Talk:Mansoor Ijaz

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I removed this comment, by [[User:]], which I believes should more appropriately be placed here on the talk page:

Whoever wrote this article? Ijaz had oil dealings with sudan. Which means, either he was an unregistered lobbyist, or he had a conflict of interest. User:72.240.86.50 11:21, 2005 December 5 72.240.86.50

-- Geo Swan 21:29, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] From: "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"

(Note that Al Franken makes sarcastic comments, so some of this is a joke -- like the last sentence.)

"In 'Let Freedom Ring,' Hannity outlines a charge that he frequently makes both on television and on the radio: that Clinton let bin Laden slip from his grasp. He writes,

It's truly astonishing, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and their liberal allies on Capitol Hill were offered Osama bin Laden by the Sudanese government, and they turned the offer down. They could have taken him into custody and begun unraveling his terrorist network almost six years ago. But they didn't. And now more than three thousand Americans have paid with their blood. That is astonishing. Hard to think of a more serious charge. You want to be damned sure you have that one locked down pretty tight before you put it in print.

But knowing what we already know about Sean Hannity [referring to a previous chapter in the book, dedicated entirely to this guy] and the standards to which he holds himself, what are the chances that this whole charge is just baloney?

“His entire case comes from a guy named Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American who claims to have transmitted the offer as a middleman between the U.S. and Sudan. I got the story on Ijaz from former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and from Daniel Benjamin, past director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council and now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Berger only had to meet once with Ijaz to determine that he was an unreliable freelancer, pursuing his own financial interests. Ijaz was an investment banker with a huge stake in Sudanese oil.

Ijaz had urged Berger to lift sanctions against Sudan. Why the sanctions? Because Sudan was and remains a notorious sponsor of terrorism, harboring Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda. Also, the Sudanese regime is the leading state sponsor of slavery and is considered by many to be genocidal. And totally untrustworthy. Ijaz, however, was arguing their case. As Benjamin said of Ijaz, 'Either he allowed himself to be manipulated, or he's in bed with a bunch of genocidal terrorists.'

Ijaz said that Sudan was ready to hand over bin Laden. The U.S. does not conduct diplomacy through self-appointed private individuals. When the U.S. talked to Sudan, there was no such offer. The U.S. pursued every lead and tried to negotiate. Nothing.

The story does have a happy ending. Ijaz now has a job as foreign affairs analyst for the Fox News Channel.""

While Mansoor Ijaz is a privateer (now Fox News analyst), the above section from Al Franken's book should not be taken as gospel since Mr. Franken bases the entirety of that excerpt on Sandy Berger who was convicted of stealing classified government documents. ^[1]. Mansoor has had no such charge sully his reputation.

[edit] Wikified

Wikified as part of the Wikification wikiproject! JubalHarshaw 17:21, 29 September 2006 (UTC)