Archived
news and commentary: October 14 - 20, 2002
2002/12/30 - 2003/01/05
2002/12/23 - 2002/12/29
2002/12/16 - 2002/12/22
2002/12/09 - 2002/12/15
2002/12/02 - 2002/12/08
2002/11/25 - 2002/12/01
2002/11/18 - 2002/11/24
2002/11/11 - 2002/11/17
2002/11/04 - 2002/11/10
2002/10/28 - 2002/11/03
2002/10/21 - 2002/10/27
2002/10/14 - 2002/10/20
2002/10/07 - 2002/10/13
2002/09/30 - 2002/10/06
Sunday,
October 20, 2002
News and commentary:
"The Wages of Hate: Anti-semitism and the war" (Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times/andrewsullivan.com, 2002/10/20)
"To single Israel out for condemnation and divestment, while ignoring all these others, is so self-evidently bizarre that it begs an obvious question. What are these anti-Israel fanatics really obsessed about? Where are the divestment campaigns for China or Zimbabwe? The answer, I think, lies in the nature of part of today's left. It is fueled above all by resentment - resentment of the West's success, resentment of the freedom to trade, resentment of any person or country, like Israel or Britain or the U.S., that has enriched itself by means of freedom and hard work. ... Ask the average leftist today what he is for, and you will not get a particularly eloquent response. ... But what they do know is what they are against: American power, Israeli human rights abuses, British neo-imperialism, the "racist" war on Afghanistan, and on and on. Get them started on their hatreds, and the words pour out. No wonder some have started selling the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Central Park. This negativism matters. When you have a movement based on resentment, when you have a political style that is as bitter as it is angry, when your rhetoric focuses not on those who are murdering partiers in Bali or workers in Manhattan, but on those democratic powers trying to defend and protect them, then your fate is cast. A politics of resentment is a poisonous creature that slowly embitters itself. You should not be surprised if the most poisonous form of resentment that the world has ever known springs up, unbidden, in your midst.""Envoy 'surprised' Hezbollah sheik at summit" (Elizabeth Thompson, canada.com, 2002/10/20)
"Canada's ambassador to Lebanon has told the Lebanese government he was "surprised" to see it invite the head of the militant Islamic group Hezbollah to the opening ceremonies of the Francophonie summit. ... The official said Mr. Duval had recognized Sheik Hassan Nasrallah sitting among the spiritual leaders in the front row of the audience for the opening ceremonies Friday. However, Mr. Duval didn't have an opportunity to inform Prime Minister Jean Chrétien that Mr. Nasrallah had been present. When he faced journalists hours later, Mr. Chrétien had not been briefed on who Mr. Nasrallah was or the fact that he had been in the audience. "Who is he?" a bewildered Mr. Chrétien responded to reporters. "I don't know him." Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization? reporters asked. "Well, I don't know," Mr. Chrétien replied." (See also: "Lebanon accuses Israel of 'state terrorism'" (Paul Adams, The Globe and Mail, 2002/10/19))"Report: Bin-Laden financed Bali massacre; planning to target Israel" (Douglas Davis, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/10/20)
"Osama bin-Laden, who is said to have transferred $74,000 to an Indonesian Islamic extremist group to purchase three tons of C4 plastic explosives for the Bali massacre, is also planning to mount attacks on Israelis and Israeli targets. The dramatic new revelations are contained in a secret American intelligence report published today by the London Sunday Times. The US intelligence document is said to include details of a confession by senior Bin Laden aide Omar Faruk, who was Bin Laden's envoy in south-east Asia until he was arrested in Indonesia last June and handed over to the CIA in Afghanistan. Faruk said the funds for the Bali bombing, which killed almost 200 people at a nightclub in the Indonesian holiday resort last week, were transferred from an account in the name of Sheikh Abu Abdullah Emirati, a pseudonym used by Bin Ladin. The money was received by Abu Bakr Ba asyir, leader of Jemaah Islamiya, the group which is suspected of having executed the atrocity. With the money in his hand, Ba asyir sent an assistant to buy the explosives, which were illegally sold by elements in the Indonesian army. Faruk is also said to have described other al-Qaida operations that were designed to kill Westerners and Israelis in Indonesia.""The secret mastermind behind the Bali horror" (Jason Burke, The Observer, 2002/10/20)
"He is 36, bearded, tubby and bespectacled. In the teeming cities of South-East Asia, he is virtually impossible to spot. He is one of the world's most wanted terrorists and the prime suspect for masterminding last weekend's Bali bomb. But intelligence agencies know they must find 'Hambali', the nom de guerre of Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian cleric believed to be al-Qaeda's mastermind in the region. ...
Fifty people have been questioned. Little, apparently, has been learnt. However, a senior officer with the Banden Intelligen Nasional, Indonesia's civilian intelligence service, said yesterday that it believed a group of five to eight local men, led by a more senior man who had experience, expertise and a close link to the al-Qaeda leadership, had spent several months preparing the bomb. The man who led the cell, it believed, was Hambali. ...
Whether Bashir is implicated or not, his organisation, Jemaa Islamiya, and al-Qaeda appear to have been conflated in the minds of many analysts and investigators. That means a crackdown might miss the real targets: the Bali bombers. According to Indonesian intelligence officials, more than 300 Indonesians were trained in al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan. Some have joined movements such as Lashkar Jihad or Jemaa Islamiya, but many more have simply gone to ground, meeting occasionally in small groups, staying in touch with more senior men. The local muscle for the Bali bombs included several of these people. They are looking for the man who recruited them: Hambali. In the huge South-East Asian cities, or among its islands and jungles, he is almost impossible to find.""From Its Palaces, Iraq's View Is of a World Filled With Allies" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2002/10/20)
"Without doubt, the international mood seems better for Iraq than it has in years. ... Looking around the Arab world, Mr. Hussein finds that there is not a single country backing American military action, not even gulf states like Kuwait and Qatar that would be likely bases for American aircraft in a new war. In the West, the United States has only one unambiguous ally in its threat of military action, Britain, and there is much wavering elsewhere. In Baghdad's newspapers on Saturday, headlines trumpeted the announcement that Spain's top diplomat in Baghdad, Fernando Valderrama, had resigned in protest over Spain's "subordination to the American government" in the crisis. The theme of American isolation was prominent in Mr. Hussein's inaugural speech on Wednesday. In the rambling, the Iraqi leader ran through a checklist of countries and concluded that Iraq has the backing not only of "those aggressed against by the Zionist alliance" - Palestinians and their supporters - but also "by freedom lovers all over the world." Together, Mr. Hussein said, these nations would "cause the arrows of aggression to go astray" and doom America to end up "despised, condemned and defeated" in a war with Iraq."
