Archived news and commentary: January 19 - 25, 2004

2004/03/29 - 2004/04/04
2004/03/22 - 2004/03/28
2004/03/15 - 2004/03/21
2004/03/08 - 2004/03/14
2004/03/01 - 2004/03/07
2004/02/23 - 2004/02/29
2004/02/16 - 2004/02/22
2004/02/09 - 2004/02/15
2004/02/02 - 2004/02/08
2004/01/26 - 2004/02/01
2004/01/19 - 2004/01/25
2004/01/12 - 2004/01/18
2004/01/05 - 2004/01/11
2003/12/29 - 2004/01/04

Sunday, January 25, 2004

News and commentary:

"Iraq Pilgrims in Saudi Thank God for Saddam's Fall" (Andrew Hammond, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/01/25)
"Joyful Iraqi pilgrims arriving in Saudi Arabia on Sunday said they would thank God for ending the rule of Saddam Hussein in prayers during haj pilgrimage but other Arabs were thinking of the U.S. occupation.
"I hope God will give Iraq strength and make it strong and united after all these years of pain, sickness and war," said Thabet Karim Jassem of Baghdad, part of 300 Iraqis who arrived at a haj terminal in the port city of Jeddah, near Mecca. ...
"I and many people are thankful toward the United States because they were able to release us and we will definitely never forget. I don't think any Muslim can forget this," he [Bakkar Rasoul] said, standing by Kurdish and Iraqi flags beside the Iraqi pilgrims."

"Kay Asks Why U.S. Thought Iraq Had WMD" (Scott Lindlaw, AP/My Way, 2004/01/25)
"U.S. intelligence agencies need to explain why their research indicated Iraq possessed banned weapons before the American-led invasion, says the outgoing top U.S. inspector, who now believes Saddam Hussein had no such arms.
"I don't think they exist," David Kay said Sunday. "The fact that we found so far the weapons do not exist - we've got to deal with that difference and understand why."
Kay's remarks on National Public Radio reignited criticism from Democrats, who ignored his cautions that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction was "not a political issue."
"It's an issue of the capabilities of one's intelligence service to collect valid, truthful information," Kay said. Asked whether President Bush owed the nation an explanation for the gap between his warnings and Kay's findings, Kay said: 'I actually think the intelligence community owes the president, rather than the president owing the American people.'" (See also: "Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/01/25) and "Ex-Arms Hunter Says Iraq Had No Banned Stockpiles" (Tabassum Zakar, Reuters, 2004/01/24))

"In Europe, Is It A Matter of Fear, Or Loathing?" (Robin Shepherd, The Washington Post, 2004/01/25)
Shepherd on the Kilroy-Silk affair: "As crude as Kilroy's comments were, the virulent reaction to them was far out of proportion to his actual sin. The full text of his remarks reveals that his quarrel was with Arab governments and those religious leaders who use their positions to whip up a frenzy of anti-Western sentiment among their peoples. His phrasing is careless and smacks of generalization. But surely this is small justification for hounding a man out of his job, let alone threatening to jail him. The swiftness of Kilroy's demise points to something more than a simple scrap over political correctness. It's a symptom of a new European reality: surging growth among Muslim populations and establishment nervousness over how to deal with them — a nervousness that threatens to stifle much-needed debate over events in the Middle East and Muslim integration at home." (See also: "Kilroy-Silk agrees to quit BBC in face-saving deal" (Matt Wells, The Guardian, 2004/01/17))

"Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/01/25)
David Kay, the former head of the coalition's hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, yesterday claimed that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme was hidden in Syria.
In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr Kay, who last week resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam.
"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. 'But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved.'"

Saturday, January 24, 2004

News and commentary:

"Confronting The Nuclear 'Underworld'" (The Washington Post Outlook, 2004/01/25)
An interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: "Have you put down new rules to stop nuclear technology transfers to rogue countries such as Libya, as Pakistan has been charged with doing in the past?
Pakistan has not at all been charged. Some individuals in Pakistan and also some Europeans have been charged. It started with Iran giving the names of some individuals who helped them get nuclear designs or whatever they had. These names included some Pakistanis and a number of Europeans. I got [the list] from the IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency] and then we started our investigation. We discovered there is an underworld of people who have been manufacturing. Most of them come from Europe. ...
Reportedly, Pakistan is one of the biggest proliferators in the world.
It is not Pakistan. These are individuals and our investigation has concluded that no government of Pakistan — and I don't have a soft spot for the governments of [former prime ministers] Benazir [Bhutto] and Nawaz [Sharif] — sanctioned or authorized anyone to proliferate. There are individuals whose names have come up."

"Too late for two states?" (Seumas Milne, The Guardian, 2004/01/24)
A report from Gaza and the West Bank on the three-year old Intifada, including an interview with Arafat: "'They know that they can't replace me,' the Palestinian president tells me in his office. "We are not in Afghanistan. We are proud of our democracy. Do you remember what we used to say in Beirut? Democracy in the jungle of guns — that was our slogan." ...
As to Sharon's latest plan, the Palestinian president asks rhetorically: "Will they solve their problem by withdrawing unilaterally? We are committed to peace, but everything changed after my partner Yitzhak Rabin was killed. What we need now is a strong push from the international community — and the rapid deployment of UN forces or observers." Arafat has invested more than anyone in the two-state solution, and he reels off a list of PLO and PA commitments, stretching back into the 1980s, to accept the West Bank and Gaza as the limit of Palestinian national aspirations. But even he now concedes, 'Time is definitely running out for the two-state solution.'"

