Archived news and commentary: July 29 - August 4, 2002

2002/09/23 - 2002/09/29
2002/09/16 - 2002/09/22
2002/09/09 - 2002/09/15
2002/09/02 - 2002/09/08
2002/08/26 - 2002/09/01
2002/08/19 - 2002/08/25
2002/08/12 - 2002/08/18
2002/08/05 - 2002/08/11
2002/07/29 - 2002/08/04
2002/07/22 - 2002/07/28
2002/07/15 - 2002/07/21
2002/07/08 - 2002/07/14
2002/07/01 - 2002/07/07

Sunday, August 4, 2002

News and commentary:

"Palestinian Bomber Hits Israeli Bus" (Jack Katzenell, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/04)
"A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour Sunday, killing at least eight others, wounding dozens and scattering charred remains across the highway. A child's drawing of two hearts lay amid the debris. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Web site - the militant group's second deadly bombing in four days. ... "There was a lot of screaming, horrible screaming inside the bus," said Avraham Freed, who owns a restaurant near the bus stop where the blast took place. 'I saw one person on the ground next to the bus - bodies, parts of bodies, people jumping through the windows.'" (Note: Reuters has penned a new term for this particular brand of terrorism in the heading of their dispatch - "suicide bomb". ("Suicide Bomb Kills Nine on Israeli Commuter Bus" (Shlomi Afriat, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/04))

"Could 9/11 Have Been Prevented?" (Michael Elliott, TIME, 2002/08/04)
"The saga of a lost chance" is a chronicle of how al Qaeda was handled by the Clinton and the pre 9/11 Bush administrations: "As the battle raged, Clarke's plan awaited Bush's signature. Soon enough, the Northern Alliance would get all the aid it had been seeking-U.S. special forces, money, B-52 bombers, and, of course, as many Predators as the CIA and Pentagon could get into the sky. The decision that had been put off for so long had suddenly become easy because a little more than 50 hours after Massoud's death, Atta, sitting on American Airlines Flight 11 on the runway at Boston's Logan Airport, had used his mobile phone to speak for the last time to his friend Al-Shehhi, on United Flight 175. Their plot was a go.That morning, O'Neill, Clarke's former partner in the fight against international terrorism, arrived at his new place of work. He had been on the job just two weeks. After Atta and Al-Shehhi crashed their planes into the World Trade Center, O'Neill called his son and a girlfriend from outside the Towers to say he was safe. Then he rushed back in. His body was identified 10 days later."

"Exposing Al Qaeda's European network" (Charles M. Sennott, The Boston Globe, 2002/08/04)
The first of two articles: "To this day, Europe remains Al Qaeda's forward position for logistics, financing, and recruitment in Osama bin Laden's war against the United States and the West. ... The groundwork for Al Qaeda's network in Europe was laid in the early 1990s by Islamic militant groups from North Africa. In the forefront was the Islamic Group of Algeria. ... ''Ninety percent of the Al Qaeda cells in Europe are North African and emerge out of the Salafist school of Islam,'' said Magnus Ranstorp, director of research at St. Andrew's University Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. Ranstorp recently briefed US and European investigators on the background of Al Qaeda's recruitment and development in Europe. The Salafist school is a fiery puritanical form of Islam that seeks to restore what its believers see as the true essence of an Islamic society, including the reestablishment of a caliphate and the imposition of Islamic law. They believe that the secular governments in Algeria and Morocco are corrupt and anti-Islamic, and that they must be overthrown. In 1994 and 1995, when the Islamic Group of Algeria was carrying out attacks in France, the Salafists of Algeria formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network"

"National Weekly Arab-American Paper Publishes Poems: "Yes, I am a Terrorist" and 'Bush is an Ape'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 407, 2002/08/04)
Two translated poems from Al-Watan, "an Arabic-language 'national weekly Arab-American newspaper' published in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York". Here's an excerpt from one (in the other, "The Ape" by Nasir Thabet, George W. Bush is likened to "an accursed ape ... ruling this world"):
"Yes, I Am A Terrorist
By Ahmad Matar
...
While it is they [the West] who have urged me to be ashamed of my culture
...
So that I become their slave
And perform amongst them
The rituals of flies.
...
As for me, as long as I am related to freedom
Everything I do is considered
Terrorism.
...
They have destroyed my world
Let them reap what they have sown.
If on my lips and in the cells of my blood
The globalization of destruction has borne fruit
Here I say it. I write, I draw it
I imprint it upon the forehead of the West
with my wooden shoe:
Yes, I am a terrorist!"

"An Ugly Rumor or an Ugly Truth?" (Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, 2002/08/04)
"A few months ago, when Tom Paulin, a poet, Oxford University professor and regular guest on BBC television, told Al Ahram, Egypt's leading newspaper, that American-born Jews who have settled on the Israeli-occupied West Bank were Nazis who "should be shot dead," his remarks, which outraged some, were also met by approval and admiration. A. N. Wilson, a prominent conservative British writer and editor, publicly defended Mr. Paulin, who has also published a poem in The Observer magazine that referred to Israeli soldiers as "the Zionist SS." "Many in this country and throughout the world would echo his views on the tragic events in the Middle East," said Mr. Wilson, who himself wrote in The Evening Standard, the London newspaper, that he had "reluctantly" concluded that Israel no longer had a right to exist. That, too, is a view that throughout Western Europe seems to command a fair degree of sympathy. ... "What you have is anti-Semitism without anti-Semites," said Oscar Bronner, the publisher and editor of Der Standard, a major Austrian daily newspaper. 'If you talk to people who use anti-Semitic clichés without knowing what they are doing, they are shocked that somebody would think they were anti-Semitic. But it's everywhere. It's in print. It's dinner party conversations. When a dozen Israeli kids are killed because somebody throws a bomb in order to kill Israeli kids, then it's regrettable. If Israel kills a dozen kids as collateral damage when they try to kill a murderer who hides among children, then this is a war crime.'"

