Archived news and commentary: December 8 - 14, 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, December 14, 2003

News and commentary:

"A Shiite Iraqi Muslim woman celebrates..."
(AFP/Henghameh Fahimi, 2003/12/14)
"A Shiite Iraqi Muslim woman celebrates with her family the capture of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City."

"New Iraqi Leaders Confront Their Former Dictator" (Ian Fisher, The New York Times, 2003/12/14)
Four members of the Iraqi Governing Council meet Saddam:
"Mr. Rubaie said he had asked the first question — which, he said, was met with a brutal and dismissive joke. He said he had asked why Mr. Hussein had killed two leading Shia clerics: Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr, killed in 1980; and Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, killed in 1999.
The word "sadr" means "chest" in Arabic, and Mr. Hussein replied, "Al Sadr or Ar Rijil?" That translates as: "The chest or the foot?"
The men then asked Mr. Hussein about three of the crimes of which he has been accused in his nearly 35 years in power:
Asked about the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja in 1988, in which an estimated 5,000 people were killed, Mr. Hussein said this was the work of Iran, at war with Iraq at the time.
Asked about the mass graves of tens of thousands of Iraqis uncovered since Mr. Hussein was toppled from power in the American-led offensive this spring, Mr. Rubaie said that Mr. Hussein answered: "Ask their relatives. They were thieves and they ran away from the battlefields with Iran and from the battlefields of Kuwait."
Asked why he invaded Kuwait in 1990, provoking the first American-led assault on Iraq the next year, he said that Kuwait was rightfully a part of Iraq. ...
Mr. Rubaie said: "One thing which is very important is that this man had with him underground when they arrested him two AK-47's and did not shoot one bullet. I told him, 'You keep on saying that you are a brave man and a proud Arab.' I said, 'When they arrested you why didn't you shoot one bullet? You are a coward.'
"And he started to use very colorful language. Basically, he used all his French.'"

"Notes from Saddam in Custody" (Brian Bennett, TIME, 2003/12/14)
Saddam responds to military interrogators: "When asked "How are you?" said the official, Saddam responded, "I am sad because my people are in bondage." When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam replied, "If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?"
The interrogators also asked Saddam if he knew about the location of Captain Scott Speicher, a U.S. pilot who went missing during the first Gulf War. "No," replied the former Iraqi president, "we have never kept any prisoners. I have never known what happened."
Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "No, of course not," he replied, according to the official, "the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us." The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: "if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam's reply: 'We didn't want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy.'"

"President Bush Addresses Nation on the Capture of Saddam Hussein" (The White House, 2003/12/14)
"Yesterday, December the 13th, at around 8:30 p.m. Baghdad time, United States military forces captured Saddam Hussein alive. He was found near a farmhouse outside the city of Tikrit, in a swift raid conducted without casualties. And now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions.
The capture of this man was crucial to the rise of a free Iraq. It marks the end of the road for him, and for all who bullied and killed in his name. For the Baathist holdouts largely responsible for the current violence, there will be no return to the corrupt power and privilege they once held. For the vast majority of Iraqi citizens who wish to live as free men and women, this event brings further assurance that the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever." (See also: "World reaction in quotes" (BBC News, 2003/12/14))

"In Baghdad, Celebration and Mockery of a Captured Leader" (John F. Burns and Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2003/12/14)
Baghdad reactions: "Iraqis said they had not seen such celebrations in the streets since perhaps the end in the late 1980's of the disastrous Iran-Iraq War. ...
Thousands of Iraqis gathered on street corners, cheering and dancing. Children waved American flags. Men tossed sweets to the crowds.
In the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, not many of the residents have satellite television, so the news did not spread as quickly. But when it did, residents wasted no time in mocking the man who they blame for the disappearance and execution of thousands of Shiites.
"I am very happy because Saddam was a bad leader," said 26-year-old Hanaa Abdul Hussein. "It is a new birth for all of us."
Young men who had seen the video footage of the dishevelled Iraqi leader mimicked the way he stroked his beard, or rubbed the side of his face, or they mocked him for being plucked from his underground hiding place by the American forces.
"He is a coward. Just like a rat!" shouted one man.
"He looks like a beggar!" said another.
"He is finished!" said a third."

"Saddam Search Named After Bad Movie?" (Hindrocket, Power Line, 2003/12/14)
"The Sun notes that "Red Dawn" was the name of a 1984 movie in which Communists invade the United States, but are defeated by a gang of high school students. ...
Could the name be a coincidence? A second telling detail appears to clinch the case:
"Operation Red Dawn may have got its name from a 1984 action movie starring Patrick Swayze. The film, a box office flop, featured a group of students who become guerilla fighters called Wolverines after their town is invaded by communist troops."
As the Sun points out, the two targets of yesterday's raid were named Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. Case closed. And for Britons who are unused to our more ferocious predators, and don't follow college football, the Sun explains: "A wolverine is a strong, carnivorous mammal related to the weasel, which lives in the forests of North America, Scandinavia and eastern Europe." Reasonably accurate, but I wouldn't stretch the weasel analogy too far." (See also: "Meek as a lamb" (Michael Lea, The Sun, 2003/12/14) and "Operation Red Dawn - Briefing Slides" (centcom.mil, 2003/12/14))

"Galloway Award Nominee (for thinly veiled disappointment at the capture of Saddam)" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/12/14)
The French definition of a "tremendous achievement": "'I'm a bit sad that it puts an end to this battle of David against Goliath. We must acknowledge that Saddam Hussein is a cunning, if not a talented leader. He may look defeated, tired, dejected but when you think of all the means deployed to get rid of him, it's just a tremendous achievement to have been able to survive.' - BBC listener/viewer, Bernard Franck Dehlinger, Ris-Orangis, France. Where else?" (See also: "Saddam capture: Your reaction" (BBC News, 2003/12/14))

"Palestinians mark 'black day' of Saddam capture" (Mohammed Assadi, Reuters, 2003/12/14)
Palestinian reactions: "Disbelief and gloom seized many Palestinians Sunday at news of Saddam Hussein's capture as Israel fired off a telegram of congratulations to Washington.
The former Iraqi ruler was a hero to many Palestinians for his stand against Israel and its U.S. ally, as well as for helping families of Palestinians dead in an uprising.
For Israel, he was a menace over the horizon who long bankrolled the enemy.
"It's a black day in history," said Sadiq Husam, 33, a taxi driver in Ramallah, West Bank seat of the Palestinian Authority."

"Arabs' Welcome of Arrest Is Tinged With Regret" (Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 2003/12/14)
Arab reactions II: "While the Arab public harbors no particular love for the deposed dictator or other oppressive governments in the region that were similar to his, they despair that an outside power can humiliate the Arab world by capturing such a significant figure with relative impunity, underscoring their own powerlessness.
"It is a shock to many," said Mustapha Hamarneh, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.
'They wanted him to at least die fighting, not be caught lying down in some hole like a rat. The image they built of him over the past 35 years was that he was a knight who would not die lying down. The real image or the real character turned out to be radically different.'"

"Many Arabs greet news of Saddam's capture with disbelief" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/14)
Arab reactions I: "'Impossible! No, I don't believe it,' cried Rami Makhoul, who works at a jewelry store in the Syrian capital Damascus. At an outdoor market in Cairo, shopkeepers could be heard yelling at each other, "They say he's been captured, do you believe that?" In the Jordanian capital Amman, 77-year-old Sheik Abu Khaled saw the TV footage of the apparently addled, disheveled Saddam, and declared, "This captured man isn't Saddam. He'd rather blow himself up." ...
Samer Saado, an employee at a Damascus flower shop, said he didn't care about Saddam but felt overwhelming sadness for Iraq and the entire Arab world.
"What the Americans are doing in Iraq and everywhere else is humiliating. There's nothing to say we're not next in line," he said."

