Archived news and commentary: September 20 - 26, 2004

2004/09/27 - 2004/10/03
2004/09/20 - 2004/09/26
2004/09/13 - 2004/09/19
2004/09/06 - 2004/09/12
2004/08/30 - 2004/09/05
2004/08/23 - 2004/08/29
2004/08/16 - 2004/08/22
2004/08/09 - 2004/08/15
2004/08/02 - 2004/08/08
2004/07/26 - 2004/08/01
2004/07/19 - 2004/07/25
2004/07/12 - 2004/07/18
2004/07/05 - 2004/07/11
2004/06/28 - 2004/07/04

Sunday, September 26, 2004

News and commentary:

"Pakistan kills Al-Qaeda kingpin wanted in Pearl case, bid on Musharraf life" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/26)
"Pakistan said its security forces had killed an Al-Qaeda kingpin allegedly behind an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf and indicted in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
"I can confirm that Amjad Farooqi has been killed in an encounter with security forces and we have also arrested three important terror suspects," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP. ...
Farooqi, Pakistan's most wanted terrorist with a 20 million rupee (330,000 dollars) bounty on his head, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Nawabshah in southern Sindh province, a security official earlier told AFP.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity said Farooqi, 30, and his accomplices put up "very strong" resistance, firing at security officials with automatic weapons from inside their hideout. ...
Farooqi was the lynchpin of the Al-Qaeda network in Pakistan and had also been involved in the kidnap-murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in Karachi in early 2002, the security official said."

"Report: Israel says it is behind Damascus killing of Hamas man" (Haaretz, 2004/09/26)
"Israeli security sources confirmed on Sunday that Israel was behind a car bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed a senior Hamas official, the Associated Press reported.
"Some people lead dangerous lives," an Israeli official said in response to the assassination of Izz El-Deen Al-Sheikh Khalil. ...
The blast happened midday in the al-Zahraa area of Damascus. A member of the Hamas political bureau, Mohammed Nazzal, told the Associated Press in Cairo that a bomb had been planted in Khalil's car and it exploded as he tried to start it. ...
Khaled al-Fahum, former chairman of the Palestinian national Council said the Syrian authorities have closed the offices of various Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, in recent days and in some cases have even cut their phone lines.
In a laconic statement, Syrian spokesmen told the daily Al-Hayat, 'the Palestinian leaders are outside Syrian territory.'" (See also: "Damascus: Car bombing is 'Israeli state terrorism'" (Arieh O'Sullivan, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/09/26): "Nine hours after a car bomb exploded in the Syrian capital on Sunday killing top Hamas terrorist Izz El-Deen Al-Sheikh Khalil, the Syrian government called the assassination "an Israeli act of state terrorism in the heart of Damascus", a statement by the Syrian government said. ... While not confirming or denying Israeli involvement in Khalil's death, Israeli officials said he was involved in the transfer of arms from Syria and Lebanon to Hamas hands in the Palestinian territories.")

"TVs in Iraq Tuned to Real-Life Horror" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/My Way, 2004/09/26)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In an outdoor food market under the fierce midday sun, a crowd of men and boys were watching video footage of a truck bomber seated behind the steering wheel, smiling and murmuring his last words before crashing into U.S. military vehicles on an overpass.
Elsewhere, the TV set in a coffee shop was offering customers the video of foreign hostages being beheaded. ...
In a city battered and traumatized by 17 months of violence that seems to grow worse by the day, real-life horror has become the viewing fare of choice, supplanting the explosion of pornography that filled the post-Saddam Hussein vacuum. ...
Before the suicide mission footage, the crowd in the Bab al-Moazam market watched footage of half buried human skeletons and a man using a stick to better display the skulls. The background music was a folk song praising the insurgents fighting the Americans in Fallujah."

"Flaws of faith" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2004/09/26)
"I was coping with this thought when I got into a minor spat at a newspaper colloquium with a distinguished theologian, who is also a convert to Islam. In the middle of an answer to a question on human rights, he suddenly went off on one. Secularism, he said, gave no proper basis for ideas of morality. It was an emptiness, a void filled only by opinion. This was why the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations would always be deficient. True morality, true purpose, could only arise out of a transcendent faith, where God made the judgment. ...
When the Muslim theologian was asked to give an example of where the secular concept of human rights might be seen as deficient by other societies, his immediate answer was: 'Women's rights.' ...
And this, it seems to me, is what it always boils down to. Ann Widdecombe, who left the C of E over the ordination of women, considers herself entitled to preach everywhere, except in a place of worship. There can be no woman Pope or woman Dalai Lama. There are no female imams. Only men wear the skullcap in Judaism, while orthodox women must shave their heads, wear wigs and sit upstairs in the synagogue.
Why is it that when God speaks through man, he so resolutely demands that women are subordinate?"

"Video nasty" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/09/26)
A profile of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: "It came to him in a dream. One night in 1992, as the 26-year-old Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slept in his shabby, two-storey house in Jordan, he dreamt that a glistening sword had fallen from heaven and come to rest, somewhat conveniently, in his outstretched hand.
On one side of the sword was inscribed the word Jihad, Holy War. On the other side was his name, Abu Musab, and a verse from the Koran: "Thy Lord has not forsaken thee. Do not despair or mourn. You will be victorious if you truly believe."
The next morning Zarqawi arose from his bed a changed man. The former foot-soldier of the bloody campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s to evict the Russian interlopers had been transformed into a visionary who saw it as his personal mission to eradicate the Arab world of infidels. "Due to what the Jews are doing in Palestine, the sanctions against Iraq, the mass killings in Chechnya, and what happened in Bosnia, military jihad has become the religious duty of every Muslim," he declared to a Jordanian journalist in a rare interview."

"Syria brokers secret deal to send atomic weapons scientists to Iran" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/09/26)
"Syria's President Bashir al-Asad is in secret negotiations with Iran to secure a safe haven for a group of Iraqi nuclear scientists who were sent to Damascus before last year's war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. ...
A group of about 12 middle-ranking Iraqi nuclear technicians and their families were transported to Syria before the collapse of Saddam's regime. The transfer was arranged under a combined operation by Saddam's now defunct Special Security Organisation and Syrian Military Security, which is headed by Arif Shawqat, the Syrian president's brother-in-law.
The Iraqis, who brought with them CDs crammed with research data on Saddam's nuclear programme, were given new identities, including Syrian citizenship papers and falsified birth, education and health certificates. Since then they have been hidden away at a secret Syrian military installation where they have been conducting research on behalf of their hosts."

"Saddam, the Bomb and Me" (Mahdi Obeidi, The New York Times, 2004/09/26)
Obeidi was the head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear centrifuge program:
"In addition, the West never understood the delusional nature of Saddam Hussein's mind. By 2002, when the United States and Britain were threatening war, he had lost touch with the reality of his diminished military might. By that time I had been promoted to director of projects for the country's entire military-industrial complex, and I witnessed firsthand the fantasy world in which he was living. He backed mythic but hopeless projects like one for a long-range missile that was completely unrealistic considering the constraints of international sanctions. The director of another struggling missile project, when called upon to give a progress report, recited a poem in the dictator's honor instead. Not only did he not go to prison, Saddam Hussein applauded him. ...
To the end, Saddam Hussein kept alive the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, staffed by junior scientists involved in research completely unrelated to nuclear weapons, just so he could maintain the illusion in his mind that he had a nuclear program. Sort of like the emperor with no clothes, he fooled himself into believing he was armed and dangerous. But unlike that fairy-tale ruler, Saddam Hussein fooled the rest of the world as well." (Also: "Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980's, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam Hussein ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.")

"Violence in Iraq Belies Claims of Calm, Data Show" (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post, 2004/09/26)
"Reports covering seven days in a recent 10-day period depict a nation racked by all manner of insurgent violence, from complex ambushes involving 30 guerrillas north of Baghdad on Monday to children tossing molotov cocktails at a U.S. Army patrol in the capital's Sadr City slum on Wednesday. On maps included in the reports, red circles denoting attacks surround nearly every major city in central, western and northern Iraq, except for Kurdish-controlled areas in the far north. Cities in the Shiite Muslim-dominated south, including several that had undergone a period of relative calm in recent months, also have been hit with near-daily attacks.
In number and scope, the attacks compiled in the Kroll reports suggest a broad and intensifying campaign of insurgent violence that contrasts sharply with assessments by Bush administration officials and Iraq's interim prime minister that the instability is contained to small pockets of the country."

