Archived news and commentary: March 8 - 14, 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, March 14, 2004

News and commentary:

"Socialists Score Spectacular Spanish Election Win" (Adrian Croft, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/14)
The terrorists won: "Spanish voters swept the center-right government from power on Sunday in a spectacular general election upset over last week's suspected al Qaeda attack in Madrid.
The ruling Popular Party (PP) conceded defeat to Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who will take over from outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq that most Spaniards opposed. ...
Some Spaniards were vitriolic in accusing Aznar of "manipulating" public opinion by spending three days blaming the bombings on the Basque separatist group ETA, despite its denials.
Aznar, retiring as prime minister and hailing a solid economy and greater clout for a country restored to the international mainstream three decades after Franco's dictatorship ended, had taken a tough line against ETA.
Protesters shouted "Liar" and "Get our troops out of Iraq" at the PP's leading candidate Mariano Rajoy when he voted."

"AP: Madrid Suspect Linked to 9/11 Figure" (Andrew Selsky, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/14)
"One of the three Moroccans arrested in the Madrid train bombings is linked to a man jailed in Spain for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11 attack in the United States, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press. It was the latest suggestion that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist group may have been involved in the bombings.
A Sept. 17, 2003 indictment named Jamal Zougam, 30, as a "follower" of Imad Yarkas, who was jailed for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Zougam has been arrested in the Madrid bombings. Yarkas, who has used the alias Abu Dahdah, remains in Spanish custody."

"Gaza withdrawal worries residents" (Soroya Sarhaddi Nelson, Knight Ridder/The Miami Herald, 2004/03/14)
A report from Gaza: "Many Palestinians here are brooding about the prospect of a sudden Israeli withdrawal, even though they have fought for the removal of Jewish settlers and soldiers for years.
Armed militant organizations such as Hamas built their empires on resistance to Israel, attracting legions of youths willing to die in often-futile attacks aimed at forcing Israelis out of the Gaza Strip, which Israel seized from Egypt in 1967.
But now that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears poised to leave this 139-square-mile rectangle and its scattered Jewish settlements, which are difficult and expensive to defend, many Gaza residents are uncomfortable with the prospect and deeply suspicious of Israeli intentions.
Few of the 1.3 million Gazans have experienced life without a ''Zionist enemy'' to fight. Amid factional fighting and Israeli attacks, the Palestinian Authority is ill-prepared to take control should Israel leave. Many Palestinians say they worry that the evacuation is aimed at starting a Palestinian civil war.
Continuing Israeli military strikes and land grabs add to their doubts.
''If Sharon considered this withdrawal as a benefit for Palestinians, he wouldn't be doing it,'' said Talal Okal, a Gaza-based analyst for Al Ayyam, a leading Palestinian newspaper. 'The price is very high for this withdrawal, but we don't have a choice. It's something that is being imposed on us.''' (Hat tip: Tim Blair.)

"Suicide Attacks Leave 11 Dead in Israel" (Peter Enav, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/14)
"Two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in this closely guarded Israeli port [Ashdod] Sunday, killing nine Israelis and wounding 18 in the first deadly attack on a strategic installation in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The bombings raised serious questions about Israel's vulnerability. Police said the bombers may have been trying to blow themselves up near chemicals, causing far greater loss of life.
The bombers were identified as residents of a Gaza refugee camp and would be the first militants from Gaza to infiltrate into Israel during the current round of violence. The volatile coastal strip is surrounded by a fence and subject to stringent security."

"At Least 15 Dead in Syria Soccer Riots" (AP/The Guardian, 2004/03/14)
"Two days of riots that started with fights between rival Kurd and Arab soccer team fans killed at least 15 people and injured more than 100 in northeastern Syria, officials said Sunday.
There also were reports of new violence in the sensitive Kurdish region, which borders Kurdish enclaves in Turkey and Iraq. One official said the death toll was 18; Turkish media said as many as 49 people were killed.
Syrian state broadcasting reported late Saturday that the government had appointed a committee to investigate the rioting, a rare burst of public unrest in this strictly controlled Arab nation."

"Betrayed by the left's callous indifference" (Nick Cohen, The Scotsman, 2004/03/14)
Cohen on the current left's inability to stand up against — or even acknowledge — fascism (a case in point is The Guardian's editorial yesterday: "We need to get beyond the them and us, the good guys and the bad guys"):
"Instead of offering fraternal support to Saddam's victims, the left has turned right with a remarkable sharpness.
When Bush visited Blair last autumn, it was extraordinary that 150,000 people could be persuaded to carry banners calling for the immediate withdrawal of Anglo-American forces. Saddam was still at large and the Ba'ath Party was the only organised political force outside Kurdistan. Ending the occupation meant accepting that the fascists might return to power.
Liberal opinion has refused to take sides in a struggle between the principles it professes to hold and a fascist insurgency.
It is indifferent. It has to be indifferent, because if it faces up to what Ba'athism was, the moral certainty of the anti-war position crumbles. ...
Like a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, liberal opinion has to stay absolutely focused on the reasons why Britain went to war. Anything else undermines its certainty. If you doubt me, ask yourself: where are the support groups for people struggling to build democracy in Iraq, the invitations to Iraqi democrats to address left-wing meetings and write for left-wing journals, the petitions and the fundraising campaigns? Notice, too, that uniquely among modern resistance movements, the leaders of the anti-fascist resistance to Saddam are either denigrated or, more usually, ignored, by everyone from the African National Congress to Sir David Hare."

"Traitors in our fight for survival" (Andrew Bolt, The Herald Sun, 2004/03/14)
"How evil that while Spain drags out its dead, our academics and arts bosses roll out a blood-red carpet for apologists for similar terror.
From Madrid came pictures of what's left of the trains and people who were blown up by bombers possibly from al-Qaida.
"I saw a baby torn to bits," said one survivor, Ana Maria Mayor, her voice cracking.
That baby was the target of these killers, and so were the thousands of innocents — mothers, fathers, children — who travelled with her or him.
Sorry. There's the word "innocent" that so irks Yvonne Ridley, in Melbourne this week as a guest of Monash University.
You may have heard her on Jon Faine's show on ABC 774. She's the British journalist who converted to Islam and worked for the extremist al Jazeera Islamic news service.
What you didn't hear on the show, however, is that Ridley reportedly told a Belfast meeting of the Islamic Students Association in January there was no innocent Israeli when it came to suicide bombings. Not even children.
"There are no innocents in this war," she raged, because children could grow up to be Israeli soldiers. And talk of "suicide bombers" was "insulting": "Let's call suicide bombers by their proper name, which is martyrs."
This is a woman who wed a colonel in the terrorist PLO, and who says the jailed Abu Hamza, spiritual head in Europe of al-Qaida, is "so nice" that "I don't have a problem with him".
Yet here she is as the guest of Monash University's funky School of Social and Political Inquiry, one of those taxpayer-funded bodies devoted to the trivial and recklessly perverse — a true sign of our decline into barbarity."

"All That's Left Is Violence" (Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post, 2004/03/14)
"Some in Spain have argued that if an Islamic group proves to be the culprit, Spaniards will blame Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. It was his support for America and the war in Iraq that invited the wrath of the fundamentalists. But other recent targets of Islamic militants have been Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, not one of which supported the war or sent troops into Iraq in the after-war. Al Qaeda's declaration of jihad had, as its first demand, the withdrawal of American troops from Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden does not seem to have noticed, but the troops are gone — yet the jihad continues. The reasons come and go, the violence endures."

"Dignity and defiance" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2004/03/14)
"By one of those pieces of bad timing that journalists dread, the Madrid bombings coincided with the publication in the Spectator magazine (edited by the Conservative MP, Boris Johnson) of an article by the newly knighted former editor of the Times, Simon Jenkins. This was an argument ridiculing the Prime Minister for his recent Sedgefield speech on terror, and accompanied by the headline, 'Nothing to fear but fear itself'.
Mr Blair, argued Jenkins, was really just a second-class intellect, 'roaming the world in search of dragons'. But actually there weren't any. That stuff with the tanks at Heathrow and the smallpox terror alert, had all been staged in order to 'prepare the country for George Bush's invasion of Iraq'. But such a threat of terrorists capable of killing masses of people was a chimera." (See also: "Nothing to fear but fear itself" (Simon Jenkins, The Spectator, from the 2004/03/13 issue): "Simon Jenkins says that Tony Blair's Sedgefield speech was just another attempt by the Prime Minister to scare us into believing that we are all in mortal danger. We are not.")

