Archived news and commentary: June 2 - 8, 2003

2003/06/23 - 2003/06/29
2003/06/16 - 2003/06/22
2003/06/09 - 2003/06/15
2003/06/02 - 2003/06/08
2003/05/26 - 2003/06/01
2003/05/19 - 2003/05/25
2003/05/12 - 2003/05/18
2003/05/05 - 2003/05/11
2003/04/28 - 2003/05/04
2003/04/21 - 2003/04/27
2003/04/14 - 2003/04/20
2003/04/07 - 2003/04/13
2003/03/31 - 2003/04/06

Sunday, June 8, 2003

News and commentary:

"Ten dead in bloodiest day since Aqaba summit" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/06/08)
"Five Israelis and five Palestinians were killed Sunday in two Palestinian-initiated attacks on Israeli targets in, the first at an IDF post near the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip, and later at the Machpela Cave in Hebron on the West Bank.
Four IDF soldiers were killed and four were wounded early Sunday after three Palestinian terrorists disguised as Israeli soldiers infiltrated an IDF outpost near the Erez checkpoint in the Gaza Strip. ...
The Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Hamas issued a joint statement claiming responsibility for the attack.
A leaflet gave the names of the gunmen, all in their early 20s, one from each group.
"This joint operation was committed to confirm our people's united choice of holy war and resistance until the end of occupation over our land and holy places," the leaflet said."

"Famine-struck N Koreans 'eating children'" (Mark Nicol, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/06/08)
"Cannibalism is increasing in North Korea following another poor harvest and a big cut in international food aid, according to refugees who have fled the stricken country.
Aid agencies are alarmed by refugees' reports that children have been killed and corpses cut up by people desperate for food. Requests by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to be allowed access to "farmers' markets", where human meat is said to be traded, have been turned down by Pyongyang, citing "security reasons".
Anyone caught selling human meat faces execution, but in a report compiled by the North Korean Refugees Assistance Fund (NKRAF), one refugee said: 'Pieces of 'special' meat are displayed on straw mats for sale. People know where they came from, but they don't talk about it.'"

"Mosque football team was terrorists' cover" (Inigo Gilmore, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/06/10)
"Eight Palestinian footballers who played for a team from their local mosque in Hebron have killed 34 Israelis and injured scores of others in a series of suicide attacks during the past two months.
In the deadliest incident, a bus-bombing in Haifa in March, a midfield player, Mahmoud Hamdan Qawasmeh, killed 16 Israelis. Last month eight people died in the most recent attack carried out by a member of the Jihad Mosque XI, who blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem.
The three remaining players have been arrested by the Israeli authorities. ...
For months after the Hebron footballers were recruited by Hamas, they aroused little suspicion. They were renowned as fierce opponents, but no one anticipated just how deadly they would prove off the field. Only after the eighth player blew himself up in Jerusalem did Israeli intelligence officers wake up to the fact that the Jihad Mosque XI was no ordinary side."

"Use of nukes forbidden by Islam: Iran foreign minister" (AFP/HindustanTimes.com, 2003/06/08)
"The use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons is "haram," or strictly forbidden by Islam, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said on Sunday in the strongest rejection yet of allegations that the Islamic republic is seeking to develop atomic weapons.
"We consider using biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as an act of haram," Kharazi told MPs in a parliamentary question session focussed on international tensions surrounding Iran's atomic programme.
"We have no nuclear weapons programme and we have said this frankly and clearly so many times. We have a security doctrine that is without nuclear weapons. We only use nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes," Kharazi said."

"The British wrest defeat from the jaws of victory" (Mark Steyn, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/06/08)
"I had a weird experience a few days ago. I flew from the Middle East to North America. In Iraq, 95 per cent of the people I met told me they were happy to be liberated and regretted only that various disappeared loved ones weren't around to see it. ...
But, en route from east to west, I briefly touched down in the strange area known as "Europe", where possibly due to a freak electrical storm or some other phenomenon the people of Britain appeared to be in the fevered grip of some mass psychosis, perhaps a variant of Sars (Sudden Alternative Reality Syndrome). Peter Worthington, the Canadian columnist and veteran of the Second World War and Korea, likes to say that there is no such thing as an unpopular won war. Tell it to Downing Street. If I understand correctly, the British, having won the war, are now demanding a recount. Across the length and breadth of the realm, the people are as one: now that the war's out of the way we can go back to bitching and whining that Blair hasn't made the case for it."

"How Bush will control Sharon" (Stephen Pollard, The Sunday Telegraph/stephenpollard.net, 2003/06/08)
"How frustrating life must be for George W Bush's critics. First, their gloom-laden prophesies over the Iraq war turned out to be so much wishful thinking. Now they are faced with a still more annoying turn of events; the "road map" in the Middle East, which was dismissed as a worthless political stunt when it was first revealed by President Bush in March, now turns out to be decidedly real.
Reaction to last week's meeting in Jordan between the President, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas has varied from shock that the allegedly moronic, gun-toting Texan hick could stir himself to fly over, to a knowing derision that it is all no more than hot air.
The truth is rather different. Since September 11, 2001, Mr Bush has been obsessed with the Middle East. Specifically, he is obsessed with extending the "benefits of freedom", as his National Security Strategy puts it, to "every corner of the world". The road map is simply one prong of the Bush vision for the entire Middle East, as spelt out in the seminal "axis of evil" speech in January 2002. Take on the terror states like Iraq and Afghanistan; end the support for global terror from Iran and Syria; and guarantee the rule of order throughout the region so that prosperity can take root. And that includes Israel and the Palestinians."

"Iraq Had Secret Labs, Officer Says" (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, 2003/06/08)
"Saddam Hussein's intelligence services set up a network of clandestine cells and small laboratories after 1996 with the goal of someday rebuilding illicit chemical and biological weapons, according to a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer.
The officer, who held the rank of brigadier general, said each closely guarded weapons team had three or four scientists and other experts who were unknown to U.N. inspectors. He said they worked on computers and conducted crude experiments in bunkers and back rooms in safe houses around Baghdad.
He insisted they did not produce any illegal arms and that none now exist in Iraq. But he said the teams met regularly and put plans on paper to quickly develop weapons of mass destruction if U.N. sanctions against Iraq were lifted.
"We could start again anytime," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he fears for his life. "It's very easy. Especially biological."
"The point was, the Iraqis kept the knowledge," he explained during a lengthy interview Friday in which he offered tantalizing details of secret programs. But U.S. weapons hunters 'will never find anything here. Only oil.'"

"And then the cry went up: 'Where are the French?'" (James Astill, The Observer, 2003/06/08)
When the U.N. and the French are in charge. A report from the "bullet-riddled town of Bunia in the Congo": "In a virtual re-run of the battle for Bunia last month - when 700 UN peacekeepers stood by as hundreds of civilians were massacred, and 25,000 fled - the French troops remained at their airport barracks, without orders or capacity to intervene. ...
Sprawling on the concrete floors, over 50 Western journalists cowered as bullets thudded into the walls and mortars exploded outside. Having flocked to Bunia in the expectation of seeing a triumphant French intervention, they found themselves depending on Bunia's humiliated Uruguayan UN peacekeepers, who fired not a round in return yesterday. ...
As the Lendus advanced on the compound, the UPC counter-attacked, firing over the cowering fugitives, journalists and peacekeepers in thunderous hour-long bursts studded by inexplicable moments of calm. 'Where are the French?' asked one blue-helmeted Uruguayan."

