Archived news and commentary: August 4 - 10, 2003

2003/09/29 - 2003/10/05
2003/09/22 - 2003/09/28
2003/09/15 - 2003/09/21
2003/09/08 - 2003/09/14
2003/09/01 - 2003/09/07
2003/08/25 - 2003/08/31
2003/08/18 - 2003/08/24
2003/08/11 - 2003/08/17
2003/08/04 - 2003/08/10
2003/07/28 - 2003/08/03
2003/07/21 - 2003/07/27
2003/07/14 - 2003/07/20
2003/07/07 - 2003/07/13
2003/06/30 - 2003/07/06

Sunday, August 10, 2003

News and commentary:

"Cleric to Indonesians: Don't Fear Terrorist Label" (Pipit Prahara, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/08/10)
"'Do not be afraid of being labeled as trying to overthrow (the government) or as terrorists when you are carrying out Islamic sharia (law),' Bashir said in the speech read out at an inaugural prayer meeting by Irfan Awwas, MMI executive chairman.
Bashir is spiritual leader of the MMI and is believed to play a similar role in the shadowy JI, seen as the Southeast Asian arm of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
His words were interrupted by cries of "Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," from the congregation. Solo is the heart of Bashir's movement and where he runs the Islamic school that was attended by some of the accused Bali bombers.
School officials said another of the pupils was Asnar Latin Sani, identified as the suicide bomber who drove a car packed with explosives and fuel up to the lobby of the U.S.-run Marriott Hotel last Tuesday and blew it up.
Asnar, 28, graduated in 1994, they said." (See also: "Severed head found at bombed hotel points to JI: police" (Matthew Moore, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003/08/09))

"Dinner With the Sayyids" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2003/08/10)
A dinner in Baghdad with the "rising progressive Iraqi Shiite cleric" Sayyid Iyad Jamaleddine and Sayyid Hussein Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini:
"On religion and state: "We want a secular constitution. That is the most important point. If we write a secular constitution and separate religion from state, that would be the end of despotism and it would liberate religion as well as the human being. . . . The Islamic religion has been hijacked for 14 centuries by the hands of the state. The state dominated religion, not the other way around. It used religion for its own ends. Tyrants ruled this nation for 14 centuries and they covered their tyranny with the cloak of religion." ...
How will he deal with opposition to such ideas from Iraq's neighbors?
'The neighboring countries are all tyrannical countries and they are wary of a modern, liberal Iraq. . . . That is why they work to foil the U.S. presence. . . . If the U.S. wants to help Iraqis, it must help them the way it helped Germany and Japan, because to help Iraq is really to help 1.3 billion Muslims. Iraq will teach these values to the entire Islamic world. Because Iraq has both Sunnis and Shiites, and it has Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. . . . If it succeeds here it can succeed elsewhere. ... The failure of this experiment in Iraq would mean success for all despots in the Arab and Islamic world. [That is why] this is a challenge that America must accept and take all the way.'" (See also: "Khomeini grandson attacks 'religious dictators'" (Anton La Guardia, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/08/05))

"Inside an Enemy Cell" (Scott Johnson, Newsweek, from the 2003/08/18 issue)
"Their group, calling itself the Army of Mohammed, has claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 15 U.S. soldiers since the fall of Saddam Hussein. "We did kill U.S. soldiers and we destroyed some of their vehicles and equipment," said the leader of the three, calling himself Mohammed al-Rawi. "We will do it again." ...
The group's ideology seems to be a blend of ardent nationalism, Sunni Islamic zealotry and anti-Jewish bigotry. Before the invasion, Saddam Hussein used much the same recipe to rally popular support. Some of the resistance group's members might dream of re-creating the old Baathist regime, but the three who met with Newsweek claimed no wish for Saddam's return. "We want to make a new government, without Saddam but in the same style,"said one. ...
A much bigger consideration is the group’s hatred of America. Al-Rawi was carrying a prepared statement, which he read aloud: "The Americans have occupied our land under a false pretext, and without any international authorization. They kill our women and children and old men. They want to bring the Jews to our holy land in order to control Iraq, to achieve the Jewish dream." The document ended with a pledge of vengeance against the Americans. 'We promise we will burn their tanks. They will die.'"

"Al-Qaeda directs Iraqi hit squad" (Marie Colvin, The Sunday Times/canada.com, 2003/08/10)
"Al-Qaeda terrorists who have infiltrated Iraq from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have formed a deadly alliance with former intelligence agents of Saddam Hussein to fight their common enemy, the U.S. forces.
The alliance, known as Jaish Muhammad - the army of the prophet Muhammad - is believed to be responsible for increasingly sophisticated attacks on U.S. soldiers.
In the past four months, it has smuggled millions of dollars, weapons and hundreds of Arab fighters across the desert border with Saudi Arabia. ...
The head of the group is a senior Saudi al-Qaeda officer, while most of the lieutenants and foot-soldiers are Iraqis who can move more easily among the local population.
The Sunday Times knows the name of the al-Qaeda leader, but has been asked not to publish it for fear of jeopardizing security operations. He does not direct every attack, but oversees training and ensures that cells follow his commands about targets.
He relies on two senior former Iraqi intelligence officials, including Muhammad al-Kudier, a former director of special operations in Mr. Saddam's mukhabarat security service, for planning, logistics and recruitment.
According to the sources, they run a training camp at Razaza, 45-kilometres from Ramadi, at a former lakeside tourist resort that Mr. Saddam had turned into a base for army manoeuvres and weapons storage."

"Terror Group Seen as Back Inside Iraq" (Michael R. Gordon, The New York Times, 2003/08/10)
"The American-led administration in Iraq has received intelligence reports that hundreds of Islamic militants who fled Iraq during the war have returned and are planning to conduct major terrorist attacks.
L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, said in an interview on Friday night that fighters from Ansar al-Islam, a militant organization that the United States tried to destroy during the war, had escaped to Iran and then slipped back across the border into Iraq. He said hundreds of the militants were now in Iraq, where they were preparing to attack the occupation forces or administration.
"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks here," Mr. Bremer said. 'So as long as we have, as I think we do, substantial numbers of Ansar terrorists around here I think we have to be pretty alert to the fact that we may see more of this.'"

"Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence" (Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, 2003/08/10)
A comprehensive report on the depiction of the Iraqi nuclear threat before the war, although it is falsely alleged that Bush was referring to the present in a statement, when in fact he was explicitly referring to the state of the Iraqi nuclear program after the first Gulf War. Bush was clearly not describing "alarming new evidence", as alleged in the article, but rather the extensive and advanced nuclear weapons program revealed in Iraq after the 1991 war:
"The day after publication of Card's marketing remark, Bush and nearly all his top advisers began to talk about the dangers of an Iraqi nuclear bomb.
Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair conferred at Camp David that Saturday, Sept. 7, and they each described alarming new evidence. Blair said proof that the threat is real came in "the report from the International Atomic Energy Agency this morning, showing what has been going on at the former nuclear weapon sites." Bush said "a report came out of the . . . IAEA, that they [Iraqis] were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need."
There was no new IAEA report. Blair appeared to be referring to news reports describing curiosity at the nuclear agency about repairs at sites of Iraq's former nuclear program. Bush cast as present evidence the contents of a report from 1996, updated in 1998 and 1999. In those accounts, the IAEA described the history of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program that arms inspectors had systematically destroyed.
A White House spokesman later acknowledged that Bush "was imprecise" on his source but stood by the crux of his charge. The spokesman said U.S. intelligence, not the IAEA, had given Bush his information.
That, too, was garbled at best. U.S. intelligence reports had only one scenario for an Iraqi bomb in six months to a year, premised on Iraq's immediate acquisition of enough plutonium or enriched uranium from a foreign source." (See also: "President Bush, Prime Minister Blair Discuss Keeping the Peace" (The White House, 2002/09/07): "THE PRESIDENT: We just heard the Prime Minister talk about the new report. I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied - finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic - the IAEA that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need." and "A Last Chance to Stop Iraq" (Kenneth M. Pollack, The New York Times/IIP, 2003/02/21 [2003/02/24]): "After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, United Nations inspectors found that not only did Iraq have a program far more extensive than anyone had realized, but it was also less than two years away from producing a weapon.")

Saturday, August 9, 2003

News and commentary:

"Sheikhs agree to peace deal with coalition troops" (Harry de Quetteville, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/08/09)
"After months of bitterness, the heads of the seven major tribes of Fallujah have met for the first time with the Iraqi town's mayor and its American forces commander.
Clan leaders and their hangers-on packed the mayor's office at the morning meeting, described by Lt-Col Chris Hickey, US army Fallujah commander, as "an extremely important day".
Mayor Taha Bdewi Hamid Al-Alwani meets Sheikh Talib al-Hasnawi
They came from the Albuaisa tribe, from the al-Jumela and from the al-Halabsa. They greeted the sheikhs of the al-Mahamuda tribe, the Albu al-Wan, the al-Zuba'a and Albuaisa-Qais.
At a rowdy session, they agreed to work with American troops to stamp out the looting as well as the rocket and grenade attacks, that have made Fallujah a byword for instability and danger."

"The Dysfunctional House of Saud" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/08/18 issue)
Looking for a conspiracy behind 9/11 involving oil, the government, conglomerates, ultravulgar wealth, fanatical fundamentalism and an openly misogynic and homophobic patriarchal hegemony?:
"The first task before the administration remains what it was on September 12: to obtain a full and transparent accounting of Saudi involvement in 9/11, no matter how high it reaches into ruling circles. Inevitably, this means focusing on Prince Nayef - the leading figure most infected with Wahhabi hatred of the West, according to Saudi dissidents, and the minister responsible for the terror-funding charities, to which he has contributed generously. Following full disclosure, we must insist that the Saudi regime turn off the tap on money flowing to the Wahhabi religious bureaucracy and maze of state - affiliated organizations - especially their international operations - and thus separate the government of Saudi Arabia from its extremist ideological legacy. We'll know we're on the right track if Saudi Arabia's withdrawal from global troublemaking leads to an opening up of Saudi society, not to a final hunkering down behind closed doors.
The longer action is delayed, the worse for us, as well as for the millions obliged to live under Wahhabi-Saudi rule."

"Gore Goes Gaga" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/08/18 issue)
Hayes on the "paranoid style in Democratic politics" in general and Al Gore's speech to MoveOn.org in particular:
"In a broad, rambling lecture that began with and returned many times to Iraq, former Vice President Al Gore toyed with some of the very same conspiracy theories peddled by the crazies outside. In 35 minutes, he managed to squeeze in several bizarre and acidic accusations directed at the Bush administration - recycling the blood-for-oil claim, suggesting the Iraq war was conceived and conducted to "benefit friends and supporters," labeling the administration "totalistic," and, in a reprise of an argument he made last fall, claiming that the Iraq debate had been cooked up to get Republicans elected.
At one point, Gore even seemed to suggest that the Bush administration itself might have been behind the forged Niger documents. "And on the nuclear issue of course, it turned out that those documents were actually forged by somebody - though we don't know who," he said, drawing out the last phrase for dramatic effect. The audience of activists from MoveOn.org laughed loudly and traded knowing looks. ...
In an interview before Gore spoke, one of his advisers said: "We heard President Clinton's take on this a couple weeks ago. Now we'll hear Gore's." And Gore's views couldn't be more different from Clinton's. The Bush administration, Gore said, is engaged in "a systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic honesty." Such deception, he says, is "dangerous" on domestic matters and potentially deadly in foreign affairs." (See also: "Former Vice President Al Gore: Remarks to MoveOn.org" (MoveOn.org, 2003/08/07))

"The Imminence Invention" (The Wall Street Journal, 2003/08/09)
"In their latest attempts to discredit the liberation of Iraq, President Bush's critics have turned to falsifying the history of the standards that everyone used to justify it. Intervention was wrong, they now insist, because Saddam Hussein did not pose "an imminent threat." ...
All of this is simply an invention after the fact, and a dangerous one. President Bush did use the word "imminent" once in this year's State of the Union, but precisely to rebut the standard Mr. Wilson now wants to claim as the standard for American self-defense. "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent," Mr. Bush said, but he then rejected that test. "Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?"
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 also contains no such "imminence" threshold. That resolution drew a unanimous 15 votes not because the likes of France, Russia and even Syria were keen to ratchet up the pressure on Iraq, but because it was undeniable that Saddam was in violation of multiple prior resolutions. Resolution 1441 focused primarily on WMD at the request of France and Germany, but it did so by putting the onus squarely on Iraq to disarm. The burden of proof was on Saddam to make a truthful weapons declaration and comply with inspectors - not on the U.S. to prove what weapons he had. When he failed to comply, the U.S. had full legal rights to act."

"Iraqi maze" (Paul Greenberg, The Washington Times, 2003/08/09)
"Some of the more vociferous attacks on George W. Bush are simply fraudulent. Like the assertion that the president had warned "that the threat to the United States was imminent." (To quote an ad placed by MoveOn.Org, a k a TrashBush.Org. )
That accusation has become a staple of the anti-Bush camp. As in: "We were told by this president that Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent threat to our security. Bunk." — Robert W. Byrd, senior senator and pre-eminent gasbag from West Virginia.
Actually, the point of the president's last State of the Union was not that Saddam Hussein represented an imminent threat — but that to wait until he became one would be to wait too long. ...
So many trails that lead nowhere, so many false clues spread out everywhere. In all the confusion, the immediate danger facing this administration — and this country — may be obscured. It's the guerrilla war in Iraq that, even now, the White House can't bring itself to call a guerrilla war."