Saturday,
October 19, 2002
News and commentary:
"Choking in the stink of our own self-hatred" (Howard Jacobson, Independent, 2002/10/19)
"If we are the responsibility of those who beget us, then they must be our responsibility in turn. The past flows through us as certainly as the future. A genetic no less than a theological truth. But that's not the same as taking blame when there is no blame to be taken. An obscene act of arrogation, I now realise, making one's culpability the heart of everything. Unjust to one's immortal soul, which wants no part of it. And unjust even to the Nazis and their like, who must be allowed to sin egregiously on their own behalf and go to hell unmolested. Ditto those who blew apart the however many hundreds of kids dancing the last of their lives away in Bali. It behoves us to stay out of their motives. Utterly obscene, the narrative of guilty causation which now waits on every fresh atrocity – "What else are the dissatisfied to do but kill?" etc – as though dissatisfaction were an automatic detonator, as though Cain were the creation of Abel's will. Obscene in its haste. Obscene in its self-righteousness, mentally permitting others to pay the price of our self-loathing. Obscene in its ignorance – for we should know now how Selbsthass operates, encouraging those who hate us only to hate us more, since we concur in their conviction of our detestableness. Here is our decadence: not the nightclubs, not the beaches and the sex and the drugs, but our incapacity to believe we have been wronged. Our lack of self-worth.""So Long, Fellow Travelers" (Christopher Hitchens, The Washington Post Outlook, from the 2002/10/20 issue)
"As someone who has done a good deal of marching and public speaking about Vietnam, Chile, South Africa, Palestine and East Timor in his time (and would do it all again), I can only hint at how much I despise a Left that thinks of Osama bin Laden as a slightly misguided anti-imperialist. ... Or a Left that can think of Milosevic and Saddam as victims. Instead of internationalism, we find among the Left now a sort of affectless, neutralist, smirking isolationism. In this moral universe, the views of the corrupt and conservative Jacques Chirac - who built Saddam Hussein a nuclear reactor, knowing what he wanted it for - carry more weight than those of persecuted Iraqi democrats. In this moral universe, the figure of Jimmy Carter - who incited Saddam to attack Iran in 1980, without any U.N. or congressional consultation that I can remember - is considered axiomatically more statesmanlike than Bush. Sooner or later, one way or another, the Iraqi and Kurdish peoples will be free of Saddam Hussein. When that day comes, I am booked to have a reunion in Baghdad with several old comrades who have been through hell. We shall not be inviting anyone who spent this precious time urging democratic countries to give Saddam another chance.""Lebanon accuses Israel of 'state terrorism'" (Paul Adams, The Globe and Mail, 2002/10/19)
"Israel has long been accustomed to being attacked at meetings of international organizations, but the summit of francophone nations was not prominent among them. That changed yesterday. Israel was a favourite target as more than 50 leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, began their summit in Beirut. The host of the conference, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, began the day with a scorching attack on Israel, accusing it of "odious massacres" of Palestinians. ... President Lahoud told the summit that at a time when civilized nations are trying to eradicate terrorism, "the Israeli occupation [of Palestinian land] perpetuates the most perverse form of terrorism: state terrorism." ... Several other francophone speakers spoke against Israel, though in less animated terms. No leader defended the Jewish state from the podium.""Police close in on the sister of death" (Matthew Benns, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002/10/20)
"Indonesian police are closing in on a woman suspected of having detonated the car bomb which killed 181 people in two crowded Bali nightspots a week ago. The woman, believed to be Indonesian, was seen by witnesses as she jumped from a minibus packed with explosives which was parked in front of the Sari Club last Saturday. ... Police have now confirmed that car was a minivan - a Mitsubishi L-300 - which was packed with C4 explosive and chemicals AMX, RDX and nitrate. ... Nattallia Sinclaire, wife of the owner of Paddy's, said a local member of staff had seen a man walk into the club and throw a plastic bag full of explosives. The woman, now in the burns unit of the local hospital, told her: "I will never forget his face as long as I live." It is understood that man also was Indonesian.""The Consequences of Clintonism" (Max Boot, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/10/28 issue)
"You might think that these events would tend to discredit the Clinton presidency. But it's too late for that. Two years after the Marc Rich pardon, one year after September 11, the Clinton administration cannot be discredited any further. The real question is whether these events will discredit the idea that peace comes from a "process." I rather think not, for like all true faiths it is impervious to empirical refutation. As it happens, at roughly the same time that North Korea was building nuclear weapons and the IRA was plotting further terrorism, the Nobel Peace Prize committee was awarding this year's laurel to Jimmy Carter. ...
Perhaps, in light of last week's news, the Carter Center will revise its website, which brags of its founder's role in creating the first "dialogue" between North Korea and the United States "in 40 years." Or perhaps Madeleine Albright will express a shred of remorse for clinking champagne glasses with Kim Jong Il during her rapturous visit to Pyongyang in 2000. Or maybe, just maybe, all those sophisticates who hooted at President Bush's inclusion of North Korea in the "Axis of Evil" will issue a mea culpa. Yeah, right. And maybe the Dear Leader will retire to Scottsdale and work on his handicap. Professional peace processors are not likely to be put off by a minor inconvenience like North Korea's brandishing of nuclear weapons. They will just see it as one more reason to redouble efforts at "engagement" (a nicer word than "appeasement").""U.S. Labels Muslim Charity as Terrorist Group" (John Mintz, The Washington Post, 2002/10/19)
"The Treasury Department yesterday designated one of the nation's largest Muslim charities as a terrorist organization because it has received funding from a top al Qaeda financier and its leader worked for a group created by Osama bin Laden in the 1980s. The government's action means that anyone who has financial dealings with the Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation without Treasury Department permission can be charged as a felon. ... The foundation "has connections to [and] has provided support for ... the al Qaeda network and other known terrorist groups," Treasury said in a statement. ... Lawyers for Global Relief and its co-founder, Rabih Haddad, denounced the government's action as anti-Muslim and McCarthyist. ... Haddad added that the government, by quoting from foundation publications advocating that Muslims donate funds for jihad or struggle, are attacking Islam itself. Some of the quotations were from the Koran, he said. "You may not like it, but [financially supporting jihad] is part of the religion," he said.""Indonesia Arrests Islamic Leader" (AP/The New York Times, 2002/10/19)
"Indonesia issued a tough anti-terror decree Saturday that would punish the Bali bombers with the death penalty, while the spiritual leader of an Islamic group suspected in the attack was arrested in connection with a spate of church bombings two years ago. ... President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government achieved two milestones in the anti-terrorism fight - ramming through emergency measures by decree after months of legislative delay in Parliament, and arresting the cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for the church attacks that killed 19 people. ... Bashir, who was hospitalized Friday with breathing problems, is now under guard at the main hospital in his hometown of Solo, said National Police spokesman Gen. Saleh Saaf. He initially avoided questioning by being hospitalized hours after giving a defiant sermon to about 300 followers in Solo in which he prayed for the safety of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Doctors had said he probably would not released before Sunday."
Friday,
October 18, 2002
News and commentary:
"Voices in the Wilderness" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2002/10/18)
"The truth is that one can sound moral only through the advocacy of restraint, never preemption. Appeasement wins applause for its ethical posturing and non-belligerency; and even when the corpses later pile up it rarely earns the disgust it deserves for getting thousands killed. In contrast, preemption is always equated with blood lust; and even when it saves thousands, critics sigh that in retrospect there must have been a better way. Like communism and socialism, the rhetoric of appeasement focuses on the pretense of human kindness and brotherhood, never on the calculus of the dead to come. ...
Yet we know that had the Athenians early on listened to Demosthenes, had the alliance paid heed to Don Juan, had England agreed with Churchill, and had Israel accepted the murderous nature of its enemies, the danger could have been confronted earlier and with far fewer losses. ...
Mr. Bush, as our modern-day Demosthenes, is not merely up against a wily domestic opposition, the unelected moralists of the U.N., and the chorus of EU utopians. No, he wars with the very pretensions of human nature - and the sad way of history itself.""Fonda, Sheen et al Spew Out Another NY Times Ad" (NewsMax, 2002/10/18)
NewsMax on the latest Not in Our Name ad. Found via Little Green Footballs: "What happened on Sept. 11th were not 'recent tragic events'. They were not 'unfortunate actions'. They were not just losses of life, of 'horrors' as the ad says, or any other misnomer meant to gloss over in a politically correct way what were condemnable and heinous acts of terrorism against the United States and it's citizens... The ad says that Sept. 11th "recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City ... and Viet Nam." Excuse us? When did anyone ever hijack a plane full of innocent people and use it as a flying bomb to kill thousands more innocent people in Panama City? Did this happen in Baghdad? What are these people talking about?" (See also: "Mixed Nuts" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/20))"A pacifist peace prize" (Ron Dermer, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/10/18)
"When Baroness Bertha von Suttner was awarded the fifth Nobel Peace Prize in 1905, it surely came as no surprise to the chattering classes of Europe. At the turn of the 20th century, Baroness Suttner was something of a household name among the European elite. Her book, Lay Down Your Arms, was an international best-seller and had done much to draw attention to what was then commonly referred to as the "Peace Movement." ... In her mind, and in the minds of the Norwegian parliamentarians who were charged with awarding Nobel's famous prize, peace and pacifism were synonymous. ...
In the very year Hitler came to power, the Nobel was bestowed on Norman Angell, who in 1910, on the eve of the First World War, had so presciently observed in his book, The Great Illusion, that "war belongs to a stage of development out of which we have passed." In his acceptance speech for the peace prize a quarter century later, Angell treated listeners to other pearls of wisdom on the nature of war. "War is the outcome, not mainly of evil intentions, but on the whole, of good intentions which miscarry or are frustrated. It is made, not usually by evil men knowing themselves to be wrong, but is the outcome of good men usually passionately convinced that they are right." ...
Not believing that war has anything to do with evil, the Nobel prize is unlikely to ever be awarded to those who confront evil. I suppose that leaders like Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan will just have to make do with the gratitude of the hundreds of millions whose freedom they defended and whose peace they preserved.""Words to Remember" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2002/10/18)
Sullivan compares reactions to Clinton's 1994 North Korea deal: "Diplomacy with North Korea has scored a resounding triumph. Monday's draft agreement freezing and then dismantling North Korea's nuclear program should bring to an end two years of international anxiety and put to rest widespread fears that an unpredictable nation might provoke nuclear disaster. ... In so doing they have defied impatient hawks and other skeptics who accused the Clinton Administration of gullibility and urged swifter, stronger action." - The New York Times, wrong yet again, October 19, 1994. ...
