Archived news and commentary: November 11 - 17, 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, November 17, 2002

News and commentary:

"Abba Eban, Shaper of Israeli Destiny in Early Years, Dies" (Marc D. Charney, 2002/11/17)
"Abba Eban, the erudite diplomat whose oratory and wit gained admiration and sympathy for Israel during the perilous first 30 years of its independence, died today in a hospital near Tel Aviv, Foreign Ministry and hospital officials said. He was 87. Mr. Eban was an effective negotiator at talks that helped shape the destiny of his country in its early years, but it was his public voice and its impact on international opinion that set him apart. He gave elegant and passionate expression to Israel's right to exist, instilled pride and solidarity in the Jewish diaspora and was a formidable debater against his nation's enemies. He was Israel's representative at the United Nations during the independence struggle of 1948, its ambassador to both Washington and the United Nations during the Middle East war of 1956, and its foreign minister during the 1967 and 1973 Middle East wars." (See also one of his most famous speeches, made at the United Nations barely a week after the Six-Day War - "Statement to the General Assembly by Foreign Minister Eban, 19 June 1967" (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs): "A small sovereign State had its existence threatened by lawless violence. The threat to Israel was a menace to the very foundations of the international order. The State thus threatened bore a name which stirred the deepest memories of civilized mankind and the people of Israel, the remnant of millions, who, in living memory, had been wiped out by a dictatorship more powerful, though scarcely more malicious, than Nasser's Egypt. What Nasser had predicted, what he had worked for with undeflecting purpose, had come to pass - the noose was tightly drawn. On the fateful morning of 5 June, when Egyptian forces moved by air and land against Israel's western coast and southern territory, our country's choice was plain. The choice was to live or perish, to defend the national existence or to forfeit it for all time.")

"Civilization and V. S. Naipaul" (Bruce Bawer, The Hudson Review, from the Autumn 2002 issue)
Bawer on V. S. Naipul, last years winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature: "Certainly Naipaul was the odd man out on that Stockholm stage last December - an event that surely gave many viewers a sense of what it is that makes him, now more than ever, such a vitally important cultural figure. Inevitably, September 11 came up. Gordimer identified terrorism's root cause as poverty; Grass concurred, portraying 9/11 as a case of the victimized justifiably striking back at the powerful. As for the victims of 9/11, Grass charged that Americans value "white lives" more than non-white lives. (One gathered that he had never seen photographs of the World Trade Center dead.) ... When Gordimer conceded that "perhaps" Osama bin Ladin's terrorism "is not a good way to redress the balance between the haves and have-nots" (which was the closest either she or Grass came to condemning acts of terror), Naipaul replied by stressing how urgent it was for writers "to know the world more intimately" instead of employing "blanket characterizations." He dismissed as "utterly romantic" the belief that the destruction of the World Trade Center was an action taken on behalf of the world's economically deprived. He rejected Grass's claim that the U.S. was responsible for (among much else) Rwandan genocide. And he stated unequivocally that the terrorism of 9/11 had been an 'assault on civilization.'" (See also: "Our Universal Civilization" (V. S. Naipul, MI, The 1990 Wriston Lecture))

"Iran Students Claim Victory Over Academic's Case" (Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, 2002/11/17)
"Students who have staged Iran's biggest pro-reform protests for three years claimed a victory for freedom of speech Sunday as Iran's supreme leader ordered a review of the death sentence against a dissident academic. The week-long student rallies and strikes in support of history lecturer Hashem Aghajari, condemned to hang for blasphemy, had raised political tension at a crucial stage in the power battle between Iran's reformists and hard-liners. ... The hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper Sunday reported Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure, had ordered the judiciary to review the case against Aghajari who angered hard-liners by questioning their dearly-held belief in a marriage between religion and state. "Based on the request of hundreds of university professors, the leader ordered the judiciary to carefully review this case," the newspaper quoted an informed source as saying. "An appeals court has been authorized to carefully review Aghajari's case." The newspaper, seen as being close to Khamenei, said the death sentence would most likely be overturned on appeal." (See also: "Condemned Iranian don spurns appeal" (BBC News, 2002/11/13))

"The New Club NATO" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2002/11/17)
"If you want to get a feel for how far ahead the U.S. military is from any of its allies, let alone its enemies, read the fascinating article in the November issue of The Atlantic Monthly by Mark Bowden about the U.S. air war over Afghanistan. There is one scene that really sums it up. It involves a U.S. F-15 jet fighter that is ordered to take out a Taliban truck caravan. The F-15's co-pilot bombardier is a woman. Mr. Bowden, who had access to the communications between pilots, describes how the bombardier locates the truck caravan, and with her laser guidance system directs a 500-pound bomb into the lead truck. As the caravan is vaporized, the F-15 pilot shouts down at the Taliban - as if they could hear him from 20,000 feet - 'You have just been killed by a girl.'" (Note: Bowden's article is not available online.)

"Bridging the Transatlantic Gap" (Jim Hoagland, The Washington Post, 2002/11/17)
"Diverging attitudes over what is sustainable and what is doomed are rapidly becoming divisive factors in transatlantic relations. An intellectual investment in the status quo ties France, Germany and others to the Arab governments of the Middle East at least as much as commerce and oil do. Cataclysmic change in the Middle East is a notion that falls somewhere between inevitable and desirable for the Bush White House. It is anathema to Europe's leaders and intellectuals. ... "America is simply expanding Israel's preemptive assassination policy to a global level and creating an unending new sea of recruits for the terrorists," a French friend asserted to me recently in a representative comment. ... Americans can learn from and let their readiness for action be tempered by Europe's deep sense of history. But the Europeans cannot go on shunning the reality that we all stand on the cusp of cataclysmic change around the world. That change must be anticipated and channeled, not ignored."

"France Loves Tyrants" (Jonathan Foreman, New York Post, 2002/11/17)
"What makes France's partial U.N. victory over the United States all the more galling is that it is also a triumph for a foreign policy that persistently favors monstrous, murderous - often genocidally murderous - regimes. And yes, the Security Council resolution on Iraq was largely a triumph for France and a defeat for the United States: The French got almost everything they wanted. ...
In the first Gulf War, between Iran and Iraq, it was the French, not the Americans as is often put about, who (with the Russians and Chinese) were Saddam Hussein's chief arms suppliers. Now they are among the prime foreign beneficiaries of the "Oil for Food" program, through which Saddam legally spends some of his oil wealth. The maintenance of Saddam's nightmarish rule over Iraq continues to be a major goal of French foreign policy. Though it had the additional benefit of frustrating the "Anglo-Saxon" powers, this, not the preservation of "peace" or stability, was the real point of France's efforts in the Security Council. ...
Don't think for a minute that the Quai D'Orsay isn't perfectly aware of the mass murders of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs by the Saddam regime. But France's ruthless notion of "realism" (a popular maxim of the French diplomatic corps is "the task of diplomacy is to expedite the inevitable") makes those crimes irrelevant. We in the United States have done some bad things in the name of realpolitik. But with the exception of our unforgiveable support of the Khmer Rouge, we have never stooped this low."

"Saddam has outwitted his enemies again" (Con Coughlin, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/17)
"Round one to Saddam. That is how the hawks in the Bush administration see the Iraqi dictator's decision to allow UN arms inspectors back into Iraq, this time with unrestricted access to any site they wish to visit. It looked like a humiliating climbdown for Saddam, who had always insisted he would "never let the UN spies return". In fact it is a considerable victory for him. "Saddam might in public give the impression that he is unhappy with the resolution," one adviser to the US President told me last week. "But privately, he must be delighted." The reason: Saddam's manoeuvering has delayed invasion of his country, certainly for months, and perhaps indefinitely. ...
How has the Bush administration let itself be outmanoeuvered in this way? Some of Bush's tougher officials have no doubt as to whom to blame: Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, who insisted that America had to go through the Security Council if it was to dismantle Saddam's regime and its weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, some of these officials seem to think that the real "axis of evil" consists not so much of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, but of Colin Powell, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, and Dr Hans Blix, who will lead the inspection teams."

"Who Needs the U.N. Security Council?" (James Traub, The New York Times Magazine, 2002/11/17)
"The Security Council needs the United States in order for it to play a meaningful role in world affairs, but it appears as though the United States doesn't need the Security Council - or at least that many of the leading members of the Bush administration think that it doesn't. Secretary of State George Marshall had predicted in 1948 that should there be ''a complete lack of power equilibrium in the world, the United Nations cannot function successfully.'' And now, for the first time since the U.N.'s establishment, that state of affairs has come to pass. And so the resolution on Iraq has been the first test case of the new world of American supersupremacy. As Gelson Fonseca, the Brazilian ambassador to the U.N., put it archly, ''You have a situation of dual containment: you have to contain the United States; you have to contain Iraq.'' Containing the Bush administration has meant finding a middle ground between rubber-stamping American policy - and thus making the council superfluous - and blocking American policy, and thus provoking America to unilateral action, which of course would make the council irrelevant. Fonseca seemed to feel that containing the U.S. is a harder job than containing Iraq, and possibly a more important one."