"Mother of Days" (Alaa, The Mesopotamian, 2003/12/14)
Iraqi bloggers II: "That I, and the Iraqi people should see this day! This, surely, is the mother of all days for us. The heroes of our valiant Pesh Mergas, and the heroes of the U.S. Fourth division have done it. Now is the time to unleash the Iraqi Counter Terror; now is the time to go for the kill. Let us go after them. Don’t lose this moment. They want to recant and live in equality with the people? they have a chance — otherwise they will have to go. I am too overwhelmed with emotion to write coherently; please excuse me. The foul mouths of the enemies of our people everywhere and the neighboring vultures and hyenas be stuffed with dirt; we will come after you; your time will come.
Long live the great alliance of Mesopotamia and the United States of America and her allies. Now is the time, now is the time; Do not delay; unleash the Counter Terror.
God Bless Iraq; God Bless America; God bless the Allies.
And above all Praise be to Allah the Almighty the Avenger.
Salaam"

"The big brother in a small hole" (Omar, Iraq the Model, 2003/12/14)
Iraqi bloggers I. It's just impossible to lift out a single quote from Omar's reaction straight from Baghdad:
"Horrraaaaa
It's the justice day.
I'm speechless.
I'm crying.
The tyrants' hour has finally came. I went down to the streets to share the joy with my brothers. This is our day, the day of all the oppressed and good people on earth.
Tears of joy filled the eyes of all the people.
Saddam, the coward, hides in a hole, shaking in fear from being captured.
Not a single bullet was fired, without any resistance, God, he was even cooperative! The mighty tyrant, who exploited all our country's fortune for his personal protection, surrenders like the cowered I expected him to be.
Yes, he should be prosecuted in Iraq. We will not allow anything else.
We want to see him in a cage bending more and more, humiliated more and more, just as he forced all the Iraqis to bend to him, like they were his slaves. But we will not be like him, we will give him a fair trail, and he will get just what he deserves, although I have no idea what does he really deserve.
It's indeed an inauspicious day for all the tyrants. Let them know that their days are near too.
This is the day of all Iraqi martyrs who were slaughtered just to please his sick lust for blood.
Rest in peace my brothers. The paradise is yours and the disgrace and hell is for all the tyrants on earth.
Thank you American, British, Spanish, Italian, Australian, Ukrainian, Japanese and all the coalition people and all the good people on earth.
God bless the 1st brigade.
God bless the 4th infantry division.
God bless Iraq.
God bless America.
God bless the coalition people and soldiers.
God bless all the freedom loving people on earth.
I wish I could hug you all."

"U.S. Commander: Tip Led to Saddam Capture" (Aleksandar Vasovic, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/12/14)
"Saddam Hussein was captured based on information from a member of a family "close to him," Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno said Sunday. ...
About 600 soldiers under his command conducted the raid Saturday night in a farm near the village of Adwar, finding Saddam in a hole covered by Styrofoam and a carpet beside a two-room shack, Odierno said.
When soldiers pulled the bearded man from the hole, he said, "he was very much bewildered."
Saddam carried a pistol but offered no resistance and taken south by helicopter about an hour after he was pulled from his hiding place, Odierno said.
"He was just caught like a rat," he said. 'When you're in the bottom of a hole you can't fight back.'"

"Saddam Hussein Captured Alive Near Tikrit" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2003/12/14)
"American forces captured a bearded Saddam Hussein as he hid in the cellar of a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, ending one of the most intensive manhunts in history. The arrest, eight months after the fall of Baghdad, was carried out without a shot fired and was a huge victory for U.S. forces.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference. "The tyrant is a prisoner."
Saddam was captured Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in a specially prepared "spider hole" in the cellar in the town of Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit, Lt Col. Ricardo Sanchez said. The hole was six to eight feet deep, camouflaged with bricks and dirt and supplied with an air vent to allow long periods inside.
In the capital, radio stations played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air and others drove through the streets, shouting, 'They got Saddam! They got Saddam!'"

"Captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein..."
(AP/US Military, 2003/12/14)
"Captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein speaks in Baghdad Sunday Dec. 14, 2003 in this image from television. Top U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer confirmed the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a dirt hole under a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, eight months after the fall of Baghdad."

"Iraqi Journalist Cries for Joy at Saddam's Capture" (Michael Georgy, Reuters, 2003/12/14)
"Iraqi journalist Fatah al-Sheikh wept when he saw U.S. video of Saddam Hussein at a news conference Sunday.
"When I saw Saddam's long beard, how he looked like a defeated man, it reminded me of the two years I spent in jail, how his agents tortured me in every way you could imagine," he said.
Iraqi reporters at press conference with Paul Bremer mirrored the jubilation in the streets by jumping for joy when the U.S. administrator showed pictures of the man who had terrified Iraqis and ruthlessly crushed dissent for decades.
They punched the air and shouted but Sheikh just sobbed loudly. ...
As journalists turned their attention to Sheikh one asked him mistakenly if he lived in Saddam City in Baghdad.
"The name is now Sadr City," he said with a smile."

"U.S.: 'We got him'" (CNN.com, 2003/12/14)
"U.S. forces have captured Saddam Hussein in a late night raid in his hometown, according to the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
"Ladies and gentleman, we got him," L. Paul Bremer announced Sunday. The announcement was greeted with cheers from the audience.
Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez showed video of Saddam, who had graying hair and a long beard, undergoing a medical examination after his capture.
Several Iraqi journalists stood up and shouted "Death to Saddam" after the video was shown. ...
In Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis flooded the streets, firing guns into the air, singing, dancing and throwing candy into the air - celebrating the apparent capture of the man who had ruled their lives with terror and repression for more than three decades." (See also: "Ambassador Bremer Briefing from Baghdad" (defenselink.mil, 2003/12/14) "Operation Red Dawn - Briefing Slides" (centcom.mil, 2003/12/14))

"Bin Laden wins votes in contest for 'greatest Arab'" (Fiona Govan, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/14)
"Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have been nominated for the title of the "greatest Arab" of all time in a Middle Eastern variant of the BBC's Great Britons series.
An Arabic television channel began accepting nominations last week, after buying the format for the popular programme from the BBC. Thousands have already logged on to the website for the series or sent text messages to vote for their preferred candidate.
Both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have already received votes. Other nominations include Saladin, famous for having recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders; Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader; King Abdul Aziz al Saud, the creator of modern Saudi Arabia; and Omar Sharif."

"Pakistan's Musharraf escapes assassination attempt" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/14)
"Pakistan's president escaped an assassination attempt Sunday when a bomb exploded minutes after his motorcade passed a road near the capital, officials said. No one was hurt.
The blast damaged a bridge in Rawalpindi, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the capital Islamabad, but President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was not harmed, state television PTV reported.
"Definitely, definitely, it was meant for President Musharraf," an Interior Ministry official said on condition on anonymity."

"At Least 17 Killed in Blast at Iraq Police Station" (AP/The New York Times, 2003/12/14)
"A car bomb exploded Sunday morning at a police station in this town west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 others, a U.S. military officer said.
A suicide bomber apparently carried out the attack, U.S. army Lt. Col. Jeff Swisher said.
An emergency room administrator at a hospital in the nearby city of Ramadi said there were 18 people killed in the blast and more than 20 injured. Many of the victims were police officers, said the hospital administrator, Haitham Bahar Taha."

"By the left... about turn" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2003/12/14)
From a review of Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance", found via Douglas:
"Whatever other crimes it committed or covered up in the twentieth century, the Left could be relied upon to fight fascism. A regime that launched genocidal extermination campaigns against impure minorities would be recognised for what it was and denounced.
Not the least of the casualties of the Iraq war is the death of anti-fascism. Patriots could oppose Bush and Blair by saying that it wasn't in Britain's interests to follow America. Liberals could put the UN first and insist that the United States proved its claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the court of world opinion. Adherents to both perspectives were free to tell fascism's victims, 'We're sorry to leave you under a tyranny and realise that many more of you will die, but that's your problem.'
The Left, which has been formally committed to the Enlightenment ideal of universal freedom for two centuries, couldn't bring itself to be as honest. Instead millions abandoned their comrades in Iraq and engaged in mass evasion. If you think that it was asking too much to expect it to listen to people in Iraq when they said there was no other way of ending 35 years of oppression, consider the sequel. Years after the war, the Kurdish survivors of genocide and groups from communists through to conventional democrats had the right to expect fraternal support against the insurgency by the remnants of the Baath Party. They are being met with indifference or active hostility because they have committed the unforgivable sin of cooperating with the Americans. For the first time in its history the Left has nothing to say to the victims of fascism."

