Archived news and commentary: June 7 - 13, 2004

2004/06/28 - 2004/07/04
2004/06/21 - 2004/06/27
2004/06/14 - 2004/06/20
2004/06/07 - 2004/06/13
2004/05/31 - 2004/06/06
2004/05/24 - 2004/05/30
2004/05/17 - 2004/05/23
2004/05/10 - 2004/05/16
2004/05/03 - 2004/05/09
2004/04/26 - 2004/05/02
2004/04/19 - 2004/04/25
2004/04/12 - 2004/04/18
2004/04/05 - 2004/04/11
2004/03/29 - 2004/04/04

Sunday, June 13, 2004

News and commentary:

"Detached from reality" (Gerald M. Steinberg, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/06/13)
"The disastrous outcome of the Oslo process – seven years of false peace negotiations that Yasser Arafat exploited to prepare a terror campaign – can be blamed on many factors. ...
But let's not forget some of my fellow academics who gave the process legitimacy, maintained the facade of peace long after the failure of Oslo became clear, and, even worse, continue today as if nothing has changed. ...
Four year after these myths violently exploded, influential academics continue to write articles and run meetings extolling the virtues of dialogue and heart-to-heart discussions.
In a recent op-ed published in The Boston Globe, Kelman promoted the Geneva Accords and declared that "unilateral steps would have disastrous consequences."
In addition to their refusal to recognize the failures of Oslo, the idea that the same Palestinian and Israeli leaders can be trusted to try again is absurd and detached from reality.
After decades of narrow Arab-Israeli dialogues, summer coexistence camps, and summit meetings, it is time for the teachers and researchers in the field of peace studies to confront reality: The quasi-religious belief in "mutually enhancing cooperation" and "reconciliation" is not only wrong; it is also dangerous. It prevents recognition of the situation on the ground and is readily exploited for war and terror, as we have seen.
It is clear that the techniques developed by social psychologists for family therapy cannot cope with deep political and religious hatreds, irreconcilable interests and the strategy of terrorism."

"Gulf News' idea of journalism" (Backspin, 2004/06/13)
"BJ Turner of Fort Smith, AR points us to her correspondence with the Dubai-based Gulf News, which is presently on the Gulf News letters page. See the 'editor's note' at bottom:

Sad, but true
From Mrs. B. J. Turner, Arkansas, US

This letter definitely will fall on deaf ears and will not be published in the letters column. Nevertheless, I feel the need to write it. I find it amusing, pathetic, that you publish letters using the term "Israeli terrorist" yet you always edit mine when I write using the word "terrorist" in connection with certain Palestinian actions by substituting it with the word "militant". And you call yourself "free" and "open-minded".
I would be only too glad to write rebuttals to Messrs. Aluva and El Thaher's letters ("Ground realities" and "Uprising" Gulf News, Online, June 8) but won't because Gulf News edits my 100 word emails so heavily that I often don't recognise my own writing. Shame on Gulf News for this censorship!

Editor's note: Mrs. Turner should thank Gulf News for publishing her letters regularly, though she sends them from America. Every newspaper has a policy — and our policy towards all Palestinians is that they are freedom fighters. If Mrs. Turner does not like our policy, then she can stop writing to Gulf News." (See also: "Letters To The Editor - June 13, 2004" (Gulf News, 2004/06/13))

"It's the Nazism, stupid" (Arthur Chrenkoff, chrenkoff.blogspot.com, 2004/06/13)
"The separation of church and state doesn't prevent men of the cloth from holding and voicing strong political opinions; but neither does the direct line to the Holy Spirit guarantee that one will not talk shit on matters outside of theology. For the latest example see Father Andrew Greeley's column in Chicago "Sun Times", joyfully titled "Is U.S. like Germany of the '30s?"
Kind of, yes, according to Father Greeley. You see, people wanted a strong leader, so they democratically elected one, albeit not by a majority. ...
Having established uncanny parallels between the Germany of the 1930s and his present day homeland, the good Father goes on to cast his eye at the political leadership then and now:

"[Bush] is not another Hitler. Yet there is a certain parallelism. They have in common a demagogic appeal to the worst side of a country's heritage in a crisis. Bush is doubtless sincere in his vision of what is best for America. So too was Hitler. The crew around the president — Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Karl Rove, the 'neo-cons' like Paul Wolfowitz — are not as crazy perhaps as Himmler and Goering and Goebbels. Yet like them, they are practitioners of the Big Lie — weapons of mass destruction, Iraq democracy, only a few 'bad apples'."

Don't you just love the whole "Bush is not Hitler, but..." thing? Not too worry, though, a bit more demagoguery, a bit more craziness, a few more lies, and Father Greeley's dream of the Bush Administration exterminating six million Jews might yet come true." (See also: "Is U.S. like Germany of the '30s?" (Andrew Greeley, Chicago Sun-Times, 2004/06/13))

"Interrogation abuses were 'approved at highest levels'" (Julian Coman, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/06/13)
"New evidence that the physical abuse of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay was authorised at the top of the Bush administration will emerge in Washington this week, adding further to pressure on the White House.
The Telegraph understands that four confidential Red Cross documents implicating senior Pentagon civilians in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been passed to an American television network, which is preparing to make them public shortly.
According to lawyers familiar with the Red Cross reports, they will contradict previous testimony by senior Pentagon officials who have claimed that the abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison was an isolated incident.
"There are some extremely damaging documents around, which link senior figures to the abuses," said Scott Horton, the former chairman of the New York Bar Association, who has been advising Pentagon lawyers unhappy at the administration's approach. 'The biggest bombs in this case have yet to be dropped.'"

"Intelligence: The Pentagon — Spying in America?" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2004/06/21 issue)
"Last February, two Army counterintelligence agents showed up at the University of Texas law school and demanded to see the roster from a conference on Islamic law held a few days earlier. Their reason: they were trying to track down students who the agents claimed had been asking "suspicious" questions. "I felt like I was in 'Law & Order'," said one student after being grilled by one of the agents. The incident provoked a brief campus uproar, and the Army later admitted the agents had exceeded their authority. But if the Pentagon has its way, the Army may not have to make such amends in the future. Without any public hearing or debate, NEWSWEEK has learned, Defense officials recently slipped a provision into a bill before Congress that could vastly expand the Pentagon's ability to gather intelligence inside the United States, including recruiting citizens as informants.
Ever since the 1970s, when Army intel agents were caught snooping on antiwar protesters, military intel agencies have operated under tight restrictions inside the United States. But the new provision, approved in closed session last month by the Senate Intelligence Committee, would eliminate one big restriction: that they comply with the Privacy Act, a Watergate-era law that requires government officials seeking information from a resident to disclose who they are and what they want the information for. The CIA always has been exempt — although by law it isn't supposed to operate inside the United States. The new provision would now extend the same exemption to Pentagon agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency — so they can help track terrorists."

"Terror inquiry snares art exhibit" (Timothy Cahill, timesunion.com, 2004/06/13)
Considering that America is highest on the list of dream targets for every Islamist terrorist it's nice to know that the FBI don't squander they resources on ridiculous cases:
"Visitors to "The Interventionists" exhibit at MASS MoCA are greeted by a sight unusual even for the cutting-edge art museum. One of the galleries in the show devoted to contemporary political art is oddly vacant, dominated by empty tables and a sign explaining that the materials intended for the display have been impounded by the FBI.
The seized materials, including simple bacteria, have become part of a case that some feel is pitting artistic expression against the sweeping anti-terrorism powers of the federal government. In addition to confiscating the makings of the art installation, federal officials have subpoenaed the artists involved in the work and may be pursuing charges of biological terrorism.
The computers, test tubes, laboratory instruments and other supplies not on view were intended for an installation titled "Free Range Grains," part of the exhibition "The Interventionists," on view at MASS MoCA through next spring. The installation, designed to draw attention to genetic modifications in food, was created by Steve Kurtz, a founder of the artist collaborative Critical Art Ensemble. The materials were taken from Kurtz's Buffalo home last month.
Kurtz and three other members of CAE have been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Buffalo on Tuesday." (Hat tip: Drudge Report.)