This is what [Charles Krauthammer] said about Clinton's North Korea deal at the time: "The NPT is dead. North Korea broke it and got a huge payoff from the United States not for returning to it but for pretending to. Its nuclear program proceeds unmolested. In Tehran and Tripoli and Baghdad the message is received: Nonproliferation means nothing. ... The State Department, mixing cravenness with cynicism, calls this capitulation "very good news." For Kim Il Sung, certainly. For us, the deal is worse than dangerous. It is shameful." Man, was he right. And what is his position today on Iraq?" (See also: "US says N Korea has nuclear arms" (BBC News, 2002/10/17))"Osama's Riflemen" (Niles Lathem and Marsha Kranes, New York Post, 2002/10/18)
"An al Qaeda suspect in custody in Belgium told American investigators he saw members of the terror organization training snipers in preparation for attacks on U.S. soil, a source told The Post last night. One of the planned attacks targeted U.S. senators on a golf course. Suspect Nizar Treblisi - questioned by U.S. agents - said a three-man sniper team trained for attacks while shooting from distances of 150 to 750 feet, the source said. Investigators plan to ask terror suspects held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, whether the al Qaeda plot might be tied to the sniper murders in Virginia and Maryland.""Iraq's last Jews wait in fear for war" (Ian Cobain, The Times, 2002/10/18)
"Fifty years ago there were about 350,000 Jewish people in Iraq. When the British marched into Baghdad at the end of the First World War a fifth of its citizens were estimated to be Jewish. Today 38 remain in the capital. In Basra, the once prosperous port in the south, there is just one old woman. In Mosul and Amarah, and other Iraqi cities where Jews had lived for more than two millennia, their communities have vanished without trace. ... With the threat of conflict looming, anti-Zionist banners appearing on public buildings, and high-placed Iraqis increasingly unnerved by Washington's talk of regime change, the dwindling Jewish community of Baghdad is terrified of what the future may hold. "I'm sorry, but I can't possibly talk to you," said Ibrahim Youssef Saleh, a doleful 80-year-old man who has been the leader of the community since the last rabbi died in 1996 and the president of the synagogue left to join his family in London two years ago. "You must have written permission from the Ministry of Information before I can talk to you, and then they will send one of their minders to sit in on the interview." Then, trembling visibly, Mr Saleh opened the door of his small office, where a small number of Hebrew texts had been slipped between the Arabic volumes on the bookshelves, and where the obligatory portrait of Saddam gazes down from the wall. "Will you please leave now?" he begged.""War Looms but God Is With Us, Hussein Tells Iraqis" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2002/10/18)
"President Saddam Hussein warned Iraqis today that they might have to endure war with the United States, but he assured them that Divine Providence would ensure their victory. ...
His statements came in a rambling 40-minute speech at an inaugural ceremony marking his new seven-year term as Iraq's president. ...
In the most substantive passage of the speech, Mr. Hussein referred to "the bloody events of September 2001," saying the United States had shunned calls from leaders around the world, including himself, to "identify the causes" of the attacks and address them. ...
"The Americans did not hear the call," he said. "They found it easier to take the road of blood and violence." He added: 'The road of blood can only lead to more blood. We have learned this fact from our elders in the countryside. We used to hear them say it many years ago, despite their simple life of limited education. The road of blood takes you to more blood, and he who tries to shed the blood of others must expect his blood to be spilled.'" (See also the full text of the speech: "President Saddam Hussein - Swearing in and Speech" (Iraq News Agency, 2002/10/18): "The American administrations have for long been the product of the games of the Zionist lobby in the United States. They cannot see the facts as they are ; and even if they did see the facts as they were, they would not be able to act according to their own interpretation, but only according to the interests of the Zionist lobby and the Zionist entity which occupies Palestine.")"U.S. Pinpoints Top Al Qaeda Financiers" (Douglas Farah, The Washington Post, 2002/10/18)
"U.S. intelligence has identified about a dozen of al Qaeda's principal financial backers, most of them wealthy Saudis, and a top financial investigator is headed to Europe seeking a unified front to freeze their assets in the hope of crippling the terror network, senior administration officials said yesterday. ... The official said most of the alleged financiers are wealthy Saudi bankers and businessmen. Because the Saudi government has previously proven uncooperative in confronting its prominent citizens about links to terror, the United States has not yet sought its help in the new effort, officials said. Instead, the government hopes to freeze their assets in Europe, where the Saudi financial and business empires have much of their money, and put together the broadest possible consensus to demand that the Saudi government crack down on the alleged terror financiers, they said." (See also: "Report Decries Saudi Laxity" (Douglas Farah, The Washington Post, 2002/10/17))"U.S. Says Pakistan Gave Technology to North Korea" (David E. Sanger and James Dao, The New York Times, 2002/10/18)
"American intelligence officials have concluded that Pakistan, a vital ally since last year's terrorist attacks, was a major supplier of critical equipment for North Korea's newly revealed clandestine nuclear weapons program, current and former senior American officials said today. The equipment, which may include gas centrifuges used to create weapons-grade uranium, appears to have been part of a barter deal beginning in the late 1990's in which North Korea supplied Pakistan with missiles it could use to counter India's nuclear arsenal, the officials said.""U.S. saw North Korea's work to enrich fuel for nukes" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2002/10/18)
"Hwang Jang-yop, the highest ranking North Korean official to defect from the communist regime, disclosed in 1996 that North Korea had several nuclear weapons and had planned to conduct an underground test - the last stage in a fully developed nuclear-weapons program. The test was put off, however, Mr. Hwang said. Mr. Hwang's revelations led to the discovery of the Kumchangni underground complex. Mr. Hwang, who has been blocked from visiting the United States by the government of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, which has sought closer ties with Pyongyang, also revealed new information about North Korea's huge chemical- and biological-weapons arsenal. ... Henry Sokolski, head of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said the admission by North Korea of its secret nuclear program means Pyongyang will be able to produce large numbers of nuclear weapons in the future. "They have uranium mines all over the place," Mr. Sokolski said. 'Once they get this process going, there are going to be big problems.'"
Thursday,
October 17, 2002
News and commentary:
"US says N Korea has nuclear arms" (BBC News, 2002/10/17)
"The US State Department on Wednesday said North Korea confessed to the programme earlier this month, after Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly produced "evidence" that it possesses enriched uranium - a key ingredient of nuclear weapons. In a news briefing on Thursday, Mr Rumsfeld went beyond this, saying he believes the North Koreans have built a small number of nuclear weapons. An official later added that the US thought Pyongyang had two nuclear bombs." (See also: "North Korea Says It Has a Program on Nuclear Arms" (David E. Sanger, The New York Times, 2002/10/17))"No sympathy for the dead, but Bashir denies any guilt" (Matthew Moore, The Age, 2002/10/17)
"Asked if there was anything he wanted to say to families who lost relatives in the bomb blast, [Abu Bakar Bashir] said: "My message to the families is please convert to Islam as soon as possible." Mr Bashir offered no sympathy for those who died; just his belief that by converting to Islam, the survivors could ensure they would avoid the fate of those non-Muslims who died and went to hell. ... Mr Bashir, though, would not condemn the bombings. "Such places will be banned if we have Islamic government. Although it doesn't have to be destroyed, it must be prohibited because it corrupts the morals of society." Pushed on whether he believed it was good that a "sinful" place had been destroyed he said only: 'The building can still be used for a mosque.'""They want to kill us all" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2002/10/19 issue)
"Mr [Bruce] Haigh was an Australian diplomat in Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and he's in no doubt as to why hundreds of his compatriots were blown up in Bali. As he told Australia's Nine Network, 'The root cause of this issue has been America's backing of Israel on Palestine.' You don't say. It may well be true that, for certain Muslims 'frustrated' by Washington’s support for Israeli 'intransigence', blowing up Australians in Bali makes perfect sense. But, if even this most elastic of root causes can be stretched halfway around the globe to a place conspicuously lacking either Jews or Americans, then clearly it can apply to anyone or anything... As the likes of Mr Haigh demonstrate every day, the more you insist the Islamist psychosis is a rational phenomenon to be accommodated, the more you risk sounding just as nutty as the terrorists. ... The first choice of Islamists is to kill Americans and Jews, or best of all an American Jew - like Daniel Pearl, the late Wall Street Journal reporter. Failing that, they're happy to kill Australians, Britons, Canadians, Swedes, Germans, as they did in Bali. We are all infidels. ... The objective isn't a self-governing Palestine but the death of the West.""A Palestinian Mother who sent her son to commit a suicide attack explains her motives" (IDF, 2002/10/17)
"On October 14, 2002, the Hamas Website published an interview with a Palestinian mother who sent her son to carry out a suicide attack against Israel. ... 'From the first time that I said goodbye, I asked him not to be afraid [in fighting] against the Jews, as they are cowards, that he prepare his weapons well before embarking, that he kill [as many] as he can and leave none alive. And when he left for his operation, his face was radiant as if he were meeting the girls of heaven right then and there. I wished him luck and that he enter heaven and marry the girls as soon as possible. ... I was very happy when I heard that he [Mahmud] killed Jews in the attack. When a warrior of Jihad follows Allah's path to kill Jews, [it is the act of Jihad] that gives him strength. Even if he does not kill any Jews, it is an honorable act because he dies the death of a martyr.'""7 Palestinians killed, 37 hurt by IDF fire in southern Gaza" (Amos Harel et al., Haaretz, 2002/10/17)
