Archived news and commentary: August 19 - 25, 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 25, 2002

News and commentary:

"When The Terror Began" (Alexander Wolff, TIME, 2002/08/25)
An excellent report about the Munich Olympics Massacre, which took place 30 years ago, on September 5, 1972: "The Munich Olympics were to be "the Carefree Games." There would be no place for barbed wire, troops or police bristling with sidearms. Where Berlin had been festooned with swastikas and totalitarian red, Munich would feature a one-worldish logo and pastel bunting. ... With security tossed aside, the Olympics became one big party. Mimes, jugglers, bands and Waldi, the dachshund mascot, gamboled through the Village, while uncredentialed interlopers slipped easily past its gates. ... To revisit the Munich attack is to go slack-jawed at the official lassitude and incompetence, and to realize how much has changed. The Munich organizers spent less than $2 million to make their Games secure; in Athens two years from now the Olympic security bill will total at least $600 million, none of which will go toward candy. Says Michael Hershman, a senior executive at Decision Strategies, a U.S. security consulting firm that has been involved in five Olympics: 'Over the years Munich has served as a model of what not to do in every conceivable way.'"

"To Fire on Iraq, Use a Trigger" (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, from the 2002/09/02 issue)
"Let me make a prediction. If the administration stays on its current path, there will be no conflict with Iraq. However justified the cause, the United States will not initiate a war against another country without a specific provocation. We are simply not going to do it. ... If the administration wants to take military action against Iraq - and I believe it should - it will have to find a provocation, a casus belli. ... All of which means, inevitably, that Washington will have to try to provoke a crisis over inspections. The United States should propose a new and vigorous system of U.N. inspections - with a clear deadline for compliance. ... Saddam Hussein is building nuclear weapons. In fact he wants them so badly that he has, over the past decade, forgone $160 billion in oil revenues so that he could keep his labs free of inspections. He has attacked his neighbors three times and used chemical weapons on his own people. Most important, all other methods of handling him have been exhausted. ... This problem is not going to go away. Unless Saddam is stopped, in a few years the world will almost certainly face a nuclear-armed megalomaniac. That's why we need to get to work, find a trigger and - then carefully start shooting."

"Palestinian Says Confession False" (AP/The Guardian, 2002/08/25)
"The son of the first known Palestinian woman to be killed as an Israeli collaborator said Sunday that Palestinian gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about his mother's involvement in a militant's death. ... Bakir Khouli, 17, lifted up his T-shirt at his one-room house in Tulkarem on Sunday to reveal black and blue marks he said were made by electrical wires shortly before his mother was killed. "They accused me of helping Israeli intelligence,'' he told The Associated Press. "When they started beating me with this wire, I confessed and invented a story.'' ... An Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader said his group was forced to "strike with an iron hand'' to prevent collaboration with Israel. "I know that this woman had children but we had no choice. We left her son alive to take care of the children,'' he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Asked why his group employed torture, he said: 'This is the only way you can get confessions from such people who betray their people.''' (See also: "Palestinians execute mother of seven as alleged collaborator" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/25))

"Kabul Terror Lab Said Found at Ex-Saudi NGO Office" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/25)
"International peacekeepers said on Sunday Afghan police had found a store of chemicals in a house in Kabul formerly occupied by a Saudi non-governmental organization, and local media reports called it a terrorist laboratory. "Some containers and documents have been found by the police authorities," said Major James Kelly, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) In Kabul. "Reports suggest possibly 16 types of chemicals." ... The government-controlled Arman-e-Millie Daily newspaper carried a report from the official Bakhtar News Agency saying the discovery included 36 types of chemicals, explosive materials, fuses, laboratory equipment and some "terroristic guide books." ... It said the building had been used by an Arab national who headed the Saudi Al Wafa Humanitarian Organization during the rule of the former Taliban militia."

"Teaching 9/11 lies" (George F. Will, New York Post, 2002/08/25)
Will on NEA's suggested lesson plan for the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks: "The results, on the NEA's Web site (www.neahin.org), illustrate three things that make the public education establishment a national menace. One is distrust of parents, whom the NEA obviously considers imbeciles. Another is a politically correct obsession with "diversity" and America's sins. Third, and most repellant, is a therapeutic rather than an educational focus - an emphasis not on learning but on feelings, not on good thinking but on feeling good. ... But should that day really become an exercise in self-absorption? Why should a commemoration of mass murder be an occasion to "feel better?" ... Many NEA ideas defy caricature, such as the suggestion that 12th graders soothe their souls by reading Dr. Seuss books. The NEA represents, and presumably reflects the mentality of, the people who are delivering - inflicting? - public education. That is as frightening, in its way, as any foreign threat." (See also: "NEA delivers history lesson" (Ellen Sorokin, The Washington Times, 2002/08/19))

"The Right Way to Change a Regime" (James A. Baker III, The New York Times, 2002/08/25)
Baker, who was secretary of the state from 1989 to 1992, on how to effect a regime change in Iraq: "The United States should advocate the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a simple and straightforward resolution requiring that Iraq submit to intrusive inspections anytime, anywhere, with no exceptions, and authorizing all necessary means to enforce it. ... Some will argue, as was done in 1990, that going for United Nations authority and not getting it will weaken our case. I disagree. By proposing to proceed in such a way, we will be doing the right thing, both politically and substantively. We will occupy the moral high ground and put the burden of supporting an outlaw regime and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction on any countries that vote no. History will be an unkind judge for those who prefer to do business rather than to do the right thing."

"How Kurdistan's first suicide bomber changed his mind" (Jason Burke, The Observer, 2002/08/25)
"A minute before he was to die Didar Mohammed was not nervous. He was calm and thinking of paradise. The 19 year old felt the weight of the TNT strapped around his waist and chest "like a comfort". But when it came to blowing himself, and half a dozen political officials, into oblivion Didar changed his mind. If he hadn't he would have become Kurdistan's first suicide bomber - and the Islamic extremists' tactic of 'martyrdom operations' would have spread to a new country and a new theatre of war. ... Last week the 19 year old spoke to The Observer, his first interview with any media. "I believed it was right to kill the officials because they were unbelievers. I was doing my duty in the holy struggle for a true Islamic state in Kurdistan," he said. "Until the last moment I was happy to die." Didar was a member of the Jund-ul-Islam, an extremist group with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation. In recent months the Jund-ul-Islam have occupied a series of villages and valleys close to the Iranian border and imposed a harsh Taliban-style administration complete with bans on television, reprisals against 'immodest' women and guerrilla training camps. ... Mullah Majjed and his secular counterparts blame a campaign of preaching linked to aid distribution by Islamic charities backed by wealthy Gulf governments - including that of Saudi Arabia - and private donors."

"Saudis In $200M Deal With Devil" (Niles Lathem and William J. Gorta, New York Post, 2002/08/25)
"Saudi Arabian princes paid Osama bin Laden and the Taliban $200 million to spare targets in the oil-rich Gulf state, according to court papers. Recently revealed evidenced contained in a $1 trillion lawsuit, filed this month by the kin of 9/11 victims against members of the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks and Islamic charities, alleges the payoff funded al Qaeda terror training in Afghanistan. The deal was hammered out in two meetings between top Saudi princes, and officials from al Qaeda, Pakistan and the Taliban. ... Saudi officials, worried over attacks against U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996, agreed to finance al Qaeda in exchange for a promise the group would not try to destabilize the Saudi government and would not carry out terror attacks in the kingdom, according to the suit."

