Archived news and commentary: November 3 - 9, 2003

2003/12/29 - 2004/01/04
2003/12/22 - 2003/12/28
2003/12/15 - 2003/12/21
2003/12/08 - 2003/12/14
2003/12/01 - 2003/12/07
2003/11/24 - 2003/11/30
2003/11/17 - 2003/11/23
2003/11/10 - 2003/11/16
2003/11/03 - 2003/11/09
2003/10/27 - 2003/11/02
2003/10/20 - 2003/10/26
2003/10/13 - 2003/10/19
2003/10/06 - 2003/10/12
2003/09/29 - 2003/10/05

Sunday, November 9, 2003

News and commentary:

"Raya (age 7) Mezher"
(Jihad Watch, 2003/11/09)
From: "The human cost of jihad" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2003/11/09)
"Among those murdered by Al-Qaeda jihadists yesterday in Saudi Arabia were these two Lebanese Maronite Christian children ... Jad (age 4) and Raya (age 7) Mezher."

"Israel OKs Prisoner Swap With Hezbollah" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/09)
"Israel's Cabinet on Sunday narrowly approved a hotly contested prisoner swap with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, by a 12-11 vote, Israel TV said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had staked his prestige on the deal, which would have Israel exchange more than 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.
The swap excludes Israel's most famous MIA, airman Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon 17 years ago.
Critics of the deal warned that Israel would be seen as rewarding violence and would boost Hezbollah's standing in the Arab world. In Lebanon, Hezbollah officials warned they would kidnap more Israelis if the deal collapses." (See also: "Negotiating with terrorists" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/07))

"At the eleventh hour" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2003/11/09)
"Last week saw the re-release of the anti-war classic, All Quiet on the Western Front. The film critic for my local paper expressed a widespread sentiment when he argued that the message of the film was that 'the only real weapon of mass destruction is human nature itself', and recommended, rather selectively, that it be 'mandatory viewing for all politicians, especially the United States and the present Government'.
This theme was developed by novelist Philip Kerr in the New Statesman. Also writing about Lewis Milestone's 1930 Oscar-winning film, Kerr told readers that he was just three years younger than Tony Blair. So, he went on: 'I find it almost incomprehensible that someone from a generation who came of age during the Vietnam war, who read the war poets, [who]... listened to Joan Baez and John Lennon, and who must surely once have seen this marvellous film, could march this country into so many military conflicts.'
It is Kerr's incomprehension that I find odd. Just seven years after Erich Remarque's novel, on which the film was based, was published in German, Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland. Kerr knows better than most the sequence that followed: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland. In Spain, General Franco, it turned out, had not seen the movie.
The military conflicts we have been 'marched into' by Mr Blair are Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. That isn't because the PM never understood the words of 'Imagine', but because it transpired that the Taliban, the hard men of the Baath, the amputating militias of West Africa, the Hutu Interahamwe and the Serb army of Radko Mladic had been brought up on something other than Joan Baez."

"Saudis Blame al-Qaida As Bomb Kills 17" (Donna Abu-Nasr, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/09)
"Saudis blamed al-Qaida militants Sunday for the suicide car bombing of a Riyadh housing complex that killed 17 people, declaring it proof of the terror network's willingness to shed Muslim blood in its zeal to bring down the U.S.-linked Saudi monarchy.
The attack late Saturday at an upscale compound for foreign workers — where mostly Arabs lived, also wounded 122 people. The blast, not far from diplomatic quarters and the king's main palace, left piles of rubble, hunks of twisted metal, broken glass and a large crater. ...
An Interior Ministry official told the official Saudi news agency late Sunday that the death toll rose to 17 — including five children — after search crews pulled six more bodies from the rubble. At least 13 were Arabs, with the others as yet unidentified, the official said."

"Arafat's Billions" (CBS News, 2003/11/09)
"Yasser Arafat diverted nearly $1 billion in public funds to insure his political survival, but a lot more is unaccounted for.
Jim Prince and a team of American accountants - hired by Arafat's own finance ministry - are combing through Arafat's books. Given what they've already uncovered, Arafat may be rethinking the decision. ...
So far, Prince's team has determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion -- with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.
Although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And, Prince says, none of these dealings were made public. ...
The stockpile went well beyond the portfolio. Arafat accumulated another $1 billion with the help of - of all people - the Israelis. Under the Oslo Accords, it was agreed that Israel would collect sales taxes on goods purchased by Palestinians and transfer those funds to the Palestinian treasury. But instead, Indyk says, "that money is transferred to Yasser Arafat to, amongst other places, bank accounts which he maintains off-line in Israel." (See also, for example: "Palestinian Authority funds go to militants" (BBC News, 2003/11/07) and "Report: Arafat funnels $100,000 PA aid monthly to wife" (Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, 2003/11/07))

"Riding Into Tehran On Winds of Change" (Steve Coll, The Washington Post, 2003/11/09)
A report from Iran: "The government anchors talk over footage from CNN depicting violence in Iraq, then air sound bites from Democratic candidates in the United States, who criticize the Bush administration's policies.
"I think the majority of the young are like me," Nahid says, meaning they are fed up with their government. "Yet we have no good opinion about this situation in Iraq. Maybe before, we thought it would be good to have the United States come in. But now, we look at these pictures from Iraq, and it looks terrible. So we think, maybe it is just better to be patient and hope for change from within - or tolerate the system we have.
"All of our lives have been spent in wars, revolution, changes. When you think about this, you prefer silence." ...
Many Iranian students remain inspired by U.S. and European ideas. Yet the impact of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq "very much depends on how well the United States will be able to establish a democratic system in Iraq and be responsive to the demands of the Iraqi people," he says. 'If the U.S. fails in Iraq, it may change the attitudes of the Iranian populace.'"

"Alternatives to Iraqi Council Eyed" (Robin Wright and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post, 2003/11/09)
"Increasingly alarmed by the failure of Iraq's Governing Council to take decisive action, the Bush administration is developing possible alternatives to the council to ensure that the United States can turn over political power at the same time and pace that troops are withdrawn, according to senior U.S. officials here and in Baghdad.
The United States is deeply frustrated with its hand-picked council members because they have spent more time on their own political or economic interests than in planning for Iraq's political future, especially selecting a committee to write a new constitution, the officials added."

Saturday, November 8, 2003

News and commentary:

"300,000 Iraqis May Be in Mass Graves" (Bassem Mroue, AP/The Guardian, 2003/11/08)
As many as 300,000 Iraqis killed during Saddam Hussein's 23-year dictatorship are believed to be buried in more than 250 mass graves found so far around the country, the top human rights official in the U.S.-led civilian administration said Saturday.
Sandy Hodgkinson spoke at workshop to train dozens of Iraqis to find and protect mass grave sites that many fear could be destroyed by desperate relatives trying to dig for evidence of their missing loved ones. ...
Hodgkinson said the majority of people buried in mass graves were Kurds murdered by Saddam in the 1980s after rebelling against the government and Shiites killed after their 1991 uprising."

"How to Win in Iraq" (John McCain, The Washington Post, from the 2003/11/09 issue)
"Iraq is not Vietnam. There is no popular, anti-colonial insurgency in Iraq. Our opponents, who number only in the thousands in a country of 23 million, are despised by the vast majority of Iraqis. The Iraqi insurgents do not enjoy the kind of sanctuary North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos provided. They do not have a superpower patron. These murderers cannot carry the banner of Iraqi nationalism, as Ho Chi Minh did in Vietnam for decades.
But if we are to avoid a debate over who "lost" Iraq, as we debated who lost Vietnam a generation ago, we must act urgently to transform our early military success into lasting political victory....
I believe we must deploy at least another full division, giving us the necessary manpower to conduct a focused counterinsurgency campaign across the Sunni Triangle that seals off enemy operating areas, conducts search-and-destroy missions and holds territory. ...
Failure to make the necessary political commitment to secure and build the new Iraq could endanger American leadership in the world, put American security at risk, empower our enemies and condemn Iraqis to renewed tyranny. It would be the most serious American defeat on the global stage since Vietnam."

"Exit Strategy or Victory Strategy?" (William Kristol and Robert Kagan, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/11/17 issue)
"The front page of the November 7 Washington Post says it all. The first headline, in large type: "Bush Urges Commitment to Transform Mideast." Below, in slightly smaller type: "Pentagon to Shrink Iraq Force." And below that: "Iraqi Security Crews Getting Less Training." It's a jarring juxtaposition. The president eloquently makes the case for a necessarily and admirably ambitious foreign policy. Yet his own administration's deeds threaten the achievement of his goals. ...
In other words: The president wants to win, and the Pentagon wants to get out. It's of course possible we can do both at once. And it's also true that on the political side, there's a strong case for a faster transfer of power to the Iraqis. But the fact remains that over the short term we have a policy in contradiction with itself. Is it to be a victory strategy or an exit strategy? The president has, since 9/11, prevailed (on key matters) over the status quo foreign policy favored by his State Department. Will he now prevail over his Defense Department as well? After all, speeches are good; troops are better."