"Probe of Libya Finds Nuclear Black Market" (Joby Warrick and Peter Slevin, The Washington Post, 2004/01/24)
"Libya's quest for atomic weapons was aided by a sophisticated nuclear black market that offered weapons designs, real-time technical advice and thousands of sensitive parts — some of them apparently manufactured in secret factories, according to diplomats and experts familiar with the probe of Libya's weapons program.
The scale of the black-market operation — described by one expert as an "international supermarket" for nuclear parts — exceeds anything seen before, and it was undetected by Western intelligence agencies until recent months, the officials said. The same operation also is believed to have aided Iran, they said." (See also: "U.N. Official Sees a 'Wal-Mart' in Nuclear Trafficking" (Mark Landler, The New York Times, 2004/01/23))

"Top al-Qaeda, Ansar al Islam figures captured: unidentified US official" (AFP/Channelnewsasia.com, 2004/01/24)
"A top al Qaeda operative has been captured while organizing terrorist operations in Iraq, and a top deputy to another al-Qaeda linked figure was seized in a separate action a week earlier, US officials say. ...
Hasan Guhl, a Pakistani veteran of al-Qaeda operations, was captured Thursday in Iraq where was believed to be scoping out the turf for organizing al-Qaeda operations in the country and working with likeminded Islamic extremists.
"He is a very significant player," the official said. "He's a longtime facilitator of al-Qaeda operations in terms of moving both people and money. He has an extensive network of contacts all over the world." ...
In another major break, US forces captured Husan al-Yemeni, the leader of an Ansar al Islam cell in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, on January 15, said another US official, who also asked not to be identified."

"Ex-Arms Hunter Says Iraq Had No Banned Stockpiles" (Tabassum Zakar, Reuters, 2004/01/24)
"Former chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay has concluded Iraq did not have stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, which could embarrass President Bush abroad and offer ammunition to his election-year Democratic rivals at home.
Undercutting the White House's public rationale for the war on Iraq, Kay told Reuters by telephone shortly after stepping down from his post Friday that he had concluded there were no such stockpiles to be found.
"I don't think they existed," Kay said. "What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last (1991) Gulf War, and I don't think there was a large-scale production program in the '90s," he said.
"I think we have found probably 85 percent of what we're going to find," said Kay, who returned from Iraq in December and told the CIA that he would not be going back."

Friday, January 23, 2004

News and commentary:

"Right of Reply / I do not support expulsion" (Benny Morris, Haaretz, 2004/01/23)
A follow-up to the controversial interview: "In our region, the side that has been engaging for generations now in the systematic dehumanization of the adversary is the Palestinian side against the Jews - see the Hamas charter and the official political manifests of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who represent at least half of the Palestinians in the territories, which routinely refer to the Jews, in accordance with Islamic tradition, as "sons of monkeys and pigs," "killers of prophets" and as a "lowly people." Yes, I will stick to the definition "savage beasts" to describe suicide bombers who are prepared to massacre dozens or even thousands of civilians in buses and skyscrapers in cities in Israel and the West. ...
Unfortunately, the destruction of Israel and the right of return of the refugees have become a key component of Palestinian identity, and as long as this component does not vanish, there is no possibility of an historic compromise. And without a compromise that is based on two states, in the end, only one state will remain here - either a Jewish one without a large Arab minority, or an Arab one with a Jewish minority that will continuously dwindle until it disappears, just as the Jewish communities disappeared from the Islamic world in the last century (after all, what Jew in his right mind would want to live as a minority in an Islamic state headed by the terrorist from the Muqata'a and the wheelchair-bound fanatic from Gaza?)." (Hat tip: Angus Cook. See also: "Survival of the Fittest - An interview with Benny Morris" (Ari Shavit, Haaretz/FreeRepublic, 2004/01/09))

"He Meant What He Said .... The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf" (Omer Bartov, The New Republic/Free Republic, 2004/01/23)
A brilliant review of "Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf By Adolf Hitler":
"This is a book that should be read, rather, by contemporary journalists, political observers, and all concerned people who have the stomach to recognize evil when they confront it. For one of the most frightening aspects of Hitler's book is not that he said what he said at the time, but that much of what he said can be found today in innumerable places: on Internet sites, propaganda brochures, political speeches, protest placards, academic publications, religious sermons, you name it. As long as it does not have Hitler's name attached to it, this deranged discourse will be ignored or allowed to pass. The voices that express these opinions do not belong to a single political or ideological current, and they are much less easy to distinguish than in the 1930s. They belong to the right and the left, to the religious and the secular, to the West and the East, to the rabble and the leaders, to terrorists and intellectuals, students and peasants, pacifists and militants, expansionists and anti-globalization activists. The diplomacy advocated by Hitler is no longer relevant, but his reason for it, his legitimization of his "worldview," is alive and kicking, and it may still kick us." ...
Consider again what Hitler wrote in 1928. Yes, it is insane; but take out the word "race" and replace it, say, with "Zionism" or "American imperialism," and replace the references to the Soviet Union with references to the United States, and suddenly the discourse is not only crazy but also quite common. The "soft core" of this poisonous rhetoric is to be found among some sectors of European and American intellectuals and academics. It tends to identify Israelis as culprits, and Jews as potential Israelis. It is obsessed with the influence of Jews on culture, politics, and economics around the world."

"Lebanese Member of Parliament: 'The Fall of One Jew, Whether Soldier or Civilian, Is a Great Accomplishment'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 649, 2004/01/23)
"Walid Jumblatt, chairman of the (Druze) Socialist Progressive Party and member of the Lebanese parliament, praised the January 14, 2004 suicide bombing by a Palestinian woman in Gaza. The following are excerpts from his statements:
'Yesterday, the Palestinian mother Reem Al-Riyashi sacrificed herself, and by so doing joined the columns of the brave Jihad warriors and broke the atrocious and troublesome Arab silence, the helplessness, and the retreat that precede failure and disintegration. She offered hope in a sea of complacency, indecisiveness, and fear. ...
It is an act of belief and it is the correct path, because the fall of one Jew, whether soldier or civilian, is a great accomplishment in times of decline, subservience, and submissiveness, as a way to undermine the plan to 'Jewify' all of Palestine.'"