"Saddam killed Abu Nidal over al-Qa'eda row" (Con Coughlin, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/08/25)
"Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist, was murdered on the orders of Saddam Hussein after refusing to train al-Qa'eda fighters based in Iraq, The Telegraph can reveal. Despite claims by Iraqi officials that Abu Nidal committed suicide after being implicated in a plot to overthrow Saddam, Western diplomats now believe that he was killed for refusing to reactivate his international terrorist network. ... While in Baghdad, Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna, came under pressure from Saddam to help train groups of al-Qa'eda fighters who moved to northern Iraq after fleeing Afghanistan. Saddam also wanted Abu Nidal to carry out attacks against the US and its allies. When Abu Nidal refused, Saddam ordered his intelligence chiefs to assassinate him. ... "There is no doubt that Abu Nidal was murdered on Saddam's orders," said a US official who has studied the reports. 'He paid the price for not co-operating with Saddam's wishes.'"

"Palestinians execute mother of seven as alleged collaborator" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/25)
"At least 200 Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel are being held in Palestinian Authority prisons, according to Palestinian sources. Most were arrested by PA security forces in the Gaza Strip over the past two years, the sources told The Jerusalem Post. ... Yesterday members of Fatah's military wing, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, shot and killed a mother of seven in Tulkarm after accusing her of collaborating with Israel. Ikhlas Yasin, 39, was shot in the town's main square. Her bullet-riddled body was found lying in the street Saturday after she was kidnapped a day earlier. ... The sources said that the next few months will witness a large number of executions of collaborators in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They stressed that only those who committed "serious crimes" and helped Israel assassinate wanted activists would be executed."

Added in Author index:
Bruce Anderson
James C. Bennett
David Harsanyi
Steven Plaut

Added in archive:
"A new special relationship" (Bruce Anderson, The Spectator, from the 2002/08/10 issue)
"If the shoe fits..." (James C. Bennett, UPI, 2002/07/13)
"Europe and Africa's Hatred of America" (David Harsanyi, Capitalism Magazine, 2002/06/20)
"The Oslo Plague" (Steven Plaut, National Review, 2002/04/15)
"The Day of Infamy - April 10, 2002" (Steven Plaut, Arutz Sheva, 2002/04/10)
"Israel's Rhetorical Capitulations" (Steven Plaut, The Israel Report, 2002/02/20)
"Is this how bin Laden escaped?" (Bruce Anderson, The Spectator, from the 2002/02/16 issue)
"Facing Unpleasant Facts in the Middle East" (Steven Plaut, The Israel Report, 2002/01/16)
"On unity and diversity" (James C. Bennett, UPI, 2001/12/08)
"Kabul Lessons" (Steven Plaut, Natinal Review, 2001/11/16)
"Toasted Danish Anyone?" (Steven Plaut, OpinioNet, 2002/10/20)
"Nations or shopping malls?" (James C. Bennett, UPI, 2001/11/10)
"Good Terrorist, Bad Terrorist" (Steven Plaut, National Review, 2001/10/10)
"We must ignore the peace lobby and show no restraint" (Bruce Anderson, Independent, 2001/09/24)

 

Saturday, August 24, 2002

News and commentary:

"Cracks in the wall" (James C. Bennett, UPI, 2002/08/24)
Found via InstaPundit. Bennett on the ideology of "transnational progressivism": "It was the advent of George W. Bush in 2001 that signaled an end to the seeming global unanimity on the progress of the transnational progressive agenda. By withdrawing from or refusing to ratify a number of highly visible international structures, including the Kyoto Agreement, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the International Criminal Court, the Bush administration presented the first substantial threat to the transnational progressive agenda. As a result, the transnational progressive sectors in academia and the media have piled on Bush and America in general (for they are quite aware that Bush's stance on transnational governance is popular) by attacking American "unilateralism." They enjoy painting America as the lone holdout against an otherwise-unanimous consensus of democracies. ... And now cracks are beginning to appear in the wall. Australia is the only other principal Anglosphere nation beside the United States in which a party is in power which is not controlled by transnational progressives. Thus Australia joined the United States in a principled rejection of the Kyoto agreement and has recently rejected international interference in its handling of asylum applicants. Once the crack in the wall begins, it will spread because it depends on the illusion of world consensus." (See also: "The Ideological War Within the West" (John Fonte, Foreign Policy Research Institute, May 2002))

"Bush and the World" (Michael Hirsh, Foreign Affairs, from the September/October issue)
"While Bush talks of defending civilization, his administration seems almost uniformly to dismiss most of the civilities and practices that other nations would identify with a common civilization. Civilized people operate by consensus, whether it is a question of deciding on a restaurant or movie or on a common enemy. ... But Bush, to judge by his actions, appears to believe in a kind of unilateral civilization. Nato gets short shrift, the United Nations is an afterthought, treaties are not considered binding, and the administration brazenly sponsors protectionist measures at home such as new steel tariffs and farm subsidies. Any compromise of Washington's freedom to act is treated as a hostile act. ... The bottom-line problem may be that the belief system that the president brought into office - which condemned Clinton as a serial intervener and sought to withdraw from U.S. overcommitments to peacekeeping, nation building, and mediation - is in direct conflict with the reality Bush was handed on September 11. And this outdated belief system is giving way too slowly against the incursions of the real world. The result is ideological paralysis, followed by policy paralysis. For all of Bush's eagerness to look decisive, he has projected an image of vacillation to the world. The president is trying to lead a global fight that cries out for deep U.S. engagement from Afghanistan to Kashmir to the Middle East. But held back by the ideological hard-liners in his administration - and perhaps by his own stubbornness - he still barely acknowledges the global system he is ostensibly fighting for."

"Shilling for the House of Saud" (Matt Welch, National Post/Matt Welch, 2002/08/24)
"With each deteriorating week, as in the 49 previous weeks, a curious cadre of Americans has stood up to defend the oppressive House of Saud against its critics in the democratic United States. No, it is not the academic multiculturalists, or the effete bi-coastal elites - still favourite whipping boys, nearly a year later, of those agitating for the next U.S. war. The real apologists have far more influence and access to power than all that, earned through decades of high-profile government employment. They are the former U.S. ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, and they have carved out a fine living insulting their own countrymen while shilling for one of the most corrupt regimes on Earth. ... Like Walker, Cutler and Murphy, former Saudi ambassadors Wyche Fowler (1996-2001) and Charles "Chas" Freeman (1989-1992) can be counted on to deliver quotes consistent with Saudi foreign policy - opposed to invading Iraq, unequivocally impressed by the "Saudi Peace Plan," hostile toward Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the "Israeli lobby" in Washington, more sympathetic toward Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians than the Bush administration, and insistent that the Israel/Palestine conflict is the root cause of much of the Arab world's unrest."

