Archived news and commentary: January 28 - February 3, 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, February 3, 2002

News and commentary:

"Stability, America's Enemy" (Ralph Peters, Parameters, from the Winter 2001-02 issue)
"The diplomats and decisionmakers of the United States believe, habitually and uncritically, that stability abroad is our most important strategic objective. ... At present, we are preoccupied with a crusade against terrorism, which is as worthy as it is difficult. But the consistent, pervasive goal of Washington's foreign policy is stability. America's finest values are sacrificed to keep bad governments in place, dysfunctional borders intact, and oppressed human beings well-behaved. In one of the greatest acts of self-betrayal in history, the nation that long was the catalyst of global change and which remains the beneficiary of international upheaval has made stability its diplomatic god. ... At our worst in the Middle East, we unreservedly supported - or enthroned - medieval despots who suppressed popular liberalization efforts, thus driving moderate dissidents into the arms of fanatics. From our diplomatic personnel held hostage in Iran a generation ago, to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, we have suffered for our support of repressive, "stable" regimes that radicalized their own impoverished citizens. In the interests of stability, we looked the other way while secret police tortured and shabby armies massacred their own people, from Iran to Guatemala. But the shah always falls."

"The Palestinian Vision of Peace" (Yasir Arafat, The New York Times, 2002/02/03)
"But no degree of oppression and no level of desperation can ever justify the killing of innocent civilians. I condemn terrorism. I condemn the killing of innocent civilians, whether they are Israeli, American or Palestinian; whether they are killed by Palestinian extremists, Israeli settlers, or by the Israeli government. But condemnations do not stop terrorism. To stop terrorism, we must understand that terrorism is simply the symptom, not the disease."

"Bush Awaits History's Judgment" (Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, 2002/02/03)
"Bush has talked many times about keeping score in the war on terrorism, but the pages in his desk revealed that the scorecard was no mere figure of speech. He pointed to a photo of Muhammad Atef, who served as bin Laden's military chief and was the top planner of the Sept. 11 attacks. "There's an X right there," Bush said. Atef was killed during the heavy U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in November."

 

Saturday, February 2, 2002

News and commentary:

"Creatures of the cultural cringe" (Theodore Dalrymple, The Spectator, from the 2002/02/02 issue)
"Needless to say, the self-hatred of Western intellectuals is not genuine or sincere: they do not really want to beat our supermarkets into souks, as swords into ploughshares (though I must say that, from the human point of view, I personally do prefer souks to supermarkets). Rather, the intellectual’s expression of self-hatred is directed at other Western intellectuals, to prove the self-hater’s broadness of mind, moral superiority and lack of prejudice, and thus earn the approval of his peers. ... When the intellectuals of this country express no admiration for or appreciation of the cultural achievements of their civilisation’s past, when only denigration and iconoclasm appear to advance an intellectual's career, when moral stature is measured by the vehemence of denunciation of past or present abuses, real or imagined, it is hardly surprising that Muslims conclude that the West is eminently hateful; it must be, because it hates itself. ... Far from promoting reconciliation and tolerance, therefore, multiculturalism breeds contempt, hatred and violence, especially in places like Tipton, which do not represent the pinnacle of Western achievement. Every multiculturalist is a recruiting officer for al-Qa'eda."

"A Presidency Defined in One Speech" (Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, 2002/02/02)
"Few presidential speeches in recent history had been more anticipated. More than 80 million Americans watched the speech on television. An exhibitionprofessional hockey game in Philadelphia was stopped when fans demanded to see Bush on the video screens overhead."Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom," Bush said as fighter jets circled over the Capitol. 'Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.'"

News and commentary:

"Degrees of Evil" (Ron Rosenbaum, The Atlantic, from the February 2002 issue)
"[Berel] Lang argues that what gives the Hitler project its unique degree of evil - what makes it a new chapter in the history of evil, as he calls it - is its conscious artistry.... Others have been unable to resist describing the attack on the twin towers in aesthetic terms, as having a "terrible beauty" and so on. This may reflect some confusion about the nature of beauty, but it also suggests that Lang is on to something in locating the ultimate degree of wickedness in the way evil reaches its apotheosis as a genocidal art form. That and the laughter. Bin Laden's complacent grin, the self-satisfied chuckle while discussing the details of murdering thousands with "gas" ("the fire from the gas in the planes"). When I saw that, I couldn't help thinking of Hitler and his cronies sharing a silent laugh when they jested about the Final Solution's being just a "rumor." The final malignant twist of wickedness: turning the murder of innocents, turning public tragedy, into private comedy. It is in that shared laughter that Hitler and bin Laden shake hands."