"U.N. Official Sees a 'Wal-Mart' in Nuclear Trafficking" (Mark Landler, The New York Times, 2004/01/23)
"The head of the United Nations' watchdog agency on atomic weapons said today that the global black market of nuclear-related material and equipment had grown to the point that it amounted to "a Wal-Mart" for weapons-seeking countries.
Mohamed M. ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was taken aback during a recent trip to Libya by the scale and complexity of the illicit trafficking through which it obtained material and blueprints for nuclear weapons designs.
"All of that was obtained abroad," he said in an interview during the World Economic Forum meeting here. "All of what we saw was a result of the Wal-Mart of private-sector proliferation."
"When you see things being designed in one country, manufactured in two or three others, shipped to a fourth, redirected to a fifth, that means there's lots of offices all over the world," Dr. ElBaradei said. 'The sophistication of the process, frankly, has surpassed my expectations.'"

"Poll: 18% of Britons 'moderately anti-Semitic'" (Douglas Davis, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/23)
"About one in five Britons is moderately anti-Semitic, would be unhappy with a Jewish prime minister and considers that Jews wield too much power, according to a poll published by the Jewish Chronicle in London on Friday.
The poll also reveals that one in seven Britons believes the Holocaust has been exaggerated, while a minority – 37 percent – believe Jews have made a "positive contribution" to British society."

"Iraqi Cleric Urges End to Demonstrations" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/01/23)
"Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric Friday urged his followers to stop holding demonstrations for early elections until a U.N. team decides whether polls are feasible.
The call by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani is good news for the U.S.-led administration, which says early elections to choose an Iraqi government are impossible because of the country's precarious security. ...
On Friday, addressing a prayer group in the holy city of Karbala, al-Sistani said no protests should be held until the United Nations' position has become clear, and 'after that we will say our word.'"

"Better or Worse?" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/01/23)
"And what about the locus of our purported catastrophe in Iraq? We cannot even compare the sniping, however wretched, to missiles raining across borders, no-fly zones, broken armistices, ignored U.N. mandates, U.N.-introduced food embargoes, massive foreign invasions, bounties awarded for suicide killings, genocide, destruction of the environment, and looting of oil revenues to buy imported weaponry. For all the chaos we supposedly created, we no longer have mass graves, but instead Shiites demonstrating for democratic elections and Kurds hammering out plans for a federal state. Instead of Baathists slaughtering students, the current controversy is whether to depose Saddamites from university faculties. And the full effect of the war remains to be seen, when the neighbors of Iraq will watch in horror at free elections and debates. It isn't easy there, but when or where has the creation of civilization in place of barbarism ever been effortless?"

"U.N. Should Change - or U.S. Should Quit" (David Frum and Richard Perle, Los Angeles Times, 2004/01/23)
"The United Nations is the tooth fairy of American politics: Few adults believe in it, but it's generally regarded as a harmless story to amuse the children. Since 9/11, however, the U.N. has ceased to be harmless, and the Democratic presidential candidates' enthusiasm for it has ceased to be amusing. The United Nations has emerged at best as irrelevant to the terrorist threat that most concerns us, and at worst as an obstacle to our winning the war on terrorism. It must be reformed. And if it cannot be reformed, the United States should give serious consideration to withdrawal.
The U.N. has become an obstacle to our national security because it purports to set legal limits on the United States' ability to defend itself. If these limits ever made sense at all, they do not make sense now.
Yet the U.N.'s assertion of them forces presidents and policymakers into a horrible dilemma. If we obey the U.N.'s rules, we compromise our national security. If we defy them, we expose ourselves to accusations of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

"The LibDem terror tendency" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/01/23)
Tonge III: "What is really horrifying is that Dr Tonge is by no means alone in thinking this. An obscene moral inversion has taken place in mainstream thinking, in which those who commit mass murder are viewed with sympathy while their victims are presented as the real villains. Britain and Europe are in the throes of a disgusting hate-fest against Israel and the Jewish people, which is turning even apparently responsible public figures into apologists for genocidal terror"

"British MP 'fired' for pro-suicide bombing statement" (Douglas Davis, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/23)
Tonge II: "British legislator Jenny Tonge has been fired by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy as party spokesperson on children's affairs after she expressed sympathy for suicide bombers and suggested she would consider becoming one herself if she were a Palestinian.
Kennedy described Tonge's remarks as "completely unacceptable; they are not compatible with Liberal Democrat party policies and principles," he said. "There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism," Kennedy added.
British legislator Tonge, who visited the Palestinian areas last June and compared life for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with the Nazis' treatment of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, made the remarks about suicide bombers during an address to a meeting of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign." (See also: "Two British MPs compare Gaza to Warsaw's Jewish ghetto in Nazi era" (AFP/Al-Jazeerah.info, 2003/06/20))

"Lib Dem MP: Why I would consider being a suicide bomber" (Nicholas Watt, The Guardian, 2004/01/23)
Tonge I: "Jenny Tonge was summoned to explain her comments to the Liberal Democrat chief whip after telling a Westminster rally that the daily "killings and the bulldozings and all the other horrible things" in the occupied territories made her understand why people became suicide bombers.
Dr Tonge, the spokeswoman on children, told a meeting of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign on Wednesday: "This particular brand of terrorism, the suicide bomber, is truly born out of desperation.
'Many many people criticise, many many people say it is just another form of terrorism, but I can understand and I am a fairly emotional person and I am a mother and a grand mother, I think if I had to live in that situation, and I say this advisedly, I might just consider becoming one myself. And that is a terrible thing to say.'"