"U.S. Grip Loosens in the Sunni Triangle" (Daniel Williams, The Washington Post, 2003/11/08)
"Since June, when attacks on U.S. forces began in earnest, the average number of ambushes has more than doubled, soaring from about 12 a day to 37 in late October before falling to 29 last week, according to Col. William Darley, an Army spokesman.
Today in Tikrit, 45 miles west of here, for the second time in a week, guerrillas shot down a U.S. helicopter. Despite the immediate appearance of airborne reinforcements, the perpetrators escaped.
There is a growing power vacuum in central Iraq, where support for Saddam Hussein was strongest and where much of the population depended on jobs in his government and vast security apparatus and on the favored political status he accorded to the country's Sunni Muslims. The danger of permitting this wide-open state of affairs to persist, Iraqi officials say, is that it will spread and increase the confidence of enemies of the occupation.
"The weaker the grip of the U.S., the bigger the gap in power, and the increasing perception that the Americans are vulnerable boosts the morale of those who want to destabilize and expand a reign of terror," said a senior Iraqi cabinet official in Baghdad. "This perception creates unease among those who cooperate with the United States."
"I wouldn't say we are winning," said Lt. Brian Caplin, a U.S. officer in charge of Thuluiya's branch of the Civil Defense Force, an Iraqi unit set up to buttress security throughout central Iraq."

Friday, November 7, 2003

News and commentary:

"Author of Saudi Curriculums Advocates Slavery" (Ali Al-Ahmed, Saudi Information Agency, 2003/11/07)
Via Little Green Footballs: "The main author of the Saudi religious curriculum expressed his unequivocal support for the legalization of slavery in one of his lectures recorded on a cassette and obtained exclusively by SIA news.
Leading government cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan is the author of the religious books currently used to teach 5 million Saudi students, both within the and in Saudi schools aboard – including those in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
"Slavery is a part of Islam," he says in the tape, adding: "Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam."
Government spokesman Adel Al-Jubeir and other officials have repeatedly claimed religious curriculums are being reformed, but Al-Fawzan’s books continued to be used according to the minister of education’s statements published by Al-Watan daily September 14th, 2003.
Al-Fawzan is member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country.
Al-Fawzan refuted the mainstream Muslim interpretation that Islam worked to abolish slavery by introducing equality between the races.
"They are ignorant, not scholars," he said of people who express such opinions. 'They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.'"

"Palestinian Authority funds go to militants" (BBC News, 2003/11/07)
"The Palestinian Authority, headed by Yasser Arafat, is paying members of a Palestinian militant organisation which has been responsible for carrying out suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, a BBC investigation has found.
A total of up to $50,000 a month is being sent to members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group that emerged shortly after the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, a BBC Correspondent programme reveals. ...
Despite the payments, the al-Aqsa group has not declared a formal ceasefire and Mr Arafat has not asked the group to stop the suicide bombings, according to an al-Aqsa leader interviewed by the programme. The Palestinian leader has publicly condemned recent Palestinian suicide bombings."

"The Truth Will Set Us Free" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2003/11/07)
The perfect companion to Bush's speech: "We should accept that they are at war with us and cease the intellectual dishonesty and moral cowardice that makes us worry about bombing during Ramadan in Afghanistan while our religious enemies seek to inaugurate these same holidays with the murders of Americans. When you are at war and you care more about the sanctity of your enemies' religious holidays than they do, you are in serious trouble. ...
In short, our enemies are ideological fanatics who benefit from sanctuary in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Yemen, money from Saudi Arabia and pan-Arabic charities, and indirect political tolerance and at times covert support from members of the Saudi Royal family, the government of Basher Assad, Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, elements of the Pakistani government, and Yasser Arafat.
We all know that privately, but we must now publicly accept the challenge of our day — if we wish to ensure that there are no more craters and incinerated flesh in New York. The president had it right all along that there is a big choice for everyone involved — and those in the Middle East will have to decide whether they are for or against the United States in its efforts to kill the Islamic fascists who have butchered thousands of our own and who want to destroy America and offer a new Dark Age in its place. All the peace marches, New York Times editorials, or near-slander from Democratic presidential contenders cannot change that reality, and so the decision really is either to cease and desist or to wage war and finish the conflict. Anything in between is madness."

"Bring Them Home" (Denis Boyles, National Review, 2003/11/07)
"Meanwhile, the appearance of Rumsfeld's "long, hard slog" memo in USA Today caused l'Humanite to report that the intensity of the guerrilla activity against Coalition forces was forcing senators, congressmen and members of the administration to see in Iraq a "parallel with Vietnam." In another piece, the paper pointed out that "Washington is in turmoil" because the lie used by the US to go to war against Iraq has been revealed. Every day, said the paper, the murderous attacks lead America deeper into an "inextricable conflict," one that is "catastrophic and dangerous" and a "very long way today from the initial objective: 'freedom for Iraq'."
Le Parisien showed George W. Bush confronting more "disastrous news" coming from Iraq, while the Nouvel Observateur reported "new attacks" and signs of political collapse. Le Figaro agreed. saying it's just one attack after another in Iraq. ...
Meanwhile, Le Point reported that more and more Americans wonder whether or not Iraq is becoming another Vietnam. It's a reasonable assertion, of course: First of all, every French journalist already knows it is. And second, so do most American reporters: The Washington Post's Richard Cohen wrote that a survey of Nexis showed "more than 800 links" in a single week "where the words 'Iraq' and 'Vietnam' appeared together." ...
It may be that the level of violence in Iraq is microscopic compared to what was happening in Vietnam, and maybe the geopolitical details don't quite line up with all those southeast Asian dominos. But so what? To build a case, you have to start someplace, yes? After all, in the European and American press, Vietnam is the only way to understand and report Iraq."

"Does the Shi'ite turban fit?" (Nir Rosen, Asia Times, 2003/11/07)
An interesting article on al-Sadr and Shi'ite apocalypticism:
"Yaqubi's arch rival, Muqtada al-Sadr, also issued a conciliatory statement on Saturday, November 1. The young Sadr and his followers in the Army of the Mahdi have been increasingly clashing with US troops, as well as more moderate Shi'ite groups. Alarmed by US army threats that he would be arrested as a rabble rouser threatening Iraqi stability, Sadr issued a statement asking American troops to spare Iraqi lives, calling for unity and brotherhood between the Americans and the Iraqis.
He stated that Saddam Hussein was a "sinful aggressor" and that he and his backers were the real and only enemies of Iraq, not the Americans. Sadr described Americans as guests in Iraq, adding that they were "peace loving people". He also stated that the Iraqi people only want good for the Americans (credit for translation of Sadr's statement goes to Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan). ...
However, Sadr's radical departure from his previous hostility to the US was contradicted in private the same day by one of his main deputies in Baghdad. Seyid Hasan Naji al-Musawi, the 38-year-old imam of Sadr City's Muhsin mosque and commander of Sadr's Army of the Mahdi in Baghdad, said that the final days were approaching in which the Mahdi would return. ...
Musawi declared that America's real purpose in coming to Iraq was to kill the Mahdi. "Iraq will be the end of America," he said, "the Mahdi will be coming soon and when he comes he will kill the Jewish leadership," which he equated with the Americans, adding that Julius Caesar was Jewish, and the Jews were the Romans. Musawi quoted a verse from the Koran prognosticating the eventual defeat of the Jews. He added that the Mahdi would be coming from the Hejaz area of Saudi Arabia, accompanied by Jesus, and he would also kill many clerics who wear the imama, or Shi'ite turban."