"Saudi Breakpoint - A time for choosing" (David Pryce-Jones, National Review, 2002/02/01)
"Elections and opinion polls are unthinkable in this society, but if there were such things they would reveal that Osama bin Laden is a national hero, far more popular than the monarchy. Bin Laden's escape so far from capture or death gives him legendary status. His career rests on primitive anti-Americanism. To him, the presence of American bases has been sacrilege in a holy Islamic land, and the Americans have to go. ... In the aftermath of the Afghan campaign it is no longer possible for the Saudis to continue double-dealing, offering the Americans a disdainful lip-service loyalty while also tolerating, or worse encouraging, anti-American extremism. A choice has to be made, and it will determine the future of the region."

"Combating Terrorism: 'It Starts Today'" (Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, The Washington Post, 2002/02/01)
"'Let's hit them hard. We want to signal this is a change from the past. We want to cause other countries like Syria and Iran to change their views.' Syria and Iran had been connected to previous terrorist attacks, going back decades. "We want to hit as soon as possible," the president said. ... Putting boots on the ground before bombing in Afghanistan would be a good idea, he said, adding, "We are going to rain holy hell on them." Bush had vowed that the U.S. military response would not be a tentative one. He made that point again. 'You've got to put lives at risk. We've got to have people on the ground.'"

News and commentary:

"Bin Laden's sole post-September 11 TV interview aired" (CNN.com, 2002/01/31)
"Accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden said "the battle has moved to inside America" in the only television interview he's granted since the September 11 attacks - now airing for the first time. The interview was conducted by the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera network in late October. ... When asked about U.S. accusations of his "collusion" in the attacks in New York and Washington, bin Laden responded, "America has made many accusations against us and many other Muslims around the world. Its charge that we are carrying out acts of terrorism is unwarranted." But he then added, 'If inciting people to do that is terrorism, and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists.'"

"Egyptian Government Daily: America's Torture of Al-Qa'ida Prisoners Worse Than Hitler's Treatment of Jewish and Christian 'Rivals'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 340, 2002/01/31)
Al-Ahram outdoes even British tabloids in it's description of the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray: "Renowned Egyptian author and columnist for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, Anis Mansour, describes the treatment of the Al-Qa'ida and Taliban prisoners as 'worse than prisoners under the Nazis.' Following are excerpts from his article: 'No one expected it to be turned into a base for torturing Al-Qa'ida members from Afghanistan, in a way unprecedented in history - worse than what Hitler did to his rivals from among the Jews and Christians. ... Hitler's soldiers burned, strangled, and then killed. But America's prisoners were transferred in planes, on [a trip] lasting twenty hours. Under normal circumstances, the trip would not have been exhausting. But what was done to the prisoners is abominable! ... In the solitary confinement cells, the darkness is absolute. Suddenly, [the Americans] shine a brilliant light and make aggressive [loud] noise for a few moments; then quiet and darkness are restored. Those moments are enough to make the prisoners blind, deaf, and brain-damaged.'"

"Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2002/01/31)
It's interesting to note the difference between how Mr. Straw treated this case and his concern over the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray:
"British victim of a terrorist explosion in Riyadh was tortured by Saudi secret police and forced to confess to the bombing in which he was injured, the Guardian can reveal. Ron Jones, 48, a tax adviser from Scotland, was seized from the hospital bed where he was recovering from the explosion by agents from the feared interior ministry, and taken to an interrogation centre where he was systematically tortured for 67 days. ...
Mr Jones met the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, last August and told him his story. He was left in no doubt that the best policy was to keep quiet." (See also: "Not your business, Mr Straw" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/21): "Yesterday's Mail on Sunday, on the basis of a few photographs, told its readers that the suspects had been "tortured". ... Responding to the tabloid outrage, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has raised the issue with the authorities.")

