Archived news and commentary: December 22 - 28, 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 28, 2003

News and commentary:

"'I couldn't have looked my friends in the face if I had opposed the war'" (Kamal Ahmed, The Observer, 2003/12/28)
An interview with Ann Clwyd, "the firebrand left-wing MP who stunned the Commons into silence when she backed Tony Blair over Iraq." Kamal Ahmed seems to have stayed stunned ever since over how she could side with "someone many of her colleagues consider to be the enemy":
"Earlier this year Clwyd was sitting in her office in one of the more obscure corridors of the House of Commons when she received an email with a Pentagon address on it. Opening it up, she saw at the bottom that it was from Paul Wolfowitz, the American Deputy Defence Secretary, leading Republican, neo-conservative and backer of the American 'new world order', including the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.
Now, any self-respecting left-wing Labour MP - as Clwyd is - might be expected to tut a little, maybe point out to one of her staff that she had received something 'from that warmonger Wolfowitz' and consign it to the trash icon on her desktop.
Not Clwyd. Indeed, she agreed with most of what Wolfowitz was saying on the issue. ...
In May, following an invitation from Wolfowitz, the two met in the Pentagon. ...
For Clwyd, it completed a journey. The woman who had once demonstrated with the women of Greenham Common to remove American bases from British soil was breaking bread with someone many of her colleagues consider to be the enemy.
'It was too good an opportunity to miss,' she said. 'He was a very charming man, an intellectual. We joked, and I told him I dreaded to think what my colleagues would think, me sitting here speaking to a neo-conservative in the Pentagon. For me, it was bizarre, talking to someone who had the reputation of Wolfowitz.'" (Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin. See also: "See men shredded, then say you don't back war" (Ann Clwyd, The Times/U.S. Department of State, 2003/03/18), "Ann Clwyd: 'I support the government. It's doing a brave thing'" (Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, 2003/02/27) and her speech "In 1991, I stood at the Opposition Dispatch Box..." (The United Kingdom Parliament, 2003/02/26))

"Democracy and the Enemies of Freedom" (Bernard Lewis, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/12/28)
"Certainly, policies of political liberalization in Afghanistan and in Iraq offer a mortal threat to regimes that can survive only by tyranny at home and terror abroad. The enemies of freedom are dangerous; unrestrained by any kind of scruple and unhampered by either compunction or compassion, even for their own people. They are willing to use not just individuals and families, but whole nations as suicide bombers to be sacrificed as required in order to defeat and eject the infidel enemy and establish their own supremacy. ...
Even after the arrest of Saddam Hussein this week, the forces of tyranny and terror remain very strong and the outcome is still far from certain. But as the struggle rages and intensifies, certain things that were previously obscure are becoming clear. The war against terror and the quest for freedom are inextricably linked, and neither can succeed without the other. The struggle is no longer limited to one or two countries, as some Westerners still manage to believe. It has acquired first a regional and then a global dimension, with profound consequences for all of us.
If freedom fails and terror triumphs, the peoples of Islam will be the first and greatest victims. They will not be alone, and many others will suffer with them."

"Message received: 'America wins'" (Mark Steyn, The Chicago Sun-Times, 2003/12/28)
"Colonel Mohammar Gadhafi threw in the towel on his WMD program - chemical, biological, nuclear, the works. Why was this? Well, according to the chaps at Reuters, it was because ''segments of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] have become very concerned about Libya.'' Hmm. When the IAEA starts showing ''concern,'' you know you've only got another two or three decades to fall into line or they'll report you to the Security Council. But make no mistake: Gadhafi's surrender definitely isn't anything to do with Bush, Blair, the toppling of Saddam, stuff like that - no sir, don't you believe it. ...
Taliban gone, Saddam gone, Gadhafi retired, Osama ''resting.'' ''Message: America wins'' is as accurate a summation of the last two years as any. Whether or not you think American victory is a good thing is another matter. But a smart anti-American ought to recognize that generally things are going America's way, and the only argument worth having is about the speed at which they're doing so."

"The terrorists lost in 2003 - and will go on losing" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2003/12/28)
"When President Bush first declared war on international terrorist groups and their supporters, most military and intelligence experts predicted that it would take at least 10 years before the conflict was concluded. And yet after just two years those involved in waging the war on Islamic terror groups can congratulate themselves on a number of impressive achievements.
While the overthrow of Saddam and the defeat of the Taliban presented the greater military challenges, the breakthrough that should in my view have the most profound impact on the campaign against global terrorism and the illicit procurement of weapons of mass destruction is undoubtedly Gaddafi's decision to open up his secret stockpiles to UN inspectors.
Gaddafi may bluster, as he did in an interview with CNN last week, about wanting to improve relations with Washington, but the fact remains that two years ago it was inconceivable that the Libyan tyrant could be persuaded to disarm unilaterally."

Saturday, December 27, 2003

News and commentary:

"The triumph of George W. Bush" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2003/12/27 issue)
"The only dark cloud is a very dark one: another massive slaughter on American soil. The terrorists don’t have to be brilliant, just lucky – as they were last time, when they wandered around sticking out like sore thumbs to gazillions of Federal and state officials sensitivity-trained not to notice behaviour that practically screamed "I'm a terrorist!" Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security, says that right now al-Qaeda types are probing for weak spots at American airports. Which pre-supposes that they're already in the country. Which confirms pretty much that the first weak spot remains the US border. On the whole, all the Federal agencies that failed so spectacularly on 9/11 are as bureaucratic, lethargic and inept as they were then. And no-one has been fired. One lucky break for a couple of Islamist boneheads, and the Dems and the media will be hammering Bush on why he let it happen all over again. It remains a melancholy fact that, for a US President, it's easier to reform Iraq’s government agencies than America’s. I do not expect this situation to improve in 2004."

"Iran's arch-foe Israel offers condolences on quake" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2003/12/27)
"Iran won't accept Israeli aid" is a more appropriate head-line:
"Tehran has called for international relief aid from any country except Israel following Friday's quake, which killed tens of thousands in the southeastern Iranian district of Bam.
Foreign ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled regretted the Iranian government's refusal to accept aid.
"The Israeli people want to send aid to the Iranian people, but if the government of Iran does not want to accept the offer, that is their right but it is a shame," Peled told AFP.
"Israel has no conflict with the Iranian people," the spokesman added.
The regime in Tehran has said it would not accept any help from the "Zionist regime".
"The Islamic Republic of Iran accepts all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations with the exception of the Zionist regime (Israel)," Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said Saturday, quoted by the official news agency IRNA."

"Up to 13 Die as Attacks Shatter Fragile Calm in Southern Iraq" (Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2003/12/27)
A report from Karbala: "At least four soldiers from the occupying forces and at least nine Iraqis were killed Saturday in four highly organized suicide bombing attacks in this Shiite holy city 60 miles southwest of Baghdad. More than 100 soldiers and civilians were wounded. Most of the casualties were not American.
The fatal strikes were the deadliest in a string of bold assaults against allied forces this holiday week, and they brought a burst of violence to what had been a relatively calm southern Iraq. ...
A spokesman for the United States Army Command, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmett, said that all three attacks in Karbala had involved suicide car-bombs, and that the attackers had also used machine guns, rifles and grenades."