"Iraq-Cuba axis" (Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times, 2004/01/23)
"A senior Defense Department official tells us one of the alarming after-action intelligence reports that reached the Pentagon is that the communist government of Cuba shared intelligence on the United States with Saddam Hussein's regime.
The reports stated that Cuban intelligence, which is known to have extensive "coverage" of U.S. military bases, supplied information to Saddam's intelligence service on the movement of troops and other military activities.
The intelligence ties are believed to be an offshoot of Cuba's covert oil-purchasing arrangement with Iraq under Saddam. Those deals have been under way since the late 1990s and involve oil tankers that were sent to Mexico. The oil then was pumped from the tankers to smaller boats for delivery to Cuba.
The intelligence sharing also comes amid reports from Cuban exiles that Cuba became a safe haven for fleeing Iraqi government officials following the U.S.-led invasion."

"A Measure of Success in Iraq" (Thomas E. Ricks and Liz Spayd, The Washington Post, 2004/01/22)
"Defense Department statistics show a drop in U.S. troops killed in action since November, when the insurgency was at its peak. After sustaining 70 such deaths that month, the U.S. military withstood 25 in December — the month in which former president Saddam Hussein was captured — and 22 so far in January. ...
"What we've done in the last 60 days is really taken them down," a senior military official said, speaking of the insurgency. "We've dismantled the Baghdad piece. We've dismantled the Mosul piece. I'm not saying we've taken down the Fallujah-Ramadi piece, but we've hammered it."
"The enemy doesn't have much left," a battalion commander in Tikrit said this week in assessing the current situation. 'They are desperate and flailing.'"

Thursday, January 22, 2004

News and commentary:

"Anti-Semitic Vulgate" (Le Monde/Watch, 2004/01/19 [2004/01/22])
A Le Monde editorial, translated by Douglas:
"These aren’t “accidents,” slips of the tongue, clumsy expressions that slip out in the heat of a protest. During the demonstration organized in Paris, one of many planned for Saturday January 17 by the Parti des Musulmans de France (PMF), one heard expressions like, “the Jews have everything.” This expresses the reality of a “plan.” It is a credo behind a “thinking,” something we know all too well. It’s called anti-Semitism. “The Jews have everything,” because they control “everything,” secretly, of course, and if they control everything, it’s because they’ve hatched a plot, haven’t they…? ...
How can one help being revolted by a protest march in which men forbid their “sisters” to speak to the press? By the anti-Republican tonality in which a “pseudo-democracy,” that practiced by France, is called into question? Lastly, by the unabashed homophobia, that hatred of homosexuals that indicates intolerance and the rejection of the Other. ...
In fine, what was revealed on Saturday was a movement, minor at first, that has succeeded in bringing thousands of people into the streets by distributing an anti-Semitic vulgate of the worst sort. This is a challenge to be taken seriously; most of all by France’s Muslims, who must ensure that this party remains a tiny minority." (See also the French original: "Vulgate antisémite"
(Le Monde, 2004/01/19). Also: "Muslim women protest scarf ban" (Elaine Ganley, AP/The Washington Times, 2004/01/19) and "An extremist takes over the opposition" (Blandine Grosjean and Olivier Voge, Libération/Watch, 2004/01/03 [2004/01/10]))

"Letter to Palestinian parents" (Barbara Sofer, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/22)
"Dear Abir and Bilal A-Masri, I hesitate to write to bereaved parents engulfed in their pain, and even more to the parents of my enemies, lest my words be construed as gloating.
But your unusual act in protesting to the Palestinian Authority gives me hope that you might read this letter with interest.
I am an Israeli parent. You are facing the unbearable grief of mourning your two teenage sons Iyad, 17, and Amjad, 15. The horror of their deaths must be compounded by their recklessness and your inability to prevent their actions.
According to Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh, you have demanded a probe by the Palestinian Authority against those who recruited Iyad. ...
You have tasted little of the wealth poured into your territories by European sympathizers. In the world you have become a synonym for the plague of terrorism. For all their professed sympathy, and for your genuine suffering, is there a nation in the world that would invite you in?
True, our losses have been atrocious – but they have gained you nothing but the corruptive rejoicing at another's pain.
The leaders who promised you that we would crumble under international pressure have long been proven wrong, and they've become very rich along the way." (See also: "Family of would-be bomber demands PA probe" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/15))

"Criticize, Don't Vandalize: Israel's ambassador to Sweden chose the wrong way to make a point." (Roger Kimball, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/01/22)
"Snow White" II: "In the normal course of things, you would never have heard of "Snow White." It's just another bit of dreary left-wing "statement art": morally rebarbative, aesthetically nugatory, interesting only as a symptom of cultural decay. You can see yards of the stuff every day at any of the 23,872 places where challenging, border-testing, antibourgeois, avant-garde, cutting-edge art is shown. ...
The fact that the Swedish government would welcome such politically tendentious rubbish shows how far the sclerotic gestures of the adversary culture have taken over establishment taste. ...
But was Mr. Mazel's response justified? I think not. His outrage at "Snow White" was understandable, even exemplary, but he should not have destroyed or defaced the exhibition. There were many steps open to him short of violence. To vandalize an art work — even a bad art work, even a morally reprehensible art work — is to adopt the tactics of the enemies of culture. When politically correct students are confronted with a conservative publication they detest, they conspire to round up all the copies and destroy them. That is a recipe for cultural tyranny. "Snow White" is assuredly a despicable work. But Mr. Mazel would have been far more effective had he channeled his ire into criticism instead of vigilantism."

"'It's inciting murder'" (Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, 2004/01/22)
"Snow White" I. Jones reports from the scene of the "Snow White" scandal: "While all this is going on, the terrorist still looks immaculate on her little boat. As the light gets bluer, the scene dreamlike, for a moment I top the Israeli ambassador's suspicions with a paranoia of my own. It is as if Hanadi Jaradat, or the Islamic Jihad organisation that persuaded her to strap on explosives while she was grieving for a brother shot by Israeli soldiers, authored this picture, these people here, all the cameras, the security men. It is as if violence were such a powerful force that it is the only culture left to us; as if violence were so eloquent that it could silence all ambiguity, all reason."

