Love of the Land: James Jones Apologies for Jewish Joke

James Jones Apologies for Jewish Joke

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
26 April '10

As I noted in this morning’s Flotsam and Jetsam, James Jones made a tasteless Jewish joke last week at the 25th anniversary of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Fox News reports: “Interestingly, it was not included in the official White House-provided transcript of the speech.” Indeed.

(Click here for video)

There has been some additional reaction — New York Magazine has a roundup of those who have commented on it. Now, sensing the brewing storm, Jones has apologized. Politico provides Jones’s statement today:

I wish that I had not made this off the cuff joke at the top of my remarks, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it. It also distracted from the larger message I carried that day: that the United States commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct.

Ben Smith also reports, “White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that the White House had ‘no intention to deceive’ in leaving the remarks off a transcript off the event, which he said were in fact the prepared text. He said the White House hadn’t asked for Jones’ apology which ‘rightly speaks for itself.’”

Let’s unpack this. First of all, I don’t believe the joke was made up on the spur of the moment. That’s not how these things work. As a reader pointed out to me, it’s quite likely that not only Jones but also a speechwriter or two thought there was nothing much wrong with this. Second, for an administration under criticism for insensitivity or outright animus in relation to Israel, why play with fire? If nothing else, this confirms the criticism of Jones — he’s a bit of a buffoon.

And finally, why didn’t the president demand an apology? Was he not alarmed that his national security adviser is cracking Jewish-merchant jokes?

It’s another reminder that what is said and done in this White House with regard to Israel would not be said or done in virtually any other administration.

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Love of the Land: James Jones Apologies for Jewish Joke

Love of the Land: Obama's National Security Advisor's Joke

Obama's National Security Advisor's Joke

Jameel
The Muqata
26 April '10

President Obama's National Security Adviser, Jim Jones told the following joke, where he received lots of laughs from the audience...



Find this funny? Appropriate? Important point to note is that the audience in this case is the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Some of the posted comments posted on "The Muqata" page were questioning where this was said.

Click here for Jameel's post and follow-up comments.

Love of the Land: Obama's National Security Advisor's Joke

PLOT TO ASSASSINATE GOLDA MEIR

How the plot to assassinate Golda Meir was foiled

By The Associated Press


Tags: Golda Meir, NSA, Israel News

It was the National Security Agency that uncovered a 1973 plot to bomb New York City, a scheme since linked to a terrorist who is nearing release from prison, according to government documents and interviews.

Khalid Al-Jawary, a Black September terrorist, placed two car bombs along Fifth Avenue and one near Kennedy Airport. The attack was meant to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's arrival in the city. The bombs failed to detonate, and Al-Jawary quickly fled the country before being arrested nearly 20 years later.

The case has gained increased attention since an Associated Press investigation provided new details about Al-Jawary's shadowy background. He's scheduled to be released February 19 after serving only about half his 30-year prison sentence. But until now, it has been unclear how the authorities knew where to look for the cars. Shortly after Al-Jawary planted the bombs around March 4, the NSA intercepted a message revealing the location of them.

"When we picked that one up, it was a shocker," said Jim Welsh, who served as an NSA analyst from 1969 to 1974.

Declassified CIA records indicate the FBI and NYPD began looking for Al-Jawary's bombs at 7:15 p.m. on March 6, 1973 - not long after the NSA intercepted the message about the plot.

The two bomb-rigged cars on Fifth Avenue were towed March 5 and were later found at impound yards. The third bomb at Kennedy Airport's El-Al cargo terminal was discovered early March 7 and disabled by Terence McTigue of the NYPD bomb squad.

McTigue said the FBI never told him how they knew the car was at JFK, but he assumed they had obtained the information through an intercepted communication of some kind.

The super-secretive NSA declined to comment.

Welsh said someone transmitted the message using official Iraqi diplomatic communications in the U.S. He believed it originated at the U.N. Iraqi mission in New York.

Welsh said the message stated the bombs had been placed and gave their whereabouts. Welsh said the encrypted message was sent to the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad, where it was relayed to the Palestine Liberation Organization's office.

Iraq's specific involvement in the plot is not known, but the PLO routinely relied on friendly governments to facilitate communications during that era, said Matthew Aid, an intelligence historian who specializes in the NSA.

Al-Jawary was known to use multiple passports, including an Iraqi one. One of his aliases was Abu Walid al-Iraqi. The FBI captured him in early 1991 after he left Baghdad to attend the funeral of a terrorist in Tunis.

Declassified State Department documents say Iraq supported Black September, which intelligence officials believe was controlled by PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

The NSA discovery of the plot is considered one of the early bright spots in the history of counterterrorism.

"This story was well-known in the hallways of the NSA," said retired agency historian Robert J. Hanyok, who wrote an in-house article that included a reference to the "joint NSA-CIA-FBI effort."

"It was definitely an early example of interagency cooperation," Hanyok said.

The article was declassified in 2007. The NSA claimed it "thwarted" the plot, according to the Hanyok article. But it's still unclear to this day why the bombs did not explode.

Welsh, now a businessman living in Oregon, said the success was especially important considering it came less than a week after an intelligence failure during an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum.

The attack was also orchestrated by Black September and left three diplomats dead, including the U.S. ambassador to Sudan and the departing U.S. deputy chief of mission to Sudan.

Welsh said the NSA had intercepted a call prior to the attack and alerted the State Department. But the warning failed to reach the American diplomats in time.

Welsh said he believed the attacks in Khartoum and the attempted one in New York City were meant to be a "one-two punch" against the American government and show Black September could operate anywhere.