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Maliki Aide Denies Panetta’s Claim That Iraqis Agreed To U.S. Troop Extension | Stars and Stripes reports today that in an interview, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that Iraq’s leaders have already told American officials that they want U.S. troops to stay in Iraq after the Dec. 31, 2011 withdrawal deadline. “My view is that they finally did say, ‘Yes,’” he said. Indeed, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said publicly that he would support having the Americans stay in some capacity past 2011. But Ali Mussawi, a top adviser to Maliki, today rebuffed Panetta’s comments. “We have not yet agreed on the issue of keeping training forces,” he said, adding, “The negotiations are ongoing, and these negotiations have not been finalized.”

Major Funder For Glenn Beck’s Israel Rally Linked To Anti-Semitic Group

David Barton and Glenn Beck in Israel

Glenn Beck’s upcoming rally to “Restore Courage” has run into a snag after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and the House Ethics Committee rejected the request by a number of House members to travel at the expense of the International Israel Allied Caucus Foundation to Beck’s rally in Jerusalem.

But political and religious leaders from “around the world” will be enjoying U.S. taxpayer subsidized — through non-taxable charitable contributions — travel to the rally. The travel will be paid for by WallBuilders, an organization founded by David Barton, a pseudo-historian and frequent Glenn Beck guest. Barton has a history of anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric, has spoken at events sponsored by anti-Semitic organizations, and promotes a revisionist history of the U.S. claiming that the “Church-state separation is a liberal myth.”

Beck’s partnership with WallBuilders is listed on the rally’s front page by clicking the “Donate” button which takes visitors to WallBuilders website. The site accepts contributions to the “Restoring Courage — Israel” fund:

If you want to help and show your solidarity with Israel, you can participate by helping to underwrite the cost of the Restoring Courage event in Jerusalem. All of the funds will go directly towards the production and expenses of the events associated with the Restoring Courage Tour in Israel.

Or donors can contibute to the “Leader & Clergy Scholarship Fund — Israel”:

If you would like to help sponsor these leaders so that they can attend the event and thus help send a powerful message to Israel’s enemies in the world, you can make a contribution for their travel and accommodations.

But David Barton’s record of intolerance and historical revisionism should offer some insights into who is funding Beck’s Jerusalem rally and which individuals have Beck’s ear. Back in 1994, the Anti-Defamation League had harsh words for Barton’s decision to appear at events hosted by the Christian Identity movement, a group the ADL said:

Asserts that Jews are ‘the synagogue of Satan’; that Blacks and other people of color are subhuman; and that northern European whites and their American descendants are the ‘chosen people’ of scriptural prophesy.

Barton denied knowing anything about the Christian Identity movement before his decision to speak at the group’s events

Barton’s “scholarship” — although referred to as “Professor Barton” at Glenn Beck University, Barton holds no advanced degrees — hinges on characterizing the founding fathers as evangelical Christians. The ADL also directly criticized Barton’s work:

[Barton's] ostensible scholarship functions in fact as an assault on scholarship: in the manner of other recent phony revisionisms, the history it supports is little more than a compendium of anecdotes divorced from their original context, linked harum-scarum and laced with factual errors and distorted innuendo. Barton’s “scholarship,” like that of Holocaust denial and Atlantic slave trade conspiracy-mongering is rigged to arrive at predetermined conclusions, not history.

While Barton’s long association with Glenn Beck is well established, Beck’s decision to let a widely discredited “historian” with a history of speaking at events hosted by the anti-Semitic far-right is an interesting choice of fundraising allies for his rally in Jerusalem.

Yglesias

If Assad “Must Go” But Prefers To Keep Massacring Demonstrators Instead, What Does Anyone Plan To Do About It

In my thrill-a-minute life as a professional political blogger, I can easily say that the Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator who, ethically speaking, is obligated to stop killing people and start resigning. But when the United States government makes that claim, I do worry that we’re entering the regime change ratchet. After all, even though it’s now our position that Assad must go, Assad’s view is that he’d rather keep on killing people and at this point presumably he’s not the only regime stakeholder who feels that way. There’s always a question as to whether security forces will be willing to actually shoot at their co-nationals en masse, but in Syria that line’s already been crossed and a lot of people on Assad’s side may feel that at this point they’re fighting for their lives against an opposition that’s sure to be eager for retribution if they take power.

