Where is the Red-Headed Terrorist?

The fate of Syrian-born Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, aka Abu Musab al-Suri, aka the 'red-headed terrorist', remains unclear.  Back when the Syrian Arab Spring uprising began a few years ago, press reports suggested Assad had him in lockup and would release him if the United States didn't stop meddling or calling for regime change.

After that threat failed to stop the uprising it was reported that he was released.  Then recently it was reported again he was still incarcerated.

Why is he significant?  In the past few days images have come out of Bin Laden's Tora Bora hideout, in which Setmariam is seen beside UBL many times.  National Journal's Michael Hirsh once called him "the next bin Laden".  

Daily Mail even mentions his theory of small jihad on a large scale, something which seems to be in its infancy all around the world now.  He's also reported to have been behind the planning of the UK subway/bus attacks and perhaps the Madrid train bombings back in 2004.  So it might be helpful to know where he is.

By the way, the (other) western looking dude sitting to UBL's left is Gwynne Roberts, a British documentary filmmaker who wanted to do a story about the sheikh before he was well known. 


Regarding another dangerous terrorist, Adnan El-Shukrijumah has disappeared off the State Department's Rewards for Justice site but remains on the FBI's Most-Wanted Terrorists site.  Not sure if that's significant or just bureaucracy in action.  

Tariq Aziz Speaks

It took 7 years (and a miraculous recovery!) but somebody in the lefty media finally got an interview with Tariq Aziz. And he didn't disappoint...

"I was encouraged when [Obama] was elected president, because I thought he was going to correct some of the mistakes of Bush. But Obama is a hypocrite. He is leaving Iraq to the wolves."

Ouch. But after the invasion Aziz once told reporters:

"When we succeed in deterring them, when we succeed in inflicting too many losses on them, and in the end they will find themselves obliged to stop and withdraw. That's a great victory."

"We can end this war when the invaders withdraw totally and unconditionally from the Iraqi territory. Nothing less.

And now he begs Obama to stay? OK then. BTW, this..

Aziz says the events of 9/11 were shocking to him and Saddam. "We were against that at the time, but we were not speaking to the American government. Saddam Hussein called me and said he would like me to write a letter to Ramsey [Clark, a former US attorney general] and say that we condemn the attack. I did that."

..makes no real sense. Even Arafat knew it wasn't good form to apologize to a guy like Ramsey Clark and call it an apology to America. That was an in-your-eye statement. His two open letters to the American people were basically more apt, echoing many of the same beefs expressed by bin Laden, Michael Moore, Reverend Wright and Imam Rauf.

It was Aziz who once tried to bribe UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus into showing Iraq as disarmed. Quite the elaborate ruse. And why did Saddam kill his own son-in-law for defecting to Jordan and admitting they had weapons if the goal was to make people believe they had weapons? The defecting makes sense, but the killing? Again, a fairly complex acting job, and if nothing else indicative of a barbaric ruthlessness.

Bottom line, Aziz is a professional liar. It's one of the reasons Bush and Blair and others never took their word on anything. After all--they have now admitted to lying about WMDs, both of having them and not.

Water wars

Tennessee continues to be a source of envy for its southern neighbors:

A resolution in Georgia's legislature proposes to move the Tennessee-Georgia boundary about a mile to the north of where it now lies, which could put Kyle right back into the state he left 15 years ago.

It's not only the east end. Mississippi has a long running lawsuit against the city of Memphis for "stealing" water out of the underground aquifer that spans the state line. They claim Memphis is pumping more than her fair share. Not sure how they'd exactly know, and apparently a local federal judge doesn't either. No surprise--just think of the potential precedent.

The east Tennessee situation is more interesting. Lake Lanier, Atlanta's drinking water source, is going down fast in the great southeastern drought and desperate times make politicians desperate, especially those faced with coming reelections.

According to the Chattanooga Civic Forums the state line IS off by a mile or so, just off the agreed-to 35th parallel, just as Georgia claims. If true, that would place the Georgia state line up against Nickajack reservoir on the Tennessee River, where presumably they could pump water (with oversight from the Army Corp of Engineers).

Here's a map to show just how close, courtesy mapquest:



Seems like they should be able to work things out without firing shots. Georgia needs water, but people who legally moved into what they thought was Tennessee should not be forced back into Georgia against their will. Besides, Nashville would be swamped with lawsuits.

How about this--rather than acceding to Georgia and allowing widespread annexation, broker a deal where they get access to Nickajack via a narrow right of way to the reservoir, just enough for a pipeline. Affected landowners would receive payments above market value for property seized through imminent domain but would remain residents of Tennessee. And have the Corp of Engineers control the water flow down the pipe not the state of Georgia, to alleviate downstream concerns. Just a thought.