"Most Iraqi Treasures Recovered" (William Booth, The Washington Post, 2003/06/08)
"Reports describing the looting of Iraq's archaeological treasures from the national museum were exaggerated, and most of the precious inscribed tablets, gold jewelry and artwork dating from the birth of civilization have been recovered, a team of U.S. investigators said today. ...
Initial estimates after the war ended in April suggested that as many as 170,000 pieces, including the Nimrud treasures, were lost or stolen during the sacking of the museum, according to U.S. officials. They now say 3,000 pieces remain unaccounted for and may have disappeared into the shadowy world of black market antiquities trading."

Saturday, June 7, 2003

News and commentary:

"Phoney friends are a big step up from real suicide bombers" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/06/07)
"Ten miles away, Palestinian schools were in the midst of a national letter-writing competition. Among the education ministry's first-prize winners was 12-year-old Mahmoud Naji Chalilah for his effortless mastery of West Bank death-cultism:
"My heart has turned into a sad block of pain. One day I will buy a weapon and I will blow away the fetters. I will propel my living-dead body into your arms…"
Hmm. Prize-winning it may be, but I don't think that's the kind of talk they want to hear at the Marriott. Jordan has an economy and a tourism business, and therefore at least as much interest as Israel in ensuring that the peculiar psychosis of Arafat's squat is contained within its present borders. ...
Last Sunday, ol' Yasser met up with a bunch of photogenic little tykes in Ramallah to mark International Children's Day and told them he hoped they'd become shahid and die for the cause, because every one who dies to liberate Jerusalem is equivalent to 40 dead among the enemy. About the only aesthetically pleasing sight on the West Bank is the Palestinian kids, who must be among the cutest looking in the world. But I guess nothing swells the parental breast like the sound of Junior self-detonating." (See also: "Children's letters in the Palestinian Authority" (Itamar Marcus, PMW/IMRA, 2003/06/01) and "Arafat tells kids to die on Int'l Children's Day" (Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 2003/06/01))

"Triple murderer granted 42 paroles" (TV4/Watch, 2003/06/06 [2003/06/07])
Meanwhile, Sweden's most dangerous criminal - a sadistic triple murderer - is permitted to move freely in the community as he studies to become a recreation leader for kids. Translation of an article originally published in Swedish: "He is considered one of the country's most dangerous criminals after three brutal murders - but has despite that had a large number of unsupervised paroles from the psychiatric clinic of Karsudden.
Now both relatives to the victims and the police who investigated the case are protesting.
The 28 year old triple murderer was sentenced to confinement in an institution for the criminally insane 1998, after which he has been in the care of Karsudden's Hospital outside Katrineholm.
Despite being considered one of the most dangerous criminals in the country he has had 42 non-supervised leaves over the years.
Carin's son David was 22 years old and his girlfriend 21 when they were brytally murdered in their apartment outside Stockholm. The murderer, then 23 years old, was an acquaintance of them.
During the investigation of the double murder the 23 year old man also confessed to the murder of an old-age pensioner.
The now 28 year old triple murderer has not been able to give explanations of the murders.
Today the triple murderer is considered healthy enough to be continually granted unsupervised leaves in order to undergo education as a recreation leader." (See also: "Murdered because of their love for each other" (Anders Fallenius, Expressen/Watch, 2003/06/06 [2003/06/07]): "A 23 year old man was jealous of their love for each other. Therefore he murdered the couple and cut the throat of their dog. Four and a half years later the triple murderer moves freely in the community. ... The murderer used five different tools - two knives, a hammer, a crowbar and a heavy club. There were more than 200 injuries on the bodies of Harriet and David. She had also had her eyes cut to pieces. After the murders the murderer dragged the bodies into the bathroom, arranging them in the form of a cross.")

"Six die in Kabul bus bombing" (CNN.com, 2003/06/07)
"As many as six people were killed Saturday - including three German peacekeepers - in an apparent suicide attack on a bus near Kabul, Afghanistan.
A news release from U.S. Central Command said 36 people - including eight members of the International Security Assistance Force - were injured in the blast, which was set off when the suicide bomber's vehicle approached the bus and detonated.
The bus was traveling near the Afghan National Army training facility in Kabul around 8:30 a.m. local time (midnight ET), when the explosion knocked the bus off the side of the road.
Soon after the explosion, dozens of German peacekeepers formed a cordon around the street, not allowing any vehicles past. Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with bits of metal strewn around."

"Saddam's Surgeons: First, Do Harm" (Maryam Elahi and Adam Kushner, The Washington Post Outlook, from the 2003/06/08 issue)
"For most people, it's unimaginable to think of physicians assuming the role of torturers and executioners. Yet under Saddam Hussein this is what took place. Whether the complicity was forced or voluntary, physicians participated for years in the state's apparatus of cruelty and terror. As researchers for Physicians for Human Rights in Iraq, we spoke to many doctors who reported on complicity in these heinous acts. The state wanted them to have "dirty hands," said one senior surgeon, who told us that they acted on a government mandate ordering all surgeons to participate in cutting off the ears and branding the foreheads of army deserters. In one hospital, all surgeons -- general, orthopedic, plastic, cardiac and neurosurgeons -- were reportedly required to perform the mutilation. ...
According to a 1994 decree, surgeons who refused to engage in state-sponsored torture would have their own ears cut and be branded, and if they sought plastic surgery, the plastic surgeon would be executed. In one hospital we visited, virtually all senior surgeons complied. We spoke to one surgeon who had hidden in a closet for an entire day to avoid the act. He knew of many others who had been haunted by the practice and suffered greatly. Many, deeply traumatized, quit their medical practices."

"A Plot to Deceive?" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post Outlook, from the 2003/06/08 issue)
"There is something surreal about the charges flying that President Bush lied when he said that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. In Europe, and especially in Britain, where Tony Blair is also under fire, the idea has actually taken hold that the charge against Iraq was a complete fabrication.
The absurdity of these accusations is mind-boggling. Start with this: The Iraqi government in the 1990s admitted to U.N. weapons inspectors that it had produced 8,500 liters of anthrax, as well as a few tons of the nerve agent VX. Where are they? U.N. weapons inspectors have been trying to answer that question for a decade. Because Hussein's regime refused to answer, the logical presumption was that they had to be somewhere still in Iraq. ...
Today they are unaccounted for. But the answer to the continuing conundrum is not that Bush and Blair are lying. The weapons were there. Someday we'll find them, or we'll find out what happened to them.
Unless, of course, you like your conspiracies to be as broad and all-pervasive as possible.
So maybe Bush and Blair are lying, but if so they're not alone. There must be a vast conspiratorial network of liars. Blix and the U.N. weapons inspectors must be lying, too, of course. But the conspiracy doesn't stop there. ...
If you like a good conspiracy, this one's a doozy. The best thing about it is that, if all these people are lying, there's only one person who ever told the truth: Saddam Hussein. And now we can't find him either."