"The smile of death" (The Guardian, 2003/08/09)
"The sight of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, the "smiling bomber" of Bali, raising his arms in triumph as his death sentence was announced was profoundly disturbing. Throughout his trial, Amrozi betrayed no glimmer of remorse for the appalling crime he had helped execute. His claim to be seeking vengeance against America, the west and "the Jews" might be dismissed as delusional, but for the uncomfortable fact that many Muslim extremists have a similar aim. Amrozi's belief that somehow he served Islam by killing 202 defenceless people of all creeds and colours could be ignored as the ravings of a sick mind. Except that Amrozi was deemed mentally competent by the court and earlier this week, like-minded Islamists came close to repeating the Bali horror with a car bomb in Jakarta. ...
Amrozi's evident lack of fellow-feeling for the relatives and friends of those whose lives he stole was perhaps most shocking of all. This is not a political or doctrinal issue. It goes to the heart of our shared existence, to the common humanity that links us all and which no cause or faith or grievance, however fervently espoused, should diminish or obscure. This deficit of feeling, this fundamental absence of sympathy is chilling. It is a true glimpse of the abyss." (See also: "Amrozi bin Nurhasyim..." (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, 2003/08/07))

"Discovering WMD" (Robert Novak, Town Hall, 2003/08/09)
"Former international weapons inspector David Kay, now seeking Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for the Pentagon, has privately reported successes that are planned to be revealed to the public in mid-September.
Kay has told his superiors he has found substantial evidence of biological weapons in Iraq, plus considerable missile development. He has been less successful in locating chemical weapons, and has not yet begun a substantial effort to locate progress toward nuclear arms.
Senior officials in the Bush administration believe Kay's weapons discoveries should have been revealed as they were made. However, a decision, approved by President Bush, was made to wait until more was discovered and then announce it - probably in September."

"Severed head found at bombed hotel points to JI: police" (Matthew Moore, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003/08/09)
"Indonesian police say two members of the banned terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah have identified a head found on the fifth floor of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel - further evidence that JI carried out Tuesday's attack.
The chief of detectives, Erwin Mappaseng, said members of a JI group arrested in Sumatra in June had identified the head as belonging to Asmar Latin Sami, a 28-year-old originally from Padang in West Sumatra, but recently living in Sumatra's south.
"The two Jemaah Islamiah members recruited Asmar Latin Sani ... They knew him well," Mr Mappaseng said. ...
Police believe he was in the car when it exploded, killing 10 people and wounding nearly 150, but General Bachtiar said they were still not certain he was a suicide bomber." (See also: "Evidence found linking Bali blast to Jakarta bombing" (Steven Gutkin. AP/The Salt Lake Tribune, 2003/08/07))

"Freed 'bomber' tells of torture in Saudi jail" (Nicola Woolcock and Anton La Guardia, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/08/09)
"Mr Moss, who knew the British men before they were imprisoned, described the jail as a "huge concrete maze" where prisoners were strictly segregated. He said conversations with other former prisoners had established that all inmates were subjected to similar forms of torture, but that the British embassy did nothing to help in his case. ...
"Once I saw the guards march Sandy Mitchell past me in leg shackles and handcuffs. He looked like a zombie. When I was tortured they would blindfold me, put on handcuffs and leg shackles and leave me in a room for hours.
"Then a very educated voice would demand that I tell them about the bombings. When I said I knew nothing the beating would start, usually with blows to the head and groin.
"One time the blindfold slipped and I saw they were hitting me with a wooden paddle. I'd end up crouched in a corner where they'd keep kicking me.
"But the psychological torment was much more scary. They kept me awake for seven days at a time. Guards threatened to throw me from the roof. They said they would say I had been trying to escape." (See also: "Saudis tortured me for seven weeks, says bomb suspect" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/01/31))

"Ex-pat dream that turned to nightmare" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2003/08/09)
"Within seven months of the first explosion the men, linked only by their social habits, found themselves systematically framed, tortured into false confessions and then imprisoned for a series of bombings widely believed to be the work of anti-western extremists sympathetic to al-Qaida.
A Guardian investigation last year revealed that the men could not have carried out the bombings, which continued long after they were arrested and culminated in the massive blasts that killed 34 people, nine of them Americans, in May.
If that was not enough, as the men sat in solitary confinement contemplating sentences ranging from 12 years to the death penalty, the Britons found themselves abandoned by a government happy to let its economic ties with the oil-rich kingdom override its duty to its citizens." (See also: "Saudi 'bomb' Britons return" (BBC News, 2003/08/08) and "Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2002/01/31))

Friday, August 8, 2003

News and commentary:

"Saudi 'bomb' Britons return" (BBC News, 2003/08/08)
"Six Britons convicted of bombings in Saudi Arabia have returned to the UK after being released from jail.
The six arrived back in Heathrow on Friday afternoon. They were driven off in a van with a police escort, avoiding waiting reporters.
The men had been convicted of a series of bombings that killed one Briton, Christopher Rodway, in November 2000, and injured several other Western expatriate workers.
The Saudi Embassy said on Friday the men had been granted ''royal clemency''.
Two of the men - Scot Sandy Mitchell, who had been living in Halifax, and Glasgow-born William Sampson, a longtime resident of Canada - had faced public beheading." (See also: "Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2002/01/31))

"Regime ordered chemical attack, investigator says" (Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe, 2003/08/08)
"A top Bush administration weapons investigator told Congress in closed testimony last week that he has uncovered solid information from interviews, documents, and physical evidence that Iraqi military forces were ordered to attack US troops with chemical weapons, but did not have the time or capability to follow through, according to senior defense and intelligence officials.
The alleged findings by David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector now working for the United States, would buttress the administration's claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction - a key component of President Bush's case for war that has since fallen into dispute."

"Britain to produce new evidence on Iraqi WMD: report" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2003/08/07)
"The British government is soon to present new evidence that Iraq had produced biological weapons, it was reported.
Intelligence officials were producing another dossier on Iraqi arms, and "there is said to be hard evidence of cover-up programmes designed to conceal weapons of mass destruction", the British magazine "The Economist" said in its latest issue.
"We would hope to be able to demonstrate in the fullness of time that almost all the information in the dossier (published by the government last September) was accurate", a government insider told the magazine.
Government sources "say that several new bits of information will emerge including evidence based on interviews with Iraqi scientists that biological weapons had been produced in quantity", the Economist said."

"From Beirut to Jerusalem" (Caroline B. Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/08/08)
"By maintaining their refusal to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, their insistence on the "right of return" and their identification of Israeli Arabs as Palestinians, the Palestinians are setting the context for the next phase of their campaign against Israel, which will begin immediately after they are granted statehood.
Already in the present phase of their campaign, Palestinian terror groups have utilized Israeli Arabs to carry out attacks against Israel. Through its alliance with the Islamic Movement, Hamas has made official inroads into the Israeli-Arab community. For its part, the PA has its representatives in the Knesset, from Ahmed Tibi to Azmi Bishara, who wage a continuous campaign to delegitimize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. ...
As for the Palestinians, both Israel and the US are pretending that by repeating the exact policy adopted with such abysmal result toward Hizbullah, the opposite result will be achieved. Both claim that by granting legitimacy to the PA, it will somehow be magically transformed from a terrorist actor to a peaceful neighbor.
The toll this irrational policy will take on US national security interests will be indirect. The decision to embrace a terror regime will no doubt erode America's deterrence against the terror groups it is actively fighting. But for Israel, the decision to repeat the strategic catastrophe of Lebanon with the Palestinians puts the future of the country itself in jeopardy."

