Archived news and commentary: November 15 - 21, 2004

2004/11/15 - 2004/11/21
2004/11/08 - 2004/11/14
2004/11/01 - 2004/11/07
2004/10/25 - 2004/10/31
2004/10/18 - 2004/10/24
2004/10/11 - 2004/10/17

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, November 21, 2004

News and commentary:

"Hate 101: Climate of hate rocks Columbia University" (Douglas Feiden, New York Daily News, 2004/11/21)
"In the world of Hamid Dabashi, supporters of Israel are "warmongers" and "Gestapo apparatchiks."
The Jewish homeland is "nothing more than a military base for the rising predatory empire of the United States."
It's a capital of "thuggery" - a "ghastly state of racism and apartheid" - and it "must be dismantled."
A voice from America's crackpot fringe? Actually, Dabashi is a tenured professor and department chairman at Columbia University. And his views have resonated and been echoed in other areas of the university.
Columbia is at risk of becoming a poison Ivy, some critics claim, and tensions are high.
In classrooms, teach-ins, interviews and published works, dozens of academics are said to be promoting an I-hate-Israel agenda, embracing the ugliest of Arab propaganda, and teaching that Zionism is the root of all evil in the Mideast.
In three weeks of interviews, numerous students told the Daily News they face harassment, threats and ridicule merely for defending the right of Israel to survive." (See also: "Columbia Abuzz Over Underground Film" (Jacob Gershman, The New York Sun, 2004/10/20))

"Some 20,000 protest in Cologne against violence in the name of Islam" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/21)
"Some 20,000 people took to the streets in the western German city of Cologne, waving German and Turkish flags, to protest against the use of violence in the name of Islam.
The marchers had two starting points — a mosque and a cathedral — and converged in the middle of the city for the event organized by the Islamic-Turkish Union with the slogan "Hand in Hand for Peace and Against Terror."
They carried banners proclaiming "Islam is peace," and "we are against terror in all its forms."
Ridvan Cakir, the president of the Islamic-Turkish union, told the crowd that terrorism "has no religion and no nationality."
Fritz Behrens, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said, 'I want us to live together, and not side by side.'"

"Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1" (Kevin Sites, kevinsites.net, 2004/11/21)
The NBC correspondent who filmed the killing of an injured Iraqi in Fallujah gives his account of the incident:
"The Marines have built their proud reputation on fighting for freedoms like the one that allows me to do my job, a job that in some cases may appear to discredit them. But both the leaders and the grunts in the field like you understand that if you lower your standards, if you accept less, than less is what you'll become. ...
So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera — the story of his death became my responsibility.
The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.
I pray for your soon and safe return." (See also: "NBC Says Marine Shot Dead Wounded Iraqi Prisoner" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/15))

"What did Saddam, al Qaeda and Al Jazeera Have In Common?" (Hindrocket, Power Line, 2004/11/21)
"Haider Ajina sent us his translation of an article that appeared yesterday in the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. The headline was: "Al-Zarkawi’s right hand man 'Omar Hadid' was a personal body guard of Saddam Hussein and brother of the manager of Al-Jazeera in Baghdad. He also led the Terrorist fight in Felujah, and was trained in Afghanistan." Here is the text of the article:

Iraqi security investigators have revealed that Al-Zarkawi’s right hand man Omar Hadid was a member of Saddam Hussein’s personal body-guards unit. Omar Hadid later joined Al Qaeda and was trained in Al Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps. Omar is the brother of the manager of the Baghdad office of Al-Jazeera news channel, which was closed three month ago.
The investigators also revealed that Omar led the terrorists in their fight for Felujah against the U.S. and Iraqi forces. Further, they suspect that he is still in Felujah. They also said that he had left Saddam’s service about 10 years ago to join Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Omar then left Afghanistan for Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Omar then returned to Iraq shortly before the war.
The sources also confirmed that Omar is the brother of Hamid Hadid the manager of Al-Jazeera news Channel office in Iraq. ...

We know very little about the connections among Saddam's regime, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and pro-terrorist organizations like Al Jazeera. Over time, however, more and more information on these subjects is sure to come out."

"Transatlantic divides" (Wen Stephenson, The Boston Globe, 2004/11/21)
An interview with Timothy Garton Ash on his new book, "Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West":
"Our present situation, says Garton Ash, is simply far too dangerous to allow divisions between and within Western democracies to distract us from urgent crises in the Middle East, from global warming, and from crippling poverty and disease in the developing world. If we don't get these things right, he warns — and we can only do so together — the epitaph on the West's gravestone may read: "They squabbled as the Earth burned." ...
IDEAS: How far apart, really, are the US and Europe?
GARTON ASH: In some respects, the Atlantic is narrower than the English Channel. I think the divide is much more in mutual perceptions than it is in reality. But perceptions can become reality. And if we go on thinking of each other as the "other" for a few more years, then that can become so.
IDEAS: And what's at stake in that?
GARTON ASH: I would say what's at stake is genuinely the future of freedom. If we duck these big challenges because we're involved in these absurd squabbles, what Freud called "the narcissism of minor differences," then the world will be a much more dangerous and nasty place for our children in 20 years."

"Victory in Fallujah: Iraq's Iwo Jima gets scant media respect" (Jack Kelly, Post-Gazette, 2004/11/21)
"American and Iraqi government troops have killed at least 1,200 fighters in Fallujah, and captured 1,100 more. Those numbers will grow as mop-up operations continue.
These casualties were inflicted at a cost (so far) of 56 Coalition dead (51 Americans), and just over 300 wounded, of whom about a quarter have returned to duty.
"That kill ratio would be phenomenal in any [kind of] battle, but in an urban environment, it's revolutionary," said retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, perhaps America's most respected writer on military strategy. "The rule has been that [in urban combat] the attacking force would suffer between a quarter and a third of its strength in casualties."
The victory in Fallujah was also remarkable for its speed, Peters said. Speed was necessary, he said, "because you are fighting not just the terrorists, but a hostile global media."
Fallujah ranks up there with Iwo Jima, Inchon and Hue as one of the greatest triumphs of American arms, though you'd have a hard time discerning that from what you read in the newspapers."