"Terrorism and Other 'Scholarly Pursuits'" (David Tell, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/06/16 issue)
The American Association of University Professors is set to blacklist the University of South Florida for firing Prof. Sami Al-Arian: "Where his personal liberty or imprisonment is concerned, the first part of this judgment, that Sami Al-Arian is for all intents and purposes a serial murderer, ultimately remains - the AAUP is right - for the courts to confirm. But the second part - that Al-Arian's murderous conspiracy, throughout the 17-plus years he taught at the University of South Florida, involved an assault on American higher education more than severe enough to justify banishment from academic life - ought to be instantaneous, we think. What's the wait?
Sami Al-Arian and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, his indictment reminds us, "utilized the University of South Florida ... as an institution where some of their members could receive cover as teachers or students." Al-Arian used the USF faculty credit union to launder and transfer thousands of dollars ultimately intended for the benefit of Islamic Jihad suicide bombers. From USF-sponsored property, Al-Arian helped broadcast public boasts about the 1995 killing of an American college student then visiting Israel. Under USF auspices, in short, Sami Al-Arian acted secretly, for years on end, in the interests of a foreign entity claiming possession of a truth so vast and complete as to justify the wholesale murder of innocents." (See also: "Al-Arian Nation" (David Tell, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/03/10 issue) "Profs Duped by Sami Al-Arian" (Martin Kramer, Sandstorm, 2003/02/21))

"Seeds of Hate in Saudi Arabia" (David A. Harris, The Washington Post, 2003/06/07)
"A study, co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education books used in grades 1 through 10 reveals that Saudi children are taught intolerance and contempt for the West, Christians and Jews in subjects ranging from literature to math. ...
Teaching hatred is reprehensible under any circumstances. It is especially alarming when it forms an integral part of the school curriculum in a country long viewed as a close friend of the United States and regarded as the center of the Muslim world. ...
As long as Saudi youth are essentially brainwashed to hate others, truly amicable relations between Saudis and the West will be hard to maintain. Moreover, Saudi schoolbooks and curriculums are actively exported to other Arab and Muslim countries, where Saudi largess funds many schools. Indeed, many Muslim schools in the United States have been built and staffed with Saudi money, opening the door to the spreading of Saudi-sponsored hate on American soil. Probing which of the books published in Saudi Arabia might also be used here in the United States is vital." (See also: "The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks" (The American Jewish Committe. 2003/02/04))

"Some Analysts of Iraq Trailers Reject Germ Use" (Judith Miller and William J. Broad, The New York Times, 2003/06/07)
"American and British intelligence analysts with direct access to the evidence are disputing claims that the mysterious trailers found in Iraq were for making deadly germs. In interviews over the last week, they said the mobile units were more likely intended for other purposes and charged that the evaluation process had been damaged by a rush to judgment.
"Everyone has wanted to find the 'smoking gun' so much that they may have wanted to have reached this conclusion," said one intelligence expert who has seen the trailers and, like some others, spoke on condition that he not be identified. He added, 'I am very upset with the process.'"

Friday, June 6, 2003

News and commentary:

"Sept. Report Couldn't Locate Iraq Weapons" (Robert Burns, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/06/06)
"The Defense Intelligence Agency last fall could not pin down the location of any chemical weapons facilities in Iraq but had no doubt about the existence of programs designed to produce chemical and other weapons of mass destruction, the DIA's director said Friday.
Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, the agency's director, said news reports about excepts from a September 2002 DIA report should not be interpreted as meaning his agency doubted that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction program.
But he acknowledged that at that time the DIA could not find chemical weapons facilities.
"We could not specifically pin down individual facilities operating as part of the weapons of mass destruction program, specifically the chemical warfare portion," Jacoby said at a joint news conference with Sen. John Warner , R-Va., and Stephen Cambone, the Pentagon 's intelligence chief."

"Hamas Won't Join Truce Talks With Abbas" (Ibrahim Hazbound, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/06/06)
"A senior Hamas official said Friday the militant group was breaking off cease-fire talks with the Palestinians, a surprise reversal that threw into doubt a key component of a Mideast peace plan.
The official, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, spoke just hours after Israeli troops killed two Hamas activists in an arrest raid in the West Bank.
A Hamas refusal to negotiate could force Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to make a difficult choice: either crack down on the group and risk a civil war, or allow it to continue bombing and shooting attacks that would derail Washington's peace efforts."

"They Are Only Unveiling Their Hatred of Islam" (Halah Al-Nasir, Arab News, 2003/06/06)
Found via James Taranto, who notes that this comes "from a country that prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam, and where religious police beat women who show a hint of ankle": "An American citizen, Sultanna Freeman, is raising the issue in America in her legal battle against officials from the state of Florida because the state refuses to give her a driver’s license unless she reveals her face for the photograph. She committed herself to wearing hijab after converting to Islam. ...
It is certain that many Westerners who fight hijab are not fighting because it is a piece of cloth that covers the hair but because it is an Islamic symbol that many Muslim women would like to hold on to. That will enrage those who hate Islam. Islam is a religion for all and it is not restricted to certain people or certain areas. Islam preserved the rights of people who believe in other religions and guaranteed their rights to practice their religious tradition." (See also: "Trial begins over veil in license photo" (UPI, 2003/05/27))

"Freeman loses veil lawsuit" (Newsday.com, 2003/06/06)
"An judge sided with the state of Florida on Friday and ruled a Muslim woman, Sultaana Freeman, cannot wear a veil in a driver's license photo. ...
"She's not lifting the veil,'' Abdul-Maalik Freeman said. "This is a religious principle, this is a principle that's imbedded in us as believers. So, she's not going to do that.
"We'll take the next step, and this is what we call the American Way.''
Attorney Howard Marks said the ruling would be appealed.
"It's really a sad day for Americans,'' Marks said. "Hopefull, we'll look back at decisions like this in the future and realize this was a mistake.'' ...
During the hearing, Freeman conceded that she has had her face photographed without a veil since she started wearing one in 1997. She had a mug shot taken after her arrest in 1998 on a domestic battery charge involving one of twin 3-year-old sisters who were in her foster care. The children were removed from her home, according to records from the Decatur (Ill.) Police Services.
Child welfare workers told investigators in Decatur that Freeman and her husband had used their concerns about religious modesty to hinder them from looking for bruises on the girls, according to the Decatur Police records." (See also: "Trial begins over veil in license photo" (UPI, 2003/05/27))

"The Old Game" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2003/06/06)
"The U.N. — its elite housed in New York, its membership often undemocratic, its budget inflated — was a real gamer as well, damning this as Zionist, that as imperialist, all the while asking the United States to pay for being a fat target. The world's intellectuals, writers, and journalists were expert players.
Unfortunately, two strange events transpired that should not have, undoing all the old rules. On September 11, 2001, 3,000 Americans were murdered en masse at a time of peace — in our planes, in our most iconic buildings, and at the center of American military power. And worse still for terrorists, faux-allies, and triangulators, our president was a Texan inexperienced with the game's nuances — not a liberal Democrat who wanted to be liked abroad or a seasoned Republican congressional alumnus who wanted to preserve the old rules. Stranger still, President Bush surrounded himself with a different kind of person — the kind who, in a crisis, offers one reason why we should act, rather than 1,000 excuses why we should not.
And so, all bets are off. Bases, alliances, institutions, friendships, immigration policy, easily duped Americans — nothing can be taken for granted anymore.
The board has been abruptly wiped clean. The game's up."

"Blair and Bush Aren't that Stupid" (Max Boot, Los Angeles Times/The Weekly Standard, 2003/06/06)
"Not able to forgive George W. Bush and Tony Blair for being right, the naysayers are now emphasizing what looks to be their strongest argument: the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction. The European press is in a frenzy about the "lies" that led to war. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is already suggesting this may be "the worst scandal in American political history."
Those who make this argument must think that the U.S. and British governments are not only deeply venal but also stupid. Their theory, essentially, is this: The president and prime minister deliberately lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to justify an invasion that they knew would show that no such weapons existed."