"The Loyal Opposition" (Bill Keller, The New York Times, 2002/08/24)
Keller on the arguments against an invasion of Iraq: "Better to contain and deter Saddam. This assumes that a megalomaniac with a grudge against America and access to the anonymous delivery system of Global Terror Inc. can be deterred from using catastrophic weapons once he possesses them. How long do we want to bet on that? And deterrence runs both ways. When Saddam has a nuke, he can hold us at bay while he does as he likes.
The risk is too great. Under attack, Saddam will launch poisoned Scuds at Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey - or our troops in the region. This is a valid fear, and one any attack plan should be obliged to address with some confidence. But saying that Saddam is already too dangerous to attack just drives home the point about deterrence. ...
Pre-emptive war violates international law and sets a bad example. Do we want India to pre-empt Pakistan? Or China Taiwan? This is a strong argument, but not for letting Saddam be. Israel's pre-emptive attack on Iraq's plutonium-making Osirak reactor aroused global indignation in 1981, but it evokes mostly relief today, knowing what we now know about the pace of Saddam's nuke-building effort. This is, though, a strong argument for the Bush administration to internationalize the case against Iraq."

"US and Russia in raid to snatch uranium" (Michael Evans, The Times, 2002/08/24)
"A team of Americans and Russians have removed more than 100lb of highly enriched uranium from a nuclear research facility in Yugoslavia in a secret operation to prevent it being seized by terrorists. The dawn "raid" on the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade, protected by Yugoslav Army helicopters and 1,200 heavily armed troops, was the first joint effort by the US and Russia to retrieve weapons-grade nuclear material supplied by Moscow to research centres around the world. Under a Moscow-Washington agreement, America will help to finance a programme to retrieve all the research uranium from 17 countries formerly allied with the Soviet Union."

"Germans Lay Out Early Qaeda Ties to 9/11 Hijackers" (Douglas Frantz and Desmond Butler, The New York Times, 2002/08/24)
"German investigators say they have evidence that Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, and two accomplices trained at Qaeda camps in Afghanistan from late 1999 to early 2000. They have also established a clear link between Al Qaeda and a recent attack on a Tunisian synagogue, a top official said. The timing of the Afghanistan training, outlined yesterday by a senior investigator, provides the strongest evidence so far that plans for the attacks on the United States were worked out there. Less than six months after leaving Afghanistan, Mr. Atta and the other two men enrolled in flight schools in the United States."

 

Friday, August 23, 2002

News and commentary:

"Does John Ashcroft's 'Camp Plan' Actually Exist?" (John Hawkins, Right Wing News, 2002/08/23)
"Did you know that John Ashcroft has announced that he intends to put "U.S. citizens he deems to be enemy combatants" into camps? Well best selling author Michael Moore has heard about it and it reminds him of the Nazi concentration camps... "With only two "enemy combatants" so far, we'll have to find some more soon to make it a really good, fun camp. All hail the mutterland!" ... Oddly enough, every single reference to this story that I found on the net seemed to be somehow linked to a single editorial written by Johnathan Turley in the LA Times. In Turley's August 14th piece called 'Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision,' Johnathan Turley states over and over again in the article that John Ashcroft intends to create "camps" for American citizens. ... ...Turley's entire screed in the LA Times sprang from the third paragraph of the piece, "The Goose Creek, S.C., facility that houses Mr. Padilla ... now has a special wing that could be used to jail about 20 U.S. citizens if the government were to deem them enemy combatants, a senior administration official said." ... First off, whatever you may think of possibly jailing 20 "enemy combatants" without trial, doing so certainly does not in any way, shape, or form mean you've created a "camp." Furthermore, how does imprisoning 20 men in one Navy brig somehow constitute creating "camps", much less having a "camp plan?" Worse yet, to compare jailing less than two dozen people believed to be connected to terrorist organizations to putting 120,000+ Americans in camps based on their ethnicity goes beyond gross exaggeration into what many people would call deliberate deception." (See also: Michael Moore (2002/08/23) and "Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision" (Jonathan Turley, Los Angeles Times, 2002/08/14))

"Deconstructing Osama" (Bernard Lewis, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/08/23)
Lewis on Osama bin Laden's popularity in the Arab world: "All these helped to burnish his image as a latter-day Islamic Robin Hood, defending the poor and the downtrodden against a distant tyrant and his nearby henchmen. In the Middle East as in Europe, there is a strong tradition of bandit heroes, challenging authority and eluding capture. The tradition is indeed longer and stronger than in Europe, since it has continued from the Middle Ages into modern times. The role of the Middle Eastern Robin Hood, unlike his Western prototype, is not to rob the rich and give to the poor, though some such expectation may lurk in the background; it is rather to defy the strong and to protect - and ultimately avenge - the weak. For Osama bin Laden and his merry men, the Sheriff of Nottingham is their local potentate, whichever that may be. The ultimate enemy, King John, lives far away, as he has always done - in Constantinople and Vienna, London and Paris, and now in Washington and New York. This vision, comforting though it may be to those who hold it, is flawed at both ends. King John was not a democrat, and Robin Hood was not a terrorist. We live in a different world, and at a different level of reality. Those who cherish such delusions will sooner or later suffer a painful but salutary awakening."

"Tenure for terrors?" (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 2002/08/23)
"At issue: Is a state-funded university within its rights to rid itself of a tenured professor who has used his position as a cover for terrorist fund-raising and rabble-rousing? ... The trustees and president of the University of South Florida (USF) want to fire Sami al-Arian, who is a tenured professor of engineering. On Wednesday, they asked a court in Tampa to determine whether firing al-Arian would be a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech. ... Sami al-Arian is, in a word, despicable. He roots for terrorist murderers and lies about it on national television. He raises money for terrorist organizations and then says he didn't do it. He says one thing in Arabic and another thing in English, and then pretends he didn't say what video cameras clearly caught him saying. As David Tell has written in the Weekly Standard, "in February 1995, ten days after two young Arab zombies had blown themselves up at an Israeli bus stop, killing 22 people and injuring 59 others, al-Arian wrote a fund-raising letter exulting in the deed and requesting 'support to the jihad effort in Palestine so that operations such as these can continue.'" (See also: "Is the President a 'Dictator'?" (David Tell, The Weekly Standard, 2001/12/03))

 

Thursday, August 22, 2002

News and commentary:

"Of lice and men" (Helene Guldberg, spiked, 2002/08/22)
Anti-humanism taken literally. Guldberg on John Gray's "Stray Dogs:Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals": "According to Granta's publicity material, Straw Dogs by John Gray is 'a demolition of two and a half thousand years of thought'. Apparently, from Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Marx, the Western tradition has been based on 'arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world'. ... Gray argues that the battle today is 'between humanists and the few who understand that humans can no more be masters of their destiny than any other animal'. He claims that the 'human animal' is 'one of the most predatory and destructive' species on Earth.
Worse still, we are subjected endlessly to inane statements from Gray himself - the kind of thing you would hear from a drunken and smug smart alec at a dinner party:
- 'Genocide is as human as art or prayer'
- 'Progress and mass murder run in tandem'
-'Cities are no more artificial than the hives of bees'
- 'The internet is as natural as a spider's web'
- 'Looking for meaning in history is like looking for patterns in clouds.'
... At times the book is breathtaking in its stupidity. According to Gray, 'knowledge does not need minds, or even nervous systems. It is found in all living things'. Apparently bacteria act on 'knowledge' of their environment - by sensing chemical differences, and swimming towards sugar and away from acid - in much the same way as humans do."

