Writing for Newsmax.com, Kenneth R. Timmerman details a plan that has come to light to capture Osama bin Laden two years ago while being protected in Iranian territory. U.S. government agencies failed to act on the information provided. Timmerman explains how Iran’s sheltering of bin Laden is characteristic of its long history of reaching across the sectarian divide to work with Sunni and Wahhabi terrorists who would otherwise be enemies. In addition to its support for Sunni terrorist group Hamas, Iran’s “support for al Qaeda is also notorious in intelligence circles,” says Timmerman—contrary to general public perception. He continues:

The 9/11 Commission staff discovered 75 highly classified U.S. intelligence documents detailing Iran’s support for al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks and revealed that “8 to 10 of the Saudi ‘muscle’ hijackers traveled into or out of Iran” in the months leading up to the attacks. Iranian intelligence officers handled them in that country.Iran’s cooperation with al Qaeda began in 1993, when Tehran sent a Revolutionary Guards general and a top terrorist, Imad Mugniyeh, to meet with Osama bin Laden in the Sudan. Information about the meeting was made public during an October 2000 court hearing in New York.Following the meetings in Sudan, bin Laden started sending al Qaeda terrorists to Hezbollah camps in Lebanon and to Revolutionary Guards training camps in Iran, according to trial testimony by bin Laden’s former bodyguard, Ali Mohammad.Bin Laden’s eldest son, Saad, traveled to Iran in May 2001 to coordinate details of the 9/11 attacks with top Iranian leaders, according to a former Iranian intelligence officer tasked with his personal protection at the time.Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the younger bin Laden sought refuge in Iran and is believed to have remained there ever since. The United States believes that Saad “has been in some form of custody for years in Iran,” a senior U.S. intelligence official told reporters this January.

Because of this, Alan Parrot, one of those in on the 2007 plot to kidnap bin Laden, believes that the U.S. does not actually want to seize bin Laden. Timmerman says the reason for this is that “he would reveal the fact that he has been sheltered by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran since at least 2004, complicating efforts by the Bush and Obama administrations to reach a diplomatic compromise with Tehran.”

Back in July 2007, when the National Intelligence Estimate revealed that one of the two known leadership “councils” of al Qaeda meets in Iran, theTrumpet.com wrote: “Thus far, the U.S. has failed to confront Iran on all the proxy wars it is waging in the region. We expect the U.S. to respond no differently to Iran’s support of al Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. is likely to respond with intensified negotiations rather than confrontation.”

As time goes on, it is becoming increasingly evident that Washington prefers the option of negotiation rather than confrontation when it comes to terrorism and state sponsorship of terrorism.

TheTrumpet.com has repeatedly detailed how Iran is the head of the terrorist snake, and that America’s failure to confront it directly has been the greatest strategic flaw of its war on terror. We have also pointed out that Iran has consistently supported both sides of the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan in order to tie down the U.S. and establish itself as the dominant power in the region. Read our November 2001 Trumpet article “The Head of the Snake” for the Trumpet’s prediction of how the war on terrorism will end.

North Korea Missile Can Reach U.S.

North Korea successfully launched a missile this morning capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States. The launch resoundingly proved that verbal warnings from other nations mean nothing to Pyongyang. Still—expect that proof to change nothing.

North Korea called the three-stage rocket a “peaceful” launch that put a satellite into orbit; South Korean officials confirmed that the rocket was carrying a satellite.

But the same technology can be used to fire weapons, including nuclear warheads. Iran launched a similar missile in February. Experts say the two nations have been cooperating on developing the technology. Iran is reportedly quite close to manufacturing its own nuclear warheads; North Korea has already tested a nuclear weapon. Intelligence agencies said last week that Pyongyang has already assembled five to eight more nuclear warheads.

Aware that such a test was imminent, President Obama said on Friday that such a launch would “put enormous strains” on negotiations with North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program. Clearly, North Korea doesn’t fear “enormous strains.” In fact, it warned that if the United Nations moves toward imposing more sanctions after the launch, it would simply pull out of negotiations altogether. Watch to see whether the UN heeds the warning and backs off even imposing sanctions because it doesn’t want to jeopardize negotiations. The new U.S. administration has made clear its commitment to trying to solve international problems through engaging enemies rather than being tough with them.