"Shades of Oslo" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2003/06/06)
"What then happened at Aqaba? Israel bought the same rug a second time. In 1993, it bought supposed recognition, a supposed end to violence and a supposed end to incitement by recognizing the PLO, bringing Arafat and his terrorists out of Tunis, planting them in the heart of Palestine, giving them control of all the major Palestinian cities, outfitting his army with Israeli rifles, etc.
In 2003 the rug was sold again, this time fetching Israeli acceptance of a Palestinian state with contiguous borders in which Israeli settlements are uprooted. This might be the outline of the final settlement. But these were concessions given away before the negotiations even began.
The unilateral surrender of Israel continues.
Now, forcing the unilateral surrender of Israel might be a policy, if it promised peace. But the first round of unilateral concessions, from 1993 to 2000, yielded nothing but the establishment of a terror base in Palestine - a "Trojan horse," as Faisal Husseini called it, from which the bloodiest Palestinian violence has been launched."

"America's Doubters in Beirut" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2003/06/06)
A report from the American University of Beirut: "The degree of cynicism among students is frightening. We began talking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, and nearly every student expressed doubt that Osama bin Laden's suicide bombers had really toppled the twin towers. "It was a play to make it look like the Arabs did it," said a young woman named Natalia.
When I asked the students how they could believe such conspiratorial nonsense even though they had seen the buildings collapse on television, they shouted out alternative theories. "The tape was altered," said one. "Technically those two buildings couldn't have collapsed unless there were bombs set at the bottom," insisted another. "How could someone in a cave in Afghanistan have done all that?" asked a third.
"It's your fault!" argued one young woman in a ponytail. 'Your movies have taught us that any image can be manipulated.'"

"Moscow to keep helping Tehran" (David R. Sands, The Washington Times, 2003/06/06)
"Moscow vowed yesterday to continue its nuclear assistance to Iran even if Tehran rejects the tougher international inspections demanded by the United States, as a senior foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin brushed aside U.S. criticisms of the Russian program. ...
Mr. Yakovenko said Russia will require Iran to sign a bilateral accord to return all spent nuclear fuel - which could be used to produce the plutonium for nuclear bombs - from the joint program to Russia.
But Moscow has no plans to terminate its $800 million contract to build a light-water reactor at the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr, he said, despite sharp U.S. criticisms." (See also: "The road to a nuclear Iran" (Caroline B. Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/05/23))

"France arrests al-Qaeda suspects" (BBC News, 2003/06/06)
"Two suspected al-Qaeda militants have been arrested at France's main airport in recent days, French officials say.
Karim Mehdi, a Moroccan national, was taken into custody at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris on Sunday.
Investigators believe he is linked to al-Qaeda militants based in Germany who planned the attacks on New York and Washington.
The second suspect, Christian Ganczarski of Germany, was arrested on Monday. ...
Officials say Mr Mehdi, 34, had arrived from Germany and was travelling to the French island of La Reunion, in the Indian Ocean, when he was arrested.
The sources say he was planning an attack a tourist resort there."

Thursday, June 5, 2003

News and commentary:

"Belgium Detains Iraqi Man in Toxic Letters Case" (Gilles Castonguay, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/06/05)
"Belgian police said Thursday they detained an Iraqi man after letters containing a nerve-gas ingredient were sent to the prime minister's office, the U.S. and British embassies and a court trying al Qaeda suspects.
Police detained the 45-year-old suspect late Wednesday in the western Belgian town of Deinze, the head of police investigation, Glenn Audenaert, said.
Twenty people, including postal workers and police officers, had to go briefly to hospitals after being exposed to the chemicals in the 10 letters sent earlier in the week.
Among them were five officers at the Brussels police headquarters who were leafing through documents taken from the suspect's home." (See also: "Belgium Finds Nerve Gas Ingredient in Letters" (Gilles Castonguay, Reuters, 2003/06/04))

"Bush's Critics Meet the Logic Police" (Keith Burgess-Jackson, Tech Central Station, 2003/06/05)
Burgess-Jackson is Associate Professor of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Arlington: "Third, suppose President Bush in fact had no reputable motive in going to war. Suppose he had only disreputable motives, such as defending his daddy's honor. Does this show that the war is unjustified, morally speaking? Again, the answer is no. Justification is objective; motivation is subjective. The war can be justified as an act of self-defense or liberation of a people (to name just two of many justifications) even if the person waging the war doesn't understand it in those terms - even if he or she doesn't view those as justifications. For consider: Either there is a justification for the war (objectively speaking) or there is not. If there is, then it doesn't matter what motivated President Bush. If there isn't, then it doesn't matter what motivated President Bush. Either way, it doesn't matter what motivated President Bush." (Note: Found via Best of the Web Today.)

"Top U.N. weapon cautions on conclusions" (William M. Reilly, UPI, 2003/06/05)
"Blix said the commission, which worked in Iraq from Nov. 27 to March 18, the eve of coalition-initiated hostilities, had found no evidence of the continuation or resumption of programs of weapons of mass destruction or significant quantities of proscribed items, such as biological or chemical ingredients.
"As I have noted before, this does not necessarily mean that such items could not exist," he said. 'They might - there remain long lists of items unaccounted for - but it is not justified to jump to the conclusion that something exists just because it is unaccounted for.'"

"Kingdom's Leading Executioner Says: 'I Lead a Normal Life'" (Mahmoud Ahmad, Arab News, 2003/06/05)
"Saudi Arabia's leading executioner Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi will behead up to seven people in a day.
"It doesn't matter to me: Two, four, 10 — As long as I'm doing God's will, it doesn't matter how many people I execute," he told Okaz newspaper in an interview. ...
His first job came in 1998 in Jeddah. "The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled meters away." Of course he was nervous, then, he says, as many people were watching, but now stage fright is a thing of the past. ...
An executioner's life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be amputation of hands and legs. "I use a special sharp knife, not a sword," he explains. "When I cut off a hand I cut it from the joint. If it is a leg the authorities specify where it is to be taken off, so I follow that."
Al-Beshi describes himself as a family man. Married before he became an executioner, his wife did not object to his chosen profession. "She only asked me to think carefully before committing myself," he recalls. "But I don't think she's afraid of me," he smiles. 'I deal with my family with kindness and love. They aren't afraid when I come back from an execution. Sometimes they help me clean my sword.'"

"Arab sermons: O Lord, deal with your enemies... Americans, British... kill them one by one" (IMRA, 2003/06/05)
"Sanaa Republic of Yemen Television in Arabic, official television station of the Republic of Yemen, carries at 0910 GMT a live sermon from the Grand Mosque in Sanaa. Shaykh Ahmad Abd-al-Razzaq al-Ruqayhi delivers the sermon, in which he urges worshippers to ponder their daily actions and seek God's pardon and mercy for their sins. ...
The imam concludes with a prayer to God to deal with the "tyrannical enemies." He prays: "O Lord, Support whoever supports religion and humble whoever humbles Muslims. O Lord, deal with your enemies, the enemies of religion, including infidels, atheists, Americans, British, and others. Shake the land under their feet, kill them one by one and leave no one alive."