"Next stop Syria?" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2004/01/22)
Timothy Garton Ash argues that the war on terror is over: "So that's it: "Washington is no longer at war. But didn't President Bush just tell us the exact opposite in his state of the union address? He did. He said most emphatically that the war goes on — and showed that it's over. The war on terror, September 11 2001 to January 20 2004. RIP. ...
I mean that the real psychological sense of being at war has faded even in Washington, where it was strongest, and, unless there is another major terrorist attack on the American homeland, will further fade. ...
But will the first decade of world history in the 21st century be remembered as that of the war on terror? I suspect not. Rather, I think there'll be a chapter in the history of the United States entitled war on terror, and the dates future historians add in brackets may well be 2001-04. ...
For some two years after the 9/11 attacks, America quite understandably went ape. This frightened the hell out of terrorists and dictators, but also out of many of America's allies and friends. The neo-cons enjoyed a brief, heady moment of agenda-setting supremacy. But that's over. Next stop Syria is not a message heard much these days. ...
Washington's war on terror, as it began on September 11 2001, may be over. The campaign for freedom in the Middle East has only just begun." (See also: "State of the Union Address" (George W. Bush, The White House, 2004/01/20))

"Iraq laundresses killed in attack" (BBC News, 2004/01/22)
I wonder if America Vera-Zavala will defend this attack as a "very logical" part of a "positive" resistance?: "Four Iraqi women who worked for the US army have been killed in a gun attack on their minibus.
Police said several other women were wounded in Wednesday's attack near the town of Falluja, about 50 kilometres (32 miles) west of the capital Baghdad.
They all worked as cleaners and laundry staff at a US base near Baghdad. ...
Iraqi police and hospital officials said gunmen attacked the Iraqi women's minibus at about 1600 local time (1300 GMT) on Wednesday, as they were driven to work at the US base near the town of Habbaniay.
A survivor of the attack said masked men in a car raked their minibus with gunfire.
"It is possible that the attackers were terrorists who wanted to hit us because we have good relations with the Americans," another survivor, Suzanne Azat, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency."

"Bin Laden's Iraq Attacks Backfiring" (Niles Lathem, New York Post, 2004/01/22)
"The large number of Muslim deaths caused by al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Iraq has created p.r. problems for Osama bin Laden, who now appears to be having second thoughts about his holy war against coalition forces there, The Post has learned.
New articles in al Qaeda's biweekly Internet magazine Sawt al-Jihad, or "Voice of Jihad," are urging al Qaeda supporters to stay out of Baghdad and concentrate on hitting U.S. military targets in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, according to terrorist expert Rita Katz, whose SITE Institute monitors al Qaeda propaganda on the Internet.
"My instructions to the people of the peninsula [Saudi Arabia], young as old, men as women, is to fight Americans in their homes and the people of Yemen should fight the Americans in their bases, battleships and their consulates," wrote an al Qaeda propagandist named Muhammad bin al-Salim in an article titled 'Do Not Go To Iraq.'"

"Gilligan hits back at Panorama claims" (Julia Day, The Guardian, 2004/01/22)
"Andrew Gilligan today launched a four-letter tirade at BBC journalist John Ware after Panorama criticised his Iraq dossier report.
Gilligan called the programme "fucking outrageous" and launched a counter-attack on Ware's journalistic standards, saying Ware had not even put Panorama's claims to him.
In the controversial programme screened last night, Ware said the BBC "bet the farm" on the Gilligan's report even though it hadn't investigated the facts behind the story. And Ware said the BBC head of news, Richard Sambrook, should have heard the alarm bells because he had reservations in the past about the alleged use of loose language in Gilligan's reports." (See also: "Kelly said Iraq was immediate threat" (BBC News, 2004/01/21))

"Unveiled women are root of all evil, says Saudi cleric" (Robin Gedye, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/01/22)
Saudi Arabia's most senior Islamic cleric has condemned women who mingled unveiled among men at a business conference this week, saying their actions could cause "evil and catastrophe".
Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the desert kingdom, made his comments after the country's top businesswoman called for reform and pictures of her supporters — without headscarves — appeared on newspaper front pages.
"Allowing women to mix with men is the root of every evil and catastrophe," he said. 'It is highly punishable. Mixing of men and women is a reason for greater decadence and adultery.
This is prohibited for all. I severely condemn this matter and warn of grave consequences. I am pained by such shameful behaviour in the country of the two holy mosques [Mecca and Medina].'"

"N. Korean Evidence Called Uncertain" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2004/01/22)
"The North Korean engineers put a red metal box on the table and opened it. They pulled out a white box made of wood that fit snugly in it. They slid off the top and pulled out two clear jars, which looked as if they had once held marmalade. The lids were sealed tight with tape. ...
North Korea's willingness to show off its Yongbyon nuclear facility -- and eagerness to show it can produce plutonium — was intended to demonstrate Pyongyang is serious about breaking the stalemate with Washington over its nuclear programs, members of an unofficial U.S. delegation say. But the delegation's observations have alarmed U.S. officials because the trip two weeks ago appears to confirm that North Korea has processed all 8,000 spent fuel rods — giving them enough weapons-grade plutonium for as many as half a dozen nuclear weapons."

Added in archive:
"Family of would-be bomber demands PA probe" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/15)

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

News and commentary:

"Surprise witness delays verdict in Sept. 11 trial in Germany" (John Crewdson and Cam Simpson, Chicago Tribune/SanLuisObispo.com, 2004/01/21)
"On what had been the eve of his widely expected acquittal, the trial of the second person charged by German authorities as an accomplice of the Sept. 11 hijackers was thrown into turmoil Wednesday after prosecutors disclosed the existence of a surprise witness purporting to link Iran to the hijackings.
The mysterious witness, who goes by the name Hamid Reza Zakeri and claims to have been a longtime member of the Iranian intelligence service, is said to have told German investigators that the Sept. 11 plot represented what one termed a "joint venture" between the terrorist group al-Qaida and the Iranian government.
Sources familiar with the witness' story, greeted with pronounced skepticism by some German intelligence officials, say he also implicates the defendant, a 31-year-old former Moroccan student named Abdelghani Mzoudi, as a knowledgeable participant in the hijacking plot."

