Archived news and commentary: September 9 - 15, 2002

2002/09/23 - 2002/09/29
2002/09/16 - 2002/09/22
2002/09/09 - 2002/09/15
2002/09/02 - 2002/09/08
2002/08/26 - 2002/09/01
2002/08/19 - 2002/08/25
2002/08/12 - 2002/08/18
2002/08/05 - 2002/08/11
2002/07/29 - 2002/08/04
2002/07/22 - 2002/07/28
2002/07/15 - 2002/07/21
2002/07/08 - 2002/07/14
2002/07/01 - 2002/07/07

Sunday, September 15, 2002

News and commentary:

"Bin Laden dead, says comrade" (Leo Schlink, news.com.au, 2002/09/15)
"Osama bin Laden's supporters say the al-Qaeda leader is dead. Shahid Ayan, who was hiding in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains with bin Laden during United States air raids in December, said the terrorist chief died 10 months ago. "Yes, Osama bin Laden is dead, but the jihad will continue until Judgment Day," he told United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Bayan. Shahid said that late on December 10 – "the 24th night of Ramadan" – there were "some scary explosions" in the area where bin Laden's cave was located. "The cave was completely erased from the ground and became nothing," he said. "This was the only cave of the 15 that was destroyed by an enormous 52ft (16m) missile and there is no doubt that bin Laden died." Shahid said bin Laden had taken refuge in the caves on November 15 with about 320 fighters. US forces bombarded the area with laser-guided bombs and AGM-142s – television-guided missiles with earth-shattering warheads." (See also: "Afghans say al Qaeda surrounded" (CNN.com, 2001/12/10): "In addition to attacks by heavy bombers and fighters, U.S. forces dropped a 15,000-pound "daisy cutter" bomb on a cave in the area Sunday. "It was believed that that's where some substantial al Qaeda forces would be, and possibly including senior leadership," said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, a Pentagon spokesman. Stufflebeem said the cave "should no longer be usable for anybody to get in or out of," but no one had been able to get close enough to see whether anyone had been killed. Dropped by parachute from a cargo plane, the "daisy cutter" spreads a flammable slurry over a wide area before igniting it, killing nearly everyone within 600 feet of the blast. It is the largest conventional weapon in the U.S. arsenal.")

"Saudis May Change Stance on Iraq" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/15)
"The Saudi foreign minister said Sunday the kingdom would be "obliged to follow through" if the United States needed bases in the kingdom to attack Iraq under U.N. authority. The comments to CNN by Prince Saud al-Faisal would mark a significant shift in Saudi policy. In an interview last month with The Associated Press, Saud declared that U.S. facilities in the desert kingdom would be off limits for an attack on Iraq. When asked by CNN specifically if Saudi bases would be available to Washington, Saud said: "Everybody is obliged to follow through." Saud said, however, that he remained opposed in principle to the use of military force against Saddam Hussein or a unilateral American attack."

"How Saddam Happened" (Christopher Dickey and Evan Thomas, Newsweek, from the 2002/09/23 issue)
"The history of America's relations with Saddam is one of the sorrier tales in American foreign policy. Time and again, America turned a blind eye to Saddam's predations, saw him as the lesser evil or flinched at the chance to unseat him. No single policymaker or administration deserves blame for creating, or at least tolerating, a monster; many of their decisions seemed reasonable at the time. Even so, there are moments in this clumsy dance with the Devil that make one cringe. It is hard to believe that, during most of the 1980s, America knowingly permitted the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission to import bacterial cultures that might be used to build biological weapons. But it happened. ...
The Bush administration played down Saddam's darkness after the gulf war. Pentagon bureaucrats compiled dossiers to support a war-crimes prosecution of Saddam, especially for his sordid treatment of POWs. They documented police stations and "sports facilities" where Saddam's henchmen used acid baths and electric drills on their victims. One document suggested that torture should be "artistic." But top Defense Department officials stamped the report secret. One Bush administration official subsequently told The Washington Post, "Some people were concerned that if we released it during the [1992 presidential] campaign, people would say, 'Why don't you bring this guy to justice?'" (Defense Department aides say politics played no part in the report.)"

"Liberty Wins - So Far" (Jeffrey Rosen, The Washington Post Outlook, 2002/09/15)
"In the course of researching the state of liberty and security after 9/11, I've been especially struck by how restrained America's legal response appears when contrasted with that of our European allies. Although they weren't directly attacked, the countries of the European Union passed anti-terrorism measures during the past year that are far more sweeping than anything adopted in the United States. ...
The Bush administration has tried to emulate its European allies by expanding executive authority in similarly dramatic ways. ... What distinguished America from Europe, however, is how quickly all three of these extreme positions met with opposition from the other two branches of government. ...
The executive branch tried to increase its own authority across the board, but the courts and Congress are insisting on a more reasoned balance between liberty and security. Of all of the lessons about America's strength that have emerged since the attacks, this is one of the most reassuring."

"We Will Prevail" (Theodore Olson, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/09/15)
"But never before in our history have so many civilian citizens, engaged in the routines of their daily lives, who neither individually nor collectively had done anything to provoke the savage attack that they were to experience that day, been brutally murdered for the simple reason that they were Americans, and because they stood, in their countless individual lives, for all the things that America symbolizes. ...
The terrorists of Sept. 11 cannot prevail in a world occupied by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the White House. They cannot coexist with these ideals, these principles, these institutions and these symbols. So they cannot survive, much less prevail, in the same world as America. ...
The very qualities that bring immigrants and refugees to this country in the thousands every day, made us vulnerable to the attack of Sept. 11, but those are also the qualities that will make us victorious and unvanquished in the end."

"David Duke's Kinda Kingdom" (Deroy Murdock, New York Post, 2002/09/15)
"As a new study from the Saudi Institute and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies states, "Saudi officials disseminate hate literature openly in the United States." The Riyadh-funded Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America published Abdulla Al-Tarekee's "A Muslim's Relations with Non-Muslims - Enmity or Friendship." "The unbelievers, idolaters, and others like them must be hated and despised," Al-Tarekee writes. 'We must stay away from them and create barriers between us and them." He adds: "Qur'an forbade taking Jews and Christians as friends, and that applies to every Jew and Christian, with no consideration as to whether they are at war with Islam or not.'" (See also: "Saudis Spread Hate Speech in U.S." (Saudi Institute, 2002/09/09))

"Blind to Evil" (Ronald Radosh, New York Post, 2002/09/15)
"Thus, coming to the ad pages of The New York Times will be what [the radical academics and Hollywood celebrities] call "A Statement of Conscience," calling on the "people of the U.S. to resist" American policy, which they claim shows "grave dangers to the people of the world," who want us to join them in resisting "the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration." ...
The petition-signers seem unaware of the dangers posed by radical Islam, al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and other powers which form what our president has rightfully called "an axis of evil." Indeed, they mock the view that a simple contest exists between "good v. evil," when the real issue is the effort to wage "war abroad and repression at home." Included in their list of such horrible acts of aggression are what they call the "attack" on Afghanistan, the "trail of death and destruction" caused by - Israel - and the blank check the U.S. government wants to kill and bomb whomever it wants. Their description of America today: a country under the thumb of "repression over society," with free speech "suppressed," groups falsely called "terrorist," a nation they hint sits on the edge of totalitarianism." (See also: "US artists damn 'war without limit'" (Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, 2002/06/14))

"The doves are the cynics" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/15)
"Many fallacies have proliferated about the prospective conflict with Iraq, but the most objectionable is the claim that the nations that propose military action against Saddam are acting cynically, for reasons of realpolitik, while those countries opposed to war are driven only by moral reservations. According to this analysis, President Bush and the Prime Minister have sacrificed ethics to aggressive national self-interest, in contrast to the high-minded leaders of continental Europe, who are nobly trying to do the right thing. In fact, the opposite is the case. ...
On the one side, there are the nations exacting a price for support, or waiting to see what happens, or putting party political considerations ahead of strategic thinking. On the other, are the countries - only two, so far - striving to rid the world of a maniac who brandishes the most terrifying weapons, who was behind the 1993 attempt to destroy the World Trade Center, and who holds his own people in miserable captivity. In this perilous but necessary endeavour, it is Mr Bush and Mr Blair who are the true idealists."