"Pravda's Wolfowitz Whopper - Even Worse than the Guardian's!" (Gregory, The Belgravia Dispatch, 2003/06/05)
"So the Guardian has pulled and corrected the grossly distorted Wolfowitz story the Belgravia Dispatch broke here.
But the damage has already been done. The story has spread to a variety of media outlets and not only the predictable precincts like Socialist sites and the like but also more mainstream outlets. Check out the Asia Times, a leading Beirut-based paper, or John Dean (remember him?). ...
Pravda went even further than the Guardian seemingly creating new quotes wholesale to further juice up the story. My Russian is very rudimentary, so Russian speakers chime in if I've got this wrong (though I've checked it with a fluent speaker who teaches British diplomats Russian), but after using the Guardian's (mis)quotes, Pravda has Paul Wolfowitz concluding: 'We are not as much interested in controlling the WMD as we are in controlling the oil.'" (UPDATE: Pravda has an English version of the article: "Speak the Truth and Shame the Devil" (Pravda, 2003/06/06): "The deputy defense secretary said that the American administration had no choice in Iraq from the economic point of view, since the country is swimming in oil. Furthermore, Wolfowitz added that American officials were interested in controlling oil, not in weapons of mass destruction." See also: "Corrections and clarifications" (The Guardian, 2003/06/05) and "Gross Distortion at the Guardian" (Gregory, The Belgravia Dispatch, 2003/06/04))

"Iraq: what must be done now" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2003/06/07 issue)
"Freedom is more than a free vote. Britain is defined not by the one day in five years that it goes to the polls but by the broader framework of which that vote is an expression. Canada, the subject of some pretty feeble maple-boosterism in these pages last week, would be a poor country if judged strictly by its national politics: at the federal level it's a one-party state. But Canadians still live, just about, in liberty. If you look at healthy nations, competitive electoral politics is often the final stage of their journey: property rights, the rule of law, enforceable contracts and many other things come first. Fareed Zakaria has just published an interesting book on this theme, The Future of Freedom, in which he notes one of the trends of this post-Cold War era: the thug nations from Africa to Central Asia are developing the knack of holding elections while remaining, in all other respects, tyrannies. Zakaria is a little too partial to elite rule and light authoritarianism for my tastes — though it's entirely reasonable to prefer Singapore to Nigeria — but his basic diagnosis is very relevant to the future of Iraq. There's no point doing a Zimbabwe — holding one 'free and fair' election that delivers up the state to its President-for-Life." (See also: "Putting Liberty First: The Case Against Democracy" (John B. Judis, Foreign Affairs, from the May/June 2003 issue))

"'Suicide bomber' hits Caucasus bus" (BBC News, 2003/06/05)
"Russian officials say at least 15 people have been killed and 12 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a bus in the North Caucasus.
The explosion happened near the city of Mozdok in North Ossetia, which neighbours the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
The bus was carrying Russian air force personnel and civilians.
The bomber, a woman, approached the bus as it was about to pull away from a stop and blew herself up after failing to open the doors, Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General Sergey Fridinsky said.
Some reports say she threw herself under the bus."

"The Psychosis of France" (Guy Milliere, Front Page Magazine, 2003/06/05)
"Meanwhile, traces of paranoia have started to appear among French journalists. They are saying that George W. Bush is a dangerous Hitlerian dictator ready to destroy the whole planet. The Ambassador's letter represents the supreme level of paranoia: what specialists call the "acute paranoia attack". If you believe what Jean-David Levitte has written, it’s clear that you have a large conspiracy: you have a very huge and omnipresent conspiracy in the US; almost everybody is a member of the conspiracy: reporters, TV anchormen, policemen, judges, members of the administration. Yes, almost everybody! ...
I could add as a conclusion that French-bashing in the United States has no justification at all! France shows everyday how much she loves the United States. On the list of the top ten best sellers now, you have five very hateful anti-American books. But it's just five. In a genuinely anti-American country, all the best sellers would be anti-American, wouldn't they? A big hit on French TV is a satirical show called "Les Guignols" (the puppets). Everyday on the show, the American army is depicted as the worst bunch of guys on the surface of earth since the time of Adolf Hitler. France shows everyday how much she loves the United States, yes."

"A Defector's Story" (Bok Ku Lee, The Wall Street Journal/Front Page Magazine, 2003/06/05)
"For a number of years I served as head of the technical department at a munitions complex that made missile guidance systems and related electronic devices for North Korea's military. I was one of 100,000 or so scientific and professional people involved in the regime's weapons of mass destruction industry. ...
Nonetheless, I was trusted with some of the regime's biggest secrets. While serving, I was sent to Iran to test launch one of our missiles with a new guidance system for the then-ruling Ayatollah Khomeini. I consulted with colleagues who were sent to serve on an operational war basis for Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War, and others who were sent to other countries to sell, service and install such missile systems. I ordered, supervised and monitored the foreign purchases of electronic and guidance material - 90% of which came from Japanese suppliers. I worked with some of the 60 or so Russian scientists who had been "cherry picked" by the regime to work in Pyongyang's nuclear, atomic, chemical and biological warfare programs - and who continue to work there."

"Fight the Matrix" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2003/06/05)
So now the case against Iraq under Saddam's regime is described as a fictional Orwellian Eastasia manufactured by Bush and Blair. Even by a normally sensible liberal. That probably says something about the current intellectual climate in Europe: "Perhaps we live in the Matrix after all. Wherever we turn, we find a politics of manufactured reality that recalls the world of that cult film. How can we, the citizens, unplug ourselves and fight it? ...
This systematic attempt to fool most of the people most of the time is the work of some of the most intelligent, best-informed and highly paid men and women in western societies: spin-doctors, PR consultants, hacks and spooks. Like the Inner Party member, O'Brien, in George Orwell's 1984, they know better. They have seen the photograph, tape or transcript that shows the public claim is wrong, but then, like O'Brien, they have dropped it down the memory hole: " 'Ashes,' he said, 'Not even identifiable ashes. Dust. It does not exist. It never existed.'" ...
In Orwell's centenary year, the "war against terrorism" takes us to an Orwellian world in a quite unexpected way. We are told that Oceania (America, Britain and Australia) must go to war against Iraq, or, as it might be, Orwell's Eastasia or Eurasia, on the basis of reports from secret intelligence sources."

"'Sexed-up' WMD dossiers should not obscure Saddam's evil intent" (Ibrahim al-Marashi, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/06/05)
"Nevertheless, I do not believe that the controversy surrounding these dossiers should obscure the nature of Iraq's past weapons capabilities. As someone who has monitored Iraq's weapons programme closely, I still believe that more time is needed to evaluate whether Iraq was in violation of UN sanctions prohibiting the development of these proscribed weapons.
Over the weekend, a senior Bush Administration official admitted that American forces in Iraq had not yet had the time to process Iraqi state and security documents captured since the end of the conflict. The documentation may still be a key piece of evidence to prove whether or not Iraq was in violation of UN sanctions.
Yet American forces in Iraq have made little effort to secure these documents. A recent article reported that top-secret paperwork from Iraq's missile manufacturer was swirling around in the wind outside its former headquarters.
My study of the Iraqi intelligence agencies and their captured documents from the 1991 Gulf war shows that the Iraqis were meticulous record-keepers; that the smallest actions were documented. It is doubtful that the records of Iraq's WMD arsenal do not exist." (See also: "WMD source 'was senior Iraqi officer'" (James Blitz and Mark Huband, Financial Times, 2003/06/04))

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

News and commentary:

"200 Kurdish babies found in mass grave near Kirkuk" (Bryar Mariwani, KurdishMedia.com, 2003/06/04)
"A mass grave containing the remains of 200 Kurdish children has been discovered in the liberated Kurdish city of Kirkuk, reported the KDP Arabic daily, Al-Taakhi.
"Citizens were discovered on May 30, 2003, in a communal grave close to Debs, in Kirkuk. However, this mass grave was different from other mass graves discovered since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s terrorist regime since it contained the remains of 200 babies, victims of the repression of the Kurdish uprising in 1991," Al-Taakhi noted. "Even the dolls were buried with the children," it added.
It is believed that the babies were buried alive. It was also reported in the local media that an adult female person had also been found in the mass grave. It was suggested that she could have been their minder."