"The Saudi Paradox" (Michael Scott Doran, Foreign Affairs, from the January/February 2004 issue)
An essay on the power struggle between Crown Prince Abdullah, who "leads a camp of liberal reformers seeking rapprochement with the West", and Prince Nayef, who "sides with an anti-American Wahhabi religious establishment that has much in common with al Qaeda.":
"On the right side of the political spectrum, the clerics and Nayef take their stand on the principle of Tawhid, or "monotheism," as defined by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the eponymous founder of Wahhabism. In their view, many people who claim to be monotheists are actually polytheists and idolaters. For the most radical Saudi clerics, these enemies include Christians, Jews, Shi`ites, and even insufficiently devout Sunni Muslims. From the perspective of Tawhid, these groups constitute a grand conspiracy to destroy true Islam. The United States, the "Idol of the Age," leads the cabal. It attacked Sunni Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, both times making common cause with Shi'ites; it supports the Jews against the Sunni Muslim Palestinians; it promotes Shi'ite interests in Iraq; and it presses the Saudi government to de-Wahhabize its educational curriculum. Cable television and the Internet, meanwhile, have released a torrent of idolatry. With its permissive attitude toward sex, its pervasive Christian undertones, and its support for unfettered female freedom, U.S. culture corrodes Saudi society from within.
Tawhid is closely connected to jihad, the struggle — sometimes by force of arms, sometimes by stern persuasion — against idolatry. In the minds of the clerics, stomping out pagan cultural and political practices at home and supporting war against Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq are two sides of the same coin. Jihad against idolatry, the clerics never tire of repeating, is eternal, "lasting until Judgment Day," when true monotheism will destroy polytheism once and for all."

"Open to Debate In Israel" (Abraham H. Foxman, The Washington Post, 2003/12/27)
Foxman on the implications of the Geneva Accords. I think he points out an important factor which is generally overlooked — the eroding "cumulative effect" of "outrageous reactions, repeated time and again in the media":
"Why, then, this disrespect to Israel's democratic institutions, particularly at a time when the need for democracy in the Arab world is being emphasized as the most important weapon to combat Islamist terrorism?
I would suggest that there is a tendency in some circles to psychologically delegitimize the Sharon government without stating it so bluntly. Reflexive and distorted reactions to Sharon, whether calling him a Nazi or unrepentant hard-liner or war criminal or racist or drinker of Muslim children's blood, all have an impact. Such outrageous reactions, repeated time and again in the media, in Islamic conferences, in some parts of Europe and in international organizations, have their cumulative effect. The result is to treat a proposal by nonofficials, legitimate as it may be, in a way that would never occur with any other democratic government.
What we are witnessing, in sum, is not a constructive step that could bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to agreement but one more in a series of steps to delegitimize and isolate the Israeli government. Whether we agree or disagree with the prime minister, all of us have an interest in resisting a process that, in its attack on Israeli democracy, ends up as an attack on Israel's fundamental legitimacy as a sovereign state."

"Pakistan probes would-be assassins" (Paul Haven, AP/The Washington Times, 2003/12/27)
"At least one of the three suicide bombers who tried to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf was a foreigner, raising the specter that international terrorists had a hand in the attack, investigators said yesterday.
Thursday's attack — the second attempt in 11 days to kill Gen. Musharraf — was carried out by "a mix of local and international terrorists," Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed said. ...
Fifteen persons, including the bombers, were killed and 46 wounded in the attack. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said several people had been detained for questioning." (See also: "Pakistan leader survives blasts" (BBC News, 2003/12/25))

Added in archive:
"An Awful Truth Sinks In" (Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times, 2003/12/05)

Note: Don't miss Jeremy Botter's soldier blog from Iraq, "Letters from Iraq", with an insider account of the capture of Saddam Hussein, "Operation Red Dawn: A Soldier's Perspective". Hat tip: InstaPundit.

Friday, December 26, 2003

News and commentary:

"An Indian man walks near a sand sculpture..."
(Reuters/Sanjib Mukherjee, 2003/12/26)
"An Indian man walks near a sand sculpture of captured Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, at a beach in Puri, in the eastern Indian city of Orissa, December 26, 2003."

"Palestinian Authority Sermons 2000-2003" (Steven Stalinsky, MEMRI, 2003/12/26)
Stalinsky identifies common themes in three years worth of fanatical Palestinian sermons, such as "Educating Children to Martyrdom":
"The concept of educating children to become martyrs occurs regularly in PA sermons. Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi, one of the most popular Imams, is especially vocal on this issue. During one sermon, he repeats the following discussion he had with a child who approached him about becoming a suicide bomber: "A young man said to me: 'I am 14 years old, and I have four years left before I blow myself up'… We, the Muslims on this good and blessed land, are all - each one of us - seekers of Martyrdom… The Koran is very clear on this: The greatest enemies of the Islamic nation are the Jews, may Allah fight them… Blessings for whoever assaulted a soldier… Blessings for whoever has raised his sons on the education of Jihad and Martyrdom; blessings for whoever has saved a bullet in order to stick it in a Jew's head…" ...
On this subject, Mufti Sheikh Ikrimeh Sabri stated his thoughts on child martyrs, as well as the joy of their mothers: 'I feel the martyr is lucky because the angels usher him to his wedding in heaven. I feel the earth moves under the occupiers' feet… There is no doubt that a child [martyr] suggests that the new generation will carry on the mission with determination. The younger the martyr - the greater and the more I respect him… They [mothers of martyrs] willingly sacrifice their offspring for the sake of freedom. It is a great display of the power of belief. The mother is participating in the great reward of the Jihad to liberate Al-Aqsa… I talked to a young man… [who] said: '… I want to marry the black-eyed [beautiful] women of heaven.' The next day he became a martyr. I am sure his mother was filled with joy about his heavenly marriage. Such a son must have such a mother.'"

"Where Did Our Love Go?: France and 'Un-Americanism'" (Stephen Sartarelli, The Nation, from the 2004/01/12 issue)
Although one sees nothing here. Sartarelli's essay on French anti-Americanism is informative, although it of course (it's the Nation) contains some wrong-headed and topsy-turvy assessments, apparently seen as self evident from his anti-Bush position. In his opinion American "anti-Frenchism" is a worse problem than French anti-Americanism, which he doesn't view as such, but as more than legitimate opposition to the Bush administration. Here's Sartarelli on the "diplomatic tug-of-war between France and the United States":

...the accusations and exaggerations, especially on the American side, have come fast and furious this past year. [Emphasis added.]

Anyone following the debate on both sides — for example via the invaluable Merde in France when it comes to the French position — knows that as for who's the worst offender the very opposite is true. Here are just a couple of examples:
Where are the American equivalents of popular French TV shows where Bush is "portrayed as a mentally retarded coward who urinates on himself" or in which the "French comic Dieudonné, dressed up like a rabbi, made reference to 'the americano-sionist axis' and made a Nazi salute while yelling 'Heil Israel.'"?
And where is the American Ex-Defense Minister who lauds guerilla attacks against French troops in Ivory Coast as Jean-Pierre Chevènement does visavi Iraq?: "The Iraqi resistance is a good thing. I would have preferred that France resisted like that in 1940."
Or where is the American intellectual who explicitly wishes for terrorist attacks against France as Alain Soral does for America?: "Let us hope that the next [attack] will come quickly and that, in order to increase its educational efficiency, it hits stronger and more accurately."

Here's Sartarelli on Pascal Bruckner, Romain Goupil and André Glucksmann:

One day, they said, someone will tell the real story of "the hysteria, the collective intoxication that has gripped [France] for months...the quasi-Soviet atmosphere that has bound together 90% of the population, in the triumph of a monolithic idea allergic to the slightest contestation" - a description that seems oddly applicable to the US mood in the days leading up to the war. [Emphasis added.]