Added in archive:
"How Muslim Laid Claim to a Great World Religion" (David Pryce-Jones, New York Post, 2002/09/08)
"The Clash of Civilizations" (Victor Davis Hanson, New York Post, 2002/09/08)
"We are waging a just war" (David Pryce-Jones, The New Criterion, from the November 2001 issue)

 

Saturday, September 14, 2002

News and commentary:

"Saddam Hussein Trained Al Qaeda Fighters - Report" (Reuters, 2002/09/14)
"British Prime Minister Tony Blair's promised dossier on Iraq is to reveal that Saddam Hussein trained some of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The dossier is also expected to disclose that the Iraqi leader has reconstructed three plants to manufacture biological and chemical weapons, it said. ... The Sunday Telegraph said a draft version of the dossier contains detailed information on how two alleged leading al Qaeda members, Abu Zubair and Rafid Fatah, underwent training in Iraq and are still linked to the Baghdad government."

"Zionists Manipulate The World Through Movies: Cinema Expert" (Islam Online, 2002/09/14)
The heading of the article and the title of the "study" says it all: "Israeli movie makers use the cinema industry as a tool to distort the image and goals of the Palestinian cause in the western mentality, said an Iraqi researcher and movie experts. The Zionist lobby uses its huge role in the movie industry in the west and in the occupied territories as an effective tool of propaganda to publicize for the notion of occupying Palestine and to win the sympathy of the western audience, said Abdel Ghafour Al-Ne'ma in a study entitled "The Octopus of the Zionist Cinema". ...
The study also said that making movies with high production capabilities is another method to deliver a certain message the Zionists want the world to believe, the first of which was a movie, entitled "Ben Houd" produced during the silent cinema era in 1926 and then it was redone with sounds and in colors in 1959. Zionists have been using Hollywood's movie industry to spread their propaganda This movie was followed by many others, such as "Ten Commandments" produced in 1956, "Land of Pharaohs" in 1950, "Soliman and the Queen of Sheba” in 1959..." (Note: Found via the Octopus of the Blogs - Little Green Footballs)

"We must all be more sensitive" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/14)
"Among the more interesting Muslim items this past year was a story that appeared last October 11 in the Journal News, a suburban New York newspaper. It concerned a student in a Brooklyn high school, who, on September 6, 2001, stared out of the window and told his teacher: "See those two buildings? They won't be standing there next week." ...
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro interviewed the teacher, Antoinette DiLorenzo, and the boy's brother - they're Palestinian immigrants. The Journal News ran the piece on page seven, lest it provoke - all together now - "a backlash". The story held up, which is more than Shapiro's career did. By the end of the day, he was no longer the Journal News crime reporter. On September 10, 2001, a sixth-grade student of Middle Eastern origin at a Jersey City school warned his teacher to stay away from Lower Manhattan because "something bad was going to happen". ...
But don't worry. In the interests of "sensitivity", no one's covering any of these curious tales and their alarming implications. NBC News had known about the Brooklyn schoolboy before Shapiro did. "No one wanted to follow up on it," a producer said. "They figured it either wasn't true or it would be too hard." Too hard?" (See also: "Prior Knowledge of Sept. 11 Not Just Urban Legend" (Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, Insight on the News, 2002/09/10))

"The Indymedia Kids" (Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit, 2002/09/14)
"The Indymedia Kids are obviously provocateurs working for Ashcroft. Who else would respond to a reference on the Wall Street Journal's website bringing in a lot of new eyeballs by posting this?: "As far as defacing patriotic bumper stickers go, I'm all for it. Patriotism is a disease of the ignorant, kind of like believing in UFOs and palm reading. The American flag is also comparable to the Nazi flag and many people around the planet would agree with this comparison. All empires fall. Let's take down the American one." Oh, right: idiots. So which is it?" (See also:"Bump of Truth Action - Comments" (sf.indymedia.org, 2002/09/13) and "Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/12))

"The Roots of European Appeasement" (David Gelernter, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/09/23 issue)
An excellent essay: "Once upon a time we thought of appeasement as a particular approach to Hitler. We have long since come to see that it is a Weltanschauung, an entire philosophical worldview that teaches the blood-guilt of Western man, the moral bankruptcy of the West, and the outrageousness of Western civilization's attempting to impose its values on anyone else. World War II and its aftermath clouded the issue, but self-hatred has long since reestablished itself as a dominant force in Europe and (less often and not yet decisively) the United States. ... So modern Europe's visceral loathing of war is a consequence of World War I. Self-determination, anti-colonialism, and the rights of small nations are Wilsonian ideals that took hold in the 1920s. The idea of Western civilization's blood-guilt established itself in the aftermath of the peace of Versailles, bore fruit in 1930s appeasement, and still flourishes today."

"Exclusive: Scott Ritter in His Own Words" (Massimo Calabresi, TIME, 2002/09/14)
An interview with the former UN inspector Scott Ritter: "You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?
The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children - toddlers up to pre-adolescents - whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace." (See also: "Ex-Inspector Warns Against Iraq War" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/08))

"Hot pizzas lead to kidnapper" (David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/14)
How Abu Sabaya, an Abu Sayaff leader, and three hostages held by the group were located: "Philippines Marines intelligence officers had penetrated the courier network which kept Sabaya supplied with pizzas, soft drinks and burgers from a fast food chain. An American unmanned aerial drone followed the thermal image of a delivery of hot pizzas as they were carried by boat from the harbour of Zamboanga to the small coastal village of Sibuco, near Sabaya's base. Colonel Juancho Sabban, who led the search, said: "We had to make sure the pizza was hot. Otherwise, we would have lost the trail." ... Filipino troops went into the jungle and found the rebels, but Mr Burnham and Miss Yap were shot dead by their captors in the ensuing battle. Mrs Burnham was wounded in the leg. Sabaya escaped, but was killed during a gunfight at sea two weeks later." (See also: "Rescue raid ends in hostage deaths" (CNN.com, 2002/06/07))

"TV dots airwaves with inaccuracies" (The Miami Herald, 2002/09/14)
A critique of medias coverage of the "Florida terror scare": "Several stations reported that a woman in Georgia told police three Middle Easterners were coming to Miami to blow something up. (That's not what she said.) ... It was a wretched performance - worse yet, a wretched performance that dragged on for eight hours, terrorizing South Florida and smearing the daylights out of three medical students who can be counted on to contribute heavily to the next edition of the travel guide What Sucks About South Florida. ...
The worst parody of journalism Friday was actually on CNN, where the high-paid-low-rated anchor Paula Zahn speculated, without a jot or tittle of evidence, that the three men were coming to Florida to blow up the Turkey Point nuclear reactor. Now you know why CNN promotes her sex appeal rather than her news judgment. ... The most egregious offender was WSVN 7, where it sounded like the staff had to hold anchors Christine Cruz and Tom Haynes back from storming onto the causeway and personally administering lethal injections to the three detained men they'd already tried and convicted. ...
''This story started as Sinister Plot,'' Cruz warned darkly. 'Now it's become Attack on Miami.'''

"Florida terror scare a false alarm" (Rachel La Corte, AP/The Washington Times, 2002/09/14)
"Three men of Arabic descent were pulled over and detained for 17 hours yesterday after a woman reported overhearing them talking about a terrorist plot. But authorities said the men apparently were kidding around and released them. ...
The cars were stopped after a woman at a Calhoun, Ga., restaurant reported overhearing three men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent making "alarming" comments during breakfast Thursday, said Mickey Lloyd of the Georgia Department of Public Safety. The Miami Herald, citing unidentified federal investigators, said the men were playing a joke on a patron who gave them a suspicious look. According to authorities, one of the men said Americans "mourned on September 11 and they are going to mourn again on September 13." They also said the target of "possible terrorist activities" was in the Miami area." (See also: "Three freed after Florida terror scare" (BBC News, 2002/09/14): "But after their release, the students denied that making any comments or jokes about terrorism. One the three - Ayman Gheith, who has a long beard and wore a skull cap at the rest stop - said the waitress may have been influenced by his appearance. "She saw obviously the way I was dressed and maybe she put a little salt and pepper into her story," he said.")