"Gross Distortion at the Guardian" (Gregory, The Belgravia Dispatch, 2003/06/04)
"The Wolfowitz pile on continues unabated. This time Wolfowitz is accused of now admitting the U.S. went to war because of oil.
The Guardian is headlining as follows:

"Oil was the main reason for military action against Iraq, a leading White House hawk has claimed, confirming the worst fears of those opposed to the US-led war. ...
The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.
Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, the deputy defence minister said: "Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil."

But this quote is inaccurate on its face as well as taken completely out of context. Wolfowitz was answering a query regarding why the U.S. thought using economic pressure would work with respect to North Korea and not with regard to Iraq: ... "The country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse," Wolfowitz said. "That I believe is a major point of leverage." "The primary difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options in Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil," he said." (UPDATE: The Guardian has issued a correction and pulled the article from their site. See also: "Wolfowitz says economic pressure will help end nuclear standoff with North Korea" (NEPA News, 2003/05/31))

"Hands up, Straussians!" (Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/06/04)
Stephens on Leo Strauss and the alleged Attack of The Straussians: "For all that, I confess Strauss left a pretty considerable mark on my own way of thinking. By "confess," I mean it in the guilty sense: Strauss has been accused of being an anti-democratic elitist, a "Jewish Nazi," and what's worse the patron saint of neoconservatives who now are said to dominate Beltway thinking. "The Bush administration is rife with Straussians," James Atlas writes in The New York Times, pointing a finger at Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, erstwhile Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle, and Weekly Standard editor William Kristol. ...
His aim, rather, was to deploy the ancients as a sort of counterweight to the moderns who had tilted too far in the direction of radical skepticism, relativism and nihilism. ...
"It is not self-forgetting and pain-loving antiquarianism," he wrote, 'nor self-forgetting and intoxicating romanticism which induces us to turn with passionate interest, with unqualified willingness to learn, toward the political thought of classical antiquity. We are impelled to do so by the crisis of our time, the crisis of the West.'" (Note: The article begins with this cool Strauss quote: "If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste." See also: "A Classicist's Legacy: New Empire Builders" (James Atlas, The New York Times, 2003/05/04))

"SCREAM OUT!" (Women's Action Coalition, June 2003)
Even more hysteria: "WHAT: SCREAM OUT is a performance protest. One by one, over 250 women will condemn the Bush administration with destroying our basic American freedoms. Each charge will be answered with a scream of rage and resistance, fury and frustration. The event is free and open to the public.
WHO: SCREAM OUT was initiated by performance artist Karen Finley and organized by Women's Action Coalition (WAC). Speakers and screamers will include prominent women artists, performers, writers and activists Finley, Mary Gaitskill, Martha Wilson, Emily XYZ, Nicole Blackman and many others. Complete list of participants to be announced." (Note: Found via Best of the Web Today, who notes that the initiator of SCREAM OUT, Karen Finley, is the "performance 'artist' who had her 15 minutes of fame back in the late 1980s when it developed that the National Endowment for the Arts was subsidizing her 'work,' in which she doffed her clothes and slathered her body in chocolate and other assorted substances, some of them edible.")

"Sharon to End Some Settlements; Abbas Renounces Use of Terrorism" (Terence Neilan, The New York Times, 2003/06/04)
"Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel made significant pledges to bring peace to the Middle East today, with Mr. Abbas renouncing the use of terrorism and Mr. Sharon saying Israel would move immediately to remove some "unauthorized outposts" on the West Bank.
"We repeat our denunciation and renunciation of terrorism against the Israelis wherever they might be," Prime Minister Abbas said after a joint meeting with President Bush and Mr. Sharon in Aqaba, Jordan.
"The armed Intifada must end and we must resort to peaceful means to achieve our goals," Mr. Abbas continued." (See also remarks by President Bush, His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan, Prime Minister Sharon of Israel, and Prime Minister Abbas of the Palestinian Authority: "President Meets with Leaders of Jordan, Israel and Palestinian Authority" (The White House, 2003/06/04) and "Hamas, Jihad Say Won't Disarm, Defy Palestinian PM" (Reuters, 2003/06/04): "Palestinian militant groups vowed on Wednesday they would not disarm, defying an appeal by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas issued at a U.S.-led peace summit with Israel. "We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine," Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said. Islamic Jihad, another group sworn to Israel's destruction, followed suit.")

"Belgium Finds Nerve Gas Ingredient in Letters" (Gilles Castonguay, Reuters, 2003/06/04)
"Belgian investigators found a nerve gas ingredient in letters addressed to the Belgian prime minister's office, and the U.S., British and Saudi Arabian embassies, officials said Wednesday.
Two postal workers were briefly hospitalized after being exposed to the chemicals.
The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said."

"Saddam was easily defeated – which is why the war goes on" (John Keegan, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/06/04)
"Physically, the coalition achieved a great victory, at virtually no cost to itself and at little national cost to Iraq or its population. Its centres of population, the government quarter in Baghdad apart, were left undamaged. There were few casualties among the civilian population and Iraqi military casualties were not numerous. Nevertheless, the psychological cost to Iraq, to the Middle East and to the wider Muslim world, will undoubtedly prove very great. ...
Muslims, convinced of the infallibility of their belief system, are merely outraged by demonstrations of the unbelievers' material superiority, particularly their military superiority. The Ba'ath party, of which Saddam was leader in Iraq, was founded to achieve a Muslim renaissance.
The failure of the Ba'athist idea, which can only be emphasised by the fall of Saddam, will encourage militant Islamic fundamentalists - who have espoused the idea that unbelievers' mastery of military techniques can be countered only by terror - to pursue novel and alternative methods of resistance to the unbelievers' power."

"Baghdad Blogger" (Salam Pax, The Guardian, 2003/06/04)
Salam Pax's first column for the Guardian: "I got five papers for 1,750 dinars, around $1.50, it felt like I was buying the famous bread of bab-al-agha: hot, crispy and cheap. When the newspaper man saw how happy I was with my papers he asked if I would like to take one for free. Newspaper heaven! It turns out that no one is buying any copies of the paper published by the Iraqi Communist workers party; he just wants to unload it on me. Look, I paid for the Hawza paper so why not take the commie one gratis? ...
I don't want to be an alarmist and make it sound as if no one goes out on the streets. On the contrary, a lot more shops have opened. In Karada street, where most of the electronic appliance shops are, the merchandise is displayed on the streets (14-inch TVs seem to be very popular) schools are open and exams are scheduled for July. The traffic jam at the gate of the University of Baghdad is like nothing you have seen before. The junk food places in Harthiya are open again and full of boys and girls. The streets of Baghdad are a nightmare to drive through during the day because of the number of cars. But this all ends around 7pm when it starts getting dark."

"Criticism of Blair Over Iraq Reaches a Roar" (Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, 2003/06/04)
"Tony Blair failed today to quiet the roar of criticism over his insistence that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction, with the opposition leader declaring that "nobody believes a word now that the prime minister is saying."
In a raucous House of Commons session punctuated by both catcalls and cheers, Blair passionately defended his prewar claims that Saddam Hussein had been hiding a dangerous arsenal, calling charges that his Labor government cooked the intelligence books "completely and totally untrue." ...
Fueled by hostile press coverage - the Sunday Mirror, for example, has denounced Blair's earlier claims on Iraq as "rubbish" - the charges seem to have struck a deep chord in Britain, where Blair struggled far more than Bush to galvanize support for the war. A poll published in the Daily Telegraph says 44 percent of the public here feels misled on the weapons issue."

