Archived news and commentary: March 29 - April 4, 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, April 4, 2004

News and commentary:

"Supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr..."
(Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP, 2004/04/04)
"Supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr seized the main police station and other public buildings in this central Iraqi city [Kufa] Sunday, capping a day of violent clashes with US-led coalition troops. Here a member of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr Army of Mehdi militia celebrates."

"Shiite cleric tells supporters fighting US troops to "terrorize" enemy" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/04/04)
"Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militiamen are clashing with US-led coalition troops in Iraq, told his supporters to "terrorize" the enemy as demonstrations were no longer any use.
"There is no use for demonstrations, as your enemy loves to terrify and suppress opinions, and despises peoples," Sadr said in a statement distributed by his office in Kufa, south of Baghdad.
"I ask you not to resort to demonstrations because they have become a losing card and we should seek other ways," he told his followers.
"Terrorise your enemy, as we cannot remain silent over its violations," he said, although it was not clear whether Sadr was literally calling on his followers to resort to violence."

"7 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Baghdad, U.S. Army Says" (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Reuters, 2004/04/04)
"Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in fierce clashes with Shi'ites in Baghdad's impoverished slum area of Sadr City, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.
U.S. military officials in Baghdad said Shi'ite militiamen had tried to take over police stations and government buildings without success using small arms and grenade launchers.
More than two dozen U.S. soldiers were wounded.
Shi'ite supporters of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed with troops in several Iraqi cities Sunday.
In the worst clashes at Kufa near Najaf, 20 Iraqis, one American and one Salvadoran soldier were killed."

"At Least 19 Dead as Coalition Fights Iraqi Protesters" (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Reuters, 2004/04/04)
"Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police fired on protesters and clashed with armed Shi'ite militiamen near Najaf Sunday, leaving at least 19 people dead and more than 100 wounded, witnesses and hospital officials said.
The shooting began after protesters marched on a Spanish-run military base in Kufa, near Najaf, to protest the arrest of an aide to a radical Shi'ite cleric and last week's closure by U.S. authorities of a militant Baghdad newspaper.
Witnesses said some of the demonstrators threw stones at a military vehicle arriving at the base and shortly afterwards Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police manning the perimeter opened fire on the crowd from several directions.
Black-clad members of the Mehdi Army, a banned militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical anti-American cleric, then returned fire, shooting at the heavily defended base from afar.
In central Baghdad, security forces opened fire on a Shi'ite protest Sunday and in the northern city of Kirkuk a car bomb exploded, wounding at least three people, police said."

"An explosion is seen from an apartment building in Leganes..."
(AP/Antenna3, 2004/04/04)
"An explosion is seen from an apartment building in Leganes, south of Madrid, Saturday night, April 3, 2004 in this image made from television. The explosion happened as police prepared to storm an apartment looking for terrorists suspected of carrying out the March 11 train attacks in Madrid. "

"Alleged Ringleader of Madrid Bombings Dies" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/04/04)
"The alleged ringleader of last month's train bombings in Madrid was among four suspects who blew themselves up as police raided their apartment, Spain's interior ministers said Sunday.
The blast Saturday night killed a special operations police officer and wounded 15 other policemen. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said one of the dead bombers was found with an explosives belt around his body, and two or three suspects may have escaped before the explosion.
Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian accused of spearheading the March 11 attacks, was among the dead, Acebes said. An international warrant had been issued for the arrest of Fakhet and five others last week.
The core of the group that carried out the attacks is either arrested or dead in yesterday's collective suicide, including the head of the operative commando (unit)," Acebes told a news conference."

"Exclusive: New Questions About Saudi Money — and Bandar" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2004/04/02 issue)
"A federal investigation into the bank accounts of the Saudi Embassy in Washington has identified more than $27 million in "suspicious" transactions — including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Muslim charities, and to clerics and Saudi students who are being scrutinized for possible links to terrorist activity, according to government documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. The probe also has uncovered large wire transfers overseas by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. The transactions recently prompted the Saudi Embassy's longtime bank, the Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., to drop the Saudis as a client after embassy officials were "unable to provide an explanation that was satisfying," says a source familiar with the discussions."

"Looking West" (Janine Zacharia, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/04/04)
An interesting report from Tunisia: "When Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali called off the Arab League summit here this week, arguing that Arab leaders were "not serious enough about pursuing democratic reform," human rights activists giggled at the irony.
Tunisia, after all, is routinely denounced for the way it represses "nearly all forms of dissent," according to Joe Stork, acting director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division. Democratic activists and government dissidents are routinely harassed here.
In fact, Tunisia may be one of the heaviest, per-capita policed states in the world. One journalist here estimated that in this country of 10 million people there are 300,000 uniformed police and 1.8 million paid informants. And politically, while there are roughly six political parties, Tunisia is virtually a single-party state. ...
By neighborhood standards, however, Tunisia may be the most democratic regime around."

"EU terror-funding report under attack" (Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/04/04)
"The European Union's failure to find evidence linking its funds with terrorist activity supported by the Palestinian Authority has angered at least one member of the investigatory committee, who on Friday called a newly released report on the matter "a partial whitewash." ...
The majority report noted that the IDF was making an assumption that because evidence existed showing that Arafat has authorized financial payments which could have been used for terrorism, that the money did indeed go to that purpose. But evidence proofing that action was taken on Arafat's financial orders was lacking, said the majority report.
Still the minority report noted, "from a political point of view, the numerous documents with President Arafat's signature authorising payment of monies can not be discarded."
The minority report stated, "Israeli authorities did not capture any documentation at the Palestinian Ministry of Finance. As a consequence, documents showing that orders of payment captured from the President's office have actually been executed are usually not available. It is therefore extremely difficult to establish clear links between orders and executions of payments," said the report." (See also: "EU: Funds not linked to PA terrorism" (Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/04/02))

"The Long Shadow of a Mob" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2004/04/04)
"After Falluja, fewer Westerners here than ever, outside the American military and civilian establishment, could still believe that the American vision is likely to triumph over an insurgency that has featured recurrent acts of inhumanity, including suicide bombings that have killed more than 1,000 Iraqis. ...
Wherever a Westerner travels in the Arab world, there is a pervasive sense of injured pride, of people humiliated by centuries of powerlessness and poverty relative to the West. Steeped in the history of the early Caliphs, Iraqis know that Baghdad 1,000 years ago was a center of learning and military prowess. Since the modern state's founding in 1921, they have been under the boot of colonial rulers, imposed kings or brutish dictators. Now, it is America's boots they feel on their necks.
Again, it is Mr. Bremer who offers a perspective. "I'm not a psychiatrist, but I think they feel somewhat guilty that they were not able to liberate themselves," he said recently. "So there is a lot of perverse resentment."Despite that, the Americans leading the effort here say they believe reason, not the passion of the streets, will ultimately prevail. After Falluja, America can only hope they are right, or brace for the grim possibility that popular furies could fan the resentment into a wider war."

"Blast in Madrid Kills 3 Suspects in Train Attack" (Dale Fuchs, The New York Times, 2004/04/04)
"Three men believed to be responsible for the Madrid train bombings blew themselves up inside an apartment house here on Saturday night as the police prepared to assault the building, officials said. The blast also killed one officer and wounded at least 11 others.
The acting interior minister, Ángel Acebes, said the men, on spotting police special agents, shouted in Arabic and fired shots through the window of the building in Leganés, a working-class district of Madrid where many immigrants live.
The police, who began the raid at about 6 p.m., according to news reports, evacuated the building the men were in and surrounding apartment buildings. When the police moved to storm the building, around 9 p.m., according to news reports, "the terrorists set off a powerful explosion, blowing themselves up," Mr. Acebes said. The blast gutted the lower floor and tore off the roof of the building, Mr. Acebes said."

Saturday, April 3, 2004

News and commentary:

"Female followers of Shiite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr..."
(AFP, 2004/04/03)
"Female followers of Shiite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr parade in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr city."

