Fred Thompson was giving a speech yesterday and he mentioned that one of the reasons the locals threw Al Qaelda out of Anbar was the prohibition on smoking. This apparently baffled one reporter by the name of Richard Sisk from the NY Daily News who thought it was a nonsensical answer.
Fred Thompson: Al Qaeda smoking ban pushed Iraqis to U.S.
BY RICHARD SISK (who doesn't read enough)SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Freshly minted GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.
"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.
Thompson said the smoking ban and terror tactics Al Qaeda used to oppress women and intimidate local leaders pushed tribes in western Anbar Province to support U.S. troops.
But Thompson's tale of a smokers' revolt baffled some in the audience of about 150 who came to decide whether the former Tennessee senator is ready for prime time.
"I don't know what that was about," said Jim Moran, 72, who had driven from nearby McCook Lake, S.D.
Mr. Moran is to be excused for not understanding, after all, he is relying on the MSM to report the news and they don't know it themselves. Perhaps Richard Sisk should read a bit more. For example Michael Yon's dispatches from directly from Anbar where he explains the transformation and has mentioned this several times:
On the evening of the 24th I spoke with a local Iraqi official, Colonel Faik, who said the Muftis would order the severance of the two fingers used to hold a cigarette for any Iraqis caught smoking. Other reports, from here in Diyala and also in Anbar, allege that smokers are murdered by AQI. Most Iraqis smoke and this particular prohibition appeared to have earned the ire of many locals. After an American unit cleared an apartment complex on the 23rd, LTC Smiley, the battalion commander, reported that residents didn't ask for food and water, but cigarettes. In other parts of Baqubah, people have been celebrating the routing of AQI by lighting up and smoking cigarettes.
He mentions it again in July:
As our folks clear the city of al Qaeda, the first thing people ask for is cigarettes, not food. Cigarettes were outlawed by AQI. They celebrate the routing of AQI by smoking and drinking cold water. (People say Al Qaeda also outlawed cold water, but I have no idea why.)
And Michael Yon's latest dispatch which had a caption to a picture:
Shops in Anbar reopening. Cigarettes for sale. Just recently, al Qaeda was executing people who smoked, but this shop was selling cigarettes on the street.
So yes, the ban on smoking WAS one of the reasons AQI was tossed in Anbar. It's a damn shame this dimwitted reporter didn't know what he was talking about and didn't even other google it, where he would have found other examples from Diyala and elsewhere including the New York Times.
"It's not that they love us Americans," said one senior administration official. "It's that Al Qaeda was so heavy-handed, taking out Sunnis just because they were smoking a cigarette. In the end, that may be the best break we've gotten in a while."
This guy's editor should really clamp down on him... If he's not informed enough to understand what a candidate is saying, then he should be writing for the Lifestyle Section or something; especially if his ignorance is magnified by his apparent unwillingness to use google to educate himself. -- Of course if this guy had a competent editor this would have been caught before it hit the street.
(And by the way, if you're not reading Michael Yon, you should be. If you think Yon is retelling an urban legend; that not even Al Qaeda could be that barbaric... maybe you should read this.)
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2008 Presidential Race, Dumbasses, Media, Sign Of The Times, The War On Terror
Comments (15)
Fred has the scoop on Libby... (Below threshold)1. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 12:05 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Fred has the scoop on Libby, too. Sometimes I wonder how he can be so right.
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1. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 12:05 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 00:05
2. Posted by Dave W | September 10, 2007 12:09 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Personally the cigarettes thing is news to me, so maybe i need to be paying a little more attention!
Makes me feel good if there is a candidate out there that is actually disseminating news that the media refuses to report, and that he isn't just reading talking points out of some little playbook.
Go Fred!
2. Posted by Dave W | September 10, 2007 12:09 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 00:09
3. Posted by Justrand | September 10, 2007 12:34 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Michael Yon is the Ernie Pyle of our day!
if you're not going to his site daily...you should be!!
3. Posted by Justrand | September 10, 2007 12:34 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 00:34
4. Posted by Diane | September 10, 2007 12:56 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Ban on smoking?! Now we'll have to hear from the left how Al Qaeda really is more "progressive" than us stupid, selfish Americans.
What's next? Al Qaeda wearing T-shirts with "go green" on them, and cutting off more fingers if one uses 2-plus squares of toliet paper?
4. Posted by Diane | September 10, 2007 12:56 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 00:56
5. Posted by pudge | September 10, 2007 2:48 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
That's not funny Diane. Al qeda finally does something socially responsible and you mock them ? A fine example you are! If this gets out to our friends in Syria, there's no telling how much more work Reps. nancy Pulloutsi, or dennis Kucinchski will have to do in order to rebuild our alliance with them. Isn't it bad enough that they have to work so hard to ignore, or even ridicule, stooges like General Petraeus, in their effort to defeat Americas' "war" to line the pockets of George Dubya and his pals at Haliburton ?
Shame on you! Now close your eyes and put your hand out....HASAN -CHOP! There, how do ya like them apples ? Want a smoke ? HA-HA-HA! Who's laughing now, hmm "Diane" ? If that is your real name. HA-HA-HA!
5. Posted by pudge | September 10, 2007 2:48 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 02:48
6. Posted by marc | September 10, 2007 6:38 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Someone should have asked the clueless reporter and the corn-fed idiot from McCook Lake what The Base is?
Somehow I doubt a light would have to be used to get a doe-eyed look.
(NOTE: the first lefty-loon that answers the question with "which political base are you talking about" gets todays boobie prize for stupidity.)
6. Posted by marc | September 10, 2007 6:38 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 06:38
7. Posted by Guest | September 10, 2007 10:29 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Yay, Fred!
I'm delighted to know
the Iraqi chapter of the SRC
(Smokers Revolutionary Clubs)
is alive and well.
Goes to show
More simiarlity
Between Islam and Libs
All the good things in life they must quell !
Laughter, singing, music, painting of living
beings, woman's beauty, wine making, drinking,
and natural love making, praise be to Allah
and all of Life, and before you think this
is OBL's third sermon from the mount,
let me go have a Camel and see the sun rise.
Oh, and another thing, while I'm feeling frisky,
let's abolish circumcision for both males and
females all over the world!
:)
7. Posted by Guest | September 10, 2007 10:29 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 10:29
8. Posted by PS | September 10, 2007 10:35 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
And two bananas for the first troll who catches the typo.
8. Posted by PS | September 10, 2007 10:35 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 10:35
9. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 10:39 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Is it the capital 'C'?
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9. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 10:39 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 10:39
10. Posted by Guest | September 10, 2007 10:48 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Yes, if it rhymes with hilarity :)
10. Posted by Guest | September 10, 2007 10:48 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 10:48
11. Posted by 89 | September 10, 2007 10:53 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"he should be writing for the Lifestyle Section or something". No, he has demonstrated that he can't write about life style things like smoking either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsOytIjD1EE
11. Posted by 89 | September 10, 2007 10:53 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 10:53
12. Posted by Guest | September 10, 2007 11:24 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
89 -- absolutely hilarious!!!!!!
12. Posted by Guest | September 10, 2007 11:24 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 11:24
13. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 12:10 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Thanks for the similarity of Hillary to hilarity.
================================================
13. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 12:10 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 12:10
14. Posted by guest | September 10, 2007 12:26 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Hee, Kim,
You get my special prize :)
Calypso song by Harry Belafonte:
http://www.singalongwithme.com/banana/
Sounds like this to me:
Day-o, Day-o
Come, Mista Taliban, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan'go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot crunch
.... in honor of our soldiers in Iraq...
14. Posted by guest | September 10, 2007 12:26 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 12:26
15. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 10:37 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Who sings my song, eats my bread.
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15. Posted by kim | September 10, 2007 10:37 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 10, 2007 22:37