Added in archive:
"A European Conversation" (Maggie Gallagher, uExpress/Yahoo! News, 2004/08/31)

Saturday, September 25, 2004

News and commentary:

"Another Triumph for the U.N." (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2004/09/25)
"And so we went the multilateral route.
Confronted with the murder of 50,000 in Sudan, we eschewed all that nasty old unilateralism, all that hegemonic, imperialist, go-it-alone, neocon, empire, coalition-of-the-coerced stuff. Our response to this crisis would be so exquisitely multilateral, meticulously consultative, collegially cooperative and ally-friendly that it would make John Kerry swoon and a million editorialists nod in sage approval. ...
The Security Council debate had all the decorous dullness you'd expect. The Algerian delegate had "profound concern." The Russian delegate pronounced the situation "complex." The Sudanese government was praised because the massacres are proceeding more slowly. The air was filled with nuanced obfuscations, technocratic jargon and the amoral blandness of multilateral deliberation.
The resolution passed, and it was a good day for alliance-nurturing and burden-sharing — for the burden of doing nothing was shared equally by all. And we are by now used to the pattern. Every time there is an ongoing atrocity, we watch the world community go through the same series of stages: (1) shock and concern (2) gathering resolve (3) fruitless negotiation (4) pathetic inaction (5) shame and humiliation (6) steadfast vows to never let this happen again."

"The man with blood on his hands is not Blair but Zarqawi" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/09/25)
"Zarqawi wants foreign-led fanatics to enslave the Iraqi people, persecuting anyone who disagrees with them, particularly the majority Shia community. He wants to create a state like that run by the Taliban in Afghanistan, having worked with bin Laden there. He sees murder as the key instrument of policy, as a religious duty and as a pleasure.
Yet one notices that Zarqawi and his gang are not getting the blame for their revolting deeds. Anger seems to direct itself at the Foreign Office, at America, above all at Tony Blair. ...
People like Terry Waite pop up on television to attack not the atrocity, but the coalition policy. An Irish MP self-importantly presents himself as someone who can do what the terrorists demand and investigate the condition of women prisoners in Iraq. All this plays to the idea that the kidnappers speak for the Iraqi people. That's like saying that Martin McGuinness is the voice of the Home Counties."

Friday, September 24, 2004

News and commentary:

"'Wall: Fragments of History' by Sigurd Bjoern Engvik"
(Scanpix, 2004/09/23)

"Norwegian artwork prompts Israeli envoy's protest" (AFP/ABC News, 2004/09/24)
"In a letter to the culture ministry and the Oslo city authorities, envoy Liora Herzl denounced a statue on display in the central Youngstorget Square which links Israel with the Holocaust, greed and a notorious massacre of Palestinians.
The artwork, by the late sculptor Sigurd Bjoern Engvik and entitled Wall: Fragments of History, represents an abuse of freedom of speech, Ms Herzl said in her letter.
The artwork combines symbols and inscriptions, depicting the star of David drenched in blood, dollar signs and words such as "murder", Sabra" and "Shatila," a reference to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon where hundreds of people were killed in September 1982 with the complicity of the Israeli armed forces. ...
The sculpture also incorporates the date November 29, 1947 - the day on which the United Nations approved the creation of two states, one Arab and the other Israeli - allied to the word "Israel" followed immediately by the word "holocaust," with a star of David inserted between each letter." (Hat tip: Backspin.)

"Political uproar after mufti's remarks" (The Copenhagen Post, 2004/09/24)
"An Islamic mufti in Copenhagen has sparked a political outcry after publicly declaring that women who refuse to wear headscarves are "asking for rape."

An Islamic mufti in Copenhagen, Shahid Mehdi, has sparked political outcry from the left-wing Unity List and right-wing Danish People's Party, after stating in a televised interview that women who do not wear headscarves are "asking for rape." Unity List equality spokesman Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil has threatened to file suit for defamation against the mufti on behalf of herself and all the women of Denmark. The Danish People's Party has urged Justice Minister Lene Espersen and Integration Minister Bertel Haarder to stop the mufti's religious activities in Copenhagen.

Shahid Mehdi made his remarks in the DR2 programme "Talk to Gode," and reiterated his stance in daily newspaper B.T. The Danish People's Party and Unity List agree that Mehdi's remarks could incite Muslim men to rape Danish women by insinuating that women who did not cover their hair were undeserving of basic respect.

As a mufti, a jurist who interprets Islamic law, Shahi Mehdi is in a special position of authority as a Muslim scholar." (Hat tip: Fjordman.)

"The Cult of Che" (Paul Berman, Slate, 2004/09/24)
Off topic of the day: "The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won. Che presided over the Cuban Revolution's first firing squads. He founded Cuba's "labor camp" system — the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims. To get himself killed, and to get a lot of other people killed, was central to Che's imagination. In the famous essay in which he issued his ringing call for "two, three, many Vietnams," he also spoke about martyrdom and managed to compose a number of chilling phrases: "Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become …" — and so on. He was killed in Bolivia in 1967, leading a guerrilla movement that had failed to enlist a single Bolivian peasant. And yet he succeeded in inspiring tens of thousands of middle class Latin-Americans to exit the universities and organize guerrilla insurgencies of their own. And these insurgencies likewise accomplished nothing, except to bring about the death of hundreds of thousands, and to set back the cause of Latin-American democracy — a tragedy on the hugest scale."

"The hostage crisis and the media" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/09/24)
Phillips surely has a point and it is a moral dilemma with strong arguments from both sides, but for me it just seems wrong to not report on these atrocities:
"The Iraqi butchers are only taking these hostages and murdering them in this disgusting snuff-video style because the media -- of which I am a part -- are behaving exactly as required and putting these pictures on our screens and front pages. If the media did not do this, it would stop. I think therefore that we in the media have to examine our consciences and say we have a responsibility here beyond informing the public. We should not be giving these pictures this treatment; we should find ways of reporting the bare facts of what is going on without turning ourselves into accomplices to murder. Because that's what it is. ...
I think the western media cannot avoid the fact that it is now being used -- appallingly -- as a weapon of war against the west."

"Iraqi newspaper identifies insurgent groups" (Pamela Hess, UPI, 2004/09/24)
"There are at least seven separate insurgent groups fighting U.S. troops and nine groups carrying out the kidnapping and killings of foreigners in Iraq, according to an Iraqi newspaper.
There are three main Sunni groups, and five separate factions within them; two Baathist groups; and two Shiite insurgent organizations, according to a recent issue of the Baghdad al-Zawra in Arabic -- a weekly published by the Iraqi Journalists Association and translated into English by the CIA. ...
The Iraqi newspaper divides the resistance up into two groups, drawing a sharp line between those fighting the insurgents and those kidnapping and sometimes executing foreigners. At least 24 hostages have been slain so far.
The resistance began with scattered Islamic Sunni groups "without a unifying bond to bind them together." As they grew, they gradually combined themselves into larger groups.
Most of their weapons come from the vast stocks of armaments left behind by Saddam Hussein's regime and that were looted immediately after the war.
The groups are united by their agreement on the need to put an end to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
"These groups have common denominators, the most important of which perhaps are focusing on killing U.S. soldiers, rejecting the abductions and the killing of hostages, rejecting the attacks on Iraqi policemen, and respecting the beliefs of other religions," the newspaper asserts.
These groups believe that if an Iraqi is in favor of the occupation, he is a spy and a traitor who 'should be liquidated.'" (See also: "An Inventory of Iraqi Resistance Groups" (Samir Haddad and Mazin Ghazi, Al Zawra/fas.org, 2004/09/19))

"The Fall" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/09/24)
"If we wonder why CBS is in trouble, why no one trusts the universities or the U.N., or why the Democrats may soon lose the Senate, the House, the presidency, and the Supreme Court, the answer has a lot to do with arrogant hypocrisy — the idea that how one lives need have nothing to do with what one professes, that idealistic rhetoric can provide psychological cover for privilege and preference, and that rules need not apply for those self-proclaimed as smarter and nicer than the rest of us. But none of us — none — get a pass simply because we claim that we are more moral, educated, or sophisticated than most.
In the meantime, as this unclean tale slowly reaches it end — and it will — CBS soon may have to decide between having Dan Rather and having an audience. Dan Rather, in his abject non-professionalism and in his overweening arrogance, has become the symbol of all that has gone so terribly wrong with our once-romantic but now confused, compromised, and aging generation of change."

