Archived news and commentary: November 17 - 23, 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 23, 2003

News and commentary:

"We Need to Get The Queen Bees" (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, from the 2003/12/01 issue)
An interview with Singapore's prime minister Lee Kuan Yew: "While in Singapore last week, I asked him what he made of the European-American divide so evident in London. "The Europeans underestimate the problem of Al Qaeda-style terrorism," he said. "They think that the United States is exaggerating the threat. They compare it to their own many experiences with terror — the IRA, the Red Brigade, the Baader-Meinhof, ETA. But they are wrong."
He went on: "Al Qaeda-style terrorism is new and unique because it is global. An event in Morocco can excite the passions of extremist groups in Indonesia. There is a shared fanatical zealousness among these different extremists around the world. Many Europeans think they can finesse the problem, that if they don't upset Muslim countries and treat Muslims well, the terrorists won’t target them. But look at Southeast Asia. Muslims have prospered here. But still, Muslim terrorism and militancy have infected them." Lee pointed out that Singapore and Thailand have both been targeted in recent years, though neither has mistreated its Muslim populations.
"The Americans, however, make the mistake of seeking largely a military solution. You must use force. But force will only deal with the tip of the problem. In killing the terrorists, you will only kill the worker bees. The queen bees are the preachers, who teach a deviant form of Islam in schools and Islamic centers, who capture and twist the minds of the young."...
I asked Lee how to handle this broader problem. "Well, America can't do it alone," he said. 'You can't go into the mosques, Islamic centers and madrassas. We don't have any standing as non-Muslims. Barging in will create havoc. Only Muslims can win this struggle.'" (See also: "Iraq: A Watershed in Post-9/11 World Order" (Lee Kuan Yew, Forbes, 2003/05/12))

"Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq" (Seb Walker, Reuters, 2003/11/23)
"Two U.S. soldiers were shot in their car in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Sunday and their bodies mutilated and looted by a crowd of Iraqis.
Another soldier was killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
A spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division said two of its soldiers were shot in the middle of the day in Mosul as they drove from one base in the city to another.
Witnesses said that after the shooting the soldiers were stabbed and their throats slit. A crowd looted the civilian car they were driving and tried to set it ablaze.
One man brandished a fistful of bloodstained Iraqi dinars he said were taken from the soldiers."

"Stop the violence" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2003/11/23)
"When George W. Bush spoke to Australia's Parliament, Ahmed Habib turned up as the guest of Greens senator Bob Brown:

Ahmed Habib wanted to send a message to George Bush about his father, Mamdouh, yesterday.
"What about my father's rights?" he called out before security guards escorted him from Parliament, making him the only person removed during the address.

Ahmed's daddy-o is in Gitmo, which explains why someone like Brown would want to be his friend. Li'l Ahmed is now himself facing potential confinement:

The son of an Australian al-Qaeda suspect held at Guantanamo Bay was involved in the abduction of a woman who was bound with tape and had her head shaved, a Sydney court heard yesterday.
Ahmed Mandouh Habib, 18, of Birrong - eldest son of terror suspect Mamdouh Habib - was charged in connection to the alleged assault at Bankstown earlier this month.
The woman, believed to be a Habib family relative, was dragged out of a car parked outside Bankstown TAFE just after midnight on November 5.

One of Ahmed's co-accused, only 15 so too young to be identified, allegedly held the victim while Ahmed's twin brother wrapped masking tape around her mouth and head. Other allegations: the woman was tied up with electrical wire and driven to a garage at her former home, where her hair was shaved off.

Bidura Children's Court, where the 15-year-old appeared, heard that he told the woman: "I'm only doing this for your own good - I love you like a Muslim sister."

Nice people Bob hangs out with." (See also: "Prisoner's son charged with kidnap" (Katrina Creer and Mercedes Florez, news.com.au, 2003/11/23))

"The Way Forward" (Jalal Talabani, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/11/23)
Talabani is the current president of the Iraq Governing Council: "The enemies of Iraqi freedom are not "resistance," a word that evokes the heroism of Poles in the Second World War, nobly battling their occupiers. Nor can those who murder our American liberators, Red Cross workers, U.N. officials and Italian policemen be termed "guerrillas." Rather, they are terrorists. They are the thugs and torturers who repressed their fellow Iraqis for 35 years, the perpetrators of genocide, men who butchered hundreds of thousands of Kurds, Marsh Arabs and Shiite Arabs. The creation of an antidemocratic fascist counterrevolution of Baathists and foreign Islamic volunteers, some of whom are from al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam, is a classic unholy Middle Eastern alliance. These people have more support among the Arab media and in the studios of al-Jazeera than they do in Iraq."

"He can talk. What a surprise" (Stephen Pollard, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/11/23)
"Would you believe it? Not only can that Texan halfwit speak in proper sentences, he is even capable of reading a good speech and not fluffing his lines. It only goes to show what you can do with a speechwriter and some coaching. The response to President George W Bush's speech on Wednesday has been almost universally (and so typically Britishly) condescending. Few have criticised its content; since it ranks as one of the finest delivered by a visiting leader; that would be a sneer too far. Instead, reaction has been surprise, either feigned or genuine, that he managed to speak for so long, so well.
Mary Dejevsky, writing in The Independent, was typical: "Whoever has been coaching George Bush in oratory deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom (and a congratulatory glass of champagne)." Almost the entire British chattering class seems to be animated by the same deep-seated contempt for Mr Bush. Even when confronted by the evidence of their own eyes and ears, that he is a thoughtful, charming, convincing, eloquent, intelligent, forceful leader, they cannot bring themselves to believe that he is as he seems."

"Unlike JFK's war, Bush fights for Iraqi liberty" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2003/11/23)
"All that stands between an Islamist nutcase and Pakistan's nukes is General Musharraf and the handful of chaps he trusts. Ultimately, it's not enough - as the general understands. It's easier to organize a coup than to create the institutions of liberty, but the latter are the only real bulwark against the horrors of the age.
It would be nice to think the so-called "progressives" of the left might find this a worthy project. Instead, in London, they waved their silly placards showing Bush and Blair drenched in blood, even as the real blood of the British consul-general and others had been spilled in Turkey that day.
It's one thing to dislike Bush, it's one thing to hate America. But it's quite another to hate America so much you reflexively take the side of any genocidal psycho who comes along. In their terminal irrelevance, the depraved left has now adopted the old slogan of Cold War realpolitik: like Osama and Mullah Omar, Saddam may be a sonofabitch, but he's their sonofabitch."

"Bank Data For Saudi Embassy Subpoenaed" (Douglas Farah, The Washington Post, 2003/11/23)
"The FBI, in an unprecedented move that has strained relations with a close ally in the war on terrorism, has subpoenaed records for dozens of bank accounts belonging to the Saudi Embassy, part of an investigation into whether any of the hundreds of millions of dollars Riyadh spends in the United States each year end up in the hands of Muslim extremists, U.S. and Saudi officials said.
The wide-ranging investigation into the $300 million a year the Saudi Embassy spends here was launched this summer, just as the U.S. and Saudi governments were hailing a new era of cooperation in the fight against Muslim terrorism. ...
U.S. officials said the FBI's Washington field office subpoenaed the records of dozens of Saudi bank accounts to determine whether Saudi government money knowingly or unknowingly helped fund extremists in the United States. Although many Saudi entities have been investigated in the past, U.S. officials said this was the first investigation to directly probe Saudi government funds."

"Saudis placate Islamist radicals" (WorldNetDaily, 2003/11/23)
Via Jihad Watch: "Following the bomb blast in a residential complex in Riyadh two weeks ago, Saudi royal family members talked tough about a crackdown on Islamist terror.
But it was just talk, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, a premium online intelligence newsletter.
In fact, they say Islamic radicals and Saudi leaders have "reunited" to save the kingdom following a three-day meeting last weekend of royal family members, Muslim clerics and those sympathetic with Osama bin Laden.
Crown Prince Abdullah and a group of more than 40 Saudi scholars gathered in Mecca for discussions on mediation between the government and al-Qaida. The meeting included a mentor of Osama bin Laden, Muslim theologian Safar al-Hawali, who denies claims that the recent Riyadh bombing could be considered jihad. ...
Al-Hawali is the secretary general of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, which was established in April in Egypt by more than 225 religious and political figures over the Islamic world as a means of uniting efforts 'in alerting the community concerning its right to self-defense and resistance to the aggression of enemies in all possible legitimate and effective means.'" (See also: "'Global Campaign Against Aggression': The Supreme Council of Global Jihad?" (Reuven Paz, haganah b'internet, 2003/05/02), for more on the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign.)

