Archived news and commentary: December 9 - 15, 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, December 15, 2002

News and commentary:

"Pentagon: No Comment on Report of Troops in N.Iraq" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/15)
"The Pentagon said on Sunday it had no information about an alleged movement of U.S. troops and equipment into northern Iraq from Turkey, reported by Turkey's NTV and the Arabic Al-Jazeera television channel. A Pentagon spokesman in Washington said: "I have nothing on that." ... Al-Jazeera quoted Turkish military sources as saying 50 U.S. military trucks had started transporting equipment on Saturday from an air base in southern Turkey into three areas in northern Iraq controlled by Kurds. The report said the trucks had used the Habur border crossing. "Jazeera learned that there are 500 U.S. special forces training around 2,000 Kurds and making logistical preparations for the arrival of thousands of U.S. troops in the event of an attack on Iraq," the Qatar-based television channel said."

"At the Corner of Hate and Free Speech" (Ted Gup, The Washington Post Outlook, 2002/12/15)
A brilliant critique of "hate speech"-codes and laws: "I would like to have lunch at Grandpa's Kitchen, a convenience store and deli on East 55th and Chester. But despite its warm and fuzzy name, I fear that I would not be entirely welcome there. I say this because of the huge mural on the side of the building that depicts Jews as monkeys wearing yarmulkes. The owner, a Mr. Brahim "Abe" Ayad, has made it pretty clear that he is none too fond of people of my faith. He has his reasons, many of them involving his father, a Palestinian who he says was driven from his land to make way for the state of Israel. Today, Grandpa's Kitchen is a kind of local landmark, a testament to unmuzzled anti-Semitism. But the fact that this animosity has been allowed to fester publicly is one that I, the grandson of a rabbi, applaud without reservation. ...
Even Harvard Law School, where generations of students have been trained to defend the First Amendment, is now weighing a speech code targeted at the lexicon of hate. In this it is hardly alone. Corporations, clubs, elementary schools and universities have convinced themselves that the enlightened thing to do is to declare that "Hate speech is not free speech," to quote Robert A. Corrigan, the president of San Francisco State University. I believe they are not only wrong but dangerously wrong. Any effort to stifle hate speech is a betrayal of democratic values - the very ones that ultimately protect diversity and dissent. It seems to me that unfettered speech is to bigotry what a vaccine is to smallpox." (See also: "Pro-hunting writer held in cell after race claims" (Neil Tweedie, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/20))

"An ugly infection" (The Gazette, 2002/12/15)
Anti-Semitism on Campus II: "What happened at the Université du Québec à Montréal last weekend gives Canadian context to Summers's cautionary note. In the face of two anonymous threats, administrators cited security concerns as they prohibited Israeli journalist and professor Gideon Kouts from speaking to the Jewish student group Hillel. After Montreal's Jewish community and others raised proper hell, the university regained its nerve and stood up for freedom of speech. Kouts graciously - and puckishly - thanked UQÀM for generating publicity that increased his audience. ... UQÀM officials would doubtless protest - without question truthfully - that they haven't an anti-Semitic bone in their bodies. And yet they evidently failed to discern the larger pattern: Kouts, after all, is not the only prominent Israeli recently prevented from speaking at a Montreal (read: Canadian) university. In September, glass-smashing thugs silenced former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Concordia. ...
And so those who had silenced Mr. Netanyahu through violence needed no violence to stop - temporarily at least - a second Jew from speaking. Thus are habits of mind developed. Thus is the pattern of intolerance - notably anti-Semitism - bred. It is a pattern that finds repetition in the deplorable action of Concordia's Student Union in expelling Hillel, the Jewish student group, on the flimsiest of pretexts. The CSU-Hillel incident might be written off as a petty post-secondary shenanigan were it not for the chilling, ugly reality that it meant Jewish voices being silenced on a Canadian university campus. History is witness to the evils that can spring from such silencing. Lawrence Summers was correct that not every cross word between Jews and non-Jews is the start of a new Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass. But we have heard glass breaking on the streets of Montreal. Our response must not be the silence of blissful ignorance." (Note: Found via IMRA. See also: "Address at morning prayers" (Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University, 2002/09/17))

"Israel on Campus" (Ruth Wisse, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/12/15)
Anti-Semitism on Campus I: "All the while that students, in the spirit of diversity, are actively discouraged from making pejorative comments about other vulnerable minorities, some Arab and Muslim students have been actively fomenting hatred of Israel as an expression of their "identity." On campuses with a large Arab presence, such as Wayne State in Detroit, this has resulted in a palpable threat to Jewish students, and outbreaks of physical violence have actually occurred at San Francisco State and Concordia University in Montreal. Since Arab and Muslim students are currently the only ones who exuberantly defame another group, and who blame that group rather than Arab and Muslim governments for the failings of their own antidemocratic societies, it is hardly surprising that they should be joined by others looking for a villain or scapegoat. Anti-Semitism thrives because slandering Israel is the only aggression against a minority that is encouraged by the rules of political correctness."

"Italian firebrand takes her fight to the 'Islamo-fascists'" (Sarah Baxter, The Sunday Times, 2002/12/15)
"The door to her home in New York is barred and the police pass by every night. In Italy she is accompanied by bodyguards. There is no fatwa against Oriana Fallaci, but in France her opponents have tried to silence her in court.
The fiery Italian, once one of the world’s most uncompromising political interviewers, has stirred anger with The Rage and the Pride, a polemic on Islam and the September 11 attacks. She rarely meets the press herself, but has come out fighting after the failure of last month’s bid to ban her book in France. ...
Her views led the Movement against Racism in France to accuse her of inciting religious hatred. Its attempt to force the publishers to withdraw the book or insert a warning about its contents infuriated Fallaci.
“France guillotined thousands of people and subjugated Europe in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity, yet it wants to forbid my freedom of expression,” she said. ...
The book was meant to be over the top, she insisted. “It’s an invective. I wrote it on the wave of a terrible trauma. If you ask me, do I repent what I have written, the answer is no.”
She condemns rampant anti-Americanism in Europe as suicidal. “America is us,” she writes in her book. “If America collapses, Europe collapses, the whole of the West collapses.”
The next edition of her book will be even more intemperate, she promises. 'I don’t want the burqa. I want to stuff it in their throats.'" (See also: "French court rejects popular anti-Islam book ban" (Reuters/alertnet.org, 2002/11/20))

"Hussein's Obsession: An Empire of Mosques" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2002/12/15)
Burns describes the Mother of All Battles mosque in Baghdad:
"First, the minarets. The outer four, each 140 feet high, were built to resemble the barrels of Kalashnikov rifles, pointing skyward. The inner four, each 120 feet high, look like the Scud missiles that Iraq fired at Israel in 1991 during the Mother of All Battles, known to Americans as the Persian Gulf war. ...
Inside a special sanctum, treated by the mosque's custodian with the reverence due a holy of holies, there are 650 pages of the Koran - written, it is said, in Mr. Hussein's blood. As the official legend has it, "Mr. President" donated 28 liters of his blood - about 50 pints - over two years, and a famous calligrapher, Abas al-Baghdadi, mixed it with ink and preservatives to produce the handsome writing now laid out page by page in glass-walled display cases. ...
Mosque-building - on a scale, Iraqi officials say, that no Arab leader has undertaken since the days of the great Abbasid caliphs who ruled the Arab world from Baghdad until the middle of the 13th century - has become Mr. Hussein's grand obsession. ... A few miles from the Mother of All Battles Mosque, two others are rising that will dwarf it. One five times the size, with many similar features in celebration of Mr. Hussein, is to be known as the Mosque of Saddam the Great." (See also: "Iraq builds 'Mother of all Battles' mosque in praise of Saddam" (Philip Smucker, The Daily Telegraph, 2001/07/29))

"PA Libel: Jewish Religion sees Arabs as Stage between Jew and Monkey" (Itamar Marcus, PMW/IMRA, 2002/12/15)
Imagine being indoctrinated with this vile worldview unrelentingly every day of your life: "The following is a statement from Palestinian Authority Minister of Supplies Abd El-Aziz Shahin in a PA TV interview: 'Since the nineteenth century the Zionist mind has been built upon the killing of the Arab people. They do not want a single Arab on Palestinian soil. This is a matter that exists with every Zionist, whether he is right-wing, center, or left-wing because the Zionist education in their religious schools, where they learn that they are the chosen people of God and we are the others, we are considered the stage between the Jew and the monkey. This is a basis of the Jewish religion, and from this comes the killing of the Arab people in Palestine.'"

"Bush Has Widened Authority of C.I.A. to Kill Terrorists" (James Risen and David Johnston, The New York Times, 2002/12/15)
"The Bush administration has prepared a list of terrorist leaders the Central Intelligence Agency is authorized to kill, if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be minimized, senior military and intelligence officials said. The previously undisclosed C.I.A. list includes key Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as other principal figures from Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, the officials said. The names of about two dozen terrorist leaders have recently been on the lethal-force list, officials said. "It's the worst of the worst," an official said."

Saturday, December 14, 2002

News and commentary:

"Jordan: Al Qaeda killed diplomat" (Mike Boettcher and Henry Schuster, CNN.com, 2002/12/14)
"The Jordanian government said Saturday it had arrested two men for the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Amman six weeks ago and said the operation "was planned and carried out by al Qaeda." ... A statement from the Jordanian government said the two men, identified as Salem Sa'ed Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan national, and Yasser Fathi Ibraheem, a Jordanian, confessed to their membership in al Qaeda and that they received their orders from a senior al Qaeda leader who has been accused of being an expert in chemical and biological weapons. According to the statement, "bin Suweid and Ibraheem confessed that they are members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda Organization, and are affiliated with bin Laden's lieutenant, Ahmad Fadeel Nazal Al-Khalayleh, known as Abu Musa'ab Al-Zarqawi." (See also: "US diplomat killed in Jordan" (BBC News, 2002/10/28))

"Lessons in hate, on a campus near you" (Leonard Stern, Ottawa Citizen/Campus Watch, 2002/12/14)
A report from a Middle East Studies Association (MESA) conference: "The highlight of the three-day conference in Washington was a barnburner of a speech by Stanford University's Joel Beinin, the outgoing president of MESA. Invoking the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Beinin mocked Americans for thinking they should be "uniquely protected from the consequences of (their) actions." He heaped contempt on foreign-policy analysts - "terror-ologists," he called them - who go on television to discuss Islamic extremism. He denounced the president of Harvard University for suggesting some weeks ago that anti-Israel activism on campus is mutating into anti-Semitism. Finally, Mr. Beinin accused "neoconservative true believers with ties to the Israeli right" of orchestrating a smear campaign against him and other Middle East experts. MESA members gave him a standing ovation. ...
Do the professors believe their own propaganda? There was a telling incident on the first day of the conference. ... Suddenly, at the far end of the hall, there was a loud boom, like an explosion. Had the convention been a gathering of mathematicians or sociology professors, they presumably would have walked over to see what the noise was. MESA members instead stampeded for the exit, elbowing their way up the escalators to safety. Turned out it wasn't a bomb but only a blown air conditioner, and there were lots of embarrassed smiles as everyone filed back in. But for a group that insists the terrorist threat is a fiction, manufactured to justify persecution of minorities, they sure seemed awfully jumpy."

"Democracy and Islam After September 11" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/12/23 issue)
"I do not see September 11 as an act of protest by Muslims or Arabs oppressed by the advance of Western democracy or the success of Israel. I see it as an act of provocation by Saudi-based extremists, intended to divert the younger, better-educated, middle-class strata of Saudi society, and similar social elements elsewhere in the Muslim and Arab worlds, from their growing demands for restoration of Islamic pluralism and the right to live normal lives, in a normal country, in a world at peace. ... By fostering the terrorism of Osama bin Laden, and then by seeking to shift blame for the atrocity of September 11 to Israel, the most reactionary elements in the Saudi ruling elite seek to quiet the growing demands of the educated and entrepreneurial classes for a new direction in society. This is an old phenomenon in the disintegration of tyrannies. September 11 had little to do with U.S. power in the world, and everything to do with bourgeois society knocking at the door of Saudi Arabia; little to do with Israel and the Palestinians, and everything to do with the recuperation of Islamic pluralism in Mecca and Medina."

"Who is Prince Nayef?" (Bill Tierney, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/12/23 issue)
A profile of the "most powerful man in Saudi Arabia", the interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz: "Nayef is keenly aware that the widespread sympathy in Saudi Arabia for Osama bin Laden is a response not to bin Laden's personal charisma but to his jihadist mission, explicitly framed as obedience to the true Islam. It is a danger inadvertently sown by the regime itself, which long ago instituted the incessant intoning of the Koran on state radio and television. Prince Nayef, it seems, has decided to deal with this threat by riding the jihadist wave. ...
When the United States finally starts calling this war what it is - a war against jihadist Islam - then clarity will dispel the illusion that our relationship with the Saudis can ever go back to what it was before September 11. The Saudis claim they are combating terrorism. Can they also say they are combating jihad? In this country, there are some old-school types who cling to their settled view of the Middle East; the academic community (with rare exceptions) is still sinking in the tar pit of postmodernism. But the Saudis have chosen their course, a path they presumably see as consistent with the dictates of the Koran. They will continue to play us for fools as long as they can. It is high time we stopped cooperating. We could begin by taking the measure of the man behind the throne." (See also: "Saudi Minister of Interior, Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Aziz: 'Who Committed the Events of September 11… I Think They [the Zionists] are Behind these Events…'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 446, 2002/12/03))

"Bush angers Europe as Ankara is rebuffed" (Philip Webster and Rory Watson, The Times, 2002/12/14)
Mexico as the 51:st state anyone?: "Turkey accused Jacques Chirac of blackmail and Europe of prejudice yesterday after European Union leaders dashed its hopes of early talks on entry and rebuffed US interference in their decisions. President Bush's attempts to help Turkey because of its vital strategic role in the war against terrorism backfired when the country was given only a conditional date of the end of 2004 for the start of negotiations, with several countries accusing the American leader of strong-arm tactics. Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Prime Minister, accused the French President of turning the EU against his country. He telephoned Tony Blair to tell him that "there is great discrimination here" and said, according to officials, that it was "an act of prejudice". ...
EU officials, led by France, were appalled at apparent interference by Washington in Europe’s internal affairs. Pascal Lamy, the trade commissioner - a Frenchman with strong ties to the US - said: 'It's a classic of US diplomacy to want to put Turkey in Europe. The further the boundaries of Europe extend the better US interests are served. Can you imagine the reaction if we told them they had to enlarge into Mexico?'"

"N. Korea: 'Burning hatred' for U.S" (CNN.com, 2002/12/14)
"Amid a row over its nuclear weapons program, North Korea has fired a barb at Washington, saying it is ready to deliver "bitter defeat and death" to a threatening United States. ... "The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] remains unfazed as it has made full preparations to cope with the confrontation and clash with the Yankees," a commentary in the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said. "The army and people of the DPRK with burning hatred for the Yankees are in full readiness to fight a death-defying battle," the commentary said, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency."

"Kissinger Quits Post As Head of 9/11 Panel" (Dan Eggen, The Washington Post , 2002/12/14)
"Former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger abruptly resigned yesterday as head of a new commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, complaining in a bitter letter to President Bush that concerns about conflicts of interest could "significantly" delay the panel's work. The departure was the second in three days from the panel, and ended two weeks of intense political infighting over whether Kissinger's controversial past and influential business contacts would affect the commission's findings."

Friday, December 13, 2002

News and commentary:

"EU clinches expansion deal" (BBC News, 2002/12/13)
"The European Union has reached a financial deal with 10 candidate members, paving the way for the largest expansion in its history. ... The 10 candidates - eight former Communist states from Central and Eastern Europe plus Cyprus and Malta - are now preparing for entry into the bloc in 2004. "For the first time in history Europe will become one because unification is the free will of its people," said Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. ... Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, has sought to play down his government's disappointment over the fact that it will not be allowed to begin talks on entering the EU until 2004."

"Bush and the three rogues" (The Economist, 2002/12/13)
"Instead of one rogue nation testing his patience, President George Bush now has all three members of his "axis of evil" openly defying attempts by America to limit the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In a defiant move, North Korea has announced the reactivation of a nuclear-power site that had been mothballed under an arms-control agreement. Iran has brushed off American concerns that two of its nuclear facilities might be used to produce weapons. And Iraq's declaration of its chemical, biological and nuclear facilities to the United Nations is said by the Americans to contain "omissions big enough to drive a tank through.'"

"Punishing Gays under Islam" (Paul Varnell, Chicago Free Press/Independent Gay Forum, originally published 2002/10/21)
"Barely two weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the New York Post and Court TV both ran items about the Afghanistan Taliban regime's punishment of two men convicted of homosexuality. According to those stories, the Taliban's Islamic jurists knew that homosexuality was reprehensible and the sentence should be execution, but they were genuinely puzzled by conflicting Islamic opinion on exactly how the execution should be carried out. "We have a dilemma on this," one Taliban leader explained. "One group of scholars believes you should take these people to the top of the highest building in the city, and hurl them to their deaths. (The other) believes in a different approach. They recommend you dig a pit near a wall somewhere, put these people in it, then topple the wall so that they are buried alive." No one thought to point out that these approaches are atavistic survivals of options presented during the earliest days of Islam in the mid-7th century. ... One of the earliest and most authoritative commentators on the Qur'an, Ibn 'Abbas (died 687) stipulated a two-step execution in which "the sodomite should be thrown from the highest building in the town and then stoned." Later it was decided that if no building were tall enough, the sodomite could be shoved off a cliff." (Note: Found via Best of the Web Today. See also: "Justice takes on a different meaning in Afghanistan" (Sam Handlin, Court TV, 2001/09/28))

"Australia will be 'destroyed instantly' if it strikes at Muslim countries, says cleric" (Stephen Gibbs and Matthew Moore, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002/12/13)
The lamest excuse for suicide bombings is the often repeated claim that Palestinians are "forced to do it" as there is "no other way" for them to "defend" themselves. So Palestinians are thus "forced" by Israelis to kill. A quick glance in any history book proves it wrong. As this type of suicide bombing is a very recent development, it would mean that all other methods used in history against superior force have been useless. If it were true, wouldn't suicide bombing be used by many more terrorist and guerilla groups? Instead, it is an extremely extreme and rare method, in fact almost exclusively used by Islamic terrorists in their very latest phase. Trying to rationalize suicide bombings is bad enough, but maintaining that it is the only option available is ridiculous: "Australia will be "destroyed instantly" if it launches a pre-emptive strike against terrorist targets in other countries, warns the man Western governments say is spiritual leader of the terrorist group accused of masterminding the Bali bombings. Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric said to be head of the recently banned South-East Asian group Jemaah Islamiah, said Australians would be dragged into a war with Muslims if they went along with the "crazy idea" of a pre-emptive strike floated recently by the Prime Minister, John Howard. ... However, he said Muslims had no choice but to defend themselves from attacks by the United States and its allies, including Australia. " ...
Abu Bakar, who heads a militant Islamic boarding school in Central Java where thousands of young men have studied, also said suicide bombings were a "noble thing" when used in the defence of Islam. "Martyrs' bombs are a noble thing, a jihad of high value if you are forced to do it. For instance, in Palestine there is no other way to defend yourself and defend Islam." ... "We are obliged to defend ourselves and attack people who attack Islam," he said. 'In Islam there is no word for hands up, there is no word for surrender, there are only two things, win or die ... if infidels do want to attack Islam, fight Islam, so we are instructed to fight them.'"

"Syrian leader defends suicide bombers on eve of London visit" (Michael Binyon, The Times, 2002/12/13)
"President Assad of Syria has delivered an impassioned and highly controversial defence of Palestinian militancy and suicide bombings, days before he is due in London for the first official visit to Britain by a Syrian leader. ... In his interview, the President said that the current wave of Palestinian violence, which has seen nearly 700 Israelis killed in the past two years, was a 'reaction to the terrorism practised by (Ariel) Sharon.'" (See also: "Assad offers gloomy prognosis that war with Iraq will create fertile soil for terrorism" (Michael Binyon, The Times, 2002/12/13): "But it is on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Syria's support for militant organisations such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas, that Mr Assad speaks most passionately and where his Arab roots show most clearly. Those organisations "express the view of millions of Palestinians inside the occupied territories" who are fighting for legitimate rights, he says. ... The present violence is 'a reaction to the terrorism practised by (Ariel) Sharon (the Israeli Prime Minister) against the civilian Palestinian people.'")

"Don't play the nutty professor with David Irving" (Giles Coren, The Times, 2002/12/13)
"Professor Mona Baker, the leader of the movement to boycott Israeli academics, is in cahoots with Britain's leading anti-semitic lunatic, David Irving. ... ...the other day, I came upon a letter of protest from Herr Irving to Amazon.co.uk about the nature of its advertising in Israel, which began as follows: "Dear Amazon, I have been shocked to get an e-mail from Prof. Mona Baker of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology which indicated that your company advertises itself in the Israeli press via a logo which reads: 'Buy Amazon.Com and Support Israel' and which displays an Israeli flag." ...
Is the potty Holocaust denier the sort of chap she sees as a possible political collaborator? One is so often implored to remember that not all anti-Zionists are anti-Semites. But not all of them aren't. And Irving is one who is. His aversion to Israel is based not on political but racial revulsion. ...
It is not impossible that Mona Baker is a rational woman who thinks that her boycott is the best way to liberate the disfranchised Palestinians. And it is also not impossible that she is a misguided nutter. It is not for a miserable clown like me to judge. But if she does not want her attempts to legislate against a group of people who just happen to be Jewish to come up smelling of Hitler, then she should avoid soliciting the support of his most prominent modern disciple." (See also: "British academic boycott of Israel gathers pace" (Andy Beckett and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, 2002/12/12) and "Fury as academics are sacked for being Israeli" (Charlotte Edwardes, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/07/07))

"Scud Surrender" (Michael Ledeen, National Review, 2002/12/13)
"Isn't it amazing how quickly the Scud story came and went? And yet it's a big story, not for what it tells us about the world - I mean, it's no surprise that North Korea's smuggling dangerous weapons to bad guys in the Persian Gulf - but for what it tells us about this administration. A bunch of wimps, if we dare reintroduce the "W" word so rightly detested by the latest generation of Bushes. ...
My understanding is that it took weeks to plan and coordinate with the Spaniards. Then the operation is launched, everything goes according to plan (or even better than planned), and we've got them, we've shown the ghastly North Koreans who's boss, we've exposed yet another pipeline to the terrorists - and then the Yemenis (the Yemenis!) have a failure of nerve (they must have taken a lot of heat and listened to a lot of threats), and they caved, and we caved right along with them. A triumph of lack of will. And it bespeaks the most-terrifying thing of all: They don't think we're serious. If the Yemenis thought we were serious - that is, serious enough to protect them against the jihadist mafia - they'd have stuck with the game plan. And if we were serious, we'd have told them to shut up or we'd throw them against the nearest wall and impose our will on the place, and we'd have paraded the Scuds in front of the nearest TV camera, proclaimed a victory in the war against terrorism, and then restated the Axis of Evil theme and reminded the Asians that they're supposed to work with us to shut down the North Korean nuclear program." (See also: "N Korea accuses US of piracy" (ABC News, 2002/12/13))

"Palestinian statehood: A reward for terror" (Gary Bauer and Morton A. Klein, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/12/13)
Bauer and Klein points out that the emperor has no clothes: "Two weeks ago, Muslim terrorists fired two shoulder-launched Strella missiles at an Israeli civilian aircraft as it took off from an airport in Kenya, in an attempt to murder its 260 passengers. If a Palestinian state is created, its western border will be just a few miles from Ben-Gurion Airport, and terrorists carrying shoulder-launched missiles will be able to aim at every plane taking off from or landing there. Despite such grave dangers, US President George Bush, who has said there must be an end to terrorist states, is now laying the groundwork for the creation of what will be a terrorist state. ...
A Palestinian state would be a mini-Iraq, sharing a long border with Israel, flanking the areas that contain 70% of Israel's population, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa - plenty of tempting targets. The attackers could then slip back into "Palestine," where they would find refuge behind the protective border of a sovereign state. A Palestinian state would have its own airports and seaports, and share borders with Egypt and Jordan, making it relatively easy to import heavy weapons. The PA already has the nucleus of an army; statehood would give it the freedom to establish a full-fledged military force. ...
The last thing the world needs now is yet another totalitarian, anti-American terrorist state. Yet that is exactly what a Palestinian state would be, to judge by the behavior of the PA during the eight years since it was created."

"Europe's power of weakness" (Daniel Dagan, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/12/13)
"The Europeans know, of course, that they do not live in a state of perpetual peace. They are surely aware of the fact that the utopia of recent years collapsed with the World Trade Center in New York, with the attack on innocent tourists visiting the ancient synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, with the explosions at the discotheque in Bali, Indonesia, and other similar events. But they confine their dire warnings of the dangers of global violence to the ivory towers of academic seminars and study retreats. In their daily reality they try to live out the illusions of peace, tranquility, prosperity and plenty. Why get involved? Why invoke the extremists' ire? Why overly identify with the "great Satan," America, or the "small Satan," Israel? Maybe the showdown can be averted? Maybe Europe can be maintained as an island of quiet, one that does not pose a central target of Muslim terrorism?"

"Hollywood goes to war" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2002/12/13)
West on Artists United to Win Without War: "Sure, AUWWW wrote that Saddam Hussein shouldn't have weapons of mass destruction after all, but neither, it said, should George W. Bush contemplate disarming him by force - the main point - lest terrorism, human suffering, anti-Americanism, economic misery, a loss in America's "moral standing" and maybe even low Nielsen ratings come to pass. No word on the potential consequences of a nuclear-enhanced Saddam. Which may explain why there is on AUWWW's part no comprehension why George W. Bush is contemplating military action against Saddam's Iraq. Indeed, this very question is pulling La-La Landers in over their carefully-coifed, if sometimes grizzled, heads. Erstwhile "Lou Grant" star Ed Asner, for example, has answered it by explaining that Bush administration officials "have keyed and geared the war machine . . . [to the point] that they've got to unload it someplace. Iraq," he told United Press International, "is the likeliest place." Translation: It (meaning the Pentagon) is alive! The Pentagon has to go to war - or else! While this cartoonish scenario may well be next summer's blockbuster, as geopolitical strategy it lacks a little dimension. Call it Asnerian." (See also: "Celebrities urge Bush to avoid Iraq war" (UPI, 2002/12/10))

"The link" (Andrew Sullivan, The Washington Times, 2002/12/13)
"What to make of the anonymous leaked report that U.S. intelligence has picked up evidence that Iraq has transferred VX nerve gas to al Qaeda? The report, cited yesterday by The Washington Post, suggests that this could have happened as recently as this October. One obvious conclusion: If it's true, then the war against Iraq is now inevitable. Such a transaction shows that the Dec. 8 declaration that Saddam had no chemical weapons was a lie, and, as such, is an unequivocal material breach of U.N. resolutions, requiring the United States and other nations to act. More profoundly, it shows that an Iraq-al Qaeda connection is not a fantasy. It's real. We don't even need a a U.N. resolution for an attack on these grounds, since an alliance with al Qaeda makes an attack on Iraq a de facto act of self-defense after September 11." (See also: "U.S. Suspects Al Qaeda Got Nerve Agent From Iraqis" (Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, 2002/12/12))

"Tentacles of terror" (Matthew Gutman, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/12/13)
Gutman on al Qaida's new strategy of targeting Jews: "According to Emerson, the presence of al-Qaida in Gaza and southern Lebanon presents a massive danger to Israel. It conforms, in fact, with one of his nightmare scenarios: a massive conventional bomb - or a chemical or biological warhead - killing more than 5,000 people. ... Al-Qaida operates a cell in Gaza. That much Israeli intelligence officials are willing to admit. What the most notorious terrorist group in history has planned for Israelis is a completely different scenario. However, if al-Qaida follows its usual modus operandi, it is safe to assume, says a senior security source, that it intends to aid Palestinians in carrying out a mega-attack."

"Turkey must not join the Christian EU" (John Casey, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/12/13)
"But the apparent mutation of Turkey into a state politically resembling those of Western Europe is certainly relevant. If that has really happened, then we must face up to Giscard's question: should a non-European Muslim state ever be part of the EU? ... So why should not Turkey's credentials eventually be accepted? I fear there is only one reason - and it is the one stated by Giscard D'Estaing: Turkey is not a European country. In taking that fact seriously, we don't necessarily fall into cultural bigotry and racism. Turkey has a traditional pull towards both Central Asia and the Middle East. With Turkey in the EU our borders will include Iran and Iraq. ...
If you break away from history and apply purely universal criteria for membership - democracy, minority rights etc - so that Israel could be admitted now, Egypt in due course, and even, one day - who knows? - a liberated Iraq, you will have destroyed even the slim possibility there now is of Europe's being a true community. I respect the Turks and admire Islam, but I do not think we should ever break down the walls and admit this particular Trojan horse." (See also: "Turkey entry 'would destroy EU'" (BBC News, 2002/11/08))

"N Korea accuses US of piracy" (ABC News, 2002/12/13)
"North Korea has accused the United States of committing piracy for seizing and detaining a cargo ship in the Arabian Sea on its way to Yemen with a cargo of missiles. It says the shipment was being carried out under a legal contract and it wants compensation for the incident. A Foreign Ministry statement issued in Pyongyang accuses Washington of wantonly encroaching upon the sovereignty of North Korea."

"Iran denies secret nuclear plan" (BBC News, 2002/12/13)
Phew! Now I'm as assured as when Saddam or Kim Jong Il deny something: "Iran has rejected United States claims that it is building two secret nuclear facilities which could be used in the production of nuclear weapons. "Iran's aim regarding this issue is totally clear, transparent and peaceful and is compatible with international conventions," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. United States officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that two sites had been spotted in commercial satellite photographs taken in September. Both facilities, near the towns of Natanz and Arak in central Iran, are of a type that could be used to help build a nuclear weapon, the officials said." (See also: "U.S.: Iran working on nuclear weapons" (CNN.com, 2002/12/13): "The United States accused Iran Friday of "actively working" on a nuclear weapons program and said that recent satellite photographs of a massive nuclear power construction project "reinforce" that belief. ... Boucher added: 'We've reached the conclusion that Iran is actively working to develop nuclear weapons capability.'")

"EU poised for historic deal" (BBC News, 2002/12/13)
"Leaders from the European Union are on the brink of signing an historic agreement that will expand the bloc by 10 members in 2004. ... But there was disappointment for Turkey after the leaders decided it would have to wait at least two more years before it is invited to hold membership talks. ... Also topping the agenda of the two-day summit in Copenhagen is the thorny issue of Turkey's membership ambitions. Turkey had been pressing for an immediate start to its negotiations on joining the EU. The BBC's correspondent in Copenhagen, Chris Morris, said that Turkey would be very disappointed with the offer of talks only after 2004."

Added in archive:
"Two Worlds" (V.S. Naipaul, Swedish Academy, 2001/12/07)

Note: I'm considering a switch to Moveable Type, as it would make Watch much more user-friendly, better looking and easier to maintain. Fredrik K.R. Norman's weblog is a case in point. However, I'm very webdesign challenged and know exactly nothing about databases, PHP and Perl, for instance. If anyone is familiar with Moveable Type and would like to help out a complete newbie I would be very grateful. Anything from tutorial-links to help with the actual site is appreciated. Mail me at: watch-at-windsofchange.net.

Thursday, December 12, 2002

News and commentary:

"Heureka!" (Imre Kertész, Swedish Academy, 2002/12/07)
Swedish television just aired the Nobel lecture of Imre Kertész - this years Nobel Price of Literature winner. A great speech, which reminds me that last years winner, V.S. Naipaul, also was a brilliant choice. They both contrast sharply with, say, the three consecutive years of Dario Fo, Jose Saramago and Gunter Grass between 1997-99. Coincidentally, 1999 was the same year as the brilliant Horace Engdahl became permanent secretary after Sture Allén: "It is often said of me - some intend it as a compliment, others as a complaint - that I write about a single subject: the Holocaust. I have no quarrel with that. Why shouldn’t I accept, with certain qualifications, the place assigned to me on the shelves of libraries? Which writer today is not a writer of the Holocaust? One does not have to choose the Holocaust as one's subject to detect the broken voice that has dominated modern European art for decades. I will go so far as to say that I know of no genuine work of art that does not reflect this break. It is as if, after a night of terrible dreams, one looked around the world, defeated, helpless.
I have never tried to see the complex of problems referred to as the Holocaust merely as the insolvable conflict between Germans and Jews. I never believed that it was the latest chapter in the history of Jewish suffering, which followed logically from their earlier trials and tribulations. I never saw it as a one-time aberration, a large-scale pogrom, a precondition for the creation of Israel. What I discovered in Auschwitz is the human condition, the end point of a great adventure, where the European traveler arrived after his two-thousand-year-old moral and cultural history. ... The real problem with Auschwitz is that it happened, and this cannot be altered - not with the best, or worst, will in the world. This gravest of situations was characterized most accurately by the Hungarian Catholic poet János Pilinszky when he called it a "scandal". What he meant by it, clearly, is that Auschwitz occurred in a Christian cultural environment, so for those with a metaphysical turn of mind it can never be overcome." (Note: Translated by Ivan Sanders. See also: "Civilization and V. S. Naipaul" (Bruce Bawer, The Hudson Review, from the Autumn 2002 issue))

"New Dimensions of Political Correctness" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/12/12)
"The claim that Islam is a religion of peace is hard to justify in the midst of each day's news, so apologists are trying a new tack: accusing radical Islam's critics of engaging in what one might term chronological discrimination. Christianity and Judaism are just as bad, this novel argument goes, or rather they were. Here's Salam Al Marayati, writing in the Los Angeles Times: "When violent biblical references are brought up, the usual response is that the era of Christian and Jewish violence is long past and that Islam is the problem today. But violence inspired by religious ideology is timeless and afflicts everyone; why not address the issue across the board?" Left-wing columnist Molly Ivins makes the same argument: ... "Let's see - where does that leave Christianity, the religion of peace and love, founded by the Prince of Peace? Among the more notable Christian crimes were the unbearably bloody Crusades, the Thirty Years' War, the Inquisition, innumerable pogroms, regular slaughter of Protestants, counter-slaughter by Protestants, genocide against Native Americans (featuring biological warfare), slavery, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, Northern Ireland . . . and the list goes on and on and on." Does this at least mean PC types will quit vilifying "dead white males"? After all, aren't dead people just as good as live ones?" (See also: "Anti-Islam Rhetoric Undercuts Moderates" (Salam Al-Marayati, Los Angeles Times, 2002/12/12) and "Adding insult to injury" (Molly Ivins, Star-Telegram, 2002/12/12))

"This post of mine..." (Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit, 2002/12/12)
In an earlier post Reynolds pointed out that the peace movement is "objectively pro-Saddam": "Well, Saddam says - in a passage quoted in that very post - that he's stalling because he thinks that if he waits long enough American public opinion (which I interpret, reasonably enough, I think, to mean "the antiwar movement") will force Bush not to invade. And there's nothing new about that strategy - it's been the strategy of every U.S. adversary since Vietnam. (What's more, the "antiwar movement" that they've relied on has been pretty much the same people, using the same slogans, regardless of the actual circumstances involved.) But regardless of whether members of the anti-war movement subjectively support Saddam (many of them, as David Corn has reported, are more accurately described as anti-American than pro-Saddam, but there are plenty of thoughtful folks like Henley who don't fit that mold) the fact is that their opposition to the war is a key element in his strategy. That doesn't make it necessarily wrong, of course: what's best for Saddam could conceivably also be what's best for America, though that's not much of a slogan."(See also: "A dossier as empty as a factory when the UN calls" (Max Boot, The Times, 2002/12/10))

"Palestinian Mother Proudly Prayed for her Son to Die, during her Pilgrimage [Haj] to Mecca" (Itamar Marcus, PMW/IMRA, 2002/12/12) "Palestinian TV frequently broadcasts interviews with parents who express joy that their children became Shahids, meaning they Died for Allah in confrontations with Israelis. This week PATV went further, interviewing a mother who had lost two sons, who proudly recounted that while on pilgrimage to Mecca she prayed that her son would die fighting Israelis. Afterward, the woman was given time to express at length her detailed wishes that Israelis should live in horror, suffering regular terrorist attacks: ... 'I have one wish for all Israeli mothers, for all Israelis: They should not relax, they should not sleep peacefully, they should always have nightmares, night and day, wherever they go, and whatever they do... ... They should not be able to travel on the buses, nor drive a tank, nor even ride a bike. Wherever they turn, the Israelis should see [someone] and say: "Maybe it's a Palestinian." ... We will blow them up day and night, wherever they go. And I, as the mother of two Shahids, if I see an Israeli I will blow up among them.'"

"British academic boycott of Israel gathers pace" (Andy Beckett and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, 2002/12/12)
So which other countries are you boycotting?: "Dr Oren Yiftachel, a left-wing Israeli academic at Ben Gurion University, complained that an article he had co-authored with a Palestinian was initially rejected by the respected British journal Political Geography. He said it was returned to him unopened with a note stating that Political Geography could not accept a submission from Israel. Mr Yiftachel said that, after months of negotiation, the article is to be published but only after he agreed to make substantial revisions, including making a comparison between his homeland and apartheid South Africa. The issue of a boycott was highlighted in the spring when two British academics, Steven and Hilary Rose, had a letter published in the Guardian supporting the idea. It was signed by 123 other academics."

"North Korea issues nuclear threat" (BBC News, 2002/12/12)
"North Korea has said it will immediately reactivate a mothballed nuclear power plant, frozen under a 1994 agreement with the US. The North Korean foreign ministry said it was responding to a US-led decision to suspend oil aid to Pyongyang as a punishment for a separate, alleged nuclear weapons programme. North Korea said it was reactivating the plant to make up for the electricity shortfall caused by the ending of the heavy oil shipments. But the US and its regional allies are worried that the plant could also be used as part of a wider nuclear weapons programme, which North Korea has regularly stated the "right" to possess."

"Reform Party" (Robert D. Kaplan, The New Republic, 2002/12/12)
"Since the Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party triumphed in Turkey's elections, Western commentators have cautiously praised the party's seemingly sound economic plans, pro-Europe sentiment, and apparent moderation. But even optimistic observers haven't grasped the significance of Justice's win: It could usher in an Islamic version of the Protestant Reformation. The choice of Justice Party member Abdullah Gul as Turkey's new prime minister is perhaps the most obvious indicator. The Protestant Reformation centered on accommodating Christianity to secular life and politics without diluting the religion's moral content and mystical appeal. Gul's own views on Turkey's present and future, and his party's accommodation of religion and state, show that he believes a similar reform is possible in the Muslim world and that Turkey could lead the way. ... Like Gul, Erdogan is not an opportunist whose ideas have recently changed for the sake of short-term political gains. He too has slowly come around to a reformist philosophy that welcomes the traditional religious practices of Turkey's working class while supporting the secular nature of the political establishment. ... Now, he has a chance to create that more traditional, Islamic Turkey - a country that, given its military might, abundant water resources, and democratic dynamism, could restore Ataturk's secular republic to a central position in the house of Islam."

"The Capital Makes Up Its Mind" (Timothy Garton Ash, The New York Times, 2002/12/12)
"My own impression from talking to people inside and close to the Bush administration is that the Iraq war is now a matter of when and how rather than whether. With his 12,000-page report to the United Nations, Saddam Hussein has written perhaps the longest suicide note in history. ... And that's for starters. A new, democratic and prosperous Iraq is to be a model for its neighbors, as West Germany was for its unfree neighbors during the cold war. Some in Washington now talk of encouraging a velvet revolution to democratize Iran. Then there's the United States' rich and friendly but oppressive ally, Saudi Arabia, with its Wahhabi hate wells beside those oil wells. No one in the administration yet says this publicly, but there is a logic that leads from the democratization of Iraq to that of Saudi Arabia. And so people are talking quietly here about a Wilsonian project for reshaping the whole Middle East, a plan comparable in its ambition to those for Europe in 1919 and 1949. World-weary Europeans, and people in the Middle East, may doubt the feasibility of this idea and the United States' capacity to sustain it. We Europeans would better spend our time thinking how to complement and improve it."

"The Gloves Come Off" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2002/12/12)
"America's military posture toward terrorists and tyrants finally escaped the Clinton legacy of cowardice and wishful thinking. In a distinctly un-Washingtonian display of common sense, President Bush told the world that the United States will not let bullies throw the first punch any longer, and that those who fight dirty will die an even dirtier death. ... Terrorists and dictators are like dogs (at the risk of being unfair to our canine friends): They sense fear. Weakness excites them. The Clinton administration's dread of fighting seriously for any cause, ever, together with its Max Factor approach to warfare (cosmetic strikes only), accelerated the expansion of global terrorism dramatically. Clinton was al Qaeda's best recruiting agent. ...
The self-imposed exile of our liberals into a crippled, whining opposition that can only criticize, not create, serves every American badly. The Democratic Party needs to trade in rhetoric for responsibility. Certainly, the left wing's attitude toward things military is as utterly untouched by logic as it is by experience. Liberals will wring their two left hands with dismay over the president's new strategy. But they have proposed no coherent strategy of their own, only a policy of eyes-closed, pants-down, hand-the-mugger-your-wallet." (See also: "Nukes, 'Overwhelming Force' for Germ or Bio Attackers" (AP/FOX News, 2002/12/11))

"Initiatives and Actions Taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Combat Terrorism" (The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia/The Wall Street Journal, 2002/12/12)
A report by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia: "Since September 11, the government of Saudi Arabia has taken many actions to fight global terrorism. Following are concrete examples of these actions drawn from statements made by Saudi Arabian leaders, U.S. Administration officials, news articles and press releases confirming the efforts on the war on terrorism by the government of Saudi Arabia."

"U.S. Suspects Al Qaeda Got Nerve Agent From Iraqis" (Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, 2002/12/12)
"The Bush administration has received a credible report that Islamic extremists affiliated with al Qaeda took possession of a chemical weapon in Iraq last month or late in October, according to two officials with firsthand knowledge of the report and its source. They said government analysts suspect that the transaction involved the nerve agent VX and that a courier managed to smuggle it overland through Turkey. If the report proves true, the transaction marks two significant milestones. It would be the first known acquisition of a nonconventional weapon other than cyanide by al Qaeda or a member of its network. It also would be the most concrete evidence to support the charge, aired for months by President Bush and his advisers, that al Qaeda terrorists receive material assistance in Iraq."

"Sailing on, the ship with a hold full of Scud missiles" (Suzanne Goldenberg et al., The Guardian, 2002/12/12)
"America's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes misfired at its first outing yesterday when the US navy was humiliatingly forced to release a seized shipment of North Korean missiles and allow its passage to Yemen. What began as a triumph of US global policing turned into a diplomatic farce as Washington was forced to set free the North Korean freighter, So San, with its cargo of 15 Scud-type missiles curiously concealed under sacks of cement. After angry protests from the Yemeni government - whose cooperation has proved crucial to America's war on terror - and quiet interventions from the vice-president, Dick Cheney, the White House had to admit the cargo was legitimate. ... "The cargo belongs to the Yemeni government and its armed forces for defence purposes, and it will not reach a third party," a letter from the foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, said." (See also: "US sea ambush was warning to North Korea" (Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2002/12/12): "The high seas ambush of a North Korean freighter was intended as a warning shot to the regime in Pyongyang. US authorities knew they risked upsetting Yemen, a valued ally, but the Bush Administration thought it more important to seize the 15 Scud missiles on board and teach the North Koreans a lesson. Last night Washington gave warning that there would be more raids if the North Koreans did not stop exporting such lethal weaponry.")

Added in Author index:
Timothy Garton Ash
Lee Harris

Added in archive:
"Al Qaeda Training Manual" (The Department of Justice/Cryptome, 2002/12/08)
"A bridge too far?" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2002/11/14)
"Imagine no America" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2002/09/19)
"The Peril of Too Much Power" (Timothy Garton Ash, The New York Times, 2002/04/09)
"Is There a Good Terrorist?" (Timothy Garton Ash, The New York Review of Books, 2001/11/29)

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

News and commentary:

"U.S. Releases Missile Shipment to Yemen" (Ahmed Al-Haj, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/11)
Things that make you go hm?: "The U.S. Navy released the shipment of North Korean-made Scud missiles it seized, sending the vessel and its cargo on their way Wednesday to the original destination of Yemen. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the United States had authority to stop and search the vessel, but not to seize it. "There is no clear authority to seize the shipment," Fleischer told a news conference in Washington. "The merchant vessel is being released." ... A senior Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yemen has pledged not to purchase missiles in the future from North Korea, a secretive, communist country which Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has called the world's worst missile proliferator." (See also: "Scud Missiles Found on Ship of North Korea" (Thom Shanker, The New York Times, 2002/12/11))

"Two Jordanian men, one a Palestinian, murder their sisters in honor killings" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2002/12/11)
"Two Jordanian women have been killed by their brothers to preserve family honor this month, bringing to 20 the number of women killed this year in such crimes, police officials said Wednesday. An 18-year-old Palestinian confessed to stabbing his sister 40 times on Monday to "cleanse the family's honor" after she had been briefly held by police for alleged immoral behavior, a security officer said on condition of anonymity. His sister was 19. ... Last week, a man ran over his 23-year-old sister with a truck, accusing her of immoral behavior. The family reported it as an accidental death, but the victim's mother later told police her sons had planned the killing, the official said."

"Hezbollah will be added to list of outlawed groups" (Stewart Bell, National Post, 2002/12/11)
Yes, defending Middle Eastern terrorist groups will surely boost the image of the Canadian Arab Federation...: "The federal government will announce today that it has added Hezbollah to Canada's list of outlawed terrorist organizations, officials told the National Post last night. ... The Iranian-backed Hezbollah is considered a significant threat to global security, on par with bin Laden's al-Qaeda, and has an extensive clandestine Canadian network. ... In an apparent attempt to head off any move to ban Hezbollah, the Canadian Arab Federation wrote to two senior ministers this week to caution them not to succumb to political pressure to ban Middle Eastern terrorist groups. The Arab federation criticized Ottawa for outlawing Hamas and Islamic Jihad and called Hezbollah "a legitimate Lebanese political party." ...
The Arab federation said a Hezbollah ban would hurt Arabs. "The Arab and Muslim communities have suffered enough stigmatization following the events of Sept. 11 and we are fearful that the listing of Hezbollah will add to the marginalization of these communities," the letters said. Raja Khouri, the Arab federation president, said if Hezbollah was deemed to threaten Canadian security, it should be banned. However, he added that there was no public evidence to support the move. He also said there was little evidence Hezbollah had engaged in terrorism. But Hezbollah's involvement in terrorism is widely recognized, and publicly available police, intelligence and immigration reports describe how Hezbollah uses Canada to raise money (partly through organized crime), obtain false documents and purchase military equipment."

"Al-Qaeda planning uranium bomb: UN" (Steven Edwards, National Post, 2002/12/11)
"United Nations experts charged with probing al-Qaeda warn that the terrorist group appears determined to produce a "dirty bomb" capable of spreading radioactive material over a wide area after Tanzanian police seized what is believed to be raw uranium. Police seized 110 kilograms of suspected raw uranium last month, after confiscating five canisters of suspected uranium early this year, says the report by the UN Monitoring Group on al-Qaeda."

"Meet Dyab Abu Jahjah..." (Michiel Visser, The Visser View, 2002/12/11)
More on Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of the Belgian Arabic European League (AEL): "The political views of Abu Jahjah sound familiar: "We are against the war, against all American wars...We are opposed to the war of Bush and Sharon. ... We have to arm ourselves to continue our struggle. We need to arm all those who want to resist the United States. Because everywhere in the world there is one fight: against the United States. Today and in the future. We support the resistance in Palestine and in Iraq. We support everyone who battles today against zionism and imperialism." ... In a recent interview on Dutch TV, Abu Jahjah said: "It would be fantastic if empty planes would be flown into the White House." Let me leave you with this note. The Dutch parliament convened recently to discuss the possibility of banning the AEL. It turns out the law doesn't allow for this possibility. Besides, the minister of Justice didn't feel there was any need to ban AEL. Welcome to 21st century Europe." (See also: "Antwerp race riots militant charged" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/30) and "Arabic: a language for Belgium?" (Andrew Osborn, The Guardian, 2002/08/27))

"Iraqi regime hiding scientists" (David Wastell, The Washington Times, 2002/12/11)
"Many of the Iraqi scientists U.N. arms inspectors want to interview have been spirited abroad or switched to innocuous posts and their places taken by unknown technicians, according to Iraqi exiles and Western officials. As the weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix prepare to summon the first of several hundred potential interview subjects, the Baghdad authorities have put some beyond reach and moved others to jobs with no direct involvement in Iraq's nuclear-, chemical- or biological-weapons programs. "Most of those working on the nuclear program in the 1980s and early 1990s have been sent away to university or industrial positions. Some have been sent outside Iraq, including those working on chemical- and biological-warfare agents," said Hussein Shahristani, a former chief researcher with Iraq's atomic energy organization who spent 11 years in jail before fleeing abroad."

"What Riyadh Buys" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post/danielpipes.org, 2002/12/11)
"A hint of the problem comes from none other than Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The Washinton Post reports that he boasted of his success at cultivating powerful Americans: "If the reputation . . . builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." This is precisely what happens. ... Ex-Washington hands paid handsomely by the kingdom include such figures as Spiro T. Agnew, Jimmy Carter, Clark Clifford, John B. Connally and William E. Simon. A Washington Post account lists other former officials, including George H.W. Bush, who have found the Saudi connection "lucrative." ...
The heart of the problem is an all-too-human one: Americans in official positions of authority bend the rules, break with standard procedures and alter policies for reasons of personal gain. The effect of the Saudis' massive pre-emptive bribing is to render the executive branch quite incapable of dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the farsighted and disinterested manner that U.S. national interests require. That leaves Congress with the urgent responsibility to fix things." (See also: "Shilling for the House of Saud" (Matt Welch, National Post/Matt Welch, 2002/08/24))

"Norman Mailer's Buchananite Theory" (Chris Weinkopf, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/12/11)
"But the most novel explanation to date comes from self-professed "left-conservative" Norman Mailer, the 79-year old, Pulitzer Prize-winning author who offers his explanation in the latest issue of Pat Buchanan's fortnightly misnomer, The American Conservative. According to Mailer, the war is all about - what else? - sex. ... "Behind the whole thing in Iraq is the desire to have a huge military presence in the near-East as a stepping stone for eventually taking over the world," Mailer says. The puritans in the White House believe that "if America becomes again a military machine that is huge in order to oversee all its new commitments, then American sexual freedom, willy-nilly, will have to go on the back burner. Commitment and dedication will become necessary national values (with all the hypocrisy attendant on that)." So a new Roman Empire (one, presumably, not given toward the sexual predilections and excesses of the first one), is the only way to make Britney Spears cover up her midriff. Who knew? ... Bush is such a dimwit, he doesn't even know he's plotting to take over the world, let alone why. In fact, Mailer explains, it's possible that no one knows - no one, that is, except for Mailer. "I don't know if the White House principals talk to one another in private about this," he says, adding that 'they may not even be wholly aware of it themselves, not all of them.'" (Note: Mailer's article is not available online. See also: "Norman Mailer declares: 'America is so vain'" (Matt Drudge, Drudge Report, 2002/09/06))

"The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal" (Harold Pinter, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/12/11)
A perfect example of the logic of anti-Americanism. All the world's problems are blamed on the U.S. - nevermind the primary aggressors. According to this worldview, the responsibility for a poison gas attack against London's Underground "will rest entirely on the shoulders of our Prime Minister", because of his "contemptible and shameful subservience to America":
"However, I found that to emerge from a personal nightmare was to enter an infinitely more pervasive public nightmare - the nightmare of American hysteria, ignorance, arrogance, stupidity and belligerence; the most powerful nation the world has ever known effectively waging war against the rest of the world. ...
The atrocity in New York was predictable and inevitable. It was an act of retaliation against constant and systematic manifestations of state terrorism on the part of America over many years, in all parts of the world. ...
Apparently a terrorist poison gas attack on the London Underground system was recently prevented. But such an act may indeed take place. Thousands of schoolchildren travel on the Underground every day. If there is a poison gas attack from which they die, the responsibility will rest entirely on the shoulders of our Prime Minister." (See also: "Degree Speech to the University of Florence 10th September 2001" (Harold Pinter, haroldpinter.org, 2001/10/10))

"Nukes, 'Overwhelming Force' for Germ or Bio Attackers" (AP/FOX News, 2002/12/11)
"In a warning to Iraq and other hostile countries, the United States says it is prepared to use "overwhelming force" - including nuclear weapons - in response to any chemical or biological attack. The threat was contained in a White House document, called the "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction," to be delivered to Congress on Wednesday. The six-page statement underscores long-standing policy that the United States 'reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force - including through resort to all of our options - to the use of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) against the United States, our forces abroad and friends and allies.'" (See also: "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction" (The White House, 2002/12/11))

"Iraq charges US with "banditry unparalleled" over arms declaration move" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/11)
"Baghdad accused Washington of "banditry unparalleled" in UN history after the United States seized a crucial Iraqi arms declaration within hours of its delivery to the world body's headquarters in New York. ... Washington had earlier defended its removal of the massive declaration, saying it was essential to restrict circulation of sensitive details of how Baghdad made weapons of mass destruction to the five permanent members of the Security Council who are declared nuclear powers. ... In the Arab world, where Washington is widely suspected of plotting to derail the UN disarmament process as a pretext for military action, the US action Sunday, which only emerged late Monday, was also branded an 'act of piracy.'"

"Scud Missiles Found on Ship of North Korea" (Thom Shanker, The New York Times, 2002/12/11)
"A North Korean cargo vessel flying no flag was halted on Monday in the Gulf of Aden by two Spanish warships, and a search revealed Scud missiles hidden beneath sacks of cement, senior administration and Pentagon officials said today. American military explosives experts were summoned, and the ordnance crews were still working tonight to identify and tally the contraband cargo and to stabilize any explosive warheads or volatile missile fuel, officials said. The ship, which a senior administration official said had been tracked by American intelligence "all the way out" from North Korea, appeared to be heading for Yemen when it was stopped by the two Spanish warships an estimated 600 miles off the Yemeni coast." ... "We believe this cargo vessel was headed for Yemen," one official said. 'But we don't know if the intended customer was the Yemeni government, Iraq, Al Qaeda or somebody else.'"

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

News and commentary:

"Celebrities urge Bush to avoid Iraq war" (UPI, 2002/12/10)
"More than 100 Hollywood celebrities have written to President Bush, urging him to avoid a first-strike war with Iraq. Former "M*A*S*H" star Mike Farrell - a main organizer of the group called Artists United to Win Without War - said the letter's signers agree that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction, but that "war talk in Washington is alarming and unnecessary." The list of signers included Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet on the Emmy-winning NBC drama "The West Wing," and other Hollywood activists including Alec Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Tim Robbins and Barbra Streisand." Anticipating criticism that usually attends public pronouncements by well-known liberal celebrities, Farrell made a point of characterizing the signers as patriotic Americans. "We support rigorous U.N. weapons inspections to assure Iraq's effective disarm," said Farrell. "However, a presumptive military invasion of Iraq will harm American national interests." ... Other celebrities who signed the letter included Oscar-winners Kim Basinger, Angelica Houston, Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon - as well as actors Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and Laurence Fishburne."

"Carter warns against 'catastrophic' war" (BBC News, 2002/12/10)
"Former US president Jimmy Carter has warned of the potentially "catastrophic consequences" of a pre-emptive US war on Iraq. The comments came in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. Mr Carter did not mention either country by name, but said: "For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences." ... In an interview with the BBC, the former US president refused to criticise George W Bush's handling of Iraq. "The government has decided that action should be multilateral. The US has taken a completely appropriate multilateral position," he told the BBC's HARDtalk programme." (See also: "Text of Carter's Nobel Peace Prize speech" (UPI, 2002/12/10))

"Iran's youth reveal anger and sadness" (Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC News, 2002/12/10)
Ironically, Islamists always point to prostitution in the West as a sign of its depravity:
"The faceless men from the ministry called me on the mobile phone. "We are deporting you tomorrow morning because you have taken pictures of prostitutes. This is not a true reflection of life in our Islamic Republic. We don't have prostitutes." But it was hard not to take pictures of prostitutes. Walking out of the Laleh Hotel, a favourite for journalists in Tehran, they are waiting under the trees in the nearby park and climbing into the cars which kerb crawl along the wide avenues. ...
A reporter working for a woman's magazine said she believes there are more than one million women who sell their bodies in Tehran, which has a population of 10 million. "I would say one in three women do it," she says. "Some do it out of despair, runaway teenagers do it to survive and some middle-class girls do it just to put two fingers up at the regime - to take off their black chadors and taste freedom." ...
When Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to lead the revolution 23 years ago, he was honest enough to warn the people of the new Islamic Republic that "Islam offers no joy". It is the joylessness of life which young people complain about. Fatima stopped to talk to me as I walked past the "Death to Israel" rally in Tehran, an annual ritual where hundreds of people are bussed into the city to shout obscenities against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W Bush. She was embarrassed. "Most of us don't think like that, at least the educated ones who have read about how Iran was before the revolution," the pretty 23-year-old says later, surrounded by screaming women draped in shroud-like black chadors."

"A dossier as empty as a factory when the UN calls" (Max Boot, The Times, 2002/12/10)
"There is no mystery about why President Saddam Hussein chose to inundate the United Nations with 12,000 pages listing every food-processing facility, tannery and dairy in Iraq. The Butcher of Baghdad gave away the game in his first interview in 12 years, granted to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Usbu'a last month. "No doubt, time is working for us," he said. "We have to buy some more time, and the American-British coalition will disintegrate because of internal reasons and the pressure of public opinion in American and British streets." Saddam knows it will take a long time to wade through those 12,000 pages. And even when the "full and complete declaration" - actually, fully incomplete - is finally analysed, there will be endless debates about whether there is conclusive evidence of a "material breach". Even if weapons inspectors stumbled on a cache of nuclear weapons, this would not satisfy Saddam's defenders in Paris, who would no doubt claim these bombs were meant for heating cups of cocoa. ...
If George Bush and Tony Blair feel compelled to get the UN’s written approval before attacking Saddam, they may well have to wait a long time - precisely what he intends. It's worth waiting a little longer; the US military won’t be ready for war for at least a month. But rather than lose the window of opportunity that may close once summer settles over Iraq, America and her closest allies would be better advised to strike anyway, whether or not they have UN support."

"Shalhevet Pass's killer captured" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/12/10)
"Tanzim sniper who shot and killed 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass in Hebron on March 26, 2001, was recently captured by the Shin Bet and the IDF, the Prime Minister's Office announced Monday. ... Amrou told Shin Bet investigators he went to the home of Marwad Zaloum - head of the local Tanzim branch until his death this past April - on the day of the murder and received a letter instructing him in the name of Fatah to carry out a shooting attack in the city as soon as possible. That afternoon, Amrou went to the Abu Sneineh neighborhood and observed the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. After several hours he spotted Shalhevet with her father, Yitzhak, and fired several shots, killing the baby and wounding her father in the legs. Shortly after the shooting he was detained by Palestinian police for several hours and released. Imad Dieb, a senior Tanzim member who was killed in August 2001, helped Amrou flee the area."

"Iraq Papers Hint at Past Arms Efforts" (Dafna Linzer, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/10)
"Iraq's arms declaration includes information on its past secret efforts to build a nuclear weapon and may list countries that helped it in its illicit arms programs, a nine-page table of contents suggested. The declaration also details Baghdad's efforts to build biological weapons, according to the listing distributed Monday by a U.S. official after Washington was given a copy of the full 12,000 page declaration. A former inspector who reviewed the table of contents said it appeared Iraqis were resubmitting old reports from the wake of the Gulf War more than a decade ago. Inspectors have said Iraq's previous declarations were incomplete. David Albright, an American who served on the nuclear inspections team in the 1990s, said the table "seems to confirm that on the nuclear side, the declaration has been recycled. A lot of this is pre-1991," he said." (See also: "Text: Iraq Report Table of Contents" (The New York Times, 2002/12/10))

Added in archive:
"A Philosopher in the Trenches: Interview with Ted Honderich" (Paul de Rooij, The Palestine Chronicle, 2002/12/04)

Monday, December 9, 2002

News and commentary:

"Cleric 'sowed seeds of Australian Islamic state'" (Linda Morris, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002/12/10)
"The suspected spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir, preached of establishing an Islamic state in Australia in his sermons to Sydney Muslims. In an audio-recording believed to feature his voice, and obtained by the Herald, the hardline cleric gives his broad support to jihad - the term for struggle - to bring Islamic law to the world, particularly Indonesia. He backs conflict and war in defence of the faith and says it is an "abasement" for Muslims to live in a "non-believing nation". ... The speech is full of religious imagery. The world is divided between God's Party and Satan's Party. Political systems such as capitalism and communism were more "dangerous than death". Those not committed to the teachings of Islam, and who were dabbling in Christianity, Buddhism or their "culture and ancestors", were "followers of Satan's Party". 'Meaning if, in the defence of our faith, conflict or war must occur, or if human life must be lost, this is still better than the deception of such systems.'"

"War At Last?" (Angelo M. Codevilla, Claremont Review of Books, from the Winter 2002 issue)
"To be rid of those who would commit terrorist acts against America, we must deal with the fact that anti-Americanism - both its hatred and contempt for us - has become institutionalized in regimes whose very existence inspires such acts. ... The U.S. government earned the Arabs' contempt the hard way, by decades of responses to terrorism that combined impotent threats, solicitude for the terrorists' causes, outright payments to Egypt and the PLO, courting Syria, a "special relationship" with Saudi Arabia, and a pretense that Islam was as compatible with American life as Episcopalianism. Killing individuals who do not count engenders hatred, while sparing those who do count guarantees contempt. Victory against terrorists requires precisely the opposite approach: expend little or no energy chasing the trigger pullers and bombers. Rather, make sure that any life devoted to terror will be a wasted life. This means leaving no hope whatever for any of the causes from which the Arab tyrannies draw such legitimacy as they have: people who give their lives for lost causes exist more in novels than in reality. It means discrediting and insofar as possible impoverishing (rather than paying for) Arab regimes that foster opposition to America. It means using military force to kill the regimes - the ruling classes - of countries that are in any way associated with terrorism. Such regimes cannot be other than matrices of terrorism; they are riding tigers. Should the people who run them try to change, they would perish at the hands of internal enemies. America cannot possibly reform them. The choice is to suffer them, their causes, and their terrorist methods - or to kill them." (See also: "What War?" (Angelo M. Codevilla, Claremont Review of Books, from the Spring 2002 issue))

"Saddam's Lawyers" (Fred Hiatt, The Washington Post, 2002/12/09)
"In this country and throughout Europe, antiwar organizations cite international law in urging President Bush not to overthrow Saddam Hussein. ... All perfectly understandable; no one wants a world in which powerful countries feel free to go about smashing into weaker ones. ... And yet, given that they have taken on Saddam Hussein as their client, you have to wonder whether, if their reading of the law is right, there isn't something peculiar, something out of whack, about international law itself. Yes, national borders should be respected. But why should a gangster who has maintained power only by violating every norm of morality and law - including international law - be permitted the sanctuary of those borders? Why should his regime be entitled to the same protection as a government that represents its people? ... The opponents of war often claim to be speaking for the Iraqi people. ... About one in seven Iraqis has left the nation rather than live under his regime, as the British report pointed out. And last week, the nonprofit International Crisis Group (ICG), which conducts research in troubled regions in an effort to encourage wise policy, issued, to little notice, a compelling report entitled "Voices From the Iraqi Street." The ICG researcher, interviewing ordinary Iraqis for the sixth time in recent years, found them more open than ever before. This in itself might be seen as an initial success of Bush's policy; the ICG attributed it to "the feelings shared by many Iraqis that some kind of political change is now unavoidable." More remarkable, the interviewer found an "overwhelming sentiment ... of frustration and impatience with the status quo." People want change, are willing to say so and, 'if such a change required an American-led attack, they would support it.'" (See also the report: "Voices From The Iraqi Street" (ICG, 2002/12/04): "A significant number of those Iraqis interviewed, with surprising candour, expressed their view that, if such a change required an American-led attack, they would support it. ... It should not be assumed from this that such support as might exist for a U.S. operation is unconditional. It appears to be premised on the belief both that any such military action would be quick and clean and that it would be followed by a robust international reconstruction effort. Should either of these prove untrue – if the war proved to be bloody and protracted or if Iraq lacked sufficient assistance afterwards – the support in question may well not be very long sustained.")

"Saddam and al Qaeda" (David Rose, The Evening Standard, 2002/12/09)
Found via InstaPundit: "Despite their bitter divisions over possible war in Iraq, doves and many hawks on this side of the Atlantic share a common, often-stated belief: that there is "no evidence" of a link between Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and Saddam Hussein's regime. In London and Washington, the Foreign Office, MI6, the State Department and the CIA have been spinning this claim to reporters for more than a decade, long before the attacks of 11 September last year. Constant repetition of an erroneous position does not, however, make it true. Having investigated the denial of an Iraqi connection for more than a year, I am convinced it is false. ...
As I reveal in Vanity Fair, earlier this year the Pentagon established a special intelligence unit to re-examine evidence of an Iraq-al Qaeda relationship. After initially fighting the proposal, the CIA agreed to supply this unit with copies of its own reports going back 10 years. I have spoken to three senior officials who have seen its conclusions, which are striking. "In the Cold War, says one of them, "often you'd draw firm conclusions and make policy on the basis of just four or five reports. Here there are almost 100 separate examples of Iraq-al Qaeda co-operation going back to 1992." All these reports, says the official, were given the CIA's highest credibility rating - defined as information from a source which had proven reliable in the past. At least one concerns Bin Laden personally, who is said to have spent weeks with a top Mukhabarat officer in Afghanistan in 1998."

"Horrors of stoning captured on film" (Arnold Beichman, The Washington Times, 2002/12/09)
"In my snug little apartment on the Stanford University campus I have just watched on my TV screen 15 minutes of pure horror: the lashing and stoning ordered by Iranian judges of two Iranian men for committing so-called crimes. ... Stoning is still to this day the preferred method of execution. All Iranians are invited to join in hurling rocks at someone who is completely covered from topknotted head to toe in winding sheets and lifted standing up into a sandpit. The pit is then filled up to the victim's waist and the sand tamped down. Then the fun begins. ... The victim's hands are obviously tied behind his back because only his head is free to move. So as each stone strikes its target, the victim's head starts again and again. Suddenly the part of the winding sheet that covers the victim's head becomes red-stained and in a minute or so the head sags forward and there is no more movement. All I could think is what I was watching was a lynch mob at work. We have heard about such punishments in Iran since 1979 when the shah was overthrown and the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his murderous mullah theocracy took over. There is even an explanation by the late ayatollah himself for the 23-year reign of terror. In a sermon Feb. 3, 1984, later published in the government newspaper, Ettelaat, he said: 'Killing is a form of mercy because it rectifies the person. So