"A Struggle for the President's Heart and Mind" (Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, 2002/11/17)
The first installment of excerpts from Bob Woodward's new book, "Bush at War", dealing with how "Powell Journeyed From Isolation to Winning the Argument on Iraq": "At the podium in the famous General Assembly hall, Bush reached the portion of the speech where he was to say he would seek resolutions. But the change hadn't made it into the copy that was put into the TelePrompTer. So Bush read the old line, "My nation will work with the U.N. Security Council to meet our common challenge." Powell was reading along with Draft No. 24, penciling in any ad-libs that the president made. His heart almost stopped. The sentence about resolutions was gone! He hadn't said it! It was the punch line! But as Bush read the old sentence, he realized that the part about resolutions was missing. With only mild awkwardness he ad-libbed it, saying later, "We will work with the U.N. Security Council for the necessary resolutions." Powell breathed again."

"Kuwait arrests 'al-Qaeda leader'" (BBC News, 2002/11/17)
"Security officials in Kuwait have arrested a man local newspapers say is a senior member of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda group. The papers said the man - identified only as Mohsen F, a 21-year-old Kuwaiti national - had been plotting to blow up a hotel in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, used by Americans. They said he had been arrested two weeks ago and had confessed to acting with the help of a retired Kuwaiti army officer to collect more than $120,000 to finance the attack."

"Bali bombing 'mastermind' named" (BBC News, 2002/11/17)
"Indonesian police have released pictures of six more suspects in the Bali bombing case, including one of the man they say is the leader of the group. Chief police investigator I Made Mangku Pastika said Imam Samudra, who is alleged to have links with Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), led both the planning and the execution of the attacks on the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar. Police said details of the suspects emerged from the interrogation of an Indonesian man named Amrozi - the only person who has so far been arrested in connection with the bombings."

Saturday, November 16, 2002

News and commentary:

"Al-Jazeera: Al Qaeda issues new threat" (CNN.com, 2002/11/16)
"A new statement purported to be from the terrorist network al Qaeda warns the United States to "stop your support for Israel against the Palestinians, for Russians against the Chechens and leave us alone, or expect us in Washington and New York." "Do not force us to ship you in coffins," it says. Chief investigative correspondent Yosri Fouda, for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television station told CNN he received the document "through previously tested channels" and believes it to be authentic. ... Fouda noted that al Qaeda had previously placed the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf "holy lands" as the group's first priority. But now, he said, the Palestinian issue is its first priority. Chechnya, Kashmir, the Philippines and the Iraqi government are also issues raised in the letter, Fouda said, which ends with a call for the American people to convert to Islam. On Iraq, the document states: 'You are placing Muslims under siege in Iraq where children die every day. Oh how weird that you don't care for 1.5 million Iraqi children who died under siege. But when 3,000 of your compatriots died, the whole world was shaken.'"

"'Cyanide Plot' on Tube" (Sky News, 2002/11/16)
"Three men have been charged over an alleged terrorist plot to release cyanide gas on the London Underground tube network. The men are north African muslims said to belong to a group linked to al Qaeda. The alleged plot was foiled after the group was infiltrated by MI5 agents in a six month operation. ... The three are thought to be of either Tunisian or Moroccan background and belong to a group called the North African Front, said to have loose connections with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. ... Details of the hearing have only just emerged in reports in The Sunday Times newspaper. Assistant editor Nicholas Rufford told Sky News: 'There were six arrests originally, three people were released, only three were charged. ... The plan, I believe, was to bring the ingredients of a gas bomb into the country. As far as I know, as far as I understand, the materials never arrived. Certainly if they did arrive they haven't yet been found or intercepted.'"

"Kuffiyas and red flags" (Hani Shukrallah, Al-Ahram Weekly, from the 14 - 20 November 2002 issue)
Shukrallah's report from the anti-globalisation meeting in Florence gives a glimpse into the mindset behind it: "'It is 1933 and Hitler is in power.' It is with just such a sense of urgency and alarm, argued Samir Amin, chairman of the World Forum for Alternatives (WFA), that the increasingly militaristic character of capitalist globalisation must be viewed. Amin's ominous reference to Hitler's accession to power in Germany in January 1933 was made during a meeting of some two dozen people, members of the Executive Council of the WFA, held on the sidelines of the European Social Forum (ESF), which on Sunday concluded nearly a week of intense activity. The sense of dread engendered by the US administration's apparent attachment to "perpetual war" was not confined to that one small meeting at the 17th-century Hotel Porta Rossa. In over 350 formal meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops and cultural activities (held at the 16th-century Da Basso Fortress - which served as the main site for ESF activities - and in dozens of other locations throughout the magnificent Renaissance city), America's prospective war in Iraq loomed large, underlining the most abhorrent aspect of an increasingly dehumanised and corporate-dominated world." (For more on Amin, see also an Al-Ahram-interview with him - "Empire of chaos challenged" (Fatemah Farag, Al-Ahram Weekly, from the 24 - 30 October 2002 issue): "According to Amin, military action is being resorted to by the US to mobilise its partners and terrorize the rest of the world; and that is the crux of the war against terrorism. The events of 9/11 are simply a conjuncture that serve the ongoing purpose. "I sometimes wonder if the whole thing [9/11] was not fabricated." ... Part of that scenario is also the control of oil sources not only in the Middle East but also, and perhaps more importantly, in Central Asia." Amin's article about the 9/11 attacks is also telling, with its chomskyite moral equivalence, flagrant lie about Sharon and view of the attacks as "desperate acts by victims of the system" - "U.S. Hegemony and the Response to Terror" (Samir Amin, Monthly Review, from the November 2001 issue): "This may be the first such slaughter to strike on U.S. soil but it is far from being unique. However, the media never made the same effort nor were they so persistent when they covered Iraqi civilian casualties; or Yugoslavs bombed by NATO; or Palestinians massacred at Sabra and Shatila on Sharon's orders and now being assassinated daily also by his order; or Egyptian prisoners of war murdered in cold blood. ... There is no possibility of a united front against terrorism. Only the development of a united front against international and social injustice can serve to make such desperate acts by victims of the system useless on their part and so no longer possible.")

"The Fantasy Life of American Liberals" (Charles Krauthammer, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/11/25 issue)
"There have been three successful Republican presidents in the modern era (i.e., since the New Deal), all of whose successes confounded the liberal elites. It began with their inability to fathom how Americans could prefer Eisenhower to Stevenson. ... The next puzzle was Ronald Reagan, the "amiable dunce" (Clark Clifford's famously obtuse characterization) who somehow brought down the Soviet empire. ... His genial smile concealed not just stupidity but evil intentions. No, not his evil intentions - he being too dimwitted even to merit moral opprobrium - but the evil intentions of those manipulating him behind the scenes. Twenty years later, the liberal nightmare returns in the form of George W. Bush, another exemplar of the trinity of Republican success: geniality, empty-headedness, and evil. With him, there is a similar difficulty reconciling the apparent antitheticals: empty-headedness and evil. Once again this is explained by the Manchurian Candidate theory, Bush, the simpleton, being the puppet of a vast, dark, right-wing cabal. ... Judging by their wild and crazy reaction to their defeat on November 5, one can only conclude that this election has left liberal elites further out of touch with reality than at any time in recent memory. As a former psychiatrist, I can confidently predict that logic and empirical evidence will have no therapeutic effect. It's time for the Thorazine." (See also: "The Great Depression" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/11/12))