"Payback time for the axis of weasels" (Mark Steyn, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/14)
Steyn weighs in on "the Pentagon's decision to make the axis of weasels ineligible for Iraqi reconstruction contracts":
"What's at issue here is whether the American Defence Department should use American taxpayers' money to offer American government contracts in Iraq to companies from countries that actively obstructed and continue to obstruct American policy in Iraq. That's a legitimate national security interest, and no more "illegal" than, say, Belgium's refusal to sell Britain artillery shells during the Gulf War. ...
On Iraq, France, is on the other side - Saddam was their man, to the end. Germany is in a state of semi-derangement - a third of Germans under 30 believe that America organised the 9/11 attacks, a statistic only a polling point or two behind the excitable young men of Pakistan's North-West Frontier.
Canada thinks that it can enjoy north American prosperity without contributing to north American defence. And Russia is already undermining the next American goal - under cover of the anodyne EU/IAEA position on Iran, it is continuing to assist the mullahs' nuclear programme.
So it's not (just) payback, it's also about the next round of problems. One can think of several terms for folks who behave in these various ways, but "allies" isn't one of them - unless "allies" is now a synonym for, respectively, saboteurs, poseurs, nutters and enemies."

"Will Chirac fight fascism?" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/12/14)
Taheri argues that the Islamist headscarf should be seen as a "political symbol in the same way as Nazi casquettes, Mao Zedong caps and Che Guevara berets were in their times":
"To start with, the term "foulard islamique" is inaccurate because it assumes that the controversial headscarf is an article of Islamic faith, which it emphatically is not. It is a political symbol shared by several radical movements that, each in its own way, tries to transform Islam from a religion into a political ideology.
One could describe these movements as Islamist, but not Islamic. A new word has been coined in Arabic to describe them: Mutuasslim. Its equivalent in Persian is Islamgara.
The foulard should be seen as a political symbol in the same way as Nazi casquettes, Mao Zedong caps and Che Guevara berets were in their times. It has never been sanctioned by any Islamic religious authority and is worn by a tiny minority of Muslim women. ...
Islamism is a totalitarian ideology like Communism and Fascism. And like them it loves uniforms. While it forces, or brainwashes, women into wearing the foulard, it also presses men to grow beards as an advertisement of piety. ...
By trying to turn the issue of the foulard into a duel between Islam and secularism, the French may be missing the point. The real problem is posed by organized and well-funded efforts of Fascist groups to develop a form of apartheid in which Muslims in France, now numbering almost 6 million, will not be protected by the French political system and the laws that sustain it. ...
What France is witnessing is not a clash of civilization between Islam and the West. It is a clash between a new form of fascism and democracy. Islamism must be exposed and opposed politically. To give it any religious credentials is not only unjust but also bad politics." (See also: "French report favours schools headscarf ban" (Paul Betts, Financial Times, 2003/12/11))

"Guantanamo UK" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2003/12/14)
"We damn the Americans for Guantanamo, yet we are doing exactly the same thing in south-east London":
"From the Mail on the Right - Guantanamo 'spits in the face of what most reasonable people in this country would regard as justice' - to the Mirror on the Left - 'the treatment of prisoners defies decency and civilised convention' - the campaign against imprisonment without trial has united left-wing comedians with right-wing pundits, Law Lords with poets, bishops with actresses.
It is not without its hypocrisies. If you want to find men indefinitely imprisoned without trial, you don't have to go to Cuba. You can get them at home. Yet the internment of Arab terrorist suspects in Britain has passed largely unnoticed. There are no outraged playwrights or demands in Parliament to defend the basic principles of British justice. Civil liberties groups try periodically to make internment a cause célèbre, but find few takers. On the one hand, public pressure has forced New Labour to lobby Washington to give the British inmates in Guantanamo Bay a fair trial. On the other, public indifference has given it free rein to intern foreigners in Britain without a fair trial."

"Revealed: shocking truth of Britain's 'Camp Delta'" (Martin Bright, The Observer, 2003/12/14)
Oh my! Anti-depressant drugs! The horror, the horror!: "Disturbing new details have emerged about the treatment of 14 foreign terrorist suspects held without trial in British high-security jails.
At least half of them are showing signs of serious mental illness. Their lawyers say they have been pushed 'beyond the limits of human endurance'. One detainee is a polio victim, another has lost two limbs and a third has attempted suicide.
The men and their families fear some may not survive their indefinite imprisonment at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, which has been described as 'Britain's Guantanamo Bay' or 'Camp Delta UK', and Woodhill prison near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
The Home Office has said that none will be granted bail unless they are terminally ill.
The men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have been described as a serious threat to national security. But the Observer has discovered that two are seriously disabled and most have been on anti-depressant drugs for more than a year."

"Does this link Saddam to 9/11?" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/14)
"For anyone attempting to find evidence to justify the war in Iraq, the discovery of a document that directly links Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks, with the Baghdad training camp of Abu Nidal, the infamous Palestinian terrorist, appears almost too good to be true. ...
The first paragraph states that "Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer (an Arabic nom-de-guerre - his real identity is unknown) and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at al-Dora under our direct supervision.
"We arranged a work programme for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him . . . He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy."
There is nothing in the document that provides any clue to the identity of the "targets", although Iraqi officials say it is a coded reference to the September 11 attacks.
The second item contains a report of how Iraqi intelligence, helped by "a small team from the al-Qaeda organisation", arranged for an (unspecified) shipment from Niger to reach Baghdad by way of Libya and Syria.
Iraqi officials believe this is a reference to the controversial shipments of uranium ore Iraq acquired from Niger to aid Saddam in his efforts to develop an atom bomb, although there is no explicit reference in the document to this."

"Terrorist behind September 11 strike was trained by Saddam" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/14)
"Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.
Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.
In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".
The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria."

Saturday, December 13, 2003

News and commentary:

"In discussing the American directive freezing anti-war countries..." (Douglas, Last of the Famous International Playboys, 2003/12/13)
My friend and fellow collaborator Douglas has at last started his own blog, modestly named "Last of the Famous International Playboys". Prepare for lots (hopefully) of interesting, well documented and thoughtful posts from a liberal perspective:
"In discussing the American directive freezing anti-war countries out of Iraqi reconstruction contracts below, I mention the loss of "a major source of wealth, both potential and actual." What exactly do I mean?
To answer that I should mention a very interesting document available on the Web site of the Assemblée nationale entitled "Report of the fact-finding mission by the Foreign Affairs Commission on the role of petroleum companies in foreign policy and its social and environmental impact" ...
Our curiosity is rewarded as we learn the following: negotiations for the "contract of the century" went down like this: From 1992 up until 1997, French oil companies Elf Aquitaine and Total negotiated the production of oil in southern Iraq's Majnoun islands (which, at an estimated output of 900,000 barrels per day, would be greater than the entire production capacity of Algeria) and at Nahr Umr (440,000 barrels per day), both conveniently located near Iraq's only maritime oil terminal. ...
The loss of so much money (the equivalent of Algeria in a single contract!) likely accounts for France's decision at the recent Madrid conference to contribute precisely nothing to Iraqi reconstruction: from a calculating French point of view, the request to contribute to Iraq's reconstruction is an insult: "and now they have the audacity to ask us for money?" Having now locked them out of the reconstruction and asked the to forgive their debts, it's reasonable to assume that that many at the Quai d'Orsay are seeing red."

"A Fetish of Candor" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2003/12/13)
Brooks argues that the Bush administration has "made a fetish of candor and forthrightness":
"The U.S. now has roughly $18 billion to spend on the effort to rebuild Iraq, and it must figure out whether to allow companies from these countries to profit from the effort.
The wise course is obvious. You loudly announce that all is forgiven, that, of course, the companies from the wayward nations will be allowed to bid for contracts. And then behind the scenes you stiff them cold.
This policy is hypocritical, so it is probably the right policy to enact. It acknowledges that the United States has important business to do with powers like Germany, Russia and France, and cannot afford continued bad relations. It acknowledges that good-hearted people in the United States and abroad do not want to see the U.S. acting like a bully. But it recognizes that people who undermine U.S. policy must pay a price.
But the Bush administration, drunk on truth serum, has done the exact opposite. It has declared in public that countries that did not help overthrow Saddam do not get to benefit from the aftermath. But then in private White House officials seem to be offering every assurance to the offended nations. Moreover the U.S. is still allowing the offending nations to bid on the subcontracts, where there is much money to be made.
This is a policy based on candor, and therefore it is a mess."