"It's a world war" (The Jerusalem Post, 2004/03/14)
"From Bali, Casablanca, and Manhattan to Moscow, New Delhi, and Madrid, the evidence is too vast, clear, and appalling to ignore: The world is at war. ...
Spain and the rest of Europe must understand that, just like last century's threat to their future was fascism, this century it is the militant form of Islam, and that just like Nazism's in its time, the jihad's excuses for its mass-murders are not even worth a hearing. Europe must concede it is at war, and has no choice but to fight it until it is won.
The jihadis see Europe and America as a common enemy against which they hope to play divide and conquer. The longer Europe waits to join with America in common cause, the more the war will escalate and spread, including within Europe. The sooner Europe joins the fight, the sooner these massacres will end and the cause of freedom and human rights will prosper."

"The world at war" (The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/03/14)
"As one of the Islamic fanatics who inspired al-Qa'eda said: "We are not trying to negotiate with you. We are trying to destroy you." The Islamic terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center, those who bombed Bali, and whoever it is in Spain who has now demonstrated a comparable appetite for indiscriminate killing, do not have specific political goals, in the way that terrorists such as the IRA or Eta have.
They wish to destroy the whole basis of Western society — secular democracy, individual liberty, equality before the law, toleration, and pluralism — and replace it with a theocracy based on a perverted and dogmatic interpretation of the Koran. ...
Yesterday The Guardian published a leading article providing an object lesson in how not to tackle this global threat. "We need to get beyond them and us, the good guys and the bad guys," opined the newspaper — which also called for "an international conference to bridge the divide between Muslim and Christian communities".
The idea that we should try to appease the terrorists is wrong in every respect. It would not protect us, for nothing acts as a greater incentive to terrorists than the realisation that their target is weak and frightened. And it would only weaken the institutions we are trying to protect, and demonstrate to the terrorists that we are - as they frequently allege - too decadent and craven to defend the way of life to which we claim to be attached." (Hat tip: Larry Allen. See also: "Homage to the dead" (The Guardian, 2004/03/13): "An international conference, to bridge the divide between Muslim and Christian communities, should be one first step. But there are many others. We need to take the fight against terror out of America's hands. We need to get beyond the them and us, the good guys and the bad guys, and seek a genuinely collective response. Europe should seize the moment that America failed to grasp.")

"Al-Qaeda 'claims Madrid bombings'" (BBC News, 2004/03/14)
"A videotape has been found which suggests al-Qaeda was involved in Thursday's Madrid bombings, Spain's interior minister has said.
Angel Acebes said a man identifying himself as al-Qaeda's military spokesman in Europe claimed the attacks, which killed 200 people.
The minister says the authenticity of the videotape has not been verified. ...
In the video, a man speaking Arabic with a Moroccan accent says the attacks were revenge for Spain's "collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies", the government said.
Spanish officials said the man called himself Abu Dujan al-Afgani, but the officials said the name was not known to the intelligence services.
Police found the video following an anonymous tip-off to a Madrid television station.
He mentions Iraq and Afghanistan in particular and says more blood will flow if the injustices do not end.
"You want life and we want death," he said in the tape." (See also: "Full text: 'Al-Qaeda' Madrid claim" (BBC News, 2004/03/14): "You love life and we love death, which gives an example of what the Prophet Muhammad said. ... This is a statement by the military spokesman for al-Qaeda in Europe, Abu Dujan al-Afghani.")

Saturday, March 13, 2004

News and commentary:

"Qa'idat al-Jihad, Iraq, and Madrid: The First Tile in the Domino Effect?" (Reuven Paz, PRISM, 2004/03/13)
"The most detailed and explicit statement against Spain's involvement in the Iraqi issue, by elements of Qa'idat al-Jihad, appeared in December 2003, in an analysis of the situation in Iraq and the role of the Mujahidin there. The analysis is found in 50 page book, titled "Iraqi Jihad, hopes and risks: Analysis of the reality and visions for the future, and actual steps in the path of the blessed Jihad." ...
About 8 pages of the book "Iraq al-Jihad" are dedicated to Spain. They include a detailed analysis of Spanish politics, personal ambitions of the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, and the political balance between the right and left wings, towards the coming elections for Parliament, in 14 March 2004. The main motive in this analysis is how to create a change in the Spanish government that enforces the withdrawal of the Spanish forces from Iraq; significant decrease of the Spanish support for the United States by popular pressures; opposition in Italy and Poland to the presence of their troops in Iraq; and creating pressure in the United Kingdom against the alliance of their government with the Americans. A kind of domino effect, in which the starting
point is Spain:

Therefore we say that in order to force the Spanish government to withdraw from Iraq the resistance should hit its forces by hurting attacks against its forces. This will be accompanied by a propaganda campaign, which would present the Iraqi reality. It is a must to exploit the coming general elections in Spain in March 2004.
We think that the Spanish government could not afford more than two or three attacks for the most, after which it will have to withdraw, as a result of the popular pressures. If its troops would remain in Iraq despite the attacks — the victory of the Socialist Party is almost secured, and the withdrawal of the Spanish forces will be on its elections' agenda.
The withdrawal of the Spanish or Italian forces from Iraq would serve as a huge pressure on the British presence [in Iraq] a pressure that Toni Blair would not be able to overcome.
Hence, the domino tiles would fall quickly. Yet, the basic problem of how to drop the first tile is still there."

"Who's Next after Madrid?" (DEBKAfile, 2004/03/13)
"According to data gathered by our experts, from December 2002, three months before the US invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda began issuing a stream of fatwas designating its main operating theatres in Europe. Spain was on the list, but not the first.
1. Turkey was first. Islamic fundamentalists were constrained to recover the honor and glory of the Ottoman caliphates which were trampled by Christian forces in 1917 in the last days of World War I.
2. Spain followed. There, al Qaeda set Muslims the goal of recovering their lost kingdom in Andalusia.
3. Italy and its capital were third. Muslim fundamentalists view Rome as a world center of heresy because of the Vatican and the Pope.
4. Vienna came next because the advancing Muslim armies were defeated there in 1683 before they could engulf the heart of Europe."

"Spain arrests five over bombings" (BBC News, 2004/03/13)
"Spanish authorities have arrested five suspects in connection with the Madrid blasts which killed 200 people.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes told a news conference that the arrested men were three Moroccans and two Indians. ...
The five suspects were arrested in different parts of the capital city, and were handed to the court which is in charge of investigating the attacks, the minister said.
"Early this afternoon, members of the National Police corps made five arrests, three of citizens of Moroccan nationality, two citizens of Indian nationality, and there are two other Spaniards of Indian origin from whom statements are being taken now," he said.
'All of them [have been arrested] for suspected involvement in the sale and falsification of the mobile [phone] and [pay] card which were found in the bag [containing a bomb] which failed to explode.'"

"Government under fire after bombs" (AFP/The Australian, 2004/03/13)
Here's an idea — let the terrorists decide all important political decisions: "More than a thousand people held a protest in Madrid today to blame this week's bombs in the capital on the government's unpopular decision to support the US war on Iraq.
Shouting "The bombs on Iraq have exploded in Madrid" and "Resign", the crowd gathered in front of the ruling Popular Party's headquarters but were held back by police in riot gear.
The demonstration, on the eve of general elections, came amid conflicting theories as to who was to blame for Thursday's blasts on crowded commuter trains that killed 200 people and wounded nearly 1500."

"Report: Spanish Intelligence Sees Muslims Behind Attack" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/13)
"Spain's intelligence service is "99 percent certain" that radical Muslims and not the Basque separatist group ETA are responsible for the train bombings that killed 200 people, a Spanish radio station reported on Saturday.
Private radio SER, whose owners have links to the opposition Socialist Party, said the National Intelligence Center (CNI) believes the evidence points to an Islamic group, and that 10 to 15 people left bombs on the trains and fled, the radio said."