"How Do I Hate Thee?" (Christopher Caldwell, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/11/25 issue)
A report from Florence on the anti-globalist movement: "This bus was covered in posters, one of which was the famous image of Che Guevara silhouetted in black on a red background. But on a second look, you realized that it was a picture not of Che but of Osama bin Laden. This was typical. All the groups at the Fortezza da Basso traveled in the name of pacifism, but the only people they enjoined to follow the pacifist path were governments and institutions facing armed insurgencies. Palestinian liberation seemed at times to be the main purpose of the gathering, and anti-Israel sentiments threatened to drown out anti-American ones. ... Even if one takes the reasonable-people-can-differ view of the Middle East conflict, the thoroughness with which the assembly welcomed every terrorist, guerrilla army, and freelance maimer of civilians could only be marveled at. ...
The only two portrait-posters visible besides the bin Laden one featured the Kurdish terrorist Abdullah Oçalan and Carlo Giuliani, the protester killed while attacking the police in the Genoa demonstration. Giuliani, shown in jogging pants, smiling sweetly and drinking a beer, was treated as a martyr, his death as an unprovoked aggression. This decontextualization of left-wing violence was the rule. Never was Palestinian terrorism mentioned. The American attack on Afghanistan was mentioned in every single panel I attended, but the attacks of September 11 were never adduced as a cause." (See also: "Huge anti-war protest in Florence" (BBC News, 2002/11/09))

"Between the Lines of an Iraqi Letter" (Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Times, 2002/11/16)
"Twice in the past week, George W. Bush has been called "Pharaoh" in missives from the Middle East. The word was uttered by the voice on an audiotape broadcast by Al Jazeera, which may or may not have been that of Osama bin Laden, and it also appeared in the recent letter from Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister, to Kofi Annan accepting the return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq. ... In the Koran, as in the Bible, the Pharaoh is the very image of organized evil. ... The text of the Iraqi foreign minister's letter will remind many people of the intemperate language that used to come out of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the text borrows as richly from that old Communist vocabulary as it does from the lexicon of the Koran and the sanitized language of United Nations resolutions. ...
The Iraqi letter reaches for the language of moral suasion, trying to speak in apothegms, as well as in the logic of international law, but every rhetoric it touches turns as hollow as the case it is making. It talks about stabbing the truth "with the dagger of evil." It argues that "he who remains silent in the defense of truth is a dumb devil." And though a reader ends up feeling that he is reading through a glass, darkly, pondering a text where the subtlest implications have been buried by a garbled rendering into English, the real purport of the letter is perfectly clear. It is a howl of temporary surrender, a plea of continuing defiance." (See also: "Text: Letter From Iraqi Foreign Minister to the U.N." (The Washington Post, 2002/11/13))

"While its kites are still flying, then Kabul can hope" (Ben Macintyre, The Times, 2002/11/16)
A report from Kabul, one year after the fall of Afghanistan's capital: "I could find no Afghan prepared to criticise the US bombing campaign. "Taleban very bad people," said the one-legged doorman, and spat vehemently. And yet there is a fear in Kabul, not that the religious fundamentalists will return, but that the West will leave, as it always has before. ... The dowdy, dreary job of reconstructing a shattered nation is usually far from glorious, but without it, the new catch-phrase of "liberal imperialism" begins to sound like old-fashioned geopolitical self- interest with an added sprinkling of rhetoric. ... Exactly one year ago the kites returned to the skies above the capital. The test of the new liberal imperialism, and the moral basis for humanitarian military intervention in Iraq and beyond, will be whether they continue to fly, not next year or the year after, but always." (See also: "The new liberal imperialism" (Robert Cooper, The Observer, 2002/04/07) and "A New Age of Liberal Imperialism?" (David Rieff, World Policy Journal, from the Summer 1999 issue): "Is this proposal tantamount to calling for a recolonization of part of the world? Would such a system make the United States even more powerful than it is already? Clearly it is, and clearly it would. But what are the alternatives? Kosovo demonstrates how little stomach the United States has for the kind of military action that its moral ambitions impel it to undertake. And there will be many more Kosovos in the coming decades. ... However controversial it may be to say this, our choice at the millennium seems to boil down to imperialism or barbarism.")

"Saddam pays Gaddafi $3 billion to give his family safe haven in Libya" (Michael Evans, The Times, 2002/11/16)
"Saddam Hussein has made secret plans for his family and leading members of his regime to be given political asylum in Libya in the event of a war with America or a successful internal coup in Baghdad. The extraordinary steps taken by the Iraqi leader to provide an exit strategy for key relatives and associates, which includes paying $3.5 billion (£2.3 billion) into Libyan banks, provide the first evidence that Saddam is now facing up to the prospect of being toppled from power."

Added in archive:
"What is Really at Stake in the US Campaign Against Terrorism" (David Rieff, Crimes of War - The Magazine, from the September 2002 issue)
"Order, Force and Law in a New Era" (Robert Cooper, Crimes of War - The Magazine, from the September 2002 issue)
"The new liberal imperialism" (Robert Cooper, The Observer, 2002/04/07)

Friday, November 15, 2002

News and commentary:

"At least 12 Israelis killed in Hebron shooting attack" (Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2002/11/15)
"At least twelve Israelis were killed and 15 wounded Friday evening when Palestinian gunmen opened fire and tossed grenades at a group of Jewish settlers and IDF soldiers escorting them, as they made their way on foot back to the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba from Sabbath prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron. Several of the wounded were in serious condition. After the deadly ambush began, close to 7:30 P.M., soldiers rushed to the scene - an area popularly known as "worshippers' lane" - and also came under fire. Several were killed or wounded, Army Radio said. Heavy gunbattles ensued between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the area. Gunbattles raged for about 90 minutes, making it difficult for ambulances to reach the wounded. ...
Towards midnight, troops killed two of the Palestinians who carried out the attack. Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades were found near their bodies. Israel Radio reported after midnight that troops had found the body of a third terrorist in the area where the attack had been carried out. It was not immediately clear if the three had other accomplices. ... The head of Islamic Jihad said his organization had carried out the attack. Speaking by telephone to al-Jazeera satellite television, Ramadan Shallah said it was retaliation for Israel's killing of one of the group's members, Iyad Sawalha, earlier this month in Jenin."

"Senior al-Qaeda leader 'captured'" (BBC News, 2002/11/15)
"One of the senior leaders of the al-Qaeda network has reportedly been captured and is now said to be in American hands. The suspect, who US Government sources say was caught in the past few weeks, has not been named. "I can't tell you when, I can't tell you where, I can't tell you how," said one unnamed official. "But this is a big deal." ... Sources told the Reuters news agency that the person who had been captured was neither al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, nor operational leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, nor Bin Laden's son Saad."

"It's not about oil" (Mark Proudman, National Post, 2002/11/15)
"It is commonly asserted that the foreign policies of modern capitalist countries are driven by economic needs: This is what the more self-consciously "sophisticated" brand of scribbler means by that omnipresent epithet "imperialist." In fact, capitalist countries have, for most of the past century, found it almost impossible to use force in a directly imperialist way. ...
American policy in Iran is often given a prominent place in the long catalogue of the sins, real and imagined, that created the "root cause" of terrorism. But the Shah of Iran, so often portrayed as a U.S. puppet, retained the oil fields seized by his predecessor, and was long known as a "price hawk" within OPEC, pushing against U.S. interests and for high oil prices. With puppets like the Shah, the United States had little need of enemies. ...
The Western powers' inability to use force to protect economic resources is one side of their long post-war loss of power throughout most of the Third World. As Kanan Makiya points out in Republic of Fear, his authoritative study of Iraq, since the 1950s the Western powers have had almost no influence over the internal politics of the Arab world - notwithstanding all the shouting about Western imperialism, both by Arab regimes and by the opinion-making classes in the West." (See also: "Crude" (Peter Beinart, The New Republic, 2002/10/01))

"Double Standard" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/11/15)
"Maan, a Mideast city of 70,000, is under military siege as part of a "crackdown on Islamic militants," the Christian Science Monitor reports: "Spotlights blazing, a vanguard of armored cars topped with loudspeakers and machine guns cruised the streets ordering residents back to their homes. Convoys of tanks chugged behind. ... Security sources said six soldiers and policemen and four residents were killed in the fighting. ... A series of checkpoints across the town prevented access to the heart of the fighting." If you're wondering why this is the first you've heard of this - and why we haven't heard the usual cries about the brutality of the Israeli military and "humiliation" of being subjected to Israeli checkpoints - it's because Israel has nothing to do with this. Maan is in Jordan, and Amman is directing the crackdown. Where's the outrage? Nowhere, as usual when an Arab government is involved." (See also: "Jordanian attack on militants reveals a national rift" (Nicolas Pelham, The Christian Science Monitor, 2002/11/15))

"Our Gordian Knot" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2002/11/15)
"Either we can accept that the United States is a more moral and decent culture than the tribal world of the fundamentalists and dictators, and thus must not lose out to their medieval visions - or in our self-doubt and moral conceit we can worry endlessly over why we are not liked as we would wish, and therefore choose to feed both our fears and their audacity. The former and harder course will lead to acrimony and caricature in the present, but victory and security in the future. The latter, easier way ensures that we will be for a time tolerated by the U.N., Europe, and the Arab states publicly, but privately despised as not only crass, but also weak, as we - not they - descend into a constant war of attrition from terrorist attacks and lunatic dictatorships armed with frightful weapons."