In response, our plan is—what? I don’t think I even have a view on what the appropriate US response is here. I don’t want to see a military intervention, but I think it would be perverse for the administration not to condemn Assad and his regime in the strongest possible terms. A side consequence of America’s global military posture, however, is that it’s hard for our government to respond in the normal way here. If we ask Enda Kenny what he thinks of Assad, I hope he’d say that Assad should go. Everyone will understand, however, that his view of the matter doesn’t imply a strong policy commitment by Ireland to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The President of the United States, by contrast, in light of our bid for global military hegemony risks being made to look foolish if he doesn’t do what it takes to make his various pronouncements come true.

NEWS FLASH

U.N. Set To Evacuate Foreigners From Libya Capital | The signs out of Libya seem to point toward an endgame of the civil war there. Rebels are advancing on the capital Tripoli and seizing nearby oil facilities, and dictator Muammar Qaddafi is said to be making plans to leave the country for exile. Now, likely in expectation of increased fighting in Tripoli, the United Nations is arranging for the evacuation of thousands of foreigners trapped in the capital. “We are looking at all options available, but it will probably have to be by sea,” said Jemini Pandya, the spokesperson for the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. The operation is likely to begin within days.

Boehner Won’t Allow House Members To Attend Beck’s J’lem Rally, Lieberman And Cantor Now Say They Won’t Go

The Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month that American Israel Education Foundation, a charity group connected with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is sponsoring a visit to Israel for 81 members of Congress. Many of the members, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), planned on attending Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem next week. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) also said he would attend.

However, Beck said on his radio show yesterday that House Speaker John Boehner will not allow House members to attend. “The Glenn Beck event’ — this is a quote — ‘is not something that congressmen should attend in office capacity based on the conflict of interest for him as a member,’” Beck said. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) also told Beck that he was told that Beck’s rally “had the appearance of a political event” and that the House ethics committee rejected his request to travel to Israel for the event at the expense of the International Israel Allied Caucus Foundation. Media Matters has the audio:

Adam Kredo reports today that Cantor and Lieberman said they are no longer attending Beck’s rally. Lieberman said he supports “Restoring Courage” but can’t attend because of a “family commitment.” Cantor’s office told Kredo that the Majority Leader will be traveling back to the United States on the day Beck will hold the rally.

Beck isn’t pleased. “Speaker Boehner, you should be ashamed of yourself,” he said yesterday, adding, “The Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves. They don’t have to attend my event. Let them come to our biggest ally and only friend we still have in the Middle East in their hour of need.”

NEWS FLASH

GOP Vet Rep.: Defense Cuts Not ‘Doomsday’ | Freshman Tea Party Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) said that the defense cuts in the trigger mechanism contained in the debt ceiling deal are “not a doomsday for me,” as some are claiming they will be for the military. Pompeo, an Army vet who graduated first in his class from West Point, told the Wichita Eagle editorial board that while he would prefer to not cut the military, “If you’re going to shrink the federal government, you’re going to have to pretty much shrink it everywhere.” “Our national security apparatus is going to have to operate effectively in a constrained fiscal environment as well,” Pompeo said, adding that “we’ll find a way to do our national security mission at those levels” of funding.

National Security Brief: August 19, 2011

– NBC News reports that Muammar Qaddafi is making preparations to leave Libya with his family for possible exile in Tunisia. One U.S. official said it’s possible Qaddafi may leave within days.

– The White House has directed the Pentagon, and all other federal agencies, to draw up budget options for 2013 that meet the strict spending guidelines put in place by the debt-ceiling deal, including a 5 percent cut and a 10 percent cut from the 2011 enacted discretionary level.

– Syrian government forces shot and killed six protesters on Friday following President Bashar al-Assad’s pledge that his violent crackdown was over and U.S. and European calls for him to leave power.

– U.S. forces in Afghanistan banned detainee transfers to the provincial police force in Kandahar to investigate “credible allegations” of abuse.

— Suicide bombers attacked the British Council in Kabul early Friday leaving at least eight Afghan policemen and one foreign solider dead and raising serious questions about the ability of Afghan security forces to defend against a resurgent Taliban.

– With army suicides still a prevalent problem and recommendations of a year-old report on the issue still unimplemented, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to the Department of Defense urging action.

– Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the chaos sewn by Arab Spring uprisings stands to benefit Israel.

– Israeli jets hit seven targets in Gaza, killing a teenager and injuring seventeen people, and rockets launched from the Gaza Strip wounded two Israelis a day after terrorist attacks in southern Israel left eight dead.

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