Archived news and commentary: January 7 - 13, 2002

2002/03/25 - 2002/03/31
2002/03/18 - 2002/03/24
2002/03/11 - 2002/03/17
2002/03/04 - 2002/03/10
2002/02/25 - 2002/03/03
2002/02/18 - 2002/02/24
2002/02/11 - 2002/02/17
2002/02/04 - 2002/02/10
2002/01/28 - 2002/02/03
2002/01/21 - 2002/01/27
2002/01/14 - 2002/01/20
2002/01/07 - 2002/01/13
2002/01/01 - 2002/01/06

Sunday, January 13, 2002

News and commentary:

"Phase II and Iraq" (Henry A. Kissinger, The Washington Post, 2002/01/13)
"From a long-range point of view, the greatest opportunity of Phase II is to return Iraq to a responsible role in the region. Were Iraq governed by a group representing no threat to its neighbors and willing to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, the stability of the region would be immeasurably enhanced. The remaining regimes flirting with terrorist fundamentalism or acquiescing in its exactions would be driven to shut down their support of terrorism."

"A Story Of Iran's Quest for Power" (Michael Dobbs, The Washington Post, 2002/01/13)
"Vorobei's activities confirm what Western analysts have long suspected and the Russian government has repeatedly denied -- the existence of an underground railroad of Russian scientists traveling to Iran to work on missile and nuclear weapons programs. ... "The Iranian program is not developing as quickly as the Iranians have claimed, and Israeli and American assessments expected," said Gerald M. Steinberg, a strategic issues expert at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He said that the Shahab-3 missile, when it is eventually deployed, will be capable of hitting Israel, but is hardly a threat to the United States, nearly 6,000 miles away."

"Pakistani Leader Pledges to Bar Any Groups Linked to Terror" (Eric Eckholm, The New York Times, 2002/01/13)
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged tonight that his country would not be used as a base for terrorism of any kind and announced a broad ban on militant groups accused of fomenting violence in Indian-held Kashmir, as well as at home. 'No organization will be allowed to perpetuate terrorism behind the garb of the Kashmiri cause,'General Musharraf said in an hourlong televised address. 'We will take strict action against any Pakistani who is involved in terrorism inside the country or abroad.'"

 

Saturday, January 12, 2002

News and commentary:

"The Arafat I Knew" (Ion Mihai Pacepa. The Wall Street Journal, 2002/01/12)
"I am not surprised to see that Yasser Arafat remains the same bloody terrorist I knew so well during my years at the top of Romania's foreign intelligence service. I became directly involved with Arafat in the late 1960s, in the days when he was being financed and manipulated by the KGB. ... When I first met Arafat, I was stunned by the ideological similarity between him and his KGB mentor. Arafat's broken record was that American 'imperial Zionism' was the 'rabid dog of the world,' and there was only one way to deal with a rabid dog: 'Kill it!'"

 

Friday, January 11, 2002

News and commentary:

"Anchors Away" (Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, from the 2002/01/21 issue)
"In much of the international press, Arafat's denial of responsibility - his solemn word that he knew nothing about a 4,000-ton ship purchased by one of his operatives and manned by members of his navy - has been treated as a credible counterweight to Israeli claims. Not even the televised admission by the ship's captain that the weapons were loaded near the Iranian coast, overseen by a Hezbollah agent, and bound for the PA - a textbook example of President Bush's definition of what transforms a local conflict into global-reach terrorism - convinced foreign observers that Israel had uncovered a Palestinian-Iranian-Hezbollah triangle. ... In my conversations about the ship with friends across the political spectrum, one question recurs: If this is what the Palestinians attempt now, with Israel in control of the borders and the seas, how will we enforce demilitarization in a sovereign Palestine? Barely anyone anymore even tries to provide an answer."

"The Rise of Complex Terrorism" (Thomas Homer-Dixon, Foreign Policy, from the January-February 2002 issue)
"We've realized, belatedly, that our societies are wide-open targets for terrorists. We're easy prey because of two key trends: First, the growing technological capacity of small groups and individuals to destroy things and people; and, second, the increasing vulnerability of our economic and technological systems to carefully aimed attacks. ... Together, these two trends facilitate a new and sinister kind of mass violence—a "complex terrorism" that threatens modern, high-tech societies in the world's most developed nations. ... Complex terrorism operates like jujitsu—it redirects the energies of our intricate societies against us. Once the basic logic of complex terrorism is understood (and the events of September 11 prove that terrorists are beginning to understand it), we can quickly identify dozens of relatively simple ways to bring modern, high-tech societies to their knees. How would a Clausewitz of terrorism proceed? He would pinpoint the critical complex networks upon which modern societies depend. They include networks for producing and distributing energy, information, water, and food; the highways, railways, and airports that make up our transportation grid; and our healthcare system."