"Terrorists, liberals, and the EU" (Caroline B. Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/15)
"Given Egypt's leading role as an inciter of hatred against Israel and the Jewish people, it was also not surprising that Cairo hosted this week's Palestinian terror conference between Fatah and Hamas. ... Slightly more surprising is that the European Union sponsored the conference. Alistair Crook, EU Middle East envoy Miguel Moratinos's security adviser, was in Cairo. According to Javier Sancho, Moratinos's spokesman, the EU's role was "to facilitate" the dialogue as "part of its ongoing efforts to stop terrorism." Also as part of the EU's efforts to stop Palestinian terrorism or at least some Palestinian terrorism this week it was reported that the EU recently held talks with one Muhammed Naifa in an effort to persuade him to limit Fatah terror attacks to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. ... Naifa, of course was the mastermind of the Kibbutz Metzer massacre, as well as the massacre at the French Hill junction in Jerusalem this past June in which seven people, including five-year-old Gal Eisenman and her grandmother, Noa Alon, were murdered. ... It is a puzzle how people of reasonable intelligence and of purported liberal values can fund, meet with, and even sponsor conferences for known murderers in the name of saving lives." (See also: "Mastermind of Kibbutz Metzer attack captured" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/15))

"The Golden Age of Islam is a Myth" (Serge Trifkovic, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/11/15)
"The problem with turning this list of intellectual achievements into a convincing "Islamic" golden age is that whatever flourished, did so not by reason of Islam but in spite of Islam. Moslems overran societies (Persian, Greek, Egyptian, Byzantine, Syrian, Jewish) that possessed intellectual sophistication in their own right and failed to completely destroy their cultures. To give it the credit for what the remnants of these cultures achieved is like crediting the Red Army for the survival of Chopin in Warsaw in 1970! Islam per se never encouraged science, in the sense of disinterested enquiry, because the only knowledge it accepts is religious knowledge."

"Little Headway in Terror War, Democrats Say" (David Johnston and Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times, 2002/11/15)
"Even as Bush administration officials took the F.B.I. to task for a warning issued on Wednesday about possible attacks on hospitals, the F.B.I. today issued a vague and alarming alert to state and local law enforcement agencies. ... The alert was not made public because there was no specific information about a target, officials said. "In selecting its next targets," the F.B.I. alert said, 'sources suggest Al Qaeda may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the American economy and maximum psychological trauma. The highest-priority targets remain within the aviation, petroleum and nuclear sectors, as well as significant national landmarks.'" (See also: "Europeans Warn of Attacks" (Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2002/11/15): "Normally circumspect European intelligence and law enforcement officials have issued a wave of stark warnings in the last two weeks in an echo of U.S. fears that another terrorist attack may be on the way, including the possibility that al Qaeda could employ chemical or other weapons of mass destruction against European targets. The statements - by officials in Britain, Germany and France, as well as by the head of Interpol, the international law enforcement agency - represent a breadth of concern that the continent has not experienced since immediately after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed more than 3,000 people and galvanized international efforts to combat terrorism.")

"Al-Qaida Suspect Confesses" (AP/The Guardian, 2002/11/15)
"A Tunisian terror suspect has confessed in a radio interview that he learned to build bombs from Osama bin Laden's operatives and planned to attack a Belgian air base where the United States has soldiers. ... [Nizar] Trabelsi said that when he was arrested two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, he was planning an attack against the Kleine-Brogel Air Base in northeastern Belgium. ... Trabelsi said he met with bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida network, on a visit to Afghanistan and sees him as a mentor. "I love him just like a father. Whatever he has done in the past, it doesn't matter to me,'' Trabelsi said in the RTBF interview. "I love Islam, I love Muslims and I love all human beings, except the Americans,'' he said."

"Mastermind of Kibbutz Metzer attack captured" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/15)
"IDF forces captured Muhammad Naifeh, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades commander believed to be responsible for dispatching the terrorist who murdered five Israelis in Kibbutz Metzer Sunday evening, in Shuweika, north of Tulkarm, on Thursday. Revital Ohayon and her sons, Matan, five, and Noam, four, and Tirza Damari and Yitzhak Dori were murdered in the the attack. ... According to the IDF, Naifeh dispatched Sirhan Sirhan, the terrorist who killed five people at Kibbutz Metzer on Sunday night. Sirhan remains at large. Naifeh is also suspected of being responsible for a string of attacks, including one in Hermesh in October, and the murder of eight Israelis." (See also: "Israel vows retaliation for deaths of five in kibbutz carnage" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/10))

Added in archive:
"Ringleader of '85 Achille Lauro Hijacking Says Killing Wasn't His Fault" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2002/11/08)

Thursday, November 14, 2002

News and commentary:

"Secular Martyrdom in Iran" (Charles Paul Freund, Reason, 2002/11/14)
"It's a pity that so much of the attention given to the Islamic world is lavished on its thugs and psychopaths; a pity because its men and women of courage are largely overlooked. The case of Iranian academic Hashem Aghajari is a striking example. Dr. Aghajari gave a public lecture in June calling for political reform and "religious renewal," and challenging his fellow Iranians not to "blindly follow religious leaders." The result was that he was charged in Iran's religious courts with apostasy, where he was found guilty Nov. 6 in a closed-door trial. He is to be hanged. ... Aghajari has the right to appeal his verdict, presumably allowing a deal to be worked out that could defuse the crisis. (Similar death sentences have been reduced on appeal.) But his lawyer now says that Aghajari doesn't want to appeal. According to the lawyer, Aghajari says that "those who have issued this verdict have to implement it if they think it is right or else the Judiciary has to handle it." He thus appears to be risking his life so as to force Iran's judicial establishment to confront its own barbarity. ... Nevertheless, he appears to be prepared to sacrifice himself in the name of his liberal principles, an act of potential martyrdom that contrasts dramatically with the acts of the unspeakable but celebrated ghoul "martyrs" who detonate themselves to kill Jewish children in strollers." (See also: "Condemned Iranian don spurns appeal" (BBC News, 2002/11/13))

"Israel in the cross hairs" (Douglas Davis, The Spectator, from the 2002/11/16 issue)
"The argument is as simplistic as it is flawed: American foreign policy, prisoner of the all-powerful Jewish lobby, has been led down a blind alley of political and economic support for Israel, coupled with an abject refusal to compel Israel (à la Iraq) to abide by UN resolutions. It is this grotesque injustice, so the argument goes, that has provoked rage and frustration within the Islamic world; radicalised and catalysed the impoverished Arab 'street'; fuelled the engine of discontent, and provided the fertile seedbed for international terrorism. Ergo, Israel, the object of Washington's support and the Islamic world's consequent rage, is the real culprit for the spate of Islamic terrorism, from the attacks of 11 September to the Moscow theatre siege, from the bombing of Bali to the now routine suicide bombings that visit the streets of Israel's own cities. ... This incipient anti-Semitic analysis is not yet being articulated by mainstream European political leaders, but they do little to discourage or dispel the relentless anti-Israel message that is being propagated by much of Europe's media."

"First Appearance of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Egypt's 'Knight Without a Horse'" (Itamar Marcus, PMW/IMRA, 2002/11/14)
A description and translated transcript of a part of today's episode of the Egyptian TV series "Knight Without a Horse", based on the infamous anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion": "Three old Jews with long gray beards and large black Kippot [Skull Caps] are sitting in a room filled with religious symbols, numerous burning candles, including two Menorah's [7 branched candelabras - reminiscent of the Menorah of the Temple.] ... They are shown whispering, in conspiring manner, about "the book" the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Jews are expressing their fear that "the book" may reach Egypt from Russia where there are numerous copies, and will lead to its being publicized in Egypt. ...
Ovad: "The Others are Hell. Our problem is the Goyim, those who are not Jews. The problem right now is Margaret. We must be sure that the book is in her possession, Yitzhak." ...
Yitzhak: "The British know what the contents of the book are, but if the Egyptians find out there will be more trouble than there was in Russia. It can publicly expose our plans."
Binyamin: "Our group can spread rumors throughout Egypt that the book is a forgery."
Yitzhak: "Our problem is that someone will read the book and fit the contents to what we are trying to accomplish, and will believe in [its truth] thoroughly.'" (See also: "Anti-Semitic 'Elders of Zion' Gets New Life on Egypt TV" (Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, 2002/10/26))

"Denmark demands end to female circumcision" (Julian Isherwood, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/14)
Multicultural clash in Denmark: "Denmark's secular mainstream was on collision course yesterday with members of the Muslim community after political leaders demanded action to halt the Islamic practice of female circumcision. Amid an increasingly angry debate on the issue, the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, called the mutilation of small girls among many Muslims of African origin a "barbaric tradition". ... The comments came after days of furious criticism from press and politicians of demands by imams representing the Somali immigrant community for girls to be circumcised. The practice is widespread in Islamic and some Christian communities in East Africa and Egypt. All forms of female genital mutilation are outlawed in Denmark, but the Danish authorities have been unable to prevent parents sending their daughters "on holiday" for the procedure. The row erupted when Imam Mustafa Abdullahi Aden was widely quoted as saying that female circumcision was a religious duty. He said: "It is good for girls to be circumcised. It is a sign that they are true Muslims." He recommended a method which involves the removal of both the clitoris and labia. The imams said Islamic tradition should take precedence over Danish law."