"Why I hate the madness of these conspiracy theories" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2004/11/21)
"Today's Observer reveals that, in a nationwide ICM poll, most Britons agree that there is much or some truth in the claim that the Bush administration knew in advance about the 11 September plot, but decided to let it go ahead so as to provide a justification for invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
As it happens, I think this is what the John Pilger was suggesting in his column in the New Statesman the week before last. Contemplating the recent 9/11 Commission report, Pilger discovered in it what many others thought that it had explicitly rejected — evidence that the US government had deliberately allowed the hijacked airliners to fly into important buildings, killing 3,000 and risking the deaths of tens of thousands more, including top Pentagon personnel and (had it come off) anyone in the White House that morning. 'Of course,' said Pilger, the failure to intercept and shoot down the aircraft 'could be due to the most extraordinary combination of coincidences. Or it could not.'
The reader should take a pause here to contemplate what Pilger is asking people to believe — that the administration connived in the slaughter of its own citizens, including relatives of its own officials. And then another pause to reflect on the fact that a majority of our fellow citizens are prepared to believe exactly that." (See also: "End of the world - but not sex and DIY - is nigh" (David Smith, The Observer, 2004/11/21): "A majority of the British population now thinks the US government knew in advance about the 9/11 plot to attack the World Trade Centre yet did nothing to stop it, on the basis that it would give America an excuse to wage war on Afghanistan and Iraq. Some 52 per cent believed there was 'a lot' or 'some' truth in this claim, while 39 per cent said there was none at all.")

"Theatre of terror" (Jason Burke, The Observer, 2004/11/21)
"When they kicked down the door of the living room of a house in the western Iraqi city of Falluja on Friday, US marines from the 3/5 Lima Company discovered an improvised television studio equipped with video cameras, banks of computers and cutting-edge editing equipment.
According to Captain Ed Batinga, who led the soldiers, an off-white wall behind a wooden table at one side of the room was spattered with blood and draped with the black-and-gold flag of the Islamic militant group believed to be behind the killing of dozens of hostages in Iraq in recent months. ...
The videos are one of the most shocking elements of the war in Iraq. Scores have now been released by Iraqi insurgents. To many the terrorists' use of the media seems a radical innovation. It isn't. The Iraqi videos are part of a genre of propaganda tools developed over decades. This is simply the moment that the terrorist film-makers have started to reach a mass audience. In the longer term, the videos are rooted in the essence of the militants' project, which is the project of all terrorists - dramatic spectacle. Or, put another way, theatre."

"Rules of Engagement" (Rod Nordland and Babak Dehghanpisheh, Newsweek, from the 2004/11/29 issue)
"For the insurgents, Iraq has become a war without rules, and yet the militants also score big propaganda victories every time Americans break their own codes of warfare. In the battle for Fallujah the insurgents feigned surrender, waving white flags to approach within killing range of U.S. Marines and Iraqi government forces. They positioned their fighters in mosques, medical centers and civilian neighborhoods. They booby-trapped their fallen comrades' corpses and shot at crews trying to collect the Muslim dead. Practically every taboo has been discarded. Women, children and international relief groups have become deliberate targets. Ambulances are used to smuggle weapons. Torture of hostages has become a public spectacle, with videos passed out like press kits to TV stations, and posted on the Internet when the Arabic channels balk at showing such atrocities. ...
The jihadis' grand strategy is to provoke a war between Islam and the West, as Al Qaeda's leaders have openly boasted. But the more immediate goal is to provoke overreactions like the killing at the mosque. To win, in short, they simply have to keep operating. Unconventional-warfare experts have a saying: when an army fights insurgents, it's like playing chess against an opponent who's playing poker. The Americans may have checkmated the resistance in Fallujah — but the incident at the mosque left the insurgents holding a full house."

"Europe's Civil War?" (Arnaud de Borchgrave, New York Post, 2004/11/21)
Theo van Gogh LXIII: "Today, Muslims are a majority among children under 14 in the Netherlands' four largest cities.
There are 1 million Muslims (6 percent of the population) now living in Europe's most crowded small country. Some 30,000 new Muslims arrive every year. They tend to live among themselves, with their own schools, mosques and restaurants. Most are horrified by what they view as sacrilegious in their own religion. Their imams speak no Dutch and know nothing of the Netherlands' history and culture. ...
Could the Netherlands be a curtain-raiser for a wider clash of civilizations in the old continent?
Hundreds of thousands of young Muslims in Europe are potential jihadis, according to European intelligence chiefs speaking not for publication. They have been warning their political masters about the tinderboxes that many Muslim communities have become. Jihadi volunteers are known to have left for Iraq from a number of Muslim slums on the outskirts of major European cities.
Recruitment posters come on regular European and Arabic news programs — from the Abu Ghraib prison pictures to the battle of Fallujah."

"Postcards From Iraq" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2004/11/21)
"The fact that we can take for granted the trust among so many different ethnic groups, united by the idea of America — and that the biggest rivalry between our Army and Navy is a football game — is the miracle of America. That miracle, and its importance, hits you in the face in Iraq when someone tells you that the "new" Iraqi police unit in a village near Falluja is staffed by one Iraqi tribe and the "new" National Guard unit is staffed by another tribe and they are constantly clashing. ...
We are not doing nation building in Iraq. That presumes that there was already a coherent nation there and all that is needed is a little time and security for it to be rebuilt. We are actually doing nation creating. We are trying to host the first attempt in the modern Arab world for the people of an Arab country to, on their own, forge a social contract with one another. Despite all the mistakes made, that is an incredibly noble thing. ...
Cultures can change, though. But it takes time. And, be advised, it is going to take years to produce a decent outcome in Iraq. But every time I think this can't work, I come across something that suggests, who knows, maybe this time the play will end differently. The headlines last week were all about Falluja. But maybe the most important story in Iraq was the fact that while Falluja was exploding, 106 Iraqi parties and individuals registered to run in the January election."