"IDF tank shelling killed seven Palestinians and wounded at least 37 others, five of them seriously, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian sources said. Rafah residents said that five tanks shells hit a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school and several houses. The dead Palestinians included two men, two women and a girl, said Dr. Ali Musa, head of Rafah Hospital. The army said it had returned fire at armed men after shots had been fired repeatedly at the IDF's "Termit" outpost on the Israel-Egypt border. The IDF confirmed it fired at least three shells at an armed group of Palestinians, adding that at least two of those killed were armed Palestinians. Palestinian militants fired anti-tank missiles at the IDF troops, who then returned fire, said IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Rafowicz. "Terrorists in the Rafah area operate amid the civilians," he said.""Bombs in Philippine Mall Kill Six, Jemaah Suspected" (Erik de Castro, Reuters, 2002/10/17)
"Bombs ripped through the main bazaar of a mostly Christian city in an area of the southern Philippines at the heart of Muslim insurgency on Thursday, killing six and wounding 143, in what officials said could be a regional plot by Islamic radicals. The bombings were the second major bomb attack in Southeast Asia in five days. Suspicion immediately focused on a radical Muslim group also being investigated for Saturday's explosions on the Indonesian island of Bali, in which more than 180 died. Shouts of "There's a bomb," "Another explosion," "Run...Run" rent the air in Zamboanga city as shoppers and shopkeepers ran on to narrow streets littered with wreckage, glass and mutilated bodies from the twin midday blasts. Troops found and defused at least two other bombs.""Wake up! This terrorist is no native" (Steve Dunleavy, New York Post, 2002/10/17)
"'This [the Washington-area killings] is a terrorist cell, no doubt about it,' said Larry Johnson, a veteran CIA agent and State Department counter-terrorism expert. "Maybe it's not al Qaeda, but it is in sympathy with them." Larry was talking with a little edge in his voice. ... "It is a diversion - tie up all law enforcement with this thing that is stopping this city and then come up with something that is even more terrible." Johnson, who heads up an international security company called Berg Associates, is quite confused that nobody links this bloodbath in Washington with the global terror campaign going on around the world. The atrocities in Washington, Yemen, the Middle East and Asia, he believes, are all connected. "We have a French tanker blown up in Yemen. We have an American Marine killed in Kuwait and there is yet another shooting against our Marines. "There is that horrific bombing terrorist attack in Bali, Indonesia. "This is all happening at the same time the sniper is stalking D.C. and its suburbs. 'Hello?'" (See also: "Just Suppose It's Terrorism" (Caleb Carr, The Washington Post, 2002/10/17): "Some describe the culprit as a serial killer, and some label him a spree or thrill killer. Yet the salient aspects of the shootings do not fit with our knowledge of either of these types, and if the perpetrator does turn out to be disaffected, frustrated, alienated, white and male, he will constitute an important new subcategory. Should the killings be the work of international terrorists, on the other hand, they will fit a textbook pattern that has been on ample display during recent years in every part of the world.")"Peace Kooks" (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/10/17)
Goldberg on the groups behind the antiwar movement: "IAC opposes any action against Saddam, including containment. "It is the position of the International Action Center that Iraq, as part of its self-determination, has the right to a military force sufficient to defend itself," says a 1999 statement. Its Web site is a cornucopia of empty lefty hyperbole that boils down to the notion that, as Richard Becker, IAC's western region co-director writes, "No one in the world ... has a worse human rights record than the United States." Its call for the "workers movement here in the heartland of imperialism" to rise up is not a message that will stir great numbers of Americans. Neither is the ideology of the group behind the Oct. 6 protest, Not In Our Name, which was started and is being run by founders of a New York-based radical activist group called Refuse & Resist, who are closely tied to the Maoist-inspired Revolutionary Communist Party. Yet as extreme as these groups are, they remain the two most prominent ones organizing large-scale antiwar protests. ...
An IAC dispatch from Pyongyang reads: "The army-first policy has guaranteed a strong, healthy, well-disciplined fighting force despite several years of arduous conditions for the people of socialist North Korea. It represents a sacrifice the people are proud of, and their respect for those in uniform is unmistakable, as is the élan of the fighting forces." ...
In an article for WorkingForChange.com, Seattle Weekly journalist Geov Parrish writes about Not in Our Name statement coordinator Clark Kissinger, whom he identifies as a "core member" of the RCP, "I still have vivid memories of Kissinger explaining calmly to me once why, when the RCP took over, it would be necessary to shoot everyone who didn't agree with them." Kissinger is also a founder of Refuse & Resist, whose members organized Not In Our Name and who act as its spokespeople." (See also: International Action Centre, Refuse & Resist, Revolutionary Worker Online and Not in Our Name.)"The Ostrich Position" (Paul Johnson, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/10/17)
"There is no longer a "sick man of Europe." The whole of Europe is sick. ... Against this background of nervous depression and debility, can anyone wonder that Europe's response to Mr. Bush's war on terrorism has been spitefully critical? It is worth recalling that the dispirited democratic societies of the 1930s were similarly reluctant to take arms against the growing dictators of the period. They behaved like ostriches, and the mentality prevails today in countries emotionally drained by lack of economic dynamism. ...
It is no accident that Britain, which is semi-detached from the EU and whose economy is aligned more with the American than the European model, has been prepared to take the war on terrorism seriously. We in Britain have comparatively high growth, low unemployment, attract high investment and enjoy economic dynamism. Our armed forces, though small, are well-equipped, experienced and confident. All these things go together. America can fight and master terrorism alone, if need be, but the support of Britain is important, materially and psychologically. As for the Continental European, we can only hope that they have lost their self-respect as great nations only temporarily.""Susan Sontag Award" (The Daily Dish, 2002/10/17)
Sullivan quotes Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, from the print edition of the October issue: "When asked by worried friends and acquaintances whether the President was borrowing his geopolitical theory from the diaries of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, I assured them that the President didn't have the patience to read more than two or three pages of a Tom Clancy novel.""I'm an American tired of American lies" (Woody Harrelson, The Guardian, 2002/10/17)
An astonishingly juvenile anti-American column by Harrelson, in which US is viewed as a perennial racist and imperialist power built on lies: "We've killed a million Iraqis since the start of the Gulf war - mostly by blocking humanitarian aid. Let's stop now. ... I'm an American tired of lies. And with our government, it's mostly lies. ... Columbus is the perfect symbol of US foreign policy to this day. This is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole the White House (you call them "hawks", but I would never disparage such a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's grief and turned it into a perpetual war on any non-white country they choose to describe as terrorist.""Report Decries Saudi Laxity" (Douglas Farah, The Washington Post, 2002/10/17)
"The Bush administration's efforts to cut off funds for international terrorism are destined to fail until it confronts Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have tolerated some of its wealthy citizens raising millions of dollars a year for al Qaeda, according to a new report from an influential foreign policy organization. The report from the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, scheduled for release today, contends that the administration must pressure the Saudis - as well as other governments - to crack down on terror financing, even at the risk of sparking a public backlash that could jeopardize the Saudi government. "It is worth stating clearly and unambiguously what official U.S. government spokespersons have not," the report notes. "For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al Qaeda, and for years the Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem." (See also the report: "Terrorist Financing" (Council on Foreign Relations, 2002/10/17))"Indonesia Links Muslim Group With Terrorism" (Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, The New York Times, 2002/10/17)
"The Indonesian government, under pressure from the United States to act decisively against terrorism here, took a major step today toward declaring a fundamentalist Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist organization. For nearly a year, Indonesia has dismissed claims that the organization was a threat, or even that it existed. ... In another abrupt about-face, Mr. Yudhoyono conceded that the organization's leader is Abu Bakar Bashir, a 64-year-old preacher who runs an Islamic boarding school in central Java. Mr. Bashir, who expresses admiration for Osama bin Laden and loathing for Jews and the West, has steadfastly denied that there is any such group as Jemaah Islamiyah.""North Korea Says It Has a Program on Nuclear Arms" (David E. Sanger, The New York Times, 2002/10/17)
"Confronted by new American intelligence, North Korea has admitted that it has been conducting a major clandestine nuclear-weapons development program for the past several years, the Bush administration said tonight. Officials added that North Korea had also informed them that it has now "nullified" its 1994 agreement with the United States to freeze all nuclear weapons development activity. North Korea's surprise revelation, which confronts the Bush administration with a nuclear crisis in Asia even as it threatens war with Iraq, came 12 days ago in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. A senior American diplomat, James A. Kelley, confronted his North Korean counterparts with American intelligence data suggesting a secret project was under way. At first, the North Korean officials angrily denied the allegation, according to an American official who was present. The next day the North Koreans acknowledged the nuclear program and according to one American official said they, "have more powerful things as well." American officials have interpreted that comment as an acknowledgment that North Korea possesses other weapons of mass destruction."