This is obviously not that day and Sartarelli is apparently not that someone. Again, anyone following the American debate even from a distance knows that it was/is extremely lively, with major politicians, newspapers, columnists and celebrities vigorously opposing the war, a fervent anti-war movement, a significant minority opposing the war etc. In France, on the other hand, the anti-war consensus was indeed virtually monolithic. Le Monde even cancelled its debate on the war because they couldn't find anyone arguing for the other side: "A one-sided debate, at any rate: of the 27 voices heard, 26 came out more or less for the French position... For lack of combatants, the column was canceled on 21 February." (See also: "Error" (Pascal Bruckner, André Glucksmann and Romain Goupil, Le Monde/Watch, 2003/04/14 [2003/04/15]) and "All together now" (Robert Solé, Le Monde/Watch, 2003/02/22 [2003/02/23]))

Although one sees nothing here like the vicious anti-French campaign recently mounted in the American media, there is no doubt that, as in much of the world, the great sympathy felt for the United States in the wake of September 11 has long since given way to feelings of dismay and outright alarm at the actions and methods of the Bush Administration, and puzzlement at the lack of domestic opposition. [Emphasis added.]

As above. Sartarelli simply must have made a considerable effort to keep his eyes closed. One sees nothing here.

"U.S. Officials Fault French on Terror Alert" (Jim Wolf, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/12/26)
"One or more terror suspects may have escaped due to a premature disclosure in France of the security concerns behind the cancellation of Christmas flights to Los Angeles, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Six flights between Paris and Los Angeles were canceled on Wednesday and Thursday at the urging of Washington after U.S. officials spotted what they believed were suspicious names on lists of those due to board the planes.
Air France made clear at the time the cancellations had been ordered for security reasons.
U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials had hoped all the suspects could be detained as they showed up for the flights, said a senior U.S. official familiar with the situation who did not want to be identified.
The official said "a chorus of groans" from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House went out when the French disclosed the reason for the flight cancellations."

"Turkey Breaks Up Al Qaeda Cell Behind Blasts" (Daren Butler, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2003/12/26)
"Turkish authorities have broken up the Istanbul cell behind last month's truck bombings and have confirmed its links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, the city's governor said on Friday.
The four blasts targeted two synagogues and British interests in Turkey's commercial capital, killing 61 people and wounding several hundred. It was the worst week of peacetime violence in modern Turkey's history.
"The suicide attacks were carried out by elements trying to organize for al Qaeda in Turkey," governor Muammer Guler told a news conference in Istanbul, held to announce progress in the investigation.
"We can comfortably say that we have broken up the organization's Istanbul activities," he said."

"Von Hoffman Award Winner 2003 (for egregiously bad predictions)" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/12/26)
Sullivan unveils the winners of "the prestigious andrewsullivan.com awards for left-wing, right-wing, Sontagian, pretentious and generally clueless utterances throughout the previous year.":
"In Baghdad the coalition forces confront a city apparently determined on resistance. They should remember Napoleon in Moscow, Hitler in Stalingrad, the Americans in Mogadishu and the Russians at Grozny. Hostile cities have ways of making life ghastly for aggressors. They are not like countryside. They seldom capitulate, least of all when their backs are to the wall. It took two years after the American withdrawal from Vietnam for Saigon to fall to the Vietcong. Kabul was ceded to the warlords only when the Taleban drove out of town. In the desert, armies fight armies. In cities, armies fight cities. The Iraqis were not stupid. They listened to Western strategists musing about how a desert battle would be a pushover. Things would get 'difficult' only if Saddam played the cad and drew the Americans into Baghdad. Why should he do otherwise?" - Simon Jenkins, the Times of London, in an article called - yes! - "Baghdad Will Be Near Impossible to Conquer," March 28." (See also: "Von Hoffmann Award..." (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/04/10))

"Of intellectual bondage" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/26)
"'How could you report the war in Iraq if you sided with the Americans?'
"How can you say that George Bush is better than Saddam Hussein?"
These are some of the milder questions I received from an audience of some 150 undergraduate students from Tel Aviv University's Political Science Department. ...
The vocal ones among them were appalled when I argued that journalists must be able to make moral distinctions between good and evil, when such distinctions exist, if they wish to provide their readership with an accurate picture of the events they describe in their reports.
"Who are you to make moral judgments? What you say is good may well be bad for someone else."
"I am a sane human being capable of distinguishing good from evil, just like every other sane human being," I answered. "As criminal law states, you are criminally insane if you can't distinguish between good and evil. Unless you are crazy, you should be able to tell the difference."
When the show was over, and the students began shuffling out of the lecture hall, a young woman approached me.
"Excuse me," she said with a heavy Russian accent.
"How can you say that democracy is better than dictatorial rule?"
"Because it is better to be free than to be a slave," I answered.
Undeterred, she pressed on, "How can you support America when the US is a totalitarian state?"
"Did you learn that in Russia?" I asked.
"No, here," she said."

"The Doggedness of War" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2003/12/26)
"Sen. John Kerry was equally ridiculous in his explanation of the Libya deal: "An administration that scorns multilateralism and boasts about a rigid doctrine of military preemption has almost in spite of itself demonstrated the enormous potential for improving our national security through diplomacy." ...
What kind of naif thinks that this is a triumph for "diplomacy," as if, say, Bill Clinton had sent Warren Christopher to Tripoli, and he chatted Gaddafi into surrendering his WMDs?
The Democrats seem congenitally incapable of understanding that force has not just the effect of disarming the immediate enemy but a deterrent effect on others similarly situated. Iraq was not attacked randomly. It was attacked as part of a clearly enunciated policy — now known as the Bush Doctrine — of targeting, by preemptive war if necessary, hostile regimes engaged in terror and/or refusing to come clean on WMDs.
Mullah Omar did not get the message and is now hiding in a cave somewhere. Saddam Hussein did not get the message and ended up in a hole. Gaddafi got the message.
Diplomacy is fine. But we are dealing not with Canada but with gangster regimes. In rogue states, the only diplomacy that ever works is diplomacy at the point of a bayonet. Why, even the hapless Hans Blix went out on a limb to speculate that 'I would imagine that Gaddafi could have been scared by what he saw in Iraq.'"

"French-Born Arabs, Perpetually Foreign, Grow Bitter" (Craig S. Smith, The New York Times, 2003/12/26)
"'Racists surround us,' said Brahim Bouanani, a 26-year-old St.-Florentin native, when asked what lies down the tree-lined, two-lane highways that stretch out of town.
For Mr. Bouanani and his peers, born to North African laborers who arrived decades ago, St.-Florentin is less a centuries-old accumulation of France's cultural heritage than a series of cheap and charmless public housing projects on the west side of town. About a third of the town's 5,800 residents are "foreigners" like him, he said.
Their isolation is extreme, their alienation profound and their future uncertain. But their situation is not unique.
Beyond the Arab ghettos of Paris or Marseille or Lyon, the immigration of the 1960's and 70's seeded hundreds of smaller communities across France with Muslims whose numbers have since grown. France's Muslim population — Europe's largest — is now five million. ...
Mr. Bouanani took a visitor for a stroll along the hillsides below the housing projects and along the still waters of the Burgundy Canal. Makeshift fences of chicken wire and rough boards divide the land into small, overgrown gardens filled with mint and red peppers. Women in black chadors and abayas make the place feel more like Barbary than Burgundy."