"Saudis tortured me for seven weeks, says bomb suspect" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/31)
"For seven insufferable weeks, Paul Moss was subjected to merciless interrogation, deprived of sleep for days at a time, thrashed with sticks and threatened with death unless he co-operated with his Saudi secret police captors.
Caged in a tiny concrete isolation cell where a strip-light blazed relentlessly day and night, Mr Moss was allowed outside only three times, shuffling in leg irons for 15 minutes around a dismal exercise yard.
His only other venture outdoors was when his interrogators hauled him to the roof and threatened to throw him off.
"I was shackled and blindfolded," he said. "But I could tell I had been taken outside. I could hear the traffic in the distance, feel a bit of breeze, sense the heat.
"They said they would push me off the roof if I didn't answer their questions. They said they had done it before and they would just say that I had fallen while trying to escape." ...
"I could live with a little bit of slapping around, but once they started stopping the sleep it really began to play tricks with my mind."
Every 15 minutes, a guard would enter his cell and order him alternately to stand or sit. He was warned that if he nodded off he would be handcuffed to a bar above the door.
"After seven days of it I collapsed, hallucinating. They gave me 10 minutes, then carried on as before.
"They never addressed me by name, I just had a number - 42. The interrogators all spoke perfect English. You could tell they were well educated. One of them said he had been trained in America."

"Egyptian Government Weekly Reproduces Nazi Propaganda Forgery" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 339, 2002/01/31)
"An antisemitic Nazi forgery targeting American Jews was reproduced recently by an Egyptian government weekly. An article by Salah Al-Din Hilmi, titled "The Jews are Bloodsuckers and Will Yet Conquer America," appeared in the Egyptian government weekly Akher Sa'a and included a photocopy of a forged document that Hilmi claimed is kept at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia... ... 'A great danger threatens the United States of America. This great danger is the Jew... ... Why? Because they are vampires, and vampires cannot live on other vampires... They must live among Christians and others who do not belong to their race.'"

"At Camp David, Advise and Dissent" (Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, The Washington Post, 2002/01/31)
"Powell noted that everyone in the international coalition was ready to go after al Qaeda, but that extending the war to other terrorist groups or countries could cause some of them to drop out. The president said he didn't want other countries dictating terms or conditions for the war on terrorism. 'At some point,' the president said, 'we may be the only ones left. That's okay with me. We are America.'"

"Group threatens to kill kidnapped U.S. reporter" (CNN.com, 2002/01/31)
"The kidnappers of a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan claim their hostage is an agent for Israel and have threatened to kill him within 24 hours if their demands are not met. They also have warned American journalists in Pakistan to get out of the country within three days or "be targeted," according to an e-mail obtained by CNN and other news agencies. ... The kidnappers call themselves "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty." They have demanded the release of all Pakistanis held by the United States as a result of the war on terrorism."

News and commentary:

"Camp X-Ray exposes a deeper malaise" (Fatima Najm, Arab News, 2002/01/30)
An anti-American editorial critisizing the treatment of the prisoners at Camp X-Ray: "And yet, almighty America has decided it will do as it pleases with its prisoners: and to heck with international law. They have humiliated the prisoners by shaving their heads and beards, made them strip, and then wear a uniform that includes goggles to blind them, ear muffs to block sound and hoods to further disorient them. And gloves too. No wonder British tabloid headlines are screaming "TORTURE". It’s sensory deprivation. Others have used this method as have the Israelis and now America has joined their infamous ranks. So much for civilized society." (See also: "Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: A Deafening Silence" (Human Rights Watch, December 2001) for some perspective on what constitutes a "civilized society".)

"Dead Man Walking" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2002/01/30)
"Yasir Arafat is a dead man walking. Few American, Israeli or Arab leaders, not to mention Palestinians, really believe anymore that he will ever lead his people into a peace deal with Israel. ... And finally, by importing the Ship of Fools — a boatload of advanced weapons from Iran while he was insisting that he was abiding by a cease-fire — Mr. Arafat destroyed a central argument of Israeli doves: that Israel could accept a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, because it would be "demilitarized" and unable to threaten either Israel or Jordan. Says the Middle East writer David Makovsky, 'Everyone hoped Arafat would be Nelson Mandela, but he turns out to be Robert Mugabe.'"