"Alan Ramsey, King Turkey" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2003/12/13)
Turkeygate must be the absolutely lamest "scandal" ever. The real scandal is that parts of the anti-war left seem to have lost all sense of proportions. The removal of Saddam's horrific regime and the liberation of 25 million Iraqis counts as nothing compared to a non-existent plastic turkey. See it as a litmus test of sorts — all pundits who have jumped on the Turkeygate bandwagon have thereby proven themselves incapable of drawing reasonable distinctions:
"The Sydney Morning Herald's Alan Ramsey is a fool:

Hear about George Bush's plastic turkey? No, not his rubber duck. His turkey. Even John Howard, under the blankets in the dead of night, must be starting to wonder what in George's name he's got us into. Mark Latham didn't realise the utter truth of his immaculate character assessment. We now learn Howard took this country into war at the bidding of a US President who makes a complete goose of himself by "feeding" American troops in Baghdad a plastic Christmas turkey. Yes, really.

No, really. Read the original Washington Post story, Al. The turkey was a genuine turkey. Real. Not plastic. It was roasted, you hopeless idiot! And, by the way, it was a Thanksgiving turkey. For God's sake, the fake turkey story was blown apart several days ago." (See also: "Despots come in many colours" (Alan Ramsey, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003/12/13) and "Troops Demoralized by Bush Turkeygate Scandal" (ScrappleFace, 2003/12/04))

"Officer avoids court-martial" (Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times, 2003/12/13)
"Lt. Col. Allen B. West was fined $5,000 by his commanding officer yesterday, closing a case in which the Army charged him with assault for firing his gun to frighten an Iraqi detainee into disclosing a planned ambush.
Neal Puckett, Col. West's civilian attorney, said the officer plans to return to Fort Hood, Texas, where he expects to be granted a full-benefits retirement this spring after a 20-year Army career. ...
The case has been closely watched by Army officers and military veterans. Col. West's stated motives were to protect himself and his soldiers in the notorious Sunni Triangle, where Americans face daily attacks from Saddam Hussein loyalists. But he admitted bending the rules and the Army chose to file charges rather than handling the case quietly." (See also: "Persecuting Col. West" (The Washington Times, 2003/11/22), "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))

Friday, December 12, 2003

News and commentary:

"Germany's "Peace" Movement Actively and Openly Supporting Iraqi Terrorism" (Ray D., Davids Medienkritik, 2003/12/12)
"Just when you thought the German "peace" movement couldn’t get much more hypocritical they take things to a whole new level. Last week the unbelievable lack of protest at the German government's plutonium and arms deal with Communist China made it seem as the peace freaks had all rolled up into a big ball for a long winter hibernation.
Not so! The German TV news program "Panorama" uncovered some of the wonderful activities that particularly dedicated cadres of the German peace movement are currently engaged in. In the spirit of peace, a number of groups have started a fund-raising campaign entitled "10 Euros for the Iraqi Resistance". The money will be provided to the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA) a group dedicated to carrying out attacks against US soldiers in Iraq in collaboration with Saddam loyalists. The common goal is to "liberate" the Iraqi people from the evil imperialist American occupiers. On their website these groups gush with enthusiasm about turning Iraq into another Vietnam for the USA.
OK, what's the big deal? Why can't people recognize that these young, misunderstood idealists simply have the interests of the Iraqi people at heart? Clearly, supporting more terror acts that blow away innocent Iraqi civilians and the reinstatement of a Baathist terror regime is the best imaginable way to further the cause of world peace. And just think, if the fine humanitarians supporting this action really do succeed in reaching their goals they can form a volunteer troupe to begin digging new mass graves in Iraq for the new Saddamist government.
Don't you just love peace?" (See also: "Italian group backs Iraq fighters" (BBC News, 2003/11/17))

"Critical Mass" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2003/12/12)
"We are beginning the third year of this multi-theater conflict, and it resembles the Punic War after the Carthaginian defeat at the Metaurus in 207 B.C., the year of decision of 1863, or the autumn leading to Alamein and Stalingrad. Ever so slowly the momentum is building. If we stay resolute and tighten the noose around the Baathists, the days of the extremists in Iraq will be numbered even as the rest of the country begins to prosper. And the final victory will only embolden us and discourage our enemies. The war itself cannot be won in the Sunni Triangle, but it might well have been lost there. ...
From the rhetoric of the Democratic candidates, from the papers in Cairo, and from the videos of the fundamentalists, one would not believe the United States is turning the corner and on the road to a stunning victory, characterized by both competence and idealism. In the last two years our enemies have lacked not the will but the power to defeat us; we in contrast had more than enough power but not enough will. But all that is changing as we ever so slowly become angrier while they get weaker.
So we are witnessing right now the war's critical turning point in these the most historic of times. What has been amazing about the war so far is not that we have been winning, but that we have been doing so — quite unlike our increasingly exhausted enemies — without the full mobilization of our vast economic, political, material, and human resources."

"Caliphate Dreams" (Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/12/12)
A review of Raphael Israeli's "Islamikaze - Manifestations of Islamic Matryrology":
"The author concludes with a most unique and unflinching prescription for how Western democracies should respond to the Islamikaze threat. He proposes the creation of an Alliance of Western and Democratic States (AWADS), consisting of a nucleus of the United States, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe (and these core nations can sponsor other countries proven to conform to its rules and standards), with the following six avowed "rules of engagement":
Strict control of immigration from Muslim countries without reliance on the "efforts" of the countries of origin, who have shown neither the will nor the means to stop this massive flow, much of it already illegal. This policy should include interception and routine unceremonious repatriation of the illegal immigrants themselves, and expulsion from AWADS nations of those who assist them.
Reciprocal arrangements for controlled immigration, tourism and educational exchanges between Muslim countries and AWADS nations to guarantee equivalent, unimpeded bilateral flow- Muslim nationals to AWADS, AWADS nationals to Muslim countries- devoid of characteristic Muslim discriminatory regulations towards other races, faiths, or nationalities.
Rendering various forms of economic, technical/infrastructural, health, agricultural, and educational assistance by AWADS to Muslim countries contingent upon basic conditions met by the applicants, including: accountability; progress in human rights; meaningful efforts at population control; renunciation of force/violence in dealing with other nations/communities; and monitoring and controlling incitement to hatred and violence in mosques and media outlets.
Terminating all military assistance and weapons sales by AWADS to non-member states, supplemented by a policy that any weapons-manufacturing third party which sells or transfers weapons to those regimes will itself forfeit the right to deal with AWADS members."

"Peaceniks in knots" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2003/12/12)
"An earthquake appears to be under way in Israeli politics. All of a sudden, light appears to have dawned among some Likudniks about the trap into which they have managed to manoeuvre themselves. By hanging onto the disputed territories in the wait for a negotiated settlement which will never come, the Jewish state is under existential threat from demography, a threat greater even than terrorism or war, since within the forseeable future Israel will be ruling more Arabs than Jews even though many of these Arabs will be outside its borders. This realisation provoked the deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to astonish everyone and enrage many within his own party by stating that Israel should now unilaterally withdraw from 90 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza.
Quite right. Welcome to sanity. Since the 'two-state solution' called for by the Palestinians out of the western side of their mouths was always a ruse to conceal the real agenda --which remains, as it has been since 1948, the destruction of the Jewish state -- it follows that the Palestinians will always block the creation of their own state, waiting instead for the combination of terrorism, poisoned world opinion and demography to bring about their final solution to the impasse. That is Arafat's strategy. It is extremely shrewd, and the Israelis have fallen for it almost as badly as has benighted Europe. ...
Yet what do we find among the opinion formers of the west who have been demanding year in, year out that Israel withdraw unilaterally from the territories? Do we find excited and enthusiastic commentary, congratulating the Israelis for moving the debate onto this territory and encouraging them? Do we hell. These same opinion formers are now throwing up their hands in horror." (See also: "Israeli official proposes major Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory" (AP/CBC, 2003/12/05) and "Ehud Olmert on his plan" (Amotz Asa-El and Ruthie Blum, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/11))

"A grave and gathering threat" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/12)
"One of the worst-kept secrets in our region is that aside from Iran's nuclear weapons program, Egypt is the greatest looming threat to Israel's national security. As our governing officials pander to Mubarak and his top brass, these men oversee diplomatic and military policies that endanger the very existence of the Jewish state. ...
Egypt's support for the continuation of the Palestinian terror war is part and parcel of an overall strategy of weakening Israel politically, diplomatically, and defensively while building up the Egyptian armed forces to a level of parity with the IDF. Dr. Arieh Stav, director of the Ariel Center for Policy Research, explains, "Egypt is an impoverished country. Its per capita income is $870.
And yet, it spends a quarter of its GDP on its military. Egypt has 450,000 men in uniform and another 450,000 men in its paramilitary units. This battle roster does not include its reserve forces. By way of comparison, at the height of World War II, Nazi Germany did not spend such a large proportion of its GDP on its war efforts." ...
By signing a peace agreement with Israel, Egypt became the second-largest recipient of US military assistance in the world. It has received a pass for its anti-Semitism and active support of Palestinian terrorist organizations. Its massive militarization, non-conventional arsenal, and its refusal to develop its civilian economy or grant political freedom to its subjects have been systematically ignored. ...
In Egypt's case, as Steinitz explains, 'It is an alarming irony that while Israel has a peace agreement with Egypt, but remains in an official state of war with Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Syria, and Libya, Egypt causes Israel more damage diplomatically and constitutes a larger threat militarily than all these states that are still our declared enemies.'"