"Blunkett plans tough new anti-terror laws" (Reuters, 2004/11/21)
"LONDON (Reuters) - The government is considering new tough anti-terrorism laws to prevent an al Qaeda attack including plans to target suspects even if they have not committed an offence, Home Secretary David Blunkett will say today.
The proposals would see the creation of special anti-terror courts which would sit without juries, allowing information obtained from phone taps to be used as evidence in trials, and civil orders against people suspected of planning terrorism.
Those breaching such orders could face jail even if they have not committed a crime."

"Iraq sets election day" (Waleed Ibrahim, Reuters, 2004/11/21)
"Iraq has chosen January 30 for its first democratic election in decades but violence in Sunni Muslim areas is underlining the challenge of holding polls on time.
According to Iraq's timetable for democracy, polls must be held by the end of January for a transitional parliament that will pick a new government and oversee the writing of a constitution.
"The Electoral Commission set the date of January 30 as the date of the election," spokesman Farid Ayar told Reuters on Sunday. A date had been tentatively set for January 27."

"It feels cold without her. I can’t stay here" (Hala Jaber, The Times, 2004/11/21)
An interview with Margaret Hassan's husband, Tahseen Hassan:
"Tahseen had shown immense self-control in a number of television appeals for her release after Margaret, the 59-year-old local director of the charity Care International, was kidnapped on October 19.
Now, however, he choked with emotion as he said: “I am totally destroyed and distraught. I think of her all the time and it is killing me. I never thought I would lose her this way. Her loss is immense for me. My heart aches with pain and I miss her so very much.” ...
“I never expected that one of these days I would lose her so quickly like this. I cannot bear to be here without her. If she is dead I am not staying in this house. Her stamp is everywhere. It feels so cold and empty without her.
'I will find somewhere else . . . far away from anything near the Middle East, Arab or Muslim.'"

"US accuses Briton of being suicide bomber" (Dipesh Gadher and Joe Lauria, The Times, 2004/11/21)
"Tony Blair is facing new controversy over his efforts to secure the release of the Britons held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after America accused one of the detainees of being an Al-Qaeda terrorist who volunteered for a suicide mission.
American court papers revealed for the first time this weekend say that Feroz Abbasi, a college dropout, had received advanced military training at terror camps in Afghanistan and was present on at least two occasions when Osama Bin Laden visited.
Abbasi, 24, from Croydon, south London, is alleged to have met other senior Al-Qaeda figures and fought with a crack unit of Islamic terrorists during the Afghan conflict with America and its allies. The revelations — the most detailed account to date of the US case against any of the four Britons at Guantanamo Bay — are likely to leave Blair with a diplomatic dilemma.
Less than a fortnight ago the prime minister raised the plight of the Britons with George W Bush during a trip to Washington."

"The best, brightest, wealthiest flee Iraq" (Liz Sly, Chicago Tribune, 2004/11/21)
"In recent months, tens of thousands of Iraqis have made similar decisions, some spurred by the hazards of daily life in Iraq, some by their personal experiences of kidnapping or armed robbery, and others simply because they see no future in a country that seems to grow more violent with each passing day.
Many of those who are leaving are taking with them the skills, the capital and the expertise that Iraq will need whenever the country becomes stable enough to start the still-stalled process of reconstruction.
"All the rich people, the professionals, the educated people are leaving because they don't want to be kidnapped or robbed," said Wael Aljaabari, an Amman real estate agent who says relocating Iraqis now account for 70 percent of his business. ...
There are no official figures on how many Iraqis have left the country recently or how many are arriving in Jordan. But anecdotal evidence suggests the numbers are significant, said Radwan Abdullah, an analyst in Jordan who has researched the issue.
"I believe there are hundreds of thousands of them, and the indications are that they are coming to stay," he said."

"Falluja: last words of the living dead" (Hala Jaber, The Times, 2004/11/21)
Um Fatima describes how she and her daughters flee Falluja after the death of her husband:
"Helped by Ahmad, she and the girls — Fatima, 22, Hala, 18, Sarah, 15, and Hajer, 13 — reached the edge of the city and walked into the desert. Their problems were not over.
A passing American patrol left them alone, but the women then encountered a group of Iraqi national guards. ...
But he grabbed the young woman’s hand and began to force a kiss on her, she said. The distraught mother hit him and tried to push him off as her other daughters began to cry.
“There was not a soul in sight — a barren desert,” she said. But suddenly two American soldiers appeared, perhaps from a passing patrol. One of them kicked the Iraqi, hit him and began to yell at him.
Fatima, a chemistry student who speaks English, said the American was shouting: “If you were really here to liberate this city you would not treat the women this way. This is what people here believe how we behave and what they expect us Americans to do, but they do not expect this of you Iraqis.”
Fatima added: 'At that instant the evil forces that had killed my father became my angel and saviour. The American saved me and the Iraqi assaulted me.'"

"In Falluja, Young Marines Saw the Savagery of an Urban War" (Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2004/11/21)
"Eight days after the Americans entered the city on foot, a pair of marines wound their way up the darkened innards of a minaret, shot through with holes by an American tank.
As the marines inched their way along, a burst of gunfire rang down, fired by an insurgent hiding in the top of the tower. The bullets hit the first marine in the face, his blood spattering the marine behind him. Lance Cpl. William Miller, age 22, lay in silence half way up, mortally wounded.
"Miller!" the marines called from below. "Miller!"
With that, the marines' near mystical commandment against leaving a comrade behind seized the group. One after another, the young marines dashed into the minaret, into darkness and into gunfire, and wound their way up the stairs.
After four attempts, Corporal Miller's lifeless body emerged from the tower, his comrades choking and covered with dust, dodging volleys of machine-gun fire as they carried him back to their base. "I was trying to be careful, but I was trying to get him out, you know what I'm saying?" Lance Cpl. Michael Gogin, 19, said afterward.
So went eight days of combat for this Iraqi city, the most sustained period of street-to-street fighting that Americans have encountered since the Vietnam War. The proximity gave the fighting a hellish intensity, with soldiers often close enough to look their enemies in the eyes." (See also: "Into the Hot Zone" (Michael Ware, TIME, from the 2004/11/22 issue))

Added in archive:
"How Enlightenment Dies" (Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 2004/11/12)

Saturday, November 20, 2004

News and commentary:

"I mean, what else can you do?" (Harry's Place, 2004/11/20)
Theo van Gogh LXII. What's wrong with the left?:
"Socialist Worker on the Van Gogh murder:

Part of the reason for these killings is that the perpetrators feel there is no viable alternative in this racist climate.
It is no surprise that some individuals are pulled towards desperate acts."