"Negotiating with terrorists" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/07)
"On Sunday, the cabinet will meet to decide whether to provide the Israeli people with a photo-op. The ministers will vote on whether to accept or reject a negotiated deal with Hizbullah. The parameters of the deal are that Israel will release from our prisons former Hizbullah leader Abdel Karim Obeid, former Amal militia chief Mustafa Dirani, 17 other Hizbullah terrorists who killed IDF soldiers, and more than 400 Palestinian terrorists, some of whom were directly involved in the murder of Israelis. In exchange, Israel will receive the bodies of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Omar Sawayid and Benny Avraham who were kidnapped from their base in Israel and murdered by Hizbullah in October 2000 and Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum who the same month was abducted and brought to Lebanon by Hizbullah while carrying out legally dubious business dealings in a Gulf state. ...
First of all, it gains legitimacy for its terror tactics. If Israel plays ball with a group of kidnappers, then that means that kidnapping is a good idea and should be used again and again. Even as the negotiations reached their critical stage this week, Nasrallah continued to threaten to kidnap Israelis in the future. ...
The fact that Israel is willing to give more than four hundred live terrorists for one live Israeli businessman means that now Hizbullah knows that every Israeli they can get their hands on is a prime target. If the government agrees to pay such a high price for Tannenbaum, the suspected felon, the lives of all Israelis everywhere are at risk. If his release costs Israel 400 terrorists, how much will Israel agree to pay to secure the release of an Israeli family abducted while on safari in Africa or a honeymooning couple kidnapped while trekking through South America? Today we are agreeing to play this game. Tomorrow we will see the price."

"Arab Liberal Writer: Blames Arab Media for Hatred of the U.S." (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 605, 2003/11/07)
"An op-ed by Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor of London Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, claiming that the U.S. is to blame for the Arab world's hatred of it, sparked a debate in the Arab press. Munir Al-Mawari, a Yemenite journalist and columnist for the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote several articles responding to Atwan's claims. The following are excerpts from two of Al-Mawari's articles: ...
"According to Atwan, 'the American administration… that is trying to destroy WMD forgets that the U.S. was the only country in history ever to use weapons of mass destruction… While it permits Israel… to possess such weapons, it threatens Iraq, Iran, and Syria if they only dare to think of possessing WMD.'
'…The danger inherent in WMD is the possibility that such weapons will be within the reach of reckless regimes and terror gangs… The U.S. possesses a huge WMD arsenal, but has not used them since World War II. In contrast, we, the Arabs, have threatened to destroy half the state of Israel, when we had at our disposal a very small quantity of this type of weapon and after we used it against our Arab brothers… What would happen if we had real WMD at our disposal? Considering the hatred boiling within us towards ourselves and towards the entire world, we might destroy the entire planet…'"

"If Bush is Serious About Arab Democracy..." (Tony Karon, TIME, 2003/11/07)
The Middle East paradox: "Democracy requires that the results of a properly certified vote be accepted, no matter how unpalatable the outcome. So, if President Bush's promise to make democracy the guiding principle in U.S. dealings with the Middle East signals an intention to press regimes to subject themselves to the popular will, and also a readiness in Washington to respect the resulting political choices of Arab citizens, that would indeed mark a revolutionary break with the past. ...
Creating a non-violent, democratic channel for the expression of Islamist political sentiment may be the key to the long-term transformation of the region away from a political dynamic of authoritarian autocracy vs. extremism and terror. Democracy, however, requires a leap of faith not only on the part of Arab autocrats, but also by the powers that be in Washington. Because as much as a wave of democracy would sweep away the mullahs in Tehran and the neo-Stalinists in Damascus and the deranged dictator in Tripoli who swears he holds no power and is simply a guy in a tent, it would also almost certainly sweep away America's allies in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh. And in both sets of cases, their replacements may not be the kind of folks with whom President Bush feels comfortable."

"The Egyptian Controversy Over Circumcising Girls" (B. Chernitsky, MEMRI, 2003/11/07)
Islamists respond to the Egyptian campaign denouncing the practice of female genital mutilation by detecting "an entire conspiracy to destroy the framework of Islamic society":
"Islamic writer Dr. Ahmed Abd Al-Rahman shares this suspicion about the West's true motives in calling for a ban on the tradition: "Not circumcising girls opens the gate to the spread of depravity and prostitution, as happened in the West as a result of ignoring this normal, human demand. Do we want to be like the West? The commercials [against circumcising girls] broadcast on television these days are repulsive because they contradict Islamic law… Their purpose is to destroy the Muslim family and degrade Egyptian society." ...
Dr. Muhammad Abu Leila spoke out against both the campaign and the West, which he says, by opposing circumcising both boys and girls, is promoting the spread of AIDS: "The media campaign we are witnessing today is nothing more than part of an entire conspiracy to destroy the framework of Islamic society. The ban on circumcising girls is preparation for a ban on circumcising boys. The West does not recognize circumcision at all, neither for girls nor for boys, and medical insurance today for infants in America does not cover circumcising a boy. The expense falls to the family if it decides to perform it, which leads to the spread of AIDS." ...
Prominent Islamic preacher Sheikh Mustafa Al-Azhari echoes claims about Western involvement in the media campaign against circumcising girls: 'This is a dubious campaign whose only aim is to spread promiscuity among the Muslims… The [Egyptian] media should not have collaborated in this crime, which is being planned by the U.S. and backed by the West…'" (Note: For more on this barbaric practice, see also "Female Genital Mutilation - In Africa, The Middle East & Far East" (ReligiousTolerance.org))

"Lost in translation" (Lorenzo Cremonesi, Haaretz, 2003/11/07)
An interview with Sa'adoon Al-Zubaydi, who was Saddam Hussein's presidential translator: "'For at least three years Saddam Hussein had been tired of the day-to-day management of his regime. He could not stand it any more: meetings, commissions, dispatches, telephone calls. So he withdrew, delegating tasks almost invariably to the more criminal elements of the regime. ...
He preferred shutting himself up in his office and writing.'
What did he write? "Novels. He used to spend hours and hours engrossed in long, fantastic stories in the popular Arab tradition, but also undoubtedly inspired by autobiographical motifs: great loves, besieged castles, memorable battles and above all betrayed and treacherous princes, family intrigues, embittered kings stabbed in the back by their own sons - all set in Mesopotamia of Assyro-Babylonian times (it is no secret that Saddam considered himself a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar)." ...
'But this was the way things were during the last months. The only friends we had left were people of [right-wing Austrian politician] Jorg Haider's ilk. In 2002 he paid us no less than three visits. People said that circles on the Austrian extreme right received huge sums of money from Iraq, up to tens of millions of dollars. Perhaps Naji Sabri himself, a dear friend of Haider, found refuge there after the war. We had lost the Pope and gained Haider. What a deal! It was obvious that we were going to lose the war, and the rats were scurrying for cover before the first shot was ever fired.'"

"America's New Empire for Liberty" (Paul Johnson, Hoovers Digest, from the Fall 2003 issue)
"The Bush administration is only beginning to grasp the implications of the course on which it has embarked. It still, albeit with growing difficulty, speaks the language of anti-imperialism. But that is the jargon of the twentieth century or at least its second half. Who says it will be the prevailing discourse of the twenty-first? As it happens, imperialism became a derogatory term in America only during the Civil War, when the South accused the North of behaving like a European empire. It then became politically correct to speak only of "American exceptionalism." Internationally imperialism became a dirty word early in the twentieth century, and it was the Communists who were chiefly responsible for turning it into a hate word. And it is worth recalling too that up to 1860 empire was not a term of abuse in the United States. George Washington himself spoke of "the rising American Empire." Thomas Jefferson, aware of the dilemma, claimed that America was "an empire for liberty." That is what America is becoming again, in fact if not in name. America's search for security against terrorism and rogue states goes hand in hand with liberating their oppressed peoples. From the Evil Empire to an Empire for Liberty is a giant step, a contrast as great as the appalling images of the wasted twentieth century and the brightening dawn of the twenty-first. But America has the musculature and the will to take giant steps, as it has shown in the past."

"Heil Dubya" (The Wall Street Journal, 2003/11/07)
"A recent Harvard poll found that today's college students are more likely to register as Republicans and support President Bush than even the general public, but apparently there are those who disagree. As a recent column in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian puts it: "Dubya is one of the single most evil men roaming free right now, a man whose deviousness and maliciousness is equaled by only a few. Bush is a creature on the same level as bin Laden or, more appropriately, Hitler. . . . This man and his cronies - his 21st century version of the Third Reich - should be held accountable for the atrocities that they have inflicted." A budding Michael Moore?" (See also: "Dubya accountable for Sept. 11" (Johnny Donaldson, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, 2003/10/28))

"Report: Arafat funnels $100,000 PA aid monthly to wife" (Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, 2003/11/07)
"An investigative report by CBS television 60 Minutes will claim that Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat transfers $100,000 a month from funds directed to the Palestinian Authority to his wife Suha.
The report, to be aired across the United States on Sunday, alleges that Suha Arafat, who lives in Paris with the couple's daughter, receives the sum on a monthly basis.
According to the report, Arafat has accumulated in his private accounts more than $800 million from aid originally appropriated to the Palestinian authority."