"In defense of the Stars and Stripes" (John Parker, Asia Times, 2004/04/03)
A must-read review of Jean-Francois Revel's "Anti-Americanism":
"Therein lies another exquisite irony: the costs of anti-Americanism will be borne not by Americans, but by others. And their numbers are vast: Cubans, North Koreans, Zimbabweans, and countless others suffer and starve under their respective tyrannies because the democratic world's chattering classes, obsessed with denouncing the United States, can't be bothered with holding their criminal regimes to account. ...
Indeed, it is not the slightest exaggeration to say that in 2004, anti-American sentiment has become the biggest single obstacle to human progress. It sustains repressive dictatorships everywhere; excuses corruption, torture, the oppression of women, and mass murder; provides ideological oxygen for vile, stupid "revolutionary movements" like the Maoist insurgents in Nepal; and has even promoted the spread of disease (as when, for example, Europeans haughtily dismissed Bush's AIDS initiative as insincere - God forbid that they should concur with any policy of the wicked Bush, even at the cost of a few million more African lives). By focusing monomaniacally on "why America is wrong", instead of asking "what is right", the global anti-American elite has massively failed to fulfill the most fundamental responsibility of the intellectual class: to provide dispassionate, truthful analysis that can guide society to make proper decisions. And it has contemptuously cast aside the irreplaceable, post-Cold War opportunity to irreversibly consolidate the "liberal revolution" praised by Revel - in which inheres the only true hope of lasting, global peace and development - all in the name of redressing the gaping psychological insecurities of its members."

"US tanks deploy in Baghdad as Shiite radicals take to streets" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/04/03)
"US tanks deployed in the Iraqi capital to stop hundreds of angry protestors marching on the coalition's city-centre headquarters as Shiite Muslim radicals took to the streets across central and southern Iraq. ...
An AFP correspondent saw one young man lunging at a tank which stopped abruptly without harming him. The crowd cheered the young man and then protestors upturned carts to block the road.
"There were two or three dead among the protestors who threw themselves under American tanks which could not avoid them," said Sergeant Abbas Mohamad."

"Eurabia?" (Niall Ferguson, The New York Times Magazine, from the 2004/04/04 issue)
"To begin with, consider the extraordinary prospect of European demographic decline. A hundred years ago — when Europe's surplus population was still crossing the oceans to populate America and Australasia — the countries that make up today's European Union accounted for around 14 percent of the world's population. Today that figure is down to around 6 percent, and by 2050, according to a United Nations forecast, it will be just over 4 percent. The decline is absolute as well as relative. Even allowing for immigration, the United Nations projects that the population of the current European Union members will fall by around 7.5million over the next 45 years. There has not been such a sustained reduction in the European population since the Black Death of the 14th century. (By contrast, the United States population is projected to grow by 44 percent between 2000 and 2050.)
With the median age of Greeks, Italians and Spaniards projected to exceed 50 by 2050 — roughly 1 in 3 people will be 65 or over — the welfare states created in the wake of World War II plainly require drastic reform. Either today's newborn Europeans will spend their working lives paying 75 percent tax rates or retirement and ''free'' health care will simply have to be abolished. Alternatively (or additionally), Europeans will have to tolerate more legal immigration.
But where will the new immigrants come from? It seems very likely that a high proportion will come from neighboring countries, and Europe's fastest-growing neighbors today are predominantly if not wholly Muslim. A youthful Muslim society to the south and east of the Mediterranean is poised to colonize — the term is not too strong — a senescent Europe." (See also: "Eurabia" (Bat Yeor, National Review, 2002/10/09))

"Al-Qaeda targets UK muslims in new terror campaign" (Gethin Chamberlain, The Scotsman, 2004/04/03)
More on Abdulaziz al-Muqrin's strategy paper "Targets Inside Cities": "In the English translation of the message, al-Muqrin urges operatives to choose targets carefully: "Targets inside the cities are considered a sort of military diplomacy. Normally, this kind of diplomacy is written with blood and decorated with body parts and the smell of guns. It carries a political meaning that relates to the nature of the faith’s struggle."
He lists targets inside the cities in order, starting with faith. The prime target, he says, should be missionaries in Islamic countries who try to convert Muslims to Christianity. Last month, four American missionaries were killed in Mosul, Iraq.
The second target - covert intelligence operations - will be of more concern to those within the Muslim community in Britain who have embraced the call by the Muslim Council of Britain to help the police fight al-Qaeda. Al-Muqrin, thought to have been behind two suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia last year, in which 53 people were killed, identifies them as "any Muslim religious scholar who co-operates with the enemy".
He writes: "Targeting those is glorified and makes them as symbols for God’s anger."
Al-Muqrin, who is on Saudi Arabia’s most wanted list, urges followers to concentrate attacks on Jews, then Christians, identifying Americans as the most important nationality, followed by Britons and Spaniards." (See also: "Jews, Americans Top Targets in 'Qaeda' Document" (Firouz Sedarat, Reuters, 2004/04/02))

"Falluja's Religious Leaders Condemn Mutilation, but Not Killing, of Americans" (Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times, 2004/04/03)
"Religious leaders in this violent, edgy city issued a religious edict on Friday condemning the mutilation of the bodies of four American civilians killed this week, but they stayed silent about the attack itself.
At Friday Prayers, which attracted thousands of people to Falluja's mosques, the imams said it was "haram," the Arabic word for forbidden, for people to tear apart corpses as they had after the four American security consultants were ambushed here on Wednesday. ...
The imams' message, blasted from the minarets of blue-domed mosques, was well received by townspeople, many of whom expressed satisfaction and even pride in the deadly ambush but shame in its aftermath. ...
Meanwhile, Marine Corps forces continued to circle the city, though commanders said they had no intention of venturing in. Marine generals had planned a low-key approach when they took control here from Army troops last week. "We wanted to knock on doors, not knock down doors," said Maj. TV Johnson, a Marine Corps spokesman.
But at the moment, Major Johnson said, marines are not going to any doors. "We don't want to be provocative," he said."

Friday, April 2, 2004

News and commentary:

"Two civil guards check the rail tracks..."
(Paul White, AP, 2004/04/02)
"Two civil guards check the rail tracks after a bomb was found on the track of the high speed Madrid to Seville train tracks in Mocejon, some 37 miles (60 km) south of Madrid, Spain, Friday April 2, 2004."

"Bomb Found on Spanish High-Speed Rail Track" (Estelle Shirbon, Reuters, 2004/04/02)
"A bomb was found on a Spanish high-speed rail track Friday and state radio reported it contained the same type of dynamite used in suspected al Qaeda bombs that killed 191 people on Madrid trains last month.
The discovery disrupted travel as millions of Spaniards prepared to leave cities for the Easter week vacation and came on the day a new session of Parliament opened following last month's elections.
The bomb and the discovery Thursday evening of three letter bombs addressed to media outlets kept nerves on edge in Spain after the March 11 train attacks.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the latest bomb was believed to contain 22 to 26 pounds of explosives connected by a long cable to a detonator. He gave no information about who may have planted the bomb.
State radio said an initial examination indicated the dynamite used was Goma 2 Eco — the same kind used in the Madrid blasts.
The bomb was found in a bag under the rails of the high-speed train line connecting Madrid and the southern city of Seville. It was spotted by a railway employee about 35 miles south of Madrid, near Toledo.
Authorities were alerted and sent explosives experts who defused the device."

"Jews, Americans Top Targets in 'Qaeda' Document" (Firouz Sedarat, Reuters, 2004/04/02)
"A strategy paper posted on a Web site sympathetic to al Qaeda lists Jews, Americans and Britons as main targets, and calls on militant cells worldwide to "turn the infidels' lands into hell."
The document, describing targets militants should hit, portrays itself as "diplomacy written in blood, decorated with body parts and perfumed with gunpowder."
It was in the latest issue of a guerrilla warfare manual posted on Web sites that covers subjects ranging from ideology to weapons handling.
The document, entitled al-Battar (Sword) Camp, could not be independently authenticated but its tone and content resembled earlier such manuals on Islamic militant sites.
"The lands of the infidels should be turned into hell because they have turned the Muslims' countries into hell... Therefore cells active globally should not set themselves any geographical limits," it said.
It said U.S. and Israeli Jews, followed by French and British Jews were top human targets. Chief targets among Christians were Americans and Britons, followed by Spaniards, Australians, Canadians and Italians.
Professions singled out included businessmen, diplomats, scholars, scientists and military leaders as well as tourists.
It said Jewish and Christian investments in Islamic states, multinational corporations and international economic experts were top economic targets.
Entitled "Targets Inside Cities," the strategy paper was signed by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, whom Western intelligence agencies consider the leading al Qaeda propagandist and financier in Saudi Arabia."