"Iraq Car Bombing Kills 12; Official Slain" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/13)
"A suicide car-bomber killed a dozen people Sunday near a U.S. garrison in Baghdad and gunmen assassinated a senior Education Ministry official in a day that also included a rocket attack on the Green Zone housing the U.S. administration and ambushes around the capital. A U.S. helicopter crashed but the crew survived.
Two other top Iraqi officials narrowly escaped death in what appears to be a campaign to target key figures in the new Iraqi administration as it prepares to take power June 30. ...
The suicide attack near the U.S. Army's Camp Cuervo in eastern Baghdad was the 15th car-bombing in Iraq since the start of the month, U.S. officials said. The 12 dead included four policemen, officials said, but there were no American casualties. ...
Kamal al-Jarah, 63, the Education Ministry official in charge of contacts with foreign governments and the United Nations, was fatally shot early Sunday outside his home in the city's Ghazaliya district, a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein had been strong."

"Like Thatcher, Americans grasped Reagan's worth" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2004/06/13)
Reagan XV: "Those who disparage him say it would have happened anyway. It was obvious to all that the Soviet Union was on the verge of total collapse. After all, as big-time Ivy League history prof Arthur Schlesinger wrote in 1982, ''Those in the United States who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse'' are ''wishful thinkers who are only kidding themselves.''
No, hang on, I must be thinking of Professor J.K. Galbraith, who in 1984 was marveling at ''the great material progress'' of the USSR. In fairness to Galbraith, as the Associated Press would say, he has almost no schooling in economics, aside from being a Harvard economics professor for several decades. ...
Back in the real world, the people waiting hours to get in to the Rotunda were there not just because Ronald Reagan was amiable but because they grasped that he was a significant figure in the life of this country and the world. Here too the events of two years ago are instructive: The Queen Mother was the last living representative of Britain's wartime leadership. She didn't win any battles, of course, but, advised to go to Canada, she instead stayed on in London, toured bombed-out streets in the East End, and took a direct hit at Buckingham Palace. To those on the streets of Westminster in 2002, she symbolized resolve and then victory in a great cause.
That's what this week's mourners understand about Reagan, too. He also symbolizes resolve and victory — in a slyer, slipperier war, but one which he won just as decisively. Some saw it then. More see it now. One day even the network anchors and Ivy League professors will get it."

"The Netherworld of Nonproliferation" (James Traub, The New York Times Magazine, 2004/06/13)
"Tomorrow the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency will meet, and the principal item on the agenda will be, as it has been for the last year, Iran's nuclear program. The Bush administration is convinced that Iran is secretly trying to build a bomb. The Iranian officials I spoke with in a visit to Tehran last month insist that they are merely trying to improve their ''energy mix'' by adding nuclear power to their abundant oil supplies. But even in the unlikely event that that is so, an Iran capable of producing weapons-grade uranium is plainly unacceptable, not only to the Bush administration but also to its chief allies. What is not at all clear is how to make the Iranians surrender that capacity.
The nuclear bargain has become hopelessly one-sided, and the instruments created to sustain that bargain seem unequal to the task. Bush administration officials describe the current impasse over Iran as a test that the international community, and specifically the I.A.E.A., is failing. Even the I.A.E.A.'s director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, says that the entire nonproliferation system is in danger of collapse, though he would include American bellicosity among the forces that are endangering it."

"US citizen 'kidnapped in Riyadh'" (BBC News, 2004/06/13)
"A statement purportedly from al-Qaeda has said the group killed one US citizen and kidnapped another in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The statement, on an Islamist website, said the hostage would be dealt with in the same way as the US "dealt with our brothers in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib".
The website also posted a video allegedly showing the killing of a US security contractor last Tuesday.
It came hours after another US national was shot dead in Riyadh on Saturday. ...
The statement on the Sawt al Jihad (Voice of Jihad) website was accompanied by a passport-sized photograph of a brown-haired man and a Lockheed Martin business card bearing the name Paul M Johnson. ...
It added that the man was kidnapped to "avenge US mistreatment of prisoners" in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. ...
The statement was signed by "al-Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula".
Meanwhile, the tape posted on the website showed a seemingly Western man falling to the ground in front of a garage as two gunmen run towards him.
"The murder of the Jewish American Robert Jacob, who worked for the Vinnell espionage firm," a statement announcing the video on the website said, according to Reuters news agency."

Saturday, June 12, 2004

News and commentary:

"Iran wants recognition as nuclear nation" (CNN.com, 2004/06/12)
"Iran has rejected any further restrictions on its nuclear program and demanded that it be recognized as a nuclear nation with the right to pursue "the peaceful use of atomic energy."
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi accused France, Britain and Germany — who have drawn up a tough new document that accuses Iran of not cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency — of bowing to pressure from the United States.
"Iran has to be taken seriously," Kharrazi said. 'Iran is powerful and has to be recognized as a responsible member of the atomic club, this is inevitable. Iran will not give up its rights to the peaceful use of atomic energy as well as its right to supply nuclear fuel to its power plants.'"

"American Shot and Killed in Saudi Capital" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/12)
"An American was shot and killed Saturday in the Saudi capital, police said, in the third slaying of a Westerner in the kingdom in a week. ...
Al-Arabiya satellite station said the American man was parking his car in his home's parking garage when two militants shot him in the back, then moved closer to fire two shots from a short distance.
Witnesses told The Associated Press there were three gunmen."

"Iraqi minister killed in Baghdad" (BBC News, 2004/06/12)
"An Iraqi interim deputy foreign minister, Bassam Qubba, has been killed in an attack in the capital, Baghdad.
A foreign ministry spokesman said unidentified gunmen fired on his car in al-Azimiya district on Saturday morning as he was on his way to work.
Mr Qubba, the ministry's senior career diplomat, was shot in the stomach. He was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards, the spokesman said."

"Three hostages killed in Iraq" (BBC News, 2004/06/12)
"Iraqi insurgents have killed a Lebanese man and two Iraqi co-workers, Lebanese officials say.
The foreign ministry in Beirut said Hussein Ali Alyan, 28, a Shia Muslim construction worker, had been tortured and killed in "grisly circumstances".
His body and those of the two Iraqis were dumped on a road near Baghdad.
In a separate development, seven Turkish contractors were released five days after being taken hostage in the violence-wracked town of Falluja."

"The View from the Gulag" (The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/06/21 issue)
Reagan XIV. An interview with Natan Sharansky, who was a Gulag prisoner between 1978 and 1986:
"Were there any particular Reagan moments that you can recall being sources of strength or encouragement to you and your colleagues?
I have to laugh. People who take freedom for granted, Ronald Reagan for granted, always ask such questions. Of course! It was the great brilliant moment when we learned that Ronald Reagan had proclaimed the Soviet Union an Evil Empire before the entire world. There was a long list of all the Western leaders who had lined up to condemn the evil Reagan for daring to call the great Soviet Union an evil empire right next to the front-page story about this dangerous, terrible man who wanted to take the world back to the dark days of the Cold War. This was the moment. It was the brightest, most glorious day. Finally a spade had been called a spade. Finally, Orwell's Newspeak was dead. President Reagan had from that moment made it impossible for anyone in the West to continue closing their eyes to the real nature of the Soviet Union.
It was one of the most important, freedom-affirming declarations, and we all instantly knew it. For us, that was the moment that really marked the end for them, and the beginning for us. The lie had been exposed and could never, ever be untold now."

"In Shift, Rebel Iraqi Cleric Backs New Government He Had Once Mocked" (Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2004/06/12)
"The anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Friday endorsed the new interim Iraqi government and appeared to urge his followers to honor a week-old cease-fire that has been frayed by continuing violence.
A senior aide to Mr. Sadr, Sheik Jabir al-Khafaji, used a sermon during Friday Prayers in the Sadr stronghold of Kufa, 120 miles south of here, to announce that Mr. Sadr now approved of the interim government he had previously mocked and that he wanted its leaders to set a timetable for the departure of occupation forces.
"'From now on, I beg you to start afresh for Iraq for the sake of peace and safety,'" Sheik Khafaji quoted Mr. Sadr as saying. ...
Sheik Khafaji also asked Mr. Sadr's followers to "obey the supreme leader's orders" and to "thank God for the triumph he received," an implicit request to members of the Mahdi Army to stop attacks and respect the cease-fire reached with the Americans on June 4."