"Holy Warrior" (Amy Barrett, The New York Times Magazine, 2002/08/04)
An interview with Aukai Collins, author of "My Jihad", who converted to Islam and began training with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan at 19: "Do you identify with John Walker Lindh?
He's such a nonissue in my mind. I don't see that anybody has proven that he intended to fight American soldiers. But I don't like him because I think he's a coward. When he was in that prison uprising, he's hiding in the basement while his comrades, the Arab volunteers, are fighting to the death. If you are going to do something, you better be willing to take it to the end, even if that means dying.
Most people look to religion to find peace, but it seems you took to it and went to fight - training with the mujahedeen to fight Communists in Tajikistan, then fighting in Chechnya against the Russians.
It does appear that way - I spent most of my time fighting. But ultimately Islam is peace. Just right now in the world it's kind of hard to live in peace when you have groups of people wanting to slaughter other people because of their faith. So I kind of think it's a good fight."

 

Saturday, August 3, 2002

News and commentary:

"Lost Voices of Firefighters, Some on the 78th Floor" (Jim Dwyare and Ford Fessenden, The New York Times, 2002/08/03)
"A lost tape of lost voices, ignored until recently by investigators studying the emergency response on Sept. 11, shows that firefighters climbed far higher into the south tower than practically anyone had realized. At least two men reached the crash zone on the 78th floor, where they went to the aid of grievously injured people trapped in a sprawl of destruction. ... Throughout, the voices of Chief Palmer, Chief Geraghty, and the other firefighters showed no panic, no sense that events were racing beyond their control. When Chief Palmer radioed from the 78th floor, he sounded slightly out of breath, perhaps from exertion or perhaps from the sight of all the people who moments before had been waiting for an elevator and now were dead or close to it. "Numerous 10-45's, Code Ones," Chief Palmer said, using the Fire Department's radio terms for dead people. At that point, the building would be standing for just a few more minutes, as the fire was weakening the structure on the floors above him."

"Fire Dept. Lapses on 9/11 Are Cited" (Kevin Flynn and Jim Dwyer, The New York Times, 2002/08/03)
"The Fire Department's response to the Sept. 11 attack at the World Trade Center, while brave and aggressive, was plagued by problems in radio communication, lapses in discipline and a lack of coordinated efforts with the Police Department, according to a draft report by an independent consultant. The draft report by the consultant, McKinsey & Company, concludes that problems with the radio system caused commanders to lose touch with many companies once firefighters ascended into the towers. The lapses in discipline led firefighters to rush to the scene without checking in with commanders at designated staging areas."

"Whitehall dossier says Saddam plans biological weapons for Palestinians" (Michael Evans, The Times, 2002/08/03)
"Saddam Hussein is suspected of planning to arm a Palestinian terrorist group with biological weapons to attack either American or Israeli targets. A Whitehall dossier containing a detailed assessment of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme, which has been circulated to the Prime Minister and other senior Cabinet ministers, is understood to focus on Iraq’s biological weapons capability. ... The latest assessment in Washington and London is that Saddam's plan is to produce a basic weapon that can be used by a terrorist group to attack the Iraqi leader’s enemies, the United States and Israel. In the same way that Iran has funded and trained terrorist groups to carry out attacks from Lebanon against Israel, Saddam, according to the assessment, could be banking on recruiting a Palestinian terrorist group to act on his behalf."

"UN rejects offer to let inspectors back into Iraq" (James Bone, The Times, 2002/08/03)
"The United Nations Secretary-General, taking care not to fall foul of the United States, rejected an Iraqi offer yesterday to invite the chief UN weapons inspector to Baghdad. Kofi Annan said that an Iraqi letter calling for a further round of technical talks with Hans Blix, the head inspector, set conditions "at variance" with the demands of the 15-nation Security Council. The Iraqi invitation to Mr Blix seemed intended to split the big powers at the UN as the drumbeat of war in Washington grew louder."

Added one new theme in Themes:
"The Great Terror" - News and commentary on Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

Added one new section and 12 links in Links:
Iraq and Saddam Hussein - Links to background, analysis, documents and more on the current crises, The Gulf War etc.

 

Friday, August 2, 2002

News and commentary:

"Culture of Hate" (Bat Ye'or, National Review, 2002/08/02)
"At the dawn of the new millennium, the world is being confronted with an absolute culture of hate, characterized by paroxysms of international terrorism against civilians, and religious intolerance. This culture of hate has multiple heads from Algeria to Afghanistan, to Indonesia, via Gaza and the West Bank, Damascus, Cairo, Khartoum, Teheran, and Karachi. It scatters the seeds of terrorism from one end of the earth to the other. This hate, which suppresses freedom of thought, and condemns difference, calls itself "Islamic jihad." ... If the liberation movement of the Jews in their ancestral homeland is interpreted as racism, then all the movements of liberation from expropriation and servitude imposed by jihad are racist. Such a stance reinstates the imperialism of the Islamic jihad, which has claimed millions of victims over three continents during more than a millennium, deported an incalculable number of slaves, and annihilated entire peoples, destroying their history, their monuments, and their culture. Have the Copts of Egypt a right to their history and their language? Do the Kabili of North Africa have a right to theirs? We must acknowledge all the victims of the racism that jihad creates, a racism which denies the history, sufferings, and memories of those conquered. ... The imperialism of jihad consists of appropriating the whole history and identity of the peoples who were conquered and thrown into the nonexistence of dhimmitude. This is a total negation of the other, a refusal to acknowledge him as an equal."

"Israel Calls Gaza Bombing a Mistake" (Ramit Plushnick-Masti, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/02)
"The Israeli military said Friday that faulty intelligence was to blame for the deaths of 14 civilians - most of them women and children - in an air attack on a Gaza City apartment building that successfully targeted and killed a Hamas military leader last month. In a statement summarizing the military investigation of the incident, the army said it regretted the civilian deaths. The army also said the attack never would have been launched if authorities had known women and children were in the building with Salah Shehadeh, head of the Hamas military wing."

