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."
Democrats are lampooned as representing the moneyed-and-educated class — college town liberal or whatever David Brooks calls them. So why then does the new Speaker of the House nominate a Texan who says he’s "acutely aware of al Qaeda’s desire to harm Americans" and completely ignorant of everything else? Where’s Bill Clinton, or better yet, the old men (Jimmy Carter, James Baker, Robert Gates) who are, it seems, the only curmudgeons actually saying anything?
In our national public life these days, if you want to make any realistic recommendation on policy options, you have to be over 75, plenty of money in the bank and with nothing left to lose. Take Jimmy Carter and James Baker. Carter denounces Israel’s "imprisonment wall" and Baker slips Palestinians’ right of return into his Study Group’s road map to peace.
The subject of Israel’s nuclear capability was raised last week by Robert Gates, the incoming US defence secretary, who told a Senate confirmation hearing that Israel had atomic weapons. Gates on Tuesday said that Iran might want an atomic bomb because it is "surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us [the US] in the Persian Gulf". The remark led Israeli news bulletins with Israeli state-run radio suggesting that Gates may have breached a US "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy that dates back to the late 1960s.