"Iraq One Year Later" (Robert Kagan and William Kristol, The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/03/22 issue)
"This administration did not do a particularly good job of preparing for postwar Iraq before the invasion, and it has not always made the right decisions on how to proceed politically, diplomatically, and militarily in the reconstruction of Iraq. But the mere fact that the White House has not sought an early exit timed to our presidential election has made it possible to recover from these mistakes — many of which, to be fair, are unavoidable in a complex undertaking like nation-building. Also to its
credit, the administration has shown enough flexibility to abandon favored plans when they have proved unworkable. But the most important thing the administration has done is to make clear, both in word and in deed, its determination to see our mission in Iraq completed.
For this we believe President Bush deserves enormous credit, and perhaps sole credit. Everyone knew — or thought they knew — last fall that the politically expedient thing was to begin a serious drawdown of American forces. But the president has proven remarkably stubborn on the question of Iraq. He has not decreased troops in an election year. He has not offered the American people a plan for getting out this year or next year or offered any timetable at all. In fact, he has done nothing in Iraq to strengthen his political prospects at home, except perhaps to realize the deeper truth that he is better off in November if Iraq is better off, no matter how many American troops remain. On this question, at least, there should be no doubt that the president has so far put the national interest above political expediency."

"The Year of Living Dangerously" (Michael Ignatieff, The New York Times Magazine, from the 2004/03/14 issue)
"The press coverage from Baghdad is so gloomy that it's hard to remember that a dictator is gone, oil is pumping again and the proposed interim constitution contains strong human rights guarantees. We seem not even to recognize freedom when we see it: Shiites by the hundreds of thousands walking barefoot to celebrate in the holy city of Karbala, Iraqis turning up at town meetings and trying out democracy for the first time, newspapers and free media sprouting everywhere, daily demonstrations in the streets. If freedom is the only goal that redeems all the dying, there is more real freedom in Iraq than at any time in its history. And why should we suppose that freedom will be anything other than messy, chaotic, even frightening? Why should we be surprised that Iraqis are using their freedom to tell us to go home? Wouldn't we do just the same?
Freedom alone, of course, is not enough. Whether freedom turns into long-term constitutional order depends on whether a vicious resistance that does not hesitate to pit Muslim against Muslim, Iraqi against Iraqi, can drive an administration, fearful about its re-election, into drawing down U.S. forces. If the United States falters now, civil war is entirely possible. If it falters, it will betray everyone who has died for something better."

"Are We Still 'All American'?" (Jean-Marie Colombani, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/03/13)
Krauthammer has already shredded this article to pieces, but it is notable how much Colombani manages to get wrong in such a short article. In fact the article is brimming with worn-out tropes or memes — from the allegation that "Bush lied" ("now publicly established by recent investigations" no less) over the use of unilateral for something truly multilateral to the preposterous proposition that the world was pro-American before the war in Iraq:
"What George Bush is criticized for is very simple: not only to have lied about the weapons of mass destruction — the official pretext for the war — as now publicly established by recent investigations; but also to have swayed American opinion, and tried to sway European opinions (much closer to one another than one would think from the different positions of their governments, with Paris and Berlin on one side, and London, Madrid and Warsaw on the other) into believing that the war on Iraq was part of the battle against al Qaeda and international terrorism. Everyone clearly sees, and now admits, that this link did not exist. Al Qaeda's presence in Iraq today is in fact a consequence of the war, and not the opposite.
So by introducing this distortion, Mr. Bush has diverted the attention from a cause — the fight against al Qaeda — that called for solidarity, and has taken a path — the unilateral war on Iraq — that has led throughout the world to the rebirth of an incredible current of hostility against the U.S., which no one should rejoice at. On the contrary, it should cause concern." (See also: "Tripe a la Mode" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2004/03/12))

"Possible al-Qaida Link Found in Attack" (AP/The Guardian, 2004/03/13)
"Norwegian researchers have found documents that could link the al-Qaida network to terror bombings that killed 200 people in Madrid, Spain.
Experts from the government's Norwegian Defense Research Establishment said the documents found on an Arabic-language Web site last year suggest Spain as a possible terror target because the country had been part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
"We must make maximum use of the proximity to the elections in Spain in March next year. Spain can stand a maximum of two or three attacks before they will withdraw from Iraq," the documents said, according to daily newspaper VG. ...
Researcher Thomas Hegghammer told the paper the researchers first thought the 42-page document referred to attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.
"But the fact that they specifically mention the election in Spain, makes us have to see this in the light of the action in Madrid, three days before the election," Hegghammer said.
Norwegian Defense Research Establishment spokeswoman Anne-Lisa Hammer told The Associated Press the researchers would not speak to journalists Saturday, but added that the Norwegian reports were accurate."

"Iraqi Policemen Tied to Killing of 2 Americans" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2004/03/13)
"American officials said today that four men arrested in connection with the killing of two American civilians working for the American occupation authority were apparently members of the new 70,000-member American-trained Iraqi police force.
A fifth man seized in the killings was a former member of the police force under Saddam Hussein, an American spokesman said, while the sixth man was described as a civilian. The killings occurred on a road near the Shiite holy city of Karbala on Tuesday, when gunmen pursued the Americans and their Iraqi interpreter and raked them with automatic rifle fire.
The slayings have shocked the Americans here, who now face the possibility that the men to whom they turn for cooperation in fighting the insurgency may include insurgent infiltrators or those paid to do their work."

Friday, March 12, 2004

News and commentary:

"Hundreds of thousands of people march..."
(AP/EFE, 2004/03/12)
"Hundreds of thousands of people march down a main street of Madrid, Friday March 12, 2004, during a demonstration to protest the numerous bomb attacks on trains in the Spanish capital Thursday that killed 198 people and injured another 1,400."

"Millions fill Spanish streets to rage at Madrid attacks" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/12)
"More than eight million people took to Spain's streets in an unprecedented show of grief and fury at bomb attacks the day before on Madrid commuter trains that killed 199 people, police said.
The demonstrations — vast seas of umbrellas in rain-soaked cities and towns — were by far the biggest the country has ever seen, easily beating the previous record set in February last year when the population protested its government's support of the US war on Iraq.
"A people united will never be defeated," the crowd roared in unison in Madrid, where police said 2.3 million people had gathered. ...
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was greeted with both boos and cheers at the Madrid demonstration in a sign of the competing perceptions as to who carried out the attacks, and why.
Juan-Jo Bermudez, 26, one of a group of students giving out flyers during the Madrid rally said "the Spanish government's been manipulating us for a long time" and noted it was "extremely reluctant to admit it might have been Islamists."
In Barcelona, where 1.5 million demonstrators turned out, Spain's deputy prime minister, Rodrigo Rato, was forced to leave the march with the regional head of the ruling Popular Party after parts of the crowd turned on them, yelling 'murderers, murderers.'"

"US warns NKorea to stop exporting dangerous weapons or face world action" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/12)
"The United States warned North Korea that it would face action from the international community if it does not stop exporting dangerous weapons and other illegal activities.
"If North Korea will not act, it will find the United States, its allies and other partners equally prepared to respond with measures that ensure North Korea cannot threaten our countries or international stability," said Mitchell Reiss, the department's director of policy planning."

"The Urgent Need to Study Islamic Anti-Semitism" (Neil J. Kressel, The Chronicle Review, 2004/03/12)
An essay on the silence surrounding Islamic Anti-Semitism:
"Yet social scientists have essentially remained mum concerning a problem that President Bush, in a speech in November, has placed high on the world agenda. "Europe's leaders, and all leaders," he said in London, "should strongly oppose anti-Semitism, which poisons public debates over the future of the Middle East."
The image of the president of the United States pressing ahead in the battle against bigotry while social scientists lag far behind is, to say the least, unusual — especially when one considers the mountains of research that have addressed past anti-Semitism and racism in Europe and the United States.
An examination of PsycINFO, a leading online index of psychological studies, shows 458 entries on anti-Semitism since 1940, 99 of which have appeared during the past 10 years. But not a single one deals directly with hatred of Jews by Muslims or Arabs in the contemporary world. At most, a few psychologically oriented authors, like Mortimer Ostow, have touched tangentially on Muslim anti-Semitism in studies focusing on Jew-hatred in other contexts, and a few political historians, like Bernard Lewis and Robert Wistrich, have offered some social-scientific speculation on the topic.
An analysis of Sociological Abstracts tells much the same story. Since 1963, 130 entries in the database have dealt with anti-Semitism, but none center on the hatred of Jews among Arab Muslims or others in the broader Muslim world." (Note: For an exception to the rule, see also: "Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger" (Robert Wistrich, The American Jewish Committe, April 2002))