Friday, June 11, 2004

News and commentary:

"Somber Skies See Reagan Home to California" (Calvin Woodward and Jeff Wilson, AP/Yahoo!News, 2004/06/11)
Reagan XIV: "In a final, majestic hail to the chief Friday, the nation bade a lingering goodbye to Ronald Reagan at a stately service in Washington beneath marble arches and somber skies before the 40th president's flag-draped casket returned to his beloved California for a sunset burial ceremony. ...
The service earlier at Washington National Cathedral dropped the curtain on a week of American majesty, with dozens of world leaders, the four living ex-presidents and lifelong friends as witness. ...
"His politics had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation — and ultimately from the very heart of the evil empire," said former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in taped remarks presented at the funeral. Thatcher, who has given up public speaking after a series of small strokes, sat next to Mikhail Gorbachev, who led that Soviet "empire" and eventually became Reagan's friend."

"Margaret Thatcher's eulogy" (Chicago Sun-Times, 2004/06/11)
Reagan XIII. Text of Baroness Margaret Thatcher's eulogy at the funeral of former President Ronald Ronald:
"Others prophesied the decline of the West; he inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom.
Others saw only limits to growth; he transformed a stagnant economy into an engine of opportunity.
Others hoped, at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the Soviet Union; he won the Cold War — not only without firing a shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends. ...
So the President resisted Soviet expansion and pressed down on Soviet weakness at every point until the day came when communism began to collapse beneath the combined weight of these pressures and its own failures. And when a man of goodwill did emerge from the ruins, President Reagan stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation.
Nothing was more typical of Ronald Reagan than that large-hearted magnanimity — and nothing was more American."

"There's so much interest in Islam..."
(BBC News, 2004/06/11)
From "New Muslim centre opens its doors" (BBC News, 2004/06/11): "'There's so much interest in Islam at the moment that I think this will be a good thing to help people find out about it' Nsheila Ahmed, law student"

"Mecca's Imam Visits Londonistan" (Daniel Pipes, danielpipes.org, 2004/06/11)
"The London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, reports the BBC, has just opened. One of the largest Muslim community centers in Western Europe, the six-storey building can hold 10,000 worshippers and includes a gym, a library, crèche and classrooms. ...
So relentlessly upbeat is the BBC coverage that it reports without further comment that inaugural prayers were led by someone it calls "one of Islam's most renowned Imams." That would be Sheikh Abdur-Rahman al-Sudais (also spelled Sudayyis), a Saudi government-appointed imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The news item quotes some anodyne statements by Sudais congratulating British Muslims for taking "great steps towards achieving community cohesion" and calling on them to "exemplify the true image of Islam in their interaction with other communities."
Unspoken here is the identity of Abdur-Rahman al-Sudais, a notorious Islamist, antisemite, and jihadist. Steven Stalinsky of MEMRI prepared a fine report on him that gives a sense of who he is. ...

The themes of his sermons are characterized by confrontation toward non-Muslims. Al-Sudayyis calls Jews "scum of the earth" and "monkeys and pigs" who should be "annihilated." Other enemies of Islam, he says, are "worshippers of the cross" and "idol-worshipping Hindus" who should be fought. Al-Sudayyis has been consistent in calling for jihad in Kashmir and Chechnya, for Jerusalem to be liberated, and for the "occupiers in Iraq" to also be fought. He often claims that Islam is superior to Western culture. …

So there you have it: the Saudi government pays his salary and the British taxpayer subsidizes the mosque where he speaks. Such official patronage for jihad makes one wonder how many more will have to die as victims of jihad before people really wake up to the threat of militant Islam." (See also: "New Muslim centre opens its doors" (BBC News, 2004/06/11) and "Kingdom Comes to North America" (Steven Stalinsky, National Review, 2004/05/13))

"Institutionalizing our demise: America vs. multiculturalism" (Roger Kimball, The New Criterion, from the June 2004 issue)

"Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it.
— Jean-François Revel, 1970 ...

“Does it,” Huntington asks, “take an Osama bin Laden … to make us realize that we are Americans? If we do not experience recurring destructive attacks, will we return to the fragmentation and eroded Americanism before September 11?” ...
Those forces are not isolated phenomena; they are not even confined to America. They are part of a global crisis in national identity, coefficients of the sudden collapse of self-confidence in the West — a collapse that shows itself in everything from swiftly falling birthrates in “old Europe” to the attack on the whole idea of the sovereign nation state. It is hard to avoid thinking that a people that has lost the will to reproduce or govern itself is a people on the road to destruction. ...
The threat shows itself in many ways, from culpable complacency to the corro- sive imperatives of “multiculturalism” and political correctness. (I use scare quotes because what generally travels under the name of “multiculturalism” is really a form of mono-cultural animus directed against the dominant culture.) In essence, as Huntington notes, multiculturalism is “anti-European civilization… . It is basically an anti-Western ideology.” The multiculturalists claim to be fostering a progressive cultural cosmopolitanism distinguished by superior sensitivity to the downtrodden and dispossessed. In fact, they encourage an orgy of self-flagellating liberal guilt as impotent as it is insatiable."

"AT HIGH NOON"
(Tomasz Sarnecki, Solidarity, 1989)
From "Freedom on the Fence: The Polish Poster" (Oregon State University, 2003): Polish Election Poster, Solidarnosc (Solidarity), Tomasz Sarnecki, 1989 - "SOLIDARITY - AT HIGH NOON - JUNE 4 1989."

"In Solidarity: The Polish people, hungry for justice, preferred "cowboys" over Communists" (Lech Walesa, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/06/11)
Reagan XII: "When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989. ...
I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date — June 4, 1989 — of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.
But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together."

"What They Said" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/06/11)
Reagan XI. The perfect companion to Krauthammer's column below:
"In honor of president Reagan's funeral, here's a useful corrective to the notion that his legacy was always celebrated. Today, almost everyone concedes his historical significance. But that wasn't what was said at the time. Here's a smattering of commentary from the 1980s.

"I wonder how many people, reading about the [Evil Empire'] speech or seeing bits on television, really noticed its outrageous character… Primitive: that is the only word for it. … What is the world to think when the greatest of powers is led by a man who applies to the most difficult human problem a simplistic theology — one in fact rejected by most theologians?... What must the leaders of Western Europe think of such a speech? They look to the head of the alliance for rhetoric that can persuade them and their constituents. What they get from Ronald Reagan is a mirror image of crude Soviet rhetoric. And it is more than rhetoric: everyone must sense that. The real Ronald Reagan was speaking in Orlando. The exaggeration and the simplicities are there not only in the rhetoric but in the process by which he makes decisions." — Anthony Lewis, New York Times, March 10, 1983 ...

"All evidence indicates that the Reagan administration has abandoned both containment and détente for a very different objective: destroying the Soviet Union as a world power and possibly even its Communist system. [This is a] potentially fatal form of Sovietphobia… a pathological rather than a healthy response to the Soviet Union." — Princeton Professor Stephen Cohen, 1983. ...

Rest in peace, Mr President. And know that after all these years, you were right — and all these people were clearly, emphatically, embarrassingly, wrong."