"Top al-Qaeda suspect captured" (BBC News, 2002/09/14)
"One of the key suspects in the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington last year has been arrested in Pakistan. Yemeni national Ramzi Binalshibh, who recently claimed to have been one of the organisers in the attack, was captured earlier this week after a four-hour gun battle at a house in Karachi. Mr Binalshibh, who is said to have shared a flat with alleged hijackers' ringleader Mohammed Atta, is on the FBI's most wanted list and has a $25m bounty on his head. ...
Mr Binalshibh, 30, was detained on Wednesday, after the house where he was staying was raided by Pakistani police commandos, supported by US intelligence officers. Police surrounded the building, which housed a number of suspected al-Qaeda militants. When the police stormed the flat, a gunfight broke out, which spilled out on to nearby rooftops. Two suspects were killed, and the remaining five surrendered, including Mr Binalshibh. ... Mr Binalshibh challenged the US authorities to find him in a pre-recorded interview broadcast by the Arab TV network al-Jazeera on Thursday." (See also the profile: "Ramzi Binalshibh: al-Qaeda suspect" (BBC News, 2002/09/14))

"Agents Arrest Terror Suspects Outside Buffalo" (Don Van Natta Jr. and Philip Shenon, The New York Times, 2002/09/14)
"Federal authorities tonight arrested five men of Arab background in a suburb outside Buffalo on suspicion they were linked to a terrorist group operating in the United States, federal law enforcement officials said. ... The official said that the men were arrested after investigators learned that they had traveled to Afghanistan and received training at Qaeda camps. They returned to the United States, but the official said authorities had not determined what their plans were." (See also: "Suspects Said to Be Awaiting Order to Attack in U.S." (Philip Shenon, The New York Times, 2002/09/14): "Five Arab-American men charged today with operating an active Al Qaeda terrorist cell in western New York received weapons training in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001 and had been sent back to the United States to await the order for an attack on American targets, federal law enforcement officials said today. The five suspects, all of them born in the United States and of Yemeni descent, were arraigned today in Buffalo on federal charges of providing "material support" to terrorists.")

Added in Author index:
Martin Sieff

Added in archive:
"The Saudi-Iranian Alliance" (Martin Sieff, National Review, 2002/04/26)
"Analysis: On Israel's Sharon" (Martin Sieff, UPI, 2002/03/18)
"Danes Dump Hamlet, back tough laws" (Martin Sieff, UPI, 2001/11/21)
"Trade Center warning baffles police" (Jonathan Alter, MSNBC, 2001/10/12)
"Who Did It?" (Martin Sieff, UPI/National Review, 2001/09/11)

 

Friday, September 13, 2002

News and commentary:

"Iraq Opposes Return of Inspectors" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/13)
"A top Iraqi official said Baghdad opposes the return of U.N. weapons inspectors and President Bush's speech to the United Nations was "full of lies." "We do not accept Bush's conditions," Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in an interview in Baghdad that was broadcast Friday." (See also: "Bush Doubts Iraq Will Meet Deadline" (Barry Schweid, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/13): "In a meeting with African leaders, Bush reiterated his request for a U.N. resolution - "as soon as possible" - demanding that Saddam disarm his weapons programs. "We're talking days and weeks, not months and years," the president said in outlining his request for a U.N.-imposed deadline on Saddam. ... "I am highly doubtful that he will meet our demands. I hope he does, but I'm highly doubtful," Bush told reporters. "The reason I'm doubtful is he's had 11 years to meet the demands. For 11 long years, he has basically told the United Nations and the world he doesn't care.")

"Islamic Studies' Young Turks" (Danny Postel, The Chronicle, from the 2002/09/13 issue)
An interesting article about a new generation of Muslim scholars: "The new dissidents are similarly critical of much of the scholarship in Middle East studies, particularly of a body of work that regards Islamist social movements as expressions of "civil society" and "resistance" to the state. ...
One representative of this current is John O. Voll, a professor of Islamic history and associate director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, at Georgetown University. In 1992, he testified to a Congressional subcommittee about the Sudanese regime, an amalgam of military despotism and Islamic theocracy, that seized power in a bloody coup in 1989. He described it as "an effort to create a consensual rather than a conflict format for popular political participation." The regime allowed no opposition parties and made dissent a capital offense. Even so, to judge the Sudanese government as undemocratic, he said, was Eurocentric. ... Mr. Voll concedes that the Sudanese regime has committed human-rights violations, but says he was defending the "conceptual basis" of its rule. 'There are many different forms of democracy, and what they were attempting to do in theory was to create a consensual form of political participation.'"

"Don't Expect Anything Else" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2002/09/13)
"Here's a glimpse into the dank sewer-mind of "social activist" Jaggi Singh, in which he says the anti-Israel thugs at Concordia University had no choice but to riot. "Free speech, expression and debate are crucial values in a society presumed to be democratic, but it wasn't the protesters who were attacking those values on Monday; rather, it was the organizers of Mr. Netanyahu's event at Concordia, as well as the university administration, that gave the event a go-ahead." Got that? Smashing windows and spitting insults at 70-year old Holocaust survivors are not attacks on free speech, but inviting a former Israeli Prime Minister to talk at the University is." (See also: "Day of broken glass" (Jaggi Singh, The Globe and Mail, 2002/09/13), "Netanyahu is the victim" (Jonathan Kay, National Post, 2002/09/10) and "Violent protests force cancellation of Netanyahu speech" (AP/Haaretz, 2002/09/09))

"Arabs still deny Qaida role in 9/11" (Sana Abdallah, UPI, 2002/09/13)
"Television programs and confessions of senior al Qaida members claiming responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States have still failed to persuade many Arabs that other fellow Arabs and Muslims were behind the devastating attacks on New York and Washington. ... On the "al Jazeera Forum" call-in program after the video clips were aired, callers from around the Arab world went as far as accusing the channel of "a Zionist agenda" for blaming Arabs and Muslims for the Sept. 11 attacks. ... When one caller named Salah expressed his opinion that the U.S. administration and the "Zionists" were behind the attacks, the program's anchorwoman insisted: "We are now beyond who is responsible for the attacks and should focus on the repercussions of Sept. 11." Salah responded that, 'even if bin Laden, al Qaida and Arabs were involved in the attacks, they must have been used by the Zionists and their intelligence apparatus to achieve their goals of colonizing the Arabs and Muslims.'" (Also: "According to the Jordanian mass-circulation daily al-Dustur's Web site, the majority of online voters believed that Israel was the real party behind the attacks. The Web site showed Friday that 59 percent of a total of 2,582 voters were convinced of Israel's responsibility, while only 15 percent believed Arabs were behind the Sept. 11 attacks. In the online voting from Sept. 8 to 13, around 19 percent said they believed that "international intelligence" (meaning the CIA) was behind the attacks and 7 percent believed the "American right" was responsible.")

"The Events of September 11 and the Arab Media: The New Antisemitic Myth" (MEMRI, Special Report - No. 7, 2002/09/13)
An updated report about conspiracy theories in Arab media, claiming that American and or Jewish/Israeli elements carried out the attacks: "The Saudi daily Al-Watan published an article by the Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, in which he claimed that the September 11 attacks were an American conspiracy involving the cooperation of extremist Islamic groups formed in the days of the struggle against the Soviets. According to Garaudy, the planes could have been directed by technological means, with no real need for humans; the names that allegedly were those of the perpetrators were names of Islamic extremists known to the Americans who could easily be connected with the attacks. Like others, Garaudy also claimed that the attacks corresponded with the American strategy to take control of Central Asian oil reserves - a strategy led by the largely Jewish Pentagon hawks. Further proof, he said, was the absence of 4,000 Jews from their place of work at the World Trade Center on that day, as well as the Jews' profits from stock market deals made using their prior information on the attacks."

"Where in the world is Bin Laden?" (Khaled M. Batarfi, Arab News, 2002/09/13[?])
Found via The Corner: "Ask an Arab - or any Muslim for that matter - about Osama Bin Laden and you will be bewildered by the apparent contradiction in the answer. While most do not agree with his terrorist orientation, many do understand his motive. It is as if a group of red Indians were sitting around a fire, exchanging grievances and stories about white men's atrocities. Suddenly an overwhelmed, overburdened member shouts. "Let's kill them all!" The wiser ones will not agree to his mad proposal, but they will certainly understand where it came from - and won't hate him for it."

"9/11: Saudi, Balkan Echoes" (Stephen Schwartz, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/13)
"The second matter on my mind comes from the Kosovar Albanian journalist Blerim Shala, writing in the Prishtina daily Zeri. Blerim, a friend of mine, pointed out something noble and admirable that has been ignored by American commentators on 9/11: Before the passengers on United Flight 93 rebelled and brought down the hijacked airliner, they did something the world sees as totally American - they took a vote. Blerim wrote, 'Even in the toughest moment of their lives, these ordinary American citizens didn't lose their will to respect democratic procedure. In this way, they confronted those who, against any law and any religious and moral norm, killed civilians.'"