"Better than empire" (Philip Bobbitt, Financial Times, 2004/03/12)
An interesting essay on whether America is an empire or not:
"It is not simply that current international law and the institutions it has created cannot assure international security, it is that they are a positive barrier to such security because they are used to hamstring the one state with the power and willingness to intervene on behalf of world order. The reason imperialist Othellos are drawn to hegemonical daydreaming is not that they actually want to take up imperial responsibilities for economic development and governance, nor because they relish sending American youths to hostile and unpacifiable provinces, but because they know that international institutions are currently incapable of maintaining, much less achieving, stable security environments. The reason the imperialist has faith in unilateralism is because he has no faith in multilateralism and, after Bosnia, Lebanon and Palestine, who can blame him?" (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

"Mass graves testify to Saddam's atrocities" (John Powers, UPI, 2004/03/12)
"Now another pandemic of mass killings is being documented, recorded and widely ignored. This time the perpetrator is Saddam Hussein, whose Baathist Party was said to be based on that of the Nazis, and accounts of its killing efficiency continue to flow to the Coalition Provisional Authority. ...
There was no end to the gruesome creativity of Saddam's secret police. Saddam's methods included using hammers to break bones, ripping out fingernails, amputating limbs with a chain saw, crucifixion, throwing live victims in acid baths and ovens, cutting loose wild dogs to attack victims, raping women in the presence of their children and husbands, cutting off a penis or a breast, and stripping children naked and forcing their parents to watch as they were stung by hornets and scorpions. The graves contain evidence of these and other sadistic crimes. ...
[Jim Prince, president of the Democracy Council] also visited the torture chambers with victims, and remembers: "To me it became intensely personal. I was looking at somebody that experienced this." He says it changed his mind about the war in Iraq. Prior to seeing Saddam's legacy of brutality firsthand, he thought a peaceful resolution to the Iraq crisis had been possible, but after seeing the evidence he had a change of heart. He describes why:
"You come away from these fields and torture chambers — the senselessness of it — having seen pure evil and knowing that to do nothing in the face of such evil is to perpetuate it. It's not a question of weapons of mass destruction, it's a question of evil, and if you let it continue, you have to take responsibility for what's happening. You can't just turn a blind eye." (See also: "Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves" (USAID, February 2004))

"Le Monde switches sides" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/03/12)
"An encouraging sign in France. Le Monde's editorial today, "Tragedie Europeenne," ends with the following sentiment: "If she did not know it yet, she knows it now: Europe is part of the battlefield of hyper-terrorism." Then there's this astonishing piece of black-and-white analysis: "Nothing, evidently, no cause, no context, no supposedly political objective, justifies this kind of [large scale] terrorism." Now they tell us. Whatever happened to all those sophisticated European "gray areas"? With any luck, they died in the wreckage of Madrid's trains. Here's another money quote from the French daily:

"If the trail back to Al-Qaida is confirmed, Europeans should rethink the war against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, as did the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001. . . . Will March 11 have in Europe the same effect as September 11 in the US? After having spontaneously expressed their solidarity with the Americans, the Europeans, preoccupied with other forms of terrorism, found that the Americans had become consumed with paranoia. Contrary to the latter in 2001, Europeans today discover not only their own vulnerability, but also that they are confronted with a new phenomenon, mass terrorism. Like the Americans, they may now be forced to admit that a new form of world war has been declared, not against Islam but against totalitarian and violent fundamentalism. That the world's democracies are confronted with the same menace and should act together, using military means and waging at the same time a war for their ideals."

One word: enfin."

"Thicker than Oil" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/03/12)
"Surely one of the most astounding intellectual trends in our lifetime has been this transmogrification of religious fascists and Middle East autocrats — the minions of Saddam, Arafat, Khaddafi, or the Iranian mullahs — into some sort of exploited peoples worthy of Western forbearance for quite horrific dictatorships, theocracies, and all the assorted pathologies that we have to come to associate with the modern Middle East. The way things were going, belonging to Hamas or Hezbollah soon might have earned one affirmative-action status on an American campus."

"Politics by Other Means" (Benny Morris, The New Republic, 2004/03/12)
A devastating review of Ilan Pappe's "A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples":
"Pappe dedicates his book to "Ido and Yonatan, my two lovely boys. May they live not only in a modern Palestine, but also in a peaceful one." His choice of the term "Palestine" rather than "Israel" would seem to indicate that Pappe is looking forward to a polity that will emerge after Israel's disestablishment or demise. He obviously supports a single bi-national state in all of Palestine. And he is no fool. He must know what such a state will look like. ...
Within a decade or so of its creation, the bi-national state would have an Arab majority. I find it difficult to imagine what sort of life Pappe really believes that he and his children and grandchildren can expect as members of a Jewish minority in an Arab state. After all, the Jewish minorities in the Islamic Arab world have fared poorly over the centuries, always subject to second-class citizenship and often to brutal oppression and massacre; as late as the 1940s they suffered from discriminatory laws and pogroms (in Baghdad, Tripoli, Aden); and by the 1960s they had all fled, or been expelled from, their native lands. Iraq, with one hundred thirty-five thousand Jews in 1948, has today about fifty Jews; Egypt, once with seventy-five thousand, has about one hundred; Morocco, with two hundred sixty-five thousand in 1948, has about six thousand. For all practical purposes, these countries have been ethnically cleansed of their Jews. Almost no Jews at all are left in Yemen or Algeria, and none, as far as I know, live in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Oman, Kuwait, or the United Arab Emirates. ...
So I doubt that Ido and Yonatan will enjoy life in their new Muslim Arab-dominated environment. My prediction is that, whatever their politics, they will quickly repair to Europe or America. And if, contrary to logic, they stick it out, they will enjoy an existence infinitely less free, creative, and pleasant than that currently enjoyed by Israel's Arab minority citizens. This truly is an appalling book. Anyone interested in the real history of Palestine/Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would do well to run vigorously in the opposite direction."

"Spain's 9/11" (Walid Phares, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/03/12)
As Ralph Peters points out, it "happened on the 2 1/2-year anniversary of the attacks on Manhattan and Washington - 30 months to the day.":
"The Aznar Government still sees ETA as a main suspect despite the fact that Basque leaders have stated throughout the day that the mostly leftist group "won't strike the means used by thousands of workers." Experts are hesitant to go either way. Old timers remember the Oklahoma City syndrome, when Terrorism "from Middle Eastern origin" was prematurely accused. Hence, without evidence, few attempt to connect the Jihadist dots. Journalistically, they may have a point, but in a post September 11 era, the matrix has shifted.
Al Qaida has declared and has been conducting a global war against the "infidels." It has threatened Spain repetitively in the past and in recent months. It has developed cells in the Mediterranean country and has already conducted activities. Finally, strikes have taken place in the capital, with all the techniques of the Bin Laden tactical manuals. And furthermore, a statement was released via a publication which has been pioneering in breaking similar material in the past. With all that hub of facts, there is little space for doubt, unless proven otherwise: al Qaida, its subcontractors, or both combined have executed the first major Jihad strike in Europe.
What the world has seen today may well have been the 9/11 of Spain. Ironically, it took place on 3/11."

"Tripe a la Mode" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2004/03/12)
Krauthammer on an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jean-Marie Colombani, who also "wrote the famous Sept. 12, 2001, Le Monde editorial titled 'We Are All American'":
"Colombani glories in Europe's post-Sept. 11 "solidarity" with America: "Let us remember here the involvement of French and German soldiers, among other European nationalities, in the operations launched in Afghanistan to . . . free the Afghans."
Come again? The French arrived in Mazar-e Sharif after it fell, or as military analyst Jay Leno put it, "to serve as advisers to the Taliban on how to surrender properly." Afghanistan was liberated by America acting practically unilaterally, with an even smaller coalition than it had in Iraq — Britain and Australia, with the rest of the world holding America's coat.
But then came Iraq. "The problem was not so much the war itself, but the fact that it was launched without U.N. approval," Colombani explains.
Rubbish. The Kosovo war was launched without U.N. approval and France joined it. Only two wars have ever been launched with U.N. approval: the Korean War (an accident of the Soviets having walked out of the Security Council on another matter) and the Persian Gulf War.
It is touching to hear such legalistic objections to deposing a man who has killed more Muslims than any person on Earth — particularly when the objection is offered from a pose of superior international morality from a country whose commandos once blew up a Greenpeace ship monitoring French nuclear tests in the South Pacific." (UPDATE: See also Colobani's article: "Are We Still 'All American'?" (Jean-Marie Colombani, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/03/13))

"Krugman Unplugged" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2004/03/12)
A kind of revealing moment as Krugman enters the bizarro world on air: "On Australia's Lateline program, Paul Krugman speaks his mind:

There was actually a kind of revealing moment recently - Bush gave an interview, was more or less dragooned into an interview on Meet The Press and the interviewer said: "Well, what if you lose the election?" And he said: "I'm not going to lose the election."