"Reagan Revisionism" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2004/06/11)
Reagan X: "In the early '80s, the West experienced a nuclear hysteria — a sudden panic about imminent nuclear destruction and a mindless demand to "freeze" nuclear weapons. What had changed to bring this on? Reagan had become president. Like George W. Bush today, the U.S. president was seen as a greater threat to peace than was the enemy he was confronting. ...
The nuclear freeze and the accompanying hysteria are an embarrassment that liberals prefer to forget today. Reagan's critics completely misunderstood the logic and the power of his nuclear posture. He took a very hard line on the Soviets, who had broken the nuclear status quo by placing missiles in Europe. Backed by Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl, Reagan faced the Soviets down — despite enormous "peace" demonstrations throughout the West, including the largest one to date in U.S. history (New York City, 1982) — and ultimately forced the Soviets to dismantle the missiles and begin their overall retreat.
Rarely has a president been so quickly and completely vindicated by history. The Berlin Wall came down 10 months after Reagan left office. ...
This success is an understandable embarrassment to the critics who opposed his every policy. They supported the freeze, denounced the military buildup, ridiculed strategic defenses, opposed aid to the Nicaraguan anti-communists and derided Reagan for telling the truth about the Soviet empire.
So now they praise his sunny smile." (See also: "The Last Laugh? Wait for the History Books" (Max Boot, Los Angeles Times, 2004/06/10))

"UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after" (World Tribune.com, 2004/06/11)
"The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.
The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program.
The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared."

"Alleged Plot to Kill Saudi Ruler Detailed" (John Mintz and Peter Slevin, The Washington Post, 2004/06/11)
"But now Alamoudi, who is being held at an Alexandria jail facing 34 counts related to the alleged cash smuggling, is sketching out even more extraordinary allegations for U.S. officials. Alamoudi has revealed a plot by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to assassinate the head of the Saudi government, Crown Prince Abdullah — a plan in which Alamoudi took part, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and other informed sources. ...
Alamoudi, 52, whose account is corroborated by a Libyan intelligence official — Col. Mohamed Ismael, who is in Saudi custody — has told U.S. officials that he twice met with Gaddafi late last spring and last summer, and that both times the Libyan leader told him to speed up the plot to kill Abdullah, according to several people familiar with the case.
During the very months last year when Gaddafi was allegedly hatching this plan, he was also negotiating with British and U.S. officials to renounce terrorism and end his weapons-of-mass-destruction programs, the sources said."

Added in archive:
"Borrowed time in the botellón" (Michael Carlin, The New Criterion, May 2004)

Thursday, June 10, 2004

News and commentary:

"The black-red alliance" (Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/06/10)
"When the US-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, few would have imagined that the move might lead to the formation of an alliance between the radical Left and hard-line Islamists in Western Europe. But this is precisely what happened. ...
Talks are underway for holding a pan-European conference next year to give the Marxist-Islamist alliance permanent organizational structures.
The European Marxist-Islamist coalition does not offer a coherent political platform. Its ideology is built around three themes: hatred of the United States, the dream of wiping Israel off the map, and the hoped-for collapse of the global economic system. ...
The Islamists, for their part, are attracted to the European hard Left because of its professed hatred of the United States and Israel.
"We say to anyone who hates the Americans and wants to throw the Jews out of Palestine: ahlan wa sahlan (welcome)," quipped Abu-Hamza al-Masri, the British Islamist firebrand who is awaiting extradition to the US on various criminal charges. 'The Prophet teaches that we could ally ourselves even with the atheists if it helps us destroy [the] enemy.'" (See also: "Saddam's very own party" (Nick Cohen, The New Statesman, from the 2004/06/07 issue))

"U.N. sees signs of massive Iran nuke plans - diplomats" (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, 2004/06/10)
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found indications Iran wanted to equip thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges, enough to produce bomb-grade material for several warheads per year, diplomats say.
The United States is certain to treat this revelation as further proof that Iran's nuclear programme is a front for developing an atom bomb. Iran insists its programme is aimed solely at the peaceful generation of electricity.
At a closed-door meeting on Iran, a senior inspector from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told the agency's governing board a private Iranian company had expressed interest in "tens of thousands" of magnets for advanced P-2 centrifuges from a European intermediary, said a diplomat who attended."

"Bush Papers Over Splits with Chirac on Iraq" (Steve Holland, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/10)
Weasel Watch III: "A day after G8 leaders backed democratic reforms in Arab and Muslim nations, Bush described "the spread of freedom throughout the broader Middle East" as "the imperative of our age" and said he did not feel snubbed by the failure of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait to attend the summit. ...
But the mood of unity was marred the next day when Chirac — a leading opponent of the invasion of Iraq last year — expressed doubts about Bush's NATO proposal. ...
Chirac, giving his own news conference, said a NATO mission in Iraq could carry great risks — "even of a clash between the Christian West and the Muslim East, although that is rather a caricature." (See also: "Bush opens new rift over Middle East plan" (Larry Elliott and David Teather in Savannah, The Guardian, 2004/06/10) and "G8 adopts US-backed Mideast reform initiative with little enthusiasm" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/09))

"The Last Laugh? Wait for the History Books" (Max Boot, Los Angeles Times, 2004/06/10)
Reagan IX: "Listening to the endless encomiums to Ronald Reagan, many from people who once derided him, I couldn't help wonder whether some day George W. Bush would receive similar tributes from his current enemies. It seems unlikely, even to me, but then it seemed pretty unlikely 20 years ago that the Gipper would ever win widespread acclaim as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history. ...
Barbara Ehrenreich titled her book about the 1980s "The Worst Years of Our Lives." Reagan was also accused of being a "reckless cowboy" and a "simple-minded ideologue" (Mark Hertsgaard) who was leading the nation toward nuclear annihilation.
These accusations were not particularly controversial among the chattering classes in the 1980s; they were (and in some quarters remain) received wisdom. ...
The similarities with George W. Bush are uncanny. As Reagan was, he is thought to be an intellectual lightweight too stupid to understand how ruinous his policies are. He is getting as much grief as Reagan did for not bowing to the logic of "deterrence" and "containment." Reagan's alternative was the Strategic Defense Initiative; Bush's, the doctrine of preemption. Reagan was derided for his stark depiction of the Cold War as a "struggle between right and wrong, good and evil." Bush uses similar language in the war on terrorism — and earns similar derision."

"Condoning Torture" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/06/10)
"The lame responses by John Ashcroft to the evidence in leaked memos that the Bush administration condoned torture with the personal approval of the president are damning. It's even more damning that Ashcroft will not release a critical memo, prepared by his department, making the point that some forms of torture, if approved by the president, would not be illegal. I'm hoping to write at length about this, but let me say one thing. I should have spoken up earlier. The signs were there — including the decision to ignore the Geneva Conventions with regard to al Qaeda in Guantanamo. In a very small number of cases, this might have been a debatable question. But what we have clearly seen is a green light from the very top condoning at best mistreatment and abuse of prisoners of war in a whole slew of cases. We'll see as more facts emerge what the truth is. But the brutality of U.S. forces against prisoners in their care and custody is now public record - and a permanent mark of shame for the United States. ...
It seems to me that those of us who support this war should be most outraged. This administration has violated the Geneva Conventions — not just in a few cases, but across the board. It has erased some of the distinction between who we are and what the enemy is, a distinction central to the moral case for this war." (See also: "Memo on Torture Draws Focus to Bush" (Mike Allen and Dana Priest, The Washington Post, 2004/06/09) and "Memo Offered Justification for Use of Torture" (Dana Priest and R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington Post, 2004/06/08))

"Bush opens new rift over Middle East plan" (Larry Elliott and David Teather in Savannah, The Guardian, 2004/06/10)
Weasel Watch II: "Buoyed by the 15-0 UN security council vote, Mr Bush and Tony Blair were seeking a three-pronged follow-up that would involve greater Nato involvement in Iraq, plans to bring western-style democracy and economic reform to the Middle East and north Africa and a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ...
Turkey and Jordan were broadly supportive of the plan. But leading Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Egypt snubbed the event to protest what they view as heavy-handed US attempts to impose western values on their cultures. ...
But Mr Chirac was also dismissive of Mr Bush's initiative. 'There is no ready-made formula for democracy readily transposable from one country to another. Democracy is not a method, it is a culture. For democracy to take root solidly and durably in the Arab world, it must be an Arab democracy before all else.'" (See also: "G8 adopts US-backed Mideast reform initiative with little enthusiasm" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/09))

"Two Are Said to Tell of Libyan Plot to Kill Saudi Ruler" (Patrick E. Tyler, The New York Times, 2004/06/10)
"While the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was renouncing terrorism and negotiating the lifting of sanctions last year, his intelligence chiefs ordered a covert operation to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom, according to statements by two participants in the conspiracy.
Those participants, Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader now in jail in Alexandria, Va., and Col. Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer in Saudi custody, have given separate statements to American and Saudi officials outlining the plot.
Mr. Alamoudi, has told Federal Bureau of Investigation officials and federal prosecutors that Colonel Qaddafi approved the assassination plan. Mr. Qaddafi's son, in an interview in London, called the accusation "nonsense."
American officials confirm that Mr. Alamoudi and Mr. Ismael have offered detailed accounts of a Libyan plot to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah and that they appear to be credible enough to have launched an American investigation. But the officials said they are still examining the scope of the plot, how far it advanced and whether Colonel Qaddafi was involved."