"'Neo-Nazi' Group Plans Anti-Israel Rally and Concert in DC" (Jeff Johnson, CNSNews.com, 2002/08/22)
Found via Little Green Footballs. As always it's interesting to note the identical terminology used by neo-Nazis, neo-Marxists and Islamists regarding Israel: "A coalition calling itself Taxpayers Against Terrorism plans to gather at the U.S. Capitol Saturday to "rally against terrorism" and "the U.S. government's support for Israel," but religious and civil rights groups say the rally's real purpose is to incite hatred, bigotry, and violence. ... [Billy Roper, coordinator for the Taxpayers Against Terrorism coalition] blames the Sept. 11 attacks on American support for "the terrorist state of Israel." "U.S. tax money helps buy the bullets that go into Israeli guns that murder Palestinian women and children," he claimed, "and that's why the U.S. is a target for terrorism." ... Devin Burghart, director of the Building Democracy initiative at the Center for New Community, said Taxpayers Against Terrorism is merely a front group for the National Alliance, "the largest, best organized and, in fact, most dangerous neo-Nazi organization in the United States." ... "They have transformed their recruiting strategies and developed a new mission," he said. "That mission is, simply put, the eradication of Jews and people of color from the planet." ... Despite the self-described "racist" views of the rally's organizers, Roper believes they will receive support from many people of Arab descent and others who support the efforts of Palestinians against Israel."

"Follow the money" (Stefan Sharkansky, Shark Blog, 2002/08/22)
"The IDF is about to release a report called "Follow the Money: Where Do International Contributions to the Palestinian Authority Really Go". Someone who contributed to the report sent me a copy of the document prior to its official release. ... The IDF estimates that the PA controls $27 million a month outside the budget that is shown to international donors. ... Where does all the money go? Hard to say, exactly. As Die Zeit reported, there is no public audit of PA finances, neither internal nor by the donor community or the IMF. Much of the laundered money presumably disappears down the pants of PA officials and their friends. This has been alleged for years, including by senior Palestinian officials. ... Even more disturbing, the IDF estimates that 'Fatah elements are allocated $5 - $10 million per month from the PA for their expenses in the confrontation with Israel'." (See also: "Follow the Money: Where Do International Contributions to the Palestinian Authority Really Go?" [Unpublished Draft] (The Israel Defence Forces/Shark Blog, August 2002))

"The war Bush is losing" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2002/08/24 issue)
"I don't think the teachers' union are 'Hate America' types. Very few Americans are. But, rather, they're in thrall to something far craftier than straightforward anti-Americanism - a kind of enervating cult of tolerance in which you demonstrate your sensitivity to other cultures by being almost totally insensitive to your own. ... The Islamists, by contrast, cheerfully piss all over every cherished Western progressive shibboleth. Women? The Taleban didn't just 'marginalise' women, they buried them under sackcloth. But Gloria Steinem still wouldn't support the Afghan war, and Cornell professor Joan Jacobs Brumberg argues that the 'beauty dictates' of American consumer culture exert a far more severe toll on women. Gays? As The New Republic reported this week, the Palestinian Authority tortures homosexuals, makes them stand in sewage up to their necks with faeces-filled sacks on their heads. Yet Canadian MP Svend Robinson, Yasser's favourite gay infidel, still makes his pilgrimages to Ramallah to pledge solidarity with the people's 'struggle'. ... In a unipolar world, it's clear that the real enemy in this war is ourselves, and our lemming-like rush to cultural suicide. ... George W. Bush had a rare opportunity after 11 September. He could have attempted to reverse the most toxic tide in the Western world: the sappy multiculturalism that insists all cultures are equally valid, even as they're trying to kill us. He could have argued that Western self-loathing is a psychosis we can no longer afford." (See also: "NEA delivers history lesson" (Ellen Sorokin, The Washington Times, 2002/08/19) and "Refugee Status" (Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, 2002/08/19))

"The War on Women" (Lashawn R. Jefferson, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/08/22)
"After the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. government threw its full energies into combating terrorism emerging from militants in the Islamic world. But it has done little to expose and condemn the ways some states are using radical interpretations of Islamic law, or Shariah, to subordinate and exclude women. ...
Just this week, an appellate Shariah court in northern Nigeria upheld a "death by stoning" sentence against a woman for having sex outside marriage. The case of Amina Lawal, the 30-year-old Nigerian woman sentenced to death, should raise grave concerns about how Islamic law is used in Nigeria and in other countries to brutalize and subordinate women. ...
If she loses her final appeal, Ms. Lawal can expect to be buried up to her chest and stoned to death, leaving behind three motherless children. ...
A woman in Pakistan who has been raped and wants the state to prosecute her case must have four Muslim men testify that they witnessed the assault. Absent these male witnesses, effectively the rape victim has no case. Equally alarming, if she cannot prove the rape allegation, she runs a very high risk of being charged with fornication or adultery, the criminal penalty for which is either a long prison sentence, including public whipping, or, though rarely, death by stoning. ...
The U.S. identified the restoration of Afghan women's basic rights as one of the principal goals of ousting the Taliban. This must be a goal not only for Afghanistan, but also for the other parts of the world where the growing power of discriminatory law, including certain interpretations of Shariah, is a pernicious and chronic threat to women's very existence."

"Author sued over Islam 'insult'" (BBC News, 2002/08/22)
"Prize-winning French novelist Michel Houellebecq is being sued by four Islamic organisations in Paris after making "insulting" remarks about the religion in an interview about his latest book. The action against Mr Houellebecq, 44, is being launched on 17 September by plaintiffs including Saudi Arabia's World Islamic League and the Mosque of Paris. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris mosque, said Muslims felt insulted by comments in the novel Plateforme, in which a character admits to a "quiver of glee" every time a "Palestinian terrorist" is killed. ... His latest novel, Plateforme, is said to praise prostitution and has a denouement based on an attack on a tourist resort by suspected Muslim terrorists. But it is an interview with the literary magazine Lire during last year's launch of the book that prompted the legal action. Mr Houellebecq reportedly said in Lire that reading the Koran is "so depressing" and that Islam is "the stupidest religion". ... Mr Boubakeur said such comments flouted laws on religious tolerance and provoked racial hatred. "If I were Jewish I would bring a case for 10 times less than this," he added."

"Gaza man tried to sell his own children" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/22)
"A father of seven from Rafah who published an advertisement offering his children for sale or adoption because he could no longer feed them was forced by his family and the Palestinian Authority to publish an apology in a Palestinian newspaper on Wednesday. Ahmed Dahir, 44, published the front-page advertisement, entitled "Children for sale or adoption," in the PA's mouthpiece, Al-Hayat al-Jadeedah earlier this week. It enraged PA officials because it insinuated the PA is not distributing financial aid to the needy. The PA has come under severe criticism, especially in the Gaza Strip, for failing to provide work and food for tens of thousands of unemployed Palestinians. ... The ages of the children on sale ranged between 18 months and 13 years. "People have the right to live, even under occupation," Dahir explained. 'I see no other way out of the crisis but to sell my children so they can go on living.'"