Thursday, November 6, 2003

News and commentary:

"President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East" (The White House, 2003/11/06)
Remarks by President Bush at the 20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy:
"Our commitment to democracy is also tested in the Middle East, which is my focus today, and must be a focus of American policy for decades to come. ...
Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe - because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence ready for export. And with the spread of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo.
Therefore, the United States has adopted a new policy, a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. This strategy requires the same persistence and energy and idealism we have shown before. And it will yield the same results. As in Europe, as in Asia, as in every region of the world, the advance of freedom leads to peace.
The advance of freedom is the calling of our time; it is the calling of our country."

"Sheikh Fadel Al-Sahlani : 'It will take two to three years to stabilize the country'" (Le Monde/Watch, 2003/10/27 [2003/11/06])
An interesting interview with Imam Fadhel Al-Sahlani, "the highest shia religious authority in North America", who just has returned from a long tour of Iraq. Note how the interviewer consistently — but unsuccessfully — fishes for negative assessments:
"Six months ago you rejoiced at the coming end of the of the regime of Saddam Hussein, saying that for the Shia, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Is this still the case?
Things haven’t changed much since. We are grateful to the allied forces for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make in destroying the regime of Saddam Hussein and freeing Iraq. You know, people are so happy not to have to fear being kidnapped, tortured or disappearing from one day to the next. They now have complete religious freedom and can express themselves as they want to. ...
Would handing power over to the Iraqis quickly reduce the violence?
I doubt it. This is the idea of diplomats who are far from reality. Iraqis need time, and the means, for example, to create an efficient police force. The policemen of the former regime no longer know how to do their jobs. They have to relearn everything. These people aren’t going to change in a few weeks. You can generalize this example to all the state missions. It will take two to three years to stabilize the country.
But a Shia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, opposes the occupation and has announced the formation of his own government...
These people are manipulated by the enemies of Iraq. The Iraqis have had enough of these meaningless speeches on nationalism, Arab unity and the struggle against the West, responsible for all our misfortunes.
We have had enough of this kind of rhetoric for thirty years. It has lead us to where we are now. The great majority of Shias are Iraqis who no longer want to hear these hollow words. They want good relations with their neighbors, with the West and a better life for their children." (Note: Translation by Douglas. See also the French original: "Cheikh Fadel Al-Sah Lani : 'Il faudra deux à trois ans au moins avant de stabiliser le pays'" (Le Monde, 2003/10/27))

"From sea to shining sea" (The Economist, 2003/11/06)
From the Economist's survey of America: "But on current trends, by the middle of this century America's population could be 440m-550m, larger than the EU's even after enlargement, and nearly half China's, rather than a quarter.
America will also be noticeably younger then and ethnically more varied. ...
Then there is the technology gap. Each year, more patents are applied for in America than in the European Union. America has almost three times as many Nobel prize-winners than the next country (Britain), and spends more on research and development than any other country. On one measure of academic performance, over 90 of the world's top 100 universities are in America.
Europe and America have also been diverging economically, though one should be cautious about that. In the seven years from 1995 to 2001, real GDP rose by 3.3% a year in America but by only 2.5% a year in the European Union. The bursting of the stockmarket bubble and the subsequent recession reversed this pattern — in 2001, GDP growth was higher in Europe than America — but the gap opened up again as the economies recovered. On current estimates and forecasts, growth in America in the three years to 2004 will average 1.3 percentage points a year more than in the 12-country euro area. Some 60% of the world's economic growth since 1995 has come from America."

"Fiends raped Jessica" (Paul D. Colford and Corky Siemaszko, The Daily News, 2003/11/06)
"Jessica Lynch was brutally raped by her Iraqi captors.
That is the shocking revelation in "I Am a Soldier, Too," the much-anticipated authorized biography of the former POW. A copy of the book was obtained by The Daily News yesterday.
Best selling author Rick Bragg tells Lynch's story for her, often using her own words. Thankfully, she has no memory of the rape.
"Jessi lost three hours," Bragg wrote. "She lost them in the snapping bones, in the crash of the Humvee, in the torment her enemies inflicted on her after she was pulled from it."
The scars on Lynch's battered body and the medical records indicate she was anally raped, and "fill in the blanks of what Jessi lived through on the morning of March 23, 2003," Bragg wrote.
'The records do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead.'"

"Al Qaeda Suspects Blow Selves Up in Mecca" (AP/FOX News, 2003/11/06)
"Two suspected militants blew themselves up Thursday in the holy city of Mecca when security forces attempted to arrest them, a security official said.
The official said the two likely belonged to a terror cell that had clashed with Saudi police in Mecca on Monday. That cell has been linked to Al Qaeda, the terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and for a string of suicide bombings in the Saudi capital in May.
Earlier Thursday, Saudi police engaged in a firefight with suspected terrorists in the capital, Riyadh, leaving one suspect dead and eight policemen wounded, an Interior Ministry official said."

"Europeans are worse than cockroaches" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2003/11/08 issue)
"There is a Cold War between the US and the EU, says Mark Steyn, and it will end with the collapse of Old Europe":
"Three: 59 per cent of Europeans think Israel is the biggest threat to world peace. Only 59 per cent? What's wrong with the rest of you? But, hey, don’t worry. In Britain, it’s 60 per cent; Germany, 65 per cent; Austria, 69 per cent; the Netherlands, 74 per cent. The good news is that Israel won't be a threat to world peace much longer, at least not if Iran’s nuclear programme carries on running rings around the International Atomic Energy Agency and the ayatollahs fulfil their pledge to solve the problem of the Zionist Entity once and for all.
Let us leave for another day the question of whether Israel is actually a bigger global menace than North Korea, which has hung a big shingle on the street saying 'Nukes? We Got 'Em! And You Won't Believe Our Prices!' The fact is that 11 September bound America to Israel in ways that oblige Washington to regard European distaste for Jews as more than a mere social faux pas. Given the rate of Islamic immigration to Europe, those anti-Israeli numbers are heading in only one direction. At present demographic rates, by 2020 the majority of children in Holland — i.e., the population under 18 — will be Muslim. What do you figure that 74 per cent will be up to by then? Eighty-five per cent? Ninety-six per cent? If Americans think it's difficult getting the Continentals on side now, wait another decade. In that sense, the Israelis are the canaries in the coalmine.
Lesson: America’s and Europe's world views have diverged significantly, and those world views are now incompatible."

"The Left's Love Affair With the Palestinians" (Paul Hollander, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/11/06)
Paul Hollander is of course the author of the brilliant study "Political Pilgrims", which together with Norman Cohn's "The Pursuit of the Millennium" is a must-read for understanding the appeal of religious and secular millenarianism:
"There is another possible explanation for the increased appeal of the Palestinian cause during the last few years while the intifada and suicide bombings unfolded. It may well be that Palestinian violence is not merely accepted as a justifiable response to Israeli policies, but is actually applauded. Once more there are probable parallels with the appeal of communist movements and insurgencies of the past and their violence.
Many Western intellectuals had a longstanding and barely (if at all) suppressed admiration for what they saw as the morally superior, passionate, invigorating, authentic use of violence in a wholesome, liberating cause. ...
Palestinian guerrillas and especially the fearless suicide bombers embody such authenticity and unwavering commitment. They put their lives on the line and joyously, serenely destroy themselves (and many more others) for the good of the cause. ...
While left-liberal intellectuals in the West have some reservations about religious fanaticism, (especially if associated with Judeo-Christian beliefs and practices), Islamic religious fanaticism is quite another matter since it is a product of the Third World and the cultural diversity it represents and as such deserving of respect."

"Canned Kraut" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2003/11/06)
"Gen. Reinhard Guenzel, the head of Germany's Special Forces Command (KSK), got the hobnailed boot on Tuesday. His mistake? He expressed a bit too publicly the sort of Jew-hating sentiment tens of millions of Germans harbor privately. ...
Of course, there are good Germans. Plenty of them. But they live in Philadelphia, not Frankfurt. They or their ancestors all left Germany by 1938. Those who stayed didn't just support Hitler - they loved him and fought for him to the bitter end.
The whopping difference between the Allied occupation of Germany and our occupation of Iraq is that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis welcomed their liberation. We had to force freedom and democracy on the Germans at gunpoint.
They'll never forgive us - no more than they'll forgive Jews for surviving the Holocaust, making a success of Israel against all odds and enriching the United States in virtually every field of human endeavor.
And Germany? In the 19th and early 20th century, German-speaking countries led the world in culture and science. Then they killed or drove away their Jews. The result? Germany's greatest contributions to world culture since 1945 have been Milli Vanilli and Gummi Bears." (See also: "German general axed in Jewish row" (BBC News, 2003/11/04))

"An Arab Apostate" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/11/06)
"Fascinating article appearing in the usually anti-American Arab News. It's from a columnist, Fawaz Turki, who was opposed to the war and still argues that "I have no illusions about the shenanigans and hypocrisies of a big power like the US, including its neocon ideologues, who are more cons than neos," has nevertheless begun to change his mind:

Is it too early to adopt a revisionist view of the US war in Iraq and for this column to admit its mistake in having vehemently opposed it from the outset?
At issue here is whether the Iraqi people have benefited from the overthrow of the Baathist regime and whether the American occupation will eventually benefit their country even more. I'm convinced — and berate me here from your patriotic bleachers, if you must — that what we have seen in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates in recent months may turn out to be the most serendipitous event in its modern history...
Washington may not succeed in turning Iraq into a "beacon of democracy" but it will succeed, after all is said and done, in turning it into a society of laws and institutions where citizens, along with high-school kids, are protected against arbitrary arrest, incarceration, torture and execution.