"Who Is the Enemy?" (Daniel Pipes, Commentary, from the January 2002 issue)
"At least since 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran with the war-cry, “Death to America,” militant Islam, also known as Islamism, has been the self-declared enemy of the United States. It has now become enemy number one. ... But let us not delude ourselves. If the United States has over 100 million Islamist enemies (not to speak of an even larger number of Muslims who wish us ill on assorted other grounds), they cannot all be incapacitated. Instead, the goal must be to deter and contain them. Militant Islam is too popular and widespread to be destroyed militarily. It can only be fended off. ... The goal must be to convince its adherents that the use of force against Americans is at best ineffectual and at worst counterproductive - that Algerians and Malaysians are entitled to their anti-American views, but they cannot act on them by harming Americans. The only way to achieve this goal is by scaring them. And that requires toughness and determination - and perseverence - of a sort that Americans have not mustered for a long time."

"Ship Of Truth" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2002/01/11)
"Arafat is embarked on a strategy of war - and has been ever since he signed the September 1993 Oslo "peace" accords on the White House lawn. ... This strategy has been the declared PLO position ever since it adopted the "Phased Plan" in Cairo in 1974. Phase 1: Accept any territory offered of whatever size within Palestine. Phase 2: Make it the forward base for the war to destroy Israel. Our refusal to acknowledge this overwhelmingly obvious strategy is one of the great acts of self-delusion in diplomatic history. ... If we want peace, Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have to go. They must be de-legitimized, de-recognized, de-funded by the United States. And by Europe. And if that does not bring them down, Israel should be allowed to go in and do the job itself."

 

Thursday, January 10, 2002

News and commentary:

"Prejudice and Abuse - Have the French and English learned nothing from the 20th century?" (Tom Gross, National Review, 2002/01/10)
"And as for Israel, it seems to be open season. A piece in the Independent, for example, by one of the paper's regular columnists ("I'm fed up being called an anti-Semite," by Deborah Orr, December 21, 2001), described Israel as "sh***y" and "little" no fewer than four times. "Anti-Semitism is disliking all Jews, anywhere, and anti-Zionism is just disliking the existence of Israel and opposing those who support it," explains Orr. "This may be an academic rather than a practical distinction, and one which has no connection with holding the honest view that in my experience Israel is sh***y and little." ... If the French are now almost as open about their anti-Semitism as the Egyptians are (in 2001, the best-selling song in Cairo was one titled "I hate Israel"), evidently in England the crime today is not actually being anti-Semitic, but rather condemning someone for their anti-Semitism." (See also: "Islamists overplay their hand but London salons don't see it" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2001/12/17))

"Enemy still within" (The Times, 2002/01/10)
"There were quite farcical scenes in Kandahar yesterday as the former ministers for defence, justice and mines were first interrogated by local officials and then released, allegedly under some form of "surveillance". ... It would be impractical for either the interim Afghan Government or the United States to insist that every individual linked to the Taleban be incarcerated. But these individuals cannot be dismissed as simple foot-soldiers. Mullah Ubaidhullah, the ex-defence minister, had intimate ties to the bin Laden organisation and approved the establishment of al-Qaeda training camps across the country. Nooruddin Turabi, the one-eyed, one-legged fanatic who served as minister for justice until recently, was the man responsible for the psychotic religious police and the suppression of women. He also worked with the al-Qaeda hierarchy to advance their campaign of terrorism."

"'Compelling evidence' Arafat knew of arms" (Andrea Koppel and Elise Labott, CNN.com, 2002/01/10)
"Israelis have presented what the Bush administration believes is "compelling evidence" that Yasser Arafat knew about a shipment of weapons intercepted by Israel, a senior State Department official told CNN. ... "We have had extensive briefings from the Israelis, and at the moment there is quite a bit of compelling evidence that figures Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were involved in this shipment, and it is clear that Chairman Arafat has a responsibility at this point to provide an immediate and clear explanation," the official said. "We have concluded that part of these transactions and shipments were of such magnitude that we have to conclude that Arafat would have known," he said."