"Saudis 'kidnap reformist prince'" (Roger Hardy, BBC News, 2004/01/21)
"A Saudi prince has accused his government of kidnapping him in Switzerland after he spoke out in favour of reform in Saudi Arabia.
Prince Sultan bin Turki bin Abdel-Aziz says he was lured to a meeting in Geneva, where he was drugged before being flown back to the desert kingdom.
The prince says he is currently under house arrest in the capital, Riyadh. ...
Prince Sultan bin Turki bin Abdel-Aziz - a grandson of Saudi Arabia's first king - says his troubles began last year when he first went public denouncing corruption and calling for democratic reform.
The kingdom is facing calls for economic and political reform
Speaking to the BBC from his home in Riyadh - where he says he is in poor health and under house arrest - he described what happened in June, when, he says, two Saudi ministers lured him to a meeting in Geneva.
Five masked men came in and kidnapped and drugged him.
When he regained consciousness he discovered he had been transported back to Saudi Arabia, where he spent several weeks in hospital."

"Kelly said Iraq was immediate threat" (BBC News, 2004/01/21)
"The late weapons expert Dr David Kelly said it would take Iraq "days or weeks" to deploy weapons of mass destruction.
His view, at odds with the claim Iraq could launch weapons in 45 minutes, is in a previously unbroadcast interview shown in a BBC Panorama special.
Panorama disputes a BBC report that No 10 ordered intelligence chiefs to add things to the Iraq weapons dossier. ...
The interview with Dr Kelly was recorded for Panorama in October 2002, a month after the prime minister presented the dossier to Parliament, but never broadcast.
In the interview Dr Kelly was asked whether there was an "immediate threat" from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
He replied: 'Yes there is. Even if they're not actually filled and deployed today, the capability exists to get them filled and deployed within a matter of days and weeks. So yes, there is a threat.'"

"Popular Egyptian Singer's New Song: 'Hey People It was Only a Tower and I Swear by God that They [the U.S.] are the Ones Who Pulled It Down'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 647, 2004/01/21)
"The following are excerpts from a review in the Cairo Times of popular Egyptian singer Sha'ban Abd Al-Rahim's new album:
"'Kharittat Al Tariq' (Road Map) is the name of the song which gives voice to widespread views in the Egyptian street regarding the September 11th events and the U.S. - Iraq standoff. The song talks about the road map and includes quotes from U.S. President George W. Bush about the plan's implementation. The song goes on to describe how America is the spitting image of Israel and it carries out its desires, making the world into a 'jungle.' But it does not stop at that point. Abd Al-Rahim goes on to boldly sing that the USA is the perpetrator of the September 11th attacks.
'Hey people it was only a tower and I swear by God that they are the ones who pulled it down.' Abd Al-Rahim further sings that they purposely did it to make people think that Arabs and Muslims are terrorists and were behind that disaster. Now the U.S. can do what it pleases to the Arab world since everyone thinks they are to blame.
The rest of the song includes lines like 'sometimes he [Bush] says Iran and sometimes he says Syria,' and 'he shortens his speech if someone says Korea.'
The song is written by Abd Al-Rahim's long-time collaborator, songwriter Islam Khalil, an Arabic teacher at a primary school in Al Qanater in the Al-Qalyoubiya governorate. Khalil wrote earlier Abdel Rahim's hits like 'I Hate Israel' and 'Striking Iraq.'"

"IAEA: Iran continues work at uranium enrichment plant" (Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 2004/01/21)
"International Atomic Energy Agency sources told Haaretz Wednesday that Iran is continuing construction at its uranium enrichment plant, causing a new dispute to emerged between the agency and Tehran.
According to the sources, the dispute erupted amid continued Iranian construction of centrifuge devices at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.
Iran claims it will not enrich uranium, as required by an agrement reached last month with the IAEA, but adds it will continue its construction work on the Natanz site.
The IAEA says the agreement requires Iran to halt all nuclear activity, including construction of nuclear sites and installation of related equipment."

"Starving North Koreans executed for stealing food" (Ramola Talwar Badam, AP/The Washington Times, 2004/01/21)
"Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed for stealing food and have died of malnutrition in labor camps, Amnesty International said in a report released yesterday.
The human rights group urged the North Korean government to "ensure that food shortages are not used as a tool to persecute perceived political opponents." ...
The report accuses the North Korean government of distributing food unfairly, favoring those who are economically active and politically loyal.
"Some North Koreans, who were motivated by hunger to steal food grains or livestock, have been publicly executed," Amnesty International researcher Rajiv Narayan said.
"Public notices advertised the executions, and schoolchildren were forced to watch the shootings or hangings," he said."

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

News and commentary:

"State of the Union Address" (George W. Bush, The White House, 2004/01/20)
"As long as the Middle East remains a place of tyranny and despair and anger, it will continue to produce men and movements that threaten the safety of America and our friends. So America is pursuing a forward strategy of freedom in the greater Middle East. We will challenge the enemies of reform, confront the allies of terror, and expect a higher standard from our friends. ...
I will send you a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the development of free elections, and free markets, free press, and free labor unions in the Middle East. And above all, we will finish the historic work of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, so those nations can light the way for others, and help transform a troubled part of the world.
America is a nation with a mission, and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace — a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman. America acts in this cause with friends and allies at our side, yet we understand our special calling: This great republic will lead the cause of freedom."