"Terror pact forged by cruise missiles" (Alan Cullison and Andrew Higgins, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/08/02)
A brilliant article on the relationship between Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden: "A relationship that appeared smooth and even symbiotic to the outside world was rent by disillusionment, anger and petty one-upmanship. A country the U.S. considered a terrorists' paradise was, in the view of many of the terrorists who arrived there from other lands, more like a hell: They couldn’t trust the locals, the food was bad, they considered the Taliban leader a bumpkin, and their work was stymied by the near-medieval backwardness of the place. ... The Taliban, in turn, grumbled that Mr. bin Laden was arrogant, publicity-seeking and disrespectful. ... But then came the 1998 lethal bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, to which the U.S. replied by raining down cruise missiles on a bin Laden camp in Afghanistan. The retaliation had fateful consequences. It turned Mr. bin Laden into a cult figure among Islamic radicals, made Afghanistan a rallying point for defiance of America and shut off Taliban discussion of expelling the militants. It also helped convince Mr. bin Laden that goading America to anger could help his cause, not hurt it."

"Shell shock in academia" (Gabriel Danzig, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/02)
"An attack on Hebrew University is like an attack on a meeting of Peace Now. While one cannot judge an entire academic institution by the actions and words of a vocal minority, professors at Hebrew University have led in championing the Palestinian cause, sometimes crossing serious red lines. ... Whatever the motivation, the attack on Hebrew University is yet another revolting example of the complete moral depravity of the popular leaders of the Palestinian national movement. Unlike Israeli "crimes," which usually involve nothing more than permitting Jewish people to exercise their right to build homes on unoccupied land in the Judean and Samarian hills, Palestinians crimes are something else entirely. They are systematic genocidal attacks against Israeli and non-Israeli Jews day in and day out. Every resource that comes into Palestinian hands is somehow channeled into this life-destroying effort. Gaining control over significant areas of the West Bank was a great bonanza for these criminals, and a great step forward on the path to exterminating the Jewish inhabitants of Israel. Does anyone in the world still think that a Palestinian state would willingly refrain from even greater heights of murder?"

"No tolerance for genocide" (Caroline B. Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/02)
"The Palestinians have reached a point in this war where it has now become clear that their goal in this struggle is not the end of the so-called "occupation," but rather the organized, premeditated mass murder of Jews because they are Jewish. That is, the Palestinian goal today is genocide. ... Contrary to what we tell ourselves, these attacks are not expressions of rage or reactions to specific actions by the IDF. They are acts of genocide perpetrated against Jews as Jews because the Palestinians have descended to the level of depravity where they do not view the Jews as human beings whose murder is an inherently immoral act. ... It is not just Hamas or Tanzim or Islamic Jihad that we must fight, but Palestinian society itself must be transformed for there to be peaceful coexistence. All major indicators point to the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians is complicit in the aim of committing genocide against the Israelis. Poll after poll shows that a solid majority of Palestinians from all socio-economic levels supports suicide bombers and other forms of terrorism against Israel. ... Once we understand that this is the situation in Palestinian society, we reconcile ourselves with the fact that we are not in a struggle against a political movement for national sovereignty. We are being victimized by a genocidal campaign for our violent elimination supported by the overwhelming majority of Palestinians."

"Pencil in Iraq for this August" (Mark Steyn, National Post 2002/08/02)
"Poor old Saddam, who'd wanted to spend this summer on his fourth romantic novel (when he's not gassing Kurds, he's the Barbara Cartland of Baghdad), is instead having to wrap his head round dozens of tedious New York Times analyses of in-depth war plans while trying to bring his ebola factory on-stream before the end of the week. ... But if a more or less civilized regime were to take over in Baghdad, it would have a tremendously destabilizing effect. By "civilized," I'm thinking no higher than a General Musharraf type, someone who's not genocidal and has greater ambitions for the treasury than the anthrax program. Were a local Musher to surface, he'd quickly be pumping an extra couple million gallons of oil a day and thus adding to the woes of the House of Saud, for whom low gas prices means rethinking the gold-plated toilet in your pad on the Riviera."

"Rantisi mocks tape of his wife refusing to send their son on a suicide mission" (Haaretz, 2002/08/02)
"In the conversation that was apparently recorded by the Palestinian intelligence forces, Umm Mohammed told a member of the Hamas military wing that she would not allow her son, Mohammed Rantisi, to be enlisted for one of the group's suicide missions. ...
The transcript shows that a member of the Hamas calls Umm Mohammed to ask after her son, after he failed to report for a meeting with "the guys from the mujahadeen."
Umm Mohammed says that her son is well, but that he slept all the previous day, having stayed up late studying for an examination.
The Hamas activist tells her that her son has been chosen to become "one of the martyrs." Umm Mohammed replied that he some "is not involved in any of that. I bless you, but my son is busy with his studies."
"We in the Hamas hope that your son with be one of those who go all the way for the Palestinian people, and I am surprised that a woman like you should refuse our request to continue the jihad (holy war) against Zionism," was the reply.
Before ending the conversation, Umm Mohammed said, "I do not know people like you." (See also: "Hamas leader's wife refused to let son carry out suicide bombing" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/01))

"U.N. Arms Inspector Is Invited to Iraq" (Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, 2002/08/02)
"Iraq today invited the chief U.N. weapons inspector to visit Baghdad to discuss the possible return of U.N. arms inspectors for the first time since 1998. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said his government is willing to meet with the chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, in Baghdad to review the status of Iraq's weapons program and to "establish a solid basis for the next stage of monitoring and inspection activities and to move forward to that stage." It was unclear whether Iraq is serious about allowing U.N. inspections to resume. ... "The United States is always skeptical about Iraqi claims to comply with Security Council resolutions," said Richard Grenell, the spokesman at the U.S. mission to the United Nations. 'But we would welcome any movement.'"

"U.S. Returns to Theory of Iraq Link to Sept. 11" (Bob Drogin et al., Los Angeles Times, 2002/08/02)
"Despite deep doubts by the CIA and FBI, the White House is now backing claims that Sept. 11 skyjacker Mohamed Atta secretly met five months earlier with an Iraqi agent in the Czech capital, a possible indication that President Saddam Hussein's regime was involved in the terrorist attacks. In an interview, a senior Bush administration official said that available evidence of the long-disputed meeting in Prague "holds up." The official added, 'We're going to talk more about this case.'"