"Stand up for human rights" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/22)
An editorial on the election of Libya as the next head of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: "Libya has one of the poorest human rights records in the world. Freedom House, the renowned organization that rates relative freedom around the world, gives Libya the lowest possible score on both political liberties and civil rights. ... According to the official US report, Libya's torture methods reportedly include "chaining to a wall for hours; clubbing; applying electric shock; applying corkscrews to the back; pouring lemon juice in open wounds; breaking fingers and allowing the joints to heal without medical care; suffocating with plastic bags; depriving of food and water; hanging by the wrists; suspending from a pole inserted between the knees and elbows; burning with cigarettes; attacking with dogs; and beating on the soles of the feet." ... As much as Libya's election is an embarrassment to the UN and a setback to the cause of human rights, the choice is most damning to Africa itself. ... In a sense, it is the democracies that should be most ashamed of themselves, because they do not stand up more forthrightly for their own values. By meekly going along as dictators tear down the very notion of human rights, the democracies do worse than betray themselves, they betray the billions who do not enjoy such freedoms and depend on the free and powerful to speak for them." (See also: "Gadaffi To Head Human Rights Body" (Sky News, 2002/08/19))

"Four East Jerusalem men were in cell that killed 35" (Haaretz, 2002/08/22)
"Fifteen members of one of the intifada's deadliest Hamas cells have been captured, with the Shin Bet attributing at least four attempts at "mega-terrorism" and the murders of at least 35 people and the wounding of more than 200 others to the group. ... At least eight major attacks are attributed to the cell:
The suicide bombing at the Moment cafe in Jerusalem, a few blocks from the prime minister's residence. The March 9 attack killed 11 and wounded 58. ...
The suicide bombing at a Rishon Letzion billiard hall. That May 7 attack, originally attributed to a Hamas cell from Gaza, killed 15 people and wounded 45. ...
The May 23 Pi Glilot attempted "mega-bombing," in which the cell planned to set off a bomb hidden on a fuel tanker that they had followed from the day before, and thereby ignite the vast fuel reserves at the site next to what is widely considered the busiest highway junction in the country. The bomb failed to ignite the tanker.
A railroad track bombing near Lod, on June 30 was another mega-terror attempt, as the cell sought to derail a passenger train. Four people were wounded in the attack, though the train was not seriously damaged nor derailed.
The Hebrew University cafeteria bombing in the Frank Sinatra Building, killing 9 and wounding 84 on July 31." (See also: "Israel Arrests Hamas Cell for University Bombing" (Dan Williams, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/21))

Added in archive:
"The Death Convoy of Afghanistan" (Babak Dehghanpisheh et al., Newsweek, from the 2002/08/26 issue)
"With Unyielding Faith" (Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Shark Blog/Die Zeit, 2002/08/15)
"The UN on the Loose" (AEI/Commentary, Joshua Muravchik, 2002/08/08)
"Accounting and accountability: defining donor requirements for Palestinian reform" (Matthew Levitt, Policy Watch, 2002/07/18)
"Between Rome and Jerusalem" (Francis X. Rocca, The American Prowler, 2002/04/04)
"Terror and Liberalism" (Paul Berman, The American Prospect, 2001/10/22)

 

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

News and commentary:

"PMW: Arafat tells young children to be Shahids ["Martyrs"]" (Itamar Marcus, PMW/IMRA, 2002/08/21)
"In a televised gathering on Sunday, Yasser Arafat himself clearly encouraged young children to seek death, as he glorified a famous child Shahid ["Martyr"]. In addition, he addressed the cheering and chanting auditorium full of children as "colleagues, friends, brothers and sisters of Faris Ouda" - a 14 year old child who died in the conflict, who has been turned into a heroic symbol by the PA. ...
The following is the main text of the exchange:
Arafat to children:
"Oh, children of Palestine! The colleagues, friends, brothers and sisters of Faris Ouda [14 year old who died in the conflict]. The colleagues of this hero represent this immense and fundamental power that is within, and it shall be victorious, with Allah's will! One of you, a boy or a girl, shall raise the [Palestinian] flag over the walls of Jerusalem, its mosques and its churches...
"Onward together to Jerusalem!"
Children respond, cheering and chanting:
"Millions of Shahids marching to Jerusalem!"
[PATV August 18, 2002] ...
The following is from an interview on PA TV in January, 2002:
Hostess:
"Mr. President, what message would you like to send to the Palestinian people in general and, particularly, to the Palestinian children?"
Arafat:
"...The child who is grasping the stone, facing the tank; is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a Shahid [dies for Allah]? We are proud of them."

"Rebels Kill Two Jehovah's Witnesses" (Zeny Masong, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/21)
"Muslim rebels linked to al-Qaida beheaded at least two of the six Jehovah's Witnesses they kidnapped in the southern Philippines, a top army commander said Thursday. The heads of the two male hostages were found in an open air market in Jolo town along with notes calling for a holy war, said Brig. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, commander of the army on the southern island of Jolo. Tuesday's abductions demonstrated that the Abu Sayyaf rebels remain dangerous despite a U.S.-backed military offensive aimed at wiping out the group. ... The police chief for Sulu province, Col. Ahiron Ajirim, said two men with pistols stopped a vehicle carrying five women and three men who were selling cosmetics. Ajirim said the driver was left behind and identified one kidnapper as Muin Maulod Sahiron, a nephew of local Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron. The one-armed rebel is regarded by many residents as a Robin Hood who travels by horse and brandishes an Uzi submachine gun."

"Israel Arrests Hamas Cell for University Bombing" (Dan Williams, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/21)
"Israel said Wednesday its security forces had arrested Hamas militants from East Jerusalem suspected of carrying out a bombing at nearby Hebrew University last month that killed nine people, including five Americans. ... Officials from Israel's Shin Bet security service said five members of a Hamas cell were caught on Saturday night on their way to mount a new bombing in central Israel. The cell is suspected of carrying out attacks which killed 35 people in some of the deadliest bombings since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000 after peace talks froze. ... Four of those arrested are Palestinian residents of Arab East Jerusalem bearing Israeli identity papers which allow them free movement and many rights received by full citizens in the Jewish state. The cell is believed to have received its orders from Hamas members in the West Bank city of Ramallah."

"Attack Saddam now and let history judge, says Rumsfeld" (David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/08/21)
"America cannot afford to wait for proof that Saddam Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has declared. Mr Rumsfeld, a leading advocate of military action against Baghdad, flatly rejected calls from Washington, Europe and the Arab world for hard evidence of Iraqi ill-doing before any attack. "Think of the prelude to World War Two," Mr Rumsfeld said in an interview on Fox Television. "Think of all the countries that said, well, we don't have enough evidence. I mean, Mein Kampf had been written. Hitler had indicated what he intended to do." Millions died as a result of such miscalculations, he said. If the next attack against the West involved chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, inaction could leave hundreds of thousands of people dead, Mr Rumsfeld said."