"'Screw Them'" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/04/02)
"Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who runs the Angry Left Daily Kos blog, had this to say in a post yesterday about the murders of four American contractors who were helping to deliver food in Fallujah, Iraq:

Every death should be on the front page

Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

Zuniga has taken down the original post, but in a new post he acknowledges it and offers a partial retraction, which essentially amounts to saying he didn't actually "feel nothing"; in fact, he was angry at the victims. Blogger Michael Friedman has a screen shot of the original post.
It's worth noting that the Daily Kos is popular among Democratic leaders. Zuniga is a principal in the Armstrong Zuniga political consulting firm, which touts the Daily Kos as "the most popular political weblog with over 3 million monthly visits." Friedman has a list of congressional candidates who advertise on the site, and in a February posting Zuniga reported that Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, "asked if I would post" a "Message to Blog Community."
About Zuniga's comments, we have nothing to say. They speak for themselves." (See also the snapshot of the post at Fried Man and Zuniga's comment on it: "Mercenaries, war, and my childhood" (Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Daily Kos, 2004/04/02))

"An End to Evil" (David Frum, AEI, 2004/04/02)
Frum answers some critics of his and Richard Perle's "An End to Evil":
"Pat Buchanan says Richard and I are "dangerously close to imbibing the poisonous brew that drove Jonathan Pollard to treason: If it is good for Israel, it cannot be bad for America." It is bizarre, however, to be accused of being next door to treason by a writer who can shrug off the possible deaths of thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Americans as if it were a thing of little importance. Buchanan writes: "How is our survival as a nation menaced when not one American has died in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11"? Yes. 3,000 Americans died that day. But so what? "Three thousand men and boys perished every week for 200 weeks of (the) Civil War." And even if al-Qaida were to acquire weapons more deadly than 19th-century musketry — well again, so what? "Germany and Japan suffered 3,000 dead every day in the last two years of World War II, with every city flattened and two blackened by atom bombs. Both came back in a decade." A year ago, I noted Buchanan had affixed blame for 9/11 to the United States itself. On Hardball on Sept. 30, 2002, he said: "9/11 was a direct consequence of the United States meddling in an area of the world where we do not belong and where we are not wanted." But even I never imagined he would advance to explicitly accepting the risk of massive further American civilian casualties as preferable to a policy of national self-defence that in his imagination might offer collateral benefits to Israel." (See also: "No End to War" (Pat Buchanan, The American Conservative, from the 2004/03/01 issue))

"Moral bankruptcy count (1)" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/04/02)
"The Jewish Chronicle reports, on a rally by pro-Palestinian activists in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons which condemned the killing of Sheikh Yassin:

'Chaired by Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge. the meeting saw activists and several MPs stand for two minutes' silence in honour of the Hamas leader'.

So they honour a man who was responsible for the mass murder of innocents. Those whom he murdered are not only not honoured, but their memory is utterly and disgustingly betrayed.
Who are these MPs whose moral sense is so deeply corrupted? Come on, mainstream media — name them, and shame them; reaffirm elementary decency and moral reasoning; wake up to what is happening here before it is too late."

"Human Rights Group Blasts Sudan Gov't" (Matthew Rosenber, AP/The Guardian, 2004/04/02)
"Sudanese forces are killing, raping and forcing civilians from their homes in an effort to suppress an insurgency in western Sudan, an international human rights group said Friday, accusing the government of "crimes against humanity."
While government troops have participated in the fighting in the western Darfur region, allied Arab militia have carried out the bulk of the attacks against the region's inhabitants, Muslims of African descent, Human Rights Watch said in a report. ...
The report, titled "Darfur in Flames: Atrocities in Western Sudan," also noted the rebels have at times attacked civilians and are reportedly using children for fighters.
But "the government of Sudan and allied Arab militia ... are implementing a strategy of ethnic-based murder, rape and forcible displacement of civilians," said the report, based on interviews with Sudanese refugees who have fled to neighboring Chad. ...
The United States, United Nations and international aid groups have said the fighting has created a humanitarian catastrophe, and aid agencies, which have had only limited access to the region, estimate that more than 800,000 civilians have been displaced." (See also the report: "Darfur in Flames: Atrocities in Western Sudan" (Human Rights Watch, 2004/04/02): "A medical student who had been in North Darfur until late February 2004 told Human Rights Watch that he had treated more than fifty women and girls who had been raped by janjaweed and soldiers around Karnoi. In a particularly brutal incident with clear racial overtones, an eighteen-year-old woman was assaulted by janjaweed who inserted a knife in her vagina, saying, “You get this because you are black.” ...
More recently, United Nations and other humanitarian staff in North Darfur reported widespread rape in the Tawila area following janjaweed attacks on the town on February 27, 2004. According to these sources, residents of the town stated that sixty-seven people were killed and forty-one schoolgirls and female teachers were raped by the militia. Some were raped by up to fourteen men and in front of their families. The same reports stated that some women had been branded on the hand following the rapes, apparently in an effort to permanently stigmatize them." )

"The Intelligence Mess: How It Happened, What to Do About It" (Andrew C. McCarthy, Commentary, from the April 2004 issue)
"Was September 11 the worst intelligence failure in our country’s history? Or was it, rather, a national failure, the failure of a country that allowed its sense of decency to overwhelm its instinct for survival and that effectively convinced its enemies that they could strike with impunity? ...
The problem with our intelligence apparatus, to repeat, is that we went on a national nap for over two decades. If an entity is systematically warped and mismanaged for 20 or 30 years — not by a single agency director or American President, but by a philosophy — it cannot be fixed overnight. ...
This bipartisan Senate cabal (led by Democrats Patrick Leahy, Richard Durbin, and Harry Reid and Republicans Larry Craig and John Sununu) wants not only to terminate the FISA sharing provisions but to end the sharing of grand-jury information; to restrict the information that intelligence agencies may obtain from communications-service providers (the same kind of information long available to criminal investigators probing health-care fraud and gambling); and effectively to destroy the valuable "sneak-and-peak" search warrant (another longstanding tool in ordinary criminal investigations) that allows agents, with court approval, to search a location for intelligence purposes but not to seize anything, thus keeping the targets unaware. No doubt, the next time something goes boom, these Senators and their myriad sympathizers will be among the first to wail about unconnected dots."

"Fallujah" (Christopher Hitchens, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/04/02)
"I hope I do not misrepresent my opponents, but their general view seems to be that Iraq was an elective target; a country that would not otherwise have been troubling our sleep. This ahistorical opinion makes it appear that Saddam Hussein was a new enemy, somehow chosen by shady elements within the Bush administration, instead of one of the longest-standing foes with which the United States, and indeed the international community, was faced. So, what about the "bad news" from Iraq? There was always going to be bad news from there. Credit belongs to those who accepted — can we really decently say pre-empted? — this long-term responsibility. Fallujah is a reminder, not just of what Saddamism looks like, or of what the future might look like if we fail, but of what the future held before the Coalition took a hand."

"Former Terrorist Speaks" (Alyssa A. Lappen and Jerry Gordon, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/04/02)
A report from a speech by former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat at Wesleyan University: "Shoebat also described an attempted lynching. He and fellow Beit Sahour rioters attacked an Israeli officer and stripped him of his bullhorn, sidearm, plastic shield and helmet. They clubbed and pounded his head with a nail-studded stick, until the officer became a bloody gore. “Thank God I do not have Jewish blood on my hands,” he said: IDF reinforcements arrived and the officer regained enough strength to rise and jump to safety over a burning wall of tires. Shoebat said he hopes eventually to find him and make personal amends. ...
Shoebat came to the US to attend Loop College in Chicago, he said. There, he worked as a PLO student organizer. Of perhaps 100 Palestinians he knew, who enrolled at that time in American colleges, only a handful actually graduated. They were too busy holding rallies and raising funds for their terrorist cause. They collected for battle fatigues, which they sent to PLO forces in Lebanon, for example. To attract participants, they advertised events deceptively, Shoebat said. In Arabic a poster might announce “a fund raiser for the cause.” In English, the same poster would invite students 'to a middle east feast with baklava and lamb.'"