"In Speech, Bush Calls Iraq, Iran and North Korea 'an Axis of Evil'" (David E. Sanger, The New York Times, 2002/01/30)
"President Bush told Americans tonight that "our war against terror is only beginning" and sent new warnings to terrorists around the world and to three nations - Iran, Iraq and North Korea. ... In his first State of the Union address, Mr. Bush seemed to be outlining a rationale for future action, if he deems it necessary, not only against terrorists but against any hostile states developing weapons of mass destruction. ... In haunting words of warning, Mr. Bush said American intelligence now believed that tens of thousands of potential terrorists have been trained by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan since 1996 and 'are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs — set to go off without warning.'" (See also: "President Delivers State of the Union Address" (The White House, 2002/01/29))

"A Day to Speak of Anger and Grief" (Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, 2002/01/30)
"The president drove past cheering, flag-waving crowds to ground zero. ... Along with destruction far worse than anything he had seen on television or heard about from his advisers, he encountered a crowd of rescue workers brimming with patriotism and hungry for revenge. They were an "unbelievably emotional" crowd demanding justice, he recalled in the interview. As he walked through the area, the president faced a wild scene. "I cannot describe to you how emotional" the workers were, he said. "Whatever it takes," they shouted. One pointed to him as he walked by and yelled out: 'Don't let me down.'"

"X-Ray, From Close Up - The only thing tortured is the anti-American arguments" (Toby Harnden, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/01/30)
"The sad thing is that the British media don't care what's really happening. On the left, the story is a way to attack Donald Rumsfeld, who is the new European bogeyman now that it is no longer tenable to portray President Bush as an amiable doofus. ... The central rationale for Camp X-Ray is that proper interrogations need to be carried out and future al Qaeda attacks prevented. Guarding the inmates is dangerous but vital work. My own carping countrymen, who may well be saved from an atrocity in Britain as a result, stand to be among the principal beneficiaries of the exercise. But my advice to Americans would be to expect precious little thanks for it."

 

Tuesday, January 29, 2002

News and commentary:

"The Hundred Years War - Afghanistan is only the first battle" (Anne Applebaum, Slate, 2002/01/29)
"The war on terrorism will not end in this generation, or even in the lifetime of anyone old enough to read this article. ... Nevertheless, al-Qaida is only the latest manifestation of a much larger and more enduring anti-Western, anti-capitalist, and anti-American phenomenon. ... It is worth noting that the last great wave of capitalist growth and globalization, led by 19th-century Britain, came to an end partly thanks to Marxism, which also got its start as a small, fanatical, anti-capitalist cult. But cults can grow quickly, particularly when their potential membership is large. And indeed, the second, related reason why the war on terrorism will not end quickly is demographic. To put it bluntly, it is unlikely that the enemies of America, or of global capitalism, will grow any fewer, or any less diverse."

"What Went Wrong?" (Bernard Lewis, The Atlantic, from the January 2002 issue)
"If the peoples of the Middle East continue on their present path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression, culminating sooner or later in yet another alien domination - perhaps from a new Europe reverting to old ways, perhaps from a resurgent Russia, perhaps from some expanding superpower in the East. But if they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences, and join their talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavor, they can once again make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a major center of civilization. For the time being, the choice is theirs."

"Commit for the Long Run" (Ronald D. Asmus and Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2002/01/29)
"Sept. 11 should teach us that neither timid multilateralism nor narrow realism is good enough. Osama bin Laden struck from an Afghanistan we had abandoned, acting with the financial and spiritual support of an Arab world whose failed, tyrannical political systems we had helped prop up. In the 1940s, the challenge was to save democracy in Europe. Today it is to promote democracy in the Arab world as an antidote to radical Islam. Illegitimate anti-Western governments inch closer every day to acquiring weapons of mass destruction, posing a threat to millions. Must we wait for another attack, perhaps involving these awful weapons, before we use our power and influence to compel change? ... This is not a crusade. It's a foreign policy of enlightened self-interest. Just as the Korean War, Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Lusitania taught us that we can't immunize ourselves against the world's problems, Sept. 11 must spur us to launch a new era of American internationalism. Let's not squander this opportunity."