(See also: "Islamophobic backlash follows murder" (Maina van der Zwan, Socialist Worker, 2004/11/20))

"Immigration secretary to Dutch imams: Learn Dutch" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/20)
Theo van Gogh LXI: "Mrs. Rita Verdonk, the Dutch immigration secretary, had a meeting today with several imams. The encounter produced some intriguing moments. For instance, one of the imams didn't want to shake her hand, citing religious taboo as the reason. You can view a small picture here. But the most interesting part of the encounter was when Mrs. Verdonk told all imams she hoped next year she would be able to speak Dutch with them. Today, Mrs. Verdonk had to use a translator to converse with several of the imams. Commercial broadcaster RTL Nieuws just showed two imams fully agreeing with Mrs. Verdonk. Both of them of course spoke Dutch already."

"Rebels Attack Baghdad Police, Troops" (Alastair Macdonald, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/20)
"Guerrillas stormed a Baghdad police station and ambushed an American patrol, killing a soldier and wounding nine, in daylight attacks in the capital on Saturday, defying efforts to crush a Sunni Muslim revolt.
Hours after a U.S. general acknowledged that it was hasty to claim this month's offensive on Falluja had broken the back of the insurgency, rebels killed three policemen in a dawn strike on their station in Baghdad's Sunni Aadhamiya district. ...
But the capital witnessed one of its most unsettled days for a while, as U.S. tanks and helicopters helped beat off the rocket-firing rebels during a three-hour battle in Aadhamiya.
The U.S. soldier was killed and nine wounded when a patrol was caught in an ambush in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
In the city's western Amriya district, gunmen in cars opened fire on a National Guard unit. A Guard at the scene said seven of the assailants were killed and seven passers-by wounded.
In the center, a car exploded killing two and, close to the airport, U.S. forces traded fire with gunmen, witnesses said."

"Interview: Paul Wolfowitz" (Radek Sikorski, Prospect, from the December 2004 issue)
Radek Sikorski, Polands former deputy minister of defence and deputy minister of foreign affairs, interviews the U.S. deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz:
"RS Britain, Italy, Poland and Ukraine supported you in Iraq with troops, but their publics are sceptical.
PW Some of the hostility among European publics comes from basic, deep-seated factual misrepresentations. Left-wing academics say that this is a war for oil or for Halliburton or other absurdities. Political leaders could take on some of this falsehood and demagoguery. If the US president talked as regularly and as critically about Europe as some European leaders talk about the US, there would probably be a lot more anti-European feeling in this country than there is. And I am surprised that given the American sacrifice in Europe, 50, 60 years ago, more Europeans don't think that the Iraqi people or the Afghan people are entitled to a similar consideration. It's astonishing to hear liberals and socialists, whether in Europe or here, effectively saying that Saddam's fascist, genocidal dictatorship should have been left alone."

"The Crisis of Legitimacy: America and the World" (Robert Kagan, The Centre for Independent Studies, November 2004)
"But is the Security Council really the ultimate depositary of international legitimacy, as Europeans insist today? International life would be simpler if it were. But it is not. Ever since the UN's creation almost six decades ago, the Security Council has failed to function as the UN's more idealistic founders intended. And it has never been accepted as the sole source of international legitimacy, not even by Europeans. Europe's recent demand that the United States seek UN authorization for the Iraq war, and presumably for all future wars, was a novel — even revolutionary — proposition. ...
When the United States invaded Iraq, the Europeans set a new, high, but shaky standard for international legitimacy. "The authority of our action," de Villepin declared in his famous speech to the Security Council in February 2003, had to be based "on the unity of the international community." But what does that mean? Can no action be legitimate without the unanimous consent of the entire international community? ...
From the perspective of Berlin and Paris, the United States was unilateralist because no European power had any real influence over it. From this perspective, even with a hundred nations and three-quarters of Europe on its side, the United States might still have lacked legitimacy. Today's debate over multilateralism and legitimacy is thus not only about principles of law, or even about the supreme authority of the UN; it is also about a transatlantic struggle for influence. It is Europe's response to the unipolar predicament."

"G7, Paris Club Agree on Iraq Debt Relief" (Guido Bohsem and Paul Carrel, Reuters, 2004/11/20)
"The United States, Germany and other G7 nations agreed on Saturday to write off up to 80 percent or $33 billion of Iraq's Paris Club debt, which could pave the way for a wider international accord, officials said.
A source at the 19 nation Paris Club of creditors said the deal was likely to be finalized on Sunday, adding: "There is an agreement between the main creditors on (cancelling) 80 percent of the debt."
The breakthrough came in talks between German Finance Minister Hans Eichel and U.S Treasury Secretary John Snow on the margins of a meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G20 group of rich and developing nations."