"'Stunned' US tells Putin its nuclear fear of Iran" (Robin Shepherd, The Times, 2002/08/02)
"America and Russia clashed yesterday over new Russian plans to build five more nuclear reactors in Iran, which Washington claims will be used by the Islamic republic to develop nuclear weapons. Spencer Abraham, the US Energy Secretary, speaking on an official visit to Moscow, said that America's objections had been raised at the "highest levels", indicating that President Bush had taken the matter directly to the Kremlin. ... In May, [Bush] warned Moscow that its project to build a nuclear reactor at the Bushehr facility on the Gulf coast would be used by the Iranians to develop weapons of mass destruction; the Russians and Iranians refuted the claim. The new plans envisage three more reactors at the Bushehr site and another two at a new power station at Akhvaz, about 65 miles from the Iraqi border."

Added one new theme in Themes:
"The September 11 X-Files" - News and commentary on conspiracy theories regarding the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. (Note: It was formerly named "'Hunt the Boeing' Answers", covering the allegation that no Boeing was involved in the Pentagon attack on September 11.)

 

Thursday, August 1, 2002

News and commentary:

"The Destruction of the Temple Mount Antiquities" (Mark Ami-El, Jerusalem Letter/Viewpoints, 2002/08/01)
"After September 2000, the Muslim Waqf closed off the Temple Mount entirely to any archeological oversight by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Then, in order to complete new underground mosques at the site, it removed to city garbage dumps some 13,000 tons of rubble from the Temple Mount that included archeological remnants from the First and Second Temple periods. The intention is to turn the entire 36-acre Temple Mount compound into an exclusively Muslim site by erasing every sign, remnant, and memory of its Jewish past, including the destruction of archeological findings that are proof of this past. In a country where construction projects may be held up for months out of concern for the preservation of antiquities, the free hand given the Muslim Waqf to destroy Jewish artifacts at Judaism's holiest site is hard to comprehend. ... The Muslims claim that the Temple Mount is an ancient mosque dating from the time of Adam and Eve. Thus, their goal is to turn the entire area into one giant mosque, and into an exclusively Muslim area. They have been working diligently to erase and destroy every archeological remnant and finding that may testify to any Jewish spark or connection to the place. Their intention is to change the status quo of the place by turning all the areas of the Mount into Muslim holy places, mosques, and prayer areas, with the intention of preventing any Jewish presence whatsoever in the future. ... Future generations will not understand how, while under Jewish rule, we allowed the destruction of our antiquities. History will not forgive us if we do not stop, even belatedly, the crimes that have occurred on the Temple Mount, whose goal is to wipe out every vestige and testimony to the existence of Jewish history and archeology at the site."

"Children honor the martyrs" (The Jerusalem Times, 2002/08/01)
An article on the popularity of martyr necklaces among Palestinian children: "The picture of Mohammed Titi, 28, who was martyred on 22 May while sitting with friends underneath a tree at the Balata Cemetery, is considered one of the most sought after. The Israeli occupation army confessed that a tank had targeted Titi and his two friends, all of whom were active members in Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah. Occupation authorities accuse Titi, known throughout the West Bank as ëAl-Aqsa Dynamoí, of planning a series of shooting and bombing attacks in the occupied territories and inside the Green Line, including a mission at a hotel in Netanya that killed 29 Israelis. Titi won the respect of his peers at the camp and especially the respect and admiration of children, who race to carry his picture engraved in metal. Said Abdul-Kareem, 'I have received hundreds of orders for pictures of Titi and Raed Al-Karmi.'"

"Anaconda: A war story" (Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor, 2002/08/01)
An chronicle of operation Anaconda, "based on interviews with more than 20 soldiers and officers who took part": "They had reached a small drainage ditch near a group of Abbott's men when, suddenly, the world disappeared in a flash and cloud of black. Grippe looked over to where Abbott had been, and saw more than a dozen bodies motionless on the ground. An enemy mortar with a 60-yard burst radius had landed almost on top of them. "I figured we had four or five guys dead," Grippe said. But then a shadow staggered out of the smoke and debris. Abbott, his right arm deeply lacerated, screamed at his men to get up and move before another mortar round struck. "If you don't get up, you are going to die!" he yelled. One soldier stared back blankly, slipping into shock. "Snap out of it!" Abbott shouted. He radioed for cover, and led the band of wounded as they hobbled and dashed 40 yards to the bowl. As he lay in the dirt, unable to shoulder a weapon, Abbott felt defenseless. Worse, more than half of his platoon was wounded, and he blamed himself. His mind drifted to thoughts of his children, and his wife's parting plea: "Don't be a hero. Come back to us." It was still morning."

"Terrorism Won't Break Israeli Will" (Yossi Klein Halevi, Los Angeles Times, 2002/08/01)
"This terrible summer is defined not only by terrorism but also by a stubborn Israeli refusal to be terrorized. ... Ariel Sharon, once unelectable, now enjoys 70% support. Even many of us who once opposed occupying the territories now agree that we have no choice but to destroy the terrorist state-in-the-making nurtured by Yasser Arafat. Rather than undermine our morale, the terrorist attacks only strengthen our resolve. Most Israelis realize that this isn't a war of Palestinian desperation but part of a long pattern of Palestinian self-destructiveness. Just as there would have been no Palestinian refugee problem had the Palestinians not rejected the U.N. partition in 1947 and tried to destroy the newborn Jewish state, and just as there would have been no Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza had the Arab world not tried again to destroy Israel in 1967, so too would there be no reoccupation today had the Palestinians accepted Israel's offer of statehood two years ago. Finally, we draw strength from the realization that we are the front line in a global war against a new barbarity. Humanity is poised between breakthrough and breakdown, between unimagined scientific and medical advances and the forces of terrorist dissipation and religious reaction that would send us back to the Middle Ages."