"Let Them Be P.O.W.'s" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2002/01/29)
"When I first wrestled with this issue, I thought I was going to wind up endorsing President Bush's view that the prisoners are, as he put it today, "killers" rather than P.O.W.'s. But as I read the convention and talked to legal experts, it became clear that the administration's arguments, while initially persuasive, have the disadvantage of being wrong. ... But the law is clear: We should presume that detainees are P.O.W.'s and then convene a tribunal to sift among them and exclude those who did not fight in the Taliban army. This corresponds to what we did in the gulf war, when the first Bush administration meticulously followed the Geneva Conventions."

"Bush Reconsiders Stand on Treating Captives of War" (Katharine Q. Seylee et al., The New York Times, 2002/01/29)
"After a lengthy meeting with his national security team today, President Bush said he was reconsidering whether Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should be protected under the Third Geneva Convention. But he quickly added that they were "killers" who would not be granted the status of prisoners of war. ... Secretary Powell agrees with the president's view that the captives should not be classified as prisoners of war, but he has sought to have the Bush administration affirm that the international law of war does govern the United States in its treatment of the captives."

"Afghan Campaign's Blueprint Emerges" (Dan Balz, Bob Woodward and Jeff Himmelman, The Washington Post, 2001/01/29)
"In so many words, Powell and Armitage would be asking Pakistan to help destroy what its intelligence service had helped create and maintain: the Taliban. Armitage called the Pakistani intelligence chief, Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, with whom he had met the previous day, to the State Department. This is not negotiable, he told the general, handing him a single sheet of paper with the seven demands. You must accept all seven parts. At 1:30 p.m. Powell called Musharraf. "As one general to another," Powell said, "we need someone on our flank fighting with us. Speaking candidly, the American people would not understand if Pakistan was not in this fight with the United States." Musharraf said that Pakistan would support the United States with each of the seven demanded actions."

"The Prince Protests" (Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, 2002/01/29)
"Ask a Saudi official here to talk about the lessons Saudi Arabia must draw from Sept. 11 and the response almost invariably veers thousands of miles to the West Bank and Gaza. Look for a Saudi effort to combat bin Laden's propaganda and you'll find instead a state-directed media onslaught echoing his rhetoric about Israeli crimes and American culpability. The intention is not to attack America or undermine the alliance -- that's what Abdullah wants to make clear. The Saudi ruler is merely taking cover behind the Middle East's most proven political shield. Still, the effect is the same -- at a time when the United States desperately needs its Muslim allies to defend it against bin Laden's lies and denounce his extremist ideology, it finds a Saudi ruler who would insist on making Israel, rather than bin Laden, the center of Arab attention, and subject U.S. rather than Saudi policy to critical dissection."

 

Monday, January 28, 2002

News and commentary:

"My Holy War" (Jonathan Raban, The New Yorker, from the 2002/02/04 issue)
"The essential charter of the jihad movement - its "Mein Kampf" - is Sayyid Qutb's "Milestones" (1964). ... The heart of Qutb's argument rests on a rhetorical flourish: the modern world exactly reflects the state of things at the beginning of the seventh century, before the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The richest parts of Arabia were then occupied by foreign imperialists - Romans and Persians. Drinking, fornication, shopping, and vulgar entertainment were the chief pursuits of a morally bankrupt society sunk in jahiliyyah, the condition of ignorance, barbarism, and chaos from which the Arabs were providentially rescued by the gift of the Koran. ... The twentieth century was a new jahiliyyah, and the great project of the Islamic revival was the restoration of the rule of Allah by force of arms. The coming jihad must be global in scale. ... In his Koranic commentary, "In the Shade of the Qur'an," Qutb suggested that the believer's brief sojourn on earth should be spent "purifying the filthy marsh of this world." Rich, sexy, Truman-era America gave him a taste of this world at its filthiest and marshiest. ... It is easy to see death's erotic allure for a man of Qutb's temperament, raised on the Koran's worldly and sensual depiction of the hereafter. The Gardens of Bliss resemble nothing so much as the great Playboy Mansion in the sky, watered by underground springs (all sorts of delightful wetness abound in Paradise), and furnished with cushions and carpets designed for life on the horizontal. ... It reads like the dream of a repressed and awkward man who might be a young soldier on a foreign posting, or Sayyid Qutb in Greeley, Colorado, or Mohamed Atta in Harburg, Germany."