And the interviewer said: "But what if you do lose?" He said: "I'm not going lose the election." The possibility that they just would not regard it as a legitimate thing if someone else were to take power. ...

What did Krugman expect Bush to say? "I am fully prepared to lose, and if I do, I expect I'll be sent into exile on the island of Elba"? Among Krugman’s other terrified comments:

The vast right-wing conspiracy isn't a theory, it's quite clearly visible to anyone who takes a little care to do his home work.

Quite a few people as part of the Republican movement have said that God chose Bush to be President. I don't know whether they would accept the idea that mere mortal men should choose for him not to be President for another four years.

I guess we'll find out when "they" cancel the election and install Bush as God's official President-for-life. Krugman is insane." (See also: "Krugman calls on Bush to reign in the red" (ABC Lateline, 2004/03/11))

"My Hell in Camp X-Ray" (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, The Daily Mirror, 2004/03/12)
And, of course, he just "accidentally strayed into Afghanistan":
"A British captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its full horror — and reveals how prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim inmates.
Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta. ...
He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in hand and leg cuffs with metal links which cut into the skin.
Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and open to the elements — giving no privacy or protection from the rats, snakes and scorpions loose around the American base.
He claims punishment beatings were handed out by guards known as the Extreme Reaction Force. They waded into inmates in full riot-gear, raining blows on them.
Prisoners faced psychological torture and mind-games in attempts to make them confess to acts they had never committed. Even petty breaches of rules brought severe punishment.
Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more drastic than required, claimed Jamal.
A diet of foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date left inmates malnourished.
But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use of vice girls to torment the most religiously devout detainees.
Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies.
The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation." (See also: "Cuba? It was great, say boys freed from US prison camp" (James Astill, The Guardian, 2004/03/06))

"'It looked like the platform of death. I've never seen anything like it'" (Giles Tremlett et al., The Guardian, 2004/03/12)
"The worst carnage was caused by two bombs placed in El Pozo railway station in the south of the capital where a double-decker, commuter train had just arrived.
Rescuers counted at least 67 bodies strewn across the platforms. One body was blown onto the station's roof. The two blasts were in separate directions, apparently designed to kill people on both platforms and beyond. One explosion ripped through a 15ft-high brick wall, gouging out a vast hole 10ft across. Corpses were entangled in the shredded metal wreckage of carriages.
"It looked like a platform of death," firefighter Juan Redondo said. "I've never seen anything like it before. The recovery of the bodies was very difficult. We didn't know what to pick up."
Beatriz Martin, a doctor who tended to victims at El Pozo, said: "On many bodies, we could hear the person's mobile phones ringing as we carted them away." ...
Another survivor at Atocha railway station said: "You don't know what it's like to get off a train and see burnt people, people missing limbs, young people, children ...
"It was easy to see who was dead, so we set about covering the wounded with coats, scarves, whatever we had. It was horrific, just horrific."
Antonio Villacañas, who was travelling on one of the trains, told La Razón: '[After the explosion] panic took over ... There were bodies strewn around the carriages, the tracks, and some people had even been burnt to a cinder — carbonised in their seats.'"

Thursday, March 11, 2004

News and commentary:

"Demonstrators hold up their hands as a signal to stop..."
(Eduardo Abad, AP/EFE, 2004/03/11)
"Demonstrators hold up their hands as a signal to stop, during a demonstration in Seville, southern Spain, Thursday March 11, 2004, after ten bombs exploded in Madrid during the morning rush hour, Thursday March 11, 2004, killing at least 170 people and injuring hundreds more."

"Purported Qaeda Letter Says U.S. Strike Near Ready" (Reuters, 2004/03/11)
"A letter purporting to come from Osama bin Laden's militant Islamist al Qaeda network said a big attack on the United States was in the final stages of preparation, a London-based Arabic newspaper said on Thursday. "We bring the good news to Muslims of the world that the expected 'Winds of Black Death' strike against America is now in its final stage...90 percent (ready) and God willing near," the letter said."

"Al-Qaeda claims Madrid, Istanbul bombings: paper" (AFP, 2004/03/11)
"A statement attributed to Al-Qaeda and sent to the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi claimed responsibility for the deadly series of bombings in Madrid and a suicide attack on a masonic lodge in Istanbul two days earlier.
"The death squad (of the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades) succeeded in penetrating the crusader European depths and striking one of the pillars of the crusader alliance — Spain — with a painful blow," said the statement, signed "Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades/Al-Qaeda" and dated March 11. ...
Thursday's strike in Madrid "was a part of the settling of old scores with crusader Spain, America's ally in its war against Islam," said the statement, a copy of which was sent to AFP by the newspaper. ...
"Where is America, O Aznar? Who is going to protect you, Britain, Japan, Italy and other collaborators from us?" the statement added." (UPDATE: MEMRI has a translation and critical analysis of the statement: "The Alleged Al-Qa'ida Statement of Responsibility for the Madrid Bombings: Translation and Commentary" (Yigal Carmon, MEMRI, 2004/03/12). See also: "Letter claims terror brigade responsible" (Gethin Chamberlain, The Scotsman, 2004/03/12): "'We, at the Abu Hafs brigades, have not felt sad for the so-called civilians,' the statement in an apparent reference to the hundreds of casualties. 'Is it OK for you to kill our children, women, old people and youth in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Kashmir? And is it forbidden to us to kill yours?'")

"Spain Says Suspect Van Had Arabic Tapes" (Reuters, 2004/03/11)
"Spain's interior minister said a suspect van had been found on Thursday near Madrid, scene of bombings that killed 190 people, containing seven detonators and a tape in Arabic language.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the tape had recordings of verses from the Koran.
Spain has so far attributed the attack to Basque separatists, but Acebes' remarks appeared to raise the possibility of a link to Islamist militants."

"Madrid bombings carry al-Qaida hallmark" (Claude Salhani, UPI, 2004/03/11)
"'It's a declaration of war against democracy,' said Pat Cox, the president of the European Parliament, of Thursday's attacks in Madrid. On that point there is no debate. What is debatable, however, is who is responsible for the senseless slaughter of innocents.
While all fingers in Spain are pointing at the Basque separatist movement ETA as the perpetrators of Thursday's atrocious train bombings that left some 186 dead and 600 wounded, the attacks carry all the markings of al-Qaida and its jihadi affiliates.
For starters the Brussels-based World Observatory of Terrorism, an independent think tank affiliated with the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, points to five major reasons that cast doubt on the involvement of ETA.
First, ETA generally warns Spanish authorities moments before launching their attacks in which civilians are likely to be harmed. This, obviously, was not the case on Thursday.
Second, ETA traditionally targets representatives of the government or the administration, such as policemen, the military, magistrates or even journalists who oppose them.
Third, ETA customarily selects "symbolic" targets, such as military barracks and administrative buildings. Although ETA's largest attack to date was in 1987 against a supermarket in Barcelona that killed 21 people, this was the exception rather than the norm.
Fourth, ETA always claims its attacks. Following any ETA bombing, ETA militants call in a claim to Spanish authorities. This failed to happen this time.
Fifth, ETA has never in the past carried out multiple attacks. According to some sources, at least 10 bombs were detonated almost simultaneously on Thursday.
On the other hand, these murderous attacks bear the traditional hallmark of al-Qaida: multiple bombs detonating a few seconds apart and programmed to cause the largest possible number of human casualties."

