In my previous post, I attacked Daniel Pipes a bit, and suggested that his article being published in the Middle East Quarterly did not augur well for the future reputation of that journal. But then this bit of deliciousness dropped into my lap. Martin Kramer tells us that his replacement as the editor of the Middle East Quarterly has been named. And it is none other than Michael Rubin. Yes, that Michael Rubin - the person most frequently cited as most likely to be the guy who leaked classified information to Ahmed Chalabi, and hence to the Iranians. I, of course, do not know if this is true (Laura Rozen says no, because he didn't have access to that information... but certainly his friends might have, right?), but I find it deliciously ironic that the editorship of a journal explicitly devoted to promoting American interests in the Middle East has passed into the hands of a man who is - at the least- closely associated with the guy who betrayed American secrets to Iran. Kind of like Iran-Contra conspirator Michael Ledeen holding court at the National Review, only more current and hence more pure and pristine. Ah, sweet delicious irony - may you never abandon us.
UPDATE: it makes Pipes' attack on Abou el Fadl for bad predictions looks even sillier now that he's hired Michael "Hugs and Puppies" Rubin to run his journal.. could there be any single person who said more false things about the Iraqi reaction to the American occupation than Michael Rubin?
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