"The Islamist Muzzle" (Nonie Darwish, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/04/02)
Darwish on how radical Muslims shouted down Sheikh Palazzi, a genuine Islamic moderate, at the University of California-Santa Barbara:
"A female Muslim student expressed her support of terrorism by asking, "If not terrorism, what would Palestinians then do against the oppression?"
In addition, the Muslim students yelled "we cannot live with Zionism" and even told the professor "You are finished, man!" The Muslim students' leader then called on his group to leave the hall and as they did they were hurling insults at the Sheikh. ...
Having witnessed this disturbing event, I could not help but ask myself a question: Why did these Muslim students choose the U.S. for their education? As evidenced by their attempts to silence Sheikh Palazzi, they obviously have no respect for our system and the way Americans channel dissent. ...
They demand tolerance for Muslims in the West while their religious leaders call on the murder of infidels. They demand freedom to build mosques in the West, but prohibit the building churches and synagogues in Muslim countries. They jail and kill missionaries in the Muslim world, while they freely preach Islam and extremism to our citizens, even to our vulnerable and angry prison population. ...
There is something very wrong with this picture and many Arabs and freedom-loving Americans don't see it. It is time for Americans to wake up." (See also: "Muslim cleric says intifadah is contrary to Islam" (Janice Arnold, Canadian Jewish News, 2002/05/09))

"Lovin' Europe by Leavin'" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/04/02)
"Precisely because we protect Europe, Europe will need ever more protecting, and will grow ever more weak. And because it will need the United States to defend it, it will ever more resent the United States. Without a real menace like the Soviet Union on its borders, Europe will find ever more outlets to vent cheaply and without consequences — at precisely the time it is most threatened by terrorists and rogue states.
In contrast, the withdrawal of Americans throughout Old Europe — sober analysts can adjudicate a remnant figure of about 30,000 or so, down from our present numbers in Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Greece — will encourage Europe to rearm or face the consequences of institutionalized appeasement. That radical step — despite popular misconceptions that it is either impossible or unwise — is more a good thing than a bad one.
That way we will not be dealing with a spiteful teenager any longer, but a mature adult partner. And if — after we leave — Germany invades France or Poland a third time, then there is simply no answer to the European problem anyway. Instead we must trust in our confidence that Europeans are wise enough to settle their own affairs peacefully. Perhaps socialists who won't fight much abroad at least won't be likely to fight among themselves either.
So we must be farsighted and confident enough to encourage the emergence of an associate rather than a dependent. Parents are happy when their sixty-year-old sons move out and get apartments — not angry that they have lost the opportunity to feed and launder balding and perpetual adolescents."

"EU: Funds not linked to PA terrorism" (Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/04/02)
Ministry of Truth II: "There is "no conclusive evidence" linking European Union funds given to the Palestinian Authority with terrorist activity, concluded a parliamentary investigatory report given to the EU Commission on Thursday.
The report looked into allegations, including those by Health Minister Dan Naveh, that portions of the 246 million given to the PA by the EU from the end of 2000 to 2002 was used to fund terrorism.
The EU's anti-fraud office OLAF is also investigating the use of that money, but has yet to finish its investigation, said EU Commission External Affairs spokeswoman Emma Udwin.
She said that OLAF members testified before the cross-party parliamentary group, and therefore it is likely that their conclusions will be similar.
She said she "welcomed" the report's findings.
Naveh, in contrast, attacked the report. There is direct evidence from the Shin Bet given to the ministers only four months ago that half of the $8 million Arafat receives monthly from many sources, including the EU, goes directly to fund the Tanzim's terrorist activity including bomb attacks, said Naveh.
"We know this for sure," he said.
But Udwin said she was confident that the report's assessment that there was no such "conclusive evidence" meant that European tax dollars had not been used to fund terrorism."

"Slain Contractors Were in Iraq Working Security Detail" (Dana Priest and Mary Pat Flaherty, The Washington Post, 2004/04/02)
"The four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were among the most elite commandos working in Iraq to guard employees of U.S. corporations and were hired by the U.S. government to protect bureaucrats, soldiers and intelligence officers.
The men, all employees of Blackwater Security Consulting, were in the dangerous Sunni Triangle area operating under more hazardous conditions — unarmored cars with no apparent backup — than the U.S. military or the CIA permit.
U.S. government officials said yesterday that they suspect that the men were not victims of a random ambush but were set up as targets, which one defense official said suggested "a higher degree of organization and sophistication" among insurgents. 'This is certainly cause for concern.'"

"'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes'" (Andrew Buncombe, Independent, 2004/04/02)
"A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.
She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie". ...
She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave [the commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily."
She added: "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used ­ but not specifically about how they would be used ­ and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities ­ with skyscrapers."

Added in archive:
"Viva Madrid" (Mario Vargas Llosa, The Guardian, 2004/03/27)

Thursday, April 1, 2004

News and commentary:

"Six men suspected to be linked with Madrid bombings..."
(Reuters, 2004/04/01)
"This combo picture shows undated file pictures of six men suspected to be linked with Madrid bombings released by Spanish Interior Ministry March 31, 2004. Spanish judge Juan del Olmo, who is investigating the Madrid train bombings, issued worldwide arrest warrants of six people and asked the public to call with any information about them, officials said. (top L-R) Morrocan Jamal Ahmidan, Morrocan Said Berraj, Tunisian Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, (bottom L-R) Morrocan Abdennabi Kounjaa, Morrocan Mohammed Oulad Akcha and Morrocan Rachid Oulad Akcha."

"Madrid bomb leader 'identified'" (BBC News, 2004/04/01)
"A Tunisian being sought under an international arrest warrant is the leader of the Madrid train bomb suspects, says Spain's High Court.
Court papers say Sarhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet is "the leader and co-ordinator" of people implicated in the attacks. ...
The arrest warrant says Mr Fakhet, alias El Tunecino (The Tunisian), began agitating for a jihad, or holy war, in Madrid from mid-2003, if not before.
A Moroccan, Jamal Ahmidan, is also wanted as a suspected leader of the group. ...
Interior Minister Angel Acebes has named the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as the main focus of investigation, but he insisted that other "terrorist" organisations had not been ruled out."

"Palestinians Passionate About Gibson Film" (Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters, 2004/04/01)
"Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of the Christ" is all the rage among Palestinians, curious about complaints by Jews that it is anti-Semitic.
Meanwhile, local distributors in Israel are shunning the film, which Jewish groups say demonizes Jews by depicting them as pressuring the Romans into crucifying Jesus. "The Passion" has banked more than $315 million since its release in February. ...
The portrayal of a prophet in a film is forbidden under Islam. But many Palestinians, locked in conflict against Israel, say they hope "The Passion" will rouse angry emotions against Jews by Christian audiences around the world.
"People are calling me from everywhere in the West Bank -- from Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus -- to ask for copies of the movie," said the owner of a Gaza city video shop, which sells pirated copies of new release movies."

"Secret bunkers held chemical weapons, says Iraqi exile" (Russell Skelton, The Age, 2004/04/01)
"Rashid has told The Age he knows of five secret storage bunkers around Baghdad, Basra and Tikrit, three of which he visited regularly as a top scientist and senior employee of Iraq's now defunct Atomic Energy Commission.
One, he says, was under an island in the Tigris River near Saddam University. Another was beneath the house of one of Saddam's cousins, and reached by a tunnel with a hidden entrance 800 metres away.
He described the bunkers as being built 15 metres underground, of reinforced concrete, and multi-storeyed. "Between these layers, pipes would rise up, through the building above to provide access for ventilation.
"The lethal chemicals were stored in drums and the bunkers were air-conditioned. But there were also artillery shells and 122-millimetre rockets armed with chemicals."
He says the sites had been built using foreign construction companies, including a company from China, and that nobody was allowed to approach without authorisation and extensive ID checks by the Special Republican Guard."