"It just gets worse" (Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit, 2004/09/24)
Reynolds agrees with Krauthammer below and points out this:

"Democrats moved quickly to fuel skepticism, denouncing Allawi's message in unusually pointed terms.
While Kerry was relatively restrained in disputing Allawi's upbeat portrayal, some of his aides suggested that the Iraqi leader was simply doing the bidding of the Bush administration, which helped arrange his appointment in June.
"The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips," said Joe Lockhart, a senior Kerry adviser.

This is behavior that is absolutely unacceptable coming from a Presidential campaign in wartime, and it's not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of such behavior. Joe Lockhart should apologize for these remarks, and Kerry should fire him. Otherwise you're going to hear a lot of people questioning Kerry's patriotism. And they'll be right to." (See also: "Allawi Effectiveness Hinges on Credibility" (Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times, 2004/09/24))

"The Art Of Losing Friends" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2004/09/24)
"The terrorists' objective is to intimidate all countries allied with America. Make them bleed and tell them this is the price they pay for being a U.S. ally. The implication is obvious: Abandon America and buy your safety.
That is what the terrorists are saying. Why is the Kerry campaign saying the same thing? "John Kerry's campaign has warned Australians that the Howard Government's support for the US in Iraq has made them a bigger target for international terrorists." So reports the Weekend Australian (Sept. 18). ...
[Diana Kerry] said this of her country (and of the war that Australia is helping us with in Iraq): "[W]e are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels." Mark Latham could not have said it better. Nor could Jemaah Islamiah, the al Qaeda affiliate that killed nine people in the Jakarta bombing. ...
She is, of course, merely echoing her brother, who, at a time when allies have shown great political courage in facing down both terrorists and domestic opposition for their assistance to the United States in Iraq, calls these allies the "coalition of the coerced and the bribed."
This snide and reckless put-down more than undermines our best friends abroad. It demonstrates the cynicism of Kerry's promise to broaden our coalition in Iraq. If this is how Kerry repays America's closest allies — ridiculing the likes of Tony Blair and John Howard — who does he think is going to step up tomorrow to be America's friend?"

"Egypt bans Madonna after Israel visit" (Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily, 2004/09/24)
"Egypt has issued an order barring pop star Madonna from entering the country because she visited Israel.
Members of Egypt's parliament have demanded Madonna, who has not requested entry into Egypt or announced any plans to visit the country, be barred from entering Egyptian soil. The parliament directed Egyptian embassies abroad to deny any visa requests from Madonna.
The demand comes after Madonna, aka Esther, visited the Jewish state last week making daily headline news with midnight trips to a Jewish cemetery, a quick drive by past the Wailing Wall, and even the arrest of her security detail."

"Turkish Captive in Iraq Tells of Fearful Struggle to Hold On" (Susan Sachs, The New York Times, 2004/09/24)
An interview with Zeynep Tugrul, a young Turkish journalist who was held hostage in northern Iraq: "From the start, her captors made her dress in a long loose coat and tied a scarf tight over her hair. They did not want to look at her in her T-shirt and pants.
"Look how beautiful you look," they would coo, and she would cry at her reflection in the mirror. "It was not me," she said. "I was losing me."
Everywhere they were taken, she said, people appeared eager to help anyone they thought was part of the resistance.
"I saw that around Mosul, everybody is the resistance - not terrorists, but not civilians really either," she said. "They used the small kids to bring them water, and nobody treated them like children. They'd be with the men who were talking about cutting heads, and the kids would be standing guard, like little men, so you become afraid of the children too." ...
All those who held them, she said, were equally hostile to anyone they called kafir, or infidel. Again and again, they lashed out at Mr. Taylor, calling him a "Jewish pig" or an American spy.
"For them, there's no difference between a Christian and a Jew, a Canadian and an American," Ms. Tugrul said."

"October surprise?" (Greg Pierce, The Washington Times, 2004/09/24)
"Sen. John Kerry's wife says she thinks the Bush administration might announce the capture of Osama bin Laden before Election Day.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he appeared in the next month," Teresa Heinz Kerry said of the fugitive al Qaeda leader.
Appearing Wednesday at a $1 million Democratic Party fund-raiser at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Mrs. Kerry accused President Bush of creating a "hotbed for terrorism" in Iraq by toppling Saddam Hussein's regime, the Arizona Business Journal reports. She also said she agrees with her husband that a military draft may be reinstated if Mr. Bush is re-elected." (See also: "Heinz Kerry helps Democrats raise $1M at Phoenix event" (Mike Sunnucks, The Business Journal, 2004/09/23))

Added in archive:
"Egypt's Ruling Party Newspaper: The Holocaust is a Zionist Lie Aimed at Extorting the West" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 756, 2004/07/30)

Thursday, September 23, 2004

News and commentary:

 

"Zainab Abu Salem"
(AP, 2004/09/22)
"Zainab Abu Salem is seen in this undated photo released by the family Wednesday Sept. 22, 2004. Abu Salem, 19, blew herself up Wednesday in a suicide bombing which killed two Israelis and wounded at least 16 others in Jerusalem."

"Suicide Bomber Was Children's TV Show Hostess" (Arutz Sheva, 2004/09/23)
"The young 18-year-old female suicide terrorist, Zeinab Ali Isa Abu-Salem, who murdered two Israelis yesterday and wounded some 30 others, was none other than a children's TV show hostess on a local station in Shechem. Ofra resident Debbie Segal, who noticed the terrorist approaching the bus stop moments before she blew herself up, described her as "extraordinarily beautiful." She comes from a very wealthy Arab family in Shechem, which owns the TV station where she worked. ...
The two Border Guard policemen who were killed in yesterday's suicide bombing in northern Jerusalem were buried today. They are Momoya Tahio, 20, from Rehovot, who immigrated from Ethiopia a number of years ago, and Menashe Komemi, 19, from Moshav Aminadav in the Jerusalem area." (Hat tip: James Taranto. See also: "Two killed in suicide attack at French Hill in Jerusalem" (Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2004/09/22))

"Transcript: Allawi Addresses U.S. Congress" (Ayad Allawi, The Washington Post, 2004/09/23)
"Before I turn to my government’s plan for Iraq, I have three important messages for you today.
First, we are succeeding in Iraq.
(APPLAUSE)
It’s a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding.
I have seen some of the images that are being shown here on television. They are disturbing. They focus on the tragedies, such as the brutal and barbaric murder of two American hostages this week.
My thoughts and prayers go out to their families and to all those who lost loved ones.
Yet, as we mourn these losses, we must not forget either the progress we are making or what is at stake in Iraq.
We are fighting for freedom and democracy, ours and yours. Every day, we strengthen the institutions that will protect our new democracy, and every day, we grow in strength and determination to defeat the terrorists and their barbarism.
The second message is quite simple and one that I would like to deliver directly from my people to yours: Thank you, America.
(APPLAUSE)"

"Hezbollah blasts Allawi for meeting Shalom" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/23)
"The terrorist Hezbollah group criticized Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi for shaking hands with the Israeli foreign minister, saying Thursday the gesture was an affront to Iraqis, Palestinians and Arabs generally.
Allawi shook hands with Israel's Silvan Shalom on Tuesday in New York when the two men bumped into each other in the UN General Assembly, where they attended the opening speeches of the session. ...
In a statement, Hezbollah said Allawi's handshake was "disgraceful." It said the gesture indicated that America was trying to pull Iraq away from the Arab and Islamic worlds and draw it into an American-Israeli sphere of influence.
The handshake was "a real affront to the Iraqi people and their history, culture and Muslim and pan-Arab commitment."
"It was also in blatant disregard of the pains and sufferings of the Palestinian people, and of the feelings of Arabs and Muslims everywhere," the statement added."