"Stuck on a Barrier That's Not on the Road Map" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2003/08/08)
"The State Department is proposing that the United States play hardball with Israel - reducing badly needed loan guarantees - if it proceeds with the barrier it is erecting between Israeli and Palestinian populations. With this, the State Department joins the latest Palestinian propaganda ploy - inverting cause and effect, and making the fence the issue, rather than the terrorism that made the fence necessary. ...
The State Department is ignoring, indeed excusing, Palestinians' violation of their central obligation under Phase I of the road map. At the very same time, the State Department is threatening Israel with sanctions over a fence that is nowhere mentioned in the road map.
This kind of amnesia and one-sidedness is not new. We have been here before. It was called Oslo. And we know how it ended."

"Key evidence in Amrozi's trial" (The Age, 2003/08/07)
"JUNE 12
Amrozi confessed to being involved in other lethal bombings in Indonesia and said his desire to attack Westerners began when he worked in Malaysia, where Australian co-workers told him about the decadent behaviour of white people visiting Bali. Amrozi denied being the mastermind of the Bali bombings but admitted he had bought and transported the explosives used in the blasts. "When I heard on the radio there were many foreign victims, I was very proud," Amrozi told the court. ...
JULY 14
Amrozi launched his defence by claiming that the main blast on October 12 might have been caused by a mini nuclear device detonated by the United States or Israel. He also said the attack that killed 88 Australians had had some "positive effects", including restoring religious and moral standards and stopping the Balinese people becoming "slaves" of foreigners.
JULY 17
The prosecution ridiculed Amrozi's defence as "bullshit" and again called for the alleged mass murderer to be sentenced to death." (See also: "Bali bomb 'had positive aspects'" (BBC News, 2003/07/14))

Added in archive:
"The Leo-conservatives" (Gerhard Spörl, Der Spiegel, 2003/08/04)

Thursday, August 7, 2003

News and commentary:

"At Least 11 Die in Car Bombing at Jordan's Embassy in Baghdad" (Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2003/08/07)
"A car bomb exploded today outside the Jordanian Embassy here, killing 11 people and wounding at least 65, in the deadliest episode since the Bush administration declared an end to combat operations on May 1.
The bomb exploded at 11. a.m. as many Iraqis stood about the embassy entrance waiting to apply for visas and conduct other business. The force from the explosion blew a 30-foot-wide hole in the brick wall that separates the embassy from the street, hurling bodies and shrapnel and debris hundreds of yards.
American investigators said the vehicle, which appeared to be a green truck, was unattended at the time of the blast. The officials later said that a second bomb might have exploded at about the same time as the first.
The blast left a scene of horrific carnage. The blackened dead lay about on the embassy grounds, while burned and bleeding survivors crawled from the wreckage on their hands and knees. After the blast, a mob of Iraqis flocked into the embassy, apparently enraged at the recent decision by King Abdullah of Jordan to grant asylum to Saddam Hussein's daughter, Raghad and Rana."

"Amrozi bin Nurhasyim..."
(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, 2003/08/07)
"Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, one of the key suspects in the Bali bombings, turns to face the spectators and gives thumbs up, after judges handed down death sentence, at his trial in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2003."

"Bali bomber sentenced to die" (CNN.com, 2003/08/07)
"The first defendant to stand trial in connection with last October's Bali nightclub bombings has been found guilty by a court on the island and sentenced to death.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, dubbed the "smiling bomber" for his defiant approach to police and the court system, had admitted taking part in the attacks that killed 202 people.
"The accused is found guilty in a legal and convincing manner of carrying out an act of terrorism," said chief judge I Made Karna.
After the verdict was read, Amrozi pumped his fist into the air, smiled and offered two thumbs up to court spectators - many of them survivors of the blasts or relatives of the victims." (See also: "Paradise lost" - News and commentary on the Bali bombing.)

"Evidence found linking Bali blast to Jakarta bombing" (Steven Gutkin. AP/The Salt Lake Tribune, 2003/08/07)
"Jemaah Islamiyah almost certainly carried out the bombing, a U.S. official in Washington said. The official said that the blast had the hallmarks of previous attacks by the group, an Islamic movement that officials have linked to al-Qaida and blamed for the Bali bloodshed. ...
Two of the alleged Bali bombers expressed happiness at the attack.
"Thank God. I am thankful," Imam Samudra, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings that killed 202 people Oct. 12, shouted after he testified in Bali during another suspect's trial. "I am happy, especially if the perpetrators were Muslims."
One of his alleged accomplices, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, grinned and yelled "Bomb!" when asked about the Marriott attack, which came two days before a verdict in Amrozi's own trial. ...
Mappaseng said officers had found a badly burned head close to wreckage of the bomb vehicle. "We strongly suspect that [this person] is linked with the bomb," he said.
Police also found two dismembered hands that could provide fingerprints of the suspected suicide bomber, Bachtiar said."

"German publisher drops book supporting Palestinian terrorism" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/08/07)
"A German publisher has dropped a British-Canadian philosopher's book dealing with the fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks because of recent statements by the author that appear to support Palestinian "terrorism."
Suhrkamp said in a statement Wednesday that it was relinquishing rights to Ted Honderich's After the Terror, published in German last month, after complaints from a Holocaust research centre about the author's recent statements on Palestinian attacks.
Honderich argued "the Palestinians do indeed have a moral right to their terrorism" in a statement that appeared in a lecture recently posted on his Internet site, though not presented as his own opinion in the book which examines the moral implications of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Micha Brumlik, the director of the Fritz Bauer Institute, accused Suhrkamp in an open letter on Tuesday of publishing "a tract that spreads anti-Semitic anti-Zionism (and) justifies the killing of Jewish civilians in Israel."
Suhrkamp said that the author had expressed unacceptably radical views in the Internet statements.
"He has adopted for himself what in the book was only a quotation: 'The Palestinians are right to look back to Fascist Germany and say they are the Jews of the Jews,'." the statement said." (See also: "A Philosopher in the Trenches: Interview with Ted Honderich" (Paul de Rooij, The Palestine Chronicle, 2002/12/04) and "Hating Israel is part of campus culture" (Jonathan Kay, National Post/Campus Watch, 2002/09/25))

"Transforming the Middle East" (Condoleezza Rice, The Washington Post, 2003/08/07)
"Today America and our friends and allies must commit ourselves to a long-term transformation in another part of the world: the Middle East. A region of 22 countries with a combined population of 300 million, the Middle East has a combined GDP less than that of Spain, population 40 million. It is held back by what leading Arab intellectuals call a political and economic "freedom deficit." In many quarters a sense of hopelessness provides a fertile ground for ideologies of hatred that persuade people to forsake university educations, careers and families and aspire instead to blow themselves up - taking as many innocent lives with them as possible.
These ingredients are a recipe for regional instability -- and pose a continuing threat to America's security.
Our task is to work with those in the Middle East who seek progress toward greater democracy, tolerance, prosperity and freedom."