Added in archive:
"The Calculus of Terror" (The Atlantic, 2003/05/15)

Tuesday, June 3, 2003

News and commentary:

"Honesty Is the Left Policy?" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/06/03)
"In an unusually deranged column even by his standards, former Enron adviser Paul Krugman declares because coalition forces have not yet found large stocks of weapons in Iraq, that nation's liberation is "arguably the worst scandal in American political history - worse than Watergate." Bush's latest tax cut is "a lie," too, because people who don't pay federal income taxes, including "eight million children," don't get a federal income-tax cut.
Krugman opines that if Bush is re-elected, it will mean that "our political system has become utterly, and perhaps irrevocably, corrupted." This is addlebrained beyond belief. Bush has pursued popular policies, or policies he has made popular by presenting voters with an argument for them. ...
If Bush is re-elected, it will reflect not the corruption of the country but the intellectual bankruptcy of the opposition." (See also: "Standard Operating Procedure" (Paul Krugman, The New York Times, 2003/06/03) and "The Truth About Bush’s 'Lies'" (Byron York, National Review, 2003/06/03))

"Arabs vow to fight militants" (BBC News, 2003/06/03)
"Arab leaders will take measures to stop support for terrorist groups in the Middle East, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has announced.
Mr Mubarak was speaking after a summit, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, attended by US President George W Bush and leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, as well as Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.
"We are going to utilise all means possible to block support for terrorist organisations," the Egyptian leader said, without naming any.
In a statement read afterwards, Mr Bush repeated his commitment to achieving a Palestinian state "that is free, and at peace" - part of a broader reconciliation involving the entire region." (See also the statements by President Bush and President Mubarak of Egypt: "President Bush Meets with President Mubarak of Egypt" (The White House, 2003/06/03))

"A Conversation with Michael Kelly" (The Atlantic, 2003/06/03)
The last interview with Micheal Kelly, made a month and a half before he was killed in Iraq: "The reason why I'm such a supporter of war today is that this is a nation of 22 million - there's nothing complicated about it - it's a nation that's living in a slave state, and they would very much like to be liberated from it.
You would say this is not a war of aggression, this is a war of liberation.
I would say it's intended as a war of liberation, and I would bet an awful lot that it's going to work out that way and very quickly. It's not a war of occupation or a war of aggression or a war of imperialism. It's intended as a war of liberation. It is in a sense unfinished business, or what the first war should have been but wasn't. That is the truth about it. I think what people will see - and I guess everybody will see what happens - but in the end, I do think that you will see an honest-to-God picture of people in Iraq and Baghdad cheering America." (See also: "Atlantic Monthly Editor Killed in Iraq" (Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, 2003/04/04))

"The Arabist Predicament" (Marla Braverman, Azure/Campus Watch, from the Summer 2003 issue)
An interesting review of Martin Kramer's "Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America": "As for Arab violence, American academics were quick to point out that focusing on it would only reinforce stereotypes. Like any modern, democratic country, the Arab states had, according to Esposito, already reached the conclusion that violence was counterproductive, and would no doubt recede in the years ahead. Thus in the 1990s, most scholars of the Middle East refused to admit the existence of — let alone devote their attention to — those Islamic fundamentalist groups that posed the greatest threat to the United States. It is not surprising, then, that at the 2002 MESA conference, held last November, only four out of over 500 papers addressed the emergence of violent Islamic fundamentalism, while the majority focused on Palestinian culture and gender issues.
Most telling, however, is the reluctance of most MESA scholars to change their tune, regardless of developments in the region. Thus after the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Columbia University history professor Richard Bulliet organized a conference under the auspices of the Columbia University Middle East Institute — not to explain the appearance of terrorism in New York, but instead to confront a "new anti-Semitism" against Muslims, fueled by "the propensities of the non-elite news media to over-publicize, hype, and sell hostility to Islam." When this is juxtaposed with Joel Beinin's response to the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, in which he denounced the "self appointed guardians of patriotic rectitude" who perpetrate "hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs," one is struck by the field's propensity to repeat its own errors."

"The Treason of the Intellectuals" (Sever Plocker, Yediot Aharonot/IMRA, 2003/06/03)
"In Israel, the "Women in Black" demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, but there is not one single "Woman in Black" demonstrating against suicides in front of the Islamic Jihad headquarters in Damascus. Israeli Jewish poets protest against the occupation in their poems; Arab poets write paean of praise to terror acts.
The Arab poets and their colleagues urge the Palestinians in Gaza to maintain "a continuous intifada," an intifada that serves their frustrated intellectuals as a kind of spiritual elevation in which they are not required to sacrifice anything but words dripping with hate. Thus the Arab "spiritual nobles" betray first and foremost their Palestinian brethren.
A summit in Jerusalem, a summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, a summit in Akaba - new hope-stirring gambits. But as long as the idea of reconciliation with Israel does not sink into Arab consciousness as a natural and desirable choice of the Arabs themselves, but as something imposed on them by the United States under the pressure of the Jewish lobby, imposed by globalization - the prospects of peace are very slim."

"Israel must vanish, Muslims say" (Meg Bortin, International Herald Tribune, 2003/06/03)
"Perhaps as a consequence, bin Laden was one of the three "leaders" most trusted by the nine Muslim populations surveyed, outranking even the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan. The Qaeda leader's confidence rating was matched only by Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
As for the crisis in the Middle East, in a wave of sentiment that bodes ill for the future of the U.S.-sponsored "road map" to peace, Muslims lined up strongly behind the opinion that "the rights and needs of the Palestinian people cannot be taken care of as long as the state of Israel exists."
The conviction that no way can be found for Israel and the Palestinians to coexist is strongest in Morocco (90 percent), followed by Jordan (85 percent), the Palestinian Authority (80 percent), Kuwait (72 percent), Lebanon (65 percent), Indonesia (58 percent) and Pakistan (57 percent)."

"Poll shows U.S. isolation: In war's wake, hostility and mistrust" (Meg Bortin, International Herald Tribune, 2003/06/03)
"The swing was even sharper in Indonesia, where Islamic radicalism has been rising since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
While 75 percent had a favorable opinion of the United States in 2000, 83 percent now have an unfavorable view. Similar levels of animosity hold sway in the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.
In fact, feelings are so intense in the Islamic world that Osama bin Laden was chosen by five Muslim publics - in Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority - as one of the three political leaders they would most trust to "do the right thing" in world affairs." (See also: "Views of a Changing World 2003: War With Iraq Further Divides Global Publics" (The Pew Research Center, 2003/06/03))

"CIA says al Qaeda ready to use nukes" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2003/06/03)
"Al Qaeda terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes, according to a new CIA report.
"Al Qaeda's goal is the use of [chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass casualties," the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month.
"However, most attacks by the group — and especially by associated extremists — probably will be small-scale, incorporating relatively crude delivery means and easily produced or obtained chemicals, toxins or radiological substances," the report said. ...
Islamist extremists linked to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "have a wide variety of potential agents and delivery means to choose from for chemical, biological and radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attacks," said the four-page report titled 'Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects.'"

"N Korea and Iran warned over WMD" (Michael White and Larry Elliott, The Guardian, 2003/06/03)
"The leading industrial states last night sharply stepped up the pressure on North Korea and Iran to abandon covert nuclear weapons programmes when they instructed the two alleged "rogue states" to comply with the global drive against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
In unexpectedly adding the names of two countries on President George Bush's "axis of evil" list to their WMD non-proliferation statement, the G8 summit in Evian delivered a diplomatic success to the White House in an otherwise lacklustre gathering in the shadow of the Iraq war."

