Crazy Dana & the Taliban

(Photo courtesy of OC Weekly)

Yes, you heard me right: Dana Rohrabacher has had a VERY LONG HISTORY of being a little too close to Islamist extremists in the Middle East. Now why should this worry us? Perhaps because Dana Rohrabacher can't really determine who are our real friends and who are our enemies? Perhaps because Dana Rohrabacher shouldn't be making important foreign policy decisions on our behalf in Washington if he can't even tell right from wrong?

Don't believe me?

Here's an oldie-but-goodie from the November/December 1996 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs:

The potential rise to power of the Taliban does not alarm Rohrabacher, because the Taliban could provide stability in an area where chaos was creating a real threat to the U.S. Rohrabacher says that under the previous situation Afghanistan was becoming a major source of drugs and a haven for terrorists “an anarchistic state of narco-terrorism.” In contrast, the Taliban leaders have already shown that they intend to establish a disciplined, moral society.

Rohrabacher calls the sensational media reporting of the “harsh” imposition of strict Islamic behavior, with the underlying implication that this somehow threatens the West, “nonsense.” He says the Taliban are devout traditionalists, not terrorists or revolutionaries, and, in contrast to the Iranians, they do not seem intent on exporting their beliefs. Rohrabacher would have preferred to see a negotiated compromise among the various factions (but with no role for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) rather than a bloody confrontation. But in the absence of such a compromise, he believes a Taliban takeover would be a positive development.

Still don't believe me? Crazy Dana probably violated the law to meet with Taliban officials in Qatar in 2001. Here's an oldie-but-REALLY-goodie from Talking Points Memo from August 2002:

[...] In April 2001, Rohrabacher travelled to Doha, Qatar to attend a conference on "Free Markets and Democracy." While there, he met with a Taliban delegation led by Muttawakil. Al Jazeera reported that the two discussed Osama bin Laden, the situation of women and civil liberties. Rohrabacher told Agence France Presse that the conversation was "frank and open." And he told the Associated Press that Muttawakil's response to his plan was "thoughtful and inquisitive."

Now the Logan Act prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. But that's a rather technical matter. So let's pass over that for the moment.

It turns out there's more. The Muttawakil meeting was attended by several members of the United States Congress, according to AP and AFP reports. Who those other members of Congress were is not clear. They don't seem to be jumping forward. Who are they? I'd like to know.

Still more interesting are the two groups who sponsored Rohrabacher's trip: the Egypt International Forum and the Islamic Institute. Those who follow Republican politics will recognize the Islamic Institute as the group Republican power broker Grover Norquist established to help corral American Muslims into the Republican party. Norquist has been a close friend and political ally of Karl Rove for a couple decades and he is now a close advisor to President Bush.

OK, so you still don't believe me? Check out this scary story from OC Weekly. And what makes this so scary is that it's all true.

As a speechwriter and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, Rohrabacher played a key role in the late 1980s getting money and arms, including U.S.-made Stinger missiles, to Afghan holy warriors, then at war with the Soviet Union. He once bragged of being "certainly a major player" in a coalition inside the White House that supported anyone "opposing Communist domination around the world." In November 1988, he even visited the Afghan front lines during a five-day hike with an armed mujahideen patrol in eastern Afghanistan. Among those fighters he encountered, he later recalled, were "Saudi Arabians under a crazy commander named bin Laden." [...]

A veteran U.S. foreign-policy expert told the Weekly, "If Dana's right-wing fans knew the truth about his actual, working relationship with the Taliban and its representatives in the Middle East and in the United States, they wouldn't be so happy." [...]

Evidence of Rohrabacher's attempts to conduct his own foreign policy became public on April 10, 2001, not in the U.S., but in the Middle East. On that day, ignoring his own lack of official authority, Rohrabacher opened negotiations with the Taliban at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, Qatar, ostensibly for a "Free Markets and Democracy" conference. There, Rohrabacher secretly met with Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, an advisor to Mullah Omar. Diplomatic sources claim Muttawakil sought the congressman's assistance in increasing U.S. aid—already more than $100 million annually—to Afghanistan and indicated that the Taliban would not hand over bin Laden, wanted by the Clinton administration for the fatal bombings of two American embassies in Africa and the USS Cole. For his part, Rohrabacher handed Muttawakil his unsolicited plans for war-torn Afghanistan. "We examined a peace plan," he laconically told reporters in Qatar.