"The new fascism" (Denis MacShane, The Guardian, 2004/03/11)
Denis MacShane is minister for Europe and MP for Rotherham:
"'No pasaran' was the message of those defending ballot-box democracy during the Spanish civil war. As the full horror of the Madrid atrocity unfolds, surely the time has come to unite against terrorism — the new fascism of the 21st century, wherever it takes place. On Sunday, millions of Spaniards will vote freely to chose a government. Today we see a monstrous assault on European democracy and all of Europe must stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Spain as they find themselves in the front line against the evil of world terrorism. ...
Those who find ways of justifying terrorism, who can talk of understanding the motives of terrorist actions, need to think hard and think differently. No progress in human affairs will ever be built on the blood of innocent people.
Today, we are all Spanish."

"Two people injured by an explosion..."
(Jose Huesca, AP/EFE, 2004/03/11)
"Two people injured by an explosion in a train wait for aid outside the train station of Atocha in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, March 11, 2004."

"Madrid Terror Train Blasts Kill 190" (Mar Roman, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/11)
"Panicked commuters abandoned bags and their shoes as they trampled each other to escape the Atocha terminal, where bombs struck two trains. Some fled into darkened, dangerous tunnels at the station, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains just south of Madrid's famed Prado Museum.
The bodies of the dead, some with their cellphones ringing unanswered as frantic relatives tried to contact them, were carried away by rescue workers. The wounded, faces bloodied, sat on curbs as buses were pressed into service as ambulances.
One firefighter said he saw 70 bodies along a platform at El Pozo station, just east of downtown Madrid. One corpse had been blown onto the roof.
Forty coroners worked to identify remains, the national news agency Efe said, and a steady stream of taxis carried relatives to a sprawling convention center where the bodies were taken.
A total of 10 bombs, nearly all in backpacks, exploded in a 15-minute span along nine miles of the commuter line — running from Santa Eugenia to the Madrid hub of Atocha — killing 190 people and injuring more than 1,240, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
Police found and detonated three other bombs. ...
Rescue workers were overwhelmed, said Enrique Sanchez, an ambulance driver who went to Santa Eugenia station, about six miles southeast of the Atocha station.
"There was one carriage totally blown apart. People were scattered all over the platforms. I saw legs and arms. I won't forget this ever. I've seen horror," Sanchez said."

"Scores die in Madrid bomb carnage" (BBC News, 2004/03/11)
"Powerful explosions have torn through three Madrid train stations during the morning rush hour, with latest reports speaking of 173 people killed.
Near simultaneous blasts hit Atocha station in the centre of the Spanish capital and two smaller stations.
No group has admitted responsibility but Spain's government blames Basque separatist group Eta for the attacks which come ahead of Sunday's election.
"There is no doubt Eta is responsible," said Spain's interior minister. ...
The BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that, in the absence of an Eta claim of responsibility, there will inevitably be continuing speculation about other potential perpetrators.
Spain's strong support for the US and Britain in the run-up to war with Iraq could make Spain a target in the eyes of shadowy Islamic groups, he says.
Such a suggestion has already been made by the leader of the banned Basque separatist party Batasuna, who denied that Eta could have been behind the attacks.
Arnald Otegi pointed the finger instead at what he called 'the Arab resistance.'"

"The oldest hatred revisited" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/03/11)
"Until very recently, claims of a resurgent antisemitism in Britain and Europe were vehemently denied. Jews who made these claims were paranoid, we were told, or trying to hide the 'crimes' of Ariel Sharon behind Holocaust shroud-waving. Now the line has changed. Now, we are being told that yes, there is definitely a rise in antisemitism — but it's all the fault of the Jews.
The latest example of this interesting development was published today in the Guardian in an article by Sir Max Hastings. He starts by stating: 'It is impossible to doubt that genuine anti-semitism - racial antipathy towards Jews - is resurgent in Europe and even, in some circles, becoming respectable.' ...

"If Israel persists with its current policies, and Jewish lobbies around the world continue to express solidarity with repression of the Palestinians, then genuine anti-semitism is bound to increase. Herein lies the lobbyists' recklessness. By insisting that those who denounce the Israeli state's behaviour are enemies of the Jewish people, they seek to impose a grotesque choice.

The Israeli government's behaviour to the Palestinians breeds a despair that finds its only outlet in terrorism. No one can ever criticise the Jewish diaspora for asserting Israel's right to exist. But the most important service the world's Jews can render to Israel today is to persuade its people that the only plausible result of their government's behaviour is a terrible loneliness in the world."

What are 'grotesque' and 'wicked' are surely these remarks. ... He quotes an unnamed German's 'frustration' at being prevented from venting legitimate criticisms of Israel — ah, that diabolical Jewish cabal again! — which, given the rampant Israel-phobia and Jew-hatred now being expressed in Germany and across Europe, betrays a dislocation from reality which is utterly astonishing.
Instead, he blames the Jews for their own victimisation. Alas, we've been here before. Stomach-churning, ignorant, malevolent stuff." (See also: "A grotesque choice" (Max Hastings, The Guardian, 2004/03/11))

"One nation under God" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2004/03/13 issue)
Steyn on the Post-Christian Europe vs. America, "the last religious nation in the Western world.":
"In his new book, Civilization and its Enemies, Lee Harris begins with the following observation: 'Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. That, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary.'
Very true. But other countries at other times have been made 'forgetful' by civilised order. It's the particular form of civilisation that makes this bout of forgetfulness potentially fatal. In post-Christian Europe — where fertile women who not so long ago would have had three children by the age of 24 now have one designer child at 39, where social welfare programmes depend on a growing population, where the main source of immigration is from a culture that despises secularism as weak, short-sighted narcissism — societal 'forgetfulness' isn't just a passing phase you can snap out of. In this situation, the Christian fundamentalists, Holy Rollers, born-again Bible Belters and Jesus freaks of America are the rationalists. It's the hyper-rationalists of secular Europe who are living on blind faith."

"Bring back Saddam!" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2004/03/11)
"John Pilger’s moral illness is revealed anew during an interview with the ABC's Tony Jones. ... An abbreviated version follows:

TONY JONES: John Pilger, do you still maintain that the world depends on what you call "the Iraqi resistance" to inflict a military defeat on the coalition forces?
JOHN PILGER: Well, certainly, historically, we've always depended on resistances to get rid of occupiers, to get rid of invaders. And what we have in Iraq now is I suppose the equivalent of a kind of Vichy Government being set up. And a resistance is always atrocious, it's always bloody. It always involves terrorism.
You can imagine if Australia was occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War the kind of resistance there would have been, and so on. We've seen that all over the world. Now, I think the situation in Iraq is so dire that unless the United States is defeated there that we're likely to see an attack on Iran, we're likely to see an attack on North Korea and all the way down the road it could be even an attack on China within a decade, so I think what happens in Iraq now is incredibly important.
TONY JONES: Can you approve in that context the killing of American, British or Australian troops who are in the occupying forces?
JOHN PILGER: Well yes, they're legitimate targets. They're illegally occupying a country. And I would have thought from an Iraqi's point of view they are legitimate targets, they'd have to be, sure. ...
TONY JONES: ... Can there not be a moral case made for deposing the dictator who was killing hundreds and thousands of his opponents?
JOHN PILGER: Absolutely. By the Iraqi people.

So Pilger would support the same outcome — Saddam's removal — if only it had been achieved by different means. Means that involved people unable to achieve it, on account of them all being murdered. And Pilger is a hero to the oppressed ..." (See also: "Pilger on the US and terrorism" (ABC Lateline, 2004/03/10))

"The Oil-for-Food Scandal" (Therese Raphael, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/03/11)
"There is no doubt that the U.N. relief effort in Iraq has been a global scandal. A monstrous dictator was able to turn the Oil-for-Food program into a cash cow for himself and his inner circle, leaving Iraqis further deprived as he bought influence abroad and acquired the arms and munitions that coalition forces discovered when they invaded Iraq last spring.
A U.N. culture of unaccountability is certainly also to blame. And Security Council members share responsibility for lax oversight, no doubt one reason there is so little appetite for an investigation.
But Saddam's ability to reap billions for himself, his cronies and those who proved useful to him abroad depended on individuals who were his counterparties. These deserve a full investigation if the U.N.'s credibility is to be restored and its role in Iraq and elsewhere trusted. Especially now, with the U.N. taking a more active role in Iraq, it's time we knew more about how the oil-for-food scandal was allowed to happen."