Wednesday, June 9, 2004

News and commentary:

"Investigations into EU-financed Palestinian terror allegations not over, says OLAF" (Mark Beunderman, EUobserver.com, 2004/06/09)
"The Bayerische Rundfunk reported that 246 million euro of EU money, granted to the Palestinian Authority by the European Commission, ended up on fully uncontrollable
bank accounts.
Contrary to specific project-based EU aid, these direct money transfers to the Palestinian Authority could be spent freely, the television report said.
The Bayerische Rundfunk said, on the basis of a letter by Mr Arafat that it had obtained, that the Palestinian leader personally ordered terrorist attacks, using the accounts where the EU money ended up." (Hat tip: BackSpin.)

"What Would Victims Do Without Experts?" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/06/09)
"A defense expert for Fawaz Damra says the indicted imam did not try to incite violence in the early 1990s when he screamed at fund-raisers to destroy Jews," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The paper quotes the "expert," Scott Alexander, "a Chicago researcher in Mideast studies":

"The rhetoric is principally used by political and religious leaders to galvanize resistance to what Palestinian Arabs consider to be the patent persecution of their people by Jewish immigrants to the Middle East," Alexander said in a report filed in federal court.
"As unquestionably hate-filled and thus morally reprehensible as such language is, when Palestinians refer to Jews as 'descended from apes and swine' or encourage support for those who 'kill Jews,' they do so with the reasonably justifiable self-image of victim and persecuted, not of victimizer and persecutor."

Isn't this contemporary liberalism reduced to its essence? Achieve "victim" status, and you have a license to depart from all civilized norms." (See also: "Damra didn't promote violence, defense expert says at hearing" (John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer, 2004/06/09))

"Maurizio Agliana..."
(Patrick Hertzog, AFP, 2004/06/09)
"Maurizio Agliana is greeted by his sister Antonella, as the three Italian hostages freed yesterday by coalition forces in Iraq, arrive at Rome's Ciampino airport, after two months in captivity."

"G8 adopts US-backed Mideast reform initiative with little enthusiasm" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/09)
Weasel Watch I: "World leaders at the Group of Eight summit adopted a plan to promote reform in the Middle East and North Africa on Wednesday but some expressed deep skepticism about US President George W. Bush's hopes to democratize the region. ...
The leaders agreed to create a "Forum for the Future" comprising G8 and regional ministers in order to foster regular discussions on reform, starting in late 2004.
But in a nod to Arab and Muslim fears that it is merely a tool to impose western values on their traditional societies, the initiative repeatedly points out that no reforms are actually required.
"Successful reform depends on the countries in the region, and change should not and cannot be imposed from outside," the G8 leaders said. "Each country is unique and their diversity should be respected."
"Our engagement must respond to local conditions and be based on local ownership," they said. "Each society will reach its own conclusions about the pace and scope of change." ...
French President Jacques Chirac, already at odds with Bush over a possible NATO role in Iraq, notably trashed the initiative at a luncheon with Arab and Muslim leaders during which he said the region did not need "missionaries of democracy."
He allowed that the proposal "might contribute" to liberalization already underway in several countries but stressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation in Iraq are the "main obstacles" to reform in the region."

"Suspected bomb hurts 17 in Germany" (Jan Dahinten, Reuters, 2004/06/09)
"A suspected nail bomb has exploded in a predominantly Turkish district of the German city of Cologne, injuring 17 people. Authorities say they cannot rule out it was a guerrilla attack.
The explosion wrecked a shop and hairdressing salon in the western city's Muelheim district, and sprayed the street with nails, police said on Wednesday.
"The background is totally open, we can't rule anything out, we can't rule out a terrorist background at the moment," said a spokeswoman for the interior ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia state, which includes Cologne. ...
Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city, has large Turkish and Kurdish communities.
It is also home to radical Islamist preacher Metin Kaplan. A court decided last month that Kaplan, the head of a militant Islamist group, could be extradited to his native Turkey to face treason charges but he is fighting this in the courts."

"Paris "apparent target" for arrested militants" (Emilio Parodi, Reuters, 2004/06/09)
"A group of suspected Islamic militants arrested in Italy and Belgium appeared to have been planning a suicide attack in Paris, according to an Italian detention warrant seen by Reuters.
The 27-page warrant includes transcribed telephone conversations in which the suspects discussed the Paris metro, security arrangements and a "martyr" referred to as Mohammed. ...
The warrant, used to detain Ahmed and the other suspect in Milan, quotes members of the group as saying they planned a rehearsal of an attack in Paris using mobile phone technology. The Milan prosecutor's office said the method was similar to that used in the Madrid bombings.
"He is ready to go to (Paris). The plan is going well, but controls are tight," one suspect is quoted as telling Ahmed in a phone call.
In a call in May, in which the two men appear to discuss explosives, the same suspect says: "Mohammed is ready for martyrdom." ...
Italian daily Corriere della Sera published other excerpts from tapped telephone conversations in which Ahmed, a former Egyptian army explosives expert, purportedly urged others to carry out suicide attacks.
"We young people must be the first ones to sacrifice ourselves...because God puts us all to the test, he tires us out, he tests the faith of us all," Ahmed was quoted as saying. "There is only one solution, to join al Qaeda."
Ahmed referred to the Madrid attack as "a project of mine.'"

"Lawyer says he gave phone taps to U.S." (Aidan Lewis, AP/seattlepi.com, 2004/06/09)
"An Italian prosecutor said Wednesday he had provided U.S. authorities with transcripts of phone calls between terror suspects, including one that reportedly refers to a woman ready to carry out a chemical attack in the United States.
The two terror suspects were arrested Tuesday in Milan and include Rabie Osman Ahmed, an Egyptian believed to be behind the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, said Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli.
In one of the intercepted phone conversations, Osman Ahmed refers to a woman ready to carry out a chemical attack in America, the ANSA news agency reported.
When asked about the content of the transcripts, Romanelli pointed to news reports that mention the alleged chemical plot. He did not dispute the reports, but he said he would not comment further on the content of the wiretaps.
The wiretaps refer to "small groups ready to carry out suicide attacks," he said. In most cases, the likely location of the attacks was Iraq, he said. The prosecutor gave no further details."