"From Moscow to Ramallah" (Michael J. Totten, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/08/21)
"It is with the terrorist dictator Yasser Arafat and his international herd of enablers that the world finds its closest modern parallel to the cult of Joseph Stalin. Arafat is not a Stalinist and his Greater Gaza is ten time zones shy of the Evil Empire. Arafat is a fascist, but his fascism is well-informed by Stalin's genius for duplicity and public relations. ... While Arafat plays a misunderstood peacemaker in English, Hamas issues press releases clearly stating their goal is the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Taliban state. ... This is a campaign of genocide and it is financially and militarily backed by 20 of 22 Arab states that persist in their view that the Jewish state has no right to exist in the first place. Yet Israel is smeared as the belligerent party and the Palestinian Authority is lavished with excuses, aid money, and the moral support of nearly the entire world. ... This is cognitive dissonance on a planetary scale, unseen since the romance with Communism. How can Stalin run a terroristic prison-state? He created the Worker's Paradise! How can Arafat be a dictator and terrorist? He's the leader of a national liberation movement! ... These new fascists are would-be Stalinists in a world without communism. They have turned in their Che shirts for the blackshirt. They plainly thirst for tyranny. They are not liberals. They are not progressives. But they are shamefully tolerated by those who still can't recognize true malevolence when they hear it."

"Bush's Mideast Sand Trap" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2002/08/21)
"The Bush team is advocating democracy only in authoritarian regimes that oppose America, not in authoritarian regimes that are ostensibly pro-American - even though it is America's support for the autocratic regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia that has made many of their citizens so anti-American and contributed to the fact that 15 Saudis and one Egyptian played key roles in 9/11. ... The Bush policy today is to punish its enemies with the threat of democracy and reward its friends with silence on democratization. That's a sure-fire formula for giving democracy a bad name."

"FBI Issues Alert for Terror Suspect" (John Solomon, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/21)
"The FBI is urging law enforcement agencies worldwide to be on the lookout for a Saudi man identified nearly a year after the Sept. 11 attacks as a suspected associate of the hijackers. The bulletin issued Tuesday night sought the immediate arrest of Saud A.S. al-Rasheed, 21, of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ... "On Aug. 15, 2002, material previously recovered during the war on terrorism were found to be related to several of the Sept. 11 hijackers," the FBI said. The materials included an image of a Saudi Arabian passport belonging to al-Rasheed which had been issued in Riyadh in May 2000. "Al-Rasheed's current whereabouts are unknown," the FBI bulletin said. ... A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that from the information the FBI reviewed last week, 'they were able to take this piece of information and it showed clear signals or lines that he was connected to 9/11.'"

Note: I've done a major update with articles by Christopher Hitchens, who was embarrassingly underrepresentated before. Thanks to The Christopher Hitchens Web, which, by keeping track on articles by and on him, was indispensible for this update.

Added in archive:
"Knowledge (and Power)" (Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 2002/06/10)
"The God Squad" (Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 2002/04/15)
"How to fight and lose the moral high ground" (Salman Rushdie, The Guardian, 2002/03/23)
"Does Blair know what he's getting into?" (Christopher Hitchens, The Guardian, 2002/03/20)
"Johnnie Walker Blackened" (Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 2002/01/21)
"The Ends of War" (Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 2001/12/17)
"Stranger in a Strange Land" (Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic, from the December 2001 issue)
"Against Rationalization" (Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 2001/10/08)
"Why the suicide killers chose September 11" (Christopher Hitchens, The Guardian, 2001/10/03)
"Murder was their only motive" (Christopher Hitchens, The Guardian, 2001/09/26)
"Of Sin, the Left & Islamic Fascism" (Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 2001/09/24)
"Attacks on U.S. Challenge Postmodern True Believers" (Edward Rothstein, The New York Times, 2001/09/22)
"The pursuit of happiness is at an end" (Christopher Hitchens, Evening Standard, 2001/09/19)
"Fear and loathing" (Martin Amis, The Guardian, 2001/09/18)
"We're still standing over here" (Christopher Hitchens, Evening Standard, 2001/09/12)

 

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

News and commentary:

"Multiculturalists are the real racists" (Mark Steyn, National Post, 2002/08/20)
"Last Thursday, in Sydney, the pack leader of a group of Lebanese Muslim gang-rapists was sentenced to 55 years in jail. ... During their gang rapes, the lucky lady would be told she was about to be "f---ed Leb style" and that she deserved it because she was an "Australian pig." But, inevitably, it's the heavy sentence that's "controversial." After September 11th, Americans were advised to ask themselves, "Why do they hate us?" Now Australians need to ask themselves, "Why do they rape us?" As Monroe Reimers put it on the letters page of The Sydney Morning Herald: "As terrible as the crime was, we must not confuse justice with revenge. We need answers. Where has this hatred come from? How have we contributed to it? Perhaps it's time to take a good hard look at the racism by exclusion practised with such a vengeance by our community and cultural institutions." ... What's interesting is how easily even this most extreme manifestation of multiculturalism is subsumed within the usual pieties. ... Lebanese male immigrants, fleeing a war-torn wasteland and finding refuge in a land of peace, freedom and opportunity, are inevitably transformed into gang rapists by Australian racism. ... ...multiculturalism means that the worst attributes of Muslim culture - the subjugation of women - combine with the worst attributes of Western culture - licence and self-gratification. ... Yet even in the face of the crudest assaults on its most cherished causes - women's rights, gay rights - the political class turns squeamishly away." (Note: Steyn also provides this interesting statistic - "Islam For All reported the other day that, at present demographic rates, in 20 years' time the majority of Holland's children (the population under 18) will be Muslim. It will be the first Islamic country in western Europe since the loss of Spain.")

"Source: Abu Nidal Died After Visit by Iraqi Agents" (Diala Saadeh, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/20)
"Palestinian guerrilla chief Abu Nidal was killed or committed suicide when Iraqi security men confronted him over his anti-government activity, a senior Palestinian source said Tuesday. ... In the latest version, the source said his contacts in Baghdad told him Iraqi security agents went to Abu Nidal's apartment several days ago to take the leader of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council away for questioning. Iraqi authorities, the source said, discovered Abu Nidal had opened channels to Iraqi guerrillas in Syria and Jordan opposed to President Saddam Hussein and wanted to put a stop to the activity before any U.S. military operations against Iraq began. The source said Abu Nidal, 65, went to get his gun, but it was not clear whether he shot himself or was killed by the agents. Sources in Abu Nidal's group said Monday he shot himself because he was suffering from cancer and addicted to painkillers." (See also: "Attacks linked to Abu Nidal's group" (USA Today, 2002/08/20) and "Iraq Says Abu Nidal Committed Suicide in Baghdad" (Nadim Ladki, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/20): "Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz confirmed on Tuesday that Palestinian guerrilla commander Abu Nidal had died in Baghdad, saying he committed suicide. ... He did not elaborate, but an Iraqi source said Abu Nidal had committed suicide at his Baghdad home last week after he was confronted with charges that he was plotting against Iraq.")