"The case for war" (The Economist, 2002/08/01)
The last sentence, "But wishful thinking in the face of mortal danger is bad policy", is spot on. If only The Economist used that insight in their articles on the Middle East conflict: "The danger Mr Hussein poses cannot be overstated. He is no tinpot despot, singled out for arbitrary American punishment. Nor is Iraq a banana republic. With the possible exception of North Korea, but perhaps not even then, Mr Hussein is the world's most monstrous dictator, who by the promiscuous use of violence has seized unfettered control of a technologically advanced country with vast oil reserves. ... Next time you hear someone ask why, in a world full of bad men, it is Mr Hussein who is being picked on, please bear all of the above in mind. He may very well be the worst. ... The unique danger in Iraq is that this country's advanced technology and potential oil wealth could very soon give this aggressive, cruel and reckless man an atomic bomb. ... None of this is to argue that a war to remove Mr Hussein should be undertaken lightly. ... The casualties this time - especially the civilian casualties - could be much larger than they were before. It is little wonder, given this, that people of goodwill are groping for a safer alternative. But wishful thinking in the face of mortal danger is bad policy."

"Stopping the war" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2002/08/01)
"The London Times' Simon Jenkins sneers at the notion that Iraq is a threat to Britain or America. He describes the military campaigns in Serbia and Afghanistan as failures. He describes post-9/11 American foreign policy as "catatonic." He likens Tony Blair to the premier of an East European state under Soviet tyranny. This isn't in the Guardian or the Independent, it's in the Times. But here's the classic sentence: "If the Government is right and al-Qaeda remains a threat to Britain the more reason for caution in the minefields of Middle East politics. It is a reason for listening and watching, not blundering into the region with bombs and tanks." You can't get a more concise description of appeasement than that. Don't fight back, because it could make them even angrier! Just listen and watch - exactly what the peaceniks urged on the West in the 1930s and throughout the Cold War and throughout the 1990s." (See also: "If we must go to war, for God's sake tell us why" (Simon Jenkins, The Times, 2002/07/31))

"Hamas leader's wife refused to let son carry out suicide bombing" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/01)
"The wife of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi refused an appeal for their son to carry out a suicide bombing, Israel Radio reports. The IDF has learned this from a recording of a telephone conversation found at Palestinian Authority head Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. A recruiter of suicide bombers telephoned her and asked about the possibility of her son staging such an attack. She objected, the radio says. The phone was apparently bugged by Palestinian security."

"Tehran schoolgirls shed the veil" (BBC News, 2002/08/01)
"Girls in Tehran are to be allowed to lift their veils and exchange their black robes for less restrictive, more colourful clothing while at school for the first time in over 20 years. ... Iranian women have been forced to wear the veil since 1979, when the pro-Western Shah was toppled and the deeply conservative Shi'ite Muslim clergy came to power. But their conservatism is now being challenged by the more permissive policies of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, first elected in May 1997. ... But some have fiercely rejected the plan. The scheme will "weaken Islamic values and spread a culture of nudity," the Jomhuri-Eslami paper complained on Thursday. Hassan Emadi, a rug merchant in Tehran's bazaar, said: "I was hoping that my daughters were growing up in a moral atmosphere. Now they will only think about their appearance and how best to look like this or that rock or movie star." To appease opposition, school authorities have agreed to install one-way tinted school windows and keep male visitors in separate, distant rooms."

"Thousands in Gaza celebrate Jerusalem attack" (Reuters/The New Zealand Herald, 2002/08/01)
"About 10,000 Palestinians handed out sweets, sang songs and chanted anti-Israeli slogans as they marched through Gaza city on Wednesday to celebrate the bombing that killed seven people at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. The rally was organised by the Islamic movement Hamas, which said it carried out the attack to avenge an Israeli air strike on Gaza last week that killed its military commander Salah Shehada and 14 others, including nine children. ... "We give this gift to the soul of Sheikh Salah Shehada and we say to the al-Qassam brigades we are waiting for more," a voice shouted through a loudspeaker. ... The marchers walked past one of Shehada's family's homes and many knelt and prayed for revenge. They described Wednesday's bombing as "a gift to the soul" of Shehada and "a march of joy". The marchers waved Hamas flags and included a large number of children who clapped and laughed."

"Five Americans Killed in Jerusalem Bombing" (The Washington Post, 2002/08/01)
"Five U.S. citizens were among seven people killed when a large bomb exploded yesterday in a busy cafeteria at Hebrew University's Frank Sinatra International Student Center, spraying shards of glass and metal across a lunchtime crowd. ... Many of those injured at the Sinatra center, named for the late American crooner, a donor to the school, were exchange students from overseas here for summer classes. Hospital officials said they included the four Americans, a French tourist, an Italian man, two people from East Asia and several Arabs."

"US Senate told of Iraq's deadly virus laboratory" (Roland Watson, The Times, 2002/08/01)
"Saddam Hussein is producing deadly plague viruses in an underground laboratory beneath a hospital, evidence put before a congressional hearing indicated yesterday. Richard Butler, the former head of the United Nations weapons inspections team in Iraq, said recent signs that the Iraqi President was manufacturing the plague and the highly contagious Ebola virus were "very credible". He also said that Iraq was close to developing a nuclear capability. Khidir Hamza, a former Iraqi nuclear engineer who defected in 1994, said that Saddam was within three years of equipping three nuclear weapons with bombgrade uranium. ... The nuclear programme, like the chemical and biological programmes, were pursued by apparently civilian bodies. "Saddam has managed to create the perfect cover, and in effect turn the whole Iraq science and engineering enterprise into a giant weapon-making body," Mr Hamza said."

"UN report on Jenin refugee camp does not support Palestinian claims of a massacre, diplomats say" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/01)
"A UN report on Israel's military attack on a Palestinian refugee camp does not back up claims of a massacre, but it does criticize both sides for putting civilians in harm's way, Western diplomats said. The report accuses Israel of delaying aid and medical help to Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp. And it charges Palestinian militants with deliberately putting its fighters and equipment in civilian areas in violation of international law, the diplomats said Wednesday. ... But it said that in Jenin, 52 Palestinian deaths had been confirmed by April 18, and that up to half may have been civilians. It called the Palestinian allegation that some 500 were killed "a figure that has not been substantiated in the light of evidence that has emerged," the diplomats said." (See also: "Report of the Secretary-General on Jenin" (Unitied Nations, 2002/08/01))

Added in archive:
"Ending Bias in the Human Rights System" (Anne Bayefsky, The New York Times, 2002/05/22)
"The UN Human Rights Agenda: A Strategy of Diversion" (Anne Bayefsky, Justice, from the June 2002 issue)

 