"We Are All Souad" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/06/09)
Glazov on Souad's "Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men", a first person account of her extraordinary survival of an attempted honor killing:
"And so Souad made the horrendous mistake in her culture to be born a female. Females are seen as being equivalent to dirt. They are less worthy than cows and sheep — a fact that Souad’s father drilled into his daughters’ heads throughout their lives.
In the Arab Middle East, baby girls are simply not wanted — and, as Souad recalls, “Every birth of a girl was like a burial in the family.” The mother is always blamed for bringing a non-child (a girl) into the world — even though we all know that it’s the father that determines the child’s gender.
In any case, baby girls are often just killed and disposed of in many parts of the Arab world. That is why Souad recalls her mother suffocating nine of her own baby daughters, twice right in front of her eyes. ...
In her memoir, Souad relates that for a day to go by without a beating was unusual for her and her sisters. She also often had her hair shaved off and was tied to a stable gate.
In the end, Souad compounded her transgression of being a girl by committing a bigger crime: falling in love. A young man seduced and impregnated her, knowing full well that he had delivered her a death sentence. Her family subsequently planned out her murder and her brother-in-law was assigned the heroic task.
“I’m going to take care of you,” were the brother-in law’s soothing words before he doused Souad with gasoline and set her aflame." (See also: "Souad, author of "Quemada viva" ["Burned Alive"]..." (Gorka Lejarcegi, El Pais, 2003/11/25))

"Iran's Sex Slaves Suffer Hideously Under Mullahs" (Donna M. Hughes, activistchat.com, 2004/06/09)
"Joining a global trend, the fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls: buying and selling them for prostitution. Exact numbers of victims are impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in Tehran, there has been a 635 percent increase in the number of teen-age girls in prostitution. The magnitude of this statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, many of them are on the streets, others are in the 250 brothels that reportedly operate in the city. The trade is also international: Thousands of Iranian women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery abroad. ...
Popular destinations for victims of the slave trade are the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. According to the head of the Tehran province judiciary, traffickers target girls between 13 and 17, although there are reports of some girls as young as 8 and 10, to send to Arab countries. ...
Some may think a thriving sex trade in a theocracy with clerics acting as pimps is a contradiction in a country founded and ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. In fact, this is not a contradiction. First, exploitation and repression of women are closely associated. Both exist where women, individually or collectively, are denied freedom and rights. Second, the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran are not simply conservative Muslims. Islamic fundamentalism is a political movement with a political ideology that considers women inherently inferior in intellectual and moral capacity. Fundamentalists hate women's minds and bodies. Selling women and girls for prostitution is just the dehumanizing complement to forcing women and girls to cover their bodies and hair with the veil." (See also: "Iran's youth reveal anger and sadness" (Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC News, 2002/12/10))

"The Road Map for A Sovereign Iraq: Our plan for security and democracy after June 30" (Paul Wolfowitz, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/06/09)
"Nothing is more important to world security than defeating the forces of evil by nurturing the seeds of freedom — especially in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our enemies understand that these are now the central battlegrounds in the war on terrorism. But the burden is not ours alone. In a remarkably short time, Iraqi leaders, for all their diversity, have shown that they are learning the arts of political compromise — and that they are dedicated to their country's unity. Now is the moment when Iraqis must rise to the challenge. Now is the time for Iraqis to take the future of Iraq into their own hands.
The blogger Omar's final reflection in the wake of Izzedine Salim's death is a further indication that Iraqis are ready. "Are we sad?" he wrote in his Web log. 'Yes of course, but we're absolutely not discouraged because we know our enemies and we decided to go in this battle to the end. . . . I've tasted freedom, my friends, and I'd rather die fighting to preserve my freedom before I find myself trapped in another nightmare of blood and oppression.'" (See also: "The Khalifa and JFK" (Omar, Iraq the Model, 2004/05/17))

"A Cause In Need of A Lasky" (Anne Applebaum, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/06/09)
"His obituaries described him as an "ardent anti-communist," as an "indefatigable" Cold Warrior, as an "anti-Stalinist combatant before it was fashionable." All spoke of his charm and witty repartee — except, of course, the left-wing British Guardian, whose obituarist sneeringly accused him of "brainwashing" his countrymen.
I am not talking here about Ronald Reagan but about Mel Lasky, the author and editor who died three weeks ago in Berlin. It is fitting, nevertheless, to write about Lasky in the week of Reagan's death, since he fought on a different but equally important Cold War front. ...
Finding himself in Berlin in the early days of the Cold War, deeply disturbed by the intellectual enthusiasm for communism that he found all around him, Lasky helped found the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a movement designed to promote not just pro-Americanism but the principles of democracy and capitalism among European and American intellectuals. ...
Although it didn't always look as if it would turn out that way, in the end the cultural Cold War was a great success — which is why it's so odd that we have learned so little from it. While there is plenty of neo-Reaganism around, at the moment the war on terrorism has not yet created its Congress on Cultural Freedom. Surprisingly few in the administration or outside it think much about how we are going to fight a long-term ideological struggle against radical Islam, in the Arab world as well as in Europe. Hardly anyone wants to engage in any kind of conversation with America's opponents."

"Poll of Saudis shows wide support for bin Laden's views" (CNN.com, 2004/06/09)
This sounds almost like ScrappleFace. Note that "the Zionist conspiracy" is seen as self-evident by Obaid:
"Almost half of all Saudis said in a poll conducted last year that they have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric, but fewer than 5 percent thought it was a good idea for bin Laden to rule the Arabian Peninsula.
The poll involved interviews with more than 15,000 Saudis and was overseen by Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national security consultant. ...
Obaid said he only recently decided to reveal the poll results because he felt the public needed to know about them.
"I was surprised [at the results], especially after the bombings," Obaid told CNN. The question put to Saudi citizens was "What is your opinion of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric?"
"They like what he said about what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or about America and the Zionist conspiracy. But what he does, that's where you see the huge drop," said Obaid, referring to the bombings that had already begun taking place inside Saudi Arabia at the time the poll was conducted."

Added in archive:
"Too Much, Too Late: Baby boomers heap insincere praise on the 'greatest generation'" (David Gelernter, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/06/04)

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

News and commentary:

"Venus passed between Earth and the Sun..."
(Attila Kisbenedek, AFP, 2004/06/08)
"Venus passed between Earth and the Sun, unleashing a frenzy among astronomers eager to glimpse a celestial alignment unseen by anyone alive today."

"U.N. Resolution Sparks Wave of Peace in Iraq" (ScrappleFace, 2004/06/08)
"As a new resolution on Iraq moved toward unanimous approval in the United Nations Security Council today, radical Muslims, Saddam Hussein loyalists and members of other armed groups with no links to Al Qaeda laid down their weapons and returned to their previous 9-5 jobs determined to see democracy flourish in their nation.
"Finally, we have the legitimacy we crave," said an unnamed member of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. 'With the blessing of France, Germany and Russia through the U.N., we may now enjoy the fruits of freedom. I can't wait to give a flower to the first blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeper that I meet.'"

"U.N. Council Unanimously Adopts Iraq Resolution" (Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, 2004/06/08)
"The U.N. Security Council voted 15-0 on Tuesday to adopt a U.S.-British resolution that formally ends the occupation of Iraq on June 30 and authorizes U.S.-led troops to keep the peace.
In a packed council chamber, the 15-nation body endorsed a "sovereign interim government" in Iraq, following two weeks of negotiations and a last-minute addition by the United States and Britain on military policy to meet France's concerns.
"With today's vote, we acknowledge an important milestone. By June 30, Iraq will reassert its sovereignty, a step forward on the path toward a democratically elected government," said U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, who will become ambassador to Iraq at the end of the month." (See also: "UN resolution on Iraq" (The Guardian, 2004/06/08))

"To be a Jew in Sweden" (Stefan Meisel, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/06/08)
"Since Israeli independence in 1948 there have been ups and downs in the relations between the two countries.
Incidents of Swedish anti-Semitism, though, have been few and far between.
Thus it is with utmost concern that I as a former resident of Sweden have witnessed a flood of anti-Semitic incidents during the past several years. ...
The number of verbal and physical attacks against Jews has increased in Sweden. Youngsters in schools are compelled to hide their Jewishness because so many have been attacked, both verbally and physically.
Teachers say that non-Jewish students refuse to participate in classes where Judaism is studied. Holocaust survivors report experiencing fear on hearing that Jews are again being cursed and blamed for the ills of Swedish society and the world.
Participants in several events supporting Israel and opposing racism have been physically attacked, with the police standing by.
It is totally unacceptable that Jews should have to fear for their physical well-being and safety if they wear a Jewish symbol in public. This is Europe in 2004!" (See also: "Silence surrounds Muslim Jew-hatred" (Sverker Oredsson and Mikael Tossavainen, Dagens Nyheter/Watch, 2003/10/20))