"Amrozi Defiant Before Bali Blast Verdict" (Joanne Collins and Karima Anjani, Reuters, 2003/08/07)
"Praising God and denouncing Jews, Indonesian Muslim militant Amrozi faced his judges on Thursday as they delivered the first verdict in the Bali nightclub bombing trials.
The climax of Amrozi's trial came just two days after a car bomb killed at least 10 people at a luxury hotel in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, and coincided with concern that a shadowy Southeast Asian network linked to al Qaeda might be plotting further attacks.
Amrozi, dubbed the smiling bomber, faces death by firing squad if convicted on charges of helping to plot, organize and carry out crimes of terror in relation to the blasts that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, on October 12 last year.
"Burn, burn the Jews," a defiant-looking Amrozi shouted in Arabic as two police escorted him to a seat at the center of the court opposite a panel of five judges who began the lengthy process of summing up the evidence."

"Ore. Man Pleads Guilty to Helping Taliban" (Blaine Harden, The Washington Post, 2003/08/07)
"Maher Hawash, an Intel software engineer whose detention in Oregon prompted high-profile protests about civil rights abuse, pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of conspiring to help the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In return for his promise to testify against six other Portland-based suspects accused of plotting in 2001 to wage war against the United States, federal prosecutors dropped more serious terrorism charges against Hawash, who worked for Intel for more than a decade before his detention in March. ...
The detention of Hawash, 38, who was born on the West Bank and became a U.S. citizen 13 years ago, angered many of his longtime friends at Intel. They demonstrated outside a federal courthouse in Portland and organized a media campaign that garnered considerable national attention.
They said his detention - the FBI picked him up at an Intel parking lot and detained him without charge for five weeks - was a violation of his civil rights and an affront to his family. Hawash lives in suburban Portland, and is married with three young children." (Note: James Taranto notes that the Free Hawash! site is still up and now it has this disclaimer, which applies rather well on the historical record of radicals as a whole: "While we were ultimately wrong in our guesses about what happened..." (Free Hawash!, 2003/08/07))

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

News and commentary:

"Mini-nukes on US agenda" (BBC News, 2003/08/06)
"A conference to plan the future of the American nuclear arsenal, including the development of so-called mini-nukes, is being held this week at StratCom, the headquarters of US Strategic Command in Nebraska.
The Bush administration appears determined to build a new generation of small nuclear weapons, especially "earth penetrators", designed to attack nuclear, chemical or biological materials buried deep underground. ...
In the jargon preferred by those in this business, they are called "small build" weapons - weapons of about one kiloton, 1,000 tonnes of explosive.
According to the leaked agenda, the "Future Arsenal" panel will examine "requirements for low-yield weapons, EPW's, enhanced radiation weapons, [and] agent defeat weapons."
A new form of warfare is coming - the extension into the nuclear field of the highly accurate conventional bombs and missiles already in use.
Decoded, this means nuclear devices with that produce small amounts of radiation, earth-penetrating weapons to attack underground bunkers, larger devices with greater radiation effects and weapons to destroy chemical and biological agents."

"'Democracy' in Reuterville" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/08/06)
There is indeed not any indication at all in the entire dispatch that the election in North Korea was a shameless sham: "Reuters, the anti-American "news" service, won't call Osama bin Laden a terrorist, at least without scare quotes. But it does think North Korea is a democracy. "N. Korea Hails 100 Percent Poll Support for Leader" reads the headline on a ludicrous dispatch:

North Korea said on Monday that polls in which voters gave leader Kim Jong-il 100 percent support showed the communist state was "firm as a rock" in the face of economic woes and isolation over its nuclear ambitions.

The 61-year-old Kim was one of 687 deputies elected unopposed on Sunday for seats in North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted the Central Election Committee as saying turnout was 99.9 percent of registered voters and that 100 percent of the votes were cast for the sole candidates."

(See also: "N.Korea Hails 100 Percent Poll Support for Leader" (Paul Eckert, Reuters, 2003/08/04))

"Former President Carter To Be Tried For Peace Crimes" (The Onion, 2003/08/06)
An instant classic: "An international peace-crimes tribunal commenced legal proceedings against former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for alleged crimes against inhumanity Monday.
"Jimmy Carter's political career includes a laundry list of anti-war-making offenses," said chief prosecutor Charles B. Simmons. "Carter's record of benevolence, diplomacy, and respect for human life is unrivaled in recent geopolitical history. For millions, the very sight of his face evokes memories of his administration's reign of tolerance."
The former president, whom Simmons described as "relentless in his naked pursuit of everlasting global peace," has been sought by peace-crimes officers in the international war-making community for decades. Police apprehended Carter on July 25 in South Florida, where he was building low-income housing as a part of a Habitat For Humanity project. Shortly thereafter, he was extradited to Geneva, where he will be prosecuted for "grossly humane acts against all nations." ...
"Carter is one of the worst enemies the forces of destruction have known since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his non-violent rampages of the '50s and '60s," Simmons said. 'Even today, in his capacity as an ex-president, [Carter] continues his pursuit of non-aggression. He must be stopped now, before another terrible war is avoided and more lives are saved.'"

"Orwell's Warning" (Michael Gonzales, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/08/06)
"Still, it is important not to close one's eyes to what else the BBC has become, particularly since the corporation and its journalists are themselves blind to it. The BBC refuses to admit that its coverage of the lead-up to war, of the conflict and its aftermath, has been tendentious; that it has relentlessly pushed the agenda that the war was wrong. ...What led to it is the BBC's all-out campaign to validate its world view. Because the mass graves and accounts of torture by Saddam's regime are too real, the BBC has grabbed onto the fact that WMDs have not yet been found to justify its animosity toward the liberation of Iraq. And this animus sprang from the consensus that the West is always wrong. ...
In "Notes," Orwell wrote: "In societies such as ours, it is unusual for anyone describable as an intellectual to feel a very deep attachment to his own country. Public opinion--that is, the section of public opinion of which he as an intellectual is aware--will not allow him to do so. Most of the people surrounding him are skeptical and disaffected, and he may adopt the same attitude from imitativeness or sheer cowardice."
Through its declarations the BBC reveals itself to be unaware that some people think of it in this manner, let alone that it might be true. It is a testament to Britain's genius that time and again heroes have emerged from unlikely places to slay the nihilism of the intelligentsia. Whether there are any out there to battle with it today remains to be seen."

"Questions heaping about the travels to Iraq" (Lasse Wierup, Dagens Nyheter, 2003/08/06)
As I noted in the original post on the alleged WMD-finds by a Swedish reporter, there were essentially no information at all available on the web about her or the TV company in question. Dagens Nyheter has done more research on the matter than my own one-minute Googling and the result isn't exactly confidence-inspiring, to put it mildly. This is a partial translation of the article, which is in Swedish:
"What is the truth about the TV company that made a contract with FOI? The reporter Maria Wera Cedrell refuses to answer:
"I don't have the permission to do that," she tells DN. ...
She claims that it is a company named WTN, registered in Monaco. But she can't state a contact person, owner or editor, nor a telephone number or an address. ...
There are also more question marks regarding Maria Wera Cedrell herself. According to her own statements she has worked as a reporter in Baghdad for almost fifteen years. Cedrell tells DN that she has been in Iraq not less than 92 times.
And yet it was not until last year her name surfaced in Swedish media. She had sold an interview with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz to TV4. ...
Journalism has, however, not been Maria Vera Cedrell's only occupation for the last fifteen years.
During the same period she has, among other things, been importing cosmetics, run a beauty parlor, sold trips under the name "Vip-travels" and been involved in a construction company." (See also: "'This is the "smoking gun" the U.S. is looking for'" (Maria Gners, Svenska Dagbladet/Watch, 2003/08/03))

"Paper: N.Korea Plans to Export Missiles to Iran" (Reuters/The Washington Post, 2003/08/06)
"North Korea is in talks to export its Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile to Iran and to jointly develop nuclear warheads with Tehran, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The conservative Sankei Shimbun, quoting military sources familiar with North Korea, said that the communist state planned to export components and Iran would then assemble the Taepodongs at a factory near Tehran."

"Pro-Saddam guerrillas turn to terrorist tactics" (Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times, 2003/08/06)
"The pro-Saddam Hussein guerrillas killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq increasingly are embracing the tactics of terrorists by targeting civilians.
Yesterday, an improvised explosive device — a weapon favored by Saddam loyalists — was ignited near a truck carrying an American contractor for Kellogg Brown & Root, an engineering and construction company involved in rebuilding Iraq.
The explosion killed the worker, making him the first American civilian killed in Iraq since Baghdad fell to the coalition April 9. ...
Reuters news agency reported from Baghdad that in addition to the contractor killed yesterday, three other civilians have been killed in guerrilla ambushes: a British journalist, a Sri Lankan worker for the Red Cross and an Iraqi driver for the United Nations. Pro-Saddam fighters also have killed Iraqi politicians and police who are helping the coalition transform the Ba'athist-run country into a democracy."

"Israel to release 339 Palestinian prisoners" (Arieh O'Sullivan, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/08/06)
"Israel is to release 339 Palestinian prisoners Wednesday in a goodwill gesture that the Palestinians have derided as unsatisfactory.
Under heavy police guard to prevent disruptions, convoys will deliver the handcuffed prisoners at 2:30 p.m. to five crossing points, four in the West Bank and one in the Gaza Strip. An additional 99 prisoners will be released at a later date, senior security sources said Tuesday."

Added in archive:
"Tony Auth's inspiration" (Stefan Sharkansky, Shark Blog, 2003/08/03)

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

News and commentary:

"Car Bomb Wrecks Indonesia Hotel, Kills 14" (Joanne Collins and Telly Nathalia, Reuters, 2003/08/05)
"A huge car bomb tore through one of the top hotels in Indonesia's capital on Tuesday, killing 14 people and wounding 150 in the second major attack to shake the world's most populous Muslim nation in a year.
Jakarta's governor said a suicide bomber had probably caused the blast at the JW Marriott Hotel, part of a U.S. hotel chain.
The bomb ripped out the lobby and set fire to dozens of cars and taxis. Many windows in the 33-storey hotel were blown out.
Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil called it "an act of terrorism." The government warned recently of more attacks by the Jemaah Islamiah network blamed for October's Bali bombing. ...
The blast was timed as workers poured out of offices for lunch and mosques called the faithful to prayer. It came just two days before the first verdict is due in the trials of Muslim militants accused in the Bali bombings that killed 202. ...
The Indonesian Red Cross said 14 people died and 150 were wounded.
"Thirteen bodies have been evacuated to hospitals while the last one, a human head without a body, was just found by a Red Cross team on the fifth floor of the hotel," a senior Red Cross official said."

"Arab nations refuse to recognize Iraq's Governing Council" (AP/US Today, 2003/08/05)
"Arab League members decided Tuesday not to recognize Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council, saying they will wait until a government is elected.
Arab officials welcomed the council's creation as a first step toward new leadership in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. But the decision Tuesday showed that Arab governments are keeping some distance from the body — dismissed by many in Iraq and across the Arab world as a puppet of Iraq's U.S. and British occupiers.
The decision means Iraq's seat at the 22-member Arab League will remain empty for the time being."

"Khomeini grandson attacks 'religious dictators'" (Anton La Guardia, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/08/05)
"A grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the late leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, has denounced the country's religious regime as "the worst dictatorship in the world", reminiscent of the "church during the Dark Ages in Europe".
In extraordinary remarks that will outrage hardliners among Teheran's ruling mullahs, Hossein Khomeini almost seemed to invite America to overthrow the clerical regime, as it did to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. ...
Mr Khomeini was quoted by the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper as urging "separating religion from the state and ending the despotic religious regime reminiscent of the rule of the church during the Dark Ages in Europe".
He added: "All those who came to power after [the death in 1989 of] my grandfather exploited his name and that of Islam to continue their unfair rule." ...
In comments reported by the Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey, Mr Khomeini praised the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. "I see day by day that [Iraq] is on the path to improvement. I see that there's security, that the people are happy, that they've been released from suffering," he said."

"Gulliver Unbound: Can America Rule the World?" (Josef Joffe, The Centre for Independent Studies, 2003/08/05)
Josef Joffe on America as "Über-Gulliver": "My title is 'Gulliver Unbound', and to make the point in all its baldness: There has never been a Gulliver as Gulliveresque as 21st century America. It dwarfs anybody in the present as well as in the past. ...
America is unique in time and space. Others might be able to defy the US, but they can neither compel nor vanquish it - except in the meaningless sense of nuclear devastation that will be mutual. The sweep of its interests, the weight of its resources and the margin of its usable power are unprecedented. ...
Real empires routinely crush their rivals. But America is only an 'imperial republic', as Raymond Aron mused decades ago. Presumably, democracies pay 'decent respect to the opinions of mankind' because they cherish that respect for themselves. They are better off leading by heeding because they cannot sustain the brutish ways of Rome for any length of time. Unwilling to conquer, this 'empire' still needs order beyond borders. The objective is the right 'milieu'. To achieve it, America must sometimes use force; to sustain it, the sword is not enough-and too costly, to boot. But to build the right coalitions for peace, the United States must not forsake the 'co' in 'coalition'-as in 'consensus' and 'cooperation'. As Gulliver learned, it is hard enough to live even as friendly giant among the pigmies. It is even harder to escape their slings and arrows when strength is untempered by self-restraint. For power shall be balanced."

"Turkey's Radical Turn?" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post/danielpipes.org, 2003/08/05)
"The optimistic view further eroded when it became known that the Turkish foreign minister, an AKP leader, had instructed Turkey's diplomatic missions abroad to support a virulent militant Islamic group called Milli Görüs - described by a Hamburg court as the "greatest danger" to a democratic order in Germany. Nor did it help when an AKP-dominated parliamentary committee voted to multiply nine-fold the number of new government-paid mosque positions.
By May, Gen. Özkök was privately scolding Erdogan. Publicly, he spoke of military "sensitivities" concerning the AKP and warned it against engaging in "anti-secular activities." He even alluded to the military possibly removing the AKP from power.
In this context, last week's vote represents the AKP throwing down the gauntlet. Ignoring the military's objections, it passed laws in the context of preparing Turkey for European Union membership that heavily restrict the generals' political influence.
This action raises two questions: Will the flag officers accept this limitation? And is this the start of a process that could transform Turkey, for 80 years the stalwart of secularism in the Muslim Middle East, into an Islamic republic?
The stakes are huge. Stay tuned."

"Don't Sell Out Iraq" (Ralph Peters, New York Post/FrontPageMagazine, 2003/08/05)
"Having seen the United Nations in action (or inaction), I wouldn't trust it to run a school safety crossing on a traffic-free day in a roadless town with no children.
The notion that the United States should cede any significant authority for the reconstruction of Iraq to the United Nations may appeal to forlorn lefties as well as to chicken hawks of the sort who like to declare wars then duck the responsibility for their aftermath. But it should outrage anyone who cares about the sacrifices made by our soldiers, the respect earned by our country or the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of Iraq's citizens.
As a former soldier who supported the destruction of Saddam's criminal regime on practical and moral grounds, I am disgusted by those whose support for the war lay in selfish agendas and who now wish to escape the political costs of our actions.
Make no mistake: The United States can afford to do what remains to be done in Iraq. But we can't afford to be seen as a cheapskate superpower, seeking to evade our responsibilities while sticking others with the bill."

"The Real Intelligence Failure - What if it turns out Saddam didn't have weapons of mass destruction?" (Francis Fukuyama, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/08/05)
Et tu, Fukuyama? It's so tiresome that Fukuyama repeats the irritatingly common, but nonetheless false assertion that Bush made a false assertion in his State of the Union speech: "The media has been focusing obsessively on the relatively minor issue of how an incorrect assertion about Iraq's nuclear ambitions got into the president's State of the Union speech."
Personally, I think he is wrong in his belief that WMD's "were disposed of long ago, and that all of Iraq's subsequent suspicious behavior was the product of half-hearted efforts at reconstitution that were ultimately fruitless" as well, but it's a possibility and he has some interesting points:
"Both Unscom and U.S. intelligence were unpleasantly surprised by the extent of the Iraqi WMD programs uncovered in 1991. Thereafter, both had strong incentives not to be made fools of again. Unscom developed estimates of the extent of covert Iraqi research and stockpiles not accounted for, but whose existence could not be verified. The Clinton administration used the Unscom tallies as a baseline, and supplemented them with worst-case estimates based on intelligence it gathered. The Bush administration simply continued this process. Overestimation was passed down the line until it was taken as gospel by everyone (myself included) and used to justify the U.S. decision to go to war. ...
The media's focus on whether President Bush or his advisors were lying is thus totally misplaced. Most in the administration honestly believed there were significant stocks of weapons and active programs that would be found, even if they let slip a false assertion about yellowcake in Niger. Why else would Centcom have been so concerned to protect U.S. forces against possible chemical/biological attack? ...
What we need now is not more politicized debate over specific items in presidential speeches, but a careful review of what Unscom and the intelligence community thought they knew about Iraqi programs going all the way back to the end of the 1991 war. This is being undertaken currently by David Kay, the former U.N. weapons inspector, in a closely held process. What he finds needs to come out in the open soon. What is at stake is not the credibility of one administration, but of a system designed to protect the world against weapons of mass destruction." (See for example: "No flies on Bush" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2003/07/19 issue), for an entertaining refutation of the Bush 'LIED OVER NIGER URANIUM CLAIMS!!!!!!!!!!!' allegation.)

"Officials: Electronic devices may hide airline threat" (Jeanne Meserve, CNN.com, 2003/08/05)
"Homeland Security officials have told CNN that an advisory will be issued directing the aviation industry and all federal screeners and local authorities to pay particular attention to electronic items like remote key locks, and specific brands and models of cell phones, boom boxes and cameras.
Recent raids of al Qaeda safe houses overseas turned up evidence that the group was trying to modify electronic devices to carry small weapons or explosives, administration officials told CNN. For instance, a camera flash was being modified to convert to, or carry, a stun gun, the officials said.
The discoveries in those hideouts led to the decision last week to warn the aviation sector of possible hijackings.
That warning read in part, 'The hijackers may attempt to use common items carried by travelers, such as cameras, modified as weapons.'"

Monday, August 4, 2003

News and commentary:

"An excerpt from Windows on the World: read at your own risk" (Michele Catalano, A Small Victory, 2003/08/04)
More on Frédéric Beigbeder's despicable "Windows on the World", a novel on "what happened in the restaurant at the 107th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11 2001": "...I would like you to read this excerpt from Windows on the World emailed to me by Merde.

'When I think that you will never see my home entertainment system: with a screen as wide as the Lake Superior', said the brown haired guy in Kenneth Cole. - 'Too bad... but don't give up now, the firemen will be here in just a few minutes', said the blond girl wearing Ralph Lauren.
- 'Saint George Soros, pray for us!', said the brown haired guy in Kenneth Cole.
- 'Oh Ted Turner, please save us!' said the blond girl wearing Ralph Lauren.

Merde then writes: The porno segment, with all possible hardcore references, starts afterwards with the blond girl wearing Ralph Lauren telling the brown haired guy in Kenneth Cole that she has had, especially for him, a laser epilation of her pubic hairs.
Let's mull this over a while, ok? I am too upset and angered to think clearly about this. Does this look like highbrow literature to you? Are you, too, indignant or horrified that this book is going to become a best seller in France?
Words, for this moment at least, cannot describe the feeling in my stomach and heart right now." (See also: "French pr0n" (Merde in France, 2003/08/01))

"The Leo-conservatives" (Gerhard Spörl, Der Spiegel, 2003/08/04)
An article on Leo Strauss and his alleged influence on the Bush administration: "A conspiracy theory is developing in which Strauss is portrayed as the puppet master and the Bush administration as his puppets. The anti-Semitic overtones of this theory are obvious - Strauss as a "Nazi Jew" -, particularly as many of his students bear Jewish names: Paul Wolfowitz, Abram Shulsky, Harvey Mansfield, William Kristol. ...
However, these two neocons are students of a different professor, also with a German name and also a professor at Chicago, although he arrived there shortly before Strauss' retirement: Albert Wohlstetter, born in New York, taught the theory of security policy and made a lasting impression on Wolfowitz (who attended only two of Strauss' courses) and Perle. Aggressiveness instead of passiveness in foreign policy, the will to change instead of the old status quo way of thinking; these are ideas that can be attributed to Wohlstetter, and represent the conditions of the new Pax Americana." (Note: Thanks to Barry Kaplovitz for the pointer.)

"Syria assumes presidency of United Nations Security Council" (Melissa Radler, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/08/04)
"Syria assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council yesterday morning for the month of August, marking the second time the terrorist-sponsoring nation has held the prestigious post. ...
During Wehbe's last term as council president, in June 2002, the Damascus-based Islamic Jihad terror group claimed responsibility for killing 17 Israelis in a suicide bombing at the Megiddo junction."

"Public trust in BBC plummets" (Julia Day, The Guardian, 2003/08/04)
"Trust in the BBC has been so deeply damaged by the weapons dossier affair that the corporation has lost the faith of a third of the British public in less than a year.
Just nine months ago the corporation's main news channel, BBC1, commanded the trust of 92% of the public. A new survey by Mori, however, has put trust in the BBC at only 59% - a massive 33% drop.
The report is believed to be the lowest ever level of trust recorded for the BBC, which has traditionally been the nation's touchstone for truthful and accurate news."