Wednesday,
October 16, 2002
News and commentary:
"Air War" (Franklin Foer, The New Republic, 2002/10/16)
"Like their Soviet-bloc predecessors, the Iraqis have become masters of the Orwellian pantomime - the state-orchestrated anti-American rally, the state-led tours of alleged chemical weapons sites that turn out to be baby milk factories - that promotes their distorted reality. And the Iraqi regime has found an audience for these displays in an unlikely place: the U.S. media. It's not because American reporters have an ideological sympathy for Saddam Hussein; broadcasting his propaganda is simply the only way they can continue to work in Iraq. ... To stay on the right side of the regime, many reporters on the Baghdad beat take the path of least resistance: They mimic the Baath Party line. ...
In her report reviewing Saddam's past ten years, Arraf included no mention of his butchery that has been documented in Human Rights Watch reports and in dozens of books. From her telling, you'd think he's the Robert Moses of Mesopotamia. ...
When I asked CNN's Jordan to explain why his network is so devoted to maintaining a perpetual Baghdad presence, he listed two reasons: "First, because it's newsworthy; second, because there's an expectation that if anybody is in Iraq, it will be CNN." His answer reveals the fundamental attitude of most Western media: Access to Baghdad is an end in itself, regardless of the intellectual or moral caliber of the journalism such access produces. An old journalistic aphorism holds "access is a curse." The Iraqi experience proves it can be much worse than that.""Don't blame the west" (Clive James, The Guardian, 2002/10/16)
James on Australian pundits: "Not just the majority of the intellectuals, academics and schoolteachers, but most of the face-workers in the media, share the view that international terrorism is to be explained by the vices of the liberal democracies. Or, at any rate, they shared it until a few days ago. It will be interesting, in the shattering light of an explosive event, to see if that easy view continues now to be quite so widespread, and how much room is made for the more awkward view that the true instigation for terrorism might not be the vices of the liberal democracies, but their virtues. ...
The consensus will die hard in Australia, just as it is dying hard here in Britain. On Monday morning, the Independent carried an editorial headed: "Unless there is more justice in the world, Bali will be repeated." Towards the end of the editorial, it was explained that the chief injustice was "the failure of the US to use its influence to secure a fair settlement between Israelis and Palestinians." ...
But surely the reverse is true: they are students of the opposite of history, which is theocratic fanaticism. Especially, they are dedicated to knowing as little as possible about the history of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. A typical terrorist expert on the subject believes that Hitler had the right idea, that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a true story, and that the obliteration of the state of Israel is a religious requirement.""These terrorist killers are the Plague incarnate" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/10/16)
"Now we are in a struggle that is different from any that modern democracy has had to face. But it is not the secular versus the spiritual in the European sense. Nor is it simply freedom versus totalitarianism, as was the hot war against fascism, or the Cold War against communism. It is not one economic system versus another, both of which claim, in the great Enlightenment tradition, to be the most beneficent. What we are fighting (or resisting) is a force that reveres death, regards the taking of innocent life not as a misfortune but a sacred duty, and positively rejoices in the gratuitous infliction of agony. It celebrates precisely the things that enlightened thinking has pitted itself against: pointless suffering and premature death. This wave of terrorism is a kind of distillation of all that is most appalling and inexplicable in the human condition.""A Nobel Idea of Peace" (Michael Kelly, The Washington Post, 2002/10/16)
Kelly on the latest Nobel Peace Price, which was awarded to Jimmy Carter: "Many thoughts are unthinkable to the ideologically bankrupt establishment left that the Nobellians exemplify. Paramount among these is that war - or, to be precise, war or the threat of war sponsored by the United States - has been the modern world's great deliverer of peace. But there the truth sits. Name, in the past hundred years, a single important triumph for peace and for liberal democracy that was purchased by the jaw-jawing the Nobellians so admire. No rush, take your time. Now, look at what American war-war (and the threat of American war-war) won: the defeat of the fascist attempt to rule the world; the defeat of the communist attempt to rule the world; the consequent rebuilding of a Europe protected by American arms into a democratic and peaceful continent for the first time in history; the rebuilding of an American-protected Japan into a democratic and peaceful nation for the first time in history; the emergence of a world in which, for the first time in history, the peaceful values of liberal democracy are the ascendant norm. No, no, it remains unthinkable. To imagine American force was a force for good, one would have to imagine America was a force for good. And this, the Bourbons of Oslo will never, never do." (See also :"The Nobel Appeasement Prize" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/10/11) and "Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Carter With Criticism of Bush" (The New York Times, 2002/10/11))"Saddam 'wins 100% of vote'" (BBC News, 2002/10/16)
The Mother of all Democracies: "Iraqi officials say President Saddam Hussein has won 100% backing in a referendum on whether he should rule for another seven years. There were 11,445,638 eligible voters - and every one of them voted for the president, according to Izzat Ibrahim, Vice-Chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council. Saddam Hussein was the only candidate. ...
The announcement of the results - broadcast live on television - was greeted with celebratory gunfire across Baghdad. "This is a unique manifestation of democracy which is superior to all other forms of democracies even in these countries which are besieging Iraq and trying to suffocate it," Mr Ibrahim said, apparently referring to the US.""One Candidate, One Outcome: A Show of Loyalty in Iraq Vote" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2002/10/16)
"The crowds gathered in Tikrit appeared to be in a trance, transported by their worship of Mr. Hussein, and by their contempt for President Bush, from the grim realities of everyday life in Iraq to a state of bliss. Women carrying pins punctured their fingers so they could mark their "yes" votes in blood. Men followed suit, using the blunt edges of paper clips as makeshift knives to start the blood flowing. One grandmother in a black cloak stormed onto one of the reporters' buses holding aloft a 10-day-old baby boy with a Saddam button pinned to his swaddling clothes, and shouting "Yes, yes, yes to Saddam" so forcefully it seemed she might faint." (See also: "Defiant Iraqis Vote 'Yes' to Saddam in Blood" (Nadim Ladki, Reuters, 2002/10/15))"U.S. Says It Told Indonesia of Plot by Terror Group" (Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner, The New York Times, 2002/10/16)
"The United States repeatedly warned the Indonesian government in the weeks before the bomb blast that killed more than 180 people in Bali that a group linked to Al Qaeda was planning attacks to kill Americans and other Westerners, Bush administration officials said today. The American ambassador, Ralph C. Boyce, delivered the latest warning to President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her top advisers just a day before the bombing and gave her a deadline of Oct. 24 to act, the officials said. ...
If the government did not act by the time President Megawati was to see Mr. Bush at a meeting in Mexico in late October, the Indonesian leader was told, the United States planned to send a public signal that Indonesia was a terrorist haven by ordering all but the most essential American diplomats home, the official said. In the aftermath of the Bali bombing, that is now happening. About 350 Americans connected with the United States Embassy - about 100 diplomats and the families of all diplomats - were ordered to leave the country by Friday, a State Department officer said. ...
American officials voiced concern that even in the face of the Bali attack, President Megawati lacked the resolve to take action against militant Islamic groups. She heads the world's most populous Muslim country but has a famously passive style and has been reluctant to cross her vice president, Hamzah Haz, and other prominent supporters of the groups.""Breakthrough in hunt for Bali bombers?" (AFP/The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002/10/16)
"A source close to the inquiry said the bombers used a combination of powerful C4 plastic explosive and gas cylinders in an attempt to kill as many people as possible on the Indonesian resort island. Just before the main blast the attackers detonated a small bomb to bring people out into the street, the source told AFP. Eight bombers in two vans staged the attack which killed more than 180 people from over two dozen countries, a newspaper reported today. ...
According to Tempo, the two vans used in the attack had first stopped near the popular Sari Club, causing a traffic jam in the narrow main street of Kuta while clearing a space in front of them. One van was left behind and the occupants switched to the other vehicle which sped off before the bomb blew up shortly thereafter, it said. "There are two possibilities, that the bomb was activated by a timer or the perpetrators just pushed a remote control button so that they can control the blast from a safe distance and give them enough time to flee," a police source was quoted as saying.""Traces of Explosives Found in Wreckage" (Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, The Washington Post, 2002/10/16)
"Indonesian investigators have recovered traces of C-4 plastic explosives at the scene of the bombing Saturday night in Bali that killed at least 181 people, National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar said. The material is similar to the explosives used to bomb the residence of the Philippine ambassador in Jakarta in August 2000, an attack that Philippine intelligence officials have blamed on a radical Islamic network known as Jemaah Islamiah. ...
The police chief, Bachtiar, also said Tuesday that investigators were "intensively" interrogating two other men in connection with the attack. Police officials said one was a guard who witnessed the attack and the other was related to a person whose identification card was recovered at the scene. Police said they have questioned about 50 people. Early today, an Indonesian security official said authorities had detained a former military officer who might have assembled the bomb. Another government official, however, cautioned that it remains unclear whether the man is responsible." (See also: "Man confesses to making bomb that destroyed club" (Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, International Herald Tribune, 2002/10/16): "The suspect, who is being held by Indonesian authorities, told investigators that he regretted the massive loss of life, but he has not disclosed who ordered him to make the bomb, according to the security official. The official said the suspect had learned to make explosives while serving in the air force, which later dismissed him for misconduct.")
Tuesday,
October 15, 2002
News and commentary:
"A birthday treat, then the horror" (Lee Glendinning and Ellen Connolly, The Age, 2002/10/16)
"Six mothers gone. Their teenage daughters, stranded on the burning roof of the Sari Club. Scared about the long jump from the roof into the arms of strangers below, they don't know what to do. They start screaming, screaming for their mothers. Moments before, teenagers Ashley Airlie, Kristy Webster, Kristy and Marissa McKeon, Candace Buchan and Chloe Byron had been dancing and giggling enjoying the Kuta Beach nightlife under the nurturing eye of their parents. The girls were being taken out for their first nightclub experience after Ashley Airlie's 15th birthday at a nearby restaurant.""Newlywed set to bury her sisters, her bridesmaids" (Ellen Connolly, The Age, 2002/10/16)
"The wedding was 10 days ago. Now comes the funerals. But first, newlywed Maria Elfes, 27, must find the bodies of her four bridesmaids: her twin sister, Dimmy, elder sister, Elizabeth, 33, and friends Christine Betmalik, 29, and Louiza Zervos. The four missing Sydney women flew to Bali last week with the honeymooners to continue the wedding celebrations. "They all had dinner together on Saturday night and the girls wanted to go to a club but Maria and Kosta were tired from shopping so they went back to the hotel," a family friend said yesterday. Maria and Kosta were continuing their search of morgues yesterday.""Saudi link to Bali blast, says al-Qaeda prisoner" (Mark Huband, Financial Times, 2002/10/15)
"The spiritual leader of the Islamist group suspected of responsibility for the bombings in Bali was backed by a Saudi who gave $74,000 (£47,700) to buy explosives, a top al-Qaeda detainee has told US interrogators. Omar al-Faruq, an al-Qaeda-trained Kuwaiti arrested in Indonesia in June, is being held by US forces in Afghanistan. He has told US interrogators that the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakr Bashir, was sent the money earlier this year. The explosives were bought from Indonesian army officers who sold the material illegally, Mr al-Faruq has said. Part of the cache may have been used in the Bali bombings which killed nearly 200 people at the weekend, said Rohan Gunaratna, a regional terrorism expert who has seen the US interrogation report.""Iranian Muslim clerics have just called for three American preachers: Rev. Franklin Graham, Rev. Pat Robertson, and Rev. Jerry Falwell to be killed" (Michael Ireland, ANS/JesusJournal.com, 2002/10/15)
"Iranian Muslim clerics have just called for three American preachers: Rev. Franklin Graham, Rev. Pat Robertson, and Rev. Jerry Falwell to be killed, for statements which these men have made against Islam. In a sermon in a mosque in Tabriz last Friday Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohsen Mujtahed Shabestari called for the death of three prominent American Christian leaders who have recently criticized Islam, said The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity (ISIC), which is the educational arm of The Barnabas Fund. "In our opinion, to kill these three is necessary," the Iranian Farsi daily 'Abrar' reports Shabestari as saying. Shabestari is the personal representative of Iranian President Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the country's Azerbaijan province. The call was issued in response to an interview given by Southern Baptist Minister Rev Jerry Falwell on CBS television last week in which he described the Islamic prophet Muhammad as "a violent man, a man of war" and a "terrorist." Falwell has since apologized." (See also: "Falwell: 'Muhammad Was a Terrorist'" (Fox News, 2002/10/03))"Idiocy of the week" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, 2002/10/15)
"Liberal journalist Harold Meyerson made an impassioned plea Sunday on the pages of the Washington Post for "containing" Saddam Hussein, rather than deposing or disarming him. Containment is indeed the most credible alternative to the Bush administration's policy right now. It's certainly more apposite than such mindless slogans as "Dialogue Not War." Of course, Meyerson doesn't address why 11 years of containment haven't worked; indeed, why they've actually led to a more aggressive Iraqi attempt to get weapons of mass destruction in continued violation of umpteen U.N. resolutions. But never mind. The new position of some on the left is to be thoroughly indifferent to evil, genocidal dictators with nerve gas, as long as the dictators use it on their own populations and not on us. ...
But I digress. Here's the classic in Meyerson's piece: "And never mind that after 45 years of containment, the Soviet Union was appeased into collapse." ... The truth, of course, is that the Reagan era did represent a change in U.S. policy toward the Soviets. The West went on the offensive. We challenged the Soviets on every continent, we built up armaments even at the expense of massive debt, we rammed through SDI and we called our enemy the dread word "evil." The pooh-bahs of the foreign policy establishment warned that a cowboy was in charge. The Europeans mounted mass demonstrations to protest. The "peace" movement rallied across the country. Sound familiar?" (See also: "Our Fears Are Not A Reason For War" (Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post, 2002/10/13))"Defiant Iraqis Vote 'Yes' to Saddam in Blood" (Nadim Ladki, Reuters, 2002/10/15)
"'With our blood and souls we defend Saddam Hussein,' supporters chanted at a polling station in central Baghdad as voters lined up to cast their vote. Making good on his words, a voter pricked his right thumb with a pin and ticked "Yes" with blood on his ballot paper. "I vote with my blood, not my pen," he said. Similar scenes were reported at other polling stations. ...
There was no sign of the president, who rarely appears in public, but his eldest son Uday did vote. Uday drove in a red Rolls Royce to a polling station in central Baghdad. Surrounded by bodyguards, he got out of his car, marked his ballot paper and gave it to a young boy. The boy was escorted by a bodyguard inside the station and slotted the paper into the ballot box. Uday then drove away without setting foot in the station. Saddam's supporters began celebrating victory shortly after polls opened, dancing outside polling stations in the capital and bringing sheep to slaughter, a traditional Arab act of celebration. Tea and refreshments were distributed free at polling stations in Baghdad by ruling Ba'ath Party members. Telephone dialing tones in some districts of the capital were replaced by a recorded message of 'yes, yes to Saddam.'" (See also: "Projecting defiance and unity, Iraqis vote Tuesday" (Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 2002/10/15): "Popular defiance is also manifest in at least one official sign-painting session, in which Iraqis gave their blood to be used as paint. The pro-Saddam banners vow "yes, a million times." Schoolchildren at official functions wear pink hearts made of construction paper pinned to their pinafores, which read "Yes, Yes, Saddam Hussein." The common chant - of every child here for a generation - is "'Our blood, our spirit, we sacrifice for Saddam.'")"Some Indonesians believe U.S. planned Bali bombings" (Andrew Browne and Jerry Norton, Reuters, 2002/10/15)
"Conspiracy theories that abounded in Indonesia after the September 11 attacks on the United States are resurfacing again, with stories in one widely read daily suggesting Washington planned the Bali bombings. Articles and commentaries in the newspaper "Republika", read by many professionals in the world's most populous Muslim nation, underline a deep undercurrent of anti-U.S. feeling in the country and help explain why authorities have been so reluctant to crack down on radical Islamic groups, according to diplomats and political analysts. In one article, an intelligence analyst commenting on the Saturday blasts that killed more than 180 people in Bali, is quoted as saying: "It's impossible that such as big plan was arranged by Malays. It can only be done by a superpower country." ...