To this day, the congressman has refused to divulge the contents of his plan. However, several diplomatic sources say it's likely he asked the extremists to let former Afghan King Zahir Shah return as the figurehead of a new coalition government. In numerous speeches before and after Sept. 11, Rohrabacher has claimed the move would help stabilize Afghanistan for an important purpose: the construction of an oil pipeline there. In return, the plan would reportedly have allowed the Taliban to maintain power until "free" elections could be called.

The idea was outlandish and even provocative. Though he is a member of the same ethnic tribe as the Taliban leadership, the 87-year-old exiled former king—who lost his throne in 1973—is known not for his appreciation of democracy, but for his coziness to Western corporate interests. With good reason, he was considered a U.S. puppet by the Taliban.

Actually, why should ANY OF US be happy with the fact that our member of Congress has had such a close working relationship with CRAZED TERRORISTS?! Why should any of us be happy with the fact that Crazy Dana Rohrabacher would agree to give more aid to a government harboring known terrorists? Why should any of us be happy with the fact that Crazy Dana was once comfortable with the Taliban continuing to hide Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan? Why should we be happy with the fact that Crazy Dana had once felt all that sympathy for the Taliban for so long, yet he now simply tries to deny that any of this ever happened?

This should trouble all of us. Dana Rohrabacher tried to unilaterally alter US foreign policy in order to make a deal with a government known to harbor terrorists. Dana Rohrabacher just could not give up his own old sympathies for his old mujahideen buddies, even after everyone else had realized that they were never really the "freedom fighters" that they had claimed to be. And if Dana Rohrabacher still can't deal with this mistake now, then how can we expect him to learn from other grave mistakes?

Shouldn't we be at least a little concerned about Crazy Dana and his very scary friends?

Dana has strange friends

One of the games played in Washington is that of taking every advantage of doing things that get your name mentioned in public. Dana has made an interesting decision in that regard.

Tomorrow, June 12, Dana will be speaking at the unveiling of a new monument in Washington. This one, the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, appears to be motivated by some flash of patriotic fervor. I wonder, though, what political advantages got Dana and Tom Lantos to share the speaking duty.

We all know Lantos. He is the Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Normally, Lantos often keeps his mouth shut unless it is about Israel, where some have considered him the Congressional voice of Mossad.

That must play well with Dana and his Taliban friends.

The second unusual thing is that the only organization that thought this event was newsworthy seemed to be World Net Daily. You may not be familiar with World Net Daily, but it's editor is Joseph Farah, once known as the ghost writer of Richard Pombo's only book and the man who filed the 1990's trumped up ethics charges against John Garamendi.

Actually, knowing Farah's past, I might ask what Lantos is doing in the story. I know that answer to that. He has been called the "best friend that Israel ever had."

Why then, did Dana jump in with the enemies of his friends. Well, it is all about China. Dana is a big supporter of Taiwan and this is a chance to embarrass the Communist China. And Communist China is another frequent target of Farah and his World Net Daily. Dana is also a long time supporter of helping to arm Hmong rebels to topple the Communist regime in Laos.

Oh, yes, it is all about politics and any news event is a good thing for a politician. That is especially true when you can be against something rather than having to be for anything. Maybe, if Dana and Tom can get on first name basis, they might convince Ohlmert and Abbas to try the same thing. However, I doubt that the subject will come up. Both Congressmen are to politically sophisticated to allow doing something to get in the way of a photo op.

If there is one thing you can count on tomorrow, it will be Rohrabacher's propensity to open his mouth and insert his foot. There is enough going on at this event that he will be sure to push someone's hot button. Farah said that Bush had been invited to the event. Even he isn't dumb enough to show up on that stage.

How deep is the Balckwater?