"Sneer Miss" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/06/08)
Reagan VIII: "One measure of Ronald Reagan's greatness is the extent to which his detractors are willing to make fools of themselves to attack him immediately after he dies. We're not going to bother with the truly crude attacks, from the likes of DemocraticUnderground.org and that unspeakable cartoonist whose blog mysteriously disappeared yesterday after the Drudge Report linked to it. (If you don't know who we're talking about, you don't know how lucky you are.) ...
"Towering He Wasn't," declares a smirking piece from one Peter Preston in London's Guardian. This is a rich source of material, but we're going to stick to the biggest howler, Preston's excuse for denying Reagan credit for the free world's victory in the Cold War:

Did Reagan, piling cruise missiles into Europe, dreaming star satellite dreams of zapping bad hats, truly win anything? Didn't he just watch the Soviet Union self-destruct on his watch? Was Reagan around for the Prague spring which told the first story of an empire's disintegration? Did he choose the moribund gerontocracy of Brezhnev and Chernenko?
The plain fact, which nobody discerned, is that everything the west said about unsustainable economic systems and ramshackle bureaucracies was right: the plain fact was that Soviet hegemony couldn't last — and the "war" was mostly one of mutual incomprehension. Give Ronnie credit for not dropping the ball near the basket, but don't make him FDR in the process.

Maybe it's true that "Soviet hegemony couldn't last," though one can easily imagine its having lasted a good bit longer if (heaven forbid) Jimmy Carter had won re-election in 1980. But it's laughable for Preston to act as if everyone knew the evil empire was unsustainable. The truth is that hardly anyone knew — hardly anyone, that is, except Reagan, who was truly prescient in a June 8, 1982, speech to Britain's House of Commons:

In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the economic order are conflicting directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxist-Leninism, the Soviet Union. It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. ...

Was anyone else saying the same thing way back in 1982?" (See also: "Towering he wasn't" (Peter Preston, The Guardian, 2004/06/07) and "20 Years Later: Reagan's Westminster Speech" (Ronald Reagan, 1982/06/08). Also: "I've waited for this day for 24 long years, now i'm celebrating" (DemocraticUnderground.org, 2004/06/05) and "How Sad..." (Ted Rall, Rallblog, 2004/06/06): "...that Ronald Reagan didn't die in prison, where he belonged for starting an illegal, laughably unjustifiable war against Grenada under false pretenses (the "besieged" medical students later said they were nothing of the sort) and funneling arms to hostages during Iran-Contra. Oh, and 9/11? That was his. Osama bin Laden and his fellow Afghan "freedom fighters" got their funding, and nasty weapons, from Reagan. ... Anyway, I'm sure he's turning crispy brown right about now.")

"'Don't Be Afraid, We Won't Kill Muslims'" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2004/06/08)
Khobar II: "Even as the massacre was underway, the terrorists took pains to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims. Here are some of the survivors' testimonies:

Hazem Al-Damen, Muslim, Jordanian: two terrorists knocked on his door and asked him and others hiding whether they were "Muslims or Christians." On hearing "Muslims," the assailants told them to stay in the room because their purpose was to rid the country of Americans and Europeans.

Abu Hashem, 45, Muslim, an Iraqi-American engineer (also called "Mike" in some accounts): The terrorists demanded his residency card, which documented his religion (Muslim) and nationality (American). That combination provoked an argument between two terrorists. "He's an American, we should shoot him," said one. "We don't shoot Muslims," replied the other. The two went back and forth until the latter decided it: ‘Don't be afraid. We won't kill Muslims, even if you are an American." With this decision, the terrorists turned polite, even apologizing for breaking into Abu Hashem's home, searching it, and leaving blood stains on his carpet. ...

Taking care to kill only non-Muslims appears to be in response to widespread Saudi criticism of Islamist terrorism directed against Muslims; Saudis seem to agree that murder is a tool suitably directed only against non-Muslims, as two quotes suggest:

Abdelaziz Raikhan, a maintenance man for the Saudi security forces, responded to the suicide bombing of a police headquarters in Riyadh that killed 5 people and wounded 148 on April 21, accusing the perpetrators of being 'mentally ill. … There's not one American in this entire area. Not one! What kind of jihad is this?'"

"Khobar: An Insider's Story" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2004/06/08)
Khobar I: "Reader N.D. forwards an e-mail received from Saudi Arabia which details last month's Khobar massacre from within. ...

At the same time as the first two sites were being hit a third group hit the APICORP buiding about quater of a mile away down the Khobar Dammam highway next to raka compound. They used an RPG on the gatehouse and once inside began slitting the throats of non-muslim's. It amazes me how many people managed to survived these injuries. K. got shot as he drove up to the apicorp gates for work.
They dragged him out of the car still alive and tied him to the back of there four wheel drive and drove of up the raka road to the Dammam highway.They made it as far as the intersection lights before a Saudi Civilian rammed there car off the road. They shot him dead before he could get out of his car. The police shot the terrorists before they could make there escape."

"Iran Caught out in a Vanishing Trick Too Many" (DEBKAfile, 2004/06/08)
Iran II: "The most secret section of the latest report the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director Mohammed ElBaradai has drafted on Iran’s nuclear program is also the most embarrassing for the international nuclear watchdog. Our intelligence sources reveal exclusively that when inspectors arrived in Iran in mid-May and asked to revisit installations they saw in February or April, they were astonished to find empty spaces. When they questioned their Iranian escorts, they were greeted with blank stares. “What installations?” the officials asked.
The inspectors pulled out photos from previous visits and showed the Iranian officials what had been there before. The Iranians dismissed them as having been shot in other places that looked the same - or grafted there by “hostile intelligence bodies.”
When the inspectors persevered and reported the existence of aerial photos showing the exact location of the missing facilities, the Iranians shrugged.
The Iranians had amazingly dismantled and spirited away all the structures containing incriminating evidence of continuing uranium enrichment for weapons production so completely that there was no sign a building had ever stood there. The fresh flowerbeds were still in the same places as before but the lawns had been extended to cover the former sites, most probably with thick layers of earth. All the inspectors could do was to remove soil samples and take them away." (See also: "Nuclear report casts doubt on Iran's centrifuges" (CNN.com, 2004/06/01))

"EU "Big 3" rebuke Iran in nuke draft" (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, 2004/06/08)
Iran I: "France, Britain and Germany have circulated a draft U.N. nuclear resolution that sharply rebukes Iran for sluggish co-operation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The text, seen by Reuters, calls for a continuation of IAEA inspections and urges "Iran to take all the necessary steps on an urgent basis to resolve all outstanding questions". While toughly worded, it does not hint at any punitive actions.
As expected, it does not mention reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, which Washington says would be justified given Iran's 18-year cover-up of its uranium enrichment programme, capable of making material for atom bombs."

"Italy, Belgium Seize Suspected Militants in Raids" (Emilio Parodi and Clara Ferreira-Marques, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/08)
"Italy arrested an Egyptian alleged to have plotted the Madrid train bombings and Belgium held 15 people for preparing a "terrorist attack" as police across Europe swooped on suspected Islamic militants.
Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," was seized with a fellow suspect in Milan, officials said on Tuesday. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the operation was aimed at a "dangerous group of terrorists close to al Qaeda" planning more attacks.
Belgian police, acting on information from Italy, arrested 15 people they said had been gearing up for an attack. Further raids took place in France and Spain.
Spanish and Italian authorities hailed Ahmed's arrest as a major breakthrough in the investigation into the March bombings that blew up four commuter trains in the Spanish capital, killing 191 people.
"He is considered one of the masterminds of March 11," a Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman said."

"American Shot to Death in Saudi Arabia" (Donna Abu-Nasr, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/06/08)
"An American citizen was shot and killed Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. Embassy official said, the second deadly shooting of a Westerner in the kingdom in three days.
"We can confirm that an American has been killed in Riyadh," a U.S. Embassy official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He provided no further details.
Police responding to a report of a shooting found the American shot to death in his home, the official Saudi news agency said. The death was under investigation, it said.
The victim worked for Vinnell Corp., a U.S. defense contractor based in Fairfax, Va., the official said. Seven Vinnell employees were among the 35 people, including nine suicide bombers, who died last year in an attack on a Riyadh foreigners' housing compound."