"We stopped pretending..." (James Lileks, The Bleat, 2004/04/01)
"We stopped pretending we would ratify Kyoto. We only spent $15 billion on AIDS in Africa. We did not take dictation from Paris. If we had done these things, it would minimize the world’s anger.
Is the world angry at Russia, which spends nothing on AIDS and rebuffed Kyoto? Is the world angry at China, which got a pass on Kyoto and spends nothing on AIDS for other countries?
Is the world angry at North Korea for killings its people? Angry at Iran for smothering that vibrant nation with corrupt and thuggish mullocracy? Angry at Syria for occupying Lebanon? Angry at Saudi Arabia for its denial of women’s rights? Angry at Russia for corrupt elections? Is the world angry at China for threatening Taiwan, or angry at France for joining the Chinese in joint military exercises that threatened the island on the eve of an election? Is the world angry at Zimbabwe for stealing land and starving people? Is the world angry at Pakistan for selling nuclear secrets? Is the world angry at Libya for having an NBC program?
Is the world angry at the thugs of Fallujah?
Is the world angry at anyone besides America and Israel?"

"Europe and the Establishment" (John O'Sullivan, The National Interest, from the 2004/03/31 issue)
O'Sullivan argues that "the more united Europe becomes, the more anti-American it will be": "In the week that the Spanish government had been making clear that it intends to join France and Germany in their stance of hostile suspicion towards the U.S., this juxtaposition blithely underestimates the developing dynamic of European politics — namely, the rise of anti-Americanism as the dominant ideology of a united Europe.
This dynamic arises from three powerful undercurrents in European politics:

1. As Henry Kissinger knows all too well from his study of European history, rising powers tend to develop a view of their own interests that makes them the rivals of other powers even when there is relatively little of substance that separates them. If that is not so, then the First World War never happened. A united Europe would be such a power. ...

3. Conscious hostility to America as a false social ideal has been a constant theme – sometimes dominant, sometimes secondary – in European politics for almost two hundred years. The Cold War subdued this anti-Americanism. But it is already almost the sole remaining ideology of the European Left. And it would be bound to increase in a united Europe that saw the U.S. as rival more than ally. ...

Some of the CFR’s practical proposals might temporarily soften the edges of this developing anti-Americanism. For instance, asking Europe to accept the principle of preventive war in return for Washington’s agreement to keep it as a solution of last resort is a reasonable compromise that might appease responsible European public opinion. But such measures will do nothing about the underlying problem: namely, that the more united Europe becomes, the more anti-American it will be." (See also the CFR report on U.S.-European relations [PDF]: "Renewing the Atlantic Partnership" (Henry A. Kissinger, Lawrence H. Summers and Charles A. Kupchan, Council of Foreign Relations, 2004/03/19))

"Israel and the Question of the National State" (Ran Halévi, Policy Review, from the April 2004 issue)
"The wars of the twentieth century have fatally brought the nation into disrepute, and this process has only grown further with European integration. We do not cherish the nation anymore, but we are unable to abandon it because we do not know how and with what to adequately replace it. Political philosophy does not provide us with any practical alternative: neither the tribe, nor the empire, nor the city. ...
Israel offers a mirror, an exemplary case in which we can contemplate and realize vicariously our schizophrenic relationship towards the national question. It is no accident that the more virulent critics, who often happen to be those of the United States as well, are to be found in the ranks of the antiglobalization movement. The type of postnational nihilism they inscribed on their banner contributed to the depoliticization of their approach to politics in general and the Middle East in particular: Israel, in other words, is that nation-state which most immediately vexes their planetary humanism."

"The 'Privacy' Jihad" (Heather MacDonald, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/04/01)
"The privacy advocates — who range from liberal groups focused on electronic privacy, such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center, to traditional conservative libertarians, such as Americans for Tax Reform — are fixated on a technique called "data mining." By now, however, they have killed enough different programs that their operating principle can only be formulated as this: No use of computer data or technology anywhere at any time for national defense, if there's the slightest possibility that a rogue use of that technology will offend someone's sense of privacy. They are pushing intelligence agencies back to a pre-9/11 mentality, when the mere potential for a privacy or civil liberties controversy trumped security concerns.
The privacy advocates' greatest triumph was shutting down the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. Goaded on by New York Times columnist William Safire, the advocates presented the program as the diabolical plan of John Poindexter, the former Reagan national security adviser and director of Pentagon research, to spy on "every public and private act of every American" — in Mr. Safire's words. ...
As with any public or private power, TIA's capabilities could have been abused — which is why the Pentagon research team planned to build in powerful safeguards to protect individual privacy. But the most important thing to remember about TIA is this: It would have used only data to which the government was already legally entitled. It differed from existing law-enforcement and intelligence techniques only in degree, not kind. ...
The bottom line is clear: The privacy battalions oppose not just particular technologies, but technological innovation itself. Any effort to use computerized information more efficiently will be tarred with the predictable buzzwords: "surveillance," "Orwellian," "Poindexter." This Luddite approach to counterterrorism could not be more ominous."

"How we can win this war against home-grown terror" (Michael Burleigh, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/04/01)
"In coming days, the liberal media will be awash with spokesmen of the Muslim community voicing a predictable mixture of self-righteousness and theological platitudes about the benign nature of their religion. Interviewers on television will deferentially hold back the really awkward questions. Things will take their weary course as they are spared that ferret-like insistence routinely applied to British politicians.
The bolder among likely interviewees may even allude to the occupation of Iraq, the oppression that Muslims (notably the Palestinians) allegedly face around the world, or offer banalities about the susceptibility of "disaffected" British Muslim youth to religious extremism. ...
The fact of the matter, and of Islam itself, is that absolutely nothing can ever justify the taking of any life by terrorists, let alone the spurious causal linkages made by them or their supporters. Killing drinkers and commuters in European cities will not alter events in Iraq or the plight of the Palestinians one iota. ...
An implacable scepticism among those who shape public opinion towards lame excuses for terrorism would also go some way to denying the perpetrators the moral justifications they still appear to need. Finally, instead of teaching a bland, rights-focused multiculturalism, let alone atheism, under the aegis of "religion" as irrelevantly proposed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, our educators should think hard about their failure to inculcate our values, be they religious or secular or a combination of the two, in the minds of Britain's very own generation of terrorists."

"EU 'covered up' attacks on Jews by young Muslims" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/04/01)
Where is the Ministry of Truth when you need it?:
"A study released by the EU's racism and xenophobia monitoring centre astounded experts by concluding that the wave of anti-Jewish persecution over the last two years stemmed from neo-Nazi or other racist groups.
"The largest group of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic activities appears to be young, disaffected white Europeans," said a summary released to the European Parliament. ...
The headline findings contradict the body of the report. This says most of the 193 violent attacks on synagogues, Jewish schools, kosher shops, cemeteries and rabbis in France in 2002 — up from 32 in 2001 - were "ascribed to youth from neighbourhoods sensitive to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, principally of North African descent.
"The percentage attributable to the extreme Right was only nine per cent in 2002," it said. ...
Victor Weitzel, who wrote a large section of yesterday's far more detailed study, told The Telegraph that the latest findings had been consistently massaged by the EU watchdog to play down the role of North African youth. "The European Union seems incapable of facing up to the truth on this," he said. "Everything is being tilted to ensure nice soft conclusions.
"When I told them that we need to monitor the inflammatory language being used by the Arab press in Europe, this was changed to the 'minority press'.
"Honestly, it's incredible," he said."

"U.S. Optimism Is Tested Again After Ambush Kills 4 in Iraq" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2004/04/01)
"Falluja, relatively quiet in recent months, has become a major battleground again as the First Marine Expeditionary Force, replacing the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, has sent large troop formations into the city to challenge insurgents who had taken control of entire neighborhoods. This reversed the airborne division's policy of leaving security in the city mainly to Iraqi police and civil defense units, and led last week to several pitched battles in which at least three marines and 30 Iraqis died.
The visceral hatred for Americans that poured forth on Wednesday suggests that the city remains as much a caldron as it was last April 9, when American troops captured Baghdad. ...
On Tuesday, before the Falluja attacks, General Kimmitt, the American military spokesman, appeared to back off at least somewhat from the emphasis on Islamic militants as the principal enemy. At a briefing, he offered an overview of the war in which he suggested that what has occurred, in effect, is a merging of the Saddamist insurgents and the Islamic terrorists into a common terrorist threat, and that, either way, "we just call them targets."

