7:29:54 AM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: SJackson

Treason. Plain and Simple.


8 posted on 08/30/2006 7:30:56 AM PDT by steel_resolve (Do you know what a bigot is? Someone winning an argument with a liberal.)
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To: betsyross1776

They drove across the desert from Jordan. Too bad there wasn't a Preditor Drone available to do some Wet Work.


9 posted on 08/30/2006 7:31:05 AM PDT by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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To: SJackson
Aid and comfort to the enemy. Alberto Gonzales, you have your walking papers.

This administration is populated with gutless weasels.

10 posted on 08/30/2006 7:49:53 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (There are people in power who are truly evil.)
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To: SJackson
I'm hardly surprised. This is the same Left that opposed the War from the get-go and backed leaving Saddam Hussein power. And now they're playing footsie with the neo-Baathists in Iraq? It goes on show people are known by the company they keep. And the American moonbat Left revels in the company of totalitarian despots, anti-American nutjobs and Islamofascist terrorists. The last thing on earth the Left stands for, contrary to their rhetoric, is freedom, peace and brotherhood. They seem to cotton to dictatorship, war and degeneration. Look beneath the attractive face they present to the world and there is the repulsive nature of the Left - if only people would see it instead of just taking them at face value.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

11 posted on 08/30/2006 8:06:37 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: SJackson

Once again, it is revealed they are not anti-war, just pro the other side.


12 posted on 08/30/2006 8:12:47 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: 1 Olgoat; 103198; 10Ring; 11Bush; 1stbn27; 2ndClassCitizen; 2SterlingConservatives; 2yearlurker; ...
Very good article ping. It's filled with lots of info to share with folks who think we might be exagerating when we say that the "antiwar" movement is really the anti-America movement.

Now, if only we could get the feds to charge these bastards with the crimes that they have committed and continue to commit.

13 posted on 08/30/2006 8:38:05 AM PDT by tgslTakoma (September 23rd - Washington, DC - Support Our Troops Rally - Will YOU be there?)
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To: stm
What I want to know is why these people are not being prosecuted for treason and sedition?

Because our politicians have no spine. Besides, half of them are guilty of the same thing.

Winston Churchill once said that you could never get Parliament to convict anyone of sodomy because half wouldn't know what it was and the other half were doing it. We have sort of the same situation here with regard to "treason" and "sedition".

The ACLU have convinced most people that those are rights protected by the first amendment.

14 posted on 08/30/2006 8:41:38 AM PDT by PsyOp (No reading is more necessary than that of Machiavelli…. - Clauswitz, On War, 1832.)
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To: Carry_Okie
Dal LaManga lives 15 miles from me and last Sunday the Kitsap dimocRAT party held a forum for the Sheriff and LaManga. It was billed as a presentation about the "real" condition in Iraq.

I just sent this article to all the county Republican activists and candidates in this county. Traitorous bastards.
15 posted on 08/30/2006 8:46:59 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: tgslTakoma
Now, if only we could get the feds to charge these bastards with the crimes that they have committed and continue to commit.

Oh for the Good Old Days - the early 1940s - when our government took war seriously.


16 posted on 08/30/2006 8:50:18 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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To: tgslTakoma
"Now, if only we could get the feds to charge these bastards with the crimes that they have committed and continue to commit."

Worth a repeat.

17 posted on 08/30/2006 8:50:50 AM PDT by AGreatPer (Boot Murtha)
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To: Unam Sanctam

Once again, it is revealed they are not anti-war, just pro the other side.

#####

And they will be demonstrating on the Mall this September. Not far from the actual Justice Dept Buildings, the White House and the Capitol.

Ain't freedom of speech grand!!! We should demand that our local media call these people what they are - jihad supporters.

One local talkshow host who is libertarian in perspective, has always been against military action in Iraq, and has been unbearable to listen to, as he continues to bash America's presence there. I will force myself to contact him and focus his attention on these freaks when they do their thing on the Mall.


18 posted on 08/30/2006 10:06:31 AM PDT by maica (9/11 was not “the day everything changed”, but the day that revealed how much had already changed.)
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To: tgslTakoma

Thanks for this informative ping. Long and thorough.....all in one place.


19 posted on 08/30/2006 10:39:54 AM PDT by Just A Nobody (NEVER AGAIN..Support our Troops! www.irey.com and www.vets4Irey.com - Now more than Ever!)
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To: SJackson
Let me see if I've got this straight: Cindy Sheehan, who blames President Bush personally for the death of her son, is going to meet with the people who were personally responsible for the death of her son, to discuss how to hand victory to the side that her son fought to defeat...

I think that pretty much describes it.

Mark

20 posted on 08/30/2006 10:44:25 AM PDT by MarkL (When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)
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