"The Media and GI Joe" (Chris Bray, Reason, 2002/01/28)
"The attempts to sound an alarm were more often ignored, though, and then some. In June 2000, a national commission formed by Congress released a major report warning that terror attacks from overseas were increasingly likely. But Bruce Shapiro, a contributing editor at The Nation, was too smart to fall for the idea that terrorists might ever attack the U.S.; he cleverly broke down the truth about the report for readers of the online magazine Salon. The headline read, "The hyping of domestic terrorism: Why a new report on the threat of international terrorist attacks on U.S. soil is a con job."

"EU Stands by Arafat Despite U.S. Criticism" (The Washington Post, 2002/01/29)
"The European Union will pledge continued support for Yasser Arafat on Monday despite the United States' increased criticism of the beleaguered leader and his Palestinian Authority, diplomats said. ... "We can't just wish away either side in this (Middle East peace process)," [European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten] said in televised remarks. "There is no alternative to the Mitchell plan," he added, referring to proposals by an international panel led by ex-U.S. Senator George Mitchell last year for a ceasefire to be followed by confidence-building measures and renewed peace talks."

"Female suicide bomber kills one in capital" (Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/01/28)
"A female Palestinian suicide bomber wearing explosives strapped to her waist blew herself up in downtown Jerusalem yesterday afternoon, killing Pinhas Tokatli, 81, of Jerusalem and wounding more than 150 people, four seriously. ... It was also believed to be the first suicide bombing carried out by a woman, after dozens by Palestinian men. ... Cabinet secretary Gideon Sa'ar said the attack was "a direct result of the actions and failures of Yasser Arafat.... He bears exclusive responsibility for these attacks." He said Arafat is encouraging suicide attacks through speeches like the one he gave in Ramallah on Saturday calling for "millions of martyrs" to march on Jerusalem and saying: 'Please God, give me the honor of being one of holy Jerusalem's martyrs.'"

"'We Will Rally the World'" (Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, The Washington Post, 2002/01/28)
"Bush responded that he wanted a list of demands for the Taliban. "Handing over bin Laden is not enough," he told Powell. He wanted the whole al Qaeda organization handed over or kicked out. Rumsfeld interjected. "It is critical how we define goals at the start, because that's what the coalition signs on for," he said. Other countries would want precise definitions. "Do we focus on bin Laden and al Qaeda or terrorism more broadly?" he asked rhetorically. "The goal is terrorism in its broadest sense," Powell said, "focusing first on the organization that acted yesterday." "To the extent we define our task broadly," Cheney said, "including those who support terrorism, then we get at states. And it's easier to find them than it is to find bin Laden." "Start with bin Laden," Bush said, 'which Americans expect. And then if we succeed, we've struck a huge blow and can move forward.'"

"Detainees Are Not P.O.W.'s, Cheney and Rumsfeld Declare" (Katharine Q. Seylee, The New York Times, 2002/01/28)
"Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him today to Guantánamo, "There is no ambiguity in this case." "They are not P.O.W.'s," he said before touring the United States naval base at Guantánamo, where 158 prisoners from Afghanistan are being held. "They will not be determined to be P.O.W.'s." Mr. Rumsfeld said he was touring the detention center, known as Camp X-Ray, not so much to inspect the conditions as to buck up the troops who are guarding the prisoners, whom he called 'among the most dangerous, best trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth.'"

"Pity the al-Qa'eda detainees, being guarded by women" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/28)
"The rhetorical device of a president declaring war on terrorism doesn't confer legal status on assassins under the Geneva Convention. Presidents have declared war on drugs, poverty and sin, but it hardly follows that the authorities have to treat arrested drug dealers as prisoners of war. This doesn't mean that the detainees have no rights or that they may be subjected to inhumane treatment. It simply means that they have no rights under the Geneva Conventions or any other convention regulating the conduct of belligerents."

 

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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)

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