"You Are a Suspect" (William Saffire, The Washington Post, 2002/11/14)
"If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend - all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database." To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you - passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance - and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen. This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks."

"A bridge too far?" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2002/11/14)
"When should Iraq join the European Union? A ridiculous question, you may say. But next month Europe's leaders will be talking very seriously about taking in Iraq's immediate neighbour, Turkey. If Turkey, why not, eventually, Iraq? Because it is not a European country, you say. But is Turkey? By all conventional geography, only a tiny part of Turkey, our side of the Bosphorus, lies in Europe. ... The case for accepting Turkey is strong, especially in the post-9/11 world. It has everything to do with the "war against terrorism". This is not because Washington will need Turkish co-operation for the northern part of its planned three-prong invasion of Iraq, although it will. That must not sway Europe, one way or the other, in such a big decision. But if you are going to address the deeper causes of Islamist terrorism you need to show people in the Middle East the benefits that can flow to Muslims who accept the basic standards of democratic modernity. ... At stake is not just whether this thing could still be called a European Union. It is whether it could ever be a union at all. So when they talk Turkey next month, at the Copenhagen summit, Europe's leaders will be asking the biggest question of all: what's Europe for? Two powerful logics clash at the gates of the Bosphorus: the logic of unity and the logic of peace."

"Enemy No. 2" (Claudia Rosett, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/11/14)
"To bankroll North Korea's tyrant, Kim Jong Il, while ignoring his victims, is perverse almost beyond believing. But hey, it's what we're still doing. Why care? After all, America and friends back in 1994 signed onto the protection racket in which we pay Mr. Kim for the favor of his not making nuclear bombs. And now that it turns out Mr. Kim has both taking our donations and covertly cooking up nuclear weapons . . . well, he's produced no mushroom cloud yet. So maybe paying protection money is smart foreign policy? Not a prayer. Mr. Kim's craving for nukes, coupled with our tender care of his regime, is playing out in ways that are broadcasting far beyond the Korean Peninsula a very dangerous message. It may not be safe to be Enemy No. 1; Saddam Hussein, look out. But it can be richly rewarding to carve out a niche as Enemy No. 2, especially if you try harder by throwing in a nuclear threat. ... With this unlovely development, we have arrived at the predictable result of the 1994 Agreed Framework, the mother of all exercises in wishful thinking. ... For Mr. Kim, perched atop his nuclear projects, awaiting his regular delivery of free fuel and gazing across the prison camps that dot his barren land at KEDO's still-bustling Kumho reactor site, all this has to look like a sweet deal. For his compliant donors, unless we wise up fast, it has the makings of true disaster."

"Saddam Hussein's Delusion" (Amir Taheri, The New York Times, 2002/11/14)
"His basic assumption is that there is a single Arab nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. At different times, history chooses part of this mythical nation to assume leadership. In Saddam Hussein's view, it is now Iraq's turn. ... In 1970, he opened the Ottoman archives, in which Iraqis were classified as either Ottoman or Persian subjects. ... The mass expulsion of the Persians was implemented from 1972 on. By 1980 nearly a million people had been driven out. ... In 1980 he decided to Arabize the Kurds. Over the next 10 years, more than 4,000 Kurdish villages in the north of the country were razed, their inhabitants transferred to southern Iraq and scattered among the Arabic-speaking majority. ... Under his vision, Iraq must be fully Arabized by force and, if necessary, through genocide. He also wants Iraq to secure control of the principal source of Arab wealth: oil. That means either the direct conquest of the Persian Gulf states or their indirect domination. He has shown that he is fully prepared to go to war to fulfill this vision and has done so on four occasions since 1968. His quest for weapons of mass destruction is simply one strategy by which he hopes to dominate the region."

"The laughing Bali bomber tells" (Wayne Miller and Darren Goodsir, The Age, 2002/11/14)
"The chief suspect in the Bali bombing joked and laughed with Indonesia's police chief last night during a bizarre public interrogation in which he told of his "delight" at the carnage caused by his crime. Amrozi, the 40-year-old mechanic from Java detained over the bombing earlier this month, spoke of his role in the attack in a taped interview at Denpasar police headquarters. During the 50-minute interview with police chief General Da'i Bachtiar, both men frequently smiled and laughed. Most of the conversation was inaudible to dozens of journalists and photographers who watched from behind glass, but at one moment Amrozi pointed to Western journalists and said in Indonesian: "Those are the sorts of people that I wanted to kill," prompting laughter in the room full of police."

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

News and commentary:

"Iraq Accepts New U.N. Council Resolution" (Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, 2002/11/13)
"Iraq's U.N. ambassador Mohammed Douri said today that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has decided to accept "without conditions" a U.N. resolution that sets tough new terms for U.N. inspections in Iraq, citing concerns about the impact of an American led war in the region. But a formal Iraqi letter presented by Douri to the United Nations stopped short of an unequivocal commitment to abide by all of the U.N.'s terms, raising the prospects of a potential confrontation between Iraq and the weapons inspectors. Douri's announcement to accept the new U.N. inspection resolution, which was adopted Friday unanimously by the 15 nation council, is still expected to pave the way for the resumption of U.N. inspections on Monday for the first time in four years. It comes a day after Iraq's parliament unanimously voted down the resolution but left the final decision in the hands of Hussein." (See also: "Text: Letter From Iraqi Foreign Minister to the U.N." (The Washington Post, 2002/11/13): "Then they returned to stress that Iraq had in fact produced chemical and biological weapons. They both know, as well as we do, and so can other countries, that such fabrications are baseless. ... Indeed, is there any good to be hoped for, or expected, from the American administrations, now that they have been transformed by their own greed, by Zionism as well as by other known factors, into the tyrant of the age.")

"Condemned Iranian don spurns appeal" (BBC News, 2002/11/13)
"An Iranian university lecturer has refused to appeal against his death sentence on charges of criticising Islamic clergy, his lawyer says. "If the head of the judiciary thinks that this verdict is fair, he should apply it," Saleh Nikbakht quoted Hashem Aghajari as writing in response to his sentence. ... Mr Aghajari made clear his willingness to die in the statement issued by his lawyer on Wednesday. "Twenty years ago, when I was on the front... during the Iran-Iraq war, I was already ready to be a martyr." If the judiciary had doubts about the sentence, "they should do the necessary [and cancel the verdict]," he said. ... "The judiciary is following its normal course," the judiciary's public relations office said in the statement, carried by AFP, - without an appeal, the sentence could not be reconsidered. "How can one defend someone who claims to be a Muslim but casts doubt on the principles of the religion... and qualifies as monkeys those who follow religious dignitaries?" (See also: "Scholar Sentenced to Death in Iran" (Ali Akbar Dareini, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/11/07))

"Was it worth it?" (Polly Toynbee, The Guardian, 2002/11/13)
A must-read report from Kabul: "The pathological loathing of women by the Taliban didn't spring from nowhere, nor has it evaporated overnight. This is an apartheid society, a bifurcated human race where one half has been systematically excised: mothers, wives, daughters are only empty vessels, the regrettable and disgusting physical function through which men must deign to be born. Men are everything to one another here and their warm and public emotion can be a touching sight. They hug, kiss, embrace, weep together, delighting in each other's company, laughing and probably making love quite a lot too. (Battles between warlords have been fought recently over beautiful boys, often involving kidnap and male rape.) ...
Once the shutter of religion falls, the rest is silence. The women are indoctrinated so deep with it that their own inferiority is branded on their brains. Every time sophisticated Muslims in the west use sophistry to explain that the prophet was actually a great liberator of women, every time they fail to condemn outright some of the Koranic laws themselves and demand reformation, they help condemn women across the Islamic world to this self-immolating damage."