"Blame it on the anti-Semitic media" (Yisrael Harel, Haaretz, 2002/01/10)
"But it's feigning innocence to blame the IDF Spokesman for the "professional" reasons the world media is trying to evade reporting the main issue, which is Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's arms smuggling. ... But when [CNN] reports - even after the interview with the captain - that "Israel and the Palestinians continue to exchange accusations about the weapons ship," it in effect explains why CNN made no effort to go after the dramatic story. And that is the attitude of other news networks and of important newspapers, like The New York Times, which wrote that the weapons were ostensibly intended for the Hezbollah. ... The Arabs claim that Israel orchestrated an act of piracy in international waters, and that it's not the first time the country ignored international law. And we shouldn't be surprised if we soon hear that argument in Europe as well. Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish papers are full of hatred for Israel. ... Arafat continues to win world support, especially in the Scandinavian countries that carry the human rights banner on high, despite the destruction of human rights in the Palestinian Authority, widespread personal and public corruption, weapons smuggling, and in particular, personal responsibility for acts of mass terror."

"Arafat's Implausible Denials" (William Safire, The New York Times, 2002/02/10)
"The clear purpose of the 50 tons of Iranian arms, intercepted by Israeli commandos last week, was to help Yasir Arafat's coalition of terror win Iran's undeclared war on Israel. While the U.S. and Israel have for a decade been deluding themselves with a "peace process," Iran and its Palestinian proxies have been gaining ground in their war process. Caught red-handed, Arafat is denying any knowledge of what his chief lieutenants and other terror partners have been doing. His pretense of innocence calls to mind Chico Marx's line to a husband when caught in bed with the man's wife: "Who you gonna believe — me or your own eyes?" ... More central to America's security, however, is the strategic reality revealed by the capture of the Karine A: Tehran has again shown itself to be the world arsenal of terror. Iran's ayatollahs have been escalating their sponsorship of terrorist war — yesterday on the "Great Satan" of America, today on Israeli Jews, tomorrow on the whole non-Islamic world."

 

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

News and commentary:

"Why Israel Is The Victim And The Arabs Are The Indefensible Aggressors In the Middle East" (David Horowitz, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/01/09)
"The Middle East conflict is not about Israel’s occupation of the territories; it is about the refusal of the Arabs to make peace with Israel, which is an inevitable by-product of their desire to destroy it. ... There are plenty of individual Palestinian victims, as there are Jewish victims, familiar from the nightly news. But the collective Palestinian grievance is without justice. It is a self-inflicted wound, the product of the Arabs’ xenophobia, bigotry, exploitation of their own people, and apparent inability to be generous towards those who are not Arabs. While Israel is an open, democratic, multi-ethnic, multicultural society that includes a large enfranchised Arab minority, the Palestine Authority is an intolerant, undemocratic, monolithic police state with one dictatorial leader, whose ruinous career has run now for 37 years. As the repellent attitudes, criminal methods and dishonest goals of the Palestine liberation movement should make clear to any reasonable observer, its present cause is based on Jew hatred, and on resentment of the modern, democratic West, and little else."

"Top Taliban officials may have fled Afghanistan, official says" (CNN.com, 2002/01/10)
"Seven top Taliban government officials - who surrendered in Kandahar in the last 48 hours - have been released by local authorities and may have left the country, interim Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad said Wednesday. ... Among the seven former Taliban officials who surrendered were three former senior government ministers and the security chief for the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan."

"It All Points to Arafat" (Michael Kelly, The Washington Post, 2002/01/09)
"The evidence is close to overwhelming that the Karine A mission was financed and organized at the highest levels of the Palestinian Authority, most likely sanctioned by Arafat himself - and that Arafat allowed the mission to proceed after he called for cessation of all armed actions against Israel on Dec. 16. ... Akawi said that he thought Arafat himself did not know of the mission. This seems more of a politic statement than a heartfelt one, given the amount of money involved and given that the men who commanded Akawi answered directly to Arafat. Not surprisingly, Arafat supports the rogue operation theory. He reportedly tried to sell it to U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni that the whole thing was a renegade affair, not under his control. The Jerusalem Post said Zinni was "very unconvinced." Yes."

 

Tuesday, January 8, 2002

News and commentary:

"A New Antisemitic Myth in the Arab Press: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews" (Special Report, MEMRI, 2002/01/08)
"Since September 11, the Arab media have claimed that Jews perpetrated the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Promoting this new myth are high-ranking public officials and columnists in the government and non-government press in Arab countries. In an attempt to deflect blame from the Arab-Muslim suspects in the attacks, the media have floated a number of ideas on the identities of the perpetrators. According to Arab perceptions, the attacks were carried out by those who stood to gain the most from them. Also examined was the question of who had the capability to carry out such an operation. In the articles reviewed in this report, the conclusions point directly at the Jews. These conclusions are supported by various forms of evidence, further buttressed by timeworn, long-"substantiated" antisemitic myths. Thus, the papers posit guilt, substantiate their accusations, convict, and, in one case, hand down a sentence – annihilation 'as Hitler did.'"

"Arab Antisemitism - Saudi Government Daily on the 'Culture of Hatred'" (Special Dispatch No. 328, MEMRI, 2002/01/08)
"Following are excerpts from an article in the Saudi daily 'Al-Riyadh' by Abdallah Al-Ka'id, titled 'The Culture of Hatred'": "For example, one cannot be amazed by the hatred of most of the nations of the world for the 'Zionist entity,' because of its history, replete not with human achievements but with barbaric massacres, deceit, and evil conscience. Hatred towards them is on the rise among the Arabs in particular, because of what they suffer from the occupation of the Arab state of Palestine, the catastrophes, the cruelty, and the injustice that are known to all. ... However warm the kisses, and however firm the handshakes, their hearts are full of hatred, their souls are full of rage, and their eyes glance away with loathing at the sight of the flag of the Zionist entity flying in the heart of [some] Arab capitals. ... These are our enemies, and our hatred towards them is rooted in our souls, and the only thing that can remove it is their departure from our lands and the purification of their defilement of our holy places!!!"

"Blaming America First" (Todd Gitlin, MotherJones, 2002/01/08)
"But in the wake of September 11 there erupted something more primal and reflexive than criticism: a kind of left-wing fundamentalism, a negative faith in America the ugly. In this cartoon view of the world, there is nothing worse than American power - not the woman-enslaving Taliban, not an unrepentant Al Qaeda committed to killing civilians as they please - and America is nothing but a self-seeking bully. It does not face genuine dilemmas. It never has legitimate reason to do what it does. When its rulers' views command popularity, this can only be because the entire population has been brainwashed, or rendered moronic, or shares in its leaders' monstrous values."

"The Cost of Victory..." (Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, 2002/01/08)
"The virtually nonexistent U.S. casualty rate is either a signal achievement or a debacle in the making. ... The first President Bush, after demonizing Saddam Hussein, allowed him to survive and, ultimately, mock American might. This second Bush administration may well have given bin Laden a similar opportunity. The consequences can be awful. Bin Laden talked with contempt about American power. To him, the United States was a paper tiger. You name the place - Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Somalia - the United States had failed to finish the job. It was terrified of losing lives. It would fire off a missile on occasion or send bombers screeching overhead, but it would not put men on the ground. Well, it seems little has changed. ... But by reducing the cost of war to almost nil, we may have once again set the stage for yet more terrorism and bloodshed. There is a cost to almost no cost at all."

"Terrorism Beyond Islam" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2002/01/08)
"The vocabulary of the rejectionist movements varies with the country and the time - the Koran in today's Saudi Arabia, Kim Il Sung ideology in today's North Korea, and a mix of Confucianism and secular xenophobia in the Japan, China and Korea of the 17th through 19th centuries. But these religions and ideologies seem to reflect something deeper: frustration at the humiliating choice faced by once-great civilizations heartsick at the pressure to discard bits of their own cultures to catch up with the nouveaux riches in the West. East Asians killed those who came to them, of course, rather than taking jet planes to kill infidels in their home countries. But the (sometimes feigned) superiority of 17th-century Japanese, Koreans and Chinese, the all-out rejection of Westernization, the glorification of their own culture, the brutality inflicted on those perceived as pro-Western - all these are remarkably parallel with Osama bin Laden and those like him in the Islamic world today."

 

Monday, January 7, 2002

News and commentary:

"Bombarded by brutal rhetoric" (Mark Steyn, National Post, 2002/01/07)
"So where did this "brutal Afghan winter" business come from? It came, pre-eminently, from spokespersons from the relief agencies. There are some special-interest groups - the National Rifle Association, Right To Life - whose press releases get dismissed by the media as propaganda, and others - environmental groups, for example - whose every claim is taken at face value. Into this last happy category fall the "humanitarian lobby." ... When Axworthy and other self-proclaimed "humanitarians" start droning on next month about starving children in Iraq, always remember the lesson of Afghanistan: A bombing pause is not as "humanitarian" as a bomb. The quickest way to end a "humanitarian" crisis is to remove the idiot government responsible for it. Conversely, the best way to keep people starving is to cook up new wheezes to maintain the thugs in power, as Christian Aid, Oxfam, Conscience International and all the rest did in their petitions through the gullible Western media. I would urge readers to be highly selective about supporting aid agencies who operate under tyrannies."