"Al Qaeda ordered Saudi bombing from Iran" (Reuters, 2003/11/23)
"A senior al Qaeda militant orchestrated the bombing of a residential compound in Saudi Arabia earlier this month by telephone from Iran, a Saudi newspaper says.
Okaz newspaper, quoting informed sources on Sunday, said the militant network's security chief Saif al-Adel gave orders for the attack in the capital Riyadh by satellite phone.
Neither Saudi nor Iranian officials were immediately available to comment on the Okaz report.
"The sources said Saif al-Adel led the bombing operation of the Muhaya residential compound, using a Thuraya phone to give instructions to the terrorists in the kingdom who carried out the criminal operation," the Arabic-language daily said.
"The sources said that the terrorist Saif al-Adel is in Iran," it added."

"Israel threatens strikes on Iranian nuclear targets" (Ross Dunn, The Scotsman, 2003/11/23)
"Israel has warned that it is prepared to take unilateral military action against Iran if the international community fails to stop any development of nuclear weapons at the country’s atomic energy facilities.
As the International Atomic Energy Agency prepares to meet again this week to discuss the situation in Iran, Israel has told Washington it is prepared to act alone and launch a strike similar to its attack on Iraq in 1981 when its air force bombed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad.
In an apparent attempt to increase pressure on the IAEA and United Nations to limit the development of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israel’s defence minister Shaul Mofaz has made what sources have described as a warning of "unprecedented severity". ...
Mofaz set out his government’s position last week during a visit to the United States stating that 'under no circumstances would Israel be able to tolerate nuclear weapons in Iranian possession.'"

Saturday, November 22, 2003

News and commentary:

"'Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq', by Tariq Ali, and 'Hegemony or Survival' by Noam Chomsky" (Johann Hari, Independent/JohannHari.com, 2003/11/22)
Reviews of the "anti-war gurus'" latest books: "Tariq Ali speaks for the Iraqi people. He knows what they think and feel. "The occupation is detested by a majority of Iraqi citizens," he writes in Bush in Babylon, and "virtually all" of them rejoice when an American soldier is killed. Only a tiny handful celebrated when Saddam was deposed. Those who rejoiced are "a few spunky little jackals, even-tempered to those who do not share their vision of occupation as liberation".
Ali does not explain how he knows all that in his book on "the recolonisation of Iraq". Presumably, the answer is telepathy, because he has not visited Iraq recently, and every single opinion poll - by independent firms that successfully predict election results across the world - paints a very different picture. Real Iraqis, as opposed to Ali's confections, wanted the invasion to proceed by a clear majority. They want the Americans and British to secure a transition to a democratic Iraq within the next two years, and then leave. Happily, George Bush and Tony Blair have the same idea.
Ali cannot accept that. In Bush in Babylon, he is trying to make the new Iraqi beat fit his old 1960s anti-imperialist tune, and the result is painful to hear. His ideological contortions have twisted his internationalism beyond all recognition. He says that the charities and NGOs such as the Red Cross are "like aliens from another planet", that will "descend on Iraq like a swarm of locusts and interbreed with the locals". Interbreeding will never do."

"Persecuting Col. West" (The Washington Times, 2003/11/22)
Indeed: "Second (and much more importantly), it is no stretch at all to say that Col. West's action may well have saved the lives of hundreds of American troops under his command. "I felt there was a threat to my soldiers," he said on the stand. "If it's about the life of my men, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can." ...
We understand the need to have rules of engagement in times of warfare; no less important, however, is the need for commonsense use of prosecutorial discretion in dealing with actions that take place in the heat of combat. It is immoral to send good men like Col. West into harm's way and then persecute them for going the extra mile to ensure the safety of the men and women under their command.
Fortunately, there is something that the public can do to make it clear to our national leaders that its time to end the West prosecution: They can contact their Senators and members of the House of Representatives, and write or e-mail Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee urging that proceedings be halted at once." (See also the petition: "Exonerate Lt. Col. Allen B. West from Criminal Prosecution" (Patriot Petitions, 2003/11/04). Also: "West says he tried to protect his troops" (The Washington Times, 2003/11/20) and "Colonel in Iraq refuses to resign" (Rowan Scarborough; The Washington Times, 2003/10/30))

"Bomb Blasts at Two Iraqi Police Stations" (Michael Georgy, Reuters/The Washington Post, 2003/11/22)
"Suicide car bombers attacked two police stations north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, while Baghdad airport officials said a missile hit a civilian plane which landed safely.
The bombings were the latest strikes on Iraq's U.S.-backed police force, but the missile attack was the first reported hit on a fixed-wing plane. The officials said there were no casualties on the plane owned by global cargo company DHL. ...
On Friday, guerrillas used donkey carts to launch Katyusha rockets at Iraq's Oil Ministry building and two fortified hotels used by Western contractors and journalists.
A third donkey cart loaded with 21 rockets was stopped by U.S. troops and Iraqi police near the Italian and Turkish embassies and close to the offices of one of Iraq's main Kurdish parties. A fourth cart — with the donkey wired up with explosives — was found and defused."

"Muslims round on 'British way' minister" (George Jones, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/12/22)
"A Foreign Office minister caused outrage yesterday when he told Muslims they must make a choice between the "British way" of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism.
The comments by Denis MacShane, which came the day after 27 people died in two bomb blasts at Istanbul, were described as "outrageous" and "disgraceful". Mr MacShane urged imams and other Muslim leaders to use "clearer, stronger language" to speak out against terrorism.
"It is time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: it is the British way — based on political dialogue and non-violent protests — or it is the way of the terrorists, against which the whole democratic world is now uniting," he said in a speech in his Rotherham constituency. ...
But his speech drew a furious reaction from leaders of Britain's 2.5 million Muslims, who said terrorism had always been condemned by law-abiding citizens.
Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said they did not need lectures from a representative of a Government 'that has conducted an unlawful war against Iraq.'" (See also: "Don't let the evil of extremism taint Islam's good name" (Inayat Bunglawala, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/09/17), for more on Bunglawala.)

Friday, November 21, 2003

News and commentary:

"A child unit of Hezbollah group..."
(AP/Mahmoud Tawil, 2003/11/21)
"A child unit of Hezbollah group take part in a military parade to mark Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) in a suburb south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 21, 2003. It is held to coincide with the last Friday of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned at a mass rally that Hezbollah will respond harshly to any Israeli attack on Lebanon."

"London chemical terror plot foiled" (Stephen Fidler, Financial Times, 2003/11/21)
"London-based terrorists tried last year to buy half a tonne of toxic chemicals with the aim of killing thousands.
Their plot came to light when the supplier became suspicious about the quantities of chemicals involved. ...
The effort to buy the saponin was in some ways inept. Apart from the quantities that were ordered - 500 to 1,000 times the normal order from a university laboratory - the explanation for the planned use of the product was also incredible.
The group described its intended use as "a fire retardant on rice intended for human consumption".
Traces of ricin were found in a police raid on a north London flat in January.
Seven people were arrested and four of them later charged with possession of articles of value to terrorists and with being concerned with the production and development of a chemical weapon."

"EU body shelves report on anti-semitism" (Bertrand Benoit, Financial Times, 2003/11/21)
Silence surrounds Muslim Jew-hatred redux, via Little Green Footballs: "The European Union's racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-semitism because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined.
The Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) decided in February not to publish the 112-page study, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times, after clashing with its authors over their conclusions. ...
Following a spate of incidents in early 2002, the EUMC commissioned a report from the Centre for Research on Anti-semitism at Berlin's Technical University.
When the researchers submitted their work in October last year, however, the centre's senior staff and management board objected to their definition of anti-semitism, which included some anti-Israel acts. The focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators, meanwhile, was judged inflammatory.
"There is a trend towards Muslim anti-semitism, while on the left there is mobilisation against Israel that is not always free of prejudice," said one person familiar with the report. "Merely saying the perpetrators are French, Belgian or Dutch does no justice to the full picture."
Some EUMC board members had also attacked part of the analysis ascribing anti-semitic motives to leftwing and anti-globalisation groups, this person said. "The decision not to publish was a political decision." ...
The EUMC, which was set in 1998, has published three reports on anti-Islamic attitudes in Europe since the September 11 attacks in the US."