Wouldn't it be ironic if this war - now so reviled by many Americans - was only finally appreciated in the region it helped liberate? I'll take that over the partisan snipes in Washington any time." (See also: "Revisionist Thoughts on the War on Iraq" (Fawaz Turki, Arab News, 2003/11/06))

"Iran blamed for Argentina bombing" (BBC News, 2003/11/06)
"A former Iranian secret service agent has accused Iran of planning a 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish cultural centre in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.
"Witness C" told a Buenos Aires court via video-link from Germany that Iran attacked the centre thinking it was a base for the Israeli secret service.
More than 80 people died and 200 people were injured in the attack. ...
Earlier this year, Argentine Judge Juan Jose Galeano also issued warrants for the arrest of 12 Iranians in relation to the attack.
These included Iran's ambassador to Argentina at the time of the bombing, Hadi Soleimanpour, whose arrest in the UK sparked a major diplomatic row between Iran and Argentina and between Iran and the UK.
Mr Soleimanpour has since returned to Iran." (See also: "Iranian agent admits Iran's responsibility for attack in Argentina" (Xinhuanet, 2003/11/05): "As for the reason for the attack, Mesbahi said it was intended to avenge the Argentine government's failure to supply nuclear materials to Iran, as promised in the past.")

"Memo infuriates senators" (James G. Lakely, The Washington Times, 2003/11/06)
"Senate Republicans expressed outrage yesterday over a memo that plotted a Democratic strategy for taking maximum political advantage of an investigation into U.S. intelligence before the war in Iraq.
The memo, written by a staffer for Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat and co-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested Democrats "pull the majority along as far as we can."
The Democrats then should change tactics and call for an independent investigation next year, when President Bush will be running for re-election, the memo said.
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the intelligence panel, said he was "stunned" when he read the memo, and called it a 'purely partisan document that appears to be a road map for how the Democrats intend to politicize what should be a bipartisan, objective review of prewar intelligence.'" (See also: "Miller on Politicized Intelligence Memo: 'Heads Should Roll'" (Senator Zell Miller, 2003/11/05): "I have often said that the process in Washington is so politicized and polarized that it can't even be put aside when we're at war. Never has that been proved more true than the highly partisan and perhaps treasonous memo prepared for the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. ... If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin. The ones responsible - be they staff or elected or both should be dealt with quickly and severely sending a lesson to all that this kind of action will not be tolerated, ignored or excused.")

"Iraq Said to Have Tried to Reach Last-Minute Deal to Avert War" (James Risen, The New York Times, 2003/11/06)
"As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal.
Iraqi officials, including the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, and they offered to allow American troops and experts to conduct a search. The businessman said in an interview that the Iraqis also offered to hand over a man accused of being involved in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 who was being held in Baghdad. At one point, he said, the Iraqis pledged to hold elections."

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

News and commentary:

"U.S. frees Taliban leader to join Karzai" (Shaun Waterman and Anwar Iqbal, UPI, 2003/11/05)
Moderate Taliban? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?: "The United States, in a move at odds with its publicly declared policy, has released from custody in Afghanistan the former Taliban foreign minister as part of a strategy to recruit elements of the former regime into the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
Afghan and Pakistani officials told United Press International the Karzai government has been negotiating with the minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, to entice elements of the Taliban to join the government, which faces widespread security problems in the Pashtun-dominated areas of the country that formed the heartland of the fundamentalist movement.
Muttawakil was handed over to Afghan authorities last week after more than 18 months in U.S. custody. ...
Since the U.S.-led war toppled the Taliban, Pakistan has also reached out to discontented Pashtun tribal leaders, the official said. By raising the specter of Pashtunistan, the official said, Karzai hoped to pressure Pakistan to use its influence with moderate Taliban and tribal leaders to get them to support - and thereby stabilize - the Kabul government."

"Restating the Case for War" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2003/11/05)
"The president has been widely lampooned by many a glib columnist for saying that increased violence is not necessarily a cause for despair and may even be evidence of traction. He is, in fact, quite right to take this view, which was first expressed, to my knowledge, by Gen. John Abizaid. Those who murder the officials of the United Nations and the Red Cross, set fire to oil pipelines and blow up water mains, and shoot down respected clerics outside places of worship are indeed making our point for us. There is no justifiable way that a country as populous and important as Iraq can be left at the mercy of such people. And — here is my crux — there never was. ...
This already lousy status quo was volatile and unstable. Saddam Hussein's speeches and policies were becoming ever more demented and extreme and ever more Islamist in tone. The flag of Iraq was amended to include a verse from the Quran, and gigantic mosques began to be built in Saddam's own name. Even if, as seems remotely possible, he was largely bluffing about weapons of mass destruction, this conclusion would destroy the view maintained by many liberals that, for all his crimes, Saddam understood the basic logic of deterrence and self-preservation. (That he was "in his box," as the saying went.) Not only was he able to defy the United Nations, but with French and Russian collusion, he was also increasingly able to circumvent sanctions. The "box" was falling apart, and its supposed captive was becoming more toxic. As he became older and madder, there emerged the real prospect of a succession passing to either Odai or Qusai Hussein, or to both of them. Who could view that prospect with equanimity?"

"The Blackmail of Islamophobia" (Pascal Bruckner, Le Figaro/Europundits, 2003/11/05)
Bruckner on the "invention of Islamophobia", translated by C. Bloggerfeller: "Islam is untouchable: to criticise or be suspicious of it is a proof of racism. Such is the new vulgate which MRAP [an anti-racist movement], certain sections of the media, academics and political leaders are trying to have accepted. What is this all about in reality? Removing the religion of the Koran from the test to which the two other existing monotheisms have long been subject: the test of self-examination. ...
However, there are worse things, as Vincent Geisser's pamphlet proves: his aim is first and foremost to penalise those so-called moderate or agnostic Muslims who want to free themselves from fundamentalism. It's here that the concept of Islamophobia reveals itself to be a pernicious war machine in the hands of vested interests... ...
They are guilty then, the Arab women who want to rid themselves of the veil, guilty all those children of immigrants who demand the right to religious indifference, the right to believe in nothing and who do not automatically feel Muslim because they come from Moroccan, Algerian or Tunisian backgrounds? The invention of Islamophobia fulfills several functions: to deny, in order to give it more legitimacy, the reality of an Islamist offensive in Europe, to intimidate and silence bad Muslims, those who impiously seek change and, finally, to block any hope of a religious transformation in the lands of Islam. ...
There's something stupefying in seeing an "anti-racist organisation" criminalising the adversaries of fanaticism and superstition. If Voltaire were alive today, we can bet that certain "anti-racists" would have him thrown in prison."

"Dems Gone Wild - III" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/11/05)
"They need to die..." Democratic Underground has removed this hideous post since it was exposed by Andrew Sullivan & Co:
"On the Angry Left Web site Democratic Underground, someone calling herself "Starpass" explains why "I hope the bloodshed continues in Iraq" (quoted verbatim): ...
I realize that not every GI Joe was 100peeercent behind Prseeedent Booosh going into this war; but I do know that that is what an overwhelming number of them and their famlies screamed in the face of protesters who were trying to protect these kids. Well, there is more than one way to be "dead" for your country. They are not only not accompishing squat in Iraq, they are doing crap nothing for the safety, defense of the US of A over there directly. But "indirectly" they are doing a lot.
The only way to get rid of this slime bag WASP-Mafia, oil barron ridden cartel of a government, this assault on Americans and anything one could laughingly call "a democracy", relies heavily on what a shit hole Iraq turns into. They need to die so that we can be free. Soldiers usually did that directly - i.e., fight those invading and harming a country. This time they need to die in defense of a lie from a lying adminstration to show these ignorant, dumb Americans that Bush is incompetent. They need to die so that Americans get rid of this deadly scum. It is obscene, Barbie Bush, how other sons (of much nobler blood) have to die to save us from your Rosemary's Baby spawn and his ungodly cohorts."