"Death threats force controversial Dutch MP underground" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2004/11/20)
Theo van Gogh LX: "Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP and controversial critic of Islam, has two policemen by his side even when in his high-security parliamentary office in case someone tries to decapitate him. Each day, he does not know where he is going to sleep that night, as he is taken from safe house to safe house in a convoy of armoured cars.
He was taken into hiding when police investigating the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh on November 2 uncovered a network of radical Muslims with advanced plans to kill Mr Wilders, and other “enemies of Islam”. A video circulating on the internet offered 72 virgins in paradise to any Muslim who beheaded him.
“My life has changed completely. I am sleeping very badly. To think that someone plans to kill me is something that no person would have a good night’s rest about,” he said. “Even though I have this protection, I am afraid. Even when I am on the floor of the parliament, I don’t feel comfortable.” ...
Two critics of Islam have been murdered in the Netherlands, and Mr Wilders is one of three Dutch MPs under permanent police protection after half a dozen were issued with death threats. It is a huge change for the tolerant, consensual country that until recently boasted that its prime minister could cycle down the street in public."

"Israeli Army to Probe Reports of Corpse Abuse" (Molly Moore, The Washington Post, 2004/11/20)
"Israel's top general announced Friday that the military would investigate allegations that soldiers abused the bodies of Palestinians killed during army operations, including a case in which soldiers posed for pictures with the severed head of a suicide bomber. ...
Photographs published in Friday's editions of the Hebrew daily newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, depicted three incidents: a soldier posing next to a bomber's blackened head with a cigarette dangling from its mouth, a soldier with his boot on the chest of a dead Palestinian and his gun pointed at the corpse's head and a dead Palestinian's body draped over the hood of a jeep. ...
The incident involving the suicide bomber occurred 2 1/2 years ago when a 19-year-old Palestinian blew himself up near an Israeli military road block in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, according to soldiers interviewed by the newspaper.
One soldier said that no soldiers were injured in the explosion and that afterward, they collected the attacker's body parts. The soldier said that one of his officers helped assemble them, stuck the head on a metal pole and 'turned him into a scarecrow.'"

"G.I.'s and Iraqis Raid Mosque, Killing 3" (James Glanz and Richard A. Oppel Jr., The New York Times, 2004/11/20)
"American and Iraqi troops raided a prominent Sunni mosque in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least three Iraqis in an operation that may have been aimed at a cleric said to have incited insurgent violence.
In Mosul, in the north, Iraqi commanders staged numerous raids in search of rebel hideouts as up to a dozen decapitated bodies were found strewn about the city.
At the mosque, called Abu Hanifa, blood was splattered on the floor after what witnesses described as a chaotic raid in which Iraqi soldiers opened fire after becoming involved in a melee with enraged worshipers.
American military officials either did not respond to requests for comment on the incident or said they had no information on it. But on Thursday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said imams who incited violence would be arrested.
At the time of the raid, said Louay Ibrahim, an Iraqi police officer who was praying there, the imam at the mosque was giving a sermon that urged his audience to make Mosul and other Iraqi cities into embattled places 'like Falluja.'"

Friday, November 19, 2004

News and commentary:

"Email from Dave - Nov 19, 04" (Dave, The Green Side, 2004/11/19)
A Marine describes the battle in Falluja: "The first is a Marine from 3/5. His name is Corporal Yeager (Chuck Yeager's grandson). As the Marines cleared an apartment building, they got to the top floor and the point man kicked in the door. As he did so, an enemy grenade and a burst of gunfire came out. The explosion and enemy fire took off the point man's leg. He was then immediately shot in the arm as he lay in the doorway. Corporal Yeager tossed a grenade in the room and ran into the doorway and into the enemy fire in order to pull his buddy back to cover. As he was dragging the wounded Marine to cover, his own grenade came back through the doorway. Without pausing, he reached down and threw the grenade back through the door while he heaved his buddy to safety. The grenade went off inside the room and Cpl Yeager threw another in. He immediately entered the room following the second explosion. He gunned down three enemy all within three feet of where he stood and then let fly a third grenade as he backed out of the room to complete the evacuation of the wounded Marine. You have to understand that a grenade goes off within 5 seconds of having the pin pulled. Marines usually let them "cook off" for a second or two before tossing them in. Therefore, this entire episode took place in less than 30 seconds." (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.)

"Hezbollah-linked TV station allowed to broadcast in EU" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/19)
European values II: "The French public broadcasting regulator authorized an Arabic-language television station close to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group to transmit programs within the European Union.
The Al-Manar station, well known within the Arabic world, had committed itself in an agreement "not to incite hatred, violence or discrimination based on race, sex, religion or nationality," said the French Audiovisual Council. ...
The CSA applied to have Al-Manar transmissions to France suspended because it broadcast a programme a year ago which included particularly vicious anti-Semitic themes, such as the Middle Ages blood libel myth of alleged Jewish ritual killing of children." (See also: "Hezbollah TV" (Shawn Macomber, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/05/07), "Al-Shatat: The Syrian-Produced Ramadan 2003 TV Special" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 627, 2003/12/12) and "In the Party of God" (Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker, from the 2002/10/14 and 21 issues): "[Mansour] said he was thinking of calling [the video] "We Will Kill All the Jews." I suggested that these videos would encourage the recruitment of suicide bombers among the Palestinians. "Exactly," he replied.")

"EU Imploring Immigrants to Learn 'Values'" (Constant Brand, AP/The Guardian, 2004/11/19)
European values I: "European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Friday that new immigrants to the 25-nation bloc should be required to learn local languages, and to adhere to general "European values'' that will guide them toward better integration.
Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk, who chaired the meeting, said all countries agreed to make integrating newcomers a priority, considering the growing ethnic tensions as EU nations struggle to absorb a steady stream of poor, mostly Muslim immigrants.
Just this month in the Netherlands, the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Muslim radical unleashed a wave of attacks against mosques, churches and religious schools in a country once famed for its tolerance.
Tensions also rose in Belgium, where authorities arrested a suspect Friday accused of sending death threats to a senator of Moroccan heritage who criticized radical Muslims. ...
Highlighting a European-wide problem, Verdonk said that some 500,000 Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands don't speak Dutch."

