Say, would any of that new-found wealth making its way to religious schools in Iran have been the $8.8 billion of American taxpayers' money that went missing in Iraq and just can't "be accounted for"? Or would that money instead be part of the other hundreds of billions also spent by American taxpayers in Iraq to build "Iraq the Model" a/k/a "Iraq the Light Unto the Muslim Nations" that is the money that can be accounted for, that was deliberately plowed into the country, and spread around like confetti, so "Iraqis" could feel good about themselves, and about the wonderful Americans?

Diverted, or deliberately given, and then sent to Iran? Why should American taxpayers care? It's money well spent. It's cheap at the price -- $300-$400 billion, and counting. But who's counting? Just as long as Muslims (in this case the Shi'a, but it could also be the Sunnis) have enough money to pay for those religious schools, those madrasas and mosques which, as long as they remain in the right hands, the hands of such people as Sistani, and not in the hands of those who are guilty of the "perversion" of this "noble religion" (George Bush, State of the Union Address, 2006) will do us all just fine.

I don't care that funding of Medicare, Pell Grants, and other things like that are being cut. I want to see my money go to good things, like Sunnis in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, and the "Palestinian" lands, and even in Iraq. But let's not overlook the Shi'a -- they deserve something too, so let's make sure that they get money in Iraq.

And since it is apparently against the law to supply the Islamic Republic of Iran with American funds directly, let's just let Sistani, and members of Dawa and SCIRI, and Moqtada al-Sada, hetman of the harafish, do it for us.

Saves on postage. And handling.

Posted by: Hugh at February 14, 2006 2:50 PM

I said it a while back, and I think it's starting to become evident that the Saudis didn't suddenly take to funding mosques all over the globe a few decades ago out of religious conviction so much as to try to preserve dominance over the surging Shia Islamic Republic of Iran.

In the frontpagemag.com symposium of Jan. 27/06 entitled "Purifying Allah's Soil", Dr. Hans Peter Raddatz, a German prof of Islamic Studies (not of the MESA mold) and Kenneth Levin, a Harvard Med School prof who wrote "The Oslo Syndrome" speak to the point:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21059

Great plumbing of the depth and width of anti-semitism in the Muslim world.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at February 14, 2006 2:55 PM

there needs to be some real good accountants to get at the bottom of this crap real soon! something smells in iran... and its not the cartoons!

Posted by: Lulu at February 14, 2006 4:22 PM

If only Bush and Co. (or somebody!)could find a way to "funnel" idiot jihadists like this guy into outer space!

Posted by: pythagoras at February 14, 2006 9:10 PM

"Saves on postage. And handling"

Excellent, excellent Hugh

Posted by: Pass It On at February 14, 2006 9:12 PM

Time to spread a rumor about pork content in US paper money. The "recipe" for the paper is a state secret, so there's ample room for conspiracy theories.

Alternatively, one could have the "Soylent Greenback." Purely infidel in origin, of course, which would still put it on Sistani's "unclean" list.

Posted by: Shinoliite at February 14, 2006 10:43 PM

I hope a predator drone has his GPS co-ordinates securely stored.

Never trust a preacher with money.

In every sense.

Posted by: profitsbeard at February 15, 2006 1:00 AM