"Special forces free Iraq hostages" (BBC News, 2004/06/08)
"Three Italians kidnapped in Iraq almost two months ago have been rescued in a mission by military special forces.
A Polish man abducted a week ago was also released. All four men are said to be in good health.
The Italians were captured on 12 April with a compatriot, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, who was killed soon after and a tape of his killing released.
Meanwhile the Turkish government said Iraqi insurgents had captured two Turkish executives and an Iraqi driver.
The men were seized near the town of Fallujah, a centre of Sunni Muslim resistance to the American-led occupation."

"Zarqawi 'aide' captured in Iraq" (BBC News, 2004/06/08)
"Iraqi police have captured a top aide of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the US-led coalition says.
The man, Umar Baziyani, is known to have ties to several extremist groups in Iraq, according to a statement by the US military.
He is believed to be responsible for the deaths of scores of innocent Iraqi citizens, the statement said.
Mr Baziyani, who was arrested on Saturday, is said to be providing information to coalition authorities. ...
The US military described Mr Baziyani as an associate of Zarqawi, but did not explain the alleged links and gave no information about where he was detained.
A US military spokesman said Mr Baziyani himself was wanted in connection with a series of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq."

"In the end, he outwitted them all" (John O'Sullivan, Chicago Sun-Times, 2004/06/08)
Reagan VII: "In summer 1987 I was invited to a dinner party while vacationing in Rome. The other guests, some American, some European, were mainly diplomats and international civil servants. Before long the conversation had veered round to Ronald Reagan. Those present were almost all either hostile or contemptuous toward him — "an amiable dimwit . . . sleepwalking through crises . . . out-of-control deficits . . . reckless warmonger . . . prisoner of his own prejudices . . . waging an unwinnable arms race with the Soviets . . ." And so on and so forth. ...
The Soviet empire, I was told, was stable and increasingly prosperous. Reagan's "confrontational" approach was doomed to fail while risking a nuclear war. His arms buildup, including "Star Wars," would bankrupt America before it even inconvenienced the Soviets.
Only one other person seemed unsure of these verities. He sat looking more and more uncomfortable as the other guests hooted at the claim that Reagan's economic, military and ideological competition with the Soviets was undermining their power in Europe. Eventually, he intervened with obvious reluctance: 'Well, I don't think much of Reagan either. But I have just come back from a tour of Eastern Europe. And everyone there says exactly what our Downing Street friend is saying. They all think Reagan is a hero and a great statesman. And they predict he will bring down the Soviet Union.'"

"BBC reporter pleaded for his life" (AFP/news.com.au, 2004/06/08)
"Riddled with bullets, BBC correspondent Frank Gardner pleaded for his life in the Saudi capital shouting to bystanders to help a fellow Muslim, a police officer said today.
"I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim, help me," the British father of two daughters cried in Arabic, the officer said.
Mr Gardner was stretched on the road, covered in blood from multiple bullet wounds in a slum area of southern Riyadh known as a hotbed of hardliners.
A fluent Arabic speaker with a degree in Arab and Islamic Studies, he was carrying a small copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, a device used by Western reporters to try to reassure Islamist militants.
He was gravely wounded and his Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers killed yesterday evening as they filmed near the home of Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a wanted terror suspect killed in a clash with security forces in the area last December.
Mr Gardner was in a coma on today at King Faisal Specialist Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery." (Hat tip: Tim Blair. See also: "BBC man dies in Saudi capital shooting" (Samia Nakhoul, Reuters, 2004/06/06))

"U.S. Bends to France, Russia on U.N. Iraq Resolution" (Robin Wright and Dana Milbank, The Washington Post, 2004/06/08)
"In a major push to win international backing before the Group of Eight summit begins, the United States made several last-minute concessions to incorporate French and Russian demands in a proposed United Nations resolution on Iraq. It should win unanimous support in a Security Council vote today, U.N. diplomats predicted.
Passage would be a pivotal victory for the Bush administration as it ends a 14-month occupation of Iraq — and be a stark contrast to the divisions and diplomatic disarray at the world body when the United States failed last year to win U.N. backing for a resolution authorizing military intervention in Iraq.
The resolution is critical for Iraq, because it bestows international legitimacy on the new government 22 days before the occupation ends."

"Memo Offered Justification for Use of Torture" (Dana Priest and R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington Post, 2004/06/08)
"In August 2002, the Justice Department advised the White House that torturing al Qaeda terrorists in captivity abroad "may be justified," and that international laws against torture "may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations" conducted in President Bush's war on terrorism, according to a newly obtained memo.
If a government employee were to torture a suspect in captivity, "he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the Al Qaeda terrorist network," said the memo, from the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, written in response to a CIA request for legal guidance. It added that arguments centering on "necessity and self-defense could provide justifications that would eliminate any criminal liability" later."

Monday, June 7, 2004

News and commentary:

"Telling the Truth about the Palestinians" (Khaled Abu Toameh, MEF Wires, June 2004)
A briefing by Khaled Abu Toameh, the West Bank and Gaza correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, based on an address to the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia on April 27, 2004:
"As an Arab journalist working among Palestinians, I am often asked if I feel threatened while I work. I am indeed frequently placed in life-threatening situations, yet the threats I experience do not come from the Israeli occupation, but from Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA). At least 12 Palestinian journalists have been attacked by masked men in the past four months in what appears to be an organized campaign to intimidate the media. Only days ago, a photographer working for Agence France-Presse had his arms broken by a masked man in Ramallah. Agence France-Presse did not do anything about this attack, but a great outcry is raised when Israeli soldiers allegedly harass journalists in the territories. ...
When Arafat returned to the West Bank and Gaza from his exile, his security forces ignored pursuing terrorists and instead arrested independent journalists not loyal enough to the PLO. Over 38 journalists were forced out of their jobs or the country. This was not given much attention by the foreign media because at the time Arafat was allowed to do whatever he wanted in the name of Oslo. Although they did not cover the story heavily, I was not alone in pointing out to foreign journalists that the first thing Arafat did when PLO returned to the territories was to restrict freedom of speech. ...
People in the rest of the world therefore do not get an accurate picture of what happens in the region, and there are two parties to blame for this journalistic failure. Partly to blame are foreign journalists who allow themselves to be misled by some of their Palestinian consultants. The bulk of the blame, however, rests with the PA, whose tyrannical approach and control of the media creates an atmosphere of intimidation and fear among Palestinian journalists." (See also: "A real journalist" (Lynn B., In Context, 2004/04/27))

"Chirac's history lesson" (Arthur Chrenkoff, chrenkoff.blogspot.com, 2004/06/07)
My thoughts exactly. And it was also the worst possible occasion imaginable to make the case that a "path to peace is always possible", as the D-Day in itself invalidates it.
To witness the former archenemies hug each other was of course a splendid historical moment, but Schroeder's speech was somewhat disappointing. I guess I wanted him to break down in tears or something.
On the other hand, Chirac's earlier speech in Colleville-sur-Mer was completely brilliant. (See also: "Chirac's 'finest hour'" (Claude Salhani, UPI, 2004/06/07)):
"The "allies" exchange blows on the beaches of Normandy, when as the "Daily Telegraph" puts it, the French President Jacques Chirac "takes a swipe at US and Britain over Iraq war." ...

Speaking at the international ceremony, M Chirac cited his willingness to invite German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a model for a peaceful world.
He said: "We hold up the example of Franco-German reconciliation, to show the world that hatred has no future, that a path to peace is always possible."

Memo to President Chirac: for the "path of peace" to be actually possible, Germany had to totally defeated militarily, forced into unconditional surrender, Nazism had to be weeded out, and democratic institutions revived and nurtured over decades. Even after all that, it's only 60 years after the fact that a German leader is invited for the first time to participate in commemorations." (See also: "Chirac takes a swipe at US and Britain over Iraq war" (Michael Smith, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/06/07))