"AP Interview: Popular Dutch lawmaker urges halt to non-Western immigrants, shutting down radical mosques" (Anthony Deutsch, AP/SFGate.com, 2004/11/19)
Theo van Gogh LIX: "One of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands said Friday the country's democracy is under threat and called for a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Muslim radical. ...
In his first interview with the foreign media since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, [right-wing lawmaker Geert] Wilders said his own life has been repeatedly threatened. He said he has begun living under state protection and has even had to stay away from his own home. ...
The latest video threat broadcast on the Internet — in Dutch, with Arabic music in the background — condemns Wilders for insulting Islam and offers the reward of paradise for his beheading. ...
He cited a report by Dutch intelligence saying recruitment for jihad, or holy war, is taking place in as many as 20 mosques in the Netherlands, and said they should be closed and their imams, or preachers, arrested and deported.
"If we don't do anything ... we will lose the country that we have known for centuries. People don't want the Netherlands to be lost, and this is something that I get angry about and I am going to fight for, to keep the country Dutch," he said."

"I think this name fits..." (John Masterson, The People's Republic of Seabrook, 2004/11/19)
Masterson comments on a post which dubs the red states "Dumbfuckistan":
"As a left-winger, I have one fundamental principle that guides me in this life: people who disagree with me are inherently inferior, in every possible way. When I'm not damning The Bell Curve, I insist that my IQ is higher than those I disagree with.
We have to convince everyone that good left-wingers are the elite, and that's that. We're better than others. We're morally and intellectually superior, and there's no question about it. Anyone who would offer the slightest hesitancy to agree with me is just a fantatical, homophobic bigot. And I'm gonna keep on telling everyone until the whole world understands. And those who don't understand are unquestionably too stupid to understand." (Hat tip: Tim Blair.)

"Two Great Dissidents" (Joel C. Rosenberg, National Review, 2004/11/19)
Rosenberg on Natan Sharansky, his newly published book, "The Case for Democracy", and a meeting with President Bush:
"'I told the president, 'There is a great difference between politicians and dissidents. Politicians are focused on polls and the press. They are constantly making compromises. But dissidents focus on ideas. They have a message burning inside of them. They would stand up for their convictions no matter what the consequences.'
'I told the president, 'In spite of all the polls warning you that talking about spreading democracy in the Middle East might be a losing issue — despite all the critics and the resistance you faced — you kept talking about the importance of free societies and free elections. You kept explaining that democracy is for everybody. You kept saying that only democracy will truly pave the way to peace and security. You, Mr. President, are a dissident among the leaders of the free world.''"

"Innocence Abroad" (Eric R. Staal, Tech Central Station, 2004/11/19)
"Why are the United States and its twice-elected head of state so thoroughly reviled in Europe? ... Even in the weeks following 9/11, the United States did not enjoy the fabled goodwill many commentators claim existed. On the contrary, the German weekly Die Zeit, France' Le Monde and the UK's Guardian — to name a few — were littered with articles echoing the grievances of Osama Bin Laden about American support for Israel and hegemony in the Middle East. If Osama Bin Laden needed any help recruiting terrorists, the European media certainly provide plenty of free advertising.
What is more accurate therefore is that the political and media classes in Europe are reacting to the Republican electoral success with the same hysteria as liberals in the United States, i.e. with intentional distortions of U.S. conservatives as backwater fundamentalists led by a cabal of sinister Neocons. For the secular left, the Republican proposition of social values and free enterprise coupled with a strong stance against terrorism is too threatening. ...
Overcoming decades of anti-American propaganda and failed U.S. public diplomacy in Europe will not succeed overnight. Without a strategy for attacking the roots of European anti-Americanism, however, it is only a matter of time before the new Secretary of State and U.S. foreign policy run into more European roadblocks."

"Iraq in the Cold Light of Day: A Post-Election Refresher" (Fred Siegel, The New York Observer, from the 2004/11/22 issue)
A review of four books, including George Friedman's "America’s Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies":
"As a military matter, Iraq is "the single most strategically located country in the Middle East." It borders not only Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, but also Syria, a junior partner in "the Axis of Evil," as well as Iran and Turkey. "The U.S.," writes Mr. Friedman, "was not driven by bloodlust or some cowboy mentality," but by a desire to make it clear that in the only calculus in the Arab world that counted, it was to be feared more than Al Qaeda. ...
The U.S., notes Mr. Friedman, "moved from being hated and held in contempt to being hated and feared — a substantial improvement in terms of getting nations to act in accordance with U.S. wishes." ...
Going into Iraq, Mr. Friedman argues, wasn’t a good idea; it was just the best available option. While he supports the broad strategic concept behind the war in Iraq, he’s scathing when it comes to its execution. He singles out Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for particular criticism. Mr. Rumsfeld, who kept on talking dismissively about the Iraqi opposition as "dead-enders," was very slow to see that Saddam Hussein had been planning for a guerrilla war from the start. Meanwhile, the administration — having placed all its rhetorical eggs in the W.M.D. basket — was left verbally defenseless when they weren’t found. Still, Mr. Friedman concludes that trends in Iraq favor the U.S., even if, 'because of the political failures of the Bush administration, [most Americans] seem unaware of it.'"

"The Real Humanists" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/11/19)
"We are living in historic times, as all the landmarks of the past half-century are in the midst of passing away. The old left-wing critique is in shambles — as the United States is proving to be the most radical engine for world democratic change and liberalization of the age. A reactionary Old Europe, in concert with the ossified American leftist elite, unleashed everything within its ample cultural arsenal: novels, plays, and op-ed columns calling for the assassination of President Bush; propaganda documentaries reminiscent of the oeuvre of Pravda or Leni Riefenstahl; and transparent bias passed off as front-page news and lead-ins on the evening network news. ...
Those on the left who are ignorant of history lectured the Bush administration that democracy has never come as a result of the threat of conflict or outright war — apparently the creation of a democratic United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Israel, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Serbia, and Afghanistan was proof of the power of mere talk. In contrast, the old realist Right warned that strongmen are our best bet to ensure stability — as if Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been loyal allies with content and stable pro-American citizenries. In truth, George Bush's radical efforts to cleanse the world of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, bring democracy to the heart of the Arab world, and isolate Yasser Arafat were the most risky and humane developments in the Middle East in a century — old-fashioned idealism backed with force in a postmodern age of abject cynicism and nihilism."