"American view of Europe" (Martin Walker, UPI, 2002/11/13)
"'You want to know what I really think of the Europeans?' asked the senior State Department official. "I think they have been wrong on just about every major international issue for the past 20 years. ... These were also the people who were wrong about Ronald Reagan and the Evil Empire, the same 'friends' who helped vote us off the United Nations Human Rights Commission. These are the people who whine about our Farm Bill when they are the world's prime protectionists. They are not just repeatedly wrong; they are also a bunch of hypocrites. So why should we pay attention to a single thing they say?" ...
Well, the Europeans may still be able to count on the sympathies and cultural deference of many East Coast journalists, but something has shifted among the diplomats, the think tanks and even many of the academics. At a think-tank meeting last week, when a European diplomat asked rather patronizingly what all these American weapons were actually for, a renowned liberal academic simply quoted Kipling's line about "Making mock of uniforms that guard you while you sleep." And then he turned on his heel and walked away. ...
It is now widely understood that of all the Europeans, only the British can begin to fight on the same modern battlefield as the hugely expensive and technologically advanced American forces. The rest of the Europeans are so many free riders on the readiness of American taxpayers to spend twice as much as Europeans on what remains the common defense."

"Europe lacks moral fibre, says US hawk" (Edward Pilkington and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, 2002/11/13)
"Richard Perle, a leading Pentagon adviser on Iraq, last night launched an extraordinary tirade against Europe which he accused of losing its moral direction and providing succour to Saddam Hussein. "I think Europe has lost its moral compass. Many Europeans have become so obsessed by the prospect of violence they have failed to notice who we are dealing with," he said in an interview with the Guardian. Mr Perle expressed serious reservations about the United Nations chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, and the ability of his team to disarm Iraq. But he reserved his most scathing comments for Germany and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's new anti-war stance. "Germany has subsided into a moral numbing pacifism. For the German chancellor to say he will have nothing to do with action against Saddam Hussein, even if approved by the United Nations, is unilateralism," Mr Perle said."

"When a 'Terrorist' Is a 'Militant' and Why" (Steven Plaut, Newsday.com, 2002/11/13)
"Ever since 9/11, much of the world has adopted a "good terrorist - bad terrorist" shtick, based on the old "good cop - bad cop" routine familiar from every bad police drama on television. According to this, those people who blow up innocent civilians are regarded as terrorists and barbarians, except where they target and murder Jews. In that case they are "activists," "militants," people with legitimate grievances, people whose demands must be met and with whom a deal must be struck. Much of the world's media, and especially CNN and the BBC, evidently have ironclad policies whereby Arabs who commit mass murder against Jews must never be described as terrorists. Instead, they are "activists," as if they are raising money for dolphins, or "militants," like people marching in gay pride parades. ... The world understands when the United States routs the Taliban, and I suspect it will understand when the Russians attack their Chechen tormentors, or when the perpetrators of the Bali bombing are killed. But somehow the same rules never seem to apply to Israel. For it, the only permissible response to Islamist terrorism is submission, turning the other cheek, and appeasement."

"Pre-schoolers protest possible war in Iraq" (Steve Sexton, The California Patriot, 2002/11/13)
The exploitation of little children for political causes is always ugly, but on the other hand they seem to be just about as logical as grown-up protesters: "They still believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. They don't know how to spell their last names or tie their own shoes. But they do know that "war is bad," and that "Bush is a bully." The next generation of Berkeley peaceniks gathered on the steps of City Hall Tuesday to demonstrate their opposition to a pending war in Iraq- after school, of course. Armed with protest signs, microphones, and Harry Potter lunch-boxes, elementary and pre-school children demanded city leaders contact President Bush and halt his hawkish "war for oil." ... Though most students at the rally could not even name Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, many seemed certain the pending U.S. led war in Iraq is about oil. Celia, age 6, who could not spell her hyphenated last name, told the crowd President Bush "wants to make war because he wants oil." "What is so important about cars anyway," she asked. Later, when asked if she could name the president of Iraq, Celia, stumped, turned to a friend and asked, "Is it a boy or a girl?" Her friend, equally puzzled, responded, 'I think it's a boy.'"

"The Reform Islam Needs" (James Q. Wilson, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/11/13)
An interesting essay on the history of the reconciliation of religion and freedom: "The struggle exists, I think, because the West has mastered the problem of reconciling religion and freedom, while several Middle Eastern nations have not. ... Reconciling religion and freedom has been the most difficult political task most nations have faced. It is not hard to see why. People who believe that there is one set of moral rules superior to all others, laid down by God and sometimes enforced by the fear of eternal punishment, will understandably expect their nation to observe and impose these rules; to do otherwise would be to repudiate deeply held convictions, offend a divine being, and corrupt society. ...
In the Middle East, nations are either of recent origin or uncertain boundaries. ... These countries today are about where England was in the 11th century, lacking much in the way of a clear national history or stable government. To manage religion and freedom, they have yet to acquire regimes in which one set of leaders could be replaced in an orderly fashion with a new set, an accomplishment that in the West required almost a millennium. ...
I believe that in time Islam will become modern, because without religious freedom, modern government is impossible. I hope that in time the West will reaffirm social contracts, because without them a decent life is impossible. But in the near term, Islam will be on the defensive culturally - which means it will be on the offensive politically. And the West will be on the offensive culturally, which I suspect means it will be on the defensive morally."

"God will get me through, says mother" (Janine di Giovanni, The Times/ropma.net, 2002/11/13)
"As more than 80 young women arrived amid great fanfare in the Nigerian capital to take part in the Miss World contest, an illiterate 31-year-old woman sat in a stark room a few miles away contemplating a very different fate. Amina Lawal has been sentenced to death by stoning. ...
The beauty queens welcomed so effusively by the Nigerian Government on Monday night are symbols of the West’s obsession with sex, celebrity and material gain. "We're here to put Nigeria on the map of international beauty," declared Julia Morley, the Miss World president. Ms Lawal, by contrast, has become a symbol of hardline Islam's intolerance of any form of moral laxity, at least among the poor. For the alleged adultery that led to the birth of Wasila, now ten months old, she is to be buried up to her neck and stoned until she dies. ...
One day, after accepting a lift on a motorcycle, she was raped by a man she thought was a friend. When it became obvious that she was pregnant the fundamentalist vigilantes, known as Hisbah, turned her over to the Sharia court. ...
There are four other cases of women sentenced to be stoned for adultery. There are also 11 children in Sokoto state awaiting amputation for stealing. Ms Lawal's lawyer, Hauwa Ibrahim, said: 'We have heard they are waiting for the amputation machine to arrive.'" (See also: "The Next Hotbed Of Islamic Radicalism" (Paul Marshall, The Washington Post, 2002/10/08) and "The War on Women" (Lashawn R. Jefferson, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/08/22))

"A fighter's life is worth more than a child's" (Amira Hass, Haaretz, 2002/11/13)
An interview with four members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades: "On January 17, 2002, Aber A-Salem Hasona of the village of Beit Imrin near Nablus, set out from Tul Karm to carry out a terror attack in Hadera. He chose a banquet hall and killed six people celebrating a bat mitzvah. "That was our response to the killing of Raed Karmi" [on January 14] said the four. "If we started killing Israelis within the 1948 borders, it was only as a response to their tanks and slaughters. No one honored our "security zone," where Palestinian civilians may not be harmed, so why do they expect us to honor the security of Israeli civilians?" The response to the assassination of Karmi, who was "beloved by all" - because he managed to slip into settlements, kill "a settler and get out" - was particularly difficult "because it was preceded by a period of agreed-upon quiet. That is why all hell broke loose." ... If you are motivated by revenge, they were asked, why does the killing of an armed man elicit a far stronger response than the killing of a child by a tank or a semiautomatic rifle? They appear surprised by the question and find it difficult to formulate a suitable response. Finally, the youngest member of the group says: 'When one of us is killed, we lose a fighter. That is a far greater loss to us than the life of a child, as painful as it may be.'"