"Europe's pious hypocrisy should be exposed for what it is" (Max Boot, The Age, 2003/12/12)
"I write today in defence of unilateralism. I know there are many who will want to pillory any country that refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol, that breaks fundamental economic accords and that sends its troops to fight Muslims abroad without United Nations authorisation. To them I say: give the Europeans a break. They have good reasons for doing what they're doing. ...
As these events transpired, I couldn't help remembering how many times I - as an American commentator - have been lectured by self-righteous Europeans in the past year.
Europe, they claim, is governed by the rule of law, whereas the United States lives by the law of the jungle. Europe is multilateral, the US unilateral. Europe good, United States bad. ...
The point isn't that unilateralism is always good. Often, as in the case of Bush's steel tariffs, which hurt US consumers, it's stupid.
Nor is multilateralism always the answer. It depends on the circumstances. These questions should be examined case by case.
Sounds logical, right? Unfortunately that sensible approach is derided by most Europeans - except, of course, when their own governments are doing it."

"Palestinian who smuggled explosive belt cites finances" (Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2003/12/12)
This is ominous as a sign of the "normalization" of suicide bombings in Palestinian culture. Fanaticism hits the mainstream:
"The Palestinian woman who was arrested at the beginning of the week after smuggling an explosives belt into Israel from the West Bank for use in a planned suicide bombing has told her interrogators that she did it for the money.
Latifa Abu Dar'a, a 30-year-old mother of seven from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, told Shin Bet security service officials that members of Fatah's military wing had paid NIS 300 for her part in the planned terror attack. Dar'a, who is not known as a member of Fatah, told her interrogators she had not acted out of ideological motives."

"Iraqi troops given chemical arms, claims ex-colonel" (Benedict Brogan and Jack Fairweather, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/12/12)
More on the former Iraqi colonel's claim that "Saddam Hussein's front-line units were provided with rocket-propelled grenades armed with chemical or biological weapons for use against allied troops":
"His commanding officer said that he had no knowledge of his men being supplied with WMD warheads.
A senior Iraqi general in charge of air defences during the war, who was part of a committee that reported directly to Saddam on the supply and training of air defence units, said: "This lieutenant colonel wanted to scare the Western world."
The general, who would not give his name, conceded that authority may have been bypassed but said the frontline troops he visited were in a shambolic state and were unlikely to have received any additional weapons.
"We were very low on equipment," he said. 'There certainly wasn't any talk of chemical warheads.'" (See also: "How the 45-minute claim got from Baghdad to No 10" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/07) and "Revealed: the Iraqi colonel who told MI6 that Saddam could launch WMD within 45 minutes" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/07))

Thursday, December 11, 2003

News and commentary:

"It's been a good year" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2003/12/13 issue)
Steyn's assessment of 2003 is if course a must-read:
"In California, Muslim community leaders have applauded the decision of the Catholic high school in San Juan Capistrano to change the name of its football team from the Crusaders to the less culturally insensitive Lions.
Meanwhile, 20 miles up the road in Irvine, the Muslim Football League’s New Year tournament will bring together some of the most exciting Muslim football teams in Orange County: the Intifada, the Mujahideen, the Saracens and the Sword of Allah.
That’s the spirit. I can't wait for the California sporting calendar circa 2010: the San Diego Jihadi vs the Oakland Sensitives, the Malibu Hezbollah vs the Santa Monica Inoffensives, the Pasadena Sword of the Infidel Slayer vs the Bakersfield Self-Deprecators. ...
So I have made a New Year's resolution — or, if you can't say that any more, an Eid resolution — to be extra-super-sensitive as we look at the state of play at the close of 2003. First of all, I'm amazed that we can still win anything, given the palpable urge of the Western world’s elites to abase themselves in the name of multiculturalism. Their position is basically that of Bernd Brandes, the computer engineer eaten by the German cannibal: go ahead, devour me, but chop my penis off first so I can watch you sauté it. But if the deal is that for every Islamic regime we overthrow we have to rename ten California sports teams, I think I can live with it. Yay, go, Sword of Allah!" (See also: "Taking the Intifada to the Football Field" (William Lobdell, Los Angeles Times, 2003/12/07))

"Tactics of Tyrants Are Always Transparent"
(Chuck Bowden, chuckbowden.com)

"Anti-Bush drawing called 'hate speech'" (Ron Harris, AP/Boston.com, 2003/12/11)
"An award-winning drawing blaming President Bush for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was pulled from a small-town exhibit over "insurance issues" after a businessman withdrew his $300 prize and called the piece a form of "hate speech."
Artist Chuck Bowden's drawing, "The Tactics of Tyrants Are Always Transparent," won second place in the Redwood Art Association's annual fall exhibit, held earlier this month in Eureka, Calif. In the 11-inch-by-14-inch drawing, a crown and halo-topped Bush stands on a grave, his hand dripping with blood as bodies fall to the ground from the World Trade Center towers in the distance.
Bowden called it a tribute to those who lost their lives in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and he acknowledged the piece was meant to place blame for the attacks squarely on the shoulders of the president. [emphasis added]"

"Happy annual" (Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review, 2003/12/11)
"This is...America today? From an e-mailer:
Thought you might find this interesting........

I work in a department of about 150 people for the University of California, Davis. We have been told that we can't even call it a "Holiday" party any longer. One sole kook decided that the word "holiday" implies religion and whined to our dean that the word offended her because of that. The dean promptly caved and told us that our party was now being called the "Annual" party.
I would love to hear anyone who can top that. This has to rank pretty high on the ridiculousness meter."

"Al-Shatat: The Syrian-Produced Ramadan 2003 TV Special" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 627, 2003/12/12)
An overview of the 29-part Syrian-produced Ramadan special "Al-Shatat" (Diaspora) , which was aired by the Lebanese Hizbullah-affiliated Al-Manar television station:
"According to 'Al-Shatat,' the Jews have sought to control the world for many centuries, via a secret global Jewish government. Since the 19th century, this secret government has been led by the Rothschild family.
Under this government's leadership, the Jews were directly responsible for the following: starting the Russo-Japanese war; assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo; starting WWI; starting WWII; the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; helping Hitler annihilate the Jews of Europe; helping the Nazis annihilate 800,000 Hungarian Jews in exchange for the release of 2,000 wealthy German Jews; toppling the Ottoman sultan; deposing Czar Nicholas II; starting the Kishinev pogroms; ritually murdering a Christian child in Rumania and using his blood for matzos; torturing and murdering a Jew who married a Christian; murdering Czar Alexander III in Russia; causing the English stock market to collapse following the Battle of Waterloo and again during WWI, in order to make millions of pounds (for the Rothschilds); spying for Germany against France (Dreyfus); inventing chemical weapons (Chaim Weizmann) and selling them to both the Germans and the English; refusing to accept elderly Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis into Palestine; murdering 100 people in Egypt during military training prior to WWI; deposing British prime minister Harold Asquith; sinking a boatload of Jewish refugees en route to the U.S.; murdering emigrating Jews who tried to turn back to Europe; murdering many other characters in the series in a variety of ways; and numerous other catastrophes and criminal deeds." (See also: "Syrian-Produced Hizbullah TV Ramadan Series' Video Clip of a 'Blood Libel'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 623, 2003/12/08) and "Syrian Produced Hizbullah TV Ramadan Series - Video Clip of Ritual Murder" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 610, 2003/11/18))

"Bush Rejects Europeans on Iraq Contract Flap" (Steve Holland, Reuters, 2003/12/11)
"President Bush on Thursday rejected European criticism of his decision to bar Iraq war opponents from $18.6 billion in U.S. reconstruction money for Iraq and said contracts would be reserved for those countries that risked lives in Iraq.
"It's very simple. Our people risked their lives. Friendly coalition folks risked their lives, and therefore the contracting is going to reflect that, and that's what the U.S. taxpayers expect," Bush said. ...
Bush scoffed at a question seeking his reaction to Schroeder's statement on Thursday that international law must apply to the awarding of the contracts.
"International law? I better call my lawyer," he said." (See also: "Pentagon Rules on Iraq Contracts Draw Criticism Abroad" (Thomas Fuller and Brian Knowlton, IHT/The New York Times, 2003/12/10))

"Car Bomb at Iraq Base Kills One U.S. Soldier, Wounds 14" (Dean Yates, Reuters, 2003/12/11)
"A suicide car bomb attack at a U.S. military base in Iraq on Thursday killed one U.S. soldier and wounded 14 as troops uncovered a weapons cache north of Baghdad with enough ammunition to launch a spate of strikes. ...
U.S. military officials said the bomb was concealed in a furniture truck and detonated outside a base of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division near the flashpoint town of Ramadi, west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. They said the vehicle was driven by a suicide bomber and that there were believed to have been two other Iraqis in the truck who also died in the explosion."

"French report favours schools headscarf ban" (Paul Betts, Financial Times, 2003/12/11)
"A special commission set up by French president Jacques Chirac on Thursday recommended laws banning headscarves and other conspicuous religious and political symbols in state schools and other public buildings. ...
The report said a new law would help France protect its strict secular republican tradition and counter "forces that are trying to destabilise the country".
Apart from the growing problem of integrating its immigrant community, largely from the country's 6m Muslims, the commission noted that "extremist groups were testing the resistance of the Republic" - a reference to Islamic fundamentalism. The commission stressed it was not targeting France's Muslims but seeking to guarantee the freedom of choice and religion of all French citizens."

"Iraqis for the 'Occupation'" (Walid Phares, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/12/11)
"The demonstrators are criticizing what they call violence!":
"Yesterday's demonstrations in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities were a benchmark: Iraq's resistance to terrorism has begun. Ironically, the first TV station to report such a revolutionary development was none other than al-Jazeera, the jihad channel across the Arab world. But the exclusive airing of such footages was not so innocent. The Qatar-based media understood much faster than Western networks the real dimensions of these marches. Therefore it decided to report it first, and, through condescending coverage, demean it in the eyes of Iraqi and Arab viewers, a traditional-yet-efficient subversive tactic. But whatever were the desperate attempts to pre-empt the unfolding realities, the latter rolled on. ...
The anchors, to the disbelief of many viewers in the Arab world, said the marchers were "expressing views against what they call terrorism" (emphasis added). Al-Jazeera evidently reserves to itself the definition of terrorism. Since September 11, the network has systematically added "what they call terrorism" to each sentence reporting terror attacks by al-Qaeda, other jihadist factions and the Saddam. In sum, that is not terrorism, but a Western view of what is legitimate violence. But al-Jazeera's sour surprise with the first steps of popular resistance to jihadism in Baghdad took the network by surprise. As it was airing the segment, its anchors lost linguistic balance and added this time: "The demonstrators are criticizing what they call violence!" Hence, the editors in Qatar were trapped ideologically. They couldn't even accept the idea that Arabs could be marching against violence, so they described tens of massacres and bombings as "alleged violence," (ma yusamma bil unf). The al-Jazeera debacle was probably the most important victory of the demonstration."

"Buried" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2003/12/11)
"Nearly four hundred words into this New York Times report, we finally see mention of the anti-terrorism demonstrations in Iraq:

In contrast, a heavily policed march in central Baghdad on Wednesday, organized peacefully by the country's major political parties, drew thousands of Iraqis to protest attacks by guerrilla fighters, which have injured and killed Iraqi civilians as well as occupiers.

And that's it. Prior to this paragraph, the NYT runs news of two US soldiers killed and four wounded in Mosul; a bank robbery in Baghdad; a paratrooper raid in Latifiya; the death of a US soldier on Monday; fuel shortages; and a riot.
Over at the Washington Post, Middle East Report editor Chris Toensing had no idea the protest was even scheduled." (See also: "Attacks in Iraq Kill 2 G.I.'s, and a Bank Is Robbed of $800,000" (Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2003/12/11))

Added in archive:
"Pilar Rahola, Former Member of Parliament of the Spanish Republican Left: 'Judeophobia Explains the Pro-Palestinian Hysteria of the European Left'" (Marc Tobiass, proche-orient.info, 2002/10/02)

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

News and commentary:

"NO to terrorism"
(Zeyad, Healing Iraq, 2003/12/10)

"The "F" word" (Roger L. Simon, rogerlsimon.com, 2003/12/10)
"Are the guerrillas in Iraq merely people revolting against civil authority or are they something more specific? According to virtually every report, they are Baathists and their sympathizers, Islamic fundamentalists and their sympathizers or paid thugs working for either or both of the foregoing two groups. So what are they all together? Quite simply they are fascists or at best fascist fellow travelers.
But the media never say the "F" word. They never write the "fascists" did this or that (as they certainly did in other wars). They persist in using the benign "insurgents." Why? I don't want to think that Noah Oppenheim is correct in writing that many in the media quite seriously don't want us to win, but tonight of all nights it seems more likely that could be so. As I type these words at ten p. m. PDT... maybe I missed something... maybe I didn't click far enough... but I see no reports of the large pro-democracy/anti-terror march of Iraqis in Baghdad today in tomorrow's New York Times or Washington Post or in the Los Angeles Times (at least on their websites). Or on the CNN site. Or on MSNBC.... Do you think for one moment that if thousands had been marching for Saddam... for the fascists... excuse me "insurgents"... it wouldn't have been front page news? I don't. What's going on?"

"A great day for Iraq" (Zeyad, Healing Iraq, 2003/12/10)
A report from today's anti-terrorism demonstration in Baghdad:
"The rallies today proved to be a major success. I didn't expect anything even close to this. It was probably the largest demonstration in Baghdad for months. It wasn't just against terrorism. It was against Arab media, against the interference of neighbouring countries, against dictatorships, against Wahhabism, against oppression, and of course against the Ba'ath and Saddam.
We started at Al-Fatih square in front of the Iraqi national theatre at 10 am. IP were all over the place. At 12 pm people started marching towards Fardus square through Karradah. All political parties represented in the GC participated. But the other parties, organizations, unions, tribal leaders, clerics, school children, college students, and typical everyday Iraqis made up most of the crowd. Al-Jazeera estimated the size of the crowd as over ten thousand people.
You can find a list of some of the parties that we noticed there at Omar's blog. At one point it struck me that our many differences as an Iraqi people meant nothing. Here we were all together shouting in different languages the same slogans "NO NO to terrorism, YES YES for peace".
I spent most of the time taking pictures. heh, I really enjoyed playing the role of a journalist. Everyone was tugging at my sleeves asking me to take their photos mistaking me for a foreign reporter. Some people recognized a reporter from Al-Arabiyah station and they started taunting him. One old man shouted to him 'For once, speak the truth.'" (Note: Zeyad also has pictures from the demonstration: First album, Second album and Third album. See also: "The Iraqi people spoke today" (Omar, Iraq the Model, 2003/12/10): "No body seemed to be afraid, in fact today I felt safer than ever. I didn't expect such a response from the Iraqi people after all the terror they have suffered - and still suffering - from. To me it was a total success. I hope more brave steps will follow.")

"EuroCash" (Rachel Ehrenfeld, National Review, 2003/12/10)
Ehrenfeld on EU's blatant denial of PA corruption and terrorism funding in the face of overwhelming evidence:
"When the international donors' conference convenes in Rome next week to consider a new contribution of $1 billion to the Palestinian Authority, it is likely to continue to ignore the PA's ongoing funding of terrorist activities.
According to Hannes Swoboda, a member of the European parliament's ad hoc working group on aid to the PA, "No wrongdoing or misuse of funds by the Palestinian Authority, no instances of funds being used for terrorist activities instead of infrastructure development, have been proved." ...
By the time Patten and the members of the European parliament (MEPs) had made these statements, the Israeli government had already given them volumes of captured Palestinian documents providing evidence that the PA was using EU funds to pay for homicide bombings, the upkeep of terrorists, weapons, and bomb-manufacturing plants; vacations, travel, scholarships and medical treatments for members of the Palestinian leadership and their families; and — not least — Chairman Arafat's personal bank accounts.
How is it possible that the International Monetary Fund, CBS, the BBC, and even the PA itself were all able to document the PA's misuse of funds while Commissioner Patten failed to acknowledge it?
Despite thousands of the PA's own documents — some signed by Yasser Arafat himself — Patten, Swoboda, and many other MEPs not only continue to deny that European tax money has funded Palestinian terrorism, but also claim that the PA documents, authenticated by American, German, and Israeli experts — and even by the Palestinians themselves — are 'forgeries produced by Israel.'"

"Pleasant report on the recent student council election" (Dash Riprock, Acharit HaYamim, 2003/12/10)
Via Andrew Sullivan: "Pleasant report on the recent student council election at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank:

At a debate, the Hamas candidate asked the Fatah candidate: "Hamas activists in this university killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?''
The Fatah candidate refused to answer, suggesting his rival "look at the paper, go to the archives and see for yourself. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have not stopped fighting the occupation.''
Fatah set up models of Jewish settlements and then blew them up with fireworks. The display was meant to emphasize the group's focus on attacking settlers and their communities - considered by Palestinians to be one of the most provocative elements of Israel's occupation of territory they claim for a state.
Hamas countered by blowing up models of Israeli buses, a tribute to the dozens of suicide bombings its members have carried out in the past three years, killing hundreds of Israelis. Activists held samples of the group's homemade Qassam rockets - often fired at Gaza Strip settlements and Israeli towns that border the coastal area. ...

Supporting Palestinian universities like Bir Zeit is a major priority for European institutions like the French Committee of Solidarity with Palestinian Universities, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and SOAS at the University of London." (See also: "Hamas Gains in West Bank University Vote" (Mohammed Daraghme, AP/The Guardian, 2003/12/10))

"Pentagon Rules on Iraq Contracts Draw Criticism Abroad" (Thomas Fuller and Brian Knowlton, IHT/The New York Times, 2003/12/10)
"France, Germany, Russia and Canada today assailed the Pentagon's decision to bar them from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for rebuilding Iraq. The European Union vowed to investigate the legality of Washington's move. ...
Germany called that new policy "not acceptable," while Canada said that it might now end its financial contributions to the reconstruction of Iraq. ...
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany said after a meeting with Mr. Ivanov that he had taken note of the American decision "with astonishment." ...
"That would not be acceptable for the German government," said a spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Berlin. "And it wouldn't be in line with the spirit of looking to the future together and not into the past." ...
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that Moscow would now have no plans to write off its Soviet-era Iraq debt, estimated at $8 billion, despite American pressure for it to do so." (See also: "U.S. Bars Iraq Contracts for Nations That Opposed War" (Douglas Jehl, The New York Times, 2003/12/09))

"Report: Islamic militants ran 7 recruitment camps in France" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/10)
"Islamic radicals held training camps for potential recruits across France through 2002, Le Parisien newspaper reported Wednesday, adding that French investigators believe they have successfully dismantled the network running the camps.
Recruits were sent to seven sites - including one in the Normandy city of Dieppe, one in the southeastern Alps, and a site in the Fontainebleau forest outside Paris - for rugged, outdoor exercises and religious and political indoctrination, the daily said.
The purpose of the sites was to take untested candidates and determine whether they were fit for jihad in battle zones like Afghanistan and Chechnya, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed intelligence officer.
Most recruits came from Paris-region mosques where religious leaders preached a hardline brand of Islam, the newspaper said."

"The D.C. Sniper's Jihad" (Michelle Malkin, New York Post, 2003/12/10)
"From the moment John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo were arrested in the Beltway-area sniper case last fall, the media and Muslim activists wanted us to believe that the serial killings had absolutely nothing to do with Islamic terrorism... ...
Now it is time for Roeper, CAIR and the militant "Religion of Peace" propagandists to face the facts once and for all. A chilling stack of evidence, introduced by Malvo's own lawyers last week at his capital murder trial, exposes accused sniper Malvo as an unrepentant Muslim extremist. ...
Malvo's violent drawings and anti-American and anti-Semitic rantings show him to be every bit as blood-thirsty, hatemongering and martyr-craving as any Sept. 11 hijacker or Palestinian suicide bomber. Among Malvo's jailhouse artwork: ...

Exhibit 65-006: A self-portrait of Malvo in the cross hairs of a gun scope shouting, "ALLAH AKBAR!" The word "SALAAM" scrawled vertically. A poem: "Many more will have to suffer. Many more will have to die. Don't ask me why."
Exhibit 65-016: A portrait of Saddam Hussein with the words "INSHALLAH" and "The Protector," surrounded by rockets labeled "chem" and "nuk."
Exhibit 65-043: Father and son portrait of Malvo and Muhammad. "We will kill them all. Jihad."
Exhibit 65-056: A self-portrait of Malvo as sniper, lying in wait, with his rifle. "JIHAD" written in bold letters. ...
Exhibit 65-109: Portrait of Osama bin Laden, captioned "Servant of Allah."
Exhibit 65-117: The White House drawn in crosshairs, surrounded by missiles, with a warning: "Sep. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you" and "you will bleed to death little by little." ...

Ten Americans were murdered at the hands of the Beltway-area snipers. Malvo's lawyers say he was insane and "brainwashed." No more so than your average madrassa student in Jeddah or America-hating cave dweller in Tora Bora. Malvo is, in his own words, a "believer" of Allah and a "soldier" for "JIHAD."
Stop telling me Islam had nothing to do with it." (See also the drawings: "Malvo Case Defendant's Trial Exhibits" (Fairfax County, December 2003))

"Frontpage Interview: Christopher Hitchens" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/12/10)
"Hitchens: Most of the leftists I know are hoping openly or secretly to leverage difficulty in Iraq in order to defeat George Bush. For innumerable reasons, including the one I cited earlier, I think that this is a tactic and a mentality utterly damned by any standard of history or morality. What I mainly do is try to rub that in.
As I've told you before, there are some former comrades who take a decent position but they all half-understand that it's now an anomalous one in terms of the "Left" as a whole. Some pessimistic liberals who don't wish to sabotage the effort still describe the war against jihadism and dictatorship as "unwinnable".
My short reply is that it is un-loseable. We still haven't captured Radovan Karadzic or Ratko Mladic, who are hiding somewhere in Europe ten years after murdering over 10,000 Muslims in one day. But their protector regime is gone and one day they will be caught or killed. Osama bin Laden is dead in my opinion, and probably has been dead for more than a year. Saddam Hussein is alive, but not where he planned to be.
The Taliban and the Ba'ath and the Serbian Socialist Party will not regain power, however much violence they muster. These are facts. The combat as a whole will never be "over", because it is part of a permanent struggle between reason and unreason, among other things. But to assert that rather minimal point is also to assert that the enemy cannot win. Given the proven nature of that enemy, I hope I need not say any more about what I think of its subconscious sympathizers, let alone its overt ones."