"H-hour has arrived" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/19)
"The agreement that France, Germany and Britain reached with Iran this week signals that the diplomatic option of dealing with Iran's nuclear weapons program no longer exists. ...
For their part, the European powers must know that this deal is a lie. The ink had not dried on their signatures when Iran announced that it wasn't obligated by the agreement to end its uranium enrichment. ...
Aside from this, European leaders themselves have said that in their view there is no military option for taking out Iran's nuclear facilities. In an interview with the BBC this week, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, "I don't see any circumstances in which military action would be justified against Iran, full stop." ...
Straw's statement is breathtaking in that it shows that on the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons, the British prefer to see Iran gain nuclear weapons to having anyone act to prevent them from doing so. ...
So where does this leave the Jews who, in the event that Iran goes nuclear, will face the threat of annihilation? Crunch time has arrived. It is time for Israel's leaders to go to Washington and ask the Americans point blank if they plan to defend Europe as Europe defends Iran's ability to attain the wherewithal to destroy the Jewish state. It must be made very clear to the White House that the hour of diplomacy faded away with the European Trio's latest ridiculous agreement with the mullahs. There is no UN option. Europe has cast its lot with the enemy of civilization itself." (See also: "Iran agrees to nuclear curb" (BBC News, 2004/11/14))

"Al-Jazeera journalist arrested for 'Al-Qaeda links'" (Expatica, 2004/11/19)
"Al-Jazeera television has reported the re-arrest in Spain of its star reporter, Tayssir Alluni, who was charged there last year with membership in the Al-Qaeda terror network.
"I was surprised that they arrested him again," Alluni's wife, Fatima, told the Qatar-based channel. She accused top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon of making the case "a personal affair" and demanded her husband's release "because there is no new evidence" against him.
Alluni, a Spaniard of Syrian origin, was first arrested on 5 September 2003 at his family home in the southern city of Grenada." (See also: "Spain arrests Al-Jazeera reporter" (Al Goodman, CNN.com, 2003/09/05))

"UN staff ready historic no-confidence vote in Annan" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/19)
"UN employees are expected to issue an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan, union sources say, after he pardoned the body's top oversight official over a series of allegations.
The UN staff union, in what officials said was the first vote of its kind in the more than 50-year history of the United Nations, was set to approve a resolution withdrawing support for the embattled Annan and senior UN management.
Annan has been in the line of fire over a high-profile series of scandals including controversy about a UN aid programme that investigators say allowed deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars.
Staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Annan had pardoned the UN's top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and sexual harassment."

"Diplomats: Iran Is Readying Nuke Processes" (George Jahn, AP/My Way, 2004/11/19)
"Iran is using the last few days before it must stop all uranium enrichment to produce significant quantities of a gas that can be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday.
Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride at its gas processing facilities in Isfahan, the diplomats told The Associated Press. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.
Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities in a deal worked out with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. The deal, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities.
But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tehran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its Isfahan plant in central Iran.
Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate."

"Belgian MP goes into hiding after criticising Muslims" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2004/11/19)
Belgium IV: "The threats to Ms Bousakla, thought to be from Islamic radicals, are also likely to inflame tensions in Antwerp, the power base of the far-right anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok party, which attracts a quarter of the vote in the multicultural city. ...
It is thought that the threats were prompted by her denunciation of Belgian Muslim groups for refusing to criticise the murder of Mr van Gogh. Last week, Ms Bousakla, 32, criticised the Muslim Executive, the official umbrella organisation for Muslims in Belgium, for not condemning the killing.
“The Muslim Executive should have protested in connection with Theo van Gogh’s murder and called on the Muslims in Belgium to criticise the attack on a massive scale. However, it did nothing, and so better disappear,” she said. ...
Many Muslims groups have been hesitant to condemn the murder because Mr van Gogh, a TV celebrity in the Netherlands, was abusive about Muslim extremists and said that it was inevitable that someone would be provoked."

"Jew killed: Violence spreads in Europe" (Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times/The Union Leader, 2004/11/19)
Belgium III: "Federal police were pursuing a separate investigation Thursday into death threats against the four political leaders including Sen. Mimount Bousakla, who represents Antwerp. At least three of the four have been involved in law enforcement, local politics or activism against fundamentalist Islam.
Bousakla, a Socialist senator, went into seclusion under police guard after a caller threatened her with "ritual killing" this weekend, according to her assistant. ...
Bousakla, a daughter of Moroccan immigrants and vocal opponent of abuse of women in the Muslim community, recently had criticized Belgium's Muslim leaders for failing to denounce the slaying of the outspoken van Gogh, whose assassin shot him, stabbed him and slashed his throat in ritualistic fashion on Nov. 2. ...
Bousakla had predicted publicly that the turmoil could spread across the border to Belgium."

"Jailed in Israel, Palestinian Symbol Eyes Top Post" (James Bennet, The New York Times, 2004/11/19)
The most popular and sophisticated murderer in would be Palestine: "Of all the men who would be leaders of the nation that would be Palestine, he is the most popular, his personal story the most compelling, his command of Hebrew and understanding of Israelis the most sophisticated.
Yet for Marwan Barghouti, the odds of succeeding Yasir Arafat appear, for now, to be the longest. Mr. Arafat was accused by Israel of terrorism and kept a virtual prisoner in his compound here. Mr. Barghouti was convicted by Israel of terrorism and is an actual prisoner in an Israeli jail, where he is serving five life terms plus 40 years.
Still, from prison, Mr. Barghouti, a sharp, charismatic man of 45, is weighing a run for one of the jobs vacated at Mr. Arafat's death, the presidency of the governing Palestinian Authority."