"Report: Iranians hiding bin Laden" (WorldNetDaily, 2003/11/21)
"Citing an "unimpeachable source," Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are in Iran, according to a Fox News analyst.
Al-Zawahiri was seen within the last two weeks, and bin Laden was spotted in July, says the network's foreign affairs analyst Mansoor Ijaz. ...
Al-Zawahiri has been seen recently in Iran planning and plotting various terrorist attacks against U.S. interests and other countries, he said.
Both al-Qaida leaders are disguised. Bin Laden, Ijaz has been told, shaved his head bald and is wearing a shorter beard that is dyed to make him look more like an Iranian cleric. He also has put on a considerable amount of weight.
Al-Zawahiri has done something similar, Ijaz said, and is now wearing a black turban and dyed beard instead of the traditional white turban he wore as an Egyptian cleric. ...
"But I can tell you with unimpeachability tonight that he is on the western border of Iran, inside Iran, planning terrorist attacks against the United States' interests in that part of the world," Ijaz said."

"Bush visit ends with pub and protests" (The Guardian, 2003/11/21)
Akhtar is also a political analyst for the BBC: "Protests on the village green, a £1m security operation and a pub lunch today marked the last hours of the US president George Bush's state visit to Britain. ...
Mohammed Akhtar, from Middlesbrough, was in the village as a member of his town's Islamic Society. He said: "All the problems we are facing all over the world have all been created by Mr Bush." ...
One of the children who had met Mr Bush, Stuart Percivil, said: "He shook my hand and put his arm around me. He said 'I am the President of the United States.'"
"He is a very nice man and I don't know why they are saying he is the world's number one terrorist."
On his departure from the north-east, the president posed for photographs with the guard of honour of police officers who had been on duty at the airport throughout the day as he boarded his jet at Teesside airport for the flight home." (Note: My emphasis.)

"Blaming the victims" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2003/11/21)
"Having just listened to yet more claims, reported on BBC radio's The World at One, that the British consulate in Istanbul wouldn't have been bombed had we not helped attack Iraq, I am struck even more by the truly demented discourse we are now being forced to have. The attack on Iraq may well have enraged more Muslims and helped recruit them to terror. But then so does any attempt at self-defence against Islamic terror. As soon as one fights back, one is accused of aggression.
That is precisely what is happening in Israel. Israelis are murdered; Israel fights back to prevent more Israelis being murdered; Islamists then claim the Israelis have perpetrated aggression to which the Islamists are entitled to respond. But their claim is monstrously untrue. It is a reversal of the truth. The same argument is being used about Iraq. ...
This is truly insane. The logic of this insane way of thinking is that the west must not ever seek to defend itself from attack by the jihad by waging a just war of self-defence, because to do so will merely invite yet more terror. This mad logic means that if we are murdered and fight back, the fact that this may provoke more Islamists to sign up to murder because of their truly crazy way of looking at the world means we shouldn't fight back at all. This is tantamount to a call to surrender to fascism." (See also: "As the world toyns" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2003/11/21))

"Real Bush 'At Odds with Media Caricature'" (Chris Moncrieff, PA/Scotsman.com, 2003/11/21)
You don't say: "US President George Bush is "totally at odds" with his media image, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said today.
Mr Campbell, an opponent of the war with Iraq, spoke out on the ePolitix website about his discussions with the President during the state visit.
He said that they discussed directly issues such as Iraq, the Middle East, Guantanamo Bay, Kyoto and trade sanctions.
"He is personally extremely engaging. He has a well-developed sense of humour, is self-deprecating and when he engages in a discussion with you he is warm and concentrates directly on you.
"He looks you straight in the eye and tells you exactly what he thinks."
Mr Campbell, stressing that the President was "totally at odds"with his media image, went on: 'I was not persuaded by what he said, but I was most certainly surprised at the extent to which the caricature of him was inaccurate.'"

"I Bought The Guardian Today - So You Don't Have To" (Scott Burgess, The Daily Ablution, 2003/11/21)
"As a public service, I gritted my teeth and actually bought a copy of The Grauniad this morning, for the first time since the autumn of 2001.
Here's some of what caught my eye:
Simon Hoggart, Guardian sketchwriter and BBC political presenter (Westminster Hour) describes seeing Bush at yesterday's press conference:

I was hypnotised by the movements of his lips. First the upper one clamped over the lower. Then the lower lip opened slightly to the left and, next, to the right. Then the upper lip widened out in a faintly simian way. ...
He looked like a man who has just realised that he had forgotten to take the chewing gum out of his mouth. He can't let on, but is scared he might swallow it, so he tucked it between his teeth and jaw.

It's nice to know that, like World Affairs Editor John "Saddam is a Saint" Simpson, this BBC political presenter is impartial..."

"The Axis of Terror" (Amir Taheri, The Weekly Standard/Benador Associates, from the 2003/11/24 issue)
"Few convicted murderers and hijackers accept the label "terrorist." One who does — indeed, who embraces terrorism as among man's "noblest pursuits" — is a Venezuelan now serving a life sentence for murder in France. He is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as "Carlos the Jackal."
He has just published a book in French to announce his conversion to Islam and present his strategy for "the destruction of the United States through an orchestrated and persistent campaign of terror." Entitled "Revolutionary Islam" (Editions du Rocher, 2003) and published under the name Ilich Ramírez Sánchez-CARLOS, the book urges "all revolutionaries, including those of the left, even atheists," to accept the leadership of Islamists such as Osama bin Laden and so help turn Afghanistan and Iraq into the "graveyards of American imperialism." ...
At one point Carlos presents himself as "the voice of Islam and history." At another point he poses as an authority on theology (fiqh) and offers a plan for "reforming the faith" under which "obligations" such as prayer, fasting, and the pilgrimage to Mecca become secondary. Instead, the number one duty of Muslims becomes "fighting the United States by any means" available. He dwells on the necessity for all Muslim men to grow beards and all Muslim women to wear the "revolutionary" head-cover (the hijab) invented in Lebanon in the 1970s. He says that beards and the hijab can be used as tools of terror, to dishearten the Americans by reminding them that "their enemy Islam" is in their midst." (Note: Thanks to Malcolm Smordin for the pointer.)

"Numbers Racket" (Denis Boyles, National Review, 2003/11/21)
Effigy II: "The BBC's highly excitable man on the spot, Andy Tighe, got swept up in the fervor of the moment, too. The toppling of the Bush effigy, he said, would be as remarkable an image as the toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad. Then he tried to explain the philosophical implications of the protesters' arguments — summarized nicely today by the BBC who report an organizer saying, "hopefully out of the crowd some ideas will arise" — but instead slipped and started calling Bush a killer. The demonstrators, he said, were a symbol of the alternative to Bush's warlike policies. Unfortunately, somebody in the crowd chose that moment to unfurl a gigantic white flag, no doubt bringing any visiting Frenchmen to their feet to salute." (Note: Boyles also comments on the differing estimates of how large the demonstration was. Scotland Yard said 70,000 while the BBC said 110,000 ("a number completely mystifying until you realize it's the number they needed to give them license to report that the demo had 'exceeded the expectations of the organizers.'"). And here's Aljazeera: "Police estimated the numbers marching at 110,000. But Chris Nineham, a spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition, said that 350,000 had joined the protest." ("Peace protest paralyses London" (Arthur Neslen, Aljazeera.net, 2003/11/21))

"Trafalgar Square" (David Frum, National Review, 2003/11/21)
Effigy I: "Got to give those British protesters credit for this: They sure make their loyalties clear. First they build an effigy of George Bush that equates the leader of American democracy with Saddam Hussein. Then they parody the liberation of Baghdad by pulling their effigy down and stomping on it. Finally, to underscore the point, after the effigy-stomping, they invite to the podium to speak — George Galloway! The British MP accused of accepting some $300,000 in stipends from Saddam himself!"

"The Great Divide" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/11/21)
"The second thing that the Bush visit is likely to be remembered for is that it helped draw a clear distinction between two visions of the world.
One vision belongs to those who blame the Western democracies for all the ills of mankind and hate the United States for a variety of reasons. These are people who never protested when Saddam was filling all those mass graves in Iraq or when the Taliban were massacring the Hazara in Bamiyan. You will never see them demanding the release of political prisoners in Cuba itself, but find them crying their hearts out for the al Qaeda operatives held in Guantanamo Bay.
Another vision is defended by those who believe that fighting against tyranny and terror is the fundamental political duty of all human beings, and that the most noble principles are ultimately meaningless unless defended by force if and when necessary.
The Marxist-Islamist alliance may well have done all of us a service this week in London. It has put the fight between open societies and their enemies into focus."

"As the world toyns" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2003/11/21)
"Polly Toynbee has identified the cause of yesterday's attacks in Turkey — it's Tony Blair:

Once had decided to take the country to war, terrorist retaliation was certain.

Toynbee supported the liberation of East Timor — "There is a right time for dealing with long-running oppressions — Serbia and Kosovo, or East Timor. Whatever the reason, when the chance comes it has to be seized" — so, by her logic, we may blame Polly for retaliatory strikes against Australians. Strange how often the left forgets Osama bin Laden's condemnation of that campaign. In hindsight, would Toynbee not have supported a free East Timor? It seems so, given that avoidance of retaliation is her primary aim. Oh, she blames Bush as well:

Bombs in Istanbul are the only outcome from this presidential visit.

No, the bombs in Istanbul are the outcome of a global terrorist cult that would as soon kill Polly as any other infidel. Probably sooner, seeing as she’s such a mouthy chick." (See also: "Blair's black day" (Polly Toynbee, The Guardian, 2003/11/21))

"France's Rushdie Affair" (Stephen Brown, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/11/21)
"'...I hope someone slits your throat, you dirty, Jew pig...'
France, once the land of Enlightenment, is turning into a place of darkness, thanks to Islamist fanaticism.
Death threats like the one above have forced a French publishing house to cancel plans this month to publish a translated version of American author Robert Spencer's book, Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About The World’s Fastest Growing Faith. ...
Soon after the book's publication was approved in France last April, its translator, French writer Guy Milliere, began to receive death threats.
"I sent him (the publisher) the translation of the first thirty pages," said Milliere in a written interview. "A couple of weeks later I started to receive death threats by e-mail: 'You must be an enemy of Islam; you will die for what you do'; 'You must be a Jew; I hope somebody will slit your throat, you dirty Jew pig', etc...I asked the police to act; I have received no answer."...
"My publisher preferred to give it up," said Milliere. "But he is a nice man, and a bold one; he asked me to write a book about what happened."
For his part, Spencer calls the cancellation of his book's publication "...a symptom of the Islamic agenda in France and the silencing of non-Muslims as 'dhimmis'."
"What you have here is a subjugation of public opinion in France," he said. 'It's ironic. If you don't say Islam is a religion of peace, they will kill you. My book doesn't advocate murdering anyone. It only investigates questions about Islam, but it is so threatening that they'll kill to silence it.'"

"A millionaire marcher among the anarchists" (Stephen Robinson, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/11/21)
"No one would admit to being anti-American, even as they rested on their placards showing Mr Bush's name with the slogan: "World's Number One Terrorist."
"I've nothing personally against President Bush," said Wendy Rumsey, a civil servant from Ramsgate in Kent. "He might be a very nice man; removing Saddam Hussein may have been a worthy ambition, but the point is that it was illegal." ...
Rajwa El-Giatha, born in Libya 20 years ago, was brought to England as a baby by her parents, opponents of the Gaddafi regime.
She said she was content to have found a home in Britain, and had no doubt Saddam was a very bad man indeed, but she thought the war against Iraq was proof that "America is trying to take over the world". There was widespread cynicism within the exiled Arab diaspora in London about British and American policy, though she conceded: 'Most of my Iraqi friends do actually support the war.'"

Thursday, November 20, 2003

News and commentary:

"An effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush..."
(Reuters/David Bebber, 2003/11/20)
"An effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush is pulled down in Trafalgar Square, London, as part of a large protest over his state visit November 20, 2003."

"'Bush, Blair, CIA..How many kids did you kill today?'" (David Carr, Samizdata.net, 2003/11/20)
An Illuminatus infiltrates the demonstration: "By the time they snaked their way onto Waterloo Bridge, they had almost become engulfed in silence. It was beginning to resemble a long forced march to a labour camp and the audible attempt at rousing another chant succumbed to the collective necrosis ("Bush...Blair...Lousy Hair"). I decided to take my leave at that point. Gone was all the snarling nihilism and revolutionary bravura I had witnessed back in February. All that remained now was a long trail of the incoherent, the incomprehensible, the dysfunctional and the faintly repulsive. This was not so much a demonstration as a wave of human spam."

"Bush Opponents Stage Protest in London" (Jane Wardell, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/20)
"At least 50,000 people set off on a march that took almost two hours to clear its starting point at the University of London. They passed parliament and the prime minister's residence on their way to Trafalgar Square where several thousand more protesters gathered ahead of the march.
The chief steward of the march, Chris Nineham, had predicted at least 100,000 people would join in, but as darkness fell, it appeared the numbers of protesters participating were far short of this prediction. ...
As marchers chanting "George Bush, terrorist" made their way through a business district, a few scuffled with three Bush supporters holding U.S. flags and a sign saying "support America." Police quickly intervened and bundled the trio into a nearby office building.
"I think it's a disgrace that these people are basically siding with Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida," said one of the three, Londoner Robert Temple. "Where were they when (former Romanian dictator Nicolae) Ceausescu came to town and why aren't they protesting against the people who blew up Turkey today?"
But some protesters said U.S.-British policy in Iraq was helping fuel terrorist attacks.
"It wouldn't have happened without Iraq. ... America is creating their own terrorists," said Ziggy Dlabal, a German sociologist who lives in London."

"Recordings reveal Portland Seven's brutal mindset" (AP/katu.com, 2003/11/20)
Via Little Green Footballs: "Prosecutors in the Portland terrorism case have filed a legal brief revealing some of the hundreds of recorded conversations between suspects and an undercover FBI informant.
The conversations ranged from inquiries about bomb making, to talk of cutting the heads off nonbelievers, to a desire to have "real" Muslim wives who would be willing to carry AK-47 assault rifles and be "ready to run and blow something up." ...
The filing comes ahead of Monday's scheduled sentencings of Jeffrey Leon Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford, where both men may make public statements for the first time explaining why they attempted to join the Taliban.
Their attorneys have said that their trip was motivated by their religious beliefs that they would have been coming to the aid of fellow Muslims.
Yet, according to the prosecutor's filing, Battle asked about making a bomb in September 2002, after a series of conversations in which he spoke of his consideration and ultimate rejection of committing a terrorist act in the United States.
He had said he wanted to kill hundreds of Jews at a Portland-area synagogue or Jewish school."

"Newsweek's 'Case'" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, 2003/11/20)
Hayes responds to an article by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball: "It is, of course, possible that the information in the Feith memo is "cherry-picked" intelligence. It's also possible that some of the bullet points listed won't check out on further analysis. But Feith isn't alone in his conclusion that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden had a relationship. CIA Director George Tenet said more than a year ago that his agency had "solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda going back a decade," that the CIA had "credible information" about discussions between Iraq and al Qaeda on "safe haven and reciprocal nonaggression" and "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad," and "credible reporting" that "Iraq has provided training to al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs."
When it comes to Newsweek's charge of hype, the case is decidedly not closed." (See also: "Case Decidedly Not Closed" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, 2003/11/19), "The Saddam-Osama Memo (cont.)" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, 2003/11/19) and "Case Closed" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/11/17 issue))

"Idiot ward" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2003/11/20)
"The demented and poisonous logic of the rampant prejudice against Israel plumbs yet further depths in the Spectator, where Gerald Kaufman MP asks 'Why not invade Israel?' ...
Kaufman says most of the Palestinians killed by the Israelis have been 'innocent civilians, including babies and pregnant women'. This is a particularly outrageous and truly disgusting reversal of the truth. The majority of Palestinians killed have been armed men; the majority of Israelis killed have been unarmed men, women and children. That is because the Israelis target terrorists, and sometimes unfortunately kill cvilians whom their rules of military engagement instruct them to avoid; the Palestinians deliberately target innocent civilians (not to mention using their own children as human bombs). ...
To come back to the beginning: the reason Israel should not be invaded is that, quite clearly, Israel poses no threat to anyone who does not try to attack it, and certainly not to the free world. It is simply trying to defend itself against a culture of death that has waged war upon it. To suggest that Israel should therefore be branded a rogue state that needs to be deprived of its sovereignty and democratically elected government is just sick, sick, sick." (See also: "Why not invade Israel?" (Gerald Kaufman, The Spectator, from the 2003/11/22 issue) Also: "Breakdown of Fatalities: 27 September 2000 through 3 November 2003" (ICT, 2003/11/03))

"The Jews did it" (Douglas Davis, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/20)
Davis on "incredible conspiracy theories about Jews, Israel and Israelis": "The thoughts of Zbeir Sultan, writing in the weekly journal of the Syrian Arab Writers' Union, are instructive. Sultan recently set himself the task of educating his readers - who constitute the writers and intellectuals of the Arab world - about "the dirty satanic methods employed by the Zionist entity to destroy Egypt's society and economy, as well as its military, physical, spiritual and cultural powers."
How so?
One method, he wrote, involves the deliberate infection of Egyptian youth with AIDS by HIV-positive Zionist prostitutes: "The Egyptian police caught many of them and their stories were published in the Egyptian press."
But that is not the only threat the Zionists pose to their neighbors. The Egyptians also, according to Sultan, discovered "Zionist 'gifts' for children - animal-shaped chewing gum that was found to cause sterility." And worse: "The Zionists have also dispensed chewing gum that arouses sexual lust in university students."
When not infecting, sterilizing or libidinizing the youth of Egypt, the evil Zionists are encouraging them to indulge in Satan worship. Sultan also warns his readers, Israeli universities have opened their doors to Egyptian students "so that they can be instructed in Zionist espionage techniques."
Such claims are repeated not only in the many "newsgroups" that have sprung up on the Internet, but also in the mainstream Arab media."

"George Soros is afraid of Americans" (Matthew J. Stinson, matthewstinson.com, 2003/11/20)
Stinson on an essay by Soros in December's Atlantic Monthly:
"The entire thrust of Mr. Soros' essay can be summarized thusly: America is not as powerful as she thinks she is, so therefore she should voluntarily adopt policies that further limit her ability to respond to threats. Let's apply this thesis to the key foreign policy issues facing the President today:

• America is not strong enough to fight two major theater wars, so therefore she should've left Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq.
• America lacks the means to make Palestine democratic, so therefore she should end support for Israel.
• America cannot win a war on the Korean peninsula, so therefore she should appease Kim Jong-il and let him amass additional military power.
• America is doomed to lose the war on terror, so therefore she should be content to live with terrorism as a fact of life.

You might say that these extrapolations are exaggerations of Mr. Soros' beliefs, but one cannot read this essay (or any of Soros' other writings) without feeling that while George Soros loves his adopted country, he is ashamed of its power. Consequently, he invites legalism and pacifism to ensnare America like an unsuspecting Gulliver: we are to be tied down for our own good and for the good of the world. If we are not yet a paper tiger, then by God, Mr. Soros will see us become one. That view is his right, but like other September 10th mindsets, it is potentially our ruin." (See also: "The Bubble of American Supremacy" (George Soros, The Atlantic, from the December 2003 issue) and "Soros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush" (Laura Blumenfeld, The Washington Post, 2003/11/11))

"White House evacuated after radar 'blip'" (Adam Entous, Reuters, 2003/11/20)
"A "blip" on a radar screen, rather than a plane, has sent scores of White House staff and tourists fleeing the executive mansion in fear of another September 11-style attack on the U.S. capital.
Two Air Force F-16 fighters were scrambled to secure the air space over the White House on Thursday and Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked away in a motorcade to an undisclosed site.
Secret Service agents, some with shotguns drawn, hustled other senior staff members and visiting school children away from the White House and adjacent offices before the incident was determined to be a false alarm.
U.S. President George W. Bush was in Britain at the time, and his staff returned to work in the White House complex shortly after the evacuation ended.
U.S. stocks slumped during the brief security scare, which came on the same day that two blasts in Istanbul, Turkey, killed at least 25 people, wrecking the British consulate and the headquarters of a bank.
"There was never a plane. It was a blip on one radar," said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler."

"Russia ID'd As an Iran Atomic Supplier" (AP/ABC News, 2003/11/20)
"The U.N. atomic agency has identified Russia, China and Pakistan as among the probable suppliers of equipment Iran used to conduct suspected nuclear weapons programs, diplomats said Thursday.
The diplomats spoke to The Associated Press as the International Atomic Energy Agency weighed how harshly to censure Tehran for two decades of covert nuclear activities Iran says were aimed at peaceful purposes. ...
Pakistan, suspected from the start, has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Russia likewise denied that it was a willing participant in providing enrichment technology to Iran for the purpose of a nuclear weapons program."

"Muslim rioters burn 13 churches in north Nigeria" (Reuters, 2003/11/20)
"Islamic militants burned to the ground thirteen churches and several houses in a remote northern Nigerian town after a Christian student was accused of blasphemy, police said on Thursday.
Irate youths torched churches, houses and shops late on Tuesday in Kazaure, some 80 km (50 miles) north of Kano, a northern provincial capital where hundreds have died in religious clashes in the past three years.
The dispute began when a Christian student was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad and a group of Muslims were not satisfied with the response of school authorities."

"Turkish terrorists sends Jews vicious Shabbat greeting" (Yaakov Katz and Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/20)
"The IBDA/C terror organization, which has claimed responsibility for the double bombings in Istanbul on Thursday and the attacks on two of the city's synagogues last Saturday, wished "Dirty Jews a peaceful Shabbat," in an communique released following the attacks on the British Consulate and the HSBC Bank.
The communique, released on Channel 2 News Thursday night, blamed the Jews for destroying Islamic society, saying they have poisoned Muslim culture with corruption and prostitution. ...
The organization threatened the life of Turkish Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva. saying they look forward to eating Halva, customarily eaten by Muslims after one dies, following his funeral."

"Students pay the price after blast in Kirkuk" (Reuters/iol, 2003/11/20)
Another very logical example of the positive resistance not to be condemned by the likes of America Vera-Zavala: "Bloodied schoolbooks lay strewn on the ground in the heart of Iraq's northern oil centre on Thursday after a suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with explosives, killing four and wounding 37, most of them pupils.
The bomber struck just 180m from a compound containing both primary and secondary schools, leaving a schoolmistress among the dead.
Doctors at the city's main hospital said many of the wounded were also youngsters.
"Is this what God wants? Is this Islam?" screamed the mother of 16-year-old Nozad Ahmed who died in the explosion, making clear she held Islamic militants responsible."

"P1-Morgon" (Magnus Utvik, Sveriges Radio/Watch, 2003/11/18 [2003/11/20])
The monstrous logic of the loony left. Swedish anti-globalist America Vera-Zavala argues that the suicide bombings against the Red Cross and the U.N. in Baghdad were "very logical" parts of a "positive" resistance. A partial transcript and translation from the Swedish public service radio:
"Magnus Utvik: The violent resistance against the occupation of Iraq has caught the Swedish left in a dilemma, because while the entire left is opposing the occupation, the Iraqi resistance has manifested itself in ways that are difficult to accept for many of them.
On October 27 the headquarters of the Red Cross in Baghdad was attacked with a suicide bombing. Twelve persons, including many civilians, were killed in the attack. Ten weeks earlier the United Nations compound in Baghdad was attacked in a similar way. The result: 22 dead, including U.N.'s special representative to Iraq.
America Vera-Zavala, leading representative for Swedish Attac and a regular commentator on radio and TV.
America Vera-Zavala: The resistance is positive and it doesn't surprise me at all.
Magnus Utvik: There have been attacks both on the U.N. and the Red Cross. What's your view on the attack on the U.N. for example?
America Vera-Zavala: Different kinds of soldiers are one part of the occupying power, as are transnational corporations, NGO's, the United Nations. And the Red Cross is one of the NGO's, so I don't find it particularly strange that the different parts of the occupying power are attacked — it's rather very logical. I would never condemn different parts of a struggle against an occupying power.
I don't think you should sit here in Sweden and moralize over how the struggle against an occupying power is waged." (Note: Here's America Vera-Zavala on the Soviet Union: "She is "much more disgusted" by the American president than by Osama bin Laden. But she much prefers the Soviet Union: "There was someone who dared to differ, who had the power to stop, someone who had the strength to frighten." Yes, it was a comfortable arrangement that made it 'nice to relax, knowing that a nation was strong enough to do it.'" ("Veckan som gick" (Svenska Dagbladet, 2002/12/15). Translation, as above, by me.))

"Istanbul: A Turkish City in Chaos" (Molly Moore and Yesim Borg, The Washington Post, 2003/11/20)
"The explosion consumed the front of the high-rise building, knocked out most of its blue glass windows and turned the sidewalk and street below into horrific mounds of concrete rubble, flattened automobile carcasses and flung bloodied human heads, arms, legs and torsos across the debris. A broken water main or sprinkler system gushed streams of water from the second floor onto the mayhem below, carrying severed body parts several blocks away in a flood of water.
"There was absolutely no glass left on front of the building," said Phillip Rosenblatt, 38, of New York, who ran from his nearby law office to the bank building when he heard the explosion. "I saw the parts of at least two bodies — their torsos — lying in front. People were in a panic. People were lying on the ground bleeding. I saw a young security guard carrying a submachine gun cursing in fear and anger." ...
A small black and white poster of sayings by Mevlana, the founder of the Whirling Dervish religious sect, hung askew next to his shattered front window. "Be a sea of tolerance and understanding," the Turkish script advised."

"The destroyed HSBC Bank Building..."
(Hurriyet/Reuters, 2003/11/20)
"The destroyed HSBC Bank Building and its surrounding area is seen after twin explosions in Istanbul, November 20, 2003."

"Turkish Blasts Kill 25 in Strike at Britain" (Daren Butler, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/20)
"Twin blasts killed at least 25 people in Istanbul on Thursday, wrecking the British consulate and the HSBC Bank headquarters in an apparent Islamist suicide attack that Turkey called a strike against Britain.
The consulate's chaplain told CNN television that Consul-General Roger Short, a career diplomat, was among 15 killed at the British mission. The blast left a huge crater.
"We knew it was a bomb when an arm came flying through the window," said a doctor at a clinic near the HSBC blast. ...
Men and women wept outside the consulate amid a chaos of wrecked cars and rubble, their clothes blood-stained, nursing wounds. Thick, black smoke into blue skies on streets that moments earlier had been teeming with pedestrians and traffic.
The Istanbul governor said 25 people had been killed. A health official said 390 people were wounded.
A caller to Turkey's semi-official Anatolian news agency claimed responsibility in the name of a Turkish group and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which Washington blames for the September 11 U.S. attacks."

"Bush turns Europe's consensus on its head" (The Daily Telegraph, 2003/11/20)
"George W Bush's Whitehall address yesterday represented the boldest challenge to the conventional wisdom of the British and European elites since Woodrow Wilson preached the rights of self-determination of smaller nations after the First World War.
A summary of that wisdom would go like this: (a) terrorism cannot be defeated in the long run, its perpetrators sooner or later have to be treated with, and their legitimate demands met in some form or other; (b) the Muslim world, and specifically the Arab portion of it, is culturally unsuited to freedom and democracy; (c) the Arab-Israeli dispute lies at the heart of the ills of the Middle East; (d) Israel is principally at fault in that conflict and must be pressured into making most concessions; (e) it is the EU that has played the lead role in bringing about the peace and prosperity of the Continent since 1945; (f) wrongdoers on the international scene should be treated with via multilateral forums such as the UN and associated bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency; (g) endless discussion in such bodies is therapeutic in and of itself, and is invariably preferable to the use of force." (See also: "Remarks by the President at Whitehall Palace" (The White House, 2003/11/19))

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

News and commentary:

"Remarks by the President at Whitehall Palace" (The White House, 2003/11/19)
President George W. Bush's speech at London's Banqueting House:
"The peace and security of free nations now rests on three pillars: First, international organizations must be equal to the challenges facing our world, from lifting up failing states to opposing proliferation. ...
America and Great Britain have done, and will do, all in their power to prevent the United Nations from solemnly choosing its own irrelevance and inviting the fate of the League of Nations. It's not enough to meet the dangers of the world with resolutions; we must meet those dangers with resolve. ...
The second pillar of peace and security in our world is the willingness of free nations, when the last resort arrives, to restrain aggression and evil by force. There are principled objections to the use of force in every generation, and I credit the good motives behind these views.
Those in authority, however, are not judged only by good motivations. The people have given us the duty to defend them. And that duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men. In some cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force. ...
The third pillar of security is our commitment to the global expansion of democracy, and the hope and progress it brings, as the alternative to instability and to hatred and terror. We cannot rely exclusively on military power to assure our long-term security. Lasting peace is gained as justice and democracy advance."

"Prague Revisited" (Edward Jay Epstein, Slate, 2003/11/19)
An interesting report on the Prague Connection: "The Czechs reviewing these visits in retrospect further assumed that Atta's business in Prague was somehow related to his activities in the United States, given that large sums of laundered funds began to flow to the 9/11 conspiracy in June 2000, after Atta left Prague. Even more ominous, if the BIS's subsequent identification of Atta in Prague was accurate, then some part of the mechanism behind the activities of hijacker-terrorists may have been based in Prague at least until mid April 2001.
Czech intelligence services could not solve this puzzle without access to crucial information about Atta's movements in the United States, Germany, and other countries in which the plot unfolded, but it soon became clear that such cooperation would not be forthcoming. Even after al-Ani was taken prisoner by U.S. forces in Iraq in July 2003 and presumably questioned about Atta, no report was furnished to the Czech side of the investigation. "It was anything but a two-way street," a top Czech government official overseeing the case explained. "The FBI wanted complete control. The FBI agents provided us with nothing from their side of the investigation."
Without those missing pieces — including cell phone logs, credit card charges, and interrogation records in the FBI's possession — the jigsaw puzzle remains incomplete."

"That Liberal Media" (Atrios, Eschaton, 2003/11/19)
Correction of the year: "This was probably just a booboo, but what a booboo:

Democrats piled on with criticism of the administration for failing to make Iraq's reconstruction more of an international collaboration. "I think it's fair to say that the situation continues to worsen," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said on "Fox News Sunday."
The voice in the recording resembled Saddam's, but was huskier and the speaker seemed tired. "The evil ones now find themselves in crisis, and this is God's will for them," said Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.

They did run the correction at the top:

CORRECTION: Because of an editing error, this story misattributed a quote from the speaker on an audiotape purportedly of Saddam Hussein as coming from Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. It was the speaker on the tape, not Daschle, who said, "The evil ones now find themselves in crisis, and this is God's will for them." The only solution for Iraq was for "the zealous Iraqi sons, who ran its affairs and brought it out of backwardness . . . to return . . . to run its affairs anew," the speaker on the tape said, referring to the Baath leadership. END"

(Note: The article from The Cleveland Plain Dealer is removed from their site. Blah3 points out that The Statesman attributes the quote to Bush.)

"Mosul's pacification messages" (BBC News, 2003/11/19)
A report from Mosul: "Mosul was where Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were found and killed.
It was where many of the senior officer in the Iraqi army were drawn from.
And through the city runs an ethnic fault line - there are long simmering tensions between the Kurdish and Arabic population.
Go to Mosul now and you find as close to normality as you can get in Iraq today. ...
The street markets are full; the produce is clean and fresh-looking.
And there is clearly money in the city; the gold market, a covered area in the heart of the city, is bustling.
Men sit behind the tills or re-arrange the window displays; women peek through shop windows, commenting to their friends.
There is hardly a word to be heard here against the Americans who run the city."

"Survey: Afghans Overwhelmingly Optimistic" (Paul Haven, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/11/19)
"Afghans in relatively stable areas of the country are overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of their nation, despite continued violence and political uncertainty, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Some 83 percent of the Afghans surveyed said they feel safer than they did three years ago, when the hard-line Taliban regime was in power. More than three-quarters of those questioned said Afghanistan will be safer still in another year.
The survey was conducted between April and June in eight Afghan provinces by The Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium, which includes some major international aid groups like Save the Children, CARE and Oxfam International, as well as Afghan agencies."

"French Chief Rabbi: Don't wear yarmulkes" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/19)
"Worried about a surge in anti-Semitic attacks, France's chief rabbi has cautioned Jewish men against wearing yarmulkes in public, suggesting they wear baseball caps instead.
After a weekend arson attack on a Jewish school, Rabbi Joseph Sitruk urged young men to be extra cautious, saying they could become targets of violence if they wear the yarmulke, or skullcap.
"I ask young Jews to be alert, to avoid walking alone, to avoid wearing the yarmulke in the street or in the subway and consequently becoming targets for potential assailants," Sitruk told Radio J this weekend.
In another interview, Sitruk spoke more bluntly.
"I ask them to replace the yarmulke with the baseball cap," he told Radio Shalom on Monday.
"It hurts me" to make such a recommendation, he said. 'But I say that to protect our young people.'"

"Low turn-out for anti-Bush protests" (Ananova, 2003/11/19)
"Peace campaigners say they aren't disappointed at the low turn-out for George Bush protests across central London.
Around 200 protesters gathered at Jubilee Gardens on London's South Bank for a colourful parade.
But organisers from the Stop The War Coalition said they were not concerned with the relatively small number.
Aiden Hutton from Suffolk, who played the role of George Bush in the procession, said: 'There have been about 14,000 police, I think that's a wonderful turn-out.'" (See also: "Wednesday morning pics of Bush visit protests" (UK Indymedia, 2003/11/19), for pictures from this morning's protests.)

"An anti-Bush protester shouts..."
(AFP/Jim Watson, 2003/11/19)
"An anti-Bush protester shouts through a burnt American flag outside the Mall at Buckingham Palace in London."

"Why this protest is deeply shameful" (David Frum, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/11/19)
"The war on terror has glaringly exposed the moral contradictions of contemporary political radicalism: a politics that champions the rights of women and minorities, but only when those rights are threatened by white Europeans; a politics that celebrates creative non-violence at home but condones deadly extremism abroad; and, perhaps above all, a politics that traces its origins to the Enlightenment - and today raises its voice to protect militantly unenlightened terrorists from the justice dispensed by their victims. ...
I agree that context is everything, and the context of this week's events is that many thousands of British people intend to converge on central London to protest against the overthrow of one of the most cruel and murderous dictators of the 20th century - and to wave placards calling the American president who ordered the dictator's overthrow "the world's number one terrorist".
It's a deeply shameful context, and though I would not quite endorse the verdict of the taxi driver with the poppy stuck in his dashboard who dropped me off at the demos ("Not many of them traitors out tonight, I see"), he at least saw something that they, with all their apparently abundant education could not: that the two leaders they most scorn are the latest in the long line of Anglo-American statesmen whose willingness to use force to defeat evil secured them their right to make bloody fools of themselves in Lincoln's Inn Fields and through the streets of London to Grosvenor Square."

"Bush in London" (David Warren, Ottawa Citizen/DavidWarrenOnline, 2003/11/19)
"What is interesting here, to those capable of taking a longer view, is the spectacle of history repeating itself — less in outward events, than in inward structure. As in the 1930s, leftists and pacifists on the streets of Europe directly advanced the triumphs of Nazism, so today the demonstrators work to advance the triumphs of Islamism. For they refuse to acknowledge the consequences of ignoring such an enemy. ...
In their own subjective world of illusions, the demonstrators demand not surrender, but an unobtainable "peace". However, in the objective world of cause and effect, they are the reliable allies of the people who flew airplanes into the World Trade Centre, who blow up Jews in synagogues and supermarkets, who tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves.
The connexion between present and past was well-made in an e-mail forwarded to me, from an American Jew, returning from holiday in Europe. He wrote that, "When my grandfather left Europe in 1937, the graffiti on the walls read, 'Jews go to Palestine'. Today the graffiti reads, 'Jews out of Palestine'. How soon Europe forgets." (Note: Thanks to Malcolm Smordin for the pointer.)

"Twaddle from the Axis of Neville" (Austin Bay, Strategy Page, 2003/11/19)
"Angry Euro-protestors attacking an American warmonger president?
Yawn. In the American idiom, "Been there, done that." Translation for Euro-sophisticates: "Passe, pal."
It's 2003, and the president is George W. Bush, but the teeth-gnashing rhetoric is right of out 1983 and the "Euro-missile protests" against Ronald Reagan.
This month is the 20th anniversary of the Great Euromissile Crisis. Oh, the accusations! Reagan was stupid. Reagan was dangerous, a warmonger seeking the nuclear destruction of the USSR. Reagan was — good heavens — a unilateralist. Today, the mayor of London calls Bush "the greatest threat to life on the planet."
Twaddle. The current crop of Axis of Neville (Chamberlain) leftish pundits and leaders are thus exposed, recycling 20-year-old insults. ...
The leftish teeth-gnashers will never get it. The figment utopias they tout can't be challenged by difficult facts. The green-cheese moons they detect orbit their own weightless imaginations, and the gravity of down-to-Earth decision, particularly when it comes to defending liberty, exerts little pull. Hence, the rhetorical hokum they spew that Bush is "more dangerous than bin Laden."
Ironically, the Euromissile Crisis proved to be the last big political battle of the Cold War. In 1989, the Berlin Wall cracked, and the communists' workers' paradise was exposed for the Red Fascist hell it always was."

"Saudis' strict Islam called a 'threat'" (Tom Carter, The Washington Times, 2003/11/19)
Better late than never: "Saudi Arabia continues to fund and export its Wahhabi brand of Islam, making it a "strategic threat" to the United States in the worldwide war on terror, the chairman of the U.S. government commission on religious freedom said yesterday. ...
"The Saudi royal family has shown it has no inclination for real reform," said Mai Yamani, a Saudi academic who has been threatened with arrest if she returns to her country.
"Not only has the state embraced the hard-liners, the hard-liners are the state, deeply embedded in the structure. The state gives [fundamentalist clerics] power and money in return for religious legitimacy," she told the hearing. ...
Members of the panel said yesterday they were pessimistic about Saudi efforts to combat extremism.
"We've struck a Faustian bargain, turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's domestic policies ... and we've turned a blind eye to Saudi Arabian efforts to export Wahhabism," said Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel." (See also: "Is Saudi Arabia a Strategic Threat: The Global Propagation of Intolerance" (uscirf.gov, 2003/11/18))

"The Saddam-Osama Memo (cont.)" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, 2003/11/19)
Hayes examines the Defense Department's statement on the leaked Saddam-Osama memo:
"The Defense Department late Saturday, November 15, issued a statement that began: "News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate." ...
If the intelligence reporting in the memo was left out of earlier "finished intelligence products" because the reporting is inaccurate, it seems odd that it would form the basis of briefings given to the secretary of Defense, the director of Central Intelligence, and the vice president. And it would be stranger still to include such intelligence in a memo to a Senate panel investigating the potential misuse of intelligence.
If, on the other hand, the information in the Feith memo is accurate, it changes everything. An operational relationship between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, as detailed in the memo, would represent a threat the United States could not afford to ignore. ...
James Woolsey, CIA director under President Bill Clinton, made reference to the Tenet letter in an appearance this past weekend on "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." Tenet's enumeration of the links and the evidence in the Feith memo has Woolsey convinced.
'Anybody who says there is no working relationship between al Qaeda and Iraqi intelligence going back to the early '90s - they can only say that if they're illiterate. This is a slam dunk.'" (See also: "Case Closed" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/11/17 issue) and "DoD Statement on News Reports of Al Qaeda and Iraq Connections" (United States Department of Defense, 2003/11/15))

"Voices of Baghdad Etched on Its Walls" (Samson Mulugeta, Newsday.com, 2003/11/19)
Baghdad Graffiti: "Hussein loyalists shout their yearning for the deposed dictator - "Saddam will come again" - followed by the coda on the same line from a detractor: "Through my behind!" ...
There are the occasional anti-American slogans, some in misspelled English - like "Dawn USA" - but mostly President George W. Bush is hailed as a liberator, especially in the neighborhoods of the Shia majority historically brutalized by Hussein.
Samplings of the Arabic slogans include: "Down Saddam the infidel and long live Bush the believer!" "A thousand Americans but not one Tikriti," referring to residents of Hussein's hometown.
Many taunt the deposed dictator: "Saddam the dirty, the son of the dirty, in which septic tank are you hiding now?"
Hussein's family also comes in for abuse: "Where are your wife and daughters, Saddam? Are you pimping them in Jordan?"
"I like what I read," said Karal Nadji, a Shia street vendor who sells shoes. "We appreciate Mr. Bush. We're all waiting for the fruits of change." ...
Critics of the Iraqi Governing Council and Ahmad Chalabi, founder of the Iraqi National Congress, are frequent targets of barbed witticisms.
A popular slogan comparing the politician with an Iraqi chickpea dish declares: 'Neither Bush we want, nor Chalabi; we want beer and lablabee.'"

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

News and commentary:

"If it weren't for America, you wouldn't be free to protest" (Victor Davis Hanson, The Times/Benador Associates, 2003/11/18)
"Far more likely the shrillness of the London protest reflects the mood of the new Western citizen; the most affluent and privileged individual in the history of civilisation, who, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, can afford to find patriotism, civic militarism and the singularity of Western culture all so passé. In an era when the horrors of the Somme, the Great Depression, the Jewish Holocaust and even SS10 Soviet nukes are dim memories, we have riches and unrivalled freedom. So we demand perfection, expecting that we can stop racism, class oppression, sexism and environmental desecration as quickly and easily as we can find information on the internet or communicate across the globe.
In this unrealistic view of the perfectibility of human nature, far from being appreciative of our fragile peace, accomplishments and luck, well-off Westerners demand more. Furious over our perceived failures, we equate the pathologies of man exclusively with the sins of an all-powerful West, especially those of its most powerful nation as it is symbolised now by George Bush."

"Istanbul bombing mastermind fled to Syria" (The Jerusalem Post, 2003/11/18)
"Turkish police have revealed that the International Islamic Jihad organization perpetrated the attack on two Turkish synagogues Saturday with the aid of al Qaida and other organizations.
Two of the suicide bombers were cousins, and a brother of one of them organized the attack.
Immediately after the attack, the head of the operation fled to Syria. ...
Monday, the four perpetrators were identified as Masoud Shabok and Azzad Akinji, who are associated with either the Islamic movement or a radical yet marginal Turkish terror group, the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front; both organizations are banned in Turkey. ...
A fake passport made out to Azad Akinji and another belonging to Masud Chabuk were found at the crime scene. The fake passport was apparently provided by al Qaida
Akinji is a well-known activist with ties to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya and Bosnia, and his brother is wanted in connection with extremist Moslem organizations. One of the vehicles belonged to the third brother, Mura, now being questioned. ...
Turkish press reports that the four arrived from Bingol in Eastern Turkey, and described them as Islamic activists who had trained in Iran and Pakistan."

"The London Streets" (Amir Taheri, National Review, 2003/11/18)
"George W. Bush's visit to London this week will be historic for at least two reasons. He will be the first U.S. president to come to Britain on a state visit. He will also observe a bizarre political marriage: one between the remnants of the Marxist-Leninist Left and militant Islamists. Negotiated over the past two years, the "wedding," will be celebrated in a mass demonstration against Bush's visit.
The demonstration is organized by a shadowy group called "Stop the War Coalition," part of the Hate-America-International, which has orchestrated a number of street "events" in support of the Taliban and the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein since 2001. ...
The coalition has a steering committee of 33 members. Of these, 18 come from various hard left groups: Communists, Trotskyites, Maoists, and Castrists. Three others belong to the radical wing of the Labour party. There are also eight radical Islamists. The remaining four are leftist ecologists known as "Watermelons" (Green outside, red inside). ...
But the coalition's biggest success is the alliance that it has forged between the extreme Left and militant Islamist groups. This would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago. The Left always regarded Islam as a "relic of feudalism" and an instrument of reactionary Arab regimes. For their part, the Islamists regarded leftists as atheist enemies who had to be put to the sword.
The first to advocate a leftist-Islamist alliance against Western democracies was Ayman Al Zawahiri al Qaeda's #2.
In a message to al Qaeda sympathizers in Britain in August 2002, he urged them to seek allies among 'any movement that opposes America, even atheists.'" (See also: Stop the War Coalition.)

"Case Open" (Jack Schafer, Slate, 2003/11/18)
Schafer on why the press is avoiding the Weekly Standard's intelligence scoop: "A classified memo by a top Pentagon official written at Senate committee request and containing information about scores of intelligence reports might spell news to you or me — whether you believe Saddam and Osama were collaborating or not. But except for exposure at other Murdoch media outlets (Fox News Channel, the Australian, the New York Post) and the conservative Washington Times, the story got no positive bounce. Time and Newsweek could have easily commented on some aspect of the story, which the Drudge Report promoted with a link on Saturday. But except for a dismissive one-paragraph mention in the Sunday Washington Post by Walter Pincus and a dismissive follow-up by Pincus in today's (Tuesday's) Post pegged to the news that the Justice Department will investigate the leak, the mainstream press has largely ignored Hayes' piece. ...
What's keeping the pack from tearing Hayes' story to shreds, from building on it or at least exploiting the secret document from which Hayes quotes? One possible explanation is that the mainstream press is too invested in its consensus finding that Saddam and Osama never teamed up and its almost theological view that Saddam and Osama couldn't possibly have ever hooked up because of secular/sacred differences. Holders of such rigid views tend to reject any new information that may disturb their cognitive equilibrium. ...
Likewise, you'd be wise to bet your wife's farm that had a similar memo arguing no Saddam-Osama connection been leaked to the press, it would have generated 100 times the news interest as the Hayes story." (See also: "Case Closed" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, from the 2003/11/17 issue))

"'I hate you'" (Harry Hatchet, Harry's Place, 2003/11/18)
"Another of those intensely depressing moments - The Guardian asks 60 people living in Britain to write their personal message to George Bush and, it has to be said, the best ones come from Michael Portillo and Charles Powell - two Tories. ... Depressing reading then but saddest of all is reading the words of 12-year-old Mickey, a little kid who has learnt to spout the SWP line:

Dear George,

I would just like to say how much I hate you. You have done nothing positive in your whole time as president. You are the reason for the poverty in the Middle East. You have no idea what you are doing. You're killing loads of people, and that is not excluding your own nation too. There are still lots of very poor people in America, and they are getting poorer.
You keep making excuses about Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, but all you were in Iraq for was the oil. Saddam had been there for 30 years, so why is it only now you decided to act? You keep talking about September 11 when all you do is bomb other countries and give Israel lots of money. It is a very bad idea that you have come over here.
I don't want to grow up in a country which is so influenced by you and your policies.

He's a 12-year-old lad.
So please don't tell me anymore about how the nihilists are just a tiny minority not worthy of attention. Please don't tell me that Harold Pinter, Tariq Ali and John Pilger are isolated individuals. They are poisoning young people and destroying what little moral credibility remained on the radical left.
I despise them and I despise that their pals in the media present them as the 'left' and leave the field free to the Tories.
But we can't leave the left to these people." (See also: "While we have your attention, Mr President..." (The Guardian, 2003/11/18), with messages from Harold Pinter ("I'm sure you'll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood, with my compliments."), Frederick Forsyth ("You opposed and destroyed the world's most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable.") et al.)

"Syrian Produced Hizbullah TV Ramadan Series - Video Clip of Ritual Murder" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 610, 2003/11/18)
MEMRI also provides a video clip of this nauseous scene:
"During the month of Ramadan, Hizbullah's satellite television channel Al-Manar, which is viewed worldwide, is broadcasting a 30-part antisemitic Syrian-produced series titled Al-Shatat ("Diaspora"). ... The following is a transcript of excerpts from episodes six and four, which depict Jews carrying out acts of torture and plotting to secretly dispose of the body of a community member. ...
Scene 1 Episode 6 - Summary:
In this scene, a group of rabbis and other Jews in a Romanian ghetto gather to torture and kill the father of Theodor Herzl's mistress, the owner of a brothel. The man was found guilty of marrying a non-Jewish woman.
(Al-Manar TV, Lebanon, November 1, 2003)
Man: "Water, water."
Head Rabbi: "You hold his nose shut. You, open his mouth with tongs. You, pour lead into his mouth. You, cut off his ears. You, stab his body with a knife before the lead kills him. This is a sacred Talmudic court; if any of you fails in his mission I will try you just like this criminal."
(The men proceed to carry out their duties, pouring lead down the man's throat, cutting off his ears, and stabbing him.)"