"Hunt for Hussein Led U.S. to Insurgent Hub" (Alan Sipress, The Washington Post, 2003/12/26)
"As U.S. forces tracked Saddam Hussein to his subterranean hiding place, they unearthed a trove of intelligence about five families running the Iraqi insurgency, according to U.S. military commanders, who said the information is being used to uproot remaining resistance forces.
Senior U.S. officers said they were surprised to discover -- clue by clue over six months -- that the upper and middle ranks of the resistance were filled by members of five extended families from a few villages within a 12-mile radius of the volatile city of Tikrit along the Tigris River. Top operatives drawn from these families organized the resistance network, dispatching information to individual cells and supervising financial channels, the officers said. They also protected Hussein and passed information to and from the former president while he was on the run."

"U.S. still alert for terror in skies" (Josh Meyer and Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times/sunspot.net, 2003/12/26)
"U.S. concerns about terrorist plots to hijack overseas flights headed for the United States remained intense on Christmas Day, officials said, even as French authorities reported that they had found no evidence that al-Qaida operatives had planned to commandeer an Air France jetliner headed for Los Angeles.
U.S. intelligence officials said they continued to receive current and credible intelligence indicating that such an attack could be in the works - possibly a series of coordinated hijackings - and that al-Qaida operatives could be targeting any number of overseas cities from which to launch such operations. ...
Officials said they were particularly concerned about what appeared to be incomplete information from France about the fate of several men whose names had appeared on the passenger manifest of an Air France flight headed from Paris to Los Angeles early Christmas Eve." (See also: "Suspicious Passengers Questioned In France" (John Mintz and John Burgess, The Washington Post, 2003/12/26): "But U.S. officials said they are suspicious about some of the passengers who did not show up at the airport to claim their seats on the ultimately aborted Flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles. One of those who did not appear for the Christmas Eve flight apparently is a trained pilot, one U.S. official said.")

"Quake Kills 20,000 in Ancient Iranian City" (Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, 2003/12/26)
"A pre-dawn earthquake razed much of the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran on Friday, killing more than 20,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, government officials said.
About 70 per cent of the buildings in the historic city, a popular tourist spot some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran, had collapsed and many residents were trapped under the rubble, state television said.
"Rescue workers have found more bodies. The figure is now more than 20,000," a senior government official said. The quake at about 5:30 a.m. (9 p.m. EST Thursday) measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Other officials said around 50,000 people were injured in and around the city, which, with its environs, had a population of some 200,000 people."

Thursday, December 25, 2003

News and commentary:

"France releases men from canceled U.S.-bound flights; finds no evidence of plot" (AP/USA Today, 2003/12/25)
"French investigators questioned seven men pointed out by U.S. intelligence but found no evidence they planned to use a Los Angeles-bound jet to launch terror attacks against the United States, French authorities said Thursday. ...
The seven questioned men, who all had tickets for Air France Flight 68 to Los Angeles, were on a watch list provided by U.S. authorities, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. But all were released after questioning Wednesday night, the spokesman said.
"There are no longer any investigations," he said."

"A Not So Merry Christmas in the Holy Land" (David Bedein, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/12/25)
"This is the first Christmas since the Palestinian Authority adopted an official constitution based on Koranic "Sharia" Law, which means that all Christians who live under the PA are now subject to Islamic Law.
Over the past three years, while attention has focused on Israeli and Palestinian casualties of the current war, at least one hundred Christians who live in areas ruled by the Palestinian Authority have been arrested and imprisoned for holding church services or conducting public Christian
practices without authorization. ...
Joseph described to me how his family cannot openly practice Christian holidays in Bethlehem under the watchful eyes of the PLO's Islamic police force. After all, the only place in the West Bank where the PLO army currently operates is in the Bethlehem area. Joseph also described how the US-funded Palestinian public school system has become Islamicized, and how his late nephew was literally tortured to death at age 12 by his schoolmates because he expressed love and respect for his uncle as a practicing Christian." (See also the English version of the Palestinian constitution: "Constitution of the State of Palestine - Third Draft, 7 March 2003, revised in March 25, 2003" (jmcc.org, 2003/03/25), "Recipe for Terror: A Text Analysis of the Palestinian State Constitution" (Israel Resource Review, 2003/03/24) and "The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian-controlled Areas" (David Raab, IMRA, 2002/10/11))

"Far from the feast" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2003/12/25)
"Dear Pfc. Smith,
Most of your fellow Americans won't think of you today. Some may see a news clip of your Christmas dinner in Iraq, filmed against a backdrop of holiday decorations your unit scraped together. Those who once served in the ranks themselves will think of you at least briefly. And you'll be cherished in the hearts, if not in the arms, of your loved ones.
But most of us won't think of you at all. And that's a wonderful thing.
It's your great gift to us.
Because of you, hundreds of millions of Americans who celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Peace will spend this holiday in peace themselves, with their loved ones safe and our blessed country secure.
Terrorists may threaten us, but because of you we know they will not defeat us. You stand between us and the dark men who rode into Bethlehem in search of an innocent child."

"The Dense Web of Al Qaeda" (Peter Bergen, The Washington Post, 2003/12/25)
Bergen on the connection between Al Qaeda and recent terrorist attacks in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iraq: "These various attacks may well represent the future of "al Qaeda" operations: Some attacks will continue to be planned by the terrorist organization itself, others will be carried out by affiliate groups acting in the name of al Qaeda and additional operations will be executed by local jihadists who have little or no direct connection to al Qaeda.
The last is perhaps the most worrisome development, because it suggests that al Qaeda has successfully turned itself from an organization into a mass movement - one that has been energized by the war in Iraq.
President Bush reportedly keeps photos of the 20 or so top terrorists in his desk, and when one of them is apprehended or killed writes an X through his picture. That might work for a Mafia crime family: Arrest all the key members and the organization will disappear. But al Qaeda is now a movement based on an ideology. Arresting a movement is quite a different proposition from arresting people."

"Pakistan leader survives blasts" (BBC News, 2003/12/25)
"Two huge explosions shook the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Thursday, minutes after President Pervez Musharraf's motorcade had passed by.
At least seven people were killed and several injured but the president was unhurt, a military spokesman said.
"It was an assassination attempt on the president," the spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, said.
It is the second time in a few days that President Musharraf has narrowly escaped an explosion.
In one of the blasts, a suicide bomber reportedly rammed a pick-up truck into a police vehicle.
The windshield of the president's limousine was damaged, Pakistani journalist Mariana Babar told BBC World television." (See also: "Pakistan's Musharraf escapes assassination attempt" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/14))

"Terror fears cancel 6 flights" (Audrey Hudson and Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, 2003/12/25)
"Fears of terrorist attacks against the United States prompted the abrupt cancellation of six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, stranding hundreds of holiday passengers.
Officials said two flights to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) — one of the busiest airports in the world — and a return flight from LAX to Paris were canceled yesterday because of credible threats that suspected al Qaeda terrorists on board as passengers would hijack the jetliners and use them in an attack.
Two flights from Los Angeles to Paris today and one from Paris to LAX also were canceled.
A U.S. government official confirmed the threat was from passengers aboard the aircraft, not from the cargo or the pilots. At least one of the passengers was identified as an al Qaeda operative, federal authorities said."

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

News and commentary:

"Surgeon Blinded by Bomb After Healing Militants" (Megan Goldin, Reuters, 2003/12/24)
"Israeli surgeon Shmuel Yurfest has saved the lives of many people, including an injured Palestinian suicide bomber and a militant bomb-maker whose severed hand he reattached in an intricate operation.
But after decades fighting for the lives of his patients, the 48-year-old vascular surgeon is now waging his own personal battle after being badly wounded in a Palestinian suicide bombing six months ago that left him virtually blind and deaf.
In May -- about a year after Yurfest saved the dismembered hand of an Islamic Jihad bomb-maker -- the veteran surgeon left work at a hospital in the Galilee city of Afula to return a film to a video shop at a local shopping mall.
At the entrance to the mall, Yurfest set off a metal detector scanning shoppers and was asked by a security guard to stand aside and empty out the contents of his pockets.
"As I was doing that, a girl wearing a simple dress passed me. I remember the back of her neck. It was covered with sweat...I never saw her face," Yurfest recalled.
"I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder next to her while another security guard scanned her with a metal detector. Suddenly the metal-detector started beeping and beeping.
"At the same time I was told I could go. I put my keys in my pocket. I heard more and more beeps from the metal detector scanning the girl. Then just as I was about to walk off there was an enormous explosion," Yurfest said.
The young woman standing next to Yurfest was 19-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber Hiba Daraghmeh, a gifted English literature student and a devout Muslim who usually covered herself from head to toe in a traditional Islamic veil."

"Le Monde reports on American diplomacy" (Douglas, Last of the Famous International Playboys, 2003/12/24)
"An article in Le Monde by New York correspondent Corine Lesnes about the American presence at the UN refers to a report on voting habits in the General Assembly by Fred Gedrich, a "policy analyst" at the Freedom Alliance...
Gedrich reports the following:

- The 114 members of the Non-aligned Movement voted against U.S. supported positions 78 percent of the time. This group includes all the world's dictatorships and terrorist states. It considers Cuba's Castro, Libya's Gadhafi and Syria's Assad heroes.
- The 22 members of the League of Arab States voted against U.S. supported positions 83 percent of the time.
- The 56 members of the Islamic Conference voted against U.S. supported positions 79 percent of the time.
- The 53 members of the African Union voted against U.S. supported positions 80 percent of the time.

Lesnes also cites the conclusions of the State department's Voting Practices in the United Nations for 2002 report, which she claims charts the progress of pro-American voting practices at the UN:

In 1997, the entire UN voted almost half (46.7%) of the time with the United States in the General Assembly. In 2002, the rate of coincidence was not even a third (33.2%) of the time. In the Western block, this drop is also apparent (from 71% to 54%). Poland votes less often with the United States than does France (56%). Among the "real" friends, there is Palau (100%) as well as the Marshal Islands and Israel, who vote more than 92% of the time with the United States."

Another article in the same issue, entitled "the United States seeks to marginalize France in several areas," and written by Washington correspondent Patrick Jarreau attempts an analysis of official American attitudes toward France. Diplomats may well say that things are tickety-boo, writes Jarreau, but reality of the matter is not a happy one. He quotes Walter Russel Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations who says, 'France was known as a difficult ally. It became an active opponent. It is not anger that makes [the US administration] act but a cold political calculation. Since France opposes the United States, France's influence must be reduced.'" (See also: "UN General Assembly Voting Habits" (Fred Gedrich, Freedom Alliance, 2003/11/25) and "Voting Practices in the United Nations for 2002" (U.S. Department of State, 2003/03/31))

"Al-Qaeda targets Gaddafi" (Stewart Bell, National Post, 2003/12/25)
"A Canadian intelligence report says al-Qaeda-backed militants in Libya want to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, providing a possible explanation for the dictator's recent attempts to improve relations with the West.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service report shows that Col. Gaddafi, once a major sponsor of terrorist violence, is now a terrorist target who shares a common enemy with the West: Osama bin Laden.
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is the most powerful radical faction waging holy war against Col. Gaddafi. It aims to establish an Islamic state in Libya and views the current regime as oppressive, corrupt and anti-Muslim, CSIS said. ...
"In order to achieve their goals, the LIFG has made numerous attempts to kill Colonel Gaddafi," said the "Unclassified: For Official Use Only" report, dated September, 2002, and titled Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. ...
Headed by Anas Sebai, a key al-Qaeda leader, the Libyan fighting group includes about 2,500 "Libyan Afghans" who fought in the 1979-89 Soviet War in Afghanistan and then returned home to ignite an Islamic rebellion." (Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin.)

"Has France shot itself in the foot?" (Amir Taheri, Town Hall, 2003/12/25)
"Has France shot itself in the foot by trying to prevent the toppling of Saddam Hussein?
The question is keeping French foreign policy circles buzzing as the year draws to the close.
Even a month ago, few would have dared pose the question.
In denial mode, the French elite did not wish to consider the possibility that President Jacques Chirac may have made a mistake by leading the bloc that opposed the liberation of Iraq last March. ...
France's passionate campaign to keep Saddam in power won no plaudits from the Arabs.
Many Arab leaders regard France as a maverick power that could get them involved in an unnecessary, and ultimately self-defeating, conflict with the United States.
"I cannot imagine what Chirac was thinking," says a senior Saudi official on condition of anonymity. "How could he expect us to join him in preventing the Americans from solving our biggest problem which was the presence of Saddam Hussein in power in Baghdad?"
Another senior Arab diplomat, from Egypt, echoes the sentiment.
"The French did not understand that the Arabs desired the end of Saddam, although they had to pretend that this was not the case," he says."

"Once Skeptical, Briton Sees Iraqi Success" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2003/12/24)
"When Maj. Gen. Graeme Lamb, a 50-year-old Briton, arrived in June to lead the mainly European force controlling southeastern Iraq, he was skeptical, he said. He felt that "this is going to be a lot more difficult than we realized."
But as General Lamb prepared to hand his command to another British general, he said at a news conference here on Tuesday that Saddam Hussein's capture and other changes, including progress in restoring oil installations, power stations and running water, as well as the Iraqis' fast-rising prosperity, had fostered a new confidence that the American-led occupation force can eventually hand a politically stable Iraq back to its people.
"Is this do-able?" he said. "You'd better believe it."
The British officer described himself as neither optimist nor pessimist but "a hard-boiled realist," then offered an upbeat assessment that matched that of American generals: "I think we're in great shape."
He took a jab at the press. Western reporters, he implied, had come to an early conclusion that the allied undertaking in Iraq would not succeed, and had failed to adjust. He compared this with criticism that greeted allied forces in the first stages of the spring invasion, when resistance stalled the drive to Baghdad.
The plan provided for 125 days to take Baghdad, and it was accomplished in 23 days, he noted. But, he told reporters, 'you had us dead and buried in seven days.'"

"Maher's humiliation" (The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/24)
"If a picture is worth a thousand words, unedited video footage is far more telling yet. This was demonstrated Monday as the entire world watched Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher humiliated, jostled, and pelted with shoes, until physically lifted off his feet and carried away from his frenzied attackers. His eyes betrayed vivid panic. ...
Maher was attacked because of his "Israeli connection," because he dared conduct talks with the leaders of the reviled Jewish state. If this is how Palestinians treat ostensible mediators, what can the Jews themselves expect? And if this is how Palestinians manhandle their boosters and comrades, what would they do to their Israeli enemies? If this is what's meted out to their fellow Muslim faithful, what would happen to Jews who attempt to pray at the Western Wall if the Temple Mount were turned over to Palestinian Authority control, as the Arabs, Egypt included, routinely demand?
For Egypt to pooh-pooh the episode is to display hypocrisy which calls into question its claim to honest-broker status. For Israel to paper over this ugly reality is to take existential gambles which may lead to national suicide." (See also: "Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher screams..." (Reuters/Ammar Awad, 2003/12/22))

"Malvo Is Spared Death Penalty" (Tom Jackman, The Washington Post, 2003/12/24)
"A jury spared the life of Lee Boyd Malvo on Tuesday, deciding that his crimes were vile and that he posed a future danger to the community, but still choosing to impose a life sentence rather than death for his role in the sniper attacks.
Malvo, 18, exhaled heavily and hung his head as the clerk read the jury's finding that he met both qualifications for the death penalty. When the clerk reached the words "fix his punishment at . . . imprisonment for life," Malvo did not move. The reading was identical for a second count, and the courtroom was still with surprise."