"Virtual soldiers in a holy war" (Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 2002/09/13)
"In fact, most experts now believe that Al Qaida has practically ceased to exist as an active organization with operational capability or, at least, that it has decided to refrain from action for now. But this void is quickly being filled by the various Web sites. The most prominent are alneda.com, jehad.net and aloswa.org. They feature many quotes from the tapes of bin Laden that have been aired during the past year by Al Jazeera, words of praise for the 15 Saudis who were among the hijackers, and sometimes statements from anonymous spokesmen promising more terror attacks. ...
These Web sites frequently cite the teachings of Mohammed Al-Muqaddasi, a Palestinian from the West Bank now imprisoned in Jordan. Muqaddasi is an ideologue from the Wahabi movement (the puritanical stream that originated in Saudi Arabia and to which the Saudi royal kingdom adheres). His books were found in Mohammed Atta's Hamburg apartment."

"Fictional Rift" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2002/09/13)
"It turns out that the disagreement among Republicans was less about going to Iraq than about going to the United Nations. It was a vastly overblown disagreement, because even the most committed unilateralist would rather not go it alone if possible. Of course you want allies. You just don't want to be held hostage to their veto. ... So what's left of the Republican revolt? Dick Armey, the sage of Lewisville, Tex., has been telling people that, sure, Iraq may have nuclear weapons, but so does France, and if you ask him, he's got more of a problem with France than with Iraq. The world now waits to see whether the Democrats will join Armey at the barricades."

"At last, a strategy on Iraq" (Financial Times, 2002/09/13)
"President George W. Bush yesterday proved himself a master of the art of turning the tables on his critics, by choosing to make his case for an urgent showdown with Iraq in terms of the very diplomatic multilateralism they hold so dear. In doing so, he delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that was, by some way, the most powerful indictment of Saddam Hussein that has been heard from the administration since the drumbeat towards war began six months ago. ...
Above all, the speech cleverly emphasised that what is at stake is the post-1945 international system itself. ...
As Mr Bush said, it is the authority of the UN itself that is challenged. The onus is on the rest of the Security Council - especially the other permanent members with a veto - to demonstrate their commitment to helping the UN and the international system it represents to face down the challenge to its authority."

"Iraq faces weapons deadline" (BBC News, 2002/09/13)
"America is pressing the UN to issue Iraq with a deadline for the return of weapons inspectors within weeks. US Secretary of State Colin Powell is starting an urgent round of talks with key UN members after President George Bush, in a speech to the UN, warned of military action. ...
Mr Powell is to meet other permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, France, Russia and China - with the possibility of Britain being asked to draw up the resolution before the end of next week, correspondents say. The resolution the US is seeking would demand the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq within weeks, with one US official telling Reuters news agency that compliance would be required on a range of other issues. "There are not going to be any negotiations with Iraq," the official said. It would also contain an implicit threat of military action either against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein or against targeted weapons sites."

 

Thursday, September 12, 2002

News and commentary:

"Bush issues ultimatum to Iraq" (BBC News, 2002/09/12)
"Iraq is a "grave and gathering danger", President Bush has told world leaders in a keynote speech at the United Nations. He issued one last chance to Iraq to comply with UN resolutions - or face America's military might. ... Mr Bush said Saddam Hussein had proved his contempt for the United Nations and listed all the UN resolutions he considered Iraq to have ignored or broken. "By his cruelties... Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself," he said. ...
He accused Saddam Hussein of allowing members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network to be based in Iraq. "If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles and all related material," he said." (See also: "A Decade of Deception and Defiance" (The White House, 2002/09/12), a document with examples of Saddam Hussein's defiance of the United Nations, and "President's Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly" (George W. Bush, The White House, 2002/09/12): "My nation will work with the U.N. Security Council on a new resolution to meet our common challenge. If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account. The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.")

"Since Durban: An entrenchment of hatred" (Anne Bayefsky, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/09/12)
"The final document of the Summit speaks of "massive institutionalized human rights violations through the acts of...apartheid in the occupied territories of the Palestinians" and calls "on business worldwide to divest from the Israeli economy..." After it became clear Israel was to be the only nation criticized in this global gathering, the United States and Israel left the government conference. The final Durban Declaration proclaims the Palestinian people to be victims of Israeli racism. FOR THE UN, post-Durban was a time of no regrets. ...
The Commission resolution of April 2002, injects Durban into every pore of the UN system. In its words, it calls upon "all relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system to become involved in the follow-up to the World Conference Against Racism...and invites specialized agencies and related organizations of the United Nations system to...adjust...their activities, programs and...strategies to implement and follow-up the Durban Declaration..." ...
In fact, to be specific in the words of the NGO Declaration, [Amnesty International] and other NGOs pledged to "call for the reinstitution of UN resolution 3379 determining the practices of Zionism as racist practices," and to "call upon the international community to impose a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state." ...
The Durban phenomenon is one of substituting the voices of alleged victims, and the false consensus of UN mob-rule, for universal standards. The disservice to the real cause of human rights could not be more fundamental." (See also: "Anti-Semitism at the United Nations: The World Conference Against Racism Becomes a World Conference For Racism" (Justice, from the Autumn 2001 issue))

"Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/12)
"A page on the far-left Web site Indymedia.org urges readers to deface other people's cars with bumper stickers that blare I CAUSED 9/11 and have the following non sequitur of an "explanation" in small print: "The driver of this vehicle knowingly participates in and condones crimes against the human race and the living world for the sole profit of the "power trinity" of big oil, the automobile industry, and the military-prison-industrial complex, and has reneged on the individual responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution and to hold government and industry accountable." In the comments section below, a reader named Brian says someone vandalized his car with one of these stickers. "I had a relative that was a victim of 9/11 and found this bumper sticker to be in very BAD TASTE!!!!" Brian writes, which prompts this response from an anonymous reader: "And if you are Jewish Bryan [sic], as we are all certain you must be, the sticker was particularly apt. As an American Jew YOU actually did cause the alleged 9/11 death of your relative by your blind support for Israel." Charming folks, aren't they?" (See also: "Bump of Truth Action - Comments" (sf.indymedia.org, 2002/09/11))

"The twin clashes within civilizations" (Mark Steyn, National Post, 2002/09/12)
"This isn't a "clash of civilizations" so much as two clashes within civilizations - in the West, between those who believe in the values of liberal democracy and those too numbed by multiculturalist bromides to recognize even the most direct assault on them; and in the Islamic world, between what's left of the moderate Muslim temperament and the Saudi-radicalized death-cult Islamists. ...
In that sense, Monday's riot at Concordia is a perfect microcosm of modern Canada: a blind eye to intolerance and subversion, coupled with inept and useless security, leading inexorably to economic suicide - in Canada's case, by finding itself on the wrong side of the North American perimeter. In the twin "clashes within civilizations," I'm pro-western and pro-Muslim. Canada's moral preeners support suicide at home and barbarism overseas." (See also: "Netanyahu is the victim" (Jonathan Kay, National Post, 2002/09/10) and "Violent protests force cancellation of Netanyahu speech" (AP/Haaretz, 2002/09/09))

"Taliban's Omar: No Rest Until U.S. Leaves Afghanistan" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/12)
"The Arabic al-Jazeera television said on Thursday it had received a statement from ousted Taliban leader Mullah Omar in which he vowed his group will not rest until it ousts U.S. forces from Afghanistan. "God willing the rule of (Islamic) sharia will return to Afghanistan and the believers will bask in God's victory. America will not relax in Afghanistan and we shall not rest until it is ousted reeling in its shame," said the statement that Jazeera said was received from Mullah Omar. ...
The statement said America was "simple-minded and arrogant. Strong with its warplanes, bombs and equipment but weak in its content. It claims to be the mother of freedom justice, while it practices the worst forms of oppression and enslavement." ...
Mullah Omar said the United States had planned to attack Afghanistan before September 11 as part of an attack on Islam. "It wanted to destroy the Muslim system and to prevent the implementation of sharia and the revival of the Islamic religion of which it is scared," the statement said."