Thursday, November 18, 2004

News and commentary:

"Palestinian 'Art' Exhibit" (HonestReporting, 2004/11/18)
"A New York public facility hosts a fundraiser for an art exhibit that vilifies Israelis and extols suicide bombers.
This Saturday (Nov. 20), a fundraiser will be held at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York, raising money to bring a Palestinian art exhibit to the New York metro area. Here's one of the paintings from the proposed exhibit (previously shown in Houston, TX), portraying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon collecting and boiling a young Palestinian's blood:

"USA"
(Adnan Yahya, 1998)

The painting rehashes the historic anti-Semitic blood libel, with Sharon as sadistic torturer and the United States his accomplice.
Suicide bombers are also praised in the 'art' exhibit — the official introduction explains that

[t]o several of the artists, the subject of the martyrs is an all-important topic. A true martyr is anyone who gives his life in service of his people, including... suicide bombers that attack Israeli civilians."

"'Take that article down. In Index it's disgraceful'" (Frank Fisher, Index on Censorship, 2004/11/18)
Theo van Gogh LVIII: "Theo Van Gogh's body wasn't yet cold before Index on Censorship marked him down as 'furiously provocative', a 'free speech martyr' who 'abused his right to free speech'. Van Gogh's most recent transgression was Submission, a collaboration with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. ...
Like The Satanic Verses, the anger surrounding Submission is against it; the film itself isn't violent or threatening. Of course, criticism of Islam is implicit, and criticism of the men who use or misrepresent that religion to abuse women. (Does Index really think we shouldn't speak of such things?) ...
Index's article is a far more incendiary piece of work. It has named targets. It comes in the wake of bloody murder. It doesn't have any artistic merit, (the claim of ‘irony' is laughable; is the use of the terms ‘idiot', ‘cretinous' or ‘bullshit' ironic perhaps?), it's a pure hatchet job. Van Gogh was already dead by the time it hit the web - but his colleagues are not. ...
What on earth has gone wrong at Index? A publication that once vociferously defended Salman Rushdie now parrots the same sentiments you hear from Muslims and so-called liberals on every talkboard: “I don't condone his murder, but he asked for it…” ...
Please take that article down. If Rohan wants to applaud a murder and support religious censorship, then let him find a more appropriate place to do it. In Index, it's disgraceful." (See also: "Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11))

"A Glaring Double Standard" (Jane Novak, Armies of Liberation, 2004/11/18)
"What a glaring double standard. The Arab world is enraged over the shooting of a wounded, unarmed Iraqi insurgent by a uniformed US soldier. ...
Bombing children, defiling mosques, kidnapping civilians, executing poor workers and cleaning women point blank: these are not discussed, broadcast with frequency, or the source of much anger. Videos where a masked man shakes a bloody head while the curtains flutter do not evoke such fury. Why? The identity of the victim or the perpetrator?
All tactics of the insurgents are excused. Hide among civilians. Justified. Wear civilian clothes. Justified. Shoot from the holy mosque. Justified. Feign death to draw soldiers in (the way one marine died the day before the incident). Justified. Wave a white flag as a ploy. Justified. Booby trap dead bodies. Justified. That’s just Fallujah.
Moving outward - Deliberately killing Iraqi civilians daily. Justified. Bombing churches. Justified. Bombing cafes. Justified. Using schools as arsenals. Justified. Attacking the police. Just fine.
The rules of war don’t apply to the insurgents, only the Americans. And if one horrible act occurs at the hands of one American soldier, the world howls." (See also: "Semper Fi. The story of Fallujah isn't on that NBC videotape" (The Wall Street Journal, 2004/11/18) and "NBC Says Marine Shot Dead Wounded Iraqi Prisoner" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/15))

"Liberal Racism: A Little Perspective" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/11/18)
"Both before and after her elevation to secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice has been the target of a series of racist caricatures by liberal cartoonists. Rush Limbaugh points out three: a Doonesbury strip by Garry Trudeau that refers to her as "Brown Sugar," a Jeff Danziger cartoon that portrays her as Prissy from "Gone With the Wind" (also the topic of a Wall Street Journal editorial last month) and, most recently, a Tuesday political cartoon from Pat Oliphant that depicts the secretary-designate as a parrot with enormous lips. ...
Limbaugh is incensed by these displays of bigotry and hypocrisy (emphasis his):

It is grotesque. It is insulting. It is vile. It is angry. It is childish, and it is typical I think of what the left has become. They claim to be holy [sic] than thou. They claim to be above all of us when it comes to understanding the downtrodden and minorities. They claim to be the only ones that have the ability to have the compassion and understanding, and yet they get away with racism. They get away with bigotry. They get away with sexism, and they get away with homophobia — and in the case of Condoleezza Rice, they get away with an attempted character destruction of a truly brilliant and accomplished woman who came from nothing to become the first black female secretary of state."

(See also: "Disgusting, Racist Treatment of Dr. Rice" (Rush Limbaugh, rushlimbaugh.com, 2004/11/17) and "The Left and Black Authenticity" (Winfield Myers, Democracy Project, 2004/11/17))

"Speak your mind, lose your life" (Anthony Brown, The Spectator, from the 2004/11/20 issue)
Theo van Gogh LVII: "True to his polemicist style, van Gogh said lots of objectionable things about Muslims, such as calling extremists ‘goatfuckers’. But that doesn’t excuse the Guardian pigeonholing him as a ‘loudmouth racist’ as a way of avoiding thinking about the complexities of the issue. He was a lifelong socialist, from a leading left-wing family. A journalist friend of his told me at his funeral: ‘He was left-wing, but he had his eyes open. He started seeing these dark developments in society, and surprised himself by having right-wing thoughts.’ ...
What angered them all — van Gogh, Hirsi Ali and Fortuyn — is the way the intolerant left-wing hegemony of political correctness was strangling free speech and democracy — not just causing the problems in the first place, but trying to destroy those who discuss them. ...
In a sickening essay, Rohan Jayasekera, the associate director of Index on Censorship, a group which supposedly defends freedom of speech, blamed van Gogh for his own murder. He wrote that the film-maker was guilty of ