Monday, May 23, 2005
Poor foofie Saddam redux
Lee Harris at TCS weighs in here on the basic question whether the Brit tabloid should have published the pix of Saddam. He says no.
I'm not so sure. If I were running a competent Western intelligence service, British or American, and I needed to sort out the Baathists from the 'foreigners' in the insurgency, I'd get a tabloid to publish embarrassing pictures of the Baathist leader. A sizable number of his extreme followers would then obligingly riot, demonstrate, and generally pop out of the woodwork. And even if I hadn't arranged the publication, I'd sure as hell take advantage of the consequences.
Do we have competent intel? I suspect the Brits do. ¶ 8:15 AM
I'm not so sure. If I were running a competent Western intelligence service, British or American, and I needed to sort out the Baathists from the 'foreigners' in the insurgency, I'd get a tabloid to publish embarrassing pictures of the Baathist leader. A sizable number of his extreme followers would then obligingly riot, demonstrate, and generally pop out of the woodwork. And even if I hadn't arranged the publication, I'd sure as hell take advantage of the consequences.
Do we have competent intel? I suspect the Brits do. ¶ 8:15 AM