"In enemy territory? An interview with Christopher Hitchens" (Johann Hari, Independent/JohannHari.com, 2004/09/23)
"He explains that he believes the moment the left's bankruptcy became clear was on 9/11. "The United States was attacked by theocratic fascists who represents all the most reactionary elements on earth. They stand for liquidating everything the left has fought for: women's rights, democracy? And how did much of the left respond? By affecting a kind of neutrality between America and the theocratic fascists." ...
He is appalled that some people on the left are prepared to do almost nothing to defeat Islamofascism. 'When I see some people who claim to be on the left abusing that tradition, making excuses for the most reactionary force in the world, I do feel pain that a great tradition is being defamed. So in that sense I still consider myself to be on the left.'"

"Listening to Kerry" (Andrew McCarthy, National Review, 2004/09/23)
"No, we are fighting a very particular enemy: militant Islam. It is a global network of identifiable militias, as well as their state and non-state sponsors, who espouse and support an interpretation of Islam that calls for violent jihad against the United States and our allies. In the short term, that enemy seeks to alter American policy; in the long term, it would supplant our constitutional order with a caliphate that accords with Wahhabist principles. That is the enemy. ...
Simply stated, this war is not a struggle to create stable democracies that, secondarily, might themselves keep our enemies at bay. It is a war to root out and destroy militant Islam, to vindicate the highest purpose of government: American national security. ...
The American people have more than enough stomach for a fight, indeed for any number of fights, if they are convinced that Islamic militants are in those places working to kill us, and that we need to go in and demolish them. After Iraq, however, they will not have the will to risk U.S. blood and treasure so that those who berate our presence, after we undertake the heavy lifting of wresting their countries from despots and terrorists, might someday live in freedom. If Americans come to believe that the price tag for self-defense includes the obligation to remain in war zones until nirvana has been achieved, they will not pay it. And paralyzing national security that way would be a tragedy. Militant Islam would not only survive, but spread and become more menacing."

"Dead Soldiers" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2004/09/23)
"Imagine if, in the presidential election of 1944, the candidate opposing FDR had insisted that we were losing the Second World War and that, if elected, he would begin to withdraw American troops from Europe and the Pacific.
We would have called it treason. And we would have been right.
In WWII, broadcasts from Tokyo Rose in Japan and from Axis Sally in Germany warned our troops that their lives were being squandered in vain, that they were dying for big business and "the Jew" Roosevelt.
Today, we have a presidential candidate, the conscienceless Sen. John Kerry, doing the work of the enemy propagandists of yesteryear. ...
He's reverting to form. Just as he lied about our troops three decades ago, encouraging our enemies of the day and worsening the suffering of our POWs in North Vietnam, today he's pandering to a new enemy.
Imagine the encouragement the terrorists, insurgents and global extremists draw from Kerry's declarations of defeat, from his insistence that our efforts in Iraq and in the War on Terror have failed."

"The terror, the terror" (Richard Beeston, The Spectator, from the 2004/09/25 issue)
"Iraq is becoming daily more chaotic and murderous":
"In the latest video to hit the streets an Egyptian man, accused of spying for the Americans, is paraded before a camera and has his head severed in a matter of seconds by a powerfully built executioner. Before the murder the video shows footage filmed from the camera of an American warplane that fires a missile into a crowded street; and then pictures of Iraqi civilian victims of the fighting.
The unmistakable message, sent by the fanatical Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, is clear. All non-Muslims and even their Muslim collaborators deserve to be executed in the most brutal manner conceivable as punishment for occupying Iraq. ...
Today, living in Baghdad is a simple fight for survival, particularly for the small band of Westerners who still inhabit the city alongside the Iraqi residents. In a year the response to a foreign face in Baghdad has evolved from a smiling ‘hello, Mister’, to a sulky stare and the odd obscene gesture, to today’s look of disbelief or even open hostility. A Westerner walking the street in Baghdad today is a conversation-stopper, which is why we move as little as possible through the city. ...
In the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq there are few certainties. But now, on my sixth visit to Baghdad since the war, one simple rule seems valid: things only get worse."

"Hope Amid the Rubble" (Peter Bergen, The New York Times, 2004/09/23)
"What we are seeing in Afghanistan is far from perfect, but it's better than so-so.":
"As I toured other parts of the country, the image that I was prepared for — that of a nation wracked by competing warlords and in danger of degenerating into a Colombia-style narcostate — never materialized. Undeniably, the drug trade is a serious concern (it now compromises about a third of the country's gross domestic product) and the slow pace of disarming the warlords is worrisome.
Over the last three years, however, most of the important militia leaders, like Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Uzbek community in the country's north, have shed their battle fatigues for the business attire of the politicians they hope to become. It's also promising that some three million refugees have returned to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. Kabul, the capital, is now one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, with spectacular traffic jams and booming construction sites. ...
If the elections are a success, it will send a powerful signal to neighboring countries like Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, none of which can claim to be representative democracies. If so, the democratic domino effect, which was one of the Bush administration's arguments for the Iraq war, may be more realistic in Central Asia than it has proved to be in the Middle East."

"Twilight Zone / Reality TV" (Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 2004/09/23)
"Welcome to the 'Joy' channel, broadcasting from Jenin. When there's a targeted assassination, the ratings shoot up.":
"It was afternoon. The children's programs were on: nonstop cartoons. Suddenly, in the middle of one of them, the station interrupted with a news bulletin. And instead of Bugs Bunny, viewers saw shattered body parts. Fans of Spiderman were treated to images of the smoking remains of a car that had been blown apart. The city's residents rushed to their homes and the ratings of Farah, the "Joy" channel, reached new heights. Whenever a targeted assassination takes place in Jenin, the station's ratings soar. Everyone stays inside; the army's in town.
The No. 2 man on Israel's most-wanted list, Mahmoud Abu Halifa, popularly known as "Sheikh Mohammed," had just been liquidated in his car by an Israel Defense Forces missile. (A few days earlier, we had seen him driving around town in a different car, fancier than the one in which he was killed, a terrifying machine gun nestled between his legs.) In live coverage, Abu Halifa's headless, shattered body appeared immediately on the screen."

"Militants Again Claim to Have Beheaded Italian Women" (The Scotsman, 2004/09/23)
"In a second claim in 24 hours, a militant group claimed on the Internet today to have killed two Italian women hostages in Iraq.
The claim to have beheaded Simona Pari and Simona Torretta could not be verified immediately.
It appeared a little-known Web site. In defending the killing of the two aid workers, the group Supporters of al-Zawahri gave reasons that were not among their initial demands to spare the hostages’ lives.
“The heads of the two criminal agents of Italian intelligence, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta have been chopped off by knife without pity or mercy,” said the claim. “The video of cutting off the heads of the two Italian hostages will be issued soon.” ...
Last night, an Internet statement signed by the Jihad Organisation claimed that it had killed the women. But Italian state television reported today that Foreign Ministry officials had described the Web site where it appeared as 'not very reliable.'"

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

News and commentary:

"Video grab image taken from an Islamist Web site..."
(Reuters, 2004/09/22)
"Video grab image taken from an Islamist Web site shows what appears to be British hostage Kenneth Bigley, September 22, 2004."

"Video Shows U.K. Hostage's Plea for Life" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/22)
"A videotape posted on Islamic Web site Wednesday showed a man identifying himself as British hostage Kenneth Bigley pleading for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save his life.
"To Mr. Blair, my name is Ken Bigley, from Liverpool," the blindfolded man said in the videotape. "I think this is possibly my last chance," the speaker said in the grainy video. "I don't want to die. I don't deserve."
"Please free female prisoners held in Iraqi prisons."
Tawhid and Jihad, the militant group led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has threatened to kill Bigley unless Iraqi women held in U.S. custody are released."

"Dr Germ Stays in Custody Says U.S." (The Scotsman, 2004/09/22)
"Two high-profile women prisoners in American custody will not be released immediately, the US embassy said in Baghdad today, despite an earlier announcement by Iraqi authorities.
The two scientists — dubbed Dr Germ and Mrs Anthrax — “are in our legal and physical custody,” an embassy spokesman said. “Legal status of these two and many others is under constant review,” he added.
An Iraqi Justice Ministry spokesman earlier announced that Iraqi authorities together with US-led forces had decided to release on bail one of the two women, Rihab Rashid Taha — Dr Germ." (See also: "Glimmer of hope for Briton but second US hostage is killed" (Rory McCarthy et al., The Guardian, 2004/09/22))

"Two killed in suicide attack at French Hill in Jerusalem" (Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2004/09/22)
"Two Border Policemen were killed and some 15 Israelis were wounded Wednesday afternoon in an terror attack at the French Hill neighborhood of northern Jerusalem. ...
The two fatalities were later named as 20-year-old Mamoya Tahio and 19-year-old Menashe Komemi.
Border Policemen at the scene prevented the bomber from entering the hitchhiking post where there were dozens of people.
The suicide bomber, later identified by Palestinian sources as 18-year-old Zayneb Abu Salem from the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, arrived at the junction from the direction of Jerusalem, wearing a veil and holding a bag containing the shrapnel-packed explosive device weighing around 5kg.
Eyewitnesses told police that the female terrorist had tried to enter the hitchhiking post, but had raised the suspicions of the Border Policemen stationed there.
According to the eyewitness accounts, the woman had argued with one of the Border Policemen, who wanted her to submit to a body search, and when the second officer approached the two, she detonated the explosives."

"Talking to al-Qaida" (Mark Steyn, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/09/22)
"Already, there's a palpable longing to make the Islamists just a regular common-or-garden terrorist movement, like the IRA or the Baader-Meinhof Gang. ...
Earlier this year, [Mo Mowlam] called for Osama bin Laden to be invited to "the negotiating table" — a difficult trick: What's left of him would fit in the salt cellar. But, putting such technicalities aside, Ms. Mowlam's main point was that the whole war on terror approach was all wrong. "If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists," she said. ...
Given the growing Muslim populations in Europe and the remarkable success hitherto obscure Muslim lobby groups have had in constraining certain aspects of the war on terror, it seems almost certain that Islamist political parties will arise on the continent within the next decade. And, given the very few degrees of separation between very prominent Western Muslims — ambassadors, princes, professors – and the terrorists, it seems likely that many prominent figures in these parties will be broadly supportive of the terrorists' ends if not necessarily their means.
And, given the governing principle of multicultural society — that Western man demonstrates his cultural sensitivity by preemptively surrendering — it seems to me that any savvy Islamist, surveying the Madrid bombing and the aftermath, might be contemplating the benefits of a twin-track strategy. In the years ahead, the urge by weak-willed allies to "politicize" the war on terror will be one of the biggest challenges for Washington." (See also: "Saint Mo" (Oliver Kamm, oliverkamm.typepad.com, 2004/04/17))

"The media war against the west" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/09/22)
"One of the most sickening features of the current media hysteria is the implication that the appalling atrocities now taking place in Iraq are the fault not of the butchers carrying them out but of Bush and Blair for starting the conflagration. But the reason British and American hostages are being taken and murdered is because the terrorists know that with every such death — and the more barbaric it is — the more the British and American media will not blame them but, obscenely, Blair and Bush and thus ratchet up the pressure upon them to quit Iraq and give up the defence against terror.
This is, indeed, working like a charm. Such is the media conflagration of lies, distortions, moral bankruptcy, prejudice and foaming hatred and hysteria directed at their own side that it becomes less likely by the day that Bush, let alone Blair, will feel able to take on Iran and Syria. Unless he does that, however, not only will Iraq be lost but the west might as well put its hands up now and wave the white flag. The jihadis are playing the west for suckers; and the arrogant, ignorant, bigoted media are playing their part to perfection." (See also: "Our man in Rome brands Bush 'al-Qaeda recruiting sergeant'" (Hamish MacDonell and Jeremy Charles, The Scotsman, 2004/09/21))

"A bridge too far?" (Arnaud de Borchgrave, The Washington Times, 2004/09/22)
"Off-the-record conversations with intelligence chiefs in five major European countries — each with multiple assets in Iraq — showed remarkable agreement on these points:
• The neocon objectives for restructuring Iraq into a functioning model democracy were a bridge too far. They were never realistic.
• The plan to train Iraqi military and security forces in time to cope with a budding insurgency before it spun out of control was stillborn.
• The insurgency has mushroomed from 5,000 in the months following collapse of Saddam's regime to an estimated 20,000 today and still growing. Insurgents are targeting green Iraqi units and volunteers for training, and some have already defected to the rebels. ...
• The U.S. occupation has lost control of large swathes of Iraq where the insurgency operates with virtual impunity.
• Iraq was a diversion from the war on a global movement that was never anchored in Baghdad.
• Iraq does not facilitate a solution to the Mideast crisis. And without such a solution, the global terrorist movement will continue spreading.
• Iraq has become a magnet for would-be Muslim jihadis the world over; it has greatly facilitated transnational terrorism.
• Charting a course out of the present chaos requires an open-ended commitment to maintain U.S. forces at the present level and higher through 2010 or longer.
• The once magnificent obsession about building a model Arab democracy in Iraq now has the potential of a Vietnam-type quagmire."

"Is Cat Stevens a Terrorist?" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2004/09/22)
"But Yusuf Islam is most certainly a fundamentalist Muslim, whose views are radical enough to set him at odds with the great majority of the world's Islamic adherents, and they are no better expressed than in his comments on his own field of expression: music.
Wahhabism, the state religion in Saudi Arabia, and the inspirer of al Qaeda, is especially known for its hatred of music. In Wahhabi theology, all music except for drum accompaniment to religious chanting is haram, or forbidden. For anybody who has had contact with Muslim civilization, this is a fairly shocking bit of information, since music is one of the great glories of Islamic culture.
Yusuf Islam has demonstrated his sympathy for this posture on several occasions. Above all, he is careful to point out his caution about bucking the Wahhabis in this realm. In 1997, he released an album titled I Have No Cannons That Roar, dedicated, he said, to the cause of the Bosnian Muslims. In an interview with Stephen Kinzer, appearing in the New York Times on December 8, 1997, he commented on the project, 'I've . . . used a very conservative approach. You only hear my own voice, a slight choral accompaniment and drums. Let's say that's the safest option according to certain Islamic schools of thought. I've made minimal use of musical instruments, and in some schools of thought in Islam musical instruments are disapproved of.'"

"Ex-Pop Star Cat Stevens to Be Deported from U.S." (Sue Pleming, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/22)
"Former pop singer Cat Stevens, a Muslim, will be deported to Britain because his activities could be "linked to terrorism," a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
Arab-Americans and Muslims in Britain promptly voiced outrage over the treatment of Stevens, who is known as Yusuf Islam since he shelved his singing and songwriting career and became a Muslim almost three decades ago.
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said Islam was being put on the first available flight back to Britain. His Washington D.C.-bound plane was diverted on Tuesday to Bangor, Maine, after his name turned up on U.S. lists of suspected terrorists.
"Why is he on the watch lists? Because of his activities that could be potentially linked to terrorism. The intelligence community has come into possession of additional information that further raises our concern," Doyle said.
A law enforcement official who asked not to be identified said the United States had information that Islam, who visited the United States in May, had donated money to the militant Islamic group Hamas." (See also: "Official: Cat Stevens on watch list because of possible tie to terrorists" (AP/SFGate.com, 2004/09/22): "A second government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. authorities think donations from Islam may have ended up helping to fund blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.")

"Cat Stevens refused US entry" (The Daily Telegraph, 2004/09/22)
"The singer Cat Stevens has been escorted from a diverted transatlantic flight and refused entry into America flight by FBI agents.
The pop star, who converted to Islam, was denied entry because his name was said to be on a government security "watch list".
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said he would be returned to Britain today.
Flight 919 from London diverted 600 miles to Bangor International Airport yesterday, landing at around 7.30pm BST, after US security officials were told Stevens was aboard.
He had been allowed to board the flight after United Airlines officials initially failed to spot his name, which he has changed to Yusuf Islam."