In another newspaper, a Muslim leader wrote in a column that suspicions "are strongly directed to foreign parties, in particular the U.S.". To explain why Washington would attempt to destabilise a country of great strategic interest, while it makes a difficult transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, he said the United States 'aims to create an opinion that it was true that Indonesia is a terrorist base and was a safe haven for these terrorists.'" (See also: "Indonesian Muslim militants claim U.S. behind Bali explosions" (The Jakarta Post, 2002/10/15))"The Truth Inside" (Farideh Tehrani, National Review, 2002/10/15)
Tehrani is "a 27-year-old woman and a doctoral candidate in Tehran, Iran": "We also ask you: Please tune out the biased and shallow works of journalists who use their pens to editorialize rather than report news. The Los Angeles Times's Robin Wright often calls Khatami "the leading reformer in Iran." How is it that she has such open access to Iran, while her colleagues who report real and hard news are refused visas? Ms. Wright, why is it you have yet to write a single sentence critical of the abhorrent atrocities of the clerical regime? Where are you during our public executions, or the stoning of women that have doubled under Mr. Khatami? Where are your reports on the students languishing in prison, the girls detained, raped, and abused by the Islamic Republic's judges? ...
To us as Iranians, that is unfathomable. Don't you realize that when we read your work, we ask what good is free press if it does not report the truth? At this moment in our history, Iranians have limited means to voice our calls to the world beyond the rapidly crumbling walls of the clerical regime. We have a sense of urgency. Yet we feel left behind by the very champions of civil rights, human rights, and liberal reform who once dominated headlines. Don't abandon us now, not at this junction in our history.""Saudis foil plane hijack" (BBC News, 2002/10/15)
"An attempt by a gunman to hijack a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane has been foiled. The airline says a passenger on a flight from Sudan to Saudi Arabia used a pistol to try to take over the plane 22 minutes into the flight - but he was overpowered by security staff. The official Saudi press agency described the gunman as a Saudi national who was acting alone. ... There is, however, some confusion as Egyptian news agencies quote Saudi sources as saying that three hijackers were involved. Sudanese police mentioned only one. The BBC's Paul Wood, in Cairo, says that whether one or three, it is not known what motive lay behind the hijacking.""The Eastern Front" (Ralph Peters, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/10/15)
"Far from striking major governmental or military targets, the terrorists have been reduced to sloven assassinations and, now, the calculated mass murder of young people. Once again, the terrorists have chosen targets that strengthen the hands of their enemies. ... Part of a desperate, world-wide attempt by Islamic terrorists to resume the offensive after the beating they've taken for the past year, these bombings brought global terrorism on a grand scale to Indonesia. A combined effort between the home team and foreign terrorists, the Bali massacre is doubtless being greeted as a triumph by terror's fugitive overlords. But the provocation was too great. This is a moment of truth for Indonesia, but its ultimate result is going to be the further destruction of terrorist networks and their active exclusion from one more significant country. For the human devils who planned the slaughter and placed the explosives, these truly were suicide attacks.""An enemy of America and a friend of Osama bin Laden" (The Age, 2002/10/15)
A transcript of a recent interview from ABC with Abu Bakar Bashir: "I hate the American Government but not the American people because they are being manipulated by Jews to fight against Islam. It is the duty of Muslims to hate America because they are launching an anti-Muslim crusade right now - this has been announced by President Bush himself . So as long as the US Government cooperates with Jews to fight us, it is incumbent on Muslims to hate America, to fight back. But I stress, I hate the US Government, not the people. I know there are good Americans. But there is nothing good to say about the US Government because they harbour evil designs against Islam. ...
Q: You say you are very anti-American. Does that stop with America, or does it include other countries, like Australia, that are getting on board with the so-called war on terrorism? Is it an anti-Western view?
A: It is our obligation to hate all nations helping the US because those countries who support America's war on terrorists are actually fighting against Islam. The Koran states that Jews and Christians hate Islam. Countries like Pakistan or even the Australian Government, we have to hate them because their fight is directed against Islam and is based on anti-Islam teachings, so we have to hate that.""'We will fight until we run out of blood'" (Tony Parkinson, The Age, 2002/10/15)
A profile of Abu Bakar Bashir: "In May, Bashir's legal action was thrown out of court as spurious. After the verdict, a defiant Bashir warned: "Infidels run this world. We will fight until we run out of blood." Bashir made a point of saying Indonesia should not accept military aid from the US, which he described as "Islam’s number one enemy". He went on to make the following claim: "The US Government has evil intentions with regards to Islam because it is controlled by the Jewish people. All the United States military aid that would come to Indonesia is a strategy to fight Muslims." After September 11, this rhetoric may sound all too familiar to Western ears. If Bashir is not bin Laden’s equivalent in South-East Asia, he is certainly singing from the same songbook.""Saddam assured "yes" in one-man poll" (Reuters/Financial Times, 2002/10/15)
"'With our blood and souls we defend Saddam Hussein,' supporters chanted at a polling station in central Baghdad as voters lined up to cast their vote. "All Iraq calls, Saddam is the pride of my nation," others shouted. ...
Merely an hour into the referendum, Saddam's supporters were celebrating victory, dancing outside polling stations in the capital and bringing sheep to slaughter, a traditional Arab act of celebration. "I voted a big Yes to Saddam and a big No to Bush," voter Mohammad Khalil said. "No one can tell us who our leader should or shouldn't be. We want Saddam Hussein." ...
But the result is a forgone conclusion with the voting process tightly controlled by the authorities and with no independent observers or other candidates. Saddam won 99.96 percent in a first referendum in 1995. Officials say privately they want an even higher percentage this time, with some hoping for a perfect 100 percent "Yes" result."
Monday,
October 14, 2002
News and commentary:
"Bali explosions: eyewitness accounts" (ABC News Online, 2002/10/14)
"My name is Scott Smithwick from the Lancefield Football Club. Ten members from our great club were in the Bounty Ship night spot celebrating our team-mate's 21st at the time of the attack. The lure of two-for-one drinks seemed too good to be true and the bar staff were very friendly. The night was going well until the first small boom was heard and three seconds after, the next massive explosion was heard and felt and everyone absolutely shit themselves when the power went down. The floor shook, glass shattered, the sound of screams all of which were in total darkness except for a huge fireball which was leaping into the sky. The power came back on and then the flood of people came running down the street screaming and tipping water all over each other. Skin was peeling off and a lot of other things that I wish never to think of or remember again. The smell, the look of fear, the rush of adrenalin and worst of all, the fear of being in a foreign country and not knowing where to help people, where to take them. Panic and confusion reigned supreme for hours. The bastard that let that bomb off was probably sitting 200 metres away laughing and patting himself on the back for a job well done. I feel for the Bali people, who will I believe be destroyed over this. It will take years for them to recover, if they ever do. Anyway, I'm just trying to let off some steam so I can try to sleep tonight safe in my bed at home. The bad thing is that I'm too scared to close my eyes for fear that a loud noise will wake me or that I dream of that terrible night.""Indonesia: The enemy within" (Bill Guerin, Asia Times, 2002/10/14)
"Their Hindu status in the Islamic nation has cost the Balinese dearly. In the bloody anti-communist purges of the late 1960s, given the green light by Suharto when he took over power, as many as 100,000 Balinese were killed, some as suspected communists, others because of their Chinese heritage. The Balinese are now not only shocked but very angry. There are unconfirmed reports of vigilante extremist Hindu groups setting up roadblocks in Kuta, Sanur and elsewhere to target Muslim Indonesians. For the Indonesian people as a whole the main responses are likely to one of great shame and also anger at their own authorities who have been unable to come to grips with the terror in their own country. ...
The country's leaders show little sign of rising to meet the challenges and have preferred to slam the US in public as being anti-Indonesian and anti-Muslim rather than take warnings of terrorism seriously. For a month, the ambassador Boyce has been warning of a high risk of terrorist acts in Indonesia, but has been repeatedly slammed by religious leaders and many leading politicians, including Indonesia's Vice President Hamzah Haz. ... Akbar Tanjung, the House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker and chairman of the Golkar party, as well as a convicted felon, last week slammed the US government's plan to withdraw all of its representative staff from Indonesia, with the immortal words: 'There is no proof Indonesia is unsafe.'""Indonesian Muslim militants claim U.S. behind Bali explosions" (The Jakarta Post, 2002/10/15)
A new conspiracy theory, blaming the United States for the Bali terror attacks, is on the loose: "'We deplore and condemn the masterminds, fund raisers and whoever was involved in the bomb explosions in Bali,' said Habib Rizieq Shihab, leader of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a Muslim militant group best known for its frequent attacks on bars, and other nightspots in Jakarta. "The incident could be used as reason for the United States and its allies to justify their accusations that Indonesia is a terrorist network base," Shihab said as quoted by DPA. ...