Monday, June 2, 2003

News and commentary:

"'Squeezing blood from a stone'" (Harald Schumann, Der Spiegel, 2003/06/02)
Schuman on Iraq's foreign debt, comparing the situation with that of post-WWII Germany: "Although the Germans are on the side of the creditors this time, the issue as to whether the people of this devastated country, long-oppressed by a dictatorship, should be required to pay the unpaid bills of their expelled oppressors is as current today as it was then. And, once again, it is the victorious Americans who are pressing for debt forgiveness, and have placed it on the agenda of the G-8 summit being held in the French town of Evian through Tuesday of this week. ...
For this reason, Third World activists, development experts and the US government, in a rare moment of consensus, are demanding that the creditor states largely waive their claims against Iraq. "A democratic Iraq" can and should "not pay Saddam's debts," declared the organization "Erlassjahr" (Year of Forgiveness), an alliance of more than a thousand mainly church-based initiatives that lobbies on behalf of debt forgiveness to benefit developing countries. ...
For this reason, France, Germany and Russia, in particular, the critics of the Bush administration in Old Europe, should waive their claims to the funds "they lent the dictator so that he could buy weapons and build palaces," concluded one of the key architects of the Iraq war, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. US Treasury Secretary John Snow has also argued for general debt forgiveness to benefit the new Iraq.
However, the Americans' generosity with other people's money was not welcomed with open arms by the governments in question. After all, said Moscow's Finance Minister Alexej Kudrin, whose government must service more than 50 billion dollars in Soviet debt, no one forgave Russia's debt, "no matter who was in power in the country." And German Finance Minister Hans Eichel has completely rejected the American demand. "If a country is capable of servicing its debts, then that's what it must do," said Eichel, in a reference to Iraq's oil reserves. Eichel's French colleague Francis Mer was of the same opinion."

"Hoping Americans stay forever" (Ken Joseph, UPI, 2003/06/02)
"It is not widely reported, nor fashionable to say the Americans are loved and wanted in Iraq, but in fact as they were wanted before the war, they are wanted now.
"We hope they stay forever" is the true feeling of the silent majority in Iraq, contrary to what is reported.
The logic is very simple - the Iraqis do not trust their leaders. Faced with a very complicated situation of a 60 percent Shiite majority, a former police state, Iran at their doorstep trying with all its might to destabilize their country, and desperately relieved and happy to be finally liberated from nearly 30 years of Saddam, they want the United States to stay.
The greatest fear of the man on the street is that the Americans will tire and leave. "We pray that they stay and stay forever" is the feeling of the vast majority, but they look both ways before they say it." (See also: "I Was Wrong!" (Ken Joseph, Jr., Assyrian Christian News, 2003/03/26))

"'Holocaust Denial' in Reuterville" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/06/02)
"Here's a new one from Reuters: The word evil gets scare quotes even when referring to the Holocaust, as in the headline: "Bush Tours Auschwitz, Says 'Evil' Must Be Resisted." Agence France-Presse does the same thing: "In Shadow of Nazi Terror, Bush calls for Unity to Fight 'Evil.'"
AFP's reference to "Nazi terror," however, likely wouldn't pass muster at Reuters, where one man's Nazi terrorist is another's freedom fighter." (See also: "Bush Tours Auschwitz, Says 'Evil' Must Be Resisted" (Adam Entous, Reuters, 2003/05/31) and "In shadow of Nazi terror, Bush calls for unity to fight 'evil'" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2003/05/31))

"CIA reported to believe Saddam is alive" (Richard Sale, UPI, 2003/06/02)
"The CIA has internal documents that make clear Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is alive and hiding in greater Baghdad, protected by an underground resistance network of tribesmen and former Baath officials, administration officials told United Press International.
"There is a resistance network and it is stronger than we originally thought," one administration source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Saddam is moving around inside Iraq and he's got a lot of support," another U.S. government official said.
He added: 'A lot of what is being reported in the press as 'looting' is in fact sabotage by Baath party stay-behind groups.'"

"EuroPress Review" (Denis Boyles, National Review, 2003/06/02)
Boyles on how European press reacted to Vanity Fair's notorious Wolfowitz interview, with lots of links: "The notion that the whole quest for WMDs was a fiction was journalistically fluorescent. Instantly, virtually every European newspaper of every political stripe was barking like, uh, geese:
• Were the intelligence services corrupted by politicians? asked The Guardian.
• The whole thing was based on an intelligence scam, said Die Welt.
• Lies led us into war, agreed the Independent. ...
For the most part, these stories all appeared within hours of the G8 opening session. Coincidence? Well, yeah. I mean, I generally dismiss conspiracies that involve either the media or the government, since a successful conspiracy seems to suggest competency, and right away that leaves the press and the government out. And this one would have to involve France, so forget it. But sometimes things gel in such a way that conspiracy would be a comfort. The way every event seems to fuel the current wave of near-hysterical anti-Americanism in Europe was an example — until you stop and realize that the whole thing has been spun out of something Paul Wolfowitz said in an issue of Vanity Fair, something that was reported incompletely, as it happens. (I'd love to see the top edit on that piece!) Wolfowitz had been trying to explain that of the several good reasons for invading Iraq, the WMD argument was the most universally compelling. Hardly an admission of anything." (See also: "What Wolfowitz Really Said" (William Kristol, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/06/09 issue))

"The France-U.S. pas de deux" (John Vinocur, International Herald Tribune, 2003/06/02)
"Jacques Chirac hoped to cast himself as a pole of wisdom at the G-8 meeting of global leaders here. Refracted through a carefully controlled French prism, he meant to gleam as a beacon for a multipolar world of peace, generosity and concern.
Fine stuff, but not entirely innocent. Liberation, the leftist French newspaper, said this weekend that the undertaking involved Chirac sculpting his own statue for posterity, and more, "putting France at the heart of a globalized and multipolar world where the United States often looks like a hoodlum state." ...
Much French commentary in the days leading up to the summit meeting caught the sense that not much had gone right in Chirac's plan. Suddenly, it was as if Bush had stolen the spotlight — a man on a vital peace mission to the Middle East, a man whose Congress had just voted $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa — and Chirac had become what French showbiz slang ironically calls a "vedette americaine," or second banana."

"War wounds still raw as G8 leaders play Let's be Friends" (Philip Webster et al., The Times, 2003/06/02)
"Weapons of mass destruction created fresh tensions between Britain and America and France at the G8 summit yesterday, frustrating their attempts to present a united front after the divisions of the Iraq war.
This time it was not the hunt for Saddam Hussein's arsenal that caused the strains, but action to prevent terrorists getting hold of such weapons. ...
The two presidents had prepared for the summit claiming that it was time to put their differences behind them, but the strains were evident at their first brief encounter. M Chirac greeted Mr Bush with a short handshake and a forced smile, a markedly cooler welcome than he gave other leaders, and he later inflamed the transatlantic dispute by saying that his vision of a "multipolar world" — shorthand for curbing American power — was shared by a most countries."

"Protesters rampage in Geneva" (BBC News, 2003/06/02)
"In the Swiss city of Geneva authorities spent more than nine hours battling with demonstrators as they rampaged through the city centre.
Shop windows were smashed and stores looted, leaving the city streets awash with broken glass and choking fumes from tear gas canisters.
After protesters began to hurl rocks and petrol bombs, the German police were brought in for reinforcements, storming the front line to scatter the rioters and chasing ringleaders all over the city, the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Geneva said. ...
The local authorities had promised they were well prepared for the G8 protests, saying they expected up to a 100,000 demonstrators.
In the event, our correspondent says they were overrun by just a few hundred troublemakers - and with millions of dollars of damage done to their homes and businesses, the people of Geneva will want to know how that happened." (See also: "With Protesters on the Move, Geneva Shops Board Up" (Elaine Sciolino, The New York Times, 2003/06/01))

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

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"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

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