"Conquering Guilt, Forging a New Era?" (Robert L. Bartley, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/01/07)
"The new seriousness in America is now pregnant with the possibility of consolidating a new century of safety, peace and spreading prosperity. ... Ever since the intellectual and political establishment changed its mind on Vietnam in 1968, American elites have been reciting a litany of phrases such as "mission creep," "body bags," "imperial overreach," "world policeman" and so on. The melody uniting these lyrics was one of American guilt - guilt at being too powerful, too prosperous, and in past eras to be atoned, too assertive. Quenching that guilt was perhaps the biggest single impact of September 11. Its lesson was not only that the U.S. cannot drop off the globe, but that it cannot opt out of leadership. With power comes responsibility; if the U.S. fails to take the lead against world power, no one else will. ... Malcontents and maniacs around the world attach their grievances to the civilization we have helped build; in defending ourselves we defend peace and civilization in the world. ... It's promising that President Bush sees 2002 as a "war year," and feels he was put in office to fulfill a mission. His potential mission is nothing less than building a world order for a new century."

"Our New Defeatist Attitude" (Sebastian Mallaby, The Washington Post, 2002/01/07)
"In 2002, however, something like the opposite sentiment may take hold. The appetite for helping poor countries may give way to the conviction that helping is impossible. The first sign of this new pessimism comes from Argentina, whose economic collapse is widely described as a blow to the "Washington consensus." ...
Then there is the latest from Afghanistan and especially from Jalalabad. There, the winding down of fighting is leading not to the stability that Bush promised but rather to a hopeless anarchy. Warlords are seizing food aid intended for the starving locals and selling it at exorbitant prices to Western journalists who eat at hotel restaurants. ...
If we encounter setbacks, the right response is to work smarter and harder - by sending foreign peacekeepers to Jalalabad, for example. It is not to give up. This struggle between activists and defeatists will be the most fascinating contest of the year to come. On the one hand, Sept. 11 has greatly bolstered the conviction that failed states, anarchy and widespread poverty do affect our interests. On the other hand, Sept. 11 happened at a time when some aid experts and nation builders doubt their own effectiveness."

"Arafat's ship of death" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/01/07)
"The most obvious significance of this enormous weapons cache is that Arafat's real intention is not only to escalate terrorist attacks (over two tons of explosives were found on the ship) but to move beyond terrorism. ... The idea Arafat might be building his illegal army for defensive purposes does not wash. Arafat's simplest defense is not to attack Israel in the first place, in which case none of the closures and incursions into PA-controlled territory would be necessary. A much more plausible explanation - which Israel has no choice but to assume - is bucking for a pivotal role in general Arab war for Israel's destruction. ... The primary message of Arafat's ship of death is it is not possible to trust any agreement with the Palestinian people so long as it is led by the current regime."

"Police: Tampa flyer voiced support for bin Laden" (CNN.com, 2002/01/07)
"A note written by the 15-year-old boy who crashed a Cessna into a Tampa office building Saturday indicated he supported Osama bin Laden and that the act was deliberate, authorities said Sunday. Charles J. Bishop, who took the plane on an unauthorized flight across Tampa Bay, died at the scene of Saturday's crash into the 42-story Bank of America Plaza building. ... The note, which was found in the wreckage of the plane, 'clearly stated that he had acted alone, without any help from anyone else,' [Tampa Police Chief] Holder said. 'He did, however, make statements expressing his sympathy for Osama bin Laden and the events which occurred September 11, 2001.'"

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

Copyright © Watch 2001-2006. Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.

"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

› AOTW Archive



From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

Weekly archive

2006/12/04 - 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13 - 2006/11/19
2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

› From 2001/09/11 -



Monthly index

December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006

› From September 2001 -



Author index

› Ajami, Fouad - Johnson, Paul
› Kagan, Robert - Ye'or, Bat



Support Watch

Please feel free to donate if you enjoy the daily content and links Watch provides:

Contact Watch

Email:
watch-at-windsofchange.net