"Fenced In" (Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic/FrontPageMagazine, 2003/11/05)
Yossi Klein Halevi on the Israeli fence: "Beyond the security argument, though, what's appealing about the fence is precisely what Israeli officials are trying to deny: its political message. Even more than a separation between Israelis and Palestinians, the fence is a demarcation line between the Oslo era of Israeli delusions and the post-Oslo era of Israeli realism. The fence embodies the lesson of this war: that the violent Palestinian rejection of peace three years ago wasn't merely a setback on the way to a comprehensive settlement but the negation of a comprehensive settlement. September 2000 was an historic turning point as decisive as November 1947, when the Arab world rejected U.N. partition. To insist otherwise is to risk repeating the Oslo syndrome of Palestinian deception and Israeli self-deception. And that's precisely what happened recently with the Geneva Accord, a bit of freelance diplomacy between left-wing Israelis, who obviously don't speak for the Sharon government, and Palestinians linked to Yasir Arafat. Even as Israelis who participated in these negotiations were heralding the Palestinians' renunciation of the right of return, Kadoura Fares, a Palestinian delegate to the talks, was reassuring his people that he had done no such thing. Indeed, to expect Arafat's regime to uphold its commitments is absurd. The fence, then, is Israel's acknowledgment that the Palestinian leadership - in this generation at least - won't honor any commitments to respect Israel's legitimacy."

"Iran's Nuke Gambit" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/11/05)
"Remember you read it here first. Iran is now on course to force its way into the nuclear club within the next two to three years. When it does, it will owe part of its success to a European Union diplomatic maneuver that has spared Iran the prospect of direct confrontation over its illicit nuclear program with the international community.
The maneuver, which led to the signature of a memorandum between the Islamic republic and three EU members in October, appears to have defused the latest crisis. ...
All this means is that the Khomeinist regime may well get yet another chance to have its cake and eat it, too. According to Hassan Ruhani, a mullah who speaks for the High Council of National Security in Tehran, Iran is determined to dot itself with "the entire range of nuclear science and technology at all levels."
Iran's nuclear program started in 1956. The strategic decision to develop nuclear weapons was taken in 1989. The regime has spent an estimated $12 billion on all aspects of this ambitious program so far. It is not something that Tehran will give up after a session of tea and sympathy with the EU trio."

"In pursuit of an American Churchill" (Zell Miller, The Washington Times, 2003/11/05)
An excerpt from Zell Miller's "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat": "I fear that some of the Democratic presidential candidates are treading on very dangerous ground for the party and, more importantly, for the country.
I do not question their patriotism; I question their judgment. They are doing what politicians often do, playing to the loudest, most active and most emotional group of supporters, feeding off frustration while clawing to find some advantage. I've done it myself and lived to regret it. My concern is that, without meaning to, they are exacerbating the difficulties of a nation at war.
Some of the liberal media excuse these actions by calling them "populism." Populism, my butt. It's demagogy, pure and simple. They should stop this, or at least modify it into a more civil discourse.
Howard Dean, while not alone, is the worst offender, and it says a lot about the current Democratic base that he has emerged as front-runner for the nomination. Angry and red-faced, these doom-and-gloomers need to take some "calm-me-down" pills. They should realize their overheated rhetoric is dividing the country when they should be helping unite it." (See also: "How Democrats lost the South" (Zell Miller, The Washington Times, 2003/11/04), "'Able Democrats, but left-wing all the way'" (Zell Miller, The Washington Times, 2003/11/03) and "George Bush vs. the Naive Nine" (Zell Miller, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/11/03))

"FBI has new 9/11 hijacking suspect" (Toni Locy, USA Today, 2003/11/05)
"The FBI has identified an al-Qaeda operative who agents believe tried as late as August 2001 to join the 9/11 terrorist plot as the "20th hijacker," a top federal law enforcement official said Tuesday.
"We are fairly confident we know who No. 20 is," said the official, who is involved in the 9/11 probe and asked not to be identified. The official said the unidentified al-Qaeda operative got into the USA but "had to leave" the country shortly before 19 hijackers carried out the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people. The official would not say why the operative left, whether he is alive or whether he is in U.S. custody."

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

News and commentary:

"Muslim Jew-hatred is justified" (Jan Samuelsson, Dagens Nyheter/Watch, 2003/10/25 [2003/11/04])
Yes, this is really the headline of an article published in a major Swedish daily 2003. Jan Samuelsson, Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Religions, argues that Muslim Jew-hatred is "both understandable, reasonable and justified" because of Israeli policies (or perhaps even because of its very existence?).
This is anti-Semitism pure and simple. And it's an ominous sign of the times that Dagens Nyheter publishes it:
"But let me say it at once. On the basis of my very close contacts with Muslims in Sweden for more than 30 years as a specialist on Islamic topics I can immediately confirm that there exists what can be described as hatred or intense aversion against Jews in certain groups of Arab-speaking Muslims in Sweden.
This hatred is, in my opinion, both understandable, reasonable and justified. ...
The explanation for this hatred is the Jewish occupation of Arab land and the daily violence which Arabs are subjected to by the Jewish state. ...
There is only one solution. The Jewish occupiers must retreat from Arab land. Before that happens no one can expect or demand the ceasement of Arab Jew-hatred." (See also: "Silence surrounds Muslim Jew-hatred" (Sverker Oredsson and Mikael Tossavainen, Dagens Nyheter/Watch, 2003/10/20))

"What the Jews won't tell you" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/11/04)
"Something else about the Jews, however, gnaws at the soul of Europeans as well as Muslims. The heart of the problem is the world's perception that the Jews truly are an eternal people, not subject to the curse of mortality that hangs over the heads of the peoples of the world. ...
Under globalization, the world faces a great extinction of the peoples, the worst since the collapse of the Roman Empire, I have argued on numerous occasions. ... Apart from China and India, of how many cultures can we say that they are not at risk? Despite its high rate of population growth, the Muslim world feels fragile. Few Muslim countries have adapted well to globalization, and the Muslim world feels besieged by the encroaching culture of the West. ...
The more vulnerable become the fading peoples of Western Europe, the hotter burns their wrath against the Eternal People. Americans, of course, are not a people but a concept. America is where individuals go to abandon their culture, language, customs and history, to be recast in the melting-pot and emerge as Americans.
As I have argued previously in this space, America comes closer than has any other political entity towards fulfilling the Christian idea of an ecclesia, of an assembly of souls called out of the nations. That is why Americans have no fundamental issue with the Jews. Americans enjoy the newborn's sense of immortality, because they have exchanged cultural memory for the promise of a new beginning."

"Little Evidence Syrians Heading to Iraq" (Sam F. Ghattas, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/04)
"What had once been an assembly point in Syria for Arabs eager to fight in Iraq is now abandoned. Posters of Palestinian "martyrs" in Iraq in a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus are torn and faded. ...
Yarmouk, on the outskirts of Damascus, was the source of an estimated 300 Arab volunteers who went to Iraq to fight during the war, in the spring.
Now, residents say it's been months since they've heard of volunteers going to fight, bodies returning home or memorials held for slain men.
"Nobody has gone to Iraq since the occupation and no one is thinking of going," Salim Rashid, a 55-year-old Palestinian, said as he read a newspaper in his stationery store in Yarmouk. He recalled the disillusionment of Arab volunteers during the dying days of Saddam Hussein's regime, after many Iraqis turned against the volunteers, accusing them of supporting the dictator.
Faisal Younes said no more fighters had gone to Iraq since the fall of Baghdad in April. The volunteers were betrayed by Iraqis, the 36-year-old Palestinian said. Fighting for Iraq and Saddam was 'a big lie.'"

