Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld may have said the most important quote of all the statements that came out of the Administration yesterday. He told reporters, "The United States knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction."

Rumsfeld did it again! He cut through the diplomatic doubletalk and the breathless press reports of Iraqi "cooperation" and got to the bottom line. Iraq has the prohibited weapons and France, Germany, Russia, China and the "see no evil" U.N. chief, Kofi Annan, know it. The likelihood the inspectors will find those weapons is not high, but it doesn´t matter.

Here´s why. Iraq will likely provide their inventory of weapons on December 7th, a day early. It will assert they don´t have the prohibited weapons. Countries that should know better will use this as an excuse for inaction. But Rumsfeld and the President are making it clear they don´t intend to be fooled. Bush said yesterday that "any" act of "delay, deception or defiance" will prove Hussein has rejected a peaceful solution.

The military bases have been lined up for U.S. forces in Turkey and Qatar. Military supplies are being pre-positioned throughout the region. 2003 will be a year of war.



Thugs Networking

Every day the evidence grows stronger that various terror groups, all of them run by radical Islamists, are combining in a sort of coalition of thugs. The latest evidence comes out of Syrian occupied Lebanon, where the leader of Hezbollah told "10,000 gun toting bearded fighters" that he wants to see "suicide bombings" exported around the world. Add to this the likelihood that Al Qaeda was responsible for the Kenya attacks against Israel and the growing evidence that Al Qaeda is operating in Palestinian controlled territories and a disturbing picture begins to develop.

Finally, most of the U.S. press has ignored a speech by Efrayim Halevi, who just stepped down as head of the Israeli intelligence service. He told a conference earlier this week those Islamic terror groups are planning a "mega terror" attack that could threaten Israel´s very existence.



A Great Appointment

News comes from the White House that my long-time friend Elliot Abrams has received a well-deserved promotion to lead the National Security Council´s office for Near East and North African Affairs. CNN and the Washington Post described Abrams with the adjectives "Iran-Contra figure." But the fact is Elliot, during the Reagan years, was instrumental in saving Central America from communism. He will now have his work cut out for him to help save the Middle East from militant Islamic fascism. (12/04/02)