"Israel challenges Iran's nuclear ambitions" (Anton La Guardia, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/09/22)
"Israel admitted yesterday that it is buying 500 "bunker-buster" bombs, which could be used to hit Iran's nuclear facilities, as Teheran paraded ballistic missiles as a warning against attack.
The BLU-109 bombs, which can penetrate more than 7ft of reinforced concrete, are among "smart" munitions being sold to Israel under America's military aid programme. ...
Iran has placed some of its facilities, such as the large Natanz enrichment plant, in protected underground sites. Teheran has vowed to retaliate against any attack, and at one point said it might launch pre-emptive strikes if it felt threatened.
Seeking to underline the point, Iran showed off its ballistic missiles at an annual military parade in Teheran near the mausoleum of Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. A banner proclaiming "Israel must be wiped off the map" was draped on the side of a 450-mile Shahab-2 missile. Another saying "We will crush America under our feet" graced a trailer carrying a 930-mile Shahab-3 missile."

"Glimmer of hope for Briton but second US hostage is killed" (Rory McCarthy et al., The Guardian, 2004/09/22)
"Iraq's justice minister last night pledged to release one high-profile Iraqi woman prisoner and to consider the release of a second in a last-minute concession that may save the life of the British kidnap victim Kenneth Bigley. ...
Malik Dohan al-Hassan, the justice minister, told the Guardian that his government would later today release Rihab Taha, a biological weapons scientist. A hearing would be held to determine whether to release the second woman, Huda Amash, another weapons scientist, dubbed Chemical Sally. ...
Unlike the previous night, when Mr Armstrong was killed, a video did not follow the statement. US officials said early today that a body had been found but there was no immediate evidence that it was Mr Hensley.
Shortly after the first statement another message was issued, specifically threatening Mr Bigley with death. It continued: 'The blood of Muslims is not water and the honour of Muslim women will not be wasted in vain.
Let Bush die from anger and Blair shed tears of blood.'"

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

News and commentary:

"Web Site: 2nd U.S. Hostage Killed in Iraq" (Alexandra Zavis, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/21)
"A posting on an Islamic Web site claimed Tuesday that the al-Qaida-linked group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has slain a U.S. hostage in Iraq, just 24 hours after grisly video showed the terror mastermind beheading another American captive. ...
The new posting followed the passing of the militants' 24-hour deadline for the release of all Iraqi women from U.S. custody, and after anguished relatives in the United States and Britain begged for the lives of Bigley, 62, and Hensley, who would have marked his 49th birthday Wednesday.
"The nation's zealous sons slaughtered the second American hostage after the end of the deadline," the statement said." (See also: "Video on Web Site Shows Beheading" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/20))

"President Speaks to the United Nations General Assembly" (George W. Bush, The White House, 2004/09/21)
"And today, I assure every friend of Afghanistan and Iraq, and every enemy of liberty: We will stand with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes of freedom and security are fulfilled.
These two nations will be a model for the broader Middle East, a region where millions have been denied basic human rights and simple justice. For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations." (See also: "Kerry Offers Searing Critique of Iraq War" (William Branigin, The Washington Post, 2004/09/20))

"Secretary-General's address to the General Assembly" (Kofi Annan, United Nations, 2004/09/21)
The Secretary-General of Moral Equivalence: "Again and again, we see fundamental laws shamelessly disregarded – those that ordain respect for innocent life, for civilians, for the vulnerable – especially children.
To mention only a few flagrant and topical examples:
In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood, while relief workers, journalists and other non-combatants are taken hostage and put to death in the most barbarous fashion. At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused. ...
In Israel we see civilians, including children, deliberately targeted by Palestinian suicide bombers. And in Palestine we see homes destroyed, lands seized, and needless civilian casualties caused by Israel's excessive use of force. ...
And all over the world we see people being prepared for further such acts, through hate propaganda directed at Jews, Muslims, against anyone who can be identified as different from one's own group. Excellencies, No cause, no grievance, however legitimate in itself, can begin to justify such acts. They put all of us to shame."

"Our man in Rome brands Bush 'al-Qaeda recruiting sergeant'" (Hamish MacDonell and Jeremy Charles, The Scotsman, 2004/09/21)
"The government was drawn into a diplomatic row with the United States and Italy last night, after a senior British ambassador described President George Bush as "the best recruiting sergeant for al-Qaeda".
Sir Ivor Roberts, the British ambassador in Rome, made the extraordinary comment during a weekend meeting of politicians and journalists.
His remarks were designed to be off-the-record but they proved so explosive that Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, decided to breach the rule and publish them.
Corriere reported Sir Ivor as saying: "George W Bush is the best recruiting sergeant for al-Qaeda. If there is anyone ready to celebrate his eventual re-election it is al-Qaeda, while it’s clear that the Palestinians hope that a Kerry victory will help unblock the situation."
The Corriere reporter, Moncia Guerzoni, added that Sir Ivor also said that the Bush administration was 'conditioned and pressured by groups of powerful Israelis.'"

"Iran Defies UN, Says Will Go on Converting Uranium" (Francois Murphy, Reuters, 2004/09/21)
"Iran defied the United Nations on Tuesday by announcing it would go on converting a large amount of raw uranium to prepare it for enrichment, a process that can be used to develop atomic bombs.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told reporters Iran had begun converting 37 tons of raw "yellowcake" uranium to process it for use in nuclear centrifuges -- the machines that enrich uranium. ...
One nuclear expert has said that once converted from yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride, the feed material for enrichment centrifuges, Iran would eventually be able to enrich enough uranium for up to five nuclear weapons."

"Syria Starts Redeploying Forces in Lebanon" (Nadim Ladki, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/21)
"Syria began redeploying around 3,000 troops from the outskirts of Beirut toward the eastern Syrian-Lebanese border on Tuesday in an apparent attempt to ease U.S.-led international pressure over its influence on Lebanon. ...
The redeployment followed mounting U.S.-led international pressure on Syria to withdraw its 17,000 troops from Lebanon and stop interfering in its neighbor's internal affairs.
But it is unlikely to loosen Syria's political grip over Lebanon where its allies remain entrenched in the Lebanese government and state bodies."

"Bush, Marshal Foch and Iran" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/09/21)
"Leaks of a National Intelligence Estimate warning last week of impending Iraqi civil war suggest that Washington is thinking past the loser's game of occupation. ...
If Washington chooses to dismember Iraq rather than pacify it, who will win and who will lose? Washington always has had the option of breaking up the Mesopotamian monstrosity drawn by British cartographers in 1921. The only surprise is that it has taken US intelligence so long to reach this conclusion. ...
Iraq's Shi'ites, who comprise nearly two-thirds of the population, have no reason to subsidize the Sunni minority with revenues from oil wells located in their centers of ethnic preponderance. The simplest way to deal with resistance in the Sunni triangle is to break off the oil-rich Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, and let the Sunni center eat sand.
Washington loses nothing by promoting an independent Kurdistan, except for Turkey's dwindling goodwill. ...
Now the strategic logic is as compelling as it was in 1914, when the German general staff insisted that immediate war with Russia was preferable to waiting until the eastern giant completed its railway network. Washington is assembling its case for some form of intervention against Tehran, and turned an important corner of diplomacy with the weekend's warning."

"Trying to put Islam on Europe's agenda" (John Vinocur, International Herald Tribune, 2004/09/21)
Eurabia II: "[Samuel] Huntington, in his book "Who Are We?" says that in essence "multiculturalism is anti-European civilization" because "it is basically an anti-Western ideology." In a conversation, he contrasted Hispanic immigrants in the United States with Arab and Turkish immigrants to Europe by saying the Muslims show "greater resistance to integrate."
"I am fascinated by how Europe and the Muslims there are confronted by redefining their religious identity," Huntington said. The forces in play, he found, were such that "Europe may be deeply divided in 25 years."
Lewis, in a little-noted question-and-answer session with the German newspaper Die Welt this summer, predicted Western Europe's coming Islamization. He reiterated this view in private talks with senators here in September.
"Europe will be a part of the Arab West or Maghreb," he told the newspaper. "Migration and demography indicate this. Europeans marry late and have few or no children. But there's strong immigration: Turks in Germany, Arabs in France and Pakistanis in England. At the latest, following current trends, Europe will have Muslim majorities in the population at the end of the 21st century." ...
In a conversation here, [Francis] Fukuyama said it would be a mistake, with dangerous exclusionary overtones, for Europe to hold up Christianity as its sole defining mark.
"There is a European culture," he said. 'It's subscribing to a broader culture of tolerance. It's not unreasonable for European culture to say, 'You have to accept this.' The Europeans have to end their political correctness and take seriously what's going on.'"

"Eurabia" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/09/21)
An interview with Bat Ye'or, "the world's foremost authority on dhimmitude":
"France and the rest of Western Europe cannot change their policy anymore. Their future is Eurabia. Period. I don't see how they can reverse the movement they set in motion thirty years ago. Nor do Eurabians want to modify this policy. It is a project that was conceived, planned and pursued consistently through immigration policy, propaganda, church support, economic associations and aid, cultural, media and academic collaboration. Generations grew up within this political framework; they were educated and conditioned to support it and go along with it. This is the source of the strong anti-American feeling in Europe and of the paranoiac obsession with Israel, two elements that form the cornerstone of Eurabia. ...
It is the Eurabian context, representing a totally anti-American and anti-Zionist culture and policy, that explains the strong reaction against the war in Iraq -- itself integrated into the war against Islamic terrorism. A terrorism that Eurabia has denied, blaming Israel's "injustice and occupation" and America's "arrogance" instead. Eurabia has transformed Islamic terrorism into a cliche: "America is the problem" in order to consolidate the web of alliances that support its whole geostrategy. ...
Eurabian notables, whether Chirac, de Villepin, Solana, Prodi, or others, have continuously stressed the centrality of the Palestinian cause for world peace, as if more European vilification of Israel would change anything in the global jihad waged in the US, in Asia, and from Africa to Chechnya — the latest horrendous tragedy in Ossetia is but one example. In such a view, Israel's very existence, not this genocidal jihadist drive, is a threat to peace."

"America & Iraq" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2004/09/21)
"Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush must have pondered the same questions that Presidents Franklin D Roosevelt and Truman had asked in their time. The key question: Where does the most serious threat to America's national security come from?
In the post-Cold War world and with the elimination of the Soviet threat, the answer was clear. It was the broader Middle East region that represented the principal source of threat to the security and national interests of the US and its allies. ...
Looking back, it is clear that half a century of American military and political intervention in the Middle East failed to tackle the fundamental cause of the violence, war and terror bred in that region: the absence of democracy. ...
Contrary to the conventional wisdom peddled by part of the media, the liberation of Iraq has been a brilliant success. What is now needed is to translate that into another brilliant success — this time in building the first democratic Arab state, one that will become a model for the entire Middle East. ...
But this is only the first phase of a grand strategy whose aim is to help Arabs and other Muslim peoples build free societies. Freedom for Arabs and other Muslims would, in turn, be translated into security for the American people and their allies.
It is this big picture that the Americans must have in mind when they decide whether or not rescuing Iraq from the evil of Saddam was the right thing to do."

"Fresh hostilities don't alter the justice of deposing Saddam" (John Keegan, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/09/21)
"There is now plenty of disorder in Iraq and disorder makes for headlines. Nevertheless, it should also be noted that much of Iraq is not in a state of disorder. The Kurdish north has made a successful transition to peaceful self-government. In the British-garrisoned south, three of the four provinces are at peace, and in one of them successful local elections have recently been held, which returned secularists to office. ...
Things could be a lot worse than they are. For all his crimes, Saddam must be credited with turning Iraq into a secular state and making its population one of the best-educated in the Middle East. As objective observers report, the majority of Iraqis have embraced both secularism and Western education; they welcome the fall of Saddam's dictatorship.
When not silenced by the threat of violence from extremists and criminals, they are also ready to say that they continue to regard the Western troops in their midst as liberators. Western so-called progressives who denounce the war of 2003 as a mistake are in fact illiberal and reactionary. They should be ashamed of themselves. Denunciation of war-making is much more fun than the recognition of the truth that the calculated use of force can achieve good. The United States and Britain must not be deterred."

"CIA Says Zarqawi Was Speaker in Beheading Tape" (Alexandra Zavis, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/21)
"Abu Musab al Zarqawi was "intimately involved" in the killing of American hostage Eugene Armstrong, a U.S. intelligence official said on Tuesday after the CIA determined that the al Qaeda ally was the speaker on the videotape of the beheading.
"There is high confidence that the voice is indeed of Abu Musab al Zarqawi," a CIA official said on condition of anonymity after the spy agency conducted a technical analysis of the tape.
The video of the killing was posted on the Internet by Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, and showed a masked man who read a statement, handed the script to another person, then pulled out a knife and put it to the neck of the hostage.
Then there is a cut in the film as the camera zooms in to show a close-up of hands as the hostage is decapitated, which makes it difficult to determine with absolute certainty whether Zarqawi is still the one wielding the knife. ...
The speaker on the video rails against President Bush -- "Oh, you Christian dog Bush, stop your arrogance."
The statement also says: 'The mujahideen will give America a taste of the degradation you have inflicted on the Iraqi people.'" (See also: "Video on Web Site Shows Beheading" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/20))

"'Killers' guarding Sudan refugees" (BBC News, 2004/09/21)
"Arab militiamen responsible for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region are now guarding camps for the displaced, a UN official has been told by refugees.
Refugees in different camps in North Darfur have said this to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, she told the BBC.
The militiamen have been recycled into Sudan's police force, she said. ...
More than a million black Africans have been driven from their homes in Darfur and up to 50,000 killed.
"They claim to see former Janjaweed... recycled into the police," Ms Arbour told the BBC's Today programme.
"There is a widespread belief they are being protected by their very oppressors." ...
Ms Arbour also accused the government of not doing enough to protect the refugees, first denying abuses were taking place and then saying it is too difficult to identify those responsible.
"There is a total sense of impunity," she said."

"Marines Bide Their Time In Insurgent-Held Fallujah" (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post, 2004/09/21)
"A collection of anti-American forces — former Baath Party loyalists, Islamic extremists and foreign militants — have been expanding their presence in Fallujah since the Marines withdrew from positions in the city in April and handed over responsibility for security to the Fallujah Brigade. According to U.S. military officials and residents, the insurgents have since taken over the local government, co-opted and cowed Iraqi security forces, and turned the area into a staging ground for terrorist attacks in Baghdad, located about 35 miles to the east. ...
Instead of sending Marines charging into Fallujah as they did in April — a move that radicalized residents and drew scores of fighters from outside Iraq to join the battle — U.S. commanders say they want to wait until Iraq's new army is large enough, and trained enough, to assume a leading role in retaking the city. ...
But it could take until the end of the year for enough Iraqi forces to be trained and equipped for a full-scale assault on Fallujah. There are only six Iraqi army battalions in service, each with about 700 soldiers, three of which are deployed in Najaf. Six more battalions are supposed to be trained by the end of October. By the end of January, U.S. officials hope to have 27 trained and deployed Iraqi battalions."

"Al Qaeda seen planning for 'spectacular' attack" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2004/09/21)
"Authorities in Pakistan and Britain recently arrested key al Qaeda leaders, but the group uses tight "compartmentation" of its operations. The process, used by intelligence services, keeps information about operations within small "cells" of terrorists to protect secrecy.
Thus, details of the possible attack remain murky, but analysts say it is planned to be bigger and deadlier than the September 11 attacks, which killed 3,000 people.
Potential targets include the White House, Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and congressional buildings, as well as landmarks and business centers in New York, the officials said. The officials said that there is no specific information about targets.
Intelligence officials say a key figure in al Qaeda's North American operations is Adnan Shukrijumah, who is being sought by the FBI for the past several years.
One official said Shukrijumah recently was seen in Mexico and earlier had been in Canada near a university with a nuclear reactor, leading to concerns that he was seeking radioactive material for a radiological bomb."

Note: I've finally gotten around to read Swedish author Lars Jakobson's brilliant and devastating essay on how Swedish intellectuals reacted to 9/11. Here's a representative example, from Sweden's most popular historian:

"'What will be done with the perhaps hundreds of millions of people in the Third World who strongly sympathize with the 'terrorists' and their struggle against America's foreign policy and general stance in the world, all of those who view the suicide pilots in the U.S. with admiration as brave and skilful heroes — shall all those millions be exterminated or will all terrorist sympathizers be amassed in re-edecution camps or in wait for the final solution?' (Herman Lindqvist in Aftonbladet 9/16 2001)."

Swedish original: "Vidöppet för spekulation" (Lars Jakobson, Svenska Dagbladet, 2004/09/10)

Monday, September 20, 2004

News and commentary:

"Masked men stand behind a man..."
(AP, 2004/09/20)
"Masked men stand behind a man identified as American construction contractor Eugene Armstrong, moments before he was beheaded in Iraq, in this image from video made available on an Islamic website, Monday Sept. 20, 2004."

"Video on Web Site Shows Beheading" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/09/20)
"A video posted Monday on a Web site showed the beheading of a man identified as American construction contractor Eugene Armstrong. ...
It showed a man seated on the floor, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands bound behind his back.
Five militants dressed in black stood behind the man, four of them armed with assault rifles, with a black Tawhid and Jihad banner on the wall behind them. The militant in the center read out a statement, as the hostage rocked back and forth and side to side where he sat.
After finishing the statement, the militant pulled a knife, rushed to the hostage from behind and cut his throat until the head was severed.
The victim gasped loudly as blood poured from his neck. His killer held up the head at one point, and placed the head on top of the body. ...
In the statement, the militant said, "You, sister, rejoice. God's soldiers are coming to get you out of your chains and restore your purity by returning you to your mother and father."
Addressing President Bush, he said: 'Now, you have people who love death just like you love life. Killing for the sake of God is their best wish, getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our lord.'" (Note: Northeast Intelligence Network hosts this video and others of executed hostages in Iraq. See also: "Militants Threaten to Kill U.S., UK Hostages in Iraq" (Andrew Marshall, Reuters, 2004/09/18))

"Goebbels grotto" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/09/20)
"For the second week running, BBC Radio Four's Any Questions last weekend reinforced the sense that decency in this country is simply dying. Dr David Starkey, the noted historian, wit and larger-than-life personality who made his name and his fortune as 'the rudest man in Britain', suddenly came out with a piece of the ripest and most ancient prejudice. Musing about the war in Iraq, he said:

'The action in Iraq was driven by one thing, and it was a very understandable desire for vengeance. Americans again are a little bit like Jews (murmur from audience)...no, let me please, I'm being really serious, I'm not calling names but calling for us to understand a different mindset. Here the notion of vengeance is on the whole regarded as deplorable... In Judaism, Islam and American Protestantism vengeance is a wholly acceptable notion (audience murmur) ... that's the truth, and after 9/11 they wanted to strike back. And that is it. End of story'. ...

This idea that the Jews are vengeful is, in fact, one of the most deeply entrenched, vicious prejudices about the Jews -- and one that currently surfaces again and again in the language used to describe Israel's defence against terror. In other words, whenever the Jews try to prevent themselves from being murdered, this is presented not as self defence but vengeance. ...
So let us not call names but try to understand a different mindset -- the dynamics of ugly prejudice, which reveal that in the most educated of company barbarism may be masked by the thinnest of polished veneers."

"Kerry Offers Searing Critique of Iraq War" (William Branigin, The Washington Post, 2004/09/20)
"Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry today delivered a scathing critique of President Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism and the Iraq war, charging that Bush's "colossal failures of judgment" and "reckless mistakes" have weakened U.S. national security and mired the country in a costly conflict with no end in sight. ...
Kerry implicitly defended his 2002 vote to give Bush authority to use force to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, saying any president would need that threat to act effectively. However, Kerry added, "This president misused that authority" and rushed to war based on faulty rationales without sufficient international support and without a long-term plan.
"Yet today, President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same way," Kerry said. 'How can he possibly be serious? Is he really saying to America that if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al Qaeda, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer, resoundingly: no — because a commander-in-chief's first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe.'" (See also the full speech: "Speech at New York University" (John Kerry, johnkerry.com, 2004/09/20). Also: "Taking Flip-Flops Seriously" (Robert Kagan and William Kristol, The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/09/20 issue))

"CBS Statement On Bush Memos" (CBS News, 2004/09/20)
Off topic of the day: "Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report. We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret. Nothing is more important to us than our credibility and keeping faith with the millions of people who count on us for fair, accurate, reliable, and independent reporting. We will continue to work tirelessly to be worthy of that trust."

"Center Right: Israel's Unexpected Victory Over Terrorism" (Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren, The New Republic, from the 2004/09/27 issue)
"The price Israel has paid for its victory has been sobering. Arafat may be a pariah, but Israel is becoming one, too. Increasingly, the legitimacy of Jewish sovereignty is under attack. Former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, for example, has called Israel's creation a "mistake." In Europe, an implicit "red-green-black" coalition of radical leftists, Islamists, and old-fashioned fascists has revived violent anti-Semitism. ...
Americans would be wise to study this final lesson, too: Perhaps the greatest danger in fighting terrorism is the polarizing effect such a campaign can have — not just internationally, but domestically. To avoid this pitfall, a strong political consensus for military action is necessary. That means the president must actively reach out to domestic opposition. But American leaders must also heed Sharon's other lessons. That means an ability to endure criticism from abroad and even to risk international isolation, a willingness to define the war on terrorism as a total war, and a commitment to focus one's political agenda on winning, not on divisive or extraneous concerns. Fulfilling those conditions does not guarantee success. But it does make success possible — as Israel is, at great cost, showing the world." (See also: "Our state of normal emergency" (Yossi Klein Halevi, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/09/15))

"Iranian Tales" (Michael Ledeen, National Review, 2004/09/20)
"First is the story of Sheikh Rasini of Tehran, a religious leader of middling importance who attracted the attention of some of the more sober officials of the Revolutionary Guard in the mid-Nineties. It seems Rasini was spending a lot of time in the intimacy of young boys, and showed other signs of corruption. The Guardians of the Revolution objected, and took their complaints to the Ayatollah Milani, who duly issued a fatwa authorizing a violent death for the sheikh. But Rasini turned the tables on his accusers and had them thrown into the nightmarish Evin Prison in Tehran, where Milani and the others were killed.
Rasini continued his active support of gay marriage until, a couple of months ago, he was surprised en flagrante and hauled before an Islamic tribunal for his conjugal activities with one Amir. The situation looked grave for the sheikh until the mullahs came up with an imaginative solution. Amir was "converted" to the opposite sex by some of Tehran's finest surgeons, thereby removing — quite literally — the basis for the accusation.
Amir is now Zohreh, and she and her sheikh may well live happily for the foreseeable future. ...
Can you imagine these creatures with atomic bombs? And yet the U.N. issues yet another "deadline" for the end of November, the European Union preens itself on its avoidance of conflict, even with evil, the president speaks bravely but does nothing to support freedom in Iran, and his challenger lets it be known that, if elected, he will offer the mullahs the same misguided nuclear deal that has already failed in North Korea.
Pfui."

"Quick exit from Iraq is likely" (Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times, 2004/09/20)
"Well-placed sources in the administration are confident Bush's decision will be to get out. They believe that is the recommendation of his national security team and would be the recommendation of second-term officials. An informed guess might have Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Paul Wolfowitz as defense secretary and Stephen Hadley as national security adviser. According to my sources, all would opt for a withdrawal.
Getting out now would not end expensive U.S. reconstruction of Iraq, and certainly would not stop the fighting. Without U.S. troops, the civil war cited as the worst-case outcome by the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate would be a reality. It would then take a resolute president to stand aside while Iraqis battle it out.
The end product would be an imperfect Iraq, probably dominated by Shia Muslims seeking revenge over long oppression by the Sunni-controlled Baathist Party. The Kurds would remain in their current semi-autonomous state. Iraq would not be divided, reassuring neighboring countries — especially Turkey — that are apprehensive about ethnically divided nations.
This messy new Iraq is viewed by Bush officials as vastly preferable to Saddam's police state, threatening its neighbors and the West. In private, some officials believe the mistake was not in toppling Saddam but in staying there for nation building after the dictator was deposed." (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan, who has more on Novak's column here.)

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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