"'Silence the preachers of hate'" (David Sapsted et al., The Daily Telegraph, 2004/04/01)
"Britain's most prominent Muslim leader last night demanded a crackdown on "rogue" Islamic preachers, blaming them for brainwashing young men with sermons promoting holy war against the West.
Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, was backed by the families of some of the eight men arrested in Tuesday's anti-terrorism raids in south-east England. ...
The suspects, all British citizens and all but one of Pakistani background, were being questioned at Paddington Green high-security police station in west London.
Those named by their families are Omar Khyam, 22, his brother Shujah, 17, and their cousin Ahmad Khan, 18, all from Crawley, West Sussex; and Waheed Mahmood, 32, from nearby Horley.
Abdul Rahman, 22, from Barkingside, Essex, was also identified as a suspect. The three others, aged 19, 20 and 21, were arrested in Uxbridge, west London, and Slough during an operation by 700 police officers. One is thought to be of Algerian extraction.
Waheed Mahmood's father, Lal Hussain, spoke about "bad people" at mosques who spread fundamentalism.
He said: 'This version of Islam is spoiling it for everyone else. They have not arrested them; they arrested these kids. They are the extremists, making inflammatory speeches on the pavement, yet nothing is done.'"

"12 fugitives arrested in Bethlehem hospital" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/04/01)
The local psychiatric hospital: "Shin Bet and IDF forces arrested 12 Palestinian fugitives, some members of the Palestinian intelligence and preventive forces, who hid out in a local psychiatric hospital in the Dehaisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem and engaged in gun battles with soldiers before surrendering.
Among those detained are terrorists who planned to launch suicide bomb attacks during the Pessah holiday and others involved in shooting and bomb attacks against Israelis. ...
Some of these terror activists were also members of the Palestinian intelligence and preventive forces, who were transferred to the city in order to restore calm and combat terror after security control of the city was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in the summer 2002.
A senior security official told The Jerusalem Post the fugitives hid out in the hospital for a number of months, during which they plotted and planned terror attacks.
"We are talking of Palestinian security officials, whose job was to combat terror, but instead instigated and orchestrated attacks. Their arrest, without a doubt, thwarted suicide bomb attacks that were to have been launched in Jerusalem over Pessah."

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

News and commentary:

"Iraqis chant anti-American slogans..."
(Khalid Mohammed, AP, 2004/03/31)
"Iraqis chant anti-American slogans on a bridge over the Euphrates River where charred bodies are hanging in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Wednesday March 31 2004. Enraged Iraqis in this hotbed of anti-Americanism killed four foreigners Wednesday, including at least one U.S. national, took the charred bodies from a burning SUV, dragged them through the streets, and hung them from the bridge spanning the Euphrates River."

"Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors" (Jeffrey Gettleman and John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2004/03/31)
Fallujah atrocity IV: "The steadily deteriorating security situation in the Falluja area, west of Baghdad, has become so dangerous that no American soldiers or Iraqi security staff responded to the attack against the contractors.
There are a number of police stations in Falluja and a base of more than 4,000 marines nearby. But even while the two vehicles burned, sending plumes of inky smoke over the closed shops of the city, there were no ambulances, no fire engines and no security.
Instead, Falluja's streets were thick with men and boys and chaos.
Boys with scarves over their faces hurled bricks into the burning vehicles. A group of men dragged one of the smoldering corpses into the street and ripped it apart. Someone then tied a chunk of flesh to a rock and tossed it over a telephone wire.
"Viva mujahadeen!" shouted Said Khalaf, a taxi driver. "Long live the resistance!"
Nearby, a boy no older than 10 put his foot on the head of a body and said: "Where is Bush? Let him come here and see this!"
Many people in the crowd said they felt as if they had won an important battle. Others said they thought that the contractors, who were driving in four-wheel-drive trucks, were working for the Central Intelligence Agency.
"This is what these spies deserve," said Salam Aldulayme, a 28-year-old Falluja resident."

"Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack" (Michael Georgy, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/31)
Fallujah atrocity III: "'This is the fate of all Americans who come to Falluja,' said Mohammad Nafik, one of the crowd surrounding the bodies. ...
A young boy beat one of the incinerated bodies after it was pulled down with his shoe as a crowd cheered.
"I am happy to see this. The Americans are occupying us so this is what will happen," said Mohammad, 12, looking on.
As the victims lay burning, a crowd of around 150 men chanted "Long live Islam" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest") while flashing victory signs."

"Iraqi mob kills contractors in ambush" (The Daily Telegraph, 2004/03/31)
Fallujah atrocity II: "Witnesses said the contractors' two four-wheel drive vehicles were forced to stop before the mob set them alight with some bodies still inside.
The 150-strong crowd chanted slogans such as "Long live Islam" and "God is greatest" as one member of the crowd kicked a badly burned body lying near the vehicles.
Three of the four contractors were Americans. The nationality of the fourth victim has not been disclosed.
A dead man, who appeared to be a foreigner with fair hair and in civilian clothes, lay beside one of the cars, his feet on fire and blood stains on his white shirt.
Television pictures showed an American passport and a US defence department identity card lying nearby.
At least two bodies were tied to cars and pulled through the streets while another was doused in petrol and set on fire, witnesses said.
The mob then dismembered some of the bodies and hung the limbs from a pole. Two incinerated bodies were later hung from a bridge over the Euphrates."

"Iraqis Drag Four Corpses Through Streets" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/31)
Fallujah atrocity I: "Jubilant residents dragged the charred corpses of four foreign contractors — one a woman, at least one an American — through the streets Wednesday and hanged them from the bridge spanning the Euphrates River. Five American soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby.
The four contract workers for the U.S.-led coalition were killed in a rebel ambush of their SUVs in Fallujah, a Sunni Triangle city about 35 miles west of Baghdad and scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago. ...
Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans," residents cheered after the grisly assault on two four-wheel-drive civilian vehicles, which left both in flames. Others chanted, "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Islam."
Associated Press Television News pictures showed one man beating a charred corpse with a metal pole. Others tied a yellow rope to a body, hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street of town. Two blackened and mangled corpses were hung from a green iron bridge across the Euphrates.
"The people of Fallujah hanged some of the bodies on the old bridge like slaughtered sheep," resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Some of the corpses were dismembered, he said.
Beneath the bodies, a man held a printed sign with a skull and crossbones and the phrase 'Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans.'"

Folio from a Qur'an manuscript
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
13th–14th century Spain. Ink, colors, and gold on vellum.

"Entr'acte: Islamic art as a bridge to understanding in West" (Alan Riding, International Herald Tribune, 2004/03/31)
The contrast between Islamic civilization then and now is truly staggering. An interesting article on the growing interest for Islamic art:
"In 2002, President Jacques Chirac of France proposed creating a new department of Islamic art in the Louvre to underline "the essential contribution of Islamic civilizations to our culture." Last month, the Louvre announced that a large courtyard would be covered in glass and redesigned to house its Islamic collection, now exiled to underground corridors. The project will cost $60 million and take five years to complete.
"Obviously this has a political dimension," said the French minister of culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon. "It's a way of saying we believe in the equality of civilizations." And he added: "Many immigrant youths do not fully adhere to our culture nor do they know their own culture of origin. It's good to show that the republic respects, displays and studies this culture."
In London, the Victoria and Albert Museum will also present its rich Islamic collection in a spectacular new gallery from 2006, thanks to a $9.7 million gift from Mohammed Jameel, the head of a Saudi business conglomerate. Announcing the gift two months ago, Jameel said that one of his family's objectives was to increase understanding of the Islamic world."