"Locus of Euro-hate" (Daniel Pipes, The Jerusalem Post/danielpipes.org, 2003/12/10)
Pipes on the suppressed and subsequently leaked EU study of anti-Semitism in Europe: "This study and its attempted suppression point to two important facts: the unpleasant reality that exists on the streets of Europe and the EU's deep reluctance to face that reality.
Neither of these facts is new; this author wrote back in 1992 that for world Jewry, "Muslim anti-Semitism is an increasing problem, and in large part this has to do with the ever-growing population of Muslims in the West;" and the EU's unwillingness to confront the pattern of anti-Jewish hostility emerging from Muslim religious, media, and educational institutions is also decades old.
Unless Europeans find the strength forthrightly to address this problem – and all indicators suggest that is unlikely – there is reason to expect a general Jewish exodus from Europe, perhaps along the lines of the general Jewish exodus from Muslim countries a half century ago." (See also the report: "Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the European Union" (Werner Bergmann and Juliane Wetzel, EUMC, December 2003))

Added in archive:
"Iraq behind the cameras: a different reality" (Tara Copp, SHNS, 2003/12/05)

Tuesday, December 9, 2003

News and commentary:

"U.S. Bars Iraq Contracts for Nations That Opposed War" (Douglas Jehl, The New York Times, 2003/12/09)
"The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying the step "is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States."
The directive, which was issued by the deputy defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz, represents perhaps the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to war in Iraq. ...
Under the guidelines, which were issued on Friday but became public knowledge today, only companies from the United States, Iraq and 61 other countries designated as "coalition partners" will be allowed to bid on the contracts, which are financed by American taxpayers." (See also the directive: "Determination and findings" (IIRO, 2003/12/05))

"When rabbis liked Hitler: A tale for the Mideast" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/12/10)
Spengler points out the abyss between traditional Islamic cultures and the current permissive and "decadent" culture of the West: "Modern American culture offers a far graver threat to the Muslim world, bound up as it still is with the mores of traditional society, than ever did Weimar decade to traditional Jews. When President George W Bush hectors the Muslim world on behalf of the American ideal of freedom, traditional Muslims look askance at him. By Muslim standards, what sort of parent is he? Mothers in the Muslim world slit their daughters' throats for less than Bush's twin daughters Barbara and Jenna have done. For example, young Barbara Bush showers in the same-sex bathrooms at Yale with men in the next stall, the New York Post reported on November 3. In most Muslim countries she would be a candidate for an honor killing. If that is what the president means by freedom, most Muslims will have none of it. Move all the Jews in Israel to North Dakota, and disaffection in the Muslim world will remain."

"'Do you know the anthem of the jihad against the Americans?'" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2003/12/09)
Revealing transcripts of conversations between wiretapped Ansar al-Islam jihadists in Italy:
"[Man] Never worry about money, because Saudi Arabia's money is your money; the important thing is not to rush ahead, because it is all new; there are old things too, but the training is completely new. The man who wanted to set up the plan is close to Emir Abdullah and we are grateful to Emir Abdullah. Get prepared. ...
[Mera'i] You tell them yes, no, perhaps, I have forgotten; take them for a ride. These people here, the Americans' servants, they are slaves. ...
[Mera'i] Very soon they will be getting news, a splendid thing to behold... and they pay because they are dogs, they are like dogs, they are sons of dogs, they are cursed, they are the enemies of God; the others in front and them behind on a lead. They have no worth; they are dogs. They are devils. The American power does not frighten me. Are you afraid of them? Whatever questions they ask you, do not answer. Or else tell them that you do not know. Tell them that it is the Koran that answers. ...
[Mera'i] Enemies of God. They will undoubtedly ask you about the people who were in Afghanistan; they want the head (the leader - Il Nuovo editor's note). They like life; I want to be a martyr, I live for the jihad. There is nothing in this life; life is afterward; above all, brother, the indescribable feeling is that of dying a martyr. God, help me to be your martyr. [Mera'i ends]
They recite verses from the Koran. ... There follows more chat in the course of which the two men insult the Americans and their allies, then recite verses from the Koran and the anthem of the jihad, then:
[Mera'i] Do you know the anthem of the jihad against the Americans?
[Mohammad] Yes!
[Mera'i] By Shaykh Abu Faysal. Come on, let us recite it together. [Mera'i ends]
The two men recite the anthem.
[Mera'i] We have freedom and we go to paradise, but they will have only woes. Come on, brother, paradise is ours. We have not lost the day. We have learned so many things." (See also: "Transcripts of Tapped Conversations in Milan Ansar al-Islam Probe" (Robert, alphabet city, 2003/12/08) and the translations: "Transcript of Tapped Conversations in Milan Ansar al-Islam Probe" (alphacity, Yahoo! Groups, 2003/12/08))

"Columbia's MEALC Praises Edward Said's Legacy of Hate" (Jerry Gordon et al., Dhimmi Watch, 2003/12/09)
A report on "US Imperialism in the 21st Century," a conference held at Columbia University to honor the memory of the late Edward Said:
"[Rashid] Khalidi, who ran the daylong conference, featured speakers harboring these sentiments:
* The US, and particularly the Bush administration, are hegemonic, imperialist aggressors. The Bush "regime" does not bully other countries, but reshapes them to be totally dependent on the U.S.
* The US has been baiting the Islamic world to enrage Muslims and transform Western Europe.
* The Bush administration has successfully divided Western and Eastern Europe.
* The Bush administration espouses a grand hegemonic strategy in which the Middle East is central. ...
* The U.S. and Israel "viewed 9-11 as a good thing" that justified further oppression of Palestinians, a ramped up Global war on Terror and conquest of Iraq.
* The Palestinian Authority "militants" and Iraqi and Afghan "guerrillas" commit armed "resistance" and terrorism due to intense forces of oppression and occupation imposed by the U.S. and Israel. ...
* The U.S. intentionally exaggerates the savagery of Saddam Hussein against Iraqi people and others in the region.
* The US "obstructs democracy" in the name of democracy and the Bush administration operates in Orwellian fashion.
* The depiction of Islamic beliefs by Muslim apostate, author and playwright Salman Rushdie (lionized at a spring Columbia festival that produced "Midnight's Children") is inaccurate and irreverent.
* Al-Jeezera — the 24/7, Qatar-based Arabic language satellite TV propaganda network — portrays the truth concerning the Middle East and Gulf region to the Arab/Muslim 'street.'"

"A Troubling Influence" (Frank J Gaffney Jr., FrontPageMagazine, 2003/12/09)
How an "Islamic Fifth Column penetrates the White House." Gaffney Jr. on the extensive connections between conservative activist Grover Norquist and radical Islamists:
"My beef has never been a personal one with Grover Norquist, as should be obvious from the data assembled in this article which comes from many sources, all of them reputable and unchallenged on the facts. Rather, my concern is with a far larger, Islamist enterprise in this country that has achieved, particularly over the past ten years, considerable success in creating the makings of a Saudi-funded Fifth Column in America. ...
Grover Norquist's efforts to legitimate and open important doors for pro-Islamist organizations in this country must be brought to an immediate halt. They have already created political vulnerabilities for this President and his Administration. But for the influence exerted by Norquist and his friends, President Bush might long ago have reached out to peaceable, tolerant, pro-American Muslims. ... Instead, the President has been put in the position of repeatedly embracing individuals and organizations who are part of the problem." (See also: "Grover Norquist: Islamists in the (White) House" (Joe Katzman, Winds of Change, 2003/12/09) and "Fevered Pitch" (Franklin Foer, The New Republic, 2001/11/01))

"The Jewish Ombudsman: Sippin' Geneva Juice" (Steven I. Weiss, Jewsweek, from the 2003/12/11 issue)
Seeing past attacks to achieve peace. Weiss reports on an Israeli Policy Forum meeting, starring Yossi Beilin, Yasser Abbed Rabbo and NYT columnist Thomas L. Friedman:
"Harvey Schwartz, a Manhattan lawyer, greets Friedman and with a smile on his face tells him he learned two things from Friedman that night: That the columnist, "Supports drilling in ANWR," and is, "willing to sacrifice Israel on the altar of Iraq."
Friedman yells "F**k you," hits the guy with his right hand, and then shoves him into a small crowd of people with their backs turned. Schwartz has a good foot and 100 pounds on the diminutive Friedman, but he went about three feet backwards from Friedman's push.
Friedman turns around and sees me with my notebook and tape recorder. Deer in the headlights. Schwartz goes, "Did you get a picture of that?" Still under the lull of the truth is untrue/up is down nature of the event, I consider for a moment whether I'm a photographer. Friedman runs over to an IPF executive, the one who said he does "the most unbelievably insightful reporting ever," (sans an adjective) to tell on Schwartz. Like those wimpy nerds in grade school, he hits first, tattles second, screaming about "that asshole," who apparently is so mean that his innocuous comment deserves a whack. ...
The man who spent the past few hours pronouncing how we need to see past the present, the rhetoric, and the attacks to achieve peace has just gone violent on some random guy.
You couldn't ask for a more fitting ending." (Note: Found via Backspin.)

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