Added in archive:
"Secret files tell story of Iraq's 'disappeared'" (David Rose, The Observer, 2003/12/21)

Note: Don't miss Tim Blair's comprehensive collection of Quotes of 2003. Here's a classic Fisk, for example: "So they are dead. Or are they?" - Robert Fisk, following the deaths of Ubie and Queesy Hussain.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

News and commentary:

"1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Wishes you a very Merry Christmas!"
(Zohra Bensemra/Reuters, 2003/12/23)
"A Holiday card made by members of the U.S. Fourth Infantry Division, featuring the face of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein manipulated to look like the head of Santa Claus, is posted on the wall of army barracks in Tikrit, Iraq December 22, 2003."

"Will Iraq survive the Iraqi resistance?" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/12/23)
"The Iraqi resistance will no more disappear after Saddam's capture than the Russian resistance in World War II would have disappeared had Josef Stalin been captured, observes one old campaigner. Does this mean that America will in turn abandon its Iraqi venture after the fashion of Vietnam? That is extremely unlikely. Much more likely is a revolution in tactics.
Angelo Codevilla began the article cited above with the following observation: "Iraq was not a good idea in the first place. American and British Wilsonians decided to recreate something like the Babylon empire: Sunni Mesopotamian Arabs from the Baghdad area would rule over vastly more numerous southern Shi'ite Arabs, and Arabophobe Kurds. Why the ruled should accept such an arrangement was never made clear." To frustrate the Iraqi resistance, eliminate Iraq itself, Codevilla implies.
That is the logical response of American policy to the unexpected success of Iraqi resistance. Plans have been floating about for years to create a separate Shi'ite state in the south, hand the west of Iraq over to the Hashemites of Jordan, maintain a semi-autonomous Kurdish zone and leave a rump state around Baghdad to become a killing zone for counterinsurgency." (See also: "The sorcerer's apprentices" (Angelo M. Codevilla, The American Spectator/Watch, November 2003 [2004/11/27]))

"Rumors and Totalitarianism" (Douglas, Last of the Famous International Playboys, 2003/12/23)
Douglas on the proliferation of rumors and conspiracy theories in Iraq (with lots of examples):
"On Monday, December 15, the BBC's Paul Wood posted an entry from Basra on the "Reporter's Log" saying that there had been demonstrations by some Iraqis who refused to believe Saddam was in US custody. "No surprise there I guess," he wrote, "because this is a place where rumour and fact are interchangeable."
It all looks like madness, the internal logic of which is the systematic denial of all public announcements and "official versions," an imitation of cynicism with none of the cynic's lucidity. I've often wondered what this could mean.
This summer I interviewed a mysterious Iraqi in Paris who began to argue with me. He would answer my observations with statements drawn absolutely from the ether, somewhat like those made by Zeyad's friend Ahmed, stating things that he had no way of knowing, often prefaced with "We believe that..." When I asked what he could mean by "we." He said, "I mean me. I only speak for myself." The "we" became like an expression of his experiences among other Iraqis, as if to say, "this is the sort of thing we say to each other."
As they were things he simply "believed," such assertions resisted argument. How did he know the CIA had sabotaged attempts on Saddam's life? He simply believed it. And that they had been involved in Saddam's purge of '79? Ditto. It was an unsettling experience."

"The War on Wolfowitz" (Roger L. Simon, rogerlsimon.com, 2003/12/23)
"Something's going on - or not. But from where I sit, a few thousand miles from Washington with the insider knowledge of your average Pacoima traffic cop, it sure looks as if some people want the head of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz--the man many regard as the intellectual, though perhaps too idealistic, theorist behind the War on Terror. Mickey Kaus has a roundup of the links, but here is an extensive (and fairly even-handed) report from today's Washington Post. Reporter Thomas E. Ricks gives us a look at Wolfowitz's motives: ...

Jeffrey Record, a former staffer for the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote that "the Bush Administration, and more specifically the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, made faulty assumptions about postwar Iraq and failed to plan properly for Iraq's reconstruction." He particularly faulted "the 'liberation' scenario peddled by the Defense Department's neoconservative naifs."

Well, as a 'naive idealist,' I admit I am an unabashed supporter of the 'liberation' scenario and a (mostly) unabashed supporter of Wolfowitz. (I added the qualifier 'mostly' out of my ignorance of many details - in other words I'm too chicken to go all the way.) Wolfowitz, the person, let's hope, is not under attack here. No one seems to be saying he's a "bad guy," just occasionally "aloof." What is under attack is clearly the idea we can bring democracy in the Middle East." (See also: "Holding Their Ground
As Critics Zero In, Paul Wolfowitz Is Unflinching On Iraq Policy" (Thomas E. Ricks, The Washington Post, 2003/12/23), "Chatter on the Network: Today seems to be Wolfowitz Day" (Mickey Kaus, kausfiles, 2003/12/23) and "Book Reviews" (Jeffrey Record, Parameters, from the Winter 2003-4 issue))

"Palestinian children collect pictures of militants like baseball cards" (Ali Daraghmeh, AP/Highmark Funds, 2003/12/23)
"Palestinian children are collecting cards showing gunmen and soldiers the way American kids trade baseball cards, and some educators are concerned that the uprising hobby is helping to breed a new generation of militants.
The cards are an enormous hit, according to Majdi Taher, who makes them. He said that 6 million cards have been sold over two years and 32,000 albums this month alone in the two main population centers of the northern West Bank - huge numbers in a territory about 1 million Palestinians live, and he plans to expand his business. ...
The collectable cards depict real-life Middle East action figures familiar to the children: An Israeli soldier shooting a large gun, a soldier forcing Palestinians off their land, a small Palestinian child dressed in militant's clothing holding a toy gun and Palestinian boys throwing stones.
The albums are sold in cardboard boxes shaped like Israeli tanks and include a dedication from Nablus governor Mahmoud Alul. A child who fills an album with all 129 pictures can win a computer, a bicycle, a watch or a hat. ...
"I take hundreds of these pictures from children every day and burn them," said Saher Hindi, 28, a teach at a Nablus elementary school. 'They turn children into extremists.'"

"Student Journeys Into Secret Circle Of Extremism" (Paul M. Barrett, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/12/23)
An article on how Mustafa Saied joined - and subsequently left - the Muslim Brotherhood in Knoxville:
"In December 1994 they attended a conference at a Chicago hotel sponsored by the Muslim Arab Youth Association. The meeting attracted some 6,000 people, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times. Students listened to lectures, ate communal meals of lamb, chicken and rice, and worshipped in a makeshift prayer area - a portion of a large banquet room with sheets spread on the carpet to mark a sanctified zone.
At one point, Mr. Saied says, the lights in a packed ballroom went dark, with spotlights trained only on the stage, where several speakers sat. Suddenly, six or seven masked young men dressed as Hamas militants ran down the aisles, waving the organization's green flags and shouting, "Idhbaahal Yahood!" ("Slaughter the Jews!")
"There were people who were ecstatic over the display, shouting in response, 'Allahu Akbar!' ('God is Great!'), and there were also people who were simply shocked that something like this was going on," Mr. Saied recalls. He says his own reaction was, 'Cool.'" (Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin.)

"Khadafi's Contempt" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/12/22)
Taheri thinks that a "strong dose of skepticism is in order" regarding the WMD deal with Khadafi:
"The least that one can say is that Khadafy is an unstable maverick who could change policy any time and as he pleases. With an ego the size of Everest, he believes himself to be the world's greatest philosopher. In recent years, he has also taken to writing short stories, and has so far published two collections. He has also directed TV documentaries, written scripts for feature films and designed what he calls " the modern Arab tent." In 1998 he also exhibited a handmade sports car that he said he had designed to drive Ferraris and Porsches out of the market.
To describe Khadafy as a "statesman" is as accurate as calling Mae West a nun.
One thing must be said for the Libyan leader. He regards the Western leaders with the utmost contempt and believes that he can fool them whenever he so desires. Earlier this year, he explained his decision to write a check for $2 billion in compensation for the Lockerbie attack, by referring to "the unquenchable thirst of the West for money."
"They want money?" he asked on television. "We give them money. What is money? Nothing. We will make 10 times more money later by selling them our oil at a higher price." ...
Surely, British and American politicians cannot be so naive as to believe that a man like Khadafy and a system like the one he has created can ever pursue a rational policy."

"The Weird World of Gore Vidal" (George Shadroui, FrontPageMagazine, 2003/12/23)
"He and his friends on the left, Norman Mailer and Noam Chomsky, have been bewailing the American empire for half a century. They have also warned us, repeatedly, that virtually every American president was ready to catapult the world into a nuclear black hole as the slightest provocation. ...
His target today is not Reagan or even Nixon, who he actually applauded for bending to the idea of co-existence with the communists, but George W. Bush, the leader who has toppled the Taliban and Saddam. ...
He hammers the president: "We've never had a kind of reckless one who may believe – and there's a whole theory now that he's inspired by the love of Our Lord – that he is an apocalyptic Christian who’ll be going to Heaven while the rest of us go to blazes. I hope that isn't the case. I hope that's exaggeration."
We will give him some credit for the qualifier at the end, but does this not sound remarkably like the same argument targeted at Reagan almost 20 years before? Vidal tells us that the American people, what a relief, did not deserve what happened on 9/11. He adds: "Nor do we deserve the sort of governments we have had over the last 40 years. Our governments have brought this upon us by their actions all over the world."
In other words, the people didn't deserve it, but our government did." (See also: "The Erosion of the American Dream: It's Time to Take Action Against Our Wars on the Rest of the World" (Gore Vidal, CounterPunch, 2003/03/14))

"In France, Scarves and Secularism" (E. J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post, 2003/12/23)
"In supporting a ban on Muslim head scarves and other conspicuous religious symbols in his country's public schools, French President Jacques Chirac has called forth some startling ironies.
On Sunday the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, condemned the Chirac government for "an extremist decision aimed at preventing the development of Islamic values" in France. Imagine being called "extremist" on a religious question by an official of the Iranian government! Meanwhile, thousands of French Muslims demonstrated in favor of the veil. Last week the Associated Press reported that some Muslim girls in France were thinking of attending Roman Catholic schools so they could continue to wear their head scarves."

"The Rule of Law and the War on Terror" (Ruth Wedgwood, The New York Times, 2003/12/23)
"Consider the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who the government says was working for Al Qaeda in a radioactive bomb plot. The government's main informants about Mr. Padilla are still sequestered abroad. Without these senior Qaeda members available to appear in court, Mr. Padilla cannot be charged with a crime. So shortly after returning to America from abroad in May 2002, he was designated an "enemy combatant" and taken into government custody. Last week a federal appeals court ordered him released within 30 days. ...
Of course, it would be preferable to know everything that is important in life by standards of "beyond a reasonable doubt." But imagine if the intelligence dots had been replete and connected on Sept. 10, 2001. What if we knew, from out-of-court sources, the names of Qaeda operatives who were planning to hijack the jet-fueled airplanes for attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
Even then, we would likely have lacked admissible criminal proof. By the logic of last week's decision, the president could not have held the hijackers as combatants — even after they had entered the United States, even with habeas corpus review of the president's decision, until the moment they appeared at Logan Airport with box cutters." (See also: "Courts rebuke White House" (Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, 2003/12/19))

Monday, December 22, 2003

News and commentary:

"Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher screams..."
(Reuters/Ammar Awad, 2003/12/22)
"Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher screams as he is assaulted by Palestinians while praying in Jerusalem's Old City December 22, 2003. Witnesses said he fell unconscious after the attack but Israel's ambulance service said he was in good condition after being taken to hospital for treatment." (See also a video of the assault [RealPlayer]: "Vivienne Traynor reports on the attack on Ahmed Maher by a Palestinian crowd at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque" (RTÉ News, 2003/12/22))

"Palestinians assault Egyptian FM inside Al Aksa Mosque" (The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/22)
Maher assaulted II: "Witnesses said the protesters, several dozen in number, were members of a small extremist group called "Islamic Liberation Movement." They shouted at Maher, "You're not welcome here!" and charged that Egypt was helping Israel oppress the Palestinians. "You are collaborating with the killers of Muslims. "Collaborators in the crimes against Palestinians and Muslims are not welcome!" "Allah Akbar!" and "Jihad in Egypt!" others shouted." ...
Before entering the mosque, Maher was heckled by a group of Muslims at the site, who called him a "traitor" and demanded to know why he was "meeting the Jews." He was then asked if he wanted to go to his meetings, but he preferred to pray first. Muslims then reportedly hurled shoes at him. Channel 2 quoted diplomatic officials as saying Maher was most likely struck in the face by a shoe. Maher's personal guards whisked him out of the complex, where they were joined by Israeli guards."

"Egypt's Maher Assaulted in Jerusalem Mosque" (Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Reuters, 2003/12/22)
Maher assaulted I: "Radical Muslim worshippers assaulted Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher in the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City Monday and he was rushed to hospital, witnesses, police and security guards said.
Initial reports said Maher, 68, was physically beaten and taken unconscious to hospital but witnesses and police later said he was accosted, jostled and possibly struck several times by a mob shouting that he was a "traitor and collaborator."
They threw shoes they had removed for prayers at his entourage and at Israeli police escorting him out of the melee to safety outside the mosque. Striking someone with a shoe is a traditional Muslim insult.
Maher, who had gone to Islam's third holiest shrine to pray following a day of talks with Israeli leaders, was taken to a Jerusalem hospital for precautionary tests after complaining of shortness of breath. ...
Television footage of the incident showed Maher, pale and struggling for breath, being escorted by police and bodyguards through a screaming crowd out of the ancient mosque to safety."

"Restarting Middle East Diplomacy" (Henry A. Kissinger, Korea Times, 2003/12/22)
Kissinger on the Arab-Israeli conflict: "Ironically, the formal deadlock may be obscuring the possibility that, almost imperceptibly, a psychological framework for an agreement may be emerging. In Israel, the dominant Likud Party is undergoing a process of soul-searching based on the recognition that the biblical claim may lead to a demographic time bomb in which Arabs become a majority in Palestine and demand control of the entire land. The change of mood in Israel implies a willingness to give up much of what Israel gained in the 1967 war in return for Palestinian acceptance of the 1948 defeat and the division of the land of Palestine. ...
In that context, the concept of the security fence being built by Israel (if not its present location) may emerge as a solution rather than an obstacle. ...
American opposition to the concept of a security fence, therefore, should be reconsidered. A physical barrier difficult to penetrate would facilitate Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian cities and the abandonment of checkpoints that deprive so much of Palestinian life of dignity. It provides a line on the other side of which settlements have to live under Palestinian rule or be abandoned." (Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin.)

"Qaddafi Does a Deal" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2003/12/22)
"The hawks are quite plainly right to say that this sudden tribute by vice to virtue is a direct consequence of Operation Iraqi Freedom. So is the new readiness by the mullahs of Iran to accept international inspections. ...
There's certainly an element of time-buying and calculation in both cases, but the compromise over WMD can, if properly handled, act as a curtain-raiser for regime change in both societies. Iranians and Libyans are not fools, and they have increasing access to non-state media. They know that their boastful and pious leaders have been cringing and conceding. In a more than subliminal way, this presages the end of governments that are bankrupt in other ways as well. In the Middle East perhaps more than in any other region at present, people are acutely sensitive to which is the winning and which is the losing side. The mullahs have run Iran into the ground over two decades, and Qaddafi has been in power since I was an undergraduate. Their rule is condemned by actuarial calculations as well as by moral and political ones, and it's now quite possible to envisage a future without them. The tipping point in all this is, and has been, and will be seen to have been, the liberation of Iraq."

"Analysts: Libya Could Provide Intelligence Bonanza" (Peter Graff, Reuters, 2003/12/22)
"After decades of fueling underground militancy around the globe and buying up banned weapons technology, a newly cooperative Libya could potentially provide the West with a bonanza of valuable intelligence.
Dictators, spies, arms dealers and militants throughout the Middle East and beyond will be bracing themselves for any revelations by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
"He's the first one to squeal. He's turned state's evidence and everyone else is going to hang in the wind," said Alex Standish, editor of Jane's Intelligence Digest. ...
For decades Libya operated one of the Middle East's most well-funded and powerful intelligence agencies, fueling and funding an alphabet soup of underground militant organizations, from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the Irish Republican Army and Germany's Red Army Faction."

"We got him: Kurds say they caught Saddam" (Paul McGeough, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003/12/22)
Via Drudge: "Washington's claims that brilliant US intelligence work led to the capture of Saddam Hussein are being challenged by reports sourced in Iraq's Kurdish media claiming that its militia set the circumstances in which the US merely had to go to a farm identified by the Kurds to bag the fugitive former president.
The first media account of the December 13 arrest was aired by a Tehran-based news agency.
American forces took Saddam into custody around 8.30pm local time, but sat on the news until 3pm the next day.
However, in the early hours of Sunday, a Kurdish language wire service reported explicitly: "Saddam Hussein was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace.
'Qusrat's team was accompanied by a group of US soldiers. Further details of the capture will emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish party is about to begin!'" (See also: "Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and left for US troops" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2003/12/20): "Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British Sunday newspaper said.
Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.")

"Egyptian drones spying on Israel – report" (Douglas Davis, The Jerusalem Post, 2003/12/22)
"Israeli officials are expected to protest Egyptian drones that are being used to spy on Israeli defense facilities when Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher visits this week, London's Sunday Times reported.
Amid growing military tensions, Israel is reported to have threatened to shoot down the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which have been detected in recent weeks over the nuclear research facility at Nahal Sorek and the missile test site at Palmahim, south of Tel Aviv. ...
Jerusalem reportedly asked Washington not to supply Egypt with advanced F-15 jets or "smart" JDAM (joint direct attack munition) bombs. After being shown intelligence which revealed that Israel was the "enemy" in all of Egypt's recent war games, the US froze Cairo's request."

"The Dissonance" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2003/12/22)
"I loved this quote from Clare Short, former Blair minister, now bitter old lefty:

"Any pretence that this means that the tactics of their so-called war on terror are succeeding is sadly false. Obviously the news about Gadaffi is welcome, but it has been a long process, and any suggestion that events in Libya are linked to the war in Iraq is unfounded. The co-ordination of the Blair-Bush press conferences claiming a big success in the war on terror has a pathetic tone that reflects Blair's desperation and the two men's continuing belief that they can prosecute their war with half-truths and deceptions."

Did you crack a smile? Even the NYT had to give some credit to the Bush-Blair leadership that got us here. Add in the capture of Saddam - and the comparative calm in Iraq since - and we may have reached a mile-stone in the war on terror." (See also: "'War on terror not over'" (Sky News, 2003/12/20))

"Inquiry Suggests Pakistanis Sold Nuclear Secrets" (William J. Broad et al., The New York Times, 2003/12/22)
"A lengthy investigation of the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, by American and European intelligence agencies and international nuclear inspectors has forced Pakistani officials to question his aides and openly confront evidence that the country was the source of crucial technology to enrich uranium for Iran, North Korea and possibly other nations.
Until the past few weeks, Pakistani officials had denied evidence that the A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, named for the man considered a national hero, had ever been a source of weapons technology to countries aspiring to acquire fissile material. Now they are backing away from those denials, while insisting that there has been no transfer of nuclear technology since President Pervez Musharraf took power four years ago." (See also: "Nuclear Program in Iran Tied To Pakistan" (Joby Warrick, The Washington Post, 2003/12/21))

"200 seized thanks to Saddam documents" (Julian Borger and Luke Harding, The Guardian, 2003/12/22)
"The Pentagon's top general, Richard Myers, said yesterday that the intelligence learned from Saddam Hussein's capture had led to the arrest of more than 200 people in a series of sweeps through centres of resistance.
Gen Myers, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said some of the information leading to the arrests had come from documents in Saddam's briefcase found with him in a hiding hole near Tikrit a week ago on Saturday."

"Feds hear 'chatter' of 9/11 proportions" (James Gordon Meek, New York Daily News, 2003/12/22)
"The United States was thrown back into high alert for the holidays yesterday as the feds warned that terrorists may be planning attacks that "rival or exceed" 9/11.
The worrisome chatter intercepted by the nation's terror hunters is "perhaps greater now than at any point since Sept. 11, 2001," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
Worse, the fears involve the possible use of weapons of mass destruction, top U.S. sources have told the Daily News.
"The information we have indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they believe will either rival or exceed the attacks that occurred in New York and the Pentagon and the fields of Pennsylvania," Ridge said."

"U.S. Threat Level Rises to Orange" (John Mintz, The Washington Post, 2003/12/22)
"Federal officials said yesterday that because fresh intelligence suggests al Qaeda is planning multiple catastrophic terrorist attacks in the United States, they were raising the national threat alert status to "high risk," or code orange, a step administration officials previously had said they were reluctant to take except in the most unusual circumstances.
Some of the worrisome new intelligence indicates al Qaeda operatives are exploring security vulnerabilities on commercial or cargo flights originating overseas and flying into U.S. airports, officials said. It suggests the terrorist network is preoccupied with repeating its Sept. 11, 2001, tactic of hijacking aircraft for use as missiles against U.S. targets, they added.
"The strategic [intelligence] indicators, including al Qaeda's continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland, are perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11th," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at an impromptu news conference yesterday."

 

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

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

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

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

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

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

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