"U.S. Monitors Kurdish Extremists" (Robert Burns, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/20)
"U.S. intelligence agencies have stepped up monitoring of an Islamic extremist group operating in northern Iraq that may have ties both to the al-Qaida terrorist network and to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, officials said Tuesday. The group, called Ansar al-Islam, is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan, a broad political party that controls a portion of northern Iraq. It is based at Halabja, site of a 1988 chemical attack by the Iraqi army that killed thousands, and controls a handful of villages near the Iranian border. U.S. intelligence recently monitored an Ansar al-Islam site in northern Iraq where chemical or biological weapons experiments were conducted with farm animals. It initially was feared this might constitute a significant chemical-biological threat, but U.S. officials decided it was not serious enough to justify a military strike, American officials said Tuesday." (See also: "Bush Cancels Iraqi Strike" (John McWethy, ABC News, 2002/08/20): "Most of the experiments, sources say, involved a poison called ricin, a byproduct of the widely available castor bean plant. ... Once a person is exposed to sufficient quantities, by inhalation or ingestion, ricin is deadly. "There is currently no treatment and no vaccine for ricin exposure," Tucker explained. ... Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS there is evidence the terrorists tested ricin in water, as a powder and as an aerosol. They used it to kill donkeys, chickens and at one point allegedly exposed a man in an Iraqi market. They then followed him home and watched him die several days later, sources said.")

"For the NEA, history is farce" (The Washington Times, 2002/08/20)
"The nation's largest teachers' union has essentially used the September 11 massacre to peddle its own version of moral equivalency. And when it becomes impossible to avoid assessing blame, the reliably left-wing union recommends pointing the finger at the United States in a classic blame-America-first fusillade. NEA staff have apparently busied themselves this summer preparing lesson plans cautioning teachers not to "suggest any group is responsible" for the terrorist airliner hijackings that led to the massacre of more than 3,000 innocent people on American soil on September 11. "Blaming is especially difficult in terrorist situations," the NEA bemoans, "because someone is at fault." Yes, the wholesale murder of thousands of innocents does tend to cause some to become obsessed with finding the blameworthy perpetrators." (See also: "NEA delivers history lesson" (Ellen Sorokin, The Washington Times, 2002/08/19))

"Previously unseen tape shows bin Laden's declaration of war" (CNN.com, 2002/08/20)
"A never-before-seen al Qaeda video obtained by CNN shows Osama bin Laden declaring war against the United States and the West. The tape of a May 26, 1998, news conference is among 64 obtained in Afghanistan from a source, who said the tapes were found in an Afghan house where bin Laden had stayed. Experts say the collection of tapes sheds new light on al Qaeda's training, capabilities and mindset. "By God's grace," bin Laden says on the tape, "we have formed with many other Islamic groups and organizations in the Islamic world a front called the International Islamic Front to do jihad against the crusaders and Jews." "And by God's grace," he says at another point in the tape, 'the men ... are going to have a successful result in killing Americans and getting rid of them.'"

Added in Author index:
Kanan Makiya
Ron Rosenbaum

Added in archive:
"Steps on the way to ousting Saddam from Iraq" (Henry Kissinger, HoustonChronicle, 2002/08/09)
"Can Wieseltier, D.C.'s Big Mullah, Have It Both Ways?" (Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer, 2002/06/10)
"Hitler Is Dead" (Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic, 2002/05/16)
"A question of faith" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2002/05/12)
"Does Poison Le Pen Auger Yet Another European Darkness?" (Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer, 2002/04/29)
"Guilt Complex" (Michael Elliott, TIMEeurope, 2002/04/29)
"Can Tom Paulin be serious?" (Rod Liddle, The Guardian, 2002/04/17)
"'Second Holocaust,' Roth's Invention, Isn't Novelistic" (Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer, 2002/04/15)
"Oxford poet 'wants US Jews shot'" (Neil Tweedie, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/04/13)
"'If you need terrorist allies you think Iraq'" (Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, 2002/02/12)
"Degrees of Evil" (Ron Rosenbaum, The Atlantic, from the February 2002 issue)
"When America Blinked" (Robert Kagan, The New Republic, 2001/11/26)
"Help Iraqis Take Their Country Back" (Kanan Makiya, The New York Times, 2001/11/21)

 

Monday, August 19, 2002

News and commentary:

"Gadaffi To Head Human Rights Body" (Sky News, 2002/08/19)
Found via Right Wing News: "Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi is to head an international watchdog on human rights. Libya is to be elected chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights - despite its links with terrorism and torture. The move sparked a storm of controversy as it emerged British officials did nothing to block the appointment. Libyan terrorists were responsible for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people, and Gadaffi's regime has been criticised for violence against its own people. Human rights groups and Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith united to criticise the appointment. But a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Our policy is to engage constructively with Libya, rather than isolate them." Gadaffi's one-year term begins next March."

"'It Gets Hard When They Cheer'" (Larry Miller, The Weekly Standard, 2002/08/19)
A report from a visit at Hadassah Hospital, in Jerusalem, "where they brought the victims of the bombing at Hebrew University": "Downstairs, before we left, the head of the hospital, an Israeli named Audrey, was showing me the children's waiting room. I couldn't help but notice, all around, an Arab woman with her son, an Arab family over there checking in, Arab children playing with the toys while waiting. The doctor saw the look on my face and laughed. "Oh, yes, we treat everyone." I guess I was astonished. She just shrugged. "We're Jews. This is how we live. It's also for the future. They're not going anywhere, and we're not going anywhere. There will eventually be peace. There has to be." When? A month? A year? A hundred years? More? She didn't know. I had to say it. You're incredible. You take everyone, you treat everyone, no one goes first, no one goes last, you just go in order of who needs help. That's, like, Mother Teresa stuff. "We're not saints, we're just doing our jobs. It's not easy, I admit. And it gets hard when they cheer when the bodies are brought in." I looked at her. What did you say? She sighed. 'Yes, it gets hard when they cheer.'"

"Challenging ignorance on Islam: A ten-point primer for Americans" (Gary Leupp, Arab News, 2002/08/19 [?])
Leupp is a Associate Professor of History at Tufts University. He has prepared a "primer on Islam for Americans" because "ignorance" is "raw material for a made-in-USA version of fascism". According to Leupp, school vouchers are far more threatening than Islamist terrorism: "Recent changes in US law (allowing the use of vouchers to support religious schools at taxpayer's expense), and the failure of the courts to prosecute behavior which plainly violates the constitutional separation of church and state, demonstrate that medieval thinking and fundamentalism retain a strong hold in sections of US society, and are well represented in the Bush administration. The American people are, I submit, far more threatened by Christian fundamentalism than its Islamic counterpart."