"German general axed in Jewish row" (BBC News, 2003/11/04)
"The head of Germany's special forces has been sacked for allegedly backing an MP who is accused of anti-Semitism.
Defence Minister Peter Struck fired Brigadier General Reinhard Guenzel for apparently praising MP Martin Hohmann. ...
Mr Hohmann first sparked a furore when he suggested it might be possible to consider Jews as a "Taetervolk", or race of perpetrators, as Germans are seen, because of Jewish actions during the Bolshevik revolution.
In an interview for ZDF's Frontal 21 programme this weekend Mr Hohmann, an MP for the opposition right-wing Christian Democrats (CDU), read out the letter of support from General Guenzel.
"It was an excellent speech, of a courage truth and clarity which one seldom hears or reads in our country," Mr Hohmann quoted the letter as saying.
"Even though all those who support this view or who articulate it loud and clear are categorised by public opinion as right-wing extremists, you can be sure that you are doubtless speaking for the majority of our nation," he also quoted the general as writing." (See also: "German MP defends Jewish remarks" (BBC News, 2003/10/31))

"Pakistan is Jihad Inc's global HQ" (B. Raman, The Indian Express, 2003/11/04 [?])
An article on the "jihad factories" in Pakistan, found via Jihad Watch: "I would like to draw the attention of the panel also to four other recent documents of the US government. On October 14, the Department of Treasury issued an order freezing the bank accounts of a supposedly charity organisation of Pakistan called the Al Akhtar Trust.
It says the charity trust was founded by the Jaish-e-Muhammad, the same organisation whose supporters have played a leading role in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl and which has been active in Jammu and Kashmir.
This organisation is supposed to have been banned (in Pakistan) by an order issued on January 15, 2002. If it was banned, how did the Pakistan government allow it to start a charity and collect funds? The second significant observation in that order of the US Department of Treasury is the Al Akhtar Trust funded jihad not only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but is also suspected of funding jihad in Iraq.
That means an organisation founded in Pakistan has been funding attacks on the American troops in Iraq. How did this happen? What action did General Pervez Musharraf take against this organisation?"

"Only U.S. Strength Can Defeat Islamism" (David Gutmann, The American Enterprise, from the December 2003 issue)
Gutmann on "guilt" vs. "shame" societies: "Unless we use the leverage of the Arab shame dynamic, we are not likely to impose the Pax Americana on the terrorist states. Terror — the one form of war in which they outdo the West — is the default military option for Islamic militants, and one which they eagerly take up after their regular armies have been humiliated. Terrorism can be, after all, a more efficient means of shedding and exporting shame than outright war. In the shame calculus, the guerilla is like David talking on Goliath: Morally speaking, he never loses. Thus, defeatist reporters document a "quagmire," and driven by unmanly fear, the enemy's civilians may begin to demand an end to the costly struggle. Like the French in Algeria, the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the Israelis in Lebanon, the humiliated enemy, defeated by a numerically inferior but spiritually superior force, will carry the weight of Arab shame with him as he slinks away.
America cannot allow such a show of weakness in Iraq. The terrorist organizations must be smashed, and their sponsoring nations made to pay the price. If we withdraw in feebleness, triumphant Islamic terrorism will increase catastrophically."

"Al-Qa'ida Website Issues Ramadan Warning of Imminent Attacks: Calls on Muslims in DC, NY, and LA to Leave Those Cities" (MEMRI, Special Alert - No. 12, 2003/11/04)
"A communiqué issued by the previously unknown "Islamic Bayan Movement" warns Muslims that they should leave Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles. ...
The following are excerpts from the communiqué: ...
"Our Muslim brothers in America, we ask you to immediately leave the following cities: Washington, DC, New York, and Los Angeles. We are serious in our warning. The next few days will prove to you the truth of this warning. To the oppressive rulers of America we say: expect our terms following the first strike of Allah's believing soldiers"
The communiqué ends with another Koranic verse: "Fight them: Allah will punish them at your hands, and will humiliate them, and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers."[Koran, Chapter 9, Verse 14]" (See also: "Al Qaeda again threatens New York, Washington and Los Angeles" (DEBKAfile, 2003/11/03))

"Anti-Americanism Since 9/11" (Jean-Francois Revel, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/11/04)
An excerpt from Jean-Francois Revel's "Anti-Americanism": "In September 2001, the nadir of intellectual incoherence was achieved. (Let’s not bother with the moral dimensions; we’re too blasé for that.) After the first gushings of emotion and crocodile condolences, the murderous assaults were depicted as a justified retaliation for the evil done by the United States throughout the world. ...
This line of argument was not only made in countries whose populations, keyed up to fever pitch by jihad, instantly acclaimed the New York catastrophe as well-deserved punishment. It was also heard in the European democracies, where soon enough, insinuations were made that — with all due respect for the dead, of course — a careful look at the terrorists’ motives was called for. ...
A further step was quickly taken in the direction of intellectual decline when declarations multiplied demanding that the United States not launch a war against terrorism that could cause the entire planet to suffer. A gang of suicidal fanatics, indoctrinated, trained and financed by a powerful and rich multinational terrorist organization — or organizations — had murdered three thousand people in the heart of Manhattan, yet it was the victim who had mysteriously become the aggressor.
America’s mistake was to try to defend herself and eradicate terrorism, according to the America-haters. Obsessed by their hatred and floundering in illogicality, these dupes forget that the United States, acting in her own self-interest, is also acting in the interest of us Europeans and in the interest of many other countries threatened, or already subverted and ruined, by terrorism."

"A Burden Too Heavy to Put Down" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2003/11/04)
"Um Haydar was a 25-year-old Iraqi woman whose husband displeased Saddam Hussein's government. After he fled the country in 2000, some members of the Fedayeen Saddam grabbed her from her home and brought her out on the street. There, in front of her children and mother-in-law, two men grabbed her arms while another pulled her head back and beheaded her. Baath Party officials watched the murder, put her head in a plastic bag and took away her children.
Try to put yourself in the mind of the killer, or of the guy with the plastic bag. You are part of Saddam's vast apparatus of rape squads, torture teams and mass-grave fillers. Every time you walk down the street, people tremble in fear. Everything else in society is arbitrary, but you are absolute. When you kill, your craving for power and significance is sated. You are infused with the joy of domination.
These are the people we are still fighting in Iraq. ...
Somehow, over the next six months, until the Iraqis are capable of their own defense, the Bush administration is going to have to remind us again and again that Iraq is the Battle of Midway in the war on terror, the crucial turning point where either we will crush the terrorists' spirit or they will crush ours.
The president will have to remind us that we live in a fallen world, that we have to take morally hazardous action if we are to defeat the killers who confront us. It is our responsibility to not walk away. It is our responsibility to recognize the dark realities of human nature, while still preserving our idealistic faith in a better Middle East.
The murderers of Um Haydar cannot be permitted to beat the United States of America."

"Resistance is the first step towards Iraqi independence" (Tariq Ali, The Guardian, 2003/11/04)
Via Andrew Sullivan, who points out that "Tariq Ali now puts his full weight behind the murderers and terrorists in Iraq. So has ANSWER. How long before the rest of the anti-war left follows suit?":
"Few can deny that Iraq under US occupation is in a much worse state than it was under Saddam Hussein. There is no reconstruction. There is mass unemployment. Daily life is a misery, and the occupiers and their puppets cannot provide even the basic amenities of life. The US doesn't even trust the Iraqis to clean their barracks, and so south Asian and Filipino migrants are being used. This is colonialism in the epoch of neo-liberal capitalism, and so US and "friendly" companies are given precedence. Even under the best circumstances, an occupied Iraq would become an oligarchy of crony capitalism, the new cosmopolitanism of Bechtel and Halliburton. ...
Meanwhile, Iraqis have one thing of which they can be proud and of which British and US citizens should be envious: an opposition." (See also: "Tariq Ali's Middle East canards" (Jim Nolan, The Age, 2003/08/30))

"Anti-Semitism Watch I" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/11/04)
"'While the majority of Americans may at present be walking around in a state of semi-hypnotic denial concerning the war in the Middle East and the role of Israel in all of it, the rest of the world most assuredly is not. Elsewhere, in nations not as infected with the corrupting influence of Zionist power, the people have maintained with perfect clarity their understanding of the picture posed by the connecting dots of political events. The rest of the world has been able to note names like Perle, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Sharon, and a whole host of others of similar stripe going back 50 years, and whose ethnic and religious loyalties are no mystery. The "elephant in the room" described recently by a Jewish reporter at the New York Times, the elephant which America seems unwilling or unable to recognize is clearly visible to the rest of the world community whom America seems to disregard. Therefore, when Bush & Co. start talking about "freedom, liberation, and the war on terror," the rest of the world which has not swallowed the blue pill knows that the marionette dancing in Washington DC is directed by hands attached to the centers of power in Tel Aviv.' - Mark Glenn, in a commentary for Al Jazeerah. Thus Nazi-style anti-Semitism entrenches itself in the Arab media." (See also: "Let My People Go" (Mark Glenn, Al Jazeerah, 2003/10/31). For more examples of Mark Glenn's feverish anti-Semitism and anti-Westernism, see also "Islamic Extremism May Save Western Civilization" (Mark Glenn, Media Monitors Network, 2003/04/18) and "Israel, We Bless Thee" (Mark Glenn, Al Jazeerah, 2003/10/01): "For your role in the September 11 attacks in this country, and for blackmailing and bribing the US government into deporting back to Israel the 100 or more intelligence agents that were arrested after the attacks, we bless thee. ... And finally, for using your influence in our media and academia to flood our minds with pornography and lies, as well as inculcating in us a hatred for our history, religion, and culture, for dividing our nation between races and sexes, and for releasing into our society all of your plagues and filth that have left us a rotted out corpse of a once great nation, oh Israel, our friend, We Bless Thee.")

"Iraqis Seek Justice, or Vengeance, for Victims of the Killing Fields" (Susan Sachs, The New York Times, 2003/11/04)
"Until justice is done and Saddam Hussein is dead, Sadri Adab Diwan will carry with him the handwritten accusation that condemned his little sister to death.
The sister, Hanaa, a high school student, "is conducting backward religious activity inside the school," a security agent wrote in black ink in October 1980, a time of widespread persecution of Shiite Muslims. "Please open a secret investigation."
Soon afterward, Hanaa, a devout girl of 17, was arrested. She never returned home.
It was only six months ago, after locating her yellowing case file in a government office, that her family finally learned why she had been taken. Hanaa, an informer reported, gave a Koran to a classmate.
"The case of this girl, this pure-hearted girl, has been living with me for 20 years," said Mr. Diwan, who was the eldest of 10 children of whom Hanaa was the youngest. "If I catch Saddam, I won't kill him. That won't be enough. I'll suck his blood. And if he escapes, I'll follow him to the ends of the earth."
Rage of such intensity courses through Iraq, where the dead, the maimed and the missing consume the thoughts of the living."

"Saudis 'foiled attack on Muslims'" (BBC News, 2003/11/04)
"Suspected militants killed in the holy city of Mecca planned to attack pilgrims, a Saudi minister has said.
"They wanted to make the entire country a place for terror... even the holiest place on earth," Prince Nayef told a Saudi newspaper.
Saudi police killed two suspects on Monday and captured another six. ...
Prince Nayef, the country's interior minister, told Tuesday's Saudi al-Riyadh newspaper that the suspected militants planned to strike at "buildings, installations and people".
"All the seized weapons indicate such a plan," he said.
He told the newspaper the militants "without a doubt" belonged to the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden."

Added in archive:
"Amid the bombs and the rubble, the country is still slowly on the mend" (The Economist, 2003/11/30)

Monday, November 3, 2003

News and commentary:

"Al Qaeda again threatens New York, Washington and Los Angeles" (DEBKAfile, 2003/11/03)
"A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile.
The message accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies. "The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows."
The message is signed on behalf of the al Bayan (The Threat) movement by "your warrior brother, Abul Hassan al Khadrami".
Our Muslim expert identifies the name of the signatory as belonging to a Yemeni from Hadhrameuth, the Bin Ladens' place of origin where Osama enjoys substantial tribal support.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources stress that warnings appearing on these forums are taken both very seriously and with caution by the intelligence services keeping track of the terrorist network's electronic traffic."

"Bush Is No Cowboy" (Jonathan Rauch, Reason, 2003/11/03)
"Obviously much of the world opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but to speak of America as isolated or Bush as unilateralist seems an exaggeration, to be charitable. The administration tried hard to get the Security Council to put teeth in its own resolutions against Saddam Hussein. It went to the council not once but twice, when unilateralists said the right number of times was zero. It received support from dozens of countries, including some European biggies (Britain, Spain, Italy, Poland). It sought and obtained the Security Council's blessing for the occupation. It received $13 billion in reconstruction pledges from many countries. It is getting help from 24,000 foreign troops in Iraq, most of them British and Polish, but with support from more than 30 countries. (More than 50 foreign soldiers have died in Iraq.) ...
Bush is not going it alone. He is setting his agenda and then looking for support, rather than the other way around. That is what presidents and countries typically do. ...
The only way to placate today's angry Europeans is to change the ends, not just the means, of U.S. foreign policy. And the only way to have avoided the trans-Atlantic falling-out over Iraq would have been for Bush to condition America's use of force upon the approval of the Security Council (read: France). No responsible American president, of either party, would have done that."

"Fables of the Reconstruction" (Daniel Drezner, Slate, 2003/11/03)
Found via InstaPundit, who notes that "this is a pretty embarrassing performance for an outfit with "integrity" in its name": "A new report by the Center for Public Integrity attempts to prove something that many people simply assume to be true: that the Bush administration has strongly favored cronies and campaign contributors in awarding reconstruction contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan. The CPI devoted six months to research and filed more than 70 Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals to get to the bottom of the story. The conclusion of the report, "Windfalls of War," is that a clear quid pro quo exists between government procurement and campaign contributions to George W. Bush. Charles Lewis, the group's executive director, released a statement arguing that the report reveals "a stench of political favoritism and cronyism surrounding the contracting process in both Iraq and Afghanistan."
There's just one problem: The CPI has no evidence to support its allegations."

"The Left and Anti-Semitism" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/11/03)
"The latest example: a story in the left-wing Scottish paper, the Sunday Herald, implicating Israelis in the 9/11 attacks. This is not a fringe paper. Money quote:

There was ruin and terror in Manhattan, but, over the Hudson River in New Jersey, a handful of men were dancing. As the World Trade Centre burned and crumpled, the five men celebrated and filmed the worst atrocity ever committed on American soil as it played out before their eyes.
Who do you think they were? Palestinians? Saudis? Iraqis, even? Al-Qaeda, surely? Wrong on all counts. They were Israelis – and at least two of them were Israeli intelligence agents, working for Mossad, the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA.
Their discovery and arrest that morning is a matter of indisputable fact. To those who have investigated just what the Israelis were up to that day, the case raises one dreadful possibility: that Israeli intelligence had been shadowing the al-Qaeda hijackers as they moved from the Middle East through Europe and into America where they trained as pilots and prepared to suicide-bomb the symbolic heart of the United States. And the motive? To bind America in blood and mutual suffering to the Israeli cause." (See also: "Five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001..." (Neil Mackay, Sunday Herald, 2003/11/02))

"French Sharia Watch" (Merde in France, 2003/11/03)
"Just seen in 'Le Parisien' dated 2 November, and available on their web site using the search engine. Two young French victims of society 'snapped'. What's that? Anyone can 'lose it' now and again.

A 20 year old woman was mugged Friday afternoon near the Chelles train station. Her principal attacker, a 35 year old resident, was arrested yesterday and booked this afternoon along with a 16 year old boy. Of Algerian origin, both were bothered by the fact that the woman wore earrings shaped like crucifixes. The oldest attacker, fondled her breasts and called her 'whore' in Arabic, and then took out a knife and cut her cheeks seven times.

Here's to hoping that these two victims of society may overcome the humiliation that provoked this attack (what the hell was she thinking wearing crucifix shaped earrings during Ramadan in France? Is she insane?) and that they may successfully integrate themselves into French society. France is in dire need of their youthful vigor."

"An Iraqi City Looks Suspiciously at U.S. Good-Will Gestures" (Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2003/11/03)
A report from Falluja: "In the epicenter of anti-American hatred, even the most generous of gestures is viewed with a suspicious eye.
The day after 16 American servicemen died when their helicopter was shot out of the sky here, a group of American soldiers tossed handfuls of candy from their Humvees to the Iraqi children who lined the road.
"Don't touch it, don't touch it!" the Iraqi children squealed. "It's poison from the Americans. It will kill you."
The Humvees rumbled past, and the candy stayed in the dirt.
Loathing for the American occupiers of Iraq looms everywhere in this hardscrabble city west of Baghdad. Hatred laces the conversations. It hangs from the walls. It burns in the minds of children. Like nowhere else in Iraq, Falluja bristles with a desire to confront the American soldiers, to kill them, and to celebrate when they fall." (See also: "Iraqi Villagers Celebrate U.S. Helicopter Hit" (Michael Georgy, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/03) and "Villagers gleeful as US army gathers mangled remains of downed Chinook" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/03): "'It's party time for us,' said farmer Ahmad al-Issawi, summing up the bellicose mood after a Chinook military transport helicopter was shot down Sunday, ferrying soldiers on leave. ... "If one US soldier is killed we'd be happy, so imagine how we feel now," said a smiling young man named Hadi, surrounded by 20 men nodding in agreement.")

"Suicide bomber explodes after cornered by troops" (Arieh O'Sullivan, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/03)
"A suicide bomber who was planning to attack Israeli civilians but was hunted by security forces attacked an army patrol Monday morning near the West Bank town of Azzoun, in the Nablus area.
16-year-old Sabih Abu el Sa'ud from the Rafidiyah neighborhood in Nablus was attempting to evade Israeli security forces and make his way to a major Israeli city when he was stopped by an IDF patrol.
He blew himself up, lightly wounding an armoured corps tracker. The wounded soldier was treated at