Abracadabrah<br><br><i> I create as I speak</i>: In Other News, Aw, Come On, Give Them Money Anyway

Thursday, July 28, 2005

In Other News, Aw, Come On, Give Them Money Anyway

Well this is plenty unsettling:

U.S.: Iranian Cadre Training Hezbolla

A top State Department official informed Congress on Thursday that Iranian cadre were training Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

Assistant Secretary of State David Welch told the House International Relations Committee the information was provided by "our own sources."

Welch also testified there was "a continuing covert Syrian presence there" despite the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

And, Welch said, there are armed Palestinian groups in Lebanon, as well....

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora pledged to protect Hezbollah, saying the Lebanese government considers it "an honest and natural expression" of resistance to Israeli aggression and threats.

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., called the statement "profoundly disturbing." He said he was not aware of any Israeli threats to Lebanon.

Welch agreed. Challenging Saniora, whose government has the Bush administration's support, Welch said "there is no part of Lebanon occupied by Israel."

"I don't know what they would be resisting," he said.

"Hezbollah admits its material support for Palestinian terrorist operations, which undermines the Palestinian leadership's goal of stopping violence in israel and the Palestinian territories," Welch said.

Still, Welch and James Kunder, an assistant adminstrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the administration had asked Congress to approve $35 million in U.S. aid and $1.7 million in other support.

He said plans would be made for an international donors conference in Beirut this fall.

In other words, let the corrupt status quo continue, however damaging this attitude may be in both the short term and the long. Well it is the State Department, after all. So it should not be surprising. But it is disappointing.