See also:
Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands (The State Hermitage Museum)
Oriental Art: Islamic Art of the Countries of the Middle East (The State Hermitage Museum)
Islamic Art (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Islamic Art (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Islamic Art (The Detroit Institute of Art)
Gallery of Art of the Muslim World (superluminal.com)

"Israeli Arab Intellectual and Poet on Illiteracy in the Arab World, 'Backward-Looking' Islam, and the Complex of Arab Secularists" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 688, 2004/03/31)
An interview with Salman Masalha, an Israeli Arab intellectual and poet:
"Salman Masalha: ... "A strong culture permits diversity; a strong culture permits freedom of thought, deviation from the framework. When the Abbasid period was at its height, it became a culture of self-confidence. When there is confidence like this, you permit space and freedom. Lack of self-confidence leads to the lowest cultural point, from all aspects — human rights, women's rights. In the Arab empire, there was more freedom than in the Arab world today."
Question: "Then what do those who call for to return to Islam want – the height of culture and freedom?"
Salman Masalha: 'Not at all. The perception today is like that at the beginning of Islam. Actually, Islam tried to unite the Arab tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. The Islamists see the Arab world according to what I read in the scriptures, as if today it is like the Jahaliya, the period of benightedness that preceded Islam. These Islamist movements are trying to revive Islam by uniting in the framework of an Islamic nation. Was it really like that? [The Third Caliph] Muhammad Othman bin 'Affan was murdered and thrown onto the dung heap. Three days he lay there, and a dog ate his foot. This is the golden age to which they want to return?
There's something in the Islamic perception that drives you crazy, and that is the looking only backwards, not to the future. If the golden age was in the past, your entire vision is rearwards. This causes deterioration. In our mentality as Arabs, there is a poisonous formula that can lead to nothing good at all. There is a need for change in this programming. There is a disk in the Arab mind that must be replaced with another disk, and only this way can change come.'"

"Starved for Safety" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2004/03/31)
"The world is now facing a critical test of that principle in the Darfur region of Sudan, where Arab militias are killing and driving out darker-skinned African tribespeople. While the world now marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and solemnly asserts that this must never happen again, it is.
Some 1,000 people are dying each week in Sudan, and 110,000 refugees, like Mr. Yodi, have poured into Chad. Worse off are the 600,000 refugees within Sudan, who face hunger and disease after being driven away from their villages by the Arab militias.
"They come with camels, with guns, and they ask for the men," Mr. Yodi said. "Then they kill the men and rape the women and steal everything." One of their objectives, he added, "is to wipe out blacks."
This is not a case when we can claim, as the world did after the Armenian, Jewish and Cambodian genocides, that we didn't know how bad it was. Sudan's refugees tell of mass killings and rapes, of women branded, of children killed, of villages burned — yet Sudan's government just stiffed new peace talks that began last night in Chad.
So far the U.N. Security Council hasn't even gotten around to discussing the genocide." (See also: "Mass rape atrocity in west Sudan" (BBC News, 2004/03/19))

"Islamic Jihad promises heaven to teen recruit" (Matthew Guttman and Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/03/31)
"On Sunday, 15-year-old Tamer Khawireh ran home and buried his head in his mother's arms. Sobbing, he repeated over and over: "They tricked me, they tricked me."
Islamic Jihad had recruited Khawireh to be a suicide bomber for martyrdom and limitless virgins thereafter. ...
"I want to stay here with you, I want to be part of this life," cried the boy, as recounted Tuesday by his eldest brother, Raed. An Islamic Jihad religious leader had wooed the youth, captivating him with the prospects of heaven's rivers of honey and the beautiful women he would find there.
A few hours after Khawireh's confession to Raed, IDF troops swooped down on the family's Nablus home, arresting him and another young man. Both remain in Israeli detention." (See also: "Militants Recruit Boy, 15, As Bomber" (Ali Daraghmeh, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/30))

"MI5 agents foil bomb plot" (Rosie Cowan and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 2004/03/31)
"MI5 played a key role in foiling what the security forces believe could have been the most devastating bombing campaign in the UK, it emerged last night.
The domestic security service infiltrated the network of eight suspects who were arrested yesterday in one of the biggest anti-terrorist operations ever carried out on British soil. As many as 700 police took part in dawn raids, seizing the men and recovering half a tonne of ammonium nitrate fertiliser. ...
Those arrested were all born and brought up in Britain. Security sources played down suggestions of any direct link between the arrested men and al-Qaida.
Sources referred to groups of young radicalised Muslims who were "difficult to label" but viciously anti-western. Security sources suggested that the motive of the alleged planned attacks was anti-western but not dictated by anyone in the al-Qaida hierarchy."

Added in archive:
"The Lonely Historian" (Elizabeth Wasserman, The Atlantic, 2004/03/25)

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

News and commentary:

"Palestinian Tamer Khweirah..."
(AP, 2004/03/30)
"Palestinian Tamer Khweirah is seen in this undated photo made available by his family in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Islamic militants tried to recruit Khweirah, 15, as a suicide bomber, his family claims."

"Militants Recruit Boy, 15, As Bomber" (Ali Daraghmeh, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/30)
"The story of ninth-grader Tamer Khweirah, who was rescued by an alert older brother, underscores the growing use of children by militant groups and has stoked debate over what is permissible in the fight against Israel. ...
Tamer was taken to a home in Nablus' old city, where he met the sheik, who introduced himself only as Ibrahim, Khweirah said. In the first session, the sheik spoke to Tamer about the need to avenge Yassin, whose group Israel blames for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
In a second encounter, the sheik tried to persuade Tamer to carry out a suicide bombing. He locked Tamer in a dark room for a while, then took him to a well-lit room, saying this illustrated the difference between eternal damnation and paradise.
Paradise and 72 virgins are assured for any bomber, the sheik told Tamer, who is from a well-to-do family and, according to his relatives, had a sheltered upbringing.
When the youngster expressed concern that his family home would be demolished — standard Israeli reprisal — the sheik said Islamic Jihad would pay $35,000 to make up for the loss.
When the boy protested that he'd like to be around for the weddings of his two sisters, the sheik told him, "you will go to paradise and meet them there," according to the older brother.
Islamic Jihad members gave Tamer about $45, a cell phone, new jeans and a new shirt, his brother said."

"Chicago, L.A. towers were next targets" (Paul Martin, The Washington Times, 2004/03/30)
"Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.
Those plans were aborted mainly because of the decisive U.S. response to the New York and Washington attacks, which disrupted the terrorist organization's plans so thoroughly that it could not proceed, according to transcripts of his conversations with interrogators.
Mohammed told interrogators that he and Ramzi Yousuf, his nephew who was behind an earlier attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, had leafed through almanacs of American skyscrapers when planning the first operation.
"We were looking for symbols of economic might," he told his captors.
He specifically mentioned as potential targets the Library Tower in Los Angeles, which was "blown up" in the film "Independence Day," and the Sears Tower in Chicago." (See also: "Bin Laden named Blair as 'top enemy'" (The Australian, 2004/03/29))

"Eight held in anti-terror raids" (George Wright, The Guardian, 2004/03/30)
"Police today seized half a tonne of potentially explosive material and arrested eight men in a major anti-terrorist operation.
Scotland Yard said that ammonium nitrate - a widely available fertiliser that can be used to create powerful explosive devices - had been found at a self-storage facility in Hanwell, west London, in one of 24 raids on addresses across London and the south-east.
The 6am raids, which were conducted by more than 700 officers from the Metropolitan police and four other forces under the Terrorism Act 2000, were described as "a first class police and security operation" by the home secretary, David Blunkett."

"Philippines says foils major attack" (Stuart Grudgings, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/03/30)
"The Philippines says it has foiled a "Madrid-level" terror attack on shops and trains in the capital Manila by arresting four suspected Islamic militants and seizing a large amount of explosives.
The suspected plot by members of the Abu Sayyaf group comes as campaigning heats up ahead of May 10 national elections in which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a firm ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, is seeking a new term.
"We have pre-empted a Madrid-level attack on the metropolis by capturing an explosive cache of 80 pounds (36 kg) of TNT which was intended to be used for bombing malls and trains in Metro Manila," Arroyo said on national television on Tuesday."