Wednesday, July 31, 2002

News and commentary:

"Seven Killed in Hebrew U. Bombing" (Greg Myre, AP/Yahoo! News!, 2002/07/31)
"A bomb hidden in a bag ripped through a busy cafeteria at Hebrew University, killing seven people Wednesday as it shattered the academic peace and left behind pools of blood in one of the few places where young Jews and Arabs still mixed freely. More than 70 people were wounded in the bombing, the second to hit Jerusalem in two days. ... Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the militant Hamas group, linked the attack to Israel's air raid last week on Gaza City that killed the organization's military chief and 14 civilians, including nine children. Other Hamas leaders told AP the group had not issued a formal claim of responsibility but praised the attack as revenge for the Gaza airstrike. ... The bag with the bomb was placed on a table in the center of the cafeteria, police said. "It was not a suicide bomber," said police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo. The blast brought down part of the ceiling and blew out windows. ... The Palestinian Authority said in a statement that it "absolutely condemns the attack against Hebrew University." However, the Palestinian leadership also said it 'considers Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responsible for this cycle of terror.'" (Note: Remember the bizarre moral defense of Hamas made two weeks ago? "There is nothing easier than putting a bomb in a school or sending a person with an explosives belt into a school, and the fact that Hamas has never done so," he declares, "is evidence that they do take moral considerations into account." ("Driven by vengeance and a desire to defend the homeland" (Amira Hass, Haaretz, 2002/07/16)). Evidence, indeed.)

"US is more nearly right" (Samuel Bittan, Financial Times, 2002/07/31)
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the pointer: "I find myself somewhat surprised to be so much on the Bush side. I call myself a neo-pacifist because I do not believe in dying either for forms of government or to have rulers of one ethnic or national origin rather than another. ... "Neo", because if our very lives and the right to exist are threatened, as my family's were by the Nazis in the second world war and as the whole western world is threatened by al-Qaeda and by rogue states, I believe in fighting back with every available resource. Islamist militancy is a self-confessed threat to the values not merely of the US but also of the European Enlightenment: to the preference for life over death, to peace, rationality, science and the humane treatment of our fellow men, not to mention fellow women. It is a reassertion of blind, cruel faith over reason."

"Propping Up the Terror Masters" (Michael Ledeen, National Review, 2002/07/31)
"Don Javier Solana, Europe's very own foreign minister, is on a foreign tour, and he stopped off in Tehran to show the flag of continental appeasement. The Europeans just don't see why they should cut themselves off from lucrative oil contracts - even if they have to pay outrageous commissions to the ruling ayatollahs and their bagmen - just because the regime oppresses its subjects, trains, funds, and arms the world's most dangerous terrorists, and hails the slaughter of Jews by suicide terrorists. In the Brussels view of things, that's somebody else's problem, certainly not theirs."

"Egypt's Sakharov" (Claudia Winkler, The Weekly Standard, 2002/07/31)
"Egypt's conviction on trumped up charges of Egyptian-American academic and pro-democracy intellectual Saad Eddin Ibrahim and several associates ought to be an ideal test for President Bush's new strategic principle: that liberty and justice are the birthright even of people who live in Middle Eastern autocracies. Sentenced this week to seven years' imprisonment after a highly dubious legal process, Ibrahim is Egypt's leading promoter of free elections and as such threatens the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. ... Now, Ibrahim, 63 and in poor health, faces the prospect of rapid decline in an Egyptian jail, unless one remaining appeal should succeed or President Mubarak exercise clemency. The United States should use its abundant leverage with Egypt to secure that end."

"Jewish leaders angered by Chirac's conspiracy theory" (Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/07/31)
"Jewish leaders Tuesday lashed out at French President Jacques Chirac's Jerusalem conspiracy theory, which he presented on Monday to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, when he accused Israel of conducting an anti-French campaign in the US portraying France as anti-Semitic. "Saying that anti-Semitism in France is an American problem is out of the realm of reason," said Shimon Samuels, international liaison director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Paris. American Jews are not imagining that French Jews have been attacked, he said. They are simply describing reality, Samuels said. He also took issue with Chirac's assertion that French anti-Semitism is decreasing. His center's phone hotline does not stop ringing. "We have an average of three dozen reported incidents per week," he said." (See also: "Peres, Chirac seek 'road map' to peace, paths split on direction" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/07/30): "Chirac complained to Peres about what he claimed is a campaign against France in the United States, where France is portrayed as anti-Semitic. Chirac claimed that the campaign, while carried out in the US, is being orchestrated in Jerusalem, and demanded that the accusations against France regarding anti-Semitism cease.")

"Al Qaeda network believed thriving in Indonesia" (Richard Halloran, The Washington Times, 2002/07/31)
"Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was in Southeast Asia yesterday to discuss terrorism with his counterparts in the region where, according to a fresh, meticulously researched assessment, Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network is pervasive and will be hard to dislodge. ... New details of al Qaeda's activity in the region are laid out in an analysis by Zachary Abuza, a political scientist and director of the Asia program at Simmons College in Massachusetts, who reports that the cell in Malaysia is the largest and is responsible for al Qaeda's finances. Singapore has been an operational center while the Philippines has been a logistics hub, his report says. Mr. Abuza says that the least is known about the cell in Indonesia, but that it may be the most dangerous because of the breakdown of government authority in that country. "New ties between Indonesia and al Qaeda are being uncovered at an alarming rate," his report says. 'Until Indonesia begins to get serious about the threat of terrorism, it will remain al Qaeda's next great frontier.'"

"In Assessing Iraq's Arsenal, The 'Reality Is Uncertainty'" (Joby Warrick, The Washington Post, 2002/07/31)
"U.S. intelligence analysts have been closely examining satellite images of the west bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad for signs of a laboratory rumored to exist there. Called Tahhaddy, or "Challenge," the lab is purported to have 85 employees and a top-secret mission: making biological weapons for Iraq's military. Details about the lab have trickled out of Iraq in recent months in accounts from defectors and Iraqi exiles opposed to President Saddam Hussein. They tell of underground test chambers, heavy security and a viral strain code-named "Blue Nile," which sounds suspiciously like the Ebola virus."

 

Tuesday, July 30, 2002

News and commentary:

"Israel Cancels Exhibit in China" (Joe McDonald, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/07/30)
"Israel has canceled an Albert Einstein exhibit in China after officials demanded the removal of references to his being Jewish and a supporter of creating a Jewish state, an Israeli spokesman said Tuesday. The incident adds to diplomatic strains that date back to Israel's decision two years ago to call off a deal to sell Beijing a sophisticated airborne radar system. China has also criticized recent Israeli attacks in Palestinian territories. ... "It was the Chinese Ministry of Culture's demand to omit or delete parts of the exhibition that deal with the Jewish origins and pro-Zionist attitude of Einstein and that he had been invited to be the president of Israel," said Amir Sagie, an embassy spokesman. "These three themes are very important to the biography of Einstein and can't be changed." Sagie said China's culture ministry didn't give a reason for its request."

"The Jihad Online" (James S. Robbins, National Review, 2002/07/30)
Robbins on cyberterrorism, al Qaeda on the net and the hacker community's own war on terrorism, with some useful links: "A case in point: Anyone who tries to find the official al Qaeda website Alneda (the Call) via its most recent IP address 65.216.200.41 is greeted by a screen proclaiming "Hacked, tracked, and NOW owned by the U.S.A." This is one of the several initiatives pursued by Jon David, an adult-content webmaster who has made it his mission to frustrate the online jihadists. The "porno patriot" uses sophisticated software to seize web domains when they move between hosts (which they invariably do when providers find out what is on their servers), and he has licensed or assumed control of Alneda.com, Alneda.net, Al-Qaeda.com, and nukeafghanistan.com, among scores of others. In the case of Alneda, David hijacked the domain name, put up a mirror of the original site as it appeared in June, then logged hits to the decoy site for five days using tracking software. Once the terrorists caught on that this was not their resurrected Alneda, word got out - but not before over 20,000 hits per day were tracked and the information turned over to the authorities. The actual Alneda site (in Arabic) can now be accessed at IP address 66.132.29.71 - hopefully not for long."

"Israeli-Palestinian Battles Intrude on 'Sesame Street'" (Julie Salamon, The New York Times, 2002/07/30)
An article about the growing difficulties with the Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian co-production of "Sesame Street": "The name "Sesame Street" has been changed to "Sesame Stories" because the concept of a place where people and puppets from those three groups can mingle freely has become untenable. The original shows were built around the notion that Israeli and Palestinian children (as well as puppets) might become friends. Now, reflecting the somber mood in the Middle East, producers see their best hope as helping children to humanize their historic enemies through separate but parallel stories. "We've realized that a goal of friendship was beyond realism, given where things are now," said Charlotte Cole, vice president of international research for the Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop) in New York. ... The creative back and forth - taking place in meetings near London and in New York and by telephone and e-mail messages - has an eggshell fragility. The utterance of every Muppet is potentially inflammatory."

"Method Without Madness?" (Benedict Carey, Los Angeles Times, 2002/07/30)
"In the end, the suicide terrorist sees his mission as acceptable, logical, even noble. "It can be perceived as a very idealistic act," said psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School and an author who has studied cults and suicide. "They believe there's a higher purpose, that in some way they are bringing about a purification, a perfection. They are destroying the world to save it." ... "It's hard to accept for outsiders, but from the bombers' point of view, they don't actually die in a suicide attack - they become immortal," said Gunaratna, whose recent book, "Inside Al Qaeda," details the ideological indoctrination that occurred at Osama bin Laden's training camps. "It's not the end, but the beginning. You are surviving in a way; you are being granted an eternal life." ... Only by destruction can the world be renewed; only by killing can the group live; only by leaving the world can you leave a mark on it. "I think in this sense," said Lifton, the Harvard psychiatrist, 'all suicide has to do with making a lasting statement one could not make in life.'"

"The evil isn't Islam" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post, 2002/07/30)
"The challenge ahead is clear: Muslims must emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their religion with regard to slavery, interest and much else. No more fighting jihad to impose Muslim rule. No more endorsement of suicide terrorism. No more second-class citizenship for non-Muslims. No more death penalty for adultery or "honor" killings of women. No more death sentences for blasphemy or apostasy. Rather than rail on about Islam's alleged "evil," it behooves everyone - Muslim and non-Muslim alike - to help modernize this civilization. That is the ultimate message of 9/11. It is much deeper and more ambitious than Western governments presently seem to realize."

"Arab elite warms to Al Qaeda leaders" (Philip Smucker, The Christian Science Monitor, 2002/07/30)
"Mahfouz Azzam is a prominent Egyptian lawyer who proudly describes himself as an uncle and godfather to Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al Zawahiri. ... Azzam's attitude toward the Al Qaeda leadership, say terrorist experts, is part of a disturbing and growing phenomenon prevalent in intellectual and Islamist circles from Cairo to Riyadh. In many Arab states nearly 11 months after the September attacks in the United States, there is a steady trend toward historical revisionism that promotes Al Qaeda leaders as the "good guys" and US officials as the "bad guys" in an ethics and morality public relations war that is far from over. Azzam, who holds the power of attorney for Mr. Zawahiri, slams his fist on the desk, and sounds almost as if he's endorsing the views that led to the killing of innocent civilians on Sept. 11. "Any American civilian who serves against our cause [to liberate Islamic lands] – defends, helps, or pays money against us – should be punished," he says."

"Feds Arrest Al Qaeda Suspects With Plans to Poison Water Supplies" (Carl Cameron, Fox News, 2002/07/30)
"Federal officials have arrested two Al Qaeda terror suspects in the U.S. with documents in their possession about how to poison the country's water supplies, Fox News has learned. The first case involves James Ujaama, 36, who surrendered to the FBI last week in Denver. Sources say they found documents about water poisoning among several other terrorism-related documents in his Denver residence. ... Another former member of the mosque is also now in custody and suspected of plotting terrorist attacks. His name is Semi Osman and he too is accused of having documents about poisoning water supplies in his possession when he was arrested. Sources say the Ujaama brothers and Osman are all tied to a prominent radical Muslim cleric in London named Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Masri. Al-Masri is a one-eyed mullah who is often seen preaching at Finsbury Park's North London Central Mosque and is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges."

Added in archive:
"US artists damn 'war without limit'" (Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, 2002/06/14)

 

Monday, July 29, 2002

News and commentary:

"When Editing Is Censoring at the New York Times" (Andrea Levin, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/07/29)
"Professor Anne Bayefsky, noted scholar of international and human rights law, had a striking encounter with editors at the New York Times. An op-ed of hers critical of the United Nations and human rights groups for their distorted focus on Israel and their "diversion" from confronting actual rights abusers was accepted for publication on May 8. But so radically altered was the final column ("Ending Bias in the Human Rights System" May 22, 2002) that Bayefsky went public with the obfuscations demanded by the newspaper. ... Bayefsky names some of the worst offenders: "UN intergovernmental human rights machinery is not keen on specifics. Its members include some of the most notorious human rights violators in the world today: China, Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Those countries prefer devoting UN funds, (22% of which are from the United States), to criticizing Israel - lest attention wander too close to home." But this passage and others critical of the UN, human rights groups and nations manipulating these organizations to avoid inspection of their own wrongdoing had to be excised, and the "dynamic" of the article had to be modified, as a "condition" of publication in the Times." (See also: "Ending Bias in the Human Rights System" (Anne Bayefsky, The New York Times, 2002/05/22), and the original article "The UN Human Rights Agenda: A Strategy of Diversion" (Anne Bayefsky, Justice, from the June 2002 issue))

"US accused of airstrike cover-up" (Dumeetha Luthra, The Times, 2002/07/29)
"American forces may have breached human rights and then removed evidence after the so-called wedding party airstrike that killed more than 50 Afghan civilians this month, according to a draft United Nations report seen by The Times. A preliminary UN investigation has found no corroboration of American claims that its aircraft were fired on from the ground, and says there were discrepancies in US accounts of what happened. ...
It states that there was clear evidence that human rights violations had taken place and that coalition forces had arrived on the scene very quickly after the airstrikes and "cleaned the area", removing evidence of 'shrapnel, bullets and traces of blood'."

"Targets" (Martin Peretz, The New Republic, 2002/07/29)
"In fact, the Palestinian polity's distinct contribution to world politics - from Arafat almost four decades ago until today, from Munich to the bombing in the old Tel Aviv bus station last week - is the utter routinization of the savage killing of innocents, "the banality of evil" in another era. And Shehada was the ultimate routinizer. He was an exemplar of the Palestinian political tradition, not an exception to it. Which is why he enjoyed so much popular support. The rage in the funeral streets of Gaza would have been just as great had he been the only casualty of the bomb."

"Education may be key to extremist actions" (David Walker, The Guardian, 2002/07/29)
An article on Alan B. Krueger's and Jitka Maleckova's study "Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism, Is there a Causal Connection?": "Terrorism has little or nothing to do with economics, according to a new analysis of the social background of Hizbullah militants in Lebanon. After also examining the income and education of Palestinian suicide bombers and Israelis implicated in civilian assassinations and attacks, the study concludes: "Any connection between poverty, education and terrorism is indirect and probably quite weak". ... No correlation was found between participation in violence and economic depression: violence seems to have increased when local economic conditions were getting better. The latest intifada began when economic optimism among Palestinians was rising and after a period during which education levels among young Palestinians had risen remarkably. Thus the latest outbreak of violence, the paper says, cannot be blamed on deteriorating economic conditions." (See also: "Does Poverty Cause Terrorism?" (Alan B. Krueger & Jitka Maleckova, The New Republic, 2002/06/20))

"U.S. Exploring Baghdad Strike as Iraq Option" (David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, The New York Times, 2002/07/29)
"As the Bush administration considers its military options for deposing Saddam Hussein, senior administration and Pentagon officials say they are exploring a new if risky approach: take Baghdad and one or two key command centers and weapons depots first, in hopes of cutting off the country's leadership and causing a quick collapse of the government. The "inside-out" approach, as some call this Baghdad-first option, would capitalize on the American military's ability to strike over long distances, maneuvering forces to envelop a large target. Those advocating that plan say it reflects a strong desire to find a strategy that would not require a full quarter-million American troops, yet hits hard enough to succeed."

"Bin Laden Son Climbing Qaeda Ranks" (CBS News, 2002/07/29)
"One of Osama bin Laden's eldest sons has become a rising star in his father's terrorist network. Saad bin Laden has gained so much new authority that U.S. counterterrorism officials now name him among their top two dozen targets in al Qaeda. Though U.S. officials have no evidence that the younger bin Laden played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Saad bin Laden has provided financial and other logistical support for several al Qaeda operations, said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Saad, a Saudi like his father, is thought to be in his early 20s, and is one of Osama bin Laden's eldest sons, officials said. Also, like his father, he is thought to currently be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region."

"Egyptian TV sermon: The Jews have been destined by God to be humiliated until Doomsday" (IMRA, 2002/07/29)
From a sermon delivered by Shaykh Al-Shahat al-Azazi of the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Egypt: "We forgot God, so he forgot us, made us forget ourselves and made a foreign enemy control us, take a cherished piece of Islam's land, and tortured our brothers. They [Jews] have been destined by God to be humiliated until Doomsday. Although, they are the most humiliated and most inferior people, they controlled us because we and them have become equal in disobedience. ... ...O Lord, liberate Al-Aqsa mosque from the hands of the usurpers. O Lord, liberate Al-Aqsa mosque from the hands of the usurpers. Defeat disbelief and the disbelievers. Defeat atheism, atheists, and their supporters. O Lord, make us victorious on them."

"Flying the Unfriendly Skies" (George McGovern, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/07/29)
The former Democratic presidential nominee on the hassles of flying in the U.S. post-9/11. It's rather thought-provoking, except for the last paragraph, where he accuses Bush of "airport terrorism": "But deep inside I'll never yield to the airport terrorism that President Bush has imposed on us as his answer to Osama bin Laden. I'm willing to shoot bin Laden. I'd even volunteer to fly a bomber against him if we had any idea of what country he is in. But I'm not willing to let fear of Osama bin Laden weaken our civil rights and convert our airports into police-state nightmares."

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)

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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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