Could the limits of “soft power” with no corresponding “hard power” be more evident?

More Evidence U.S. Is Socialist State

Writing in the Washington Times today, Deroy Murdock considers some of the statistics proving America is a socialist state. “Anyone who doubts that the Bush and Obama administrations collectively transformed America into a socialist state should consider this—for every dollar American citizens generated last year, the federal bailout consumed more than 90 cents in outlays, loans and commitments” (emphasis ours throughout). Citing comprehensive research performed by Bloomberg News, Murdock paints a grim picture:

In its latest estimate, Bloomberg correspondents Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry reported on Tuesday that the Federal Reserve, Treasury, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have saddled taxpayers with $12.8 trillion so far. America’s 2008 gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion. Hence, the federal bailout now equals 90.14 percent of gdp. If that is not socialism, what is?This $12,798,140,000,000 costs every American man, woman, boy and girl $42,105. A family of four’s share of the bailout equals $168,420. Bloomberg reckons this $12.8 trillion invoice is more than 14 times the $899.8 billion in U.S. currency coursing through the economy. This signals inflation ahead.

An unintended result of these “unfathomable sums,” says Murdock, is “that they have made it almost cute to complain about federal expenditures of mere millions or even billions of dollars. It now takes an Easter parade of zeroes to capture the public’s attention, much less unleash its outrage.” The government’s management of the economy is immature and undisciplined, says Murdock.

For its part, Congress exhibits all the maturity and self-restraint of college freshmen on spring break. Its 1,071-page, $787 billion “stimulus” bill includes $7.2 billion for broadband deployment. Can’t Verizon or Time-Warner Cable fund this? The 2,967-page, $410 billion omnibus spending measure includes $7.7 billion for 9,287 earmarks that range from comical to grotesque. Why did Congress charge taxpayers $6.6 million for termite research? Couldn’t Terminix and Weyerhaeuser split that tab?

The Trumpet has long been forecasting America’s crash into economic ruin. And while this plummet and its vast ramifications are deeply alarming, there is hope at the end of the dark tunnel. To learn more about America’s economic decline, read “Can the Financial Flames be Stopped?” from the April issue of our free printed version of the Trumpet. To learn how you can escape economic crises, order our free reprint article “How You Can Prosper in a Recession!”

America’s Dollar Trap

On April 2 Paul Krugman wrote what may be one of his most naive pieces so far this year. “The big news last week was a speech by Zhou Xiaochuan,” he wrote, “the governor of China’s central bank, calling for a new ‘super-sovereign reserve currency.’” Krugman continued,

The paranoid wing of the Republican Party promptly warned of a dastardly plot to make America give up the dollar. But Mr. Zhou’s speech was actually an admission of weakness. In effect, he was saying that China had driven itself into a dollar trap, and that it can neither get itself out nor change the policies that put it in that trap in the first place.

Mr. Krugman goes on to note that China has accumulated $1.4 trillion worth of dollar-denominated assets such as U.S. treasury bonds that it wants to get rid of. He then astoundingly concludes that this is a massive problem—not for America—but for China.

And just the other day, it seems, China’s leaders woke up and realized that they had a problem. … So what Mr. Zhou’s proposal actually amounts to is a plea that someone rescue China from the consequences of its own investment mistakes. That’s not going to happen.

“The bottom line,” notes Krugman, “is that China hasn’t yet faced up to the wrenching changes that will be needed to deal with this global crisis.”

News flash for Krugman. It is not China that has fallen into a trap—it is America. Borrowers become servants to their lenders. The value of the dollar—the purchasing power of the greenbacks in your wallet—depends on the largesse of the Chinese.

It’s America that hasn’t faced up to the wrenching changes of the new reality, not China.

Unemployment Soars

The unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent with the loss of another 663,000 jobs across all job sectors in March. A total of 5.1 million jobs have been lost since December 2007, when the recession first began.

“The labor market is actually weaker than the official unemployment rate indicates,” according to the Washington Post. The real unemployment rate is closer to 16.2 percent when all factors are taken into consideration (including those seeking full-time jobs but working in part-time positions, for example).