"Arafat hails cruise ship hijacker as 'martyr'" (Toby Harnden, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/03/11)
"Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, yesterday mourned the death of the "martyr" who masterminded the hijacking of a cruise ship in which a wheelchair-bound American tourist was shot dead and his body dumped overboard.
Mr Arafat's comments seem likely to cement his status as a pariah in the eyes of the Bush administration. ...
Mr Arafat risked provoking American anger by issuing a statement hailing Abbas, the leader of a splinter group called the Palestinian Liberation Front, as a national hero.
"President Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leadership, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian National Authority, mourn the martyr leader Abu al Abbas, former PLO Executive Committee Member and the Secretary-General of the PLF," it said. "The Palestinian leadership mourns him as a distinguished fighter and a national leader who devoted his life to serve his own people and his homeland."
The PLF issued a statement in Beirut that accused "the US occupation forces in Iraq" of assassinating 'commander Abu Abbas" after "arresting him without any legal justification.'"

"Palestinian group says U.S. killed its leader in detention" (AP/Haaretz, 2004/03/11)
"The Palestine Liberation Front issued a statement in Beirut on Wednesday that accused U.S. forces of assassinating Abbas.
"The assassination of commander Abul Abbas by the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq after arresting him without any legal justification since the first days of their occupation of Iraq confirms beyond any doubt their absolute hostility to our people and exposes their designs which conform with the Zionist entity," the statement said."

"All detainees returned from Cuba released" (Tania Branigan, The Guardian, 2004/03/11)
"All five Britons released from Guantánamo Bay are enjoying their freedom today after the four who had been questioned by anti-terrorist officers were released without charge late last night.
After around two years in the US camp in Cuba and just over 24 hours at a high-security police station, Tarek Dergoul, 26, from London, was freed at around 10pm.
He was soon followed by Shafiq Rasul, also 26, and Rhuhel Ahmed and Asif Iqbal, both 22, all of whom are from Tipton in the West Midlands. They were reunited with their families at secret locations of their choice."

"Alarm Raised Over Quality of Uranium Found in Iran" (Craig S. Smith, The New York Times, 2004/03/11)
"United Nations nuclear inspectors have found traces of extremely highly enriched uranium in Iran, of a purity reserved for use in a nuclear bomb, European and American diplomats said Wednesday.
Among traces that inspectors detected last year are some refined to 90 percent of the rare 235 isotope, the diplomats said. While the International Atomic Energy Agency has previously reported finding "weapons grade" traces, it has not revealed that some reached such a high degree of enrichment.
The presence of such traces raises the stakes in the international debate over Iran's nuclear program and increases the urgency of determining the uranium's origin. If the enrichment took place in Iran, it means the country is much further along the road to becoming a nuclear weapons power than even the most aggressive intelligence estimates anticipated."

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

News and commentary:

"US slammed over hijacker's death" (BBC News, 2004/03/10)
"Palestinian groups have reacted with fury to the death in US custody of Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking.
Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), apparently died of natural causes, US officials said. ...
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat led the tributes, issuing a statement describing Abbas as "an exceptional combatant and nationalist chief who devoted his life to serving his people and homeland."
The PLF accused the US of "assassination", alleging that Abbas, who suffered heart problems and high blood pressure, was denied access to medicines in the days before he died."

"Cruise ship hijacker dies in Iraq" (BBC News, 2004/03/10)
"Palestinian militant Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking, has died in US custody, US officials have confirmed.
Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front, apparently died of natural causes, officials said.
He was convicted in absentia by an Italian court for the attack, in which wheelchair-bound American tourist Leon Klinghoffer was killed.
Abbas was captured in Baghdad last year by US special forces.
Pentagon officials said that Abbas, who was in his mid-50s, had died on Monday, most likely of a heart attack."

"Kojo & Kofi" (Claudia Rosett, National Review, 2004/03/10)
Rosett on the "ties of Annan's own son, Kojo Annan, to the Switzerland-based firm, Cotecna, which from 1999 onward worked on contract for the U.N. monitoring the shipments of Oil-for-food supplies into Iraq.":
"It is plausible, perhaps, that no one at the U.N. knew of the links between Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, and the firm monitoring Iraq's U.N.-approved imports, Cotecna, and that these ties had no bearing on a massively corrupt program. It is possible that only after Saddam fell did anyone among the 1,000 or so U.N. international staff administering Oil-for-Food, or Sevan, or Kofi Annan, notice that they'd been approving Saddam's deals with suppliers that were, in various combinations, paying kickbacks, hard to contact, or even, as in the case of the Jordanian school-furniture contractor, nonexistent.
But what has to be clear by now is that the U.N. itself was either corrupt, or so stunningly incompetent as to require total overhaul. There are by now enough questions, there has been enough secrecy, stonewalling, and rising evidence of graft all around the U.N. program in Iraq, so that it is surely worth an independent investigation into the U.N. itself — and Annan's role in supervising this program. If Kofi Annan will not exercise his authority to set a truly independent inquiry in motion, it is way past time for the U.S., whose taxpayers supply about a quarter of the U.N. budget, to call the U.N. itself to account for Oil-for-Food — in dollar terms the biggest relief operation it has ever run, and by many signs, one of the dirtiest." (See also: "A New Job for Kay - Let him investigate the U.N. Oil-for-Food scam" (Claudia Rosett, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/02/25))

"Saddam's old neighbours want to forget the fighting and find a job" (Patrick Bishop, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/03/10)
"It is the fate of the unlovely town of Tikrit to be forever remembered as the birthplace of Saddam Hussein.
Straggling along the Tigris, 100 miles north of Baghdad, it was still a stronghold of pro-Saddam feeling and a hotbed of anti-coalition violence until only a few months ago.
But, since Saddam was captured last December in a hole in the ground not far from the town, the attacks have faded away and the population is getting on with the dour business of trying to make a living in the new Iraq.
According to Falah al-Nakib, the governor of Salahadin province, it was Saddam's money that was funding most of the trouble.
"His capture has definitely reduced the finances that were supporting many of these gangsters," Mr al-Nakib said. "There were also some who thought that one day he might come back."
The violence had the tacit support of some local religious leaders, he added. There was also strong animosity towards the coalition from former Tikriti military officers who were heavily represented in Saddam's forces."

"Tenet warns of al Qaeda's 'spectacular attacks' plans" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2004/03/10)
"CIA Director George J. Tenet warned Congress yesterday that the threat of al Qaeda terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction is growing and the group continues planning "spectacular attacks" against the United States and its allies.
"Over the last year, we've ... seen an increase in the threat of more sophisticated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear capability," he said. "For this reason, we take very seriously the threat of a [chemical, biological or nuclear] attack."
Mr. Tenet noted that captured al Qaeda members have said the United States remains the group's "main enemy," and al Qaeda's effort to produce deadly anthrax bacteria is "one of the most immediate" terrorist threats.
He also said al Qaeda remains decentralized and dangerous. 'Across the operational spectrum — air, maritime, special weapons — we have time and again uncovered plots that are chilling.'"

"Two die in Istanbul bombing" (The Guardian, 2004/03/10)
"Two people were killed and seven injured last night when two suicide bombers attacked a restaurant in Istanbul during a meeting of a masonic lodge.
One of the bombers was killed and the other injured in the attack, the first in the city since a spate of bombings killed more than 60 people in November.
The injured attacker, who lost an arm and appeared to suffer severe abdominal injuries, could be seen angrily chanting slogans as he was taken to hospital. ...
"Two assailants shot the guard in his feet and raked the restaurant of the lodge with gunfire, then detonated bombs," Mr Guler said.
"One terrorist and one waiter were killed, the second terrorist is injured."
CNN-Turk television said a man chanting "Allah, Allah" entered the building and detonated an explosive."

Tuesday, March 9, 2004

News and commentary:

"Iran Moves Uranium Enrichment to Secret Plants - Exile" (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/09)
"An exile who has previously released key nuclear information about Iran said on Tuesday Iranian leaders decided at a recent meeting to seek an atom bomb "at all costs" and begin enriching uranium at secret plants.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, who disclosed in August 2002 that Iran had a hidden uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy-water plant at Arak, told Reuters his new information came from the same "well-informed sources inside Iran."
He said the Islamic republic's top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gathered after the father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
"At this recent meeting, they decided to join the nuclear (weapons) club at all costs," Jafarzadeh said, adding that the leaders decided it was "vital for the survival" of the country.
"They set a timetable to get a bomb by the end of 2005 at the latest," he said, speaking from Washington."