"Protests Grow in Iran Over Death Sentence for Professor" (Nazila Fathi, The New York Times, 2002/11/13)
"About 5,000 angry students gathered at Tehran University today as protests grew over the death sentence issued to a reformist scholar close to President Mohammad Khatami. ... Mr. [Hashem] Aghajari was sentenced to death last week after a closed trial, charged with apostasy for a speech he gave in August in which he challenged the rule of hard-line clerics. The protests, which began four days ago, have spread to two other major universities in Tehran, Amir Kabir and Shahid Beheshti, where meetings were held today. The daily newspaper Hambastegi reported that on Monday, there also were protests in Kerman, Tabriz, Isfahan, Orumieh and Hamedan." (See also: "Scholar Sentenced to Death in Iran" (Ali Akbar Dareini, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/11/07))

"U.S. says tape shows bin Laden alive" (David R. Sands and Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2002/11/13)
"U.S. officials said yesterday they strongly suspect a newly released tape by terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is authentic and provides the first hard proof in nearly a year that bin Laden is alive. A preliminary U.S. government assessment indicates the voice is bin Laden's. "It sounds like his voice," said a U.S. official with access to intelligence reports, speaking on the condition of anonymity." (See also: "Tape: Bush 'pharoah of the century'" (CNN.com, 2002/11/12))

Added in archive:
"From Peace to Hate" (Suzanne Davidson, The Jewish Journal, 2002/11/08)

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

News and commentary:

"Tape: Bush 'pharoah of the century'" (CNN.com, 2002/11/12)
"An audiotaped statement attributed to Osama bin Laden praises recent terror attacks in Yemen, Kuwait, Bali and Moscow as a response "to how the Muslims have been treated." ... "Bush, the pharaoh of the century, is killing our children in Iraq," says the voice attributed to bin Laden. "And Israel, an American ally, is bombing homes with elderly women and children inside using American planes in Palestine. This is enough for the wise of your leaders to stay away from this band of terror." People who have listened to hours of bin Laden tapes said the voice on the latest tape sounds like that of the al Qaeda leader. It is not known when the tape was recorded, but it refers to events as recent as October. ... The latest tape also warns of more attacks, and defends those threatened actions. "Why is it acceptable for us to live with fear, murder, destruction, displacement, the orphaning of children and the widowing of women, but peace, security and happiness should be for you?" the voice asks. 'This is not fair. Now is the time to become equals. Just like you kill us, we will kill you.'" (See also: "Excerpts From Purported Bin Laden Tape" (AP/The Washington Post, 2002/11/12))

"The Great Depression" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/11/12)
A sample of responses from some Democrats and liberals to last week's Republican election victories: "Bill Moyers, PBS: "For the first time in the memory of anyone alive, the entire federal government - the Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary - is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That mandate includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives. It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich. It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable. ... It is a heady time in Washington - a heady time for piety, profits, and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money." ...
Darlene Weesner, an unsuccessful candidate for county office in Florida: "Marion County is now under siege by the Gestapo, and the Fuhrer is the leader of the Republican Party. All I can tell you is the community is missing out on the wonderful plans I had in store for all of us."
Ira Hozinsky, in a published e-mail to bilious blogger Eric Alterman: "The reason for the Republican triumph is simple: the American people are stupid. The ineptitude and corruption of the Bush Administration are radiantly obvious to anyone with half a brain, and it should not have been necessary for the Democrats to make any case at all. It should be abundantly clear to anyone with principles and intelligence that trying to bring about meaningful change through electoral politics is a waste of time. The American people don't want it. They want to have their pockets picked and their sons sent to their deaths in Iraq, as long as these things are done by a frat brother." (See also: "Bill Moyers on Election 2002" (PBS, 2002/11/08), "Blaming the Victim: The Rapist Mentality" (Monica Friedlander, Democrats.com, November 2002) and Altercation (MSNBC, November 2002))

"Arafat blocked reform efforts, ex-minister says" (Paul Adams, The Globe and Mail, 2002/11/12)
When a leading reformer and outspoken critic of suicide bombings left Yasser Arafat's government this fall, he told the Palestinian leader he was fed up with the corruption and militancy of security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh said that during his term as Palestinian interior minister, he was prevented from demilitarizing the police forces and overruled when he tried to remove several commanders who had participated in attacks on Israelis. He said he found the task of reforming the police impossible. 'The ones I did succeed in moving are now back in their jobs.'"

"Welcome Voice?" (Tom Gross, National Review, 2002/11/12)
"Harvard University's English department has invited Tom Paulin - the Oxford poet who has called for the slaughter of U.S. Jews on the West Bank - to deliver "The Morris Gray Lecture" this Thursday (November 14). ... Earlier this year Paulin, who lectures in 19th- and 20th-century English literature at Oxford University, told the influential Egyptian paper al-Ahram Weekly that what he described as "Brooklyn-born" Jewish settlers should be "shot dead." He said: "They should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them." He added: "I can understand how suicide bombers feel. ... I think attacks on civilians in fact boost morale." Paulin, who has regularly declared that Israel has no right to exist, and recently resigned from Britain's ruling Labour party on the grounds that Tony Blair was heading a "Zionist government," is no doubt entitled to his opinion. But that Harvard University's English department, whose faculty members include such luminaries as Nobel-prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, has decided to single Paulin out for honor and provide him with a platform from which to influence the young, is another matter altogether." (See also: "Oxford poet 'wants US Jews shot'" (Neil Tweedie, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/04/13) and "We Get Results" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/04/12): "Yesterday we noted that Harvard's English department had invited Tom Paulin, an Irish poet who advocates the murder of Jews in Israel's disputed territories, to deliver its annual Morris Gray Lecture Thursday. Less than 24 hours later, the lecture was canceled.")

"Moral Hazard" (Franklin Foer, The New Republic, 2002/11/12)
"The death threats began shortly after September 11, 2001. Every few days, for about four months, Khaled Abou El Fadl would receive an angry, anonymous phone call at either his San Fernando Valley home or his UCLA office. ... ...The callers weren't angry white men accusing him of terrorist sympathies; they were fellow Muslim Americans accusing him of selling out the faith. On September 14, 2001, Abou El Fadl had published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. Many Muslim Americans had condemned the week's attacks as un-Islamic. But Abou El Fadl felt this response amounted to an evasion. The attacks, he worried, didn't represent a deviation from mainstream Islam; they reflected a crisis at the core of the faith, the logical conclusion of "a puritanical and ethically oblivious form of Islam [that] has predominated since the 1970s." Centuries of Islamic intellectual development had been destroyed by the "rampant apologetics" of Muslim thinkers, which had "produced a culture that eschews self-critical and introspective insight and embraces projection of blame and a fantasy-like level of confidence and arrogance." ... Even in the West, dissident thinkers like Abou El Fadl have been shut out of mainstream Islamic institutions. ...
When I ask Abou El Fadl about his hope for the future of Islam, he pulls a Diet Coke from the mini-refrigerator next to his desk before lighting a cigarette and smoking it out his window. "The chances are that I would be appreciated by a rabbi interested in interfaith discussions far more than I will be by a leader of a Muslim organization," he says. After a few puffs, he rubs the cigarette into the sill and throws it from the window. 'It's very disheartening and discouraging. The reason I'm speaking so openly is that I'm fed up to the core.'" (See also: "What Became of Tolerance in Islam?" (Khaled Abou El Fadl, Los Angeles Times, 2001/09/14))

"David Duke due in Bahrain for lecture" (Gulf News, 2002/11/12)
The former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan finds eager ears in the Arab world for his anti-Semitic rants. Via Little Green Footballs: "David Duke, who represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 1991 and ran unsuccessfully for governor the same year, "is a well-known critic of the Zionist lobby in the U.S. and its threat to the U.S. national security," said Mohammed Zuhair, manager of Discover Islam Centre. The centre, an educational institute serving mostly the non-Muslim community in Bahrain, is sponsoring Duke's four-day visit. "During his stay, he will deliver two lectures, 'Global Struggle against Zionism' and "Israeli Involvement in September 11 (attacks)'. Both will be open to the public and followed by a question and answer session," Zuhair said. ... He said Duke was not being invited because of his perceived anti-Jewish stand but because he has recently authored a book that 'exposes the Zionist agenda for world domination.'" (Note: As Charles Johnson points out, Duke was "a state senator, not a US senator". See also: "A radio broadcast on 'the world's most dangerous terrorist'" (David Duke, Arab News, 2002/05/14))

"Lecture subject: The Ideology of Jihad, Dhimmitude and Human Rights" (Bat Ye'or, The Hoya, 2002/11/12)
Ye'or's controversial lecture at Georgetown University (2002/10/22) is available online: "So one sees that the jihad wars, the war of conquest of infidel’s territory, that had lasted for over a millennium and had expanded on three continents, is a very well documented historical field. Thus, it is astonishing when this well-characterized historiography is largely ignored, or even denied, in scholarly works. One is amazed to see that sometimes it is denied, even in scholarly books. ...
If jihad has been pursued century after century, it is because jihad, which means “to strive in the path of Allah,” embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were conceived by Muslim jurists consults from the eighth to ninth centuries onward. Briefly presented, the ideology of jihad separates the world into two irreconcilable entities: dar al-Islam (the land of Islam) and dar al-Harb (the land of war), controlled by the infidels. The duty of the Muslims is to impose the Islamic law on the whole world, either by persuasion or by war, and those efforts which imply sacrifices represent the 'fight in the path of Allah.'" (See also: "Lecture subject: The Ideology of Jihad, Dhimmitude and Human Rights" (David Littman, The Hoya, 2002/11/12): "I shall conclude by quoting the British philosopher Sir Karl Popper, best known for his philosophy of critical rationalism and his emphasis on the way in which we learn through the making and correcting of mistakes. ... 'Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them.'")

"Remembrance Day in Trudeaupia" (Mark Steyn, National Post, 2002/11/12)
"And let's not be embarrassed about supposedly obsolescent concepts like the "nation-state." If we've learned anything since September 11th, it's that, if it were left to the multilateral acronyms - the UN, EU, even NATO - al-Qaeda would have the run of the planet. The great evil of September 11th is being resisted by a small number of nation-states, by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and a handful of others. It seems hardly worth mentioning Canada, an advanced model of a society so free it cannot rouse itself to defend its freedom. It can only do the Trudeaupian shrug and turn away."

"Deadline for Hussein" (Dennis Ross, The Washington Post, 2002/11/12)
"Many have said that Hussein is homicidal, not suicidal, and that when faced with the alternatives of survival or acceptance of disarmament, he will accept disarmament. Maybe, but I doubt Hussein feels he is truly being faced with that choice. In his mind, he believes he has been able to maneuver inspection regimes before, and this one, despite the toughened language and anywhere-anytime provisions, ultimately will be no different. And he may be right. ... If disarmament is the objective, the only possibility of achieving it without war will depend on Hussein's understanding that anything less than full disclosure is, in fact, the trigger for war. Anything less than that will put us on a slippery slope that allows Hussein to play for time, make sure the inspectors find nothing in the early going - or find only what he wants them to find to "prove" he is cooperating. President Bush has set the stage for disarmament. Now he must condition the French, the Russians and the rest of the world to understand that the moment of truth comes not with the inspectors' arrival but with the character of Iraq's disclosure on Dec. 8."

"Two Faces, One Terror" (Fouad Ajami, The Wall Street Journal/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/11/12)
"The prospect of using force against Iraq has brought numerous demands that the U.S. establish a definitive connection between the rogue state and the events of Sept. 11. But we needn't look for a "smoking gun" that would unequivocally tie Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda. The more important link - of a more organic nature - has already been established. Iraq and al Qaeda are two main tributaries of Arab radicalism. ...
For all the outward differences, Saddam and the leaders of al Qaeda offered the masses that flocked to their banners an absolution from responsibility, and a dream of revenge. In both cases, the crowd worked itself into a frenzy, and then fell into despondency when the Pied Piper was unable to deliver. ...
America's enemies in that region are full of cunning. They should be read right; the banners they unfurl - secular or religious - are of no great significance. It is the drive that animates them that matters. What they bring forth, be they dictators in bunkers or jihadists on the run, is a determination to extirpate American influence from their world, and a view of history that the deep sorrows and failings of the Arab world can be laid at the doorsteps of the distant American power."

"Profs who hate America" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post/danielpipes.org, 2002/11/12)
"Americans broadly agree on two facts about the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq: its brutality and the danger it poses to themselves, especially the danger of nuclear attack. Disagreement arises primarily over what to do: Take out the regime now? Give Baghdad another chance? Follow the United Nations' lead? Visit an American university, however, and you'll often enter a topsy-turvy world in which professors consider the United States (not Iraq) the problem and oil (not nukes) the issue. ... Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT and far-left luminary, insists that President Bush and his advisers oppose Saddam not because of his many crimes or his reach for nuclear weapons. "We all know ... what they're aiming at," Chomsky said in a recent interview, "Iraq has the second-largest oil reserves in the world." Jim Rego, visiting assistant professor of chemistry at Swarthmore College, stated at a panel discussion that, even after Sept. 11, the U.S. government is merely manufacturing another enemy "to have an identity." Rego explained his thinking with an elegance characteristic of the Left: 'I think we've run out of people's butts to kick and that we essentially want to keep the butt-kicking going.'"

"Iraq and the Left" (Barry Rubin, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/12)
"Much of the American intelligentsia - opinion makers, journalists, professors, and so on - virulently oppose any war on Iraq. ... President Bush is a Republican and a conservative (and most decidedly not an intellectual) so he must be totally wrong. On the Left there is an undercurrent of implicit assumption that Saddam is preferable to Bush, though such an accusation would be met with angry denial. The irony here is that this places the Left in the position of opposing a US effort to overthrow a reactionary dictator, free an oppressed people, and replace a repressive regime with a democracy. If the president was a Democrat, one wonders whether more such people would perceive the ridiculousness of their position."

"Killing Christians" (Amitai Etzioni, The Weekly Standard/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/11/12)
"On October 17, bombs killed 6 people and wounded 143 in Zamboanga, the Philippines. While press accounts mentioned in passing that the victims were Christians, few conveyed to the reader that these were people assaulted by Muslim extremists because of their religion. ... And the media almost never point out that Christians are being killed, often at places of worship, in several countries with Islamic majorities or governments, not because they are Westerners or Americans (many are neither) but because they are Christians. ... The White House has solid tactical reasons for stating and restating that our fight is only with terrorists, not Muslims. We must face the fact, however, that while the prophet has many moderate followers, the terrorists command great sympathy in the Islamic world not only because Islamic populations are anti-American or anti-Western, but also because the terrorists are attacking infidels."

"Egyptian Christian Copts on Prejudice in Egypt & Saudi Arabia" (MEMRI, Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 110, 2002/11/12)
From a letter about the treatment of Christians in Saudi Arabia, published in The Copt weekly Watani: "I am an Egyptian who left Egypt in pursuit of a better livelihood. I worked in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. Whereas I was welcomed and accepted by most of the people of these countries, I was met with bitter hate and fanaticism against anything or anybody Christian in Saudi Arabia. Saudi hate does not stop at harassing Christians and chasing them [even] outside the Saudi Kingdom at the least indication of their religious identity. It extends to adopting active policies to export the hate to all neighboring countries. ...
A Greek young man who went to Saudi Arabia for business was harassed at Jeddah airport by the customs official who pulled off a cross pendant he wore about his neck and threw it violently in the waste basket. ...
A Christian who was walking in the street in Jeddah was stopped by the Mutawa'ah [the Muslim Religious Police] and asked why he was not at the mosque for afternoon prayers. Upon replying that he was Christian, the Mutawi' [policeman] cried out 'A'udhu Billah' [I seek Allah's protection!] and spat on the Christian's face. ...
On a television programme that provides religious counseling [fatwa] a viewer asked the counseling Sheikh if he could travel to Egypt to hand an item he had in safekeeping over to a Christian friend's family. The Sheikh reprimanded the viewer for having a Christian friend in the first place – Muslims were not permitted to take Christian friends. He then went on to advise the viewer to keep the item in question for himself, since all possessions of kuffaar [non-believers] were the rightful property of Muslims."

"West in mortal danger from Islam, says Putin" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Julius Strauss, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/12)
Misleading heading, as Putin rather says that the West is in mortal danger from Islamist terrorism: "Islamic radicals are pursuing the systematic annihilation of non-Muslims, President Vladimir Putin claimed yesterday. The Russian leader said at a European Union summit in Brussels that western civilisation faced a mortal threat from Muslim terrorists, and claimed that they had plans to create a "worldwide caliphate". ... Mr Putin said the world no longer faced isolated acts of terrorism but a "concerted effort and programme" by a global network bent on slaughter, perhaps with nuclear weapons. He said the West should face up to the reality that Chechen terrorists were religious extremists in league with al-Qa'eda, rather than a separatist movement seeking a breakaway republic. If the West failed to deal with the Chechen terrorist threat, he said, there would be repeats of the Moscow theatre siege and the Bali bombing 'all over the world.'" (See also: "Putin offers radical surgery for Chechen rebels" (Elaine Sciolino, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002/11/13): "'If you are Christian, your life is threatened. If you reject your religion and become an atheist you are also in danger. If you will decide to become Muslim, even this will not save you because traditional Islam is from their perspective hostile to their purposes and goals.' ... 'If you want to become a complete Islamic radical," he said, "and are ready to undergo circumcision, then I invite you to Moscow. We're a multi-denominational country. We have specialists in this question as well. I will recommend that he carry out the operation in such a way that after it nothing else will grow.'")