"NEA delivers history lesson" (Ellen Sorokin, The Washington Times, 2002/08/19)
"The National Education Association is suggesting to teachers that they be careful on the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks not to "suggest any group is responsible" for the terrorist hijackings that killed more than 3,000 people. Suggested lesson plans compiled by the NEA recommend that teachers "address the issue of blame factually," noting: "Blaming is especially difficult in terrorist situations because someone is at fault. In this country, we still believe that all people are innocent until solid, reliable evidence from our legal authorities proves otherwise." But another of the suggested NEA lesson plans - compiled together under the title "Remember September 11" and appearing on the teachers union health information network Web site - takes a decidedly blame-America approach, urging educators to "discuss historical instances of American intolerance," so that the American public avoids 'repeating terrible mistakes.'" (See also: "Remember September 11" (NEA, August 2002) and "Teaching Tolerance for Terror" (Little Green Footballs, 2002/08/19))

"Refugee Status" (Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, 2002/08/19)
"Tayseer, as we'll call him, a 21-year-old Gazan whose constant smile tries to conceal watchfulness, learned early on that to be gay in Palestine is to be a criminal. ... Tayseer fled Gaza to Tulkarem on the West Bank, but there too he was eventually arrested. He was forced to stand in sewage water up to his neck, his head covered by a sack filled with feces, and then he was thrown into a dark cell infested with insects and other creatures he could feel but not see. ("You slap one part of your body, and then you have to slap another," he recounts.) During one interrogation, police stripped him and forced him to sit on a Coke bottle. Through the entire ordeal he was taunted by interrogators, jailers, and fellow prisoners for being a homosexual. ... When he was released a few months later, Tayseer crossed into Israel. ... And if he were sent back to Gaza? "The police will kill me," he says. "Unless my father gets to me first." ... Indeed, the torment of gays is very nearly official Palestinian policy. "The persecution of gays in the Palestinian Authority [P.A.] doesn't just come from the families or the Islamic groups but from the P.A. itself," says Shaul Ganon of the Tel Aviv-based Agudah-Association of Gay Men, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender in Israel."

"MSNBC's Messy Altercation" (HonestReporting, 2002/08/19)
HonestReporting examines a column by Eric Alterman, which is a rather extreme example of topsy-turvy moral equivalence: "On August 15, Alterman wrote on MSNBC.com: "Marwan Barghouti plans and helps execute attacks against Israelis in the occupied territories, just as the Israelis do to the Palestinians. His people are at war over the occupation. He has expressed willingness to recognize Israel within its pre-1967 borders. He is, in other words, the very definition of a freedom fighter; a violent one, to be sure, but fighting a violent enemy. If Israel were to come to its senses, he is the kind of leader with whom it would need to make peace. But like Hamas, Ariel Sharon prefers war and occupation to peace and compromise and in seeking to try one of the other side's more moderate leaders for murder, seeks to destroy any hope for the former, thereby presenting himself as the champion of the latter. It is a horrifying spiral of death with Sharon and company leading the whirlwind. The blood of many, Jew and Arab, is on their hands." Read it again. Alterman calls the arch-terrorist Barghouti "the very definition of a freedom fighter." He says that Ariel Sharon is "like Hamas" and is leading the 'horrifying spiral of death.'" (See also: "Eric Alterman" (MSNBC, 2002/08/15), for a revised version of the column and "Fact-checking Alterman" (Matthew Hoy, Hoystory, 2002/08/16))

"Terror Leader Abu Nidal Found Dead" (Hadeel Wahdan, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/08/19)
"Abu Nidal, the Palestinian renegade whose name became a byword for international terrorism, was found dead in his Baghdad apartment with multiple gunshot wounds, Palestinian officials said Monday. Abu Nidal's body was found three days ago, said two senior Palestinian officials in Ramallah who spoke on condition of anonymity. They said the reports they received from Baghdad suggested Abu Nidal had committed suicide but did not explain how that was possible when there was more than one bullet wound. ... But Abu Nidal could also have been assassinated, perhaps by one of his own men in the internal feuds for which his organization is known - or perhaps by an Iraqi government fearful he knew too much about its operations." (See also the profile: "Abu Nidal: Ruthless maverick" (Gerald Butt, BBC News, 2002/08/19))

"'Demon Israel' and the ivory tower" (Noga Tarnopolsky, Haaretz, 2002/08/19)
"While support for Israel among the general public in America has only increased during the past year - according to most of the public opinion surveys that have been conducted there - in the leftist circles of the intelligentsia in the United States a campaign of hatred and delegitimization is being conducted against it. This campaign, which gained momentum after September 11, in fact began after the Gulf War. Israel was perceived as the major cause of suffering in the Arab states, and therefore as the factor behind their desperate behavior. ... "The post-colonialist vision has prevailed for many years now in academia as a means of understanding texts," says Professor Robert (Uri) Alter, a lecturer in Hebrew literature at the University of California at Berkeley. According to the standard bearers of post-colonialism, 'The Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular are perceived as people of the Third World and as victims of colonialism. According to their mistaken concepts on race, the Arabs are perceived as dark-skinned and the Israelis as white - the last offshoot of Western colonialism.'"

"Qaeda Videos Seem to Show Chemical Tests" (Judith Miller, The New York Times, 2002/08/19)
"Experts say the collection is the largest known assembly of videotapes ever made by Al Qaeda of its activities - a library that was collected, cataloged and stored by unknown individuals, apparently to document the history of Al Qaeda. ... One of those experts, Magnus Ranstorp, director-designate of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said the tapes suggested that Western intelligence agencies might even now be underestimating Al Qaeda. "In conjunction with the Encylopedia of Jihad and other written manuals, the tapes show meticulous planning, preparation and attention to the tradecraft of terror," Mr. Ranstorp said." (See also: "Terror on Tape" (CNN.com, 2002/08/18))

"Militant Islam's Burgeoning Borders" (Jonathan Schanzer, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/08/19)
"Once a primarily Middle East phenomenon, militant Islam has become a world epidemic. As allied troops fight to rid Afghanistan, Yemen, Georgia and the Philippines of its radical Islamic elements, new movements gain strength elsewhere around the globe. Today, its roots are growing in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria, proving that hard work lies ahead, if militant Islam's burgeoning borders are ever to be contained. ... First, the U.S. government must acknowledge that militant Islam (not simply "terror") is a problem of global, and epidemic proportions. Indeed, this dangerous ideology has already spread from the Middle East to southeast and central Asia, as well as West Africa. To properly combat the problem, the Pentagon, State Department and executive branch must resolve to stop its growth. Reluctance to identify militant Islam, as such, will only postpone policies designed to directly tackle the problem."

Added in Author index:
Robert Kagan

Added in archive:
"Bush in the hot seat over flooded Europe" (Cape Times/IOL, 2002/08/14)
"Memo to Europe: Grow up on Iraq" (Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times/andrewsullivan.com, 2002/08/11)
"The Palestinians' Lost Marshall Plans" (Patrick Clawson, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/09)
"Has History Restarted Since September 11?" (Francis Fukuyama, The Centre for Independent Studies, 2002/08/08)
"Open Letter to America from a Canadian" (W.R. McDougall, The Baltimore Chronicle, 2002/08/07)
"Has History Started Again?" (Francis Fukuyama, Policy, from the Winter 2002 issue)
"Europeans Courting International Disaster" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2002/06/30)
"The U.S.-Europe Divide" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2002/05/26)
"Commit for the Long Run" (Ronald D. Asmus and Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2002/01/29)
"Coalition of the Unwilling" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2002/10/17)
"We Must Fight This War" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2001/09/12)

 

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

Copyright © Watch 2001-2006. Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.

"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

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)

› AOTW Archive



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)

Weekly archive

2006/12/04 - 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13 - 2006/11/19
2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

› From 2001/09/11 -



Monthly index

December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006

› From September 2001 -



Author index

› Ajami, Fouad - Johnson, Paul
› Kagan, Robert - Ye'or, Bat



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