"Honour violence against homosexuals" (Christina Wahldén, Svenska Dagbladet, 2004/03/09)
Translated excerpts from an article about honour violence against homosexuals in Stockholm:
"Ten homo-, bi- and transsexual youths with immigrant backgrounds have sought help at RFSL Stockholm's emergency center for crime victims during the last two years, in order to escape families which had subjected them to honour related violence. But the majority of those who are threatened never dare to seek help. ...
"In one case, the parents threatened to kill the whole family, themselves and the siblings, if the youth openly tells that he or she is homosexual," says Anneli Svensson, curator at RFSL in Stockholm.
Out of concern for the rest of the family, the pressured teenager might choose to take his or her own life, in order to spare the others. The causes behind suicides in this group should be studied more, says Anneli Svensson. She describes all the cases she has come in contact with as "very startling". The circumstances are so grave that SvD can't be allowed to meet any of the victims because of security concerns.
She remembers two policemen who told her about a suicide case they investigated a year ago. They had noticed that there was something odd about the affected family, but they didn't understand what it was. The 15-year old boy was laying dead on the bed with his long hair brushed out, wearing a dress.
"The family didn't seem sad, but just said 'it was all for the best,'" says Anneli Svensson."

"Israel-Hatred on Campus" (Alan M. Dershowitz, IsraelInsider/FrontPageMagazine, 2004/03/09)
"The other day, I experienced violent anti-Semitism for the first time in my adult life. It took place in front of Faneuil Hall, the birthplace of American independence and liberty.
I was receiving a justice award from the Jewish Council on Public Affairs and delivering a talk on "Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism" from the podium of that historic hall. When I left, award in hand, I was accosted by a group of screaming, angry young men and women carrying virulently anti-Israel signs. ...
They also shouted "Dershowitz and Gibbels [sic], just the same, the only difference is the name" — not even knowing how to pronounce the name of the anti-Semitic Nazi propagandist.
One sign carrier shouted that Jews who support Israel are worse than Nazis. Another demanded that I be tortured and killed. It wasn't only their words; it was the hatred in their eyes. If a dozen Boston police were not protecting me, I have little doubt I would have been physically attacked. Their eyes were ablaze with fanatical zeal.
The feminist writer Phyllis Chesler aptly described the hatred often directed against Israel and supporters of the Jewish state by some young people as eroticized. That is what I saw: passionate hatred, ecstatic hatred, orgasmic hatred." (See also: "The New Anti-Semitism: Book Excerpt" (Phyllis Chesler, Jewsweek/phyllis-chesler.com) and "Liberal & Pro-Israel" (Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review, 2003/11/25))

"Iraqis embrace politics" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2004/03/09)
"Some in the Western media saw the Baghdad boycott episode as "a major setback for U.S. plans in Iraq" and "a rupture between the Shiites and the United States." That was quickly proven wrong - the signing took place yesterday. What did these "analysts" miss?
The boycott's point was not to torpedo the draft constitution or to upset plans for the transfer of power to the Iraqis — nor even to make life more difficult for L. Paul Bremer, the American "pasha" who heads the interim Coalition authority.
The five who stayed away are the most experienced politicians among the 13 Shiites who make up a majority of the Governing Council. ...
All in all, Iraqis seem to be developing a taste for politics, something they had been deprived of for almost half a century. And that, believe me, is a privilege that few other nations in the region enjoy today."

"After Chaos in the Capital, Losses Climbed" (Rick Atkinson, The Washington Post, 2004/03/09)
The third and last article in a series chronicling the 101st Airborne Division during the war in Iraq — here on the plundering of Baghdad:
"Just hours after Saddam Hussein's statue had toppled in Firdos Square in an image broadcast around the world, the liberation of Iraq had become the plundering of Baghdad. ...
Fivecoat subsequently recorded the inevitable course of the pilferage: "First, they removed the furniture; then the doors, windows and light fixtures; then banisters, light switches and wires; and then, finally, they would take the building down, brick by brick."
Later in the day Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld — asserting that "freedom's untidy" — would deny that looting was widespread. "The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over and over and over, and it's the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase." The Pentagon press corps laughed, but the reality on the ground was different: an abrupt transition to anarchy that threatened disaster not only for Iraq but also for the United States. The cultural losses alone were staggering, including arson or grand larceny at the Religious Endowment Library, the Central Library of Baghdad University and 18 galleries of the National Museum.
If it was dispiriting to see a nation's heritage despoiled, the stripping of Iraq's industrial, commercial and bureaucratic infrastructure was simply catastrophic. Clearly, it would take years and billions of dollars to set things right. How Iraqis would view U.S. authority in the face of such disorder was difficult to imagine." (See also: "Shifting Sands and Shifting Plans" (Rick Atkinson, The Washington Post, 2004/03/08) and "The Long, Blinding Road to War" (Rick Atkinson, The Washington Post, 2004/03/07))

Note: Don't miss vdh, the official site of Victor Davis Hanson with an archive of all his articles for City Journal, The Wall Street Journal and National Review since 2001 as well as a blog, sort of, with articles written for the website. Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin.

Monday, March 8, 2004

News and commentary:

"Signatures are affixed on the new Iraqi interim constitution..."
(Brennan Linsley, AP, 2004/03/08)
"Signatures are affixed on the new Iraqi interim constitution after the historic signing ceremony Monday March 8, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. "

"Iraqi Council Signs Interim Constitution" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/Yahoo News!, 2004/03/08)
"Iraq's Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution Monday after resolving a political impasse sparked by objections from the country's most powerful cleric. The signing was a key step in U.S. plans to hand over power to the Iraqis by July 1.
Before an audience of prominent Iraqi and American civilian and military officials, including the top administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, the 25 council members signed the document on an antique desk once owned by King Faisal I, Iraq's first monarch.
Council president Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum called the signing a "historic moment, decisive in the history of Iraq." ...
The charter — which includes a 13-article bill of rights, enshrines Islam as one of the bases of law and outlines the shape of a parliament and presidency as well as a federal structure for the country. It will remain in effect until a permanent constitution is approved by a national referendum planned for late 2005.
About an hour before the signing ceremony began, insurgents fired mortar shells at two police stations in central Baghdad, injuring four people, including one policeman, Iraqi officials said." (See also the full text of the interim constitution: "Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period" (CPA, 2004/03/08): "The people of Iraq, striving to reclaim their freedom, which was usurped by the previous tyrannical regime, rejecting violence and coercion in all their forms, and particularly when used as instruments of governance, have determined that they shall hereafter remain a free people governed under the rule of law.")

"Islam at Center of Malaysian Election" (Rohan Sullivan, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/08)
Fundamentalistic Logic: "Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has vowed to confront the Islamic fundamentalist opposition, which has suggested that pro-government voters will be sent to hell.
"This is a topic we have to face," Abdullah told a rally of supporters in Malacca state, the New Straits Times newspaper reported Monday. "We cannot shrug if off just like that. We will reply."
The fundamentalist Pan-Malaysia Islamic party's spiritual leader, widely respected cleric Nik Aziz Nik Mat, said earlier that Muslims 'naturally, will go to heaven for choosing an Islamic party, while those who support un-Islamic parties will logically go to hell.'"

"Israelis have no 'human rights'" (Gerald Steinberg, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/03/08)
"The international human rights framework was created in response to the horrors of the Holocaust and embodied in the Nuremberg trials and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But going far beyond simple irony, this idealistic framework has been hijacked to justify the Palestinian terror campaign against Israelis.
A small group of powerful NGOs has played a leading role in this process. For example, on the day the ICJ began to hear arguments on the separation fence, Human Rights Watch stepped up to bat on the Palestinian team. On February 23, HRWs multi-million dollar public relations machine issued a press release and briefing paper condemning Israel's separation barrier. ...
Armed with a human rights halo HRW and its fellow NGOs (Amnesty, Oxfam, and their Palestinian subsidiaries) provide the ideological foundation that allows the terrorists get away with murder.
Beyond displaying a profound insensitivity to the Israeli victims of the latest Palestinian terror bombing in Jerusalem, HRW's consistent silence in response