"The Next Korean War" (R. James Woolsey and Thomas G. McInerney, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/08/04)
"Unfortunately, the reflexive rejection in the public debate of the use of force against North Korea has begun to undermine U.S. ability both to influence China to act and to take the preparatory steps necessary for effectiveness if force should be needed. The U.S. and South Korea must instead come together and begin to assess realistically what it would take to conduct a successful military operation to change the North Korean regime.
It is not reasonable to limit the use of force to a surgical strike destroying Yongbyon. Although the facility would need to be destroyed, the possible existence of another plutonium reprocessing plant or of uranium-enrichment facilities, or of plutonium hidden elsewhere, makes it infeasible to limit the use of force to such a single objective. Moreover, military action against North Korea must protect South Korea from certain attack (particularly from artillery just north of the DMZ that can reach Seoul). In short, we must be prepared to win a war, not execute a strike. ...
We are not eager to see force used on the Korean peninsula. It is better to resolve this crisis without war. However, unless China succeeds in ending North Korea's nuclear weapons development--and we believe this will require a change in regime--Americans will be left with the threat to our existence described by Secretary Perry when he recently said that the North Korean nuclear program "poses an imminent danger of nuclear weapons being detonated in American cities."
We can hate it that we are forced now to confront this choice. But we should not take refuge in denial."

"Symposium: A Guerrilla War in Iraq?" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/08/04)
Anyone interested in the absurd logic of fervent anti-Americanism shouldn't miss author and "retired Special Forces officer and Vietnam veteran" Stan Goff's contributions to this debate. His advice to the President is questioned by James Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993-95 and a former Navy undersecretary and arms-control negotiator:
"Goff: I would advise the President to do the following: fire Donald Rumsfeld and appoint retired General Wayne Downing Secretary of Defense. Announce to the world that the US plans for the re-colonization of Iraq will be abandoned, and that the Pentagon has one week to submit a plan for a rapidly phased withdrawal. Simultaneously publish an executive order that all aid to Israel will be summarily suspended pending their withdrawal to pre-1967 borders. Announce a unilateral cease-fire that will hold so long as no further attacks against American troops, which will be completely redeployed within one month. ...
Conduct a simultaneous and immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. Apologize to the world and the American people for lying to them. ...
Forgive the debts of all developing nations, and take Wall Street into federal receivership. Fire Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. Submit yourself to prosecution for violations of the Geneva and Hague Conventions and violations of the international Laws of Warfare. ...
Woolsey: ... Mr. Goff's recommended courses of action do not disappoint - they are of the same bizarre character as his analysis. ... His central recommendations are for the US now to withdraw "simultaneously" from Iraq and Afghanistan within one month, thereby betraying the large numbers of citizens of those two countries who have put their faith in our willingness to continue to help keep them free them from any resurgence of the odious Ba'athist and Taliban regimes that allied armed forces have successfully deposed.
A resurgent Taliban would almost certainly again give a sanctuary to al Qaeda - is this what Mr. Goff wants? A renewed base for 9/11-type attacks? If Mr. Goff's recommendations were taken, the brave reformers who are emerging into public life, the women who may now show their faces in public, and the countless other Iraqis and Afghans who have put their faith in the US, the UK, Australia and the other allies would be condemned to, at best, horrible repression and, more likely, the torture chamber and hideous deaths. Mr. Goff's entire package of vitriol is like the thirteenth chime of a clock - not only is it strange in and of itself, it should call into question all that emanates from the same source."

"Iran Closes In on Ability to Build a Nuclear Bomb" (Douglas Frantz, Los Angeles Times, 2003/08/04)
"After more than a decade of working behind layers of front companies and in hidden laboratories, Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists that like many countries it is only building commercial nuclear reactors to generate electricity for homes and factories. "Iran's efforts in the field of nuclear technology are focused on civilian application and nothing else," President Mohammad Khatami said on state television in February. "This is the legitimate right of the Iranian people."
But a three-month investigation by The Times — drawing on previously secret reports, international officials, independent experts, Iranian exiles and intelligence sources in Europe and the Middle East — uncovered strong evidence that Iran's commercial program masks a plan to become the world's next nuclear power. The country has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from international inspectors. Technology and scientists from Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan have propelled Iran's nuclear program much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was.
No one is certain when Iran might produce its first atomic weapon. Some experts said two or three years; others believe the government has probably not given a final go-ahead. But it is clear that Iran is moving purposefully and rapidly toward acquiring the capability."

"N. Korea Seeks to Exclude U.S. Official From Talks" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2003/08/04)
"John R. Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, last week delivered a tough speech in Seoul that focused on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his grip on the nation. The speech, titled "A Dictatorship at the Crossroads," described life in North Korea as "a hellish nightmare" and called Kim a "tyrannical rogue." ...
Yesterday, North Korea fired back.
In a statement attributed to a spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry, Pyongyang said: "We know that there are several hawks within the present U.S. administration but have not yet found out such rude human scum as Bolton. What he uttered is no more than rubbish which can be let loose only by a beastly man bereft of reason."
The statement said that Bolton's speech makes "one doubt whether he is a man with an elementary faculty of thinking and stature as a man or not" and casts "a doubt as to whether the U.S. truly wants to negotiate with the DPRK [North Korea] or not." The statement said, however, that North Korea was still committed to attend the talks, noting "a caravan is bound to go ahead though dogs bark."
But Pyongyang made clear that "such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks." In fact, the statement added that in light of Bolton's "political vulgarity and psychopathological condition," the government has "'decided not to consider him as an official of the U.S. administration any longer, nor to deal with him.'" (Note: Found via Best of the Web Today. See also: "A Dictatorship at the Crossroads" (John R. Bolton, United States Embassy - Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2003/07/31))

"It is the BBC's political agenda that should be investigated" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/08/04)
Amiel on the "new radio series Spinning to Win on the World Service": "Where was the balance? Where was anything apart from innuendo and tendentious, common, inelegant anti-war views? Knightley's comment on the last programme sums the pottage up: "I suspect it will emerge that the crisis over Iraq was an invented crisis." If the BBC gave a fig about its mandate, it would tackle the clash of propaganda and information in war from a neutral perspective - and more representatively.
When a government believes a course of action is desirable for the nation, it must argue its case. Of course, it will try to put its best foot forward. Their arguments will be spun according to the country's culture, the ethics of the government and the personal ethos of the individuals involved. To present radio programmes that make no references at all to such distinctions - tonight's programme equates the spin from the Iraqi Minister of Information with allied military briefings from Dohar - and then to envelop everything with the fog of moral equivalence is in itself blatant spin."

Added in archive:
"A Dictatorship at the Crossroads" (John R. Bolton, United States Embassy - Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2003/07/31)

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.

"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'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)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

› AOTW Archive



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)

Weekly archive

2006/12/04 - 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13 - 2006/11/19
2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

› From 2001/09/11 -



Monthly index

December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006

› From September 2001 -



Author index

› Ajami, Fouad - Johnson, Paul
› Kagan, Robert - Ye'or, Bat



Support Watch

Please feel free to donate if you enjoy the daily content and links Watch provides:

Contact Watch

Email:
watch-at-windsofchange.net