“Economists say the worst days for the labor market will continue for some time,” wrote the Post. The article reported that more and more economic forecasters are predicting the unemployment rate will top 10 percent next year.

Wachovia economist John Silvia voiced concern about the increasing duration of unemployment as well. “Such increases suggest that the impact on those losing jobs will be longer and more severe,” he said. “Therefore we expect greater financial stress, credit delinquencies and foreclosures.”

German Foreign Minister’s Vision for NATO

“A nato summit is always an opportunity for history to be made,” wrote Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for Spiegel Online, expressing his hopes that this year’s summit will determine a new course for the alliance.

“For 60 years, nato was the guarantor of security in Europe. And Germans in particular have profited from it very much. But the world has changed,” he wrote. “The Cold War—and with it its clearly defined front lines—is over. Today we have to face new threats and new challenges.” He continued,

If we take on new tasks, they should first of all provide a tangible increase in security for the territory of the alliance itself. nato cannot replace the United Nations as a framework for global security, and it is even less equipped to act as a “global policeman” for each and every conflict that may arise anywhere in the world.

Steinmeier wrote about the need to refine nato’s Afghanistan strategy and improve its relationship with Russia. Concerning nato’s relationship with the EU, he said the two are ideal partners. “I am convinced that it strengthens nato as well, if Europeans develop the capabilities to act on their own, working in close coordination with the alliance,” Mr. Steinmeier wrote.

As we have written in the past, the EU will develop its own capabilities and eventually supersede nato altogether—but not before it fully exploits the alliance to further its own objectives.

Elsewhere on the Web

Still no sign of Iran’s fist coming “unclenched.” According to Memri, President Ahmadinejad responded to President Obama’s New Year’s greeting with this: “Any hand outstretched to attack us will be cut off.”

President Obama promised today to lead the world into a nuclear-free future. The timing was interesting. As the Guardian writes, he said this “even as North Korea upstaged him with the launch of a long-range rocket that theoretically could carry a warhead. … He offered few details of how he would accomplish his larger goal, which has eluded presidents and foreign-policy lions, including Ronald Reagan, George Shultz and Henry Kissinger.”

GM’s new ceo says that GM may have to proceed with bankruptcy proceedings to protect itself from creditors. It is not clear what would happen to the taxpayer bailout money already committed. The new ceo also says that more job cuts will be necessary. Approximately 20,000 more employees will need to be let go.

And Finally …

Apparently the green revolution has hit somewhat of a hitch. The government, in an effort to promote energy efficiency, has mandated that all Americans switch from incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs by 2014. But a New York Times article highlights several problems with the bulbs that consumers may not have bargained for. George Will steers us through the particulars:

Although supposed to last 10,000 hours and save, the Times says, “as much as” $5.40 a year in electricity costs, some bulbs died within a few hours. Some experts, reports the Times, “blame the government for the quality problems,” saying its push to cut the bulbs’ prices prompted manufacturers to use inferior components.Furthermore, some experts have written a guide saying the new bulbs require “a little insight and planning.” The Times says that “may be an understatement.”The bulbs, says the Times, “do not do well in hot places with little airflow, like recessed ceiling fixtures,” and some do not work “with dimmers or three-way sockets.” And: “Be aware that compact fluorescents can take one to three minutes to reach full brightness. This is not a defect.” Well, if you say so. Because all fluorescents contain mercury, a toxic metal, they must never be put in the trash, so Home Depot and other chains offer bins for disposing of dangerous bulbs. Driving to one of these disposal points might not entirely nullify the bulbs’ environmental benefits. Besides, the Times summarizes the Environmental Protection Agency’s helpful suggestions for coping with the environmental dangers caused when one of these environment-saving bulbs breaks:”Clear people and pets from the room and open a window for at least 15 minutes if possible. Avoid vacuuming. Scoop up larger pieces with stiff paper or cardboard, pick up smaller residue with sticky tape, and wipe the area with a damp cloth. Put everything into a sealed plastic bag or sealed glass jar. In most cases, this can be put in the trash, but the epa recommends checking local rules.”Worrywarts wonder what will happen when a lazy or careless, say, 10 percent of 300 million Americans put their worn-out bulbs in the trash. Stop worrying. What do you think? That Congress, architect of the ethanol industry and designer of automobiles, does not think things through?