"Lo, the Poor Terrorist" (Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, 2004/01/20)
"The idea that if someone is prepared to do something truly horrible, he must have a worthy cause remains attractive to liberal intellectuals, who perhaps envy those who take up arms against the sea of troubles that is human existence.
Last week's New Statesman, the British left-wing weekly (for which I also write), provided a fine example of this way of thinking in an article about Islamophobia by travel writer William Dalrymple (no relation). ...
Dalrymple wrote: "The man who kidnapped Pearl in Karachi was a highly educated British Pakistani, Ahmed Omar Sheikh. Sheikh attended the same public school as the film-maker Peter Greenaway and later studied at the London School of Economics. Yet such was the racism he suffered, that he was drawn towards extreme jehadi groups and eventually came to be associated with both Harkat ul-Mujahideen and al-Qaeda." ...
The article continues: "The combination of widespread hostility to the Muslims in our midst, pervasive discrimination against them and huge ignorance is a potentially lethal cocktail." The only ingredient that seems to be missing from this cocktail is Islam."

"Adverts with suicide bomber in the underground stations will be removed" (Kurt Mälarstedt, Dagens Nyheter, 2004/01/20)
"Snow White" III: "The adverts with a picture of the Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradit which are on display on display in Stockholm's underground stations will be removed and replaced with a different poster, after a decision by Thomas Nordenstad, the creative director of the The Swedish Museum of National Antiquities who is responsible for the controversial exhibition. ...
- I've decided that because I've received hundreds of mails and letters from people who are suffering and are saddened because of the exhibition. To have contributed to this, even unintentionally, is painful and saddening for me personally. If my decision is seen as a gesture of reconciliation, than that's OK by me, said Nordenstad." (See also: "Making Differences" (Watch, 2004/01/18))

"Jaradat controversial in more cases" (Kurt Mälarstedt, Dagens Nyheter, 2004/01/20)
"Snow White" II. There is a thin line between freedom fighters and mass murderers. At least according to certain Swedish art curators. Dagens Nyheter reports on the Jaradat advert on display in Stockholm's underground stations. (My translation.):
"To further complicate the matter the picture of Hanadi Jaradat is included in the press material from the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities on the project "Making Differences".
The caption informs that the picture is a part of Carl Michael von Hausswolff's project and the suicide bomber is described as a "female Palestinian freedom fighter". This is a designation which not only the Israeli government, but also the Swedish government as well as the Feilers oppose.
— That title came up in the first discussions I had with myself and the curator Thomas Nordenstad. But I choose "female Palestinian suicide bomber". I wanted that characterization as it also is a case of murder. ...,says Carl Michael von Hausswolff." (See also: "Making Differences" (Watch, 2004/01/18) and "God Made Me Do It" (Making Differences, January 2004))

"Israel warns of boycott over art flap" (AFP/IHT, 2004/01/20)
"Snow White" I: "Ignoring accusations of censorship, Israel warned Monday that it would boycott an international genocide conference in Stockholm next week unless Sweden disowned an exhibit at a related art show.
Israeli participation will depend on the Swedish government's willingness to "disassociate itself" from the art work, which depicts a smiling Palestinian suicide bomber, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said at a Jerusalem news conference. "Then and only then will I consider positively what needs to be done," he said."

"Iraq's Halting Progress" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2004/01/20)
"How are things going in Iraq, six months before the planned handover of power to the Iraqi people? The honest answer is "not very well." Despite many improvements in Iraqi life, the American-led occupiers haven't yet found a way to put Iraq back together — politically, economically or socially.
That's why the Bush administration's decision to seek assistance from the United Nations made sense. The administration doesn't have a lot of good alternatives left. ...
No Iraqi political leadership has emerged that can rally the country; Iraq's economy is still a shambles because nobody will make big investments until security is better; and while the Iraqis are slowly building their own army and police, they will need American help for months and perhaps years to maintain order.
The worst may be yet to come. Each of the main stakeholders in Iraq's future — the Shiite Muslims, the Sunni Muslims and the Kurds — has been battling to lock in its own gains, at the expense of the nation as a whole. Even senior U.S. officials talk about the danger that Iraq may be slipping toward civil war."

"An Absence of Legitimacy" (Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post, 2004/01/20)
Sistani II: "From the start, the Pentagon planners (or non-planners) believed the United States would have no legitimacy problems in Iraq. "We will be greeted as liberators," Vice President Cheney famously predicted. When urged after the war to transfer some authority to the United Nations to gain legitimacy, administration officials were dismissive in public and scathing in private. "We have far more legitimacy than the U.N.," one senior official told me last June. To discredit the idea of internationalization, Defense Department officials kept insisting that their goal was to transfer power not to the United Nations but to the Iraqis. "No foreigners can be in charge of [determining how elections will be held]," Paul Wolfowitz said. ...
U.S. policymakers made two grave mistakes after the war. The first was to occupy the country with too few troops, creating a security vacuum. This image of weakness was reinforced when Washington caved to Sistani's objections last June, junked its original transition plan and sped things up to coincide with the U.S. elections. The second mistake was to dismiss from the start the need for allies and international institutions. As it turns out, Washington now has the worst of both worlds. It has neither enough power nor enough legitimacy."

"Of mullahs and warlords" (Hiwa Osman, The Washington Times, 2004/01/20)
Sistani I: "The street is isolated from both the leadership and the Coalition Provisional Authority. Hence the simplistic call for an election and the one man, one vote concept that aroused the passion of many Iraqis. Without giving much thought to the various obstacles and reminders, like Sunday's car bomb, about the difficulty of holding a truly free election, they see it as the only way for them to participate in the political process in the country.
This popular response to the call for the election is a byproduct of the isolation of the people.
With the current setup, an election might prove disastrous for the United States and for those Iraqis who want to see a liberal, democratic, pluralistic and federal Iraq. Mullahs and warlords with ties to neighbors who do not want to see a successful Iraq will tell — and are telling — the people that the United States is the cause of their continuing misery. They will also be the ones who will take the winning seat in any forthcoming elections."

"Atoning for adultery with 'martyrdom'" (Abraham Rabinovich, The Washington Times, 2004/01/20)
"A Palestinian mother of two small children, who killed four Israelis by blowing herself up at a border crossing, carried out the suicide bombing to atone for having committed adultery. ...
The officials told AP on condition of anonymity that Raiyshi's illicit lover recruited her, giving her the suicide bomb belt. Palestinian security officials said her husband drove her to Erez to carry out the attack.
After the bombing, Raiyshi's family refused to speak to reporters, a rarity in these cases, and did not set up a mourning tent for her.
Her brother-in-law, Yousef Awad, said the bomber and her husband had had a huge argument with the family two months ago and had not been seen since. He refused to elaborate." (See also: "Erez bomber's family denies coercing her to suicide" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/18))

Added in archive:
"Va. Jihad Activist Pleads Guilty" (Jerry Markon, The Washington Post, 2004/01/16)
"Looking back on Saddam Hussein" (Fred Halliday, openDemocracy, 2004/01/09)

Monday, January 19, 2004

News and commentary:

"Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims march in Baghdad..."
(AP/Muhammed Muheisen, 2004/01/19)
"Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims march in Baghdad carrying portraits of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and other Shiite clerics Monday, Jan. 19, 2004. The crowd marched peacefully to demand an elected government, as U.S. and Iraqi officials prepared to seek the U.N. secretary-general's endorsement of American plans for transferring power in Iraq."

"Thousands of Iraqis Demand Elections on Day of U.N. Talks" (Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2004/01/19)
"Up to 100,000 Iraqis marched peacefully through the center of the Iraqi capital today in a show of support for a revered Shiite cleric who opposes the way the United States plans to transfer power to Iraqis.
The march was a powerful display of Shiite solidarity at a time when leaders of that group, which makes up more than 60 percent of the population, are beginning to realize their political influence over many Iraqis and, consequently, over American policy here.
The demonstration's organizers clearly intended to send a message to senior American and Iraqi officials who met in New York today with United Nations officials to discuss the resistance from the cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Demands from Ayatollah Sistani for direct elections of a transitional assembly before the handover on June 30 have forced American officials to turn to the United Nations in an effort to legitimize their own blueprint for selecting the assembly."

"The suicide bomber's father on the art row" (Arne Lapidus, Expressen, 2004/01/19)
"Snow White" in Jenin. The Feilers have a new admirer. From an interview with suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat's father (My translation.):
"The art scandal in Sweden is the talk of the town in Jenin, the hometown of the female suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat. ...
The father [Taysir Jaradat] says that he is proud both of her suicide bombing — one of the bloodiest terror attacks during the intifada which killed 21 Israelis, both Jews and Arabs — and because she serves the Palestinian cause yet again. He wholeheartedly supports suicide bombings as the only weapon for the Palestinians. ...
The door to their lended apartment is covered with posters celebrating Hanadi, her killed brother and cousin.
— I want to thank the Jewish artist in Sweden who made the beautiful work of art with Hanadi, says mother Rahmah, 53"

"Yassin: era of female suicide bombers has begun" (The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/19)
A new beginning for Palestinian women II: "Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin announced a major change in tactics Monday, saying the Islamic terrorist group will increasingly dispatch female suicide bombers in a "new beginning" for Palestinian women.
The rigidly conservative group's willingness to bend religious and social beliefs comes amid tightened Israeli security that has made it harder for male bombers to carry out attacks. ...
On Monday, Yassin said women had been excluded from carrying out suicide bombings only because there had never been a need for them.
"Women were spared until the time of need arose," Yassin said. 'When the brothers in the military wing saw that the time was right to carry out an operation using a woman, they sent Reem Raiyshi.'"

"Hamas: Women who shame family can be bombers" (Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2004/01/19)
A new beginning for Palestinian women I: "Last week, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin praised the woman who killed herself and four Israeli security men at the Erez checkpoint. But it turns out Yassin's militant Islamist organization does not unequivocally support the use of women in terror attacks - it is especially hesitant about the deployment of married mothers.
Senior Hamas figures who have consulted about the subject recently are inclined to support only the use of women who have desecrated rules of "family honor." ...
Hamas has now revised this position, and some of the organization's leaders condone the use of women in terror strikes, particularly in situations where a woman can carry out the assignment more easily (since she is likely to cause less suspicion at crossing points), and when the woman has transgressed moral norms. In such cases, a woman's "sacrifice" atones for the "stain" she has caused to her family for violating moral codes." (See also: "Erez bomber's family denies coercing her to suicide" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/18))

"Belgian Jews advised not to wear skullcaps" (The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/19)
"Belgian Jews who appear in public events should not wear distinguishing clothes or markings, says Philip Marcovitz, head of the Belgian Jewish organizations steering committee, reports Israel Radio.
Marcovitz told a reporter that in this manner, Jews would demonstrate their civic consciousness and contribute to Belgium’s democratic and liberal character. It would also set the Jews apart from Moslems, he said, who display their religious affiliations at every opportunity."

"Car bomb targets French Muslim leader" (Jon Henley, The Guardian, 2004/01/19)
"Hours after up to 40,000 Muslims marched against a planned ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools, a carbomb attack on a newly appointed prefect of Algerian origin dramatically underlined the scale of France's problem in assimilating its immigrant Muslim community.
The 4.30am explosion in the western city of Nantes destroyed the car of Aissa Dermouche, 57, an academic and educationalist who was appointed the prefect - or top state representative - of the Jura region last Wednesday. ...
Mr Dermouche will be responsible for law and order in the region. His was not the first high-profile post to be awarded to a member of an immigrant minority, but it came amid a debate about how France can better assimilate its 5 million-strong Muslim community. ...
Police said the explosive, whose nature has yet to be determined, could have been planted by Islamic radicals upset at Mr Dermouche's "selling out", or by far-right militants."

Added in archive:
"A dissident in Paris" (Nir Boms and Erick Stakelbeck, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/01/17)

 

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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Articles of the week

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

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Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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