Thanks to a tip from an OC friend, I started to look at the connection between Dana Rohrabacher and Blackwater, the mercenary soldier of fortune organization that was founded by Erik Prince, himself once a Navy Seal. I did not have to look very long.

I have not thought very much about civilian armies. I know that the militia stories that circulated all over after Oklahoma City bombing were scary. Maybe we have all been anesthetized by the military entertainment complex churning out Rambos or Delta Force or television's 24 Hours or The Unit. But I grew up on a higher class of movie. More like The Manchurian Candidate or Dr. Srangelove.

The result of all of that is I don't always trust the government and I surely don't trust the creation of an army created precisely because they don't have to play by the rules of engagement. We have seen the results when America's forces step over the line: Abu Graib for example. Even when it was not intentional, like today's US Air Strike that hit an Iraqi school, it turns the non-committed into committed enemies. So, Blackwater's army lets us do the dirty work without taking the blame... except that everyone knows who these "contractors" are.

How difficult would it be to take that same Blackwater force and to start it operating within the US? That is where the television series would take us. We should not be hiring thugs to do what we don't want to have blamed on us. We should be wary of government officials who have anything to do with them.

It was easy to find direct connections between Blackwater and Rohrabacher. According to a story posted recently at Democracy Now, Prince once interned with Rohrabacher. There is no clear definition of exactly what he did for Dana, but there are plenty of examples of an ongoing relationship.

This is from the Democracy Now source:

But also, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater worked as an intern for Representative Dana Rohrabacher, another California Republican. In fact, when Blackwater was founded, both Dana Rohrabacher and Representative John Doolittle were brought out, at the company's expense, to be at Blackwater's grand opening. So these are deep Republican ties in California that Blackwater has.

Those deep Republican ties also includes Duncan Hunter.

This is going to be an long story. Rohrabacher has left a trail behind him that should be easy to follow. For example, did he actually account for that trip to the big show by his one-time intern? The FEC filings do not show it and the other online source of records of Congressional travel American Radio Networks, does not go back before the year 2000. There is probably another story for someone who wants to go through all of those trips. I would bet you could like a few to the Taliban photo I have heard about.

Crazy Dana: Who Needs Any More of His Insanity?

I've had it. I'm sick of it. And I won't take it anymore. Dana Rohrabacher simply has to go. NOW!

Crazy Dana loved the Taliban. Crazy Dana still loves disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Crazy Dana dismisses the seriously distubing reality of global climate change as just "dinosaur flatulence". Crazy Dana is vehemently anti-choice, even though he represents a pro-choice district. And now, Crazy Dana wishes death by terrorist attack upon the family members of ANYONE who has the nerve to call him out on his sheer insanity.

Simply put, Crazy Dana is batshit insane. In fact, TOO BATSHIT INSANE to even be allowed inside our nation's Capitol, let alone serving another term in Congress. He doesn't represent our values, and he can't get our logic. This is the final straw, and now it's time for us to plan how to restore sanity to our Congressional office.

So what can we do to restore insanity to our Congressional office? Well, we need to let our neighbors know just how insane our member of Congress truly is. We are a coastal community that cares about our natural resources. We are a socially tolerant community that values women's reproductive rights. We are a reasonable community that values pragmatic, common-sense solutions. And simply put, Crazy Dana doesn't represent us on any of these issues.

Crazy Dana refuses to acknowledge the serious threat of global climate change. Crazy Dana wants to completely take away a woman's right to choose. Crazy Dana wants natural gas drilling off our precious coast. And now, Crazy Dana wishes acts of terror upon family members of anyone who disagrees with his insane point of view. This is NOT someone who should represent us in Congress.

We need to let our neighbors know of Dana's insanity. We need to let them know that Dana does not represent our values in Washington. We need to let them know that Dana is no "cool maverick", but rather a far right extremist. We need to let them know that there are leaders in our community who are better fit to serve us in Congress. Basically, it's time for us to begin organizing in the 46th. We cannot afford any more of Crazy Dana. We need to return to reason in this district. NOW!