"FBI Interrogates Shoe Bomb Suspect" (AP/ABC News, 2002/09/12)
"A man accused of trying to blow up an airliner with explosives in his shoes told FBI interrogators he was driven by anger over the treatment of Muslims in Israel, transcripts of the interrogations show. Richard Reid, 29, a British citizen and convert to Islam, told investigators that he traveled in June 2001 to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, and was angered to see "Jews with guns" inside. "His trip to Jerusalem further emboldened him to act against the west when he witnessed the many checkpoints and travel restrictions on Muslims," one interrogation transcript says. Asked why he didn't choose to attack Israel, Reid told investigators, "America is the problem, without America there would be no Israel." He also said he was worried Palestinian groups would be too paranoid to trust him."

"Divvying Up the Spoils of Iraq - The Pentagon's Vision" (Martin Sieff, The Globalist, 2002/09/12)
An interesting article on plans discussed inside Pentagon for a post-war Iraq: "In conclusion, the changes now being seriously contemplated by the Pentagon's new grand wizard of global strategy are not only unprecedented in over 80 years for the Middle East. They also represent a degree of micromanaging and a crusading ambition undreamed of by any U.S. President for even longer. In fact, it has not happened since Woodrow Wilson. At the time, he was enthusiastically assisted by the young Walter Lippmann and a motley crew of fellow idealistic, ambitious young aides resolved to end the ancient controversies of Central Europe. ...
The Versailles Conference and Peace Treaty proved to be a political and human catastrophe that spawned a second world war even more destructive than the one it ended. ...
Messrs. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and their advisors seem oblivious to the possibility that the wildly ambitious schemes they are contemplating could set off a comparable Armageddon in 20 days or 20 months, let alone 20 years."

"In Iraqi Kurdistan" (Tim Judah, The New York Review of Books, from the 2002/09/26 issue)
Brilliant reporting from Iraqi Kurdistan: "One prisoner, Muhammed Mansour Shahab Ali, said he had smuggled guns from Iraqi intelligence to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. He also claimed that two years ago he smuggled thirty refrigerator motors, given to him and an accomplice by a relative of Saddam Hussein, from Iraq to bin Laden; they were, he believes, filled with some sort of gas or liquid, although he didn't know what it was. In view of Saddam's use of chemical weapons in Kurdistan and during the Iran–Iraq war, this, if true, raises the possibility that Iraq was supplying bin Laden with materials for just such weapons. Shahab Ali said he could not give any reason why Saddam Hussein would want to support al-Qaeda, which has publicly denounced secular Arab regimes such as Saddam's. But, Ali said, "bin Laden liked fighting. He only liked fighting," implying that if al-Qaeda forces would be helpful in fighting the Kurds and now the US, Saddam would welcome them. I asked him if he had any regrets. He thought a bit and said that his only real regret was that he had strangled his wife, the mother of his twin boys, now lost somewhere in Afghanistan."

"PM links attacks to 'arrogant' West" (Sheldon Alberts, National Post, 2002/09/12)
How much "nicer" than the pre-9/11 American response to continuing Islamist terror attacks can you get?: "Jean Chrétien has linked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to perceived Western greed and arrogance and said the United States should not use its position as the world's only superpower to humiliate people in poorer nations. In an interview that aired last night on CBC-TV, the Prime Minister for the first time suggested the strikes against New York and Washington stemmed from a growing international anger at the way the United States flexes its muscle around the globe. "You cannot exercise your powers to the point of humiliation for the others. That is what the Western world - not only the Americans, the Western world - has to realize. Because they are human beings too. There are long-term consequences," Mr. Chrétien said in the pre-taped interview. "And I do think that the Western world is getting too rich in relation to the poor world and necessarily will be looked upon as being arrogant and self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits. The 11th of September is an occasion for me to realize it even more." ...
The Prime Minister suggested Western nations - and the United States in particular - have alienated the rest of the world by trying to impose their values around the globe. Americans, he said, need to be nicer in how they operate on the international stage." (See also: "Chrétien denies suggesting U.S. arrogance fuelled attacks" (Allison Dunfield, The Globe and Mail, 2002/09/12): "The Prime Minister's Office is denying reports that he suggested during a CBC interview two months ago that the Sept. 11 attacks were fuelled in part by U.S. arrogance. ... Opposition Leader Stephen Harper did not agree with the interpretation. "Mr. Chrétien's comments, particularly coming on the anniversary of 9/11, blaming the victim, are shameful. What was behind the events of Sept. 11 are the forces of evil and hatred. These must be resisted by free and democratic societies and their leaders," he said in a statement.")

"Tulkarm man kills mother over 'Jewish lover'" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/09/12)
"Miriam Sufan, 46, was stabbed to death by her son in downtown Tulkarm on Wednesday evening, because he suspected she was having an affair with a Jewish man, according to reports. The son, Adnan, told passersby that his mother was a traitor because she was having an affair with a Jew. "He was walking with his mother hand-in-hand, when he suddenly drew a big knife and started stabbing her in the chest and face," according to shopkeeper who saw the killing. ...
Another shopkeeper who also witnessed the killing said that at first he thought the woman was a collaborator. ... "That's why when the young man started stabbing the woman, no one wanted to help here. We thought the killer was a member of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades." ...
The killing took place as dozens stood by, even as the victim, a mother of five, called for help, a Tulkarm resident said. She said that only after the son fled the scene did a medical team approach the bleeding woman. The son was later arrested by the Tulkarm police, which described the murder as a 'killing with a background of honor.'"

"The German way with terror" (Simon Reeve, The Spectator, from the 2002/09/14 issue)
"For many Americans, the 30th anniversary of Munich is a timely reminder of German and European impotence in the face of terrorism. The German authorities were criminally negligent during the Munich crisis. ...
For more than two decades German officials refused to give information about what really happened at Munich, fearing accusations of anti-Semitism, and claiming there was only one short report on the attack. But a few years ago a whistleblower revealed a hoard of thousands of files. The errors made by German officials are staggering. ...
The cover-up continues: German officials have recently tried to silence witnesses, and film footage showing events at Fürstenfeldbruck has been stolen." (See also: "When The Terror Began" (Alexander Wolff, TIME, 2002/08/25))

"The Speech He Couldn't Give" (Benjamin Netanyahu, The Globe and Mail/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/12)
"Violent protesters in Montreal prevented former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from addressing students on Monday. This is what he planned to say.": "Yet, at the very moment when support for Israel's war against terror should be stronger than ever, my nation is asked by many to stop fighting. Though we are assured by friends that we have the right to defend ourselves, we are effectively asked not to exercise that right. ...
Instead of praising Israel for seeking to minimize civilian casualties through careful and deliberate action, most of the world's governments shamelessly condemn it. ...
But contrary to conventional wisdom, what has destabilized the region is not Israeli action against Palestinian terror, but rather the constant pressure exerted on Israel to show restraint. It is precisely the exceptional restraint shown by Israel that has unwittingly emboldened its enemies and inadvertently increased the threat of a wider conflict." (See also: "Netanyahu is the victim" (Jonathan Kay, National Post, 2002/09/10) and "Violent protests force cancellation of Netanyahu speech" (AP/Haaretz, 2002/09/09))

"My Name Is Adolf" (Ann Coulter, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/12)
"Among the patriotic lesson plans for 9-11 was one proposed by the National Council for Social Studies, which recommends a short story titled "My Name is Osama." Calculatedly inciting hatred toward white American boys, the story is about a nasty little boy, "Todd," who taunts an Iraqi immigrant named "Osama." This is the lesson to commemorate the biggest hate crime in history – committed by someone named "Osama" against people with names like "Todd." How about a 1942 lesson plan titled 'My name is Adolf'?" (See also: "NEA delivers history lesson" (Ellen Sorokin, The Washington Times, 2002/08/19))

"Schröder's anti-war stance puts him ahead of the pack" (Roger Boyes, The Times, 2002/09/12)
"For the first time since the 1980s, the Social Democrats are playing the anti-American card and, astonishingly given the outpouring of sympathy after September 11, most Germans are following the Chancellor's lead. "What kind of friendship is it that does not permit disagreement over the existential question of war and peace?" Herr Schröder asked the crowd. "It cannot be that a friend demands something and we immediately have to do as we are told: that's subordination and that's not my thing, not my thing at all." This statement earned big applause. It has been a similar story across the country: the Germans seem ready to vote for a politician who stands up to President Bush. ...
He has emphasised that he is against a war with Iraq - "Never under my leadership" - even if there is a United Nations mandate. Herr Schröder also seems to rule out a financial contribution to such a campaign. Plainly, a common European line on Iraq has become impossible and if the Chancellor wins the election, US-German relations will be strained."