Many Indonesian Muslim clerics and academics on Monday were raising questions about who could be behind the Bali tragedy, which has seemingly justified a stronger government stance against terrorists and their sympathizers. "Such a car bomb blast could be linked to the work of foreigners, especially the U.S. in a bid to attack hard-line groups deemed as terrorists," said M. Budyatna, a noted political observer and former dean of social and political studies at the University of Indonesia. "The terrorist label is intentionally given to Muslims in Indonesia in a bid to justify its hypothesis and in the hope of stigmatizing Indonesia in the eyes of international community," said another political expert Nadjamuddin Muhammad Rasul." (See also: "Outrage at Bali Bombs, Fingers Pointed at Al Qaeda" (Reuters, 2002/10/13): "At a news conference on Sunday, Bashir blamed the United States for the attacks. "It would be impossible for Indonesians to do it," he said. "Indonesians don't have such powerful explosives." 'I think maybe the U.S. are behind the bombings because they always say Indonesia is part of a terrorist network.'")"Australia uncovers al Qaeda links to Bali blasts" (Reuters, 2002/10/14)
Australia said on Monday it had information, particularly from Indonesian sources, linking al Qaeda to the Bali bomb blasts on Saturday that killed 181 people and wounded some 300. "We have some information, particularly from the Indonesians, that there are links to al Qaeda in this terrorist attack," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters on his arrival at Bali International Airport. ... His comments came a few hours after Indonesian Defence Minister Matori Abdul Djalil told reporters in Jakarta that the bomb blasts were the work of professionals and showed the presence of the al Qaeda network in Indonesia. Asked by reporters if there was a link between the blasts and al Qaeda, Djalil said: 'Yes, I am convinced that there is a link between al Qaeda and domestic terrorists.'""Don't Call Me Violent, or I'll Have to Kill Someone" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/10/14)
"'Sectarian violence in India's Solapur city, triggered by a protest over comments by US Baptist minister Jerry Falwell against the Prophet Mohammed, has left eight dead and over 90 injured,' Agence France-Presse reports. "Police had used gunfire Friday on crowds of rioters of Muslim youths who clashed with groups of Hindus as the protest against Falwell's remarks turned violent." We have no brief for Jerry Falwell, who frequently says idiotic things. But let's think this through, shall we? Here are Falwell's remarks to "60 Minutes" that "triggered" the "protest": "I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough of the history of his life written by both Muslims and non-Muslims, that he was a violent man, a man of war. ... I do believe that Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses. And I think that Mohammed set an opposite example." Now, maybe this is a slander against Islam. Certainly Falwell's use of the term "terrorist" is unfortunate, if for no other reason than that it seems to endorse the extremists' interpretation of Islam, which many Muslims dispute. But if Falwell characterizes Islam as a violent religion and Muslims respond by taking to the streets, rioting and killing people, aren't they sort of making his point?" (See also: "Eight dead, 90 injured in anti-Falwell riots in Indian city" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2002/10/12) and "Falwell: 'Muhammad Was a Terrorist'" (Fox News, 2002/10/03))"Bleeding hearts left exposed as fools" (Gerard Henderson, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002/10/14)
"Perhaps those who blamed the US for September 11 will now realise they have been deluded. Who will be on Michael Leunig's Christmas card list this time? Last year, in the aftermath of the terrorist murders in the United States, the Melbourne-based cartoonist declared that it was time to extend "mercy, forgiveness, compassion" to, wait for it, the leader of al-Qaeda. Writing in The Age on Christmas Eve, the intellectual guru of Down Under's leftist luvvies declared: "Might we, can we, find a place in our heart for the humanity of Osama bin Laden and those others? On Christmas Day, can we consider their suffering, their children and the possibility that they too have their goodness? It is a family day, and Osama is our relative." It remains to be seen whether Leunig will exhibit similar sentiments this Christmas with respect to the weekend's massacre of the innocents. ...
Then there are the asinine utterances of the infantile left. Remember the claim by Bob Ellis that there are many kinds of terrorism - including "a creditor's threatening letter" (The Canberra Times, January 14, 2002)? And Richard Neville's assertion in Amerika Psycho (Ocean Press, 2002) that US policy after September 11 can be explained in terms of Bush's aim to "extend America's grip on the wealth of the world". ...
Whatever personal positions are held about Bush, Blair and John Howard, contemporary terrorism amounts to an attack on Western civilisation. The sooner this is understood, the sooner the likes of Leunig will recognise that bin Laden is one of those brothers who, if given the chance, commits fratricide; before, during or after Christmas.""This crime proves none of us are safe - and Britons may well be the next targets" (Robert Fisk, Independent, 2002/10/14)
Tim Blair points out this column by "the fucking dumbest dumb fuck of them all". Note how Fisk implies that deliberate mass murder of civilians and the military response against it are morally equivalent: "Australians were the principal victims and their murderers must have known they would be. So why were they targeted? John Howard has been among President Bush's toughest supporters. Australia lined up to join the "war on terror" within 24 hours of the attacks on New York and Washington last year. Australian special forces have been operating with American troops in the Afghan mountains against al-Qa'ida. It's a fair bet that yesterday's savagery was al-Qa'ida hitting back. ... The victims were largely young civilians, just as innocent as the thousands who died in the World Trade Centre. Civilians get no quarter in this war, whether they are investment brokers in New York, Afghan families or Australian honeymooners.""Jazeera TV: Bin Laden Hails Anti-Western Attacks" (Miral Fahmy, Reuters, 2002/10/14)
"The world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, Monday reportedly praised the perpetrators of last week's anti-Western attacks in Kuwait and Yemen and warned the United States and Israel in a statement of more carnage to come. The statement, faxed to Qatar's Jazeera television and carried by Jazeera and at least one Islamist Web site (www.islammemo.com), could be the first conclusive proof that the Saudi-born militant had survived last year's U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan. ... "We congratulate the Muslim nation for the daring and heroic jihad (holy war) operations which our brave sons conducted in Yemen against the Christian oil tanker and in Kuwait against the American occupation and aggression forces," it said. ... "The priority in this war at this stage must be against the infidels, the Americans and the Jews... who will not stop infringing upon us except through jihad," it added." (See also: "Excerpts of Purported Statement by Bin Laden" (Reuters/The Washington Post, 2002/10/14): "We are continuing our path ... and we renew our promise to God, and to the nation, and our promise to the Americans and Jews that they will not be at peace and should not dream of security until they let our nations be and stop their aggression and support for our enemies. The unjust know what awaits them.")"Cornell Leftists Trash Columbus/America" (Joseph J. Sabia, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/10/14)
"As cities around the country hold traditional Columbus Day celebrations, America-haters on today's college campuses will be protesting Christopher Columbus' alleged genocidal megalomania. ...
Recently, a mob of Native, Hispanic, and black students at Cornell University held an anti-Columbus Day rally at which protesters blamed white people for everything from systematic murder to New Coke. An angry black student stood at the center of the rally holding a defaced American flag. The following message was scrawled along Old Glory's white stripes: "We live in a country founded by cheats, murderers, rapists, thieves, terrorists whom [sic] captured, killed, enslaved millions of Africans, whom [sic] killed more Natives than Nazis did Jews while the Catholic Church is behind the altar justifying molestation - God bless Amerikkka." ...
The message on the flag was especially puzzling because it linked European voyagers of the late 1400s with (i) America's Founding Fathers of the late 1700s, (ii) the German Nazis of the 1930s, and (iii) the Catholic Church of the 1990s. It's hard to keep track of what these people are arguing and who the alleged perpetrators are. But that's part of their point - they link every white person to National Socialism or the Ku Klux Klan and romanticize savage, murderous backward cultures.""Bali is the price of indulgence" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/10/14)
"The case of Indonesia raises a much wider issue. On the basis of poor advice from a friendly but weak head of government, too many American policy-makers accepted the idea that there is a great beast called the "Indonesian street". Unless this beast is ceaselessly propitiated, so the argument runs, it will turn round and devour the West's only hope in the area. But the terrible events in Indonesia have proved that feeding this creature whets, rather than satisfies, its appetite. There is a lesson here, surely, for those who constantly seek to raise the spectre of the "Arab street" as a reason for Western temporising in the Middle East.""Paradise lost" (The Times, 2002/10/14)
"The Indonesian Government’s response to the terrorist threat has been utterly inadequate. Warnings from Washington and, significantly, from the Singaporean and Malaysian Governments, have been ignored. The country is now counting the cost of that laxity. Tourism revenue will be undermined, regional airlines will be pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and foreign investment will surely look for safer ports. The Government has not only let down the tourists slaughtered on Saturday night, but it has failed the Indonesians toiling to rebuild an already shattered economy. The bloodshed highlights Western fears that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has become a safe haven for terrorists."Added in archive:
Two interviews with Jeffrey Goldberg -
"Party of God" (The New Yorker, 2002/10/07)
"In Saddam's Shadow" (The New Yorker, 2002/03/18)
See the archive for earlier news and commentary.
Copyright © Watch 2001-2006. Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.
"When
people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent.