Archived news and commentary: March 3 - 9, 2003

2003/03/24 - 2003/03/30
2003/03/17 - 2003/03/23
2003/03/10 - 2003/03/16
2003/03/03 - 2003/03/09
2003/02/24 - 2003/03/02
2003/02/17 - 2003/02/23
2003/02/10 - 2003/02/16
2003/02/03 - 2003/02/09
2003/01/27 - 2003/02/02
2003/01/20 - 2003/01/26
2003/01/13 - 2003/01/19
2003/01/06 - 2003/01/12
2002/12/30 - 2003/01/05

Sunday, March 9, 2003

News and commentary:

"A little girl dressed as Hamas fighter..."
(Reuters/Jose Manuel Ribeiro, 2003/03/09)
"A little girl dressed as Hamas fighter shows up among traditional Muslim women during a rally at the university of Gaza city, March 9, 2003. Around five thousand students and young Hamas supporters gathered at Gaza city university one day after Israel killed Ibrahim al-Maqadma, a top Hamas commander."

"The New York Times show its cards" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/03/09)
"Finally, after weeks of tortued, incoherent, meandering opportunism, the editors of the New York Times have come to their finger-in-the wind conclusion. No war against Saddam. Here's their reasoning:

[A] far larger and more aggressive inspection program, backed by a firm and united Security Council, could keep a permanent lid on Iraq's weapons program. By adding hundreds of additional inspectors, using the threat of force to give them a free hand and maintaining the option of attacking Iraq if it tries to shake free of a smothering inspection program, the United States could obtain much of what it was originally hoping to achieve. ...

Somehow, the Times believes that the U.N. will be strengthened by a tyrant observing U.N. Resolution 1441 being abandoned. And such a policy does mean that. 1441 demanded immediate and complete disarmament. Not a new process of years of U.N. "policing" - effectively using the United Nations as a legitimizer of Saddam's regime, just as it became a legitimizer of Milosevic's genocide in the Balkans. What, after all, is the difference between this and the 1990s? Nothing." (See also: "Saying No to War" (The New York Times, 2003/03/09))

"Just War - or a Just War?" (Jimmy Carter, The New York Times, 2003/03/09)
I'm certainly no expert on this, but isn't it almost unprecedented in the history of America that a former president openly undermines the current presidency on foreign policy in times of war?:
"For a war to be just, it must meet several clearly defined criteria.
The war can be waged only as a last resort, with all nonviolent options exhausted. In the case of Iraq, it is obvious that clear alternatives to war exist. These options — previously proposed by our own leaders and approved by the United Nations — were outlined again by the Security Council on Friday. But now, with our own national security not directly threatened and despite the overwhelming opposition of most people and governments in the world, the United States seems determined to carry out military and diplomatic action that is almost unprecedented in the history of civilized nations. ...
What about America's world standing if we don't go to war after such a great deployment of military forces in the region? The heartfelt sympathy and friendship offered to America after the 9/11 attacks, even from formerly antagonistic regimes, has been largely dissipated; increasingly unilateral and domineering policies have brought international trust in our country to its lowest level in memory. American stature will surely decline further if we launch a war in clear defiance of the United Nations. But to use the presence and threat of our military power to force Iraq's compliance with all United Nations resolutions — with war as a final option — will enhance our status as a champion of peace and justice."

"Fuzzy think-tank thinking" (David M. Weinberg, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/03/09)
"It seems that the imminent American campaign against Iraq has everybody in the West, East and Arab world in wild disagreement, with curses, flag-waving and flag-burning underway across the continents. On one matter, however, we have global consensus: that after Saddam goes, the next most important, urgent item on the international agenda is the establishment of a Palestinian state.
You would think that after taking down one terrorist state, the world would be less than eager to establish another one. Curiously, the opposite is true: those most anxious to see Saddam smashed - like George Bush, Tony Blair or Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - feel the need most to declare their commitment to the cause of Palestinian statehood. ...
Disturbingly, the recommendations represent a broader global trend to disregard the Palestinian barbarity, treachery and malfeasance exposed over the past ten years.
Despite the clear danger to Israel, much of the Western establishment is prepared to foist upon the Jewish state a solution that is both cancerous and wrong, cooked and prettified by people who do not have our best interests at heart - to say the least. Beware the day after Saddam."

"Loves Microsoft, Hates America" (Adam Davidson, The New York Times Magazine, 2003/03/09)
An interesting report from Jordan on their almost schizophrenic obsession with America, centered on a profile of Fadi, a "23-year-old unemployed computer programmer who lives in his parents' apartment in a nice, middle-class neighborhood in Amman":
"One day, he explained to me in careful detail why he wants to be a shaheed, a suicide bomber against the United States, quoting at length from the Koran. But when he's not talking about blowing himself up and killing American troops, Fadi talks about his other great dream. ''I want to be a programmer at Microsoft,'' he says. ''Not just a programmer. I want to be well known, famous.'' ...
On the level of governments, Jordan is America's best friend in the Arab world: the most moderate, most pro-Western Arab state. But Fadi's Jordan is a different place, where just about every citizen has developed a deep loathing for the United States. I haven't seen any polls that determine how many Jordanians hate the United States; it seems very unlikely that the king's government would allow them to be taken. But the estimates never change. ...
''I think it's close to 100 percent,'' says Sari Nasir, a prominent secular sociologist at the University of Jordan. There have always been pockets of anger against the United States - you could have found it in any of Jordan's poor Palestinian refugee camps any time in the last few decades - but that anger has spread to everyone: the poor, the middle class, the upper class, Islamists, the secular, Christians, liberals."

"An Arab House, Openly Divided" (Shafeeq Ghabra, The Washington Post Outlook, 2003/03/09)
An analysis of the recent Arab summit: "The Arab world, especially the larger Arab states, has invested heavily in trying to stop a war and prevent regime change in Iraq. Yet if the region (along with the French and the Germans) had invested similar energy into persuading Hussein to leave power, the Arab world (along with the French and Germans) would have a better reception in Washington and more influence during the next stage of events, both in the rebuilding of Iraq and on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab leaders could have invited the Iraqi opposition to the Sharm el-Sheik summit. They did not. Nor did they hold out a vision of Iraq's reintegration with its neighbors after a change of regime. Events are moving fast, and the summit was behind on every issue.
The Arab summit was the latest indication of a lack of leadership in the Arab world, where dissension has become the rule rather than the exception. ... Maybe when Arab leaders meet at the next summit, they ought to discuss how the deterioration in education, science and technology, creativity, research, privatization, economy, the rule of law, and freedom have contributed to the broader failure of the Arab world."

"Bold Tracks of Terrorism's Mastermind" (Peter Finn and Kamran Khan, The Washington Post, 2003/03/09)
A profile of the recently captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed: "The known shards of Mohammed's life never quite seemed to fit together. In North Carolina, where he attended college, he was reluctant to shake the hand of a woman. In the Philippines, while planning to kill the pope and blow American airliners out of the sky, he was a bon vivant who liked to wear tuxedos and flatter the ladies; he once rented a helicopter to impress a woman. Charming and funny among friends, he was elsewhere cold-blooded to the point of wielding the blade himself when Pearl was murdered, according to investigators." ...
In an interview with al-Jazeera television, broadcast on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mohammed said planning for them began in 1999. "The attacks were designed to cause as many deaths as possible and havoc, and to be a big slap for America on American soil," Mohammed said.
Over two years, mostly from Karachi, he orchestrated the attacks. With plans and operatives in place, Mohammed, in the weeks before Sept. 11, had moved on, planning new atrocities."

"Judge Requests Arrest of Iran Diplomats" (AP/Newsday.com, 2003/03/09)
Imagine this kind of diplomacy gone nuclear: "An Argentine judge has asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats, accusing them of responsibility in a deadly terrorist attack that destroyed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
The office of Federal Judge Juan Jose Galeano confirmed the request late Saturday.
The diplomats were identified as Moshen Rabbani, former cultural attache in the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, Barat Ali Balesh Abadi, a former Embassy courier, Ali Fallahijan and Ali Akbar Parvaresh.
Eighty five people were killed and more than 200 wounded when a car bomb exploded in front of AMIA's eight-story building, in the Jewish district of Buenos Aires." (See also: "Iran's Nuclear Threat" (Massimo Calabresi, TIME, 2003/03/08))

"Saddam's soldiers surrender" (Mike Hamilton, Sunday Mirror, 2003/03/09)
"Terrified Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border and tried to surrender to British forces - because they thought the war had already started.
The motley band of a dozen troops waved the white flag as British paratroopers tested their weapons during a routine exercise.
The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and ordered them back to their home country telling them it was too early to surrender."

"Iraq Issues U.N. Demands and Destroys More Missiles" (Neil MacFarquhar and Patrick E. Tyler, The New York Times, 2003/03/09)
"Iraq today resumed destroying its short-range Al Samoud 2 missiles and, apparently in a further attempt to exploit the deep divisions among the world's powers over war, issued a defiant list of demands to the United Nations.
Glossing over the negative aspects of the latest report by the weapons inspectors, a government statement issued from a meeting presided over by Saddam Hussein and editorials in the government-controlled press all reached the same conclusion: that Iraq had been declared sufficiently free of weapons of mass destruction to warrant the cancellation of sanctions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf war. ...
The Iraqi demands to the United Nations included a call to strip Israel of its weapons of mass destruction and force it to abide by Security Council resolutions requiring its withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory. The government statement also said the United States and Britain should officially be branded 'liars.'"

Saturday, March 8, 2003

News and commentary

"Natanz, Iran, Imagery collected August 29, 2002"
(Digital Globe, 2002/08/29)

"Iran's Nuclear Threat" (Massimo Calabresi, TIME, 2003/03/08)
"On a visit last month to Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei announced he had discovered that Iran was constructing a facility to enrich uranium — a key component of advanced nuclear weapons — near Natanz. But diplomatic sources tell TIME the plant is much further along than previously revealed. The sources say work on the plant is "extremely advanced" and involves "hundreds" of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium and "the parts for a thousand others ready to be assembled."
Iran announced last week that it intends to activate a uranium conversion facility near Isfahan (under IAEA safeguards), a step that produces the uranium hexafluoride gas used in the enrichment process. Sources tell Time the IAEA has concluded that Iran actually introduced uranium hexafluoride gas into some centrifuges at an undisclosed location to test their ability to work. That would be a blatant violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory."

"Ghetto sectarianism 20 years after the integration movement" (Frédéric Chambon, Le Monde/Watch, 2003/02/11 [2003/03/08])
Chambon on Islamism in Lyon, translated by Douglas: "Has Lyon become a haven for Islamism in France? Having already been in the crosshairs of anti-terrorist activity in the 1990s, the metropolis famous for its troubled outskirts has once again drawn attention to itself in several terrorism-related areas since 11 September 2001.
Of the six French nationals held at Guantànamo (Cuba), two come from Minguettes, the housing project at Vénissieux (Rhône): Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali. The latter’s brother Menad was himself detained in December 2002 during the dismantling of a terrorist cell. Moreover, Nizar Naour, who committed the 11 April 2002 suicide attack on the Djerba synagogue, is a Tunisian whose family lives in Saint-Priest, a suburb of Lyon. His brother Oualid was named as an accessory in November 2002. ...
The large Algerian community, the proximity with Switzerland, the midway position between Marseille and Paris have meant the Lyon region has always been a sounding chamber for Algerian Islamism. Since the dismantling of these networks in 1995, as in other places, extremist influence has centered around the Salafist currents while the mosques are no longer necessarily the radical movements’ lodestones. These movements operate in a manner even more secretive than before and reach a different audience, as can be seen from the fact that none of those from Lyon who were charged following 11 September 2001 had caught the attention of the police or intelligence services." (See also the French original: "Le repli communautaire des quartiers, vingt ans après la mobilisation pour l'intégration" (Frédéric Chambon, Le Monde, 2003/02/11))

"Saddam must go, by choice or by force!" (Pascal Bruckner, André Glucksmann and Romain Goupil, Le Monde/Watch, 2003/03/03 [2003/03/08])
Another rare example of French dissent, translated by Douglas: "In 1991, we called on the democracies to use any means — military if necessary — to put an end to the ethnic cleansing undertaken by Slobodan Milosevic in Croatia. We were then cheerfully dismissed by the military, policy experts and governments, not to mention politicians.
Eight years and 200,000 deaths later, it was indeed a NATO intervention that allowed the repatriation of a million Kosovars. Even then, the pacifists told us that the “American” expedition against Serbia would lead the world to bloody mayhem. Today, Milosevic is explaining himself before a tribunal for crimes against humanity.
Saddam Hussein is no less cruel than Milosevic and far more dangerous. In demonizing George W. Bush, the “new Satan,” “new Hitler,” and “new bin Laden,” the peace protestors of 15 February left out of their chants the master of Baghdad — the great admirer of Stalin who has been crushing, torturing and strangling his people for 30 years. ...
Saddam must go, by choice or by force! The Iraqis, the Kurds, Shi’ites, but also Sunnis will breath freer and the peoples of the region will be relieved.
After Milosevic, the Balkans are not heaven but there is more peace and less dictatorship. The post-Saddam era will not be rosy, but less black than 30 years of tyranny, summary executions and war." (See also the French original: "Saddam doit partir, de gré ou de force!" (Pascal Bruckner, André Glucksmann and Romain Goupil, Le Monde, 2003/03/03) and "Bernard Kouchner: 'France is at an impasse'" (Le Monde/Watch, 2003/03/03 [2003/03/04]))

"Still lost, still paranoid" (Peter Cuthbertson, Conservative Commentary, 2003/03/08)
Cuthbertson on leftist criticism of the right-of-centre US think tank Project for the New American Century, found via Stephen Pollard: "Here's one of their more articulate spokesman making the case: ...

It is worth noting that we are talking here about a pretty small clique of extremist neo-conservatives. There might be no more than 20 who have real power - the core group would certainly not be any bigger than Al Qaeda's. In many ways the comparison with Al Qaeda is valid because both have world domination as their agenda and both are willing to use force to achieve it. The difference is that Al Qaeda are a bunch of fanatics with a few billion dollars at their disposal and some paper knives. The neo-con PNAC mob have trillions of dollars and biggest arsenal the world has ever seen at their disposal.
I know which one frightens me the most.

The parallels are exact, aren't they? I mean the fact that PNAC is made up of democratic politicians and foreign policy analysts who bury their malevolent plans for world domination in rhetoric like "encourage the spread of free institions and democracy" - as opposed to declaring them to be the will of Allah for which all must work or die - counts for nothing. More's the point, it really is just nitpicking to note that none of the PNAC fanatics have yet found time to establish terrorist training camps, plant bombs in Australasian night-clubs or pilot jet-liners into skyscrapers full of civilians. Really, when you put it like that, it's impossible not to feel threatened. Forget Al-Qaida, folks. Francis Fukayama and Dan Quayle pose the real threat to your life and liberty, and if you don't also consider them to be as dangerous as Osama Bin Laden, then you jolly well ought to!" (See also: "Do You Brits Know What PNAC is?" (BabcockPoom, The Guardian, 2003/03/07) and Project for the New American Century))

"Liberation's Limits - Feminists to Muslim women: Drop dead" (Kay S. Hymowitz, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/08)
"Gender feminists are not interested in drawing attention to the plight of Muslim women because it would threaten their preoccupation with pointing out male wickedness closer to home. (Not to mention revealing their own complaints as astonishingly trivial.) ...
There is no need, in their minds, to distinguish between Osama, Saddam and Bush: They're all suffering from testosterone poisoning. Nor do they need to argue that a tyrant like Saddam Hussein can be contained or deterred; the point they are set on making is that male-driven war is the horrid opposite of female nurturing, one captured perfectly by the theme of this year's IWD: "Women Say No to War. Invest in Caring, Not Killing." ...
Last year the theme of IWD was "Afghanistan Is Everywhere," a not-so-subtle elbowing of Western countries that might imagine that their own record on women's rights is superior to the Taliban.
Not only are feminists averting their eyes from the truth that only Western-style democracies have made the feminist principle of the full rights and dignity of women a reality, more perversely, they are lending support to the oppression and tyranny they profess to hate. In the name of respecting "the other," postcolonial feminists have been known to defend forced marriage, polygamy, and even female circumcision, while the bureaucratic U.N. feminists have touted the Iraqi regime for its support of women in the workplace. Most ironic are the gender feminists who call on us to "invest in caring," but who prefer not to notice the consequences of their position: not caring about the millions of people - female and male - who suffer under the rule of tyrants."

"How I long for the bombs to start falling" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/03/08)
"Even more telling than the human shields scramming out of town is the alarming failure of recent "naked protests" to get naked. Many of my fellow warmongers have mocked the nude protests mounted by the women of California's Marin County, cruelly pointing out that many of the bits on show are excessively saggy. But I'll take what I can get. If we have to have an incoherent, anti-Western "peace" movement, then women showing off their hooters in support of a culture that would stone them to death for showing off their ankles is about as good as it's gonna get."

"North Korean Fliers Said to Have Sought Hostages" (Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, 2003/03/08)
"The North Korean fighter jets that intercepted an unarmed American spy plane over the Sea of Japan last weekend were trying to force the aircraft to land in North Korea and seize its crew, a senior defense official said today.
One of the four North Korean MIG's came within 50 feet of the American plane, an Air Force RC-135S Cobra Ball aircraft, and the pilot made internationally recognized hand signals to the American flight crew to follow him, presumably back to his home base, the official said." (See also: "North Korean jets lock on U.S. aircraft" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2003/03/04))

"Hamas vows to target Israeli leaders" (BBC News, 2003/03/08)
"The militant Islamic group Hamas has threatened to target Jewish politicians after one of its military leaders and founders was killed in an Israeli missile attack. ...
In an interview with Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV, Hamas official Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi said: 'I appeal to all unit commanders to target Jewish politicians... in parliament, in political parties and in the government.
Every so-called Jewish political leader is wanted because they are declaring war against God and Islam.'"

"Israel Kills Hamas Leader in Gaza Missile Strike" (Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters, 2003/03/08)
"Israel killed four Hamas militants, including a leader of Hamas's armed wing, in a helicopter strike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, drawing vows of revenge attacks from the militant Islamic group.
Ibrahim al-Maqadma, 50, a founder of Hamas and senior leader of its military wing, was killed with three other militants when four Israeli helicopters blasted his car with missiles.
The attack came one day after Hamas gunmen killed two Israelis in a West Bank settlement, hours after Israeli troops and tanks seized a chunk of the northern Gaza Strip.
The helicopter missile strike reduced the car to charred and smoking wreckage, scattering body parts of the four Hamas militants riding inside along a street."

"Iraqi drone 'could drop chemicals on troops'" (James Bone, The Times, 2003/03/08)
"A report declassified by the United Nations yesterday contained a hidden bombshell with the revelation that inspectors have recently discovered an undeclared Iraqi drone with a wingspan of 7.45m, suggesting an illegal range that could threaten Iraq's neighbours with chemical and biological weapons.
US officials were outraged that Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, did not inform the Security Council about the drone, or remotely piloted vehicle, in his oral presentation to Foreign Ministers and tried to bury it in a 173-page single-spaced report distributed later in the day. The omission raised serious questions about Dr Blix's objectivity.
"Recent inspections have also revealed the existence of a drone with a wingspan of 7.45m that has not been declared by Iraq," the report said."

Friday, March 7, 2003

News and commentary:

"Britain's role is crucial in next stage of war on terror - Iran" (Stephen Pollard, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/03/07)
"But it is proving difficult enough to get the UN to support action against Iraq. Mr Bush's most fundamental belief is that actions have consequences. If the UN behaves irresponsibly, it will pay the price. A phrase is doing the rounds: the US out of the UN, and the UN out of the US.
Well-connected advisers tell me that if, as now seems likely, the UN refuses to back action against terror, Mr Bush will announce a "temporary" suspension of America's membership, to be accompanied by an offer: if the UN gets its act together and carries out long-overdue reforms, America (and its money) will return. But if there is no reform, the temporary withdrawal will, de facto, become permanent."

"Britain, U.S. Propose 3/17 Iraq Deadline" (Dafna Linzer, AP/The Washington Post, 2003/03/07)
Britain and the United States proposed Friday giving Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to comply with U.N. inspections by March 17 or face war.
But France, Germany, and other Security Council members rejected the plan, an amended U.S.-British-Spanish resolution that paves the way for war. Opponents said the proposal would automatically lead to military action, and France threatened to wield its veto. ...
The amended resolution, which British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced in the council meeting, declares that 'Iraq will have failed to take the final opportunity" the council offered in November "unless, on or before March 17, 2003, the council concludes that Iraq has demonstrated full, unconditional, immediate and active cooperation in accordance with its disarmament obligations.'"

"Blix: Iraq Cooperation 'Accelerating' but Still Short" (Thomas W. Lippman, The Washington Post, 2003/03/07)
"Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council this morning that Iraq's cooperation with inspectors has been accelerating, a development he called "welcome" but still short of the unconditional cooperation demanded by Security Council resolutions. ...
The United States, Britain and Spain insisted that Blix's report demonstrates Iraqi noncompliance with Security Council resolutions requiring full disarmament and the need to take more forceful action; France, Russia, Germany and China restated their view that the inspectors are making progress and that all alternatives to war must be exhausted before any resort to force." (See also: "Raw Data: Blix's Report" (FOX News, 2003/03/07))

"Postmodern War" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2003/03/07)
"War against a murdering fascist has by now become fully postmodern — a surreal experience whose strangeness transcends even the new weapons, tactics, and operational protocol involved. ...
Text, image, and rhetoric — not the deeds themselves — become reality. Had Mr. Bush, Clinton-like, only bit his lip, apologized to various peoples, talked of "multilateralism," and spun his southern drawl to sound more like the Joads than Sam Houston, then he too might have bombed a thug (in Europe, no less) for two months without congressional, U.N., or Cameroon's approval. Even ANSWER and "Not in Our Name" would have felt his pain and thus stayed home.
So war now belongs to the realm of postmodern thinking, a world where a grim Pericles must convince not the Athenian assembly, but the slouching guests at Trimalchio's banquet. There is no absolute good or bad, only the suspiciously powerful and the nobly impotent. Intention and exegesis are everything, action nothing. Meeting and defeating evil is considered judgmental and arbitrary — and thus hopelessly simplistic; soldiers must be social workers who feed and nurture victims, rather than those caricatured, retrograde avengers from our more primitive past. The beneficence of peace means twelve years and 300,000 air sorties over two-thirds of the airspace of a country enslaved in tyranny; the evil of war means the liberation of millions from a psychopath hoarding frightful weapons."

"Perles of Wisdom" (Amir Taheri, National Review, 2003/03/07)
An interview with Richard Perle, "one of the key hands in shaping President George W. Bush's global strategy":
"Taheri: From what you say it seems to me that war has become inevitable…
Perle: War was never ruled out as an option. But nothing is inevitable until it has happened. Obviously, the final word must come from President George W Bush.
Taheri: Could it come soon? And how long do you think the war would take?
Perle: My hunch is that it will come soon. My understanding is that we can wrap the whole thing in 30 days.
Taheri: So there is no chance that in November 2004 when there will be another U.S. presidential election we shall still have Saddam Hussein in power in Baghdad pointing to the scalp of a second President Bush on his wall?
Perle: No chance. Guaranteed."

"Bin Laden's Sons Reportedly Arrested" (Kathy Gannon, AP/The Washington Post, 2003/03/07)
"A Pakistani provincial minister announced Friday that two sons of Osama bin Laden were arrested in southwestern Afghanistan in a joint operation involving Pakistani and U.S. forces. U.S. counterterrorism officials disputed the claim.
Seven other al-Qaida men were killed in the operation in which Saad and Hamza bin Laden were arrested in the Rabat region, Zehri said. He said the sons may have been injured in the operation." (See also: "Bin Laden sons' arrest denied" (BBC News, 2003/03/07): Pakistani and US officials have denied reports that two of Osama Bin Laden's sons have been wounded and captured in a clash on the Afghan border. As he emphatically dismissed the claim, Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat also denied reports that Osama Bin Laden was hiding inside Pakistan. His denial was echoed by an official in Washington who, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that claims about the sons' arrests were untrue. "We have absolutely no information to substantiate that," the official said.")

"Iraq strengthens air force with French parts" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2003/03/07)
"A French company has been selling spare parts to Iraq for its fighter jets and military helicopters during the past several months, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
The unidentified company sold the parts to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates, which then shipped the parts through a third country into Iraq by truck.
The spare parts included goods for Iraq's French-made Mirage F-1 jets and Gazelle attack helicopters.
An intelligence official said the illegal spare-parts pipeline was discovered in the past two weeks and that sensitive intelligence about the transfers indicates that the parts were smuggled to Iraq as recently as January.
Other intelligence reports indicate that Iraq had succeeded in acquiring French weaponry illegally for years, the official said."

"Agony of mother set ablaze by Iraqis" (Julius Strauss, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/03/07)
"Shortly after three o'clock on a hot afternoon 37-year-old Nazif Mamik Tofik, an Iraqi Kurd, approached the border post carrying two five-gallon canisters of fuel.
She hoped to cross to the Kurdish-controlled side and sell them for a pound or two, which would help feed her eight hungry children.
Nazif Mamik Tofik whimpers with pain in Sulaimania hospital
As she stepped up to the Iraqi checkpoint, a military policeman suddenly pulled a knife, slashed open the flimsy plastic containers and splashed petrol all over her.
Then the head of the Iraqi border guard casually walked up to her, pulled a lighter from his pocket and set her ablaze. Soaked in fuel, she began to burn like a torch. That was on Monday afternoon. Yesterday Nazif lay in Sulaimania emergency hospital, on the Iraqi side, whimpering with pain. She had third degree burns and doctors said she was lucky to be alive. ...
In a faltering voice, she said: 'They said absolutely nothing, just looked at me with hatred. Then they set me alight. My whole body was in flames. I can't describe the pain.'"

"My Arab street" (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com, 2003/03/07)
"On Tuesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress that Muhammad Ali Hassan al-Mouyad, a Yemeni cleric, raised $20 million for al-Qaida at the Al-Farooq mosque in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn, less than three miles from the World Trade Center site. . ...
In a neighborhood that's seen itself as under siege since Sept. 11, people seem to feel victimized by Ashcroft's charges, even as a few young hotheads express sympathy with the goals of al-Qaida. Conspiracy theories multiply in the growing alienation. Accusations against the mosque are "Jewish propaganda, from the Jewish media," says Ahmed Abed, a 48-year-old from Algeria who works in a neighboring Islamic store. "Anyone goes to the bathroom and shits, they say, 'The Muslims did it.'" ...
Last October, when it was revealed that the Washington sniper was a Muslim convert, people in the neighborhood told me they didn't believe it, and said the news was part of a Jewish plot to defame Muslims. Now they're even more insistent. "Like the Jews didn't do it," says Waraith Abdel Habib, spitting out the word like something rancid. ...
A war in Iraq, Makrem says, "is the beginning of the end of the world, the third world war. Muslims are going to prevail and are going to rule the whole world."
I ask what will happen to me, a non-Muslim, in such a world. Imed says, "It depends on whose side you're going to stand." I ask what they think of al-Qaida, and Makrem says, "I cannot speak about that." Then he says, smirking, "You have to kill those who want to kill you."
Suddenly, his voice goes soft and he gives me a big, open grin. "Hey," he says. 'Want to go out for coffee sometime?'" (See also: "Millions Raised for Qaeda in Brooklyn, U.S. Says" (Eric Lichtblau and "William Glaberson, The New York Times, 2003/04/05))

"American girl, 14, was among bus bomb dead" (Robert Tait, The Times, 2003/03/07)
"The bomber, Mahmoud Awad Kawasme, 20, a member of Hamas, was found to be carrying a note in his pocket praising the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
In a reference to the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the note read: 'The twin building that was destroyed on September 11, 2001 . . . was built on a street called Jerfabar Street and, as such, God gave signs and hints in the Koran from 1,400 years ago that the building would be destroyed.'" (See also: "Suicide Bus Bombing Kills 15 in Israel" (Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/03/05))

"Seized letters spark Pakistan hunt for bin Laden" (Zahid Hussain and Roland Watson, The Times, 2003/03/07)
"Pakistani security forces and the FBI have stepped up the hunt for Osama bin Laden in southwestern Baluchistan province after they intercepted messages indicating that the al-Qaeda chief may be hiding in the border region.
Pakistani intelligence has captured letters purportedly written by bin Laden in recent weeks and showing that he was actively guiding the terrorist network. Pakistani security officials said that the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, had provided vital information about al-Qaeda’s links in Pakistan and other countries.
Some documents recovered in the raid on a house in Rawalpindi last weekend showed that Mohammed was in contact with bin Laden. It is not clear, however, whether they had met recently."

"'We don't need permission'" (Bill Sammon and Joseph Curl, The Washington Times, 2003/03/07)
"President Bush said yesterday that he would pursue "the last phase of diplomacy" to persuade a skittish U.N. Security Council to help disarm Saddam Hussein, but vowed to act without its approval, declaring that "when it comes to our security, we really don't need anybody's permission."
With the Security Council set to hear the latest report from chief weapons inspector Hans Blix today, Mr. Bush said in last night's nationally televised news conference that he would insist on a vote on a resolution authorizing war regardless of the prospects for the vote's success.
"We want to see people stand up and say what their opinion is about Saddam Hussein and the utility of the United Nations Security Council. It's time for people to show their cards, to let the world know where they stand when it comes to Saddam," the president said." (See also the full transcript: "President George Bush Discusses Iraq in National Press Conference" (The White House, 2003/03/06))

Thursday, March 6, 2003

News and commentary:

"Iraq sends five Western human shields home" (Dominic Evans, Reuters, 2003/03/06)
Ken O'Keefe is ordered to leave Iraq: "Iraq ordered five human shields out of the country on Thursday after a dispute over where the Western peace activists should deploy to deter possible U.S. military strikes.
Accusing them of undermining the "noble and courageous" spirit of other volunteers, senior Iraqi official Abdul-Razzaq al-Hashimi told a heated meeting of about 100 human shields in Baghdad that the five should leave by Friday. ...
"Out of concern for the success of the noble cause you are here for, and so as not to let a few people in the group undermine this beautiful activity, I'm very sorry to say that I'm asking the five people to leave," Hashimi told the meeting.
He said the five who had been told to leave had set themselves up as representatives of the group and had been 'holding unnecessary meetings, wasting time, knocking on doors at midnight...(and) asking stupid questions.'"

"Bin Laden alive, says captured leader" (The Guardian, 2003/03/06)
Did that poster really say "WANTED DEAD AND ALIVE"?: "The captured al-Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told his interrogators that Osama bin Laden is alive and well and living in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a Pakistani intelligence official claimed today. ...
Speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, the intelligence officer said he was part of a team of Pakistani and CIA agents who interrogated Mohammed for hours after he was captured in a pre-dawn raid in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Saturday.
"He said proudly, 'The sheikh is a hero of Islam and I am his tiny servant. Life, family, money, everything can be sacrificed for the sheik,'" the intelligence official said. He did not reveal what Mohammed claimed to have discussed with Bin Laden." (See also: "Captive: Bin Laden dead AND alive" (CNN.com, 2003/04/06): "Detained al Qaeda chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has given conflicting information about Osama bin Laden, CNN has learned. A spokesman for Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, told CNN that before he was handed to U.S. authorities the self-confessed head of al Qaeda's military committee said in separate interrogations that bin Laden was alive and that he was dead.")

"The Unloved American" (Simon Schama, The New Yorker, from the 2003/04/10 issue)
Schama on the history of European anti-Americanism, here on reactions after World War I:
"In "The American Cancer," Robert Aron and Arnaud Dandieu went so far as to argue that the First World War had been a plot of american high finance to enslave Europe in a web of permanent debt, a view that was echoed in J.-L. Chastanet's "Uncle Shylock" and in Charles Pomaret's "America's Conquest of Europe." The newspaper France-Soir calculated the weight of debt to the United States at seventy-two hundred francs for every French man and woman. Nor was there much in the way of sentimental gratitude for General Pershing’s doughboys. Why, it was asked, had the engagement of American troops on the western front been delayed until 1918? The answer was that the United States had waited until it could mobilize a force large enough not just to win the war but to dominate the peace. ...
Hollywood movies, which, according to Georges Duhamel, were "an amusement for slaves," and "a pastime for the illiterate, for poor creatures stupefied by work and anxiety," were the Trojan horse for the Americanization of the world. Jean Baudrillard's belief that the defining characteristic of America is its fabrication of reality was anticipated by Duhamel's polemics against the "shadow world" of the movies, with their reduction of audiences to somnolent zombies sitting in the dark."

"America is winning" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2003/03/08 issue)
"Writing in these pages two days after 9/11, I thought it obvious that both the UN and Nato would be casualties of the new world — the UN because they were 'the friends of the friends of the fellows who did this (to put it at its most discreet)' and Nato because it was no longer healthy to have a mutual defence pact in which only one guy picks up the tab. For most of its members, the free world is a free lunch, and the corrupting effects of that couldn't be plainer. The Turkish parliament's vote is said to make a Security Council rejection of the 'second' — i.e., the 18th — resolution all but certain. I do hope so. ...
My problem with 'old Europe' is that it's taken on the characteristic of its capital's most famous statue: a small boy who just stands there pissing 24 hours a day." (See also: "This is a war for civilisation" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2001/09/15 issue)

"The Guardian, always eager to parody itself..." (Tim Blair, timblair.blogspot.com, 2003/03/07)
"The Guardian, always eager to parody itself, is now running opinion pieces by Fidel Castro: ...

Authority is being wrenched away from the United Nations, its established procedures are being obstructed and the organisation itself destroyed; development assistance is being reduced; there are continuous demands on the third world countries to pay a $2.5 trillion debt that cannot be paid under the present circumstances, while $1 trillion dollars are spent in ever more sophisticated and deadly weapons. Why and for what?

Didn't Fidel once arrange for sophisticated and deadly weapons to be based on his Isle of the Damned? I seem to remember reading something about this." (See also: "Voice of the dark corners" (Fidel Castro, The Guardian, 2003/03/06))

"Take this article by one Julian Saurin..." (Peter Briffa, Public Interest.co.uk, 2003/03/06)
Briffas fisking of an article by Julian Saurin is a good complement to Garton Ash's piece below: "'Bush and Blair are not only united by a deep neo-liberal authoritarianism and a contempt for international law - after all both sins are characteristic of many leaders; Berlusconi, Aznar, Vajpayee, Fox, for example - but, more significantly, they are blessed by a religious fundamentalism which brooks no dissent and is contemptuous of doubt. It is their religiosity which marks them out from their predecessors and offers them up as clear and present dangers to the world at large'.
Saddam and OBL being godless rationalists of a Dawkinsian frame of mind, I suppose. ...
"The Blair-Bush magisterium is not just the denial of science; it is not even just bad religion; it is simply organised lying and fabrication on a mass scale".
Now, that's a bit more serious. Show me the organised lying, please. ...
"We need no further evidence than this of Mandela's charge of the Bush-Blair racism".
And that, believe it or not, is it. Leathery ex-con accuses someone of racism. Compelling evidence or what?" (See also: "Blind leadership? Not In Our Name" (Julian Saurin, Eclipse, 2003/02/14))

"Islam and us" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2003/03/06)
"The one form of evangelism that is still acceptable on the European left is evangelical Darwinism. Its fundamental belief is that all other forms of belief are symptoms of intellectual backwardness. Thus Martin Amis wrote on this page a couple of days ago "we are obliged to accept the fact that Bush is more religious than Saddam: of the two presidents, he is, in this respect, the more psychologically primitive". By this logic, Archbishop Rowan Williams is more psychologically primitive than Stalin and Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is more psychologically primitive than Hitler.
Europe is the place where post-Darwinian secularisation is most advanced. It's now the most secular continent on earth. And it's precisely the fact that Europeans, especially on the left, have such a secular imagination that makes it so difficult for us to understand and accept the religious Muslims who have come among us in growing numbers." (See also: "The palace of the end" (Martin Amis, The Guardian, 2003/04/04))

"Anti-war or anti-U.S.?" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/03/06)
"The peace movement would merit the label only if it opposed all wars, including those waged by tyrants against their own people, not just those in which America is involved.
Did it march when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran? Not at all.
Did it march when Saddam invaded Kuwait? Again: nix!
(Later, they marched, with the slogan "No Blood for Oil," when the U.S.-led coalition came to liberate Kuwait.)
Did it march when Saddam was gassing the Kurds to death? Oh, no.
Stalin died 50 years ago to the day.
But if he were around today he would have a chuckle: His peace movement remains as alive in the Western democracies as it was half a century ago."

"A Fissure Deepening for Allies Over Use of Force Against Iraq" (Patrick E. Tyler, The New York Times, 2003/03/06)
The declaration issued today by Germany, Russia and France against war in Iraq now — with its implicit threat of veto — may go down as the loudest "No!" shouted across the Atlantic in a half century or more. ...
Beyond the immediate issue of war, the declaration was a broad affront to Washington that admonished the Bush administration that the international system is "at a turning point" on establishing the rules of the road after the cold war, and the Franco-German bloc is too large a force, if not in military power, then in economic and cultural terms, to ignore. ...
Allies do not act this way, Henry A. Kissinger, a former secretary of state said. For members of the Western alliance "to go into open opposition" on a matter like Security Council resolution No. 1441, which clearly frames a war issue affecting American security after the Sept. 11 attacks, "that's a very grave decision," Mr.. Kissinger said.
"If this keeps up," he added, 'we will wind up in a sort of 19th-century balance-of-power game, in which it is not self-evident that we will lose.'"

Wednesday, March 5, 2003

News and commentary:

"The Three Little Pigs"
(www-math.uni-paderborn.de)

"Pigs tale banned to 'placate Muslims'" (Yorkshire Post, 2003/03/05)
Found via Best of the Web Today: "The tale of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf has delighted children for generations.
Yet the head of a Yorkshire school has banned the story in classes from fears it will offend Muslims.
Barbara Harris, headteacher of Park Road Junior Infant and Nursery School, Batley, removed all books containing stories about pigs, including the fairy tale and the talking pig Babe, from the classrooms of children aged under seven in case they upset Muslim pupils and their families.
She claimed it had been school policy for seven years to avoid telling the stories to young Muslim children, following complaints from Muslim parents, and that the books had been removed after a teacher had accidentally breached the policy.
Last night Yorkshire Muslims condemned the move as "nonsense", as their holy book, the Koran, permits followers of Islam to talk or read about pigs as long as they do not eat their meat.
Bradford magistrate Bary Malik, an Ahmadiyya Muslim, said: ... 'This school has gone too far – what will they do next, ban the word cow because Hindus believe the cow is sacred?'"

"Bin Laden's Sermon for the Feast of the Sacrifice" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 476, 2003/04/05)
Translation of "a sermon delivered by Al-Qa'ida's leader Osama bin Laden on the first day of 'Id al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, the most important holiday in the Muslim year":
"One of the most important positive results of the raids on New York and Washington was the revelation of the truth regarding the conflict between the Crusaders and the Muslims. [The raids] revealed the strength of the hatred which the Crusaders feel towards us, as the two raids peeled the lamb's skin off the back of the American wolf and revealed the hideous truth. The whole world awoke from its slumber, and the Muslims were alerted to the importance of the [Muslim] principle which states that positions of alliance or hostility may be taken [only] for the sake of Allah. The spirit of religious brotherhood among Muslims was likewise strengthened, which constitutes a great step forward along the road towards uniting Muslims under the banner of monotheism in order to establish the rightly-guided Caliphate, God willing. People discovered that it was possible to strike at America, that oppressive power, and that it was possible to humiliate it, to bring it into contempt and to defeat it. For the first time, the majority of the American people [now] understand the truth of the Palestinian issue and that what hit them in Manhattan is a result of the oppressive policy of their government."

"France, Russia, Germany Will Oppose Iraq Resolution" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/03/05)
"Foreign ministers from anti-war powers France, Russia and Germany agreed on Wednesday not to allow a resolution authorizing war in Iraq to be passed in the United Nations Security Council.
Announcing the decision, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the three countries also agreed to back more United Nations weapons inspections in Iraq.
"We will not allow the passage of a planned resolution which would authorize the use of force," he said after a meeting in Paris with his counterparts Igor Ivanov of Russia and Joschka Fischer of Germany."

"Insults traded at Islamic summit" (BBC News, 2003/03/05)
"The row began when the Kuwaiti official interrupted a speech by Izzat Ibrahim, the second-in-command of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, with the words "shut up you dog".
Mr Ibrahim, who had been delivering a speech critical of Kuwait and the US, responded by calling the Kuwaiti representative a "monkey" and a "traitor".
"Shut up you minion, you [US] agent, you monkey. You are addressing Iraq," said Izzat Ibrahim, the second-in-command of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council.
Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah tried to fight back but his comments could not be heard over the fray, correspondents said." (See also: "Kuwaiti, Iraqi delegations trade insults at Islamic summit" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/03/05) :"Sheik Mohammed Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, minister of state for foreign affairs, interrupted al-Douri's scathing attack against the United States and Kuwait. He shouted 'Shut up you monkey. Curse be upon your moustache (honor).'")

"New Palestinian Authority Libel: Israel Puts Bombs in Toys to Kill Children" (Itamar Marcus, PMW/IMRA, 2003/04/05)
"The newest Arabic language libel in a report this week on PA TV is that Israel is now making "bombs and mines designed as toys" and dropping them from airplanes in populated areas where children play with them and are blown up. ...
The following is the text from the program: "Message to the World"

"The Zionist criminals are planning to destroy the Al Aksa mosque on the grounds that they are searching for the Holy Temple, which they falsely claim is under the mosque...
Offenses against our Islamic and Christian holy sites continue throughout Palestine. The Al Aksa mosque is under threat, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has not been spared from desecration and destruction. They drop objects from jet planes that attract children to play with them and then they blow up. These are bombs and mines designed as toys."

PA TV March 3, 2003"

"Suicide Bus Bombing Kills 15 in Israel" (Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/03/05)
As'ad AbuKhalil would probably point out that suicide bombers blowing up crowded buses can be found in every religion, group and nation. Such as, ehrm, well, never mind:
"A suicide bomber blew himself up aboard a crowded bus in the northern city of Haifa on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens in the first suicide bombing in Israel in two months, officials said.
The powerful bomb ripped off the roof of the No. 37 bus, strewing wreckage and body parts across the street. Police said the suicide bomber detonated explosives that were strapped to his body.
The bus, packed with students from the nearby University of Haifa, had just stopped in the hilltop neighborhood Carmelia when the blast went off at 2:17 p.m.
The bus, packed with students from the nearby University of Haifa, had just stopped in the hilltop neighborhood Carmelia when the blast went off at 2:17 p.m. The driver, Marwan Damouni, told Army Radio he had just opened the doors to let passengers off.
"I suddenly heard an explosion, " said Damouni, who was being treated at Carmel Hospital. 'I tried to move, to see if there were wounded ... I couldn't hear anything because of the force of the blast.'"

"Stalin died 50 years ago, but his legacy lives on" (Johann Hari, Independent, 2003/04/05)
An article on Stalin's legacy and his present day apologists, found via The Daily Dish:
"Fidel runs his country on precisely the same lines as his hero. Amnesty International's latest reports detail the plight of the "prisoners of conscience" (otherwise known as democrats) and notes than even now, the number of people harassed "directly by the state", including "political dissidents, independent journalists and other activists", is increasing. It is worth remembering the name of just one victim of Fidel, plucked from among many: Bernardo Arevalo Padron has been festering in prison since 1997 because he called Fidel Castro "a liar" for failing (as ever) to stick to agreements on relaxing his authoritarian rule.
Yet still Tony Benn brags about the standards of the Cuban health-care system which, preposterously, he says are "better than America's". (If you are ever taken ill on a flight across the Atlantic, Tony, I suggest you test this by insisting on being flown to Havana rather than New York.) Still John Pilger describes the Cuban revolution as "a crucial model for challenging power". (For a man obsessed with hidden agendas, he very rarely discloses this agenda of his own.)" (See also: "Stalin's reputation as a ruthless master of deception remains intact" (Robert Conquest, The Guardian, 2003/04/05))

"Millions Raised for Qaeda in Brooklyn, U.S. Says" (Eric Lichtblau and "William Glaberson, The New York Times, 2003/04/05)
A prominent Yemeni cleric apprehended in Germany on charges of financing terrorism used a Brooklyn mosque to help funnel millions of dollars to Al Qaeda and boasted that he had personally delivered $20 million to Osama bin Laden, federal officials said today.
The cleric, Sheik Muhammad Ali Hassan al-Mouyad, told an F.B.I. informant that he was a spiritual adviser to Mr. bin Laden and had worked for years to provide money and weapons for a terrorist "jihad," according to two affidavits that were unsealed today in Brooklyn and that charge him and a Yemeni assistant with financing terrorism."

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

News and commentary:

"Bush's nerve is going to snap" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/03/04)
"If only Bush employed the rhetoric of democracy as a cynical screen behind which to pursue American security interests, all might be well. In his heart of hearts, however, he believes that Islam is a religion no different in its foundations than Christianity, and Arabs are no different from the rest of us. Here is what he said on February 26: "There was a time when many said that the cultures of Japan and Germany were incapable of sustaining democratic values. Well, they were wrong. Some say the same of Iraq today. They are mistaken. The nation of Iraq with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom."
Japan and Germany, to be sure, had industrial economies to rival America's before World War II. Yet American occupiers succeeded in humiliating their cultures, with the result that birth rates have collapsed in both nations. Within a couple of centuries German and Japanese will be spoken only in Hell (as Admiral Nimitz predicted after Pearl Harbor). Fixing other folks' cultures is not such a simple matter.
Much of the Islamic world does not want to be absorbed into American values in this fashion. It will fight to the death to prevent this. ...
Bush may find himself in the unenviable company of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, who is conducting a prolonged war of attrition against the Chechnyans. Russia is used to such things. America is not. The consequences for American morale are unpredictable."

"Hot on Osama's Trail" (Tim McGirk and Rahimullah Yusufzai, TIME, 2003/03/04)
"For the first time since bin Laden eluded a U.S.-backed siege of his Afghan mountain stronghold of Tora Bora in December 2001, his hunters have been able to establish that he is still alive and probably hiding "somewhere in northern Pakistan"— a notion Islamabad has long been reluctant to admit. As one Pakistani intelligence official in Peshawar said, "We think that bin Laden will break cover after Mohammed's capture, and when he does, we stand a good chance of catching him."
The breakthrough in the hunt for bin Laden came with the arrest of al-Qaeda's military strategist Mohammed in the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. A Pakistani official said that Mohammed, the logistical mastermind of the September 11th terrorist attacks in the US, was in recent contact with bin Laden."

"Villepin: 'The American Hawks are Sharon's Puppets'" (Proche-Orient.info, 2003/02/04)
A dispatch translated by Douglas - the link goes to the French original: "Last week, Dominque de Villepin received several "atlanticist" MPs at the Quai d’Orsay and gave them his view of the American administration: "The hawks in the American administration are Sharon’s puppets," he said, according to tomorrow's Canard enchaîné. Pierre Lellouche replies: 'Some UMP members claim that my pro-American opinions are also dictated by Sharon and that they put Chirac in a difficult position. So I want to point out that I am not Sharon’s puppet, as you said of the Americans, and that my religion does not prevent me from being a member of parliament in the French Republic who cares for the interests of France.'"

"Saddam: U.S. Wants Arabs As Slaves" (Bassem Mroue, AP/The Washington Post, 2003/03/04)
Quiet diplomacy does not appear to be his instinctive mode: "Saddam Hussein accused the United States of trying to enslave Arabs and said Iraq will defeat any invaders, even as he continued to destroy his Al Samoud 2 missile system Tuesday in hopes of averting a war. ...
"The tyrant thinks he is capable of enslaving the people and hiding the decisions, freedoms and legitimate choices (they were born with) when their mothers delivered them as free people," Saddam said in a letter read on Iraqi television Tuesday.
"Tyranny will be defeated. ... Arrogance will be of no help to it." ...
Saddam's letter marked the Islamic New Year. But while many businesses were closed, the holiday is not publicly celebrated in Iraq.
"We believe, with the coming of the Islamic new year and with God's help, we will be victorious against the tyrant," Saddam said. "The believers will triumph over tyranny and its accomplices."
Of the United States, he said: 'The tyrant of this era thinks that he is an alternative to God and is His shadow on Earth. The tyrant imagines himself, God forbid, as God ... and thus his devil has thrown him into the abyss of evil.'"

"Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/03/04)
And is "quiet diplomacy" the best way to deal with fanatical mass murderers?: "Anna Quindlen, the columnist who was too insufferable even for the New York Times, has this to say in Newsweek:

George W. Bush appears to be a man who takes slights seriously and responds pugnaciously, a guy who holds a grudge. "There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE," he said of Osama bin Laden after the terrorist attacks. Wyatt Earp in the White House. Quiet diplomacy does not appear to be his instinctive mode.

So Quindlen views the murder of 3,000 people as a 'slight'?" (See also: "Waiting, One Hand Behind" (Anna Quindlen, Newsweek, from the 2003/03/10 issue))

"Airport Blast in Philippines Kills 19" (Oliver Teves, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/03/04)
"A powerful bomb hidden in a backpack exploded Tuesday at an airport in the southern Philippines, killing at least 19 people and wounding 147, authorities said. The government called it a "brazen act of terrorism."
With many of the injured in serious condition, officials feared the death toll could rise.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been blamed for a string of attacks including a car bombing at a nearby airport last month, denied responsibility for the blast at Davao airport on Mindanao island.
The dead included a boy, a girl, 10 men - including one American - and seven women, officials said. ...
Police said the bomb was planted in the middle of the airport's covered waiting area and could be heard five kilometers (three miles) away.
"It was a very, very loud explosion," Terry Labado, an airport official said. 'I saw bodies flying.'" (See also: "Philippine terrorists claim link to Iraq" (Marc Lerner, The Washington Times, 2003/03/04))

"Bernard Kouchner: 'France is at an impasse'" (Le Monde/Watch, 2003/03/03 [2003/03/04])
An interview with Bernard Kouchner, former socialist minister of health and founding member of Medecins Sans Frontieres, translated by Douglas: "And so France is wrong to oppose the United States?
The first French diplomatic effort was perfect — it consisted in making the Americans return to the UN framework. In the second part of this far too virile arm-wrestling match, our elbow slipped. At one point, we brandished our right of veto. I regret it no end. It is most unfortunate.
France is at an impasse?
Yes, we are at an impasse. We have worsened Europe’s divisions rather than healed them. We’ve bound up our lot with German pacifism. It was a mistake. We have somewhat brutalized the Eastern European nations which are emerging from dictatorship. This was a second mistake. Lastly, we opened a chasm with the United States. These are my criticisms of the president of the Republic."

"The palace of the end" (Martin Amis, The Guardian, 2003/03/04)
Another example of moral equivalence leading to moral inversion: "Although there is no Bible on Capitol Hill written in the blood of George Bush, we are obliged to accept the fact that Bush is more religious than Saddam: of the two presidents, he is, in this respect, the more psychologically primitive. We hear about the successful "Texanisation" of the Republican party. And doesn't Texas sometimes seem to resemble a country like Saudi Arabia, with its great heat, its oil wealth, its brimming houses of worship, and its weekly executions?" (See also: "Fear and loathing" (Martin Amis, The Guardian, 2001/09/18))

"Ugly sentiments sting American tourists" (Marco R. della Cava, USA Today, 2003/03/04)
An article on European anti-Americanism: "If the past 100 years were widely considered the American Century, this new one is fast shaping up as the Anti-American Century.
Just ask tourist Colleen Frost, 33, who hopped into a cab recently on her first day in Berlin. An English-speaking driver demanded an explanation for what he called "America's megalomania."
"He wanted to know what I would think of my country if my brother or boyfriend was killed in a war," says Frost, a dental hygienist from Santa Fe. She says the ride was over before she could provide an answer for the disgruntled cabby. ...
From Spanish plazas to Parisian metros, American tourists are being quizzed, grilled and even spat on by people who do not approve of the Bush administration's drive for a war against Saddam Hussein. ...
"Man, it was bad," says the Rat Pack-y star of Swingers [Vince Vaughn] . "These girls saw us and were kind of flirting, and they kept asking us if we were American. Finally we said, 'Yes,' and they just took off.
'One girl turns and says, 'We were hoping you were Canadian.' Canadian? Since when was it cooler to be Canadian?'"

"Symposium: Islam, a Religion of Peace or War? Part I" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/03/04)
Not surprisingly a rather heated symposium. After a zillion terror attacks made by Islamist terrorists in the name of Islam, backed, financed or even openely cheered by many Muslims, the most interesting part is perhaps As'ad AbuKhalil's refusal to acknowledge any specific connection between current trends in Islam and terrorism. He is a "professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus, and adjunct professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley": "As for the question, people are equal around the world: and there are fanatics in every religion, and even among the secular humanists (a group to which I proudly belong). It is time that we recognize that each group and nation has its share of kooks, crazies, and terrorists, and that the fact should not be blamed on an entire religion, or people or culture. ... If we can agree that killing of innocent people is terrorism (that is my definition anyway) then Israel and Hamas have both engaged in terrorism, although Israel has killed far more innocent Palestinians than vice versa. Yet, never has Israeli killing of Palestinians (which receives no shortage of Jewish religious support by many in Israel, especially the religious fundamentalist parties which are ever present in every Israel cabinet) been described as "Jewish terrorism." Similarly, is the horrific terrorism of IRA "Catholic terrorism" or is it simply terrorism with no religious label?"

"Philippine terrorists claim link to Iraq" (Marc Lerner, The Washington Times, 2003/03/04)
"Islamist terrorists in the southern Philippines who have killed two American hostages in recent years say they are receiving money from Iraqis close to President Saddam Hussein. Hamsiraji Sali, a local commander of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf on the remote southern island of Basilan, says he is getting nearly $20,000 a year from supporters in Iraq.
"It's so we would have something to spend on chemicals for bomb-making and for the movement of our people," Sali told a reporter this week, renewing earlier claims of support from Iraq."

"North Korean jets lock on U.S. aircraft" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2003/03/04)
"North Korean fighter jets threatened an unarmed U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the East Sea/Sea of Japan on Sunday, increasing tensions about Pyongyang's nuclear arms and missile programs.
Two North Korean MiG-29s and two other jets, probably MiG-23s, armed with air-to-air missiles shadowed the Air Force RC-135 jet in international airspace before locking on the U.S. jet with targeting radar, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
The locked radar illumination is a step in preparing to fire a missile at the aircraft.
At the White House, a senior administration official said the incident was a "provocation" that will not be ignored. A formal protest to the 20-minute encounter is planned, the official said."

"Hamas co-founder nabbed in Gaza" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/03/04)
"Sheikh Muhammad Taha, 65, one of the co-founders of Hamas, was among six Hamas fugitives arrested by soldiers during a raid on the El-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Monday.
Three of his sons, Iman, 33, Hassan, 32, and Yasser, 30, who was Hamas fugitive Muhammad Dief's right-hand man, were also arrested.
One of the other fugitives was picked up while preparing a bomb. ...
Eight Palestinians were killed and 38 wounded, according to Palestinian sources. Those killed including a 13-year-old boy and Noha Sabri Sweidan, 37, who was pregnant. Sweidan was killed when her house collapsed when troops demolished her neighbor's home.
IDF officials said all the necessary precautions were taken to prevent civilians from being harmed, and that while they were unaware of the incident, the army would investigate."

"'We left out nuclear targets, for now'" (The Guardian, 2003/03/04)
An article on the only interview ever with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, found via Best of the Web Today:
"Yosri Fouda of the Arabic television channel al-Jazeera is the only journalist to have interviewed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaida military commander arrested at the weekend. Here he describes the two-day encounter with him and his fellow organiser of September 11, Ramzi bin al- Shibh: ...
"They say that you are terrorists," I surprised myself by blurting out. Calm and serene, Ramzi just offered an inviting smile. Khalid answered: "They are right. That is what we do for a living." Ramzi then said: "If terrorism is to throw terror into the heart of your enemy and the enemy of Allah then we thank Him, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, for enabling us to be terrorists." ...
Summoning every thread of experience and courage, I looked Khalid in the eye and asked: "Did you do it?" The reference to September 11 was implicit. Khalid responded with little fanfare: "I am the head of the al-Qaida military committee," he began, 'and Ramzi is the coordinator of the Holy Tuesday operation. And yes, we did it.'"

"Interrogation 'yields results'" (BBC News, 2003/03/04)
"Pakistan says the interrogation of the alleged senior al-Qaeda figure, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has begun to produce results.
Pakistan's interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, said the suspect is co-operating with interrogators and that his information is being acted upon.
He predicted there would be "significant developments" but gave no details."

Monday, March 3, 2003

News and commentary:

"How Free-Riding French, Germans Risk Nuclear Anarchy" (Stuart Taylor Jr., National Journal, 2003/04/03)
A must-read article, found via The Daily Dish: "Imagine President Bush responding as follows to the latest rebuffs from France, Germany, South Korea and others and to the stunning surge of anti-Americanism around the world:
"Enough. The American people are weary of holding the world's rogue regimes and barbarians at bay in the face of sneers and obstructionism from faithless 'allies' such as France, Germany and South Korea, who owe their freedom to America. ...
From this point forward, my policy will be to defend the United States and our true friends. We will pull our troops out of Germany, the Persian Gulf, and South Korea. We will disengage from NATO and the United Nations. I will urge Congress to invest the savings in airtight border controls and missile defense. And I will begin a crash program to end U.S. reliance on Persian Gulf oil." ...
How would the French, Germans, Arabs, South Koreans, Chinese and other America-bashers like that? It would be only a matter of time until Iraq or Iran, or both, took over the entire Persian Gulf region. That would send oil prices to unprecedented levels and drag European, Arab, African and Asian economies into recession or depression - and it would mean the bloody subjugation of the region's Arab peoples. Islamist terrorists, bent on destroying Western civilization, would find it far easier to attack targets in Europe than in the newly fortified United States. With North Korea's million-man army poised to sweep through Seoul and beyond, South Korea would face blackmail to unite on terms dictated by the North's Stalinist regime. China would soon find itself facing two nearby nuclear threats, as Japan would rapidly go nuclear to defend itself against North Korea."

"Hynde rages and rules at Warfield" (Tony Hicks, Contra Costa Times, 2003/03/03)
The lead singer of Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde, weighs in on the war on terror. She should try to rage and rule in Saudi Arabia for example: "'Have we gone to war yet?' she asked sarcastically, early on. "We (expletive) deserve to get bombed. Bring it on." Later she yelled, 'Let's get rid of all the economic (expletive) this country represents! Bring it on, I hope the Muslims win!'"

"The Other Imminent Danger" (Stanley Kurtz, National Review, 2003/03/03)
"Once North Korea processes weapons-grade plutonium and removes it from Yongbyon, that plutonium will be effectively hidden from spy satellites, inspectors, and military strikes. At that point, North Korea will be free, not only to construct more nuclear weapons, but to sell weapons-grade nuclear material to al Qaeda, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, and anyone else who will pay for it.
Continuation of this situation will be catastrophic for the United States. In the short term, North Korean sales of plutonium would lead to dirty bombs in American cities, rendering sections of Washington or New York uninhabitable for generations. In the medium term, plutonium sales will doubtless lead to full-scale nuclear blasts, set off by terrorists, in American cities. These will kill hundreds of thousands, even millions of Americans. Full-scale nuclear arms proliferation to rogue nations will also lead to yet more nuclear blackmail, of the type being practiced by Korea right now. In effect, America's conventional military might will be neutralized, and Saddam-like regional adventurers will become a constant threat. In short, if we overthrow Saddam, while still letting North Korea turn itself into a worldwide engine of nuclear proliferation, then we will have lost the war on terror."

"Five Vital Lessons From Iraq" (Paul Johnson, Forbes, from the 2003/03/17 issue)
"• Lesson I. We have been reminded that France is not to be trusted at any time, on any issue. The British have learned this over 1,000 years of acrimonious history, but it still comes as a shock to see how badly the French can behave, with their unique mixture of shortsighted selfishness, long-term irresponsibility, impudent humbug and sheer malice. ...
What the Americans and British now have to decide is whether formal alliances that include France as a major partner are worth anything at all, or if they are an actual encumbrance in times of danger.
We also have to decide whether France should be allowed to remain as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, with veto power, or whether it should be replaced by a more suitable power, such as India. ...
• Lesson III. The assumption, in many minds, seems to be that whereas individual powers act on the world stage according to the brutal rules of realpolitik, the U.N. represents legitimacy and projects an aura of idealism. In fact, more than half a century of experience shows that the U.N. is a theater of hypocrisy, a sink of corruption, a street market of sordid bargains and a seminary of cynicism. It is a place where mass-murdering heads of state can stand tall and sell their votes to the highest bidder and where crimes against humanity are rewarded. ...
Looking back on the last year, it is clear the U.S. should not have accepted Britain's argument that, on balance, the U.N. route was the safest road to a regime change in Iraq. In fact, going this way has done a lot of damage to U.S. (and British) interests and has given Russia, China and other powers the opportunity to drive hard bargains. President Bush should soon make it clear that, where his country's vital interests are concerned, the U.S. reserves the right to act independently, together with such friends as share those interests."

"Law, and conscience, demand we go to war" (William Rees-Mogg, The Times, 2003/03/03)
Rees-Mogg on last Wednesday's parliamentary debates: "Lady Nicholson asserted that "the duty on state parties to the genocide convention is to stop the genocide and to punish those engaged in this ethnic mass murder. If the Security Council cannot be persuaded to act, an operation should be mounted by any signatory to the convention to secure the perpetrators and bring them to trial ... Has genocide been committed against the Marsh Arabs? Yes; then action is imperative." ...
Ann Clwyd's speech destroyed the argument that Saddam Hussein belongs only to the junior league of genocidal tyrants. She pointed out that, before 1991, the victims already included "Arabs as well as Kurds. They include Assyrians, Turkomans and the Shias in the south". She referred to the evidence of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as the "documents from the torture centre" captured by the Kurds. On her latest visit she had opened, on Kurdish territory, the first genocide museum in Iraq. ...
In international law, the most important point came from Lord Goodhart, even though he spoke on the wrong side. International law was doubtful at the time of Kosovo, and some of the facts were doubtful too. But sovereignty now no longer gives a national government the right, without intervention, to commit genocide against its own people. That is the logical response to the careers of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and the other genocidal leaders of the past century. Change of regime in Iraq is not an optional add-on to the enforcement of UN resolutions on disarmament. It is a duty owed by the international community to the Iraqi people." (See also Ann Clwyd's speech: "In 1991, I stood at the Opposition Dispatch Box..." (The United Kingdom Parliament, 2003/02/26))

"The BBC has become an open opponent of America's policies" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/03/03)
"But if the ordinary BBC news service has departed from any pretence of objectivity, the very bottom rung is occupied by the BBC Arabic Service, funded by the Foreign Office, which is to say the British taxpayer. ...The BBC Arabic Service appears to rule out any criticism of Arab leaders or their regimes. Apart from some cryptic and occasional references in news reports, there is no critical discussion and analysis of public policy issues such as human rights, health, housing and illiteracy. There is no discussion of government priorities, government corruption or the activities of the security forces and police. When Saddam Hussein was "re-elected" with a 100 per cent vote, the election was reported as if it were a perfectly normal exercise in democracy. ...
On the other hand, there is no shortage of detailed reports about failings of Western systems. There have been lengthy programmes on Palestinians held without trial in Israel, Muslims held by America in Guantanamo Bay and British treatment of asylum seekers. These may be appropriate topics for the Arabic Service, but not in the context of silence about related issues in the Arab world. ...
One may disagree with a point of view, but that is not the complaint here.
The complaint against the BBC's Arabic Service is that, in its news analysis, it has abandoned the normal traditions of Western journalism and is embarking on exactly the same exercise as the controlled press in Arabic dictatorships, except it does so under the imprimatur of the BBC and at the expense of the British taxpayer."

"The Guardian for murder" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/03/03)
"How else to describe this puff piece about a Welsh woman who supports suicide bombings? I've now read the piece several times to see if there is any irony involved. There isn't. The headline? "Welsh pensioner turns freedom fighter: Ex-bank manager defends Palestinian suicide bombers." "Freedom-fighter"? Someone who supports people who deliberately kill innocent civilians? The hatred of Israel and of Israelis is now reaching pathological proportions on the British left. If the hysteria continues, it will be at brownshirt levels soon." (See also: "Welsh pensioner turns freedom fighter" (Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 2003/03/01): "'I really, really understand the martyrs [suicide bombers]. I am very good friends with the family of the two who went on the mission to Tel Aviv. One saw the other explode, and then he walked away and blew himself up. They are such lovely families and very proud of their sons.'" Also: "I would say this is beyond belief..." (Stephen Pollard, stephenpollard.net, 2003/03/01): "Anne Gwynne, the woman concerned, may be beyond redemption as a civilised human being - she thinks the murder of twenty-three people in Tel Aviv in January was right in principle, and was merely "a strategic mistake" - but the Guardian's behaviour is in some ways still more reprehensible. Ms Gwynne's evil views are not merely presented without criticism or proper questioning; they are endorsed. And that is, in its own way, also evil.")

"Organizers of Antiwar Movement Plan to Go Beyond Protests" (Glenn Frankel, The Washington Post, 2003/03/03)
"More than 120 activists from 28 countries emerged from an all-day strategy session here this weekend with plans not just to protest a prospective U.S.-led war against Iraq but to prevent it from happening. They want to intensify political pressure on the Bush administration's closest allies - the leaders of Britain, Italy and Spain - and force them to withdraw their support, leaving the United States, if it chooses to fight, to go it alone. And they intend to further disrupt war plans with acts of civil disobedience against U.S. military bases, supply depots and transports throughout Europe."

"Terrorists aim at Pearl Harbor" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2003/03/03)
"Terrorists linked to al Qaeda have targeted U.S. military facilities in Pearl Harbor, including nuclear-powered submarines and ships, The Washington Times has learned. Intelligence reports about the terrorist threat to the Hawaiian harbor bombed by the Japanese in World War II were sent to senior U.S. officials in the past two weeks and coincided with reports of the planning of a major attack by Osama bin Laden's terrorist group. ...
The attacks would be carried out by hijacked airliners from nearby Honolulu International Airport that would be flown into submarines or ships docked at Pearl Harbor in suicide missions, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

"Algerians Give Chirac a Warm Welcome&quo