"Can Any Good Come Of Radical Islam?" (Francis Fukuyama and Nadav Samin, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/09/12)
Fukuyama tries to save his "End of History" theory by identifying a modernizing force in Islamism comparable to those in Communism/Fascism: "It also points us in the direction of an important, if seemingly perverse, question: Could it, like both fascism and communism before it, serve inadvertently as a modernizing force, preparing the way for Muslim societies that can respond not destructively but constructively to the challenge of the West? The question is not as absurd as it may sound. Comparisons are especially tricky here, but the Bolsheviks succeeded in creating an industrialized, urbanized Russia, and Hitler managed to get rid of the Junkers and much of the class stratification that had characterized prewar Germany. Through a tortuous and immensely costly path, both of these "isms" cleared away some of the premodern underbrush that had obstructed the growth of liberal democracy. ...
If Islamism is directed as much against traditional forms of Islam as against the West, could it, too, be a source of such creative destruction?"

"The Best and Worst of 9/11/02" (Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard, 2002/09/12)
"In the Seattle Times, Jafar Siddiqui rang the PC bell, lamenting that after September 11, "the president's lieutenants began their war. Their targets were Islam, Muslims and Arabs..." Which is a nifty coincidence, since all of the hijackers were Muslims. But never mind; as Siddiqui somberly informs us, "The climate of fear had set in." "As our administration comes after Arabs and Muslims, they do so with the participation by silence of the people of this free country and by the silence of Congress," he writes. "One thinks of other places where such events have taken place, that we call dictatorships." His conclusion boggles the mind and strains any assumption of good faith: "It appears that the tragedy of Sept. 11 is being compounded by a silent but greater tragedy, a constitutional tragedy under which the rights and freedoms of every person in these United States may be imperiled for generations to come." [emphasis added] ...
Over in Britain, where the anti-Americanism is born not of stupidity, but belligerence, John Pilger wrote in the Mirror that "the lesson of September 11 ought to be understanding the rampant nature of the dominant power of the world..." and that "the far greater threat comes not from the Islamic world, but from the West." "The difficult truth," Pilger declares, 'is that Osama bin Laden and Bush/Blair are two sides of the same coin. That is the lesson of September 11.'" (See also: "Muslim Americans still bear brunt of backlash" (Jafar Siddiqui, The Seattle Times, 2002/09/10). Pilger's piece seems not to be available online.)

"Europe Pauses and Grieves, but Takes Issue With U.S." (Frank Bruni, The New York Times, 2002/09/12)
"Last year, a day after Sept. 11, a front-page editorial in the French newspaper Le Monde stated and restated the phrase, "We are all American." But on Tuesday, the same writer, Jean-Marie Colombani, in the same paper observed that "the solidarity reflex from one year ago has been drowned in a wave that leads one to believe that, in the world, we have all become anti-American." ... "Anti-Americanism is back," said Lyudmila M. Alexeyeva, a noted human rights advocate in Moscow. "America is the strongest, richest and most successful country, and people here don't like that." But Ms. Alexeyeva also seemed to speak for many Russians when she added that "Americans endured this suffering with honor." While a majority of Russians said in a recent poll that Americans deserved what happened to them, an even larger majority said they had a "good" or "very good" opinion of the United States."

"True Believers of False Rumors" (David Rohde, The New York Times, 2002/09/12)
A dispatch from Pakistan: "Raising his voice so people gathered around him on the train platform could hear, Sohail Kabir announced his reaction to the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "The question we should ask is, 'Where were all the Jews in the World Trade Center?'" said Mr. Kabir, 47, property dealer. "They all left the World Trade Center. "It's in the newspaper," he added. "There was not a single Jew." Twelve months after the attacks, reports in two Urdu-language newspapers this morning continued to feed a belief here that Israeli or American intelligence agencies carried out the strikes to stoke hatred of Muslims. False rumors circulating on the Internet that Jews were given secret warnings of the attacks were also repeated in the articles. ...
"I think Henry Kissinger is behind this whole plan," one elderly man announced. 'He has always been against Muslims and Pakistan.'"

"Hundreds rally at mosque to gloat over US suffering" (Sam Lister and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2002/09/12)
"Hundreds of Muslim militants gathered in London to gloat over America's suffering last night, scorning moderate Islamic groups in Britain, who joined MPs and community leaders in condemning last night's rally at a mosque in Finsbury Park, North London. ...
Sheikh Omar was accused by moderate Muslims of deliberately courting controversy to promote his organisation. Detectives who have carefully monitored the Syrian-born sheikh's speeches say that while he is provocative, he is careful not to break the law. The sheikh described the past year as "a war against Islam" and gave warning of more attacks against Britain and America. "If Britain and the US bomb Iraq, they will be bombed right back," he said." (See also: "Hard liners call Bin Laden 'hero'" (BBC News, 2002/09/12): "Abu Hamza warned Britain and the US: "If you were on the agenda you would see suicide bombings everywhere, just like in Israel. "So it's simple. Stay away and preserve your people." ... Dr Muhammad Al-Mass'ari, secretary general of the Commission for the Defence of Legitimate Rights, echoed his comments and said the 11 September attacks were maybe not "the wisest thing" but were "legitimate". ... 'An eye for an eye as an old book said. But it was only one eye for 100 eyes, there is still much more to do.'")

 

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

News and commentary:

"President's Remarks to the Nation" (George W. Bush, The White House, 2002/09/11)
"This nation has defeated tyrants and liberated death camps, raised this lamp of liberty to every captive land. We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power. They are discovering, as others before them, the resolve of a great country and a great democracy. In the ruins of two towers, under a flag unfurled at the Pentagon, at the funerals of the lost, we have made a sacred promise to ourselves and to the world: we will not relent until justice is done and our nation is secure. What our enemies have begun, we will finish." (See also: "President's Remarks at the Pentagon" (George W. Bush, The White House, 2002/09/11): "We fight as Americans have always fought, not just for ourselves, but for the security of our friends, and for peace in the world. We fight for the dignity of life against fanatics who feel no shame in murder. We fight to protect the innocent, so that the lawless and the merciless will not inherit the earth. In every turn of this war, we will always remember how it began, and who fell first - the thousands who went to work, boarded a plane, or reported to their posts.")

"Returning to the Battlefield" (Donald H. Rumsfeld, National Review, 2002/09/11)
Remarks delivered by the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon's September 11 memorial ceremony: "The road ahead is long. But while we have not yet achieved victory, we know, in one important sense, that the terrorists who attacked us have already been defeated. They were defeated before a shot was fired in Afghanistan. They were defeated because they failed utterly to achieve their objectives.
The terrorists wanted September 11th to be a day when innocents died; instead it was a day when heroes were born.
The terrorists wanted September 11th to be a day when hatred reigned; instead, it was a day when we witnessed love beyond measure.
We saw it in the rescue workers who rushed into burning buildings to save lives, knowing they might never emerge.
We saw it in the passengers on Flight 93, who learned what was happening, and decided it was better to fight and die in a grassy Pennsylvania field, than allow the terrorists to reach our nation's capital. ... The fruits of September 11th were not hatred, fear or self-doubt, as the terrorists intended. They were faith, hope and love - charity and courage - patience and perseverance. We have cause for hope, because we have seen evil reveal itself in our midst - and then watched it humbled by the power of simple goodness."

"Remarks of Harvard University President" (Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University, 2002/09/11)
"As we grieve for each innocent life lost, we cannot evade the truth that what we commemorate here today is more just than the tragedy of human lives lost multiplied thousands of times over. It is the result of a calculated plan to murder unsuspecting people, innocent people - not because of anything they did or even anything they stood for - but because they were members of this national community enjoying the fruits of freedom. Those who killed on September 11 and those who celebrate the killing remind us of the eternal existence of evil. And we regard the world with understanding and openness, but we must also face it with moral clarity. We may debate the nature of truth, but there are truths beyond debate. Pursuit of that truth is OUR particular objective."

"US pays tribute to the dead" (BBC News, 2002/09/11)
"New Yorkers have been taking part in a moving ceremony at the site of the fallen twin towers exactly one year after the attacks on the World Trade Center - with the names of each of the 2,801 people who died there read out. The ceremony at the site now known as Ground Zero began at 0846 local time (1246GMT/1346BST) with a minute's silence to mark the moment when the first of two hijacked passenger jets was crashed into the World Trade Center."

"Behind the Hate" (David Pryce-Jones, National Review, 2002/09/11)
"Arab countries are centralized and militarized secret police states inhabited by subjects of a ruler and not by citizens. Injustice is everywhere. The big cities deteriorate into slums, and the countryside into ruin. The bonus of oil wealth ebbs away in corruption and inequality. Between them, dictators like Gamal Abdul Nasser, Saddam Hussein, and so many more, have put an end to settled life. The cruelty and waste are impossibly sad. Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the hijackers have a mindset conditioned by this general failure, and they speak for millions of Muslims from Algeria to Pakistan and beyond. The only solution they envisage to the despair and envy from which they are suffering is at last to build the model of the Islamic society laid down long ago. Like all utopian hopes, this is irrational, and cannot be programmed. Incapable of realization, the proposed solution is only an aggravation of the condition. That would be bad enough in itself, though still open to analysis. But the bin Ladens and other Islamists shut off debate through the conviction that their utopia could indeed by realized if the West did not stand in the way. Unable to explain why the West would want to do anything so stupid and pointless, they go on to maintain that the West consists of Christians or Jews who have a plot to destroy Islam and occupy its lands and generally behave like a Great Satan. However contorted or far-fetched, this alibi serves the purpose of allowing Muslims to blame the West for their own failures, and to present themselves as innocent and powerless victims."

"9/11 wicked but a work of art, says Damien Hirst" (Rebecca Allison, The Guardian, 2002/09/11)
"The artist Damien Hirst said last night he believed the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks "need congratulating" because they achieved "something which nobody would ever have thought possible" on an artistic level. ... In an interview, Hirst told BBC News Online: "The thing about 9/11 is that it's kind of an artwork in its own right. It was wicked, but it was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised visually." Describing the image of the hijacked planes crashing into the twin towers as "visually stunning", he added: "You've got to hand it to them on some level because they've achieved something which nobody would have ever have thought possible, especially to a country as big as America. So on one level they kind of need congratulating, which a lot of people shy away from, which is a very dangerous thing." ... Hirst also said any military action to stop more terrorist acts would be a mistake: 'I think the thing to do is to stand up and say hang on a minute - this is people, these are bodies, these are lives. The surest way to make it happen again is to go and start throwing stones at somebody.'"

"Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/11)
"In an interview with Newsweek, former South African president Nelson Mandela defends Saddam Hussein and lashes out at Israel: "What we know is that Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Nobody talks about that. Why should there be one standard for one country, especially because it is black, and another one for another country, Israel, that is white." This is racist drivel. Iraq is Arabic, not black; and Israel, a multiracial democracy, is no more "white" than America is." (See also: "Nelson Mandela: The United States of America is a Threat to World Peace" (Newsweek, 2002/09/10) "Because what [America] is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms. And you will notice that France, Germany Russia, China are against this decision. It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W. Bush's desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America.")

"The Wages of September 11" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2002/09/11)
"Indeed, as the months progressed the problems inherent in "the European way" became all too apparent: pretentious utopian manifestos in lieu of military resoluteness, abstract moralizing to excuse dereliction of concrete ethical responsibility, and constant American ankle-biting even as Europe lives in a make-believe Shire while we keep back the forces of Mordor from its picturesque borders, with only a few brave Frodos and Bilbos tagging along. Nothing has proved more sobering to Americans than the skepticism of these blinkered European hobbits after September 11."

"She's come undone" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, 2002/09/11)
Sullivan decodes Susan Sontag's Op-Ed in yesterday's New York Times: "Of course, it is Sontag who is drowning here. She knows she cannot countenance the evil of radical Islamism. She knows she cannot defend Saddam or Osama. She knows she cannot truly oppose self-defense against the horrors of the terror masters. For how can she be a real lefty and support people who enslave women, deny human rights and murder homosexuals and Jews? But her worldview is so marinated in decades of anti-Americanism, in a loathing of capitalism, of free markets, of free trade and ideas, that she cannot bring herself to live up to her own principles. So she waits in a welter of metaphor until they murder us again." (See also: "Real Battles and Empty Metaphors" (Susan Sontag, The New York Times, 2002/09/10))

"Europeans are on the wrong side of the new Berlin Wall" (James Bone, The Times, 2002/09/11)
"Crossing the Atlantic this summer was like riding the S-Bahn in the bad old days between West and East Berlin: It was a scarily schizophrenic experience. Never since I first moved to New York two decades ago has the mutual incomprehension between the United States and Europe been quite so profound. Though still nominally allies, Europe and the United States exist in different realms. I'm convinced, though, that the division between them is not so much geographical as it is temporal. This is a Berlin Wall in time. ...
The terror attacks last September 11 were one of those extremely rare one-day events - like the storming of the Bastille or the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand - that inaugurate a new era. ...
Europe, however, is still lingering at the Checkpoint Charlie of this new era, uncertain whether it really has to cross over through the time- lock or whether it can succeed in barricading itself in the familiar fortress of the past. ... The European public, mired in what has suddenly become the past, really has no understanding of America's new stance. But for anyone living in the new era, it is quite easy to comprehend. Since September 11, America has been forced to jettison the defence doctrine of the Cold War and embrace the pre-emptive posture of Israel - with whom it now shares the emnity of the Islamist movement and much of the Arab world. ...
European politicians and the public whose votes they court would do well to face up to the future by themselves, before President Saddam Hussein or one of Osama bin Laden’s followers forces them to do so."

"America's revenge: to turn tyrannies into democracies" (Michael Ledeen, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/11)
"Few have noticed that President Bush has in fact outlined a war of vast dimensions. Lurking behind the awkward phrase "regime change" is a vision of a war to destroy the Middle Eastern tyrannies and replace them with freer societies, as was done in Japan and Germany after the Second World War. ...
The states that undergird the terror network are Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia. They do not share ethnicity (Iranians are not Arabs) or even religious conviction (both Saddam and the Assad family in Syria came to power as secular socialists), but they are all petty tyrants. And the most lethal weapon against them is the people they oppress. ...
In one of those delightful paradoxes in which history so delights, America's enemies sought to destroy it on September 11, only to find their own survival at mortal risk. And all those who said the world would never be the same, thinking that America had been fundamentally shaken and demoralised, will soon find that, instead, America's enemies will be the subject of revolutionary change at its hands."

"I found where I was when the terrorists hit home" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/11)
"But none of that - none of it - prepared me for the avalanche of anti-American vituperation that poured from the mouths (and keyboards) of the educated, opinion-forming classes of Britain when the twin towers of the World Trade Centre fell. In the first days, while many Americans here were still trying desperately to contact friends and family in New York to ascertain whether they and their loved ones were still alive (telephones were down, e-mail proved to be the only functioning communications system), we were treated to the Guardian comment pages filled with puerile vindictive abuse, largely to the effect that America had got everything that it deserved ("A bully with a bloody nose is still a bully"). ...
Who could possibly find it anything other than morally grotesque to bait and taunt people who have just suffered the worst terrorist attack in history - the mass murder of what at the outset was thought might be about 10,000 innocent civilians? Well, quite a few people as it turned out."

"The War Ahead" (John Keegan, New York Post, 2002/09/11)
"In the circumstances, it seems incomprehensible that sensible Westerners can possibly doubt the need to prevent Saddam acquiring nuclear weapons. Those in the United States who oppose military action seem motivated by short-term fears, particularly that action might make things worse. Those in Europe who oppose it reveal an old-fashioned anti-Americanism. ...
Words of caution may seem wise at the moment. How will they sound when Saddam has the bomb? It will be too late then for the opponents of action now to say that they meant well. Saddam does not mean well at all. Meanwhile, the hidden apparatchiks of the Terror War are laying their plans and keeping their powder dry."

"No time for the mawkish" (Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times, 2002/09/11)
"Nobody was ready for "healing" on December 7, 1942, and "closure" was the last thing anybody wanted. America, on the first anniversary of that other date that lives in infamy - often the benchmark by which September 11 is judged - wanted blood and vengeance, without apology. No flowers, no teddy bears, and no exploration of the national angst. No presidential admonitions to think of Shinto as a religion of peace, no appeals to understand the frustrations that drove the misunderstood Nazis to rape Poland and bomb London."

"The imperial era begins" (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, 2002/09/11)
"The defining feature of this new mentality is the awareness (gained for most of us one year ago, today) that for the first time in human history, the advance of technology makes possible the killing of millions of Americans by just a handful of other people on the other side of the world. ... Now, vigilance is not enough. Now, only constant action may reduce the risk. ... And we have not yet found our stride. The more we fear, the more we will look. And the more we look, the more danger we will find. And the more danger we find, the more intrusions we will carry out. Who can gainsay the logic and necessity of such efforts? And thus, the imperial period of our history starts. ...
While we will not plant our flag on foreign lands, nor claim them for ourselves, we will insist on intruding and searching and managing. To do less would be criminal negligence on the part of our leaders. But in doing it we will be cursed, like the Flying Dutchman of legend, to wander the globe until the day of judgment."

"U.S. vs. Them" (Francis Fukuyama, The Washington Post, 2002/09/11)
"A year after Sept. 11, one of the most notable features of international politics is how the United States has become both utterly dominant and lonely. ...
Americans are largely innocent of the fact that much of the rest of the world believes that it is American power, and not terrorists with weapons of mass destruction, that is destabilizing the world. And nowhere are these views more firmly held than among America's European allies. ... While it is tempting to say that this is simply a matter of the Bush administration's often sharp-elbowed approach to issues such as the International Criminal Court, a much deeper matter of principle is involved. ...
Americans believe in the special legitimacy of their democratic institutions and indeed believe that they are the embodiment of universal values that have a significance for all of mankind. This leads to an idealistic involvement in world affairs, but also to a tendency for Americans to confuse their national interests with universal ones. Europeans, by contrast, regard the violent history of the first half of the 20th century as the direct outcome of the unbridled exercise of national sovereignty."

"Give Us Your Bitter, Your Hateful, Your Vengeful Masses" (John Perazzo, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/11)
"Consequently, the population of immigrants living illegally in the US has reached stratospheric levels - somewhere between 6 and 8 million people - 60 percent of whom entered the country by sneaking across the border, and the rest of whom entered legally but overstayed their visas. The INS estimates that 150,000 of those illegals hail from the terrorist-laden Middle East - including 41,000 from Pakistan, 25,000 from Iran, 20,000 from Lebanon, 11,000 from Egypt, 3,300 from Syria, 3,000 from Sudan, and 1,000 from Iraq. ...
Islamists view the United States as a hostile nation intent on plundering Muslims' resources and extinguishing their religion. In the words of Ayatollah Khomeini, "America plans to destroy us, all of us." The conclusion that logically grows out of this belief is that violence against Americans constitutes nothing more than justified self-defense. ...
It is from such places and cultures that most Middle Eastern immigrants to the United States now come. If we are not far more careful about whom we permit to enter our country, we will someday pay a price so great that September 11 will seem, by comparison, like the good old days."

"The Great Refutation" (George F. Will, The Washington Post, 2002/09/11)
"Ideas have consequences - indeed, only ideas have large and lasting consequences - so history is, at bottom, the history of mind. The acts of war a year ago made up our nation's mind, as one restores order to an unmade bed. We made up our mind to fight, of course, but also to become virtuously intolerant of a certain kind of nonsense, including the notion that tolerance is everything because everything else is nothing - nothing but opinion or chimera. The postmodern plague of quotation marks - the punctuation of disparagement that labels as superstitions "virtue" and "heroism" and most of the other things that make life worth living - was erased by men running into burning buildings, men who had not been disabled by today's higher learning. The quotation marks remaining after the Great Refutation surround two words: 'Let's roll!'"

"Hamburg's Cauldron of Terror" (Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2002/09/11)
"Hamburg - and Germany as a whole - was an almost risk-free environment for Islamic radicals. German officials, mindful of the country's Nazi past, say now that they were reluctant to target mosques and risk allegations of racism or religious persecution. Such reservations meant that while authorities were aware of the calls to arms that fired up the members of the Hamburg cell, they saw no cause to intervene. ...
As a full-fledged apostle of jihad, Zammar quickly became one of the best known figures in the tight extremist Islamic community in Hamburg. He railed against the United States and the West. ...
"Who are the worst terrorists?" Zammar shouted on another occasion. "The so-called civilized world." ...
The Al Quds mosque opened in 1993 and became a center for incendiary views. "The Jews and crusaders must have their throats slit," said Imam Mohammed bin Mohammed al Fizazi in a pre-Sept. 11 sermon, which was videotaped. Such preaching has continued. The Post last month purchased a video at the Al Quds mosque in which an Islamic preacher, identified as Sheik Azid al Kirani, shouts out a call for mortal combat against 'Jews, Israel and all unbelievers.'"

 

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

News and commentary:

"How Have They Changed?" (Martin Kramer, Sandstorm, 2002/09/10)
Kramer agrees with Bernard Lewis (see below) on Islamist contempt for America: "In an address almost a year ago, I listed what had to be done to squelch that contempt: "You must smite your enemy in a decisive and demonstrative way. This requires two things. First, you must get rid of the Taliban regime. The United States has not deposed a regime in the Middle East in fifty years. It must do so now. Second, you must get Osama bin Laden - and not in one, two, or sixteen years. Every day he lives is an affront to American credibility. Let me be clear: nothing you do will ever even the score for September 11. But do these two things, and you will rebuild the gaping hole left in your wall of deterrence. Do these two things, and you will create awe and fear among the multitudes. Fail, and you will engender derision and contempt - and the fear will be yours." So the crucial question, one year after, is not how we have changed, but how they have changed - above all, have they learned to fear us? ... But with bin Laden (and Mullah Omar) still at large along with much of al-Qa'ida's leadership, Afghanistan in a tenuous state, and America's leadership under question even by its allies, the authors of 9/11 still have room for hope. And to judge from the new terror alert, the fear is still ours." (See also: "Address to the 2001 Weinberg Founders Conference" (Martin Kramer, www.martinkramer.org, 2001/10/20))

"Full text of Tony Blair's TUC address" (The Guardian, 2002/09/10)
Full text of Blair's speech to the Trades Union Congress in Blackpool: "Suppose I had come last year on the same day as this year - September 10. Suppose I had said to you: there is a terrorist network called al-Qaida. It operates out of Afghanistan. It has carried out several attacks and we believe it is planning more. It has been condemned by the UN in the strongest terms. Unless it is stopped, the threat will grow. And so I want to take action to prevent that. Your response and probably that of most people would have been very similar to the response of some of you yesterday on Iraq. There would have been few takers for dealing with it and probably none for taking military action of any description." (See also: "The Real Parallell" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2002/09/10): "The answer seems to me a pretty clear one: almost all the critics of pre-emption would have refused to go into Afghanistan to prevent 9/11. Their policy is this: we have to wait to get devastated before we act. My policy is: once is enough.")

"Iraq urges revenge attacks on Americans" (BBC News, 2002/09/10)
"Iraq has called on Arabs to strike back at American lives and property if the US launches a military attack against Baghdad. Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan - speaking after talks with King Abdullah in the Jordanian capital, Amman - called for Arabs to "confront the material and human interests of the aggressors wherever they are found". ...
Mr Ramadan said Baghdad had the right to defend itself, adding that "all Arab citizens, wherever they might be, have the right to fight by all available means". ... Mr Ramadan said it was "shameful" that senior US and British officials were using "lies" to build a case against Iraq. "The West - and Britain and America in particular - are used to lying," he said."

"Prior Knowledge of Sept. 11 Not Just Urban Legend" (Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, Insight on the News, 2002/09/10)
A "prior knowledge" story that sounds like an "urban legend", but seems to be true: "'What are you looking at?' asked the schoolteacher as she approached one of her freshman students. The boy, a young Palestinian, seemed captivated as he stared out the window across Brooklyn toward the lower downtown area of Manhattan. "Do you see those two buildings?" he asked while pointing toward the World Trade Center. "They won't be standing there next week." It was noon, Sept. 6, 2001. ...
Despite the almost unbelievable circumstances of the story, I was able to confirm it last October while working as a crime reporter for the Journal News, a New York-based Gannett newspaper. ...
One New Utrecht official told me that of the 509 Arab-American students who attend the school, many have come forward with their own stories about having prior knowledge. "Kids are telling us that the attacks didn't surprise them," she told me. "This was a nicely protected little secret that circulated in the community around here. I guess they were talking about it among themselves, but they didn't share it with us - at least not before the attacks."