DEA: YIKES! Headley Is a TERRORIST!

This morning the New York Times’ David-Headley-crew (Ginger Thompson, Eric Schmitt, Souad Mekhennet) published another astonishing story about the United States’ Laurel-and-Hardy drug-and-spy bumblers—DEA, CIA, FBI--"DEA Deployed Mumbai Plotter Despite Warning".

We are coming up to the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, India that occurred November 25, 2008, in which American (and sometimes Philadelphian) David (Daood) Headley was one of the masterminds.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the DEA, which used Headley as an informant, was negligent in two areas concerning Headley. The drug agency chose not to believe numerous reports from people close to Headley that he was a terrorist. And it chose to let him run so free without supervision that he was able to train in Pakistan in terrorist craft like making bombs and scoping out attack venues.

And why was the DEA so laisser-faire? Because Headley was theirs. They had bought him and they trusted him.

Did you have any idea the DEA was so girly? Headley fed them a line of bullshit, the DEA fell in love and then (sob!) he done them wrong.

At first, the DEA said it started using Headley as an informant in 1987 but stopped using him in 2001. Recently, the DEA back-tracked and said it stopped using him in 2003. Now it is clear from investigative reports that the DEA used Headley as an informant even after 9/11.

Everyone being interviewed now is so surprised David Headley would go from dealing drugs to terrorism. Why the surprise?

In 1983, when Daood and I worked in his mother’s bar in Philadelphia, he was a violence-spouting, AKA-47-harboring, Shiite sympathizer. And I believe, though I cannot prove it, that when Daood was jailed in Pakistan in 1983 for selling drugs and miraculously was set free by the intercession of his mother, it was then he started working with the DEA. I also believe, with no proof to back it up, that Daood worked with the DEA right up to the point in 2009 when he told them he was a Mumbai terrorist. And oh yes! He TOLD them…the entire sorry DEA agency admits it didn’t see it coming, or so it says.

This is a woeful story of American hubris and naivete in our drug and law enforcement agencies.

WHAT THE HELL WERE THE GUYS IN THE DEA, FBI, and CIA thinking? They weren’t thinking. They simply believed the heroic stories they told about themselves and assumed no one could outsmart them.

Daood Headley loved to use Britishisms like “bully” and “jolly good”. He also was partial to the expression: “assume makes an ass of u-and-me”.

NYT Election Post-Mortems

First, it’s heartening to see that the New York Times reminds readers this morning: “the likely House speaker, John Boehner” has made a few boasts that aren’t true, such as, American voters want to repeal health care reform and they blame Obama for our economic problems.

In its “Sorting Out the Election” column, the NYT said: “The ‘loud message’ to cut spending cited by Mr. Boehner was actually far more muted. The polls showed that 39 percent of voters say cutting the deficit should be the highest priority of Congress, but a statistically equal 37 percent prefer spending money to create jobs. Fully a third of those who want to spend money to create jobs were Republicans.

“More voters (correctly) blamed President George W. Bush for the economic problems than President Obama, and even more (also correctly) blamed Wall Street.”

It’s no doubt a path Boehner is going to stick to—claiming results for this election that aren’t true--because the GOP has failed to propose alternatives to Obama’s policies.

Or, as the NYT said this morning, “The question is how the Republicans will act. For two years, they have refused to cooperate on any of those ideas (Obama’s) simply to deny Mr. Obama a policy victory and try to reduce his re-election prospects. If they are serious about accepting Tuesday’s mantle, they will join in governing and not simply posturing."

Now that the GOP has won an advantage, John Boehner and his cohorts are going to have to put aside their horror at having a black president and start working for the good of the country…if they can remember what working for the good of the country entails.