"I, Vermin From Under Rock" (George Smith, Village Voice, 2004/03/30)
A one year old column by Smith on Richard Clarke ("The retirement of Richard Clarke is appropriate to the reality of the war on terror.") got snapped up by Drudge, which resulted in an overflowing inbox:
"And so the e-mail poured in, reaching out to touch me, driving home the stupidity and malevolence of the American political climate at the speed of the electrons. ...
The anger was instantly gripping. A prime ingredient was the rage foaming, apparently, from Democrats, who avidly read Drudge so as to be able to intimidate and beat to death troublemakers. They were so over-the-top, it was funny enough to reduce one to tetany. It's certainly a misconception that Democrats are eloquent, sophisticated, sensitive, and therefore beyond the knavish dirt commonly attributed to the "right-wing attack dog." Last week, I found no difference between the two.
"It is obvious that a man who has a sense of patriotism" — Clarke, my dear correspondent meant — 'is being attacked by an ass, and a fop. You are another example of Total [sic] lies the likes of which the press has not seen since the days of Goebels [sic]. Do the country a favor, and kill yourself.'" (See also: "Richard Clarke's Legacy of Miscalculation" (George Smith, SecurityFocus, 2003/02/17))

"Terror and tolerance" (Jean-Christophe Mounicq, The Washington Times, 2004/03/30)
"The reaction of the European media and political class to the elimination of Sheikh Yassin — the master of hate and terrorism, and one who had called for the murder of Jews — pushed me over the edge. I can no longer tolerate descriptions of the monster responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of wounded as a "spiritual leader," a poor "paralytic in a wheelchair." I can no longer tolerate murderous, barbaric Islamist hatred. ...
I can no longer tolerate the relativism and masochism of a West incapable of recalling its own history other than to denounce it. I can no longer tolerate comparing the Crusades to jihad, when the Crusades were nothing but a parenthesis in the history of Christianity while jihad is an integral part of Islam.
I can no longer tolerate the cowardice, weakness and mediocrity of the majority of Western leaders, or the unwillingness of Westerners to affirm their own values and the superiority of liberty and democracy over all other principles and systems. I can no longer tolerate the inability of Europe to recall its Judeo-Christian heritage. ...
I'm going to pray for Westerners to understand that the war on terrorism is in reality a war against Islamism, and that Islamism is gaining ground among Muslims.
I'm going to pray that moderate Muslims might organize demonstrations against the terrorists just as Corsicans and Basques have demonstrated against their own terrorists. Pray that Islam, which is entering its nuclear era, might become neither conqueror nor warrior, but rather adapt to modernity before it is too late."

"Iraq is free at last" (Ann Clwyd, The Guardian, 2004/03/30)
"In December 1979, the Committee against Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq, which I later chaired, published the testimony of Barham Shawi, a 22-year-old poet and essayist from the town of Kut in Iraq.
"I thought I would never be able to write again after they came close to cutting off my fingers by burning, stamping or thrashing them with sticks," he wrote. "I was also caned and flayed until my feet were swollen. These rounds of hard group beating were interspersed by orders to leap and trot on the same spot I was in... they crucified me on the floor and nailed me there by stepping on my palms and arms... My thighs were ripped apart violently and they began to rape me."
The torture and execution of political opponents and the hunting down of dissident elements were to be a consistent feature of Saddam Hussein's regime for the next 20 years. ...
Some will continue to argue that internal repression is not a matter of legitimate concern for other countries. I disagree. There are basic human rights that must be defended. The strict adherence to state sovereignty as the defining factor in international law, far from being a guard against acts of aggression, has become a barrier that allows oppression to continue unchecked by the international community. Who would now say that it was correct not to intervene in Rwanda? ...
The regime cost the lives of at least 2 million people through its wars and internal oppression, and 4 million Iraqis were forced to become refugees. According to estimates from USAID, more than 270 mass graves have been found in Iraq. These alone should vindicate the war. That the world should have acted sooner, I have no doubt."

"One day, Germany will have had enough" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/03/30)
"America's main "overstretch" lies not in Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa, but in its historically unprecedented generosity to its wealthiest allies. "The US picks up the defence tab for Europe, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, among others," I wrote. "If Bush wins a second term, the boys will be coming home from South Korea and Germany, and maybe Japan, too." ...
The so-called "free world" was, for most of its members, a free ride. Absolving wealthy nations of the need to maintain credible armies softens them: they decay, almost inevitably, into a semi-non-aligned status. ...
What happens when a country becomes just as militant and aggressive about the virtues of "soft power" as it once was about old-fashioned hard power? Germany has a shrinking economy, an ageing and shrivelling population, and potentially catastrophic welfare liabilities. Yet the average German worker now puts in over 20 per cent fewer hours per year than his American counterpart, and no politician who wishes to remain electorally viable would propose closing the gap.
Germany, like much of Europe, has a psychological investment in longer holidays, free healthcare, early retirement, unsustainable welfare programmes, decrepit military: the fact that these policies spell national suicide is less important than that they distinguish Europe from the less enlightened Americans."

"Rejoinder - Honour Killings" (Dagens Nyheter, 2004/03/30)
Translated excerpts from a telling rejoinder (not available online) to Hanne Kjöller's scathing review of "The Debate on Honour Killings":
"The core message of the book (which Kjöller carefully avoids to mention) is that cultural relativism leads to racialist conceptions. That's the reason such discussions are embraced by racists.
Kjöller thinks that this throws suspicion on cultural relativists. Why? They are saying exactly the same thing as racists always have been saying. Is it wrong when they say it, but right when Hanne Kjöller says the same thing? ...
That is why there was rejoicing in the common racist forums regarding Kjöllers text. At last someone is attacking Expo! Congratulation, Hanne Kjöller!
STIEG LARSSON
CECILIA ENGLUND
Editors of "The Debate on Honour Killings"

ANSWER: I have written an article about how Larsson/Englund throw suspicion on everybody who thinks that honour killings have cultural explanations. About how they, by using "guilt-by-association" reasoning suggest that everybody that has a differing opinion are racists. And then the two of them are making the same intellectual blunder once again. ...
HANNE KJÖLLER" (See also: "Honour Killing Debate Without Honour" (Hanne Kjöller, Dagens Nyheter/Watch, 2004/03/04))

"U.N. Official Fired in Iraq Lapses" (Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times, 2004/03/30)
"Secretary-General Kofi Annan fired the U.N.'s security coordinator and demoted another official Monday for failing to take adequate precautions before the August bombing of its Baghdad headquarters that killed 22 people. ...
Annan's actions came in response to the findings of an accountability report released Monday that harshly criticized U.N. officials for failing to recognize and address the growing risks for their personnel in Baghdad.
The report stated that the security coordinator, Tun Myat, was "blinded by the conviction that U.N. personnel and installations would not become a target of attack, despite the clear warnings to the contrary." A failure to take preventive measures demonstrated "lethargy bordering on gross negligence," the report said.
Annan fired Myat and demoted Ramiro Lopes da Silva, who was in charge of U.N. security in Iraq. Lopes da Silva, now on temporary assignment in central Africa, will be allowed to return to a post with the World Food Program but won't be entrusted with security matters again, said Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard."

"US allies hit by wave of Islamist terror attacks" (Daniel McLaughlin and Ahmed Rashid, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/03/30)
Uzbekistan II: "[Sadyk Safayev, Uzbekistan's foreign minister] said the explosives were similar to those used by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group linked to al-Qa'eda. Tashkent blames IMU bombers for an attempt to assassinate the autocratic Uzbek leader Islam Karimov in 1999.
Pakistani officials said one exiled leader of the IMU, Tahir Yuldashev, was wounded during 12 days of fighting close to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. He was described as the tenth most senior figure in al-Qa'eda.
Uzbek officials declined to comment on a possible link between the attacks in Tashkent and Bukhara and the fighting in the Waziristan region.
Pakistan said yesterday that 63 al-Qa'eda guerrillas were killed along with one of the organisation's intelligence chiefs, identified only as "Mr Abdullah", although terrorist experts did not immediately recognise him.
Mr Safayev said the attacks in Uzbekistan were aimed at damaging one of Washington's key allies.
He said that not only the IMU but Hizb ut-Tahrir, another banned group that wants to establish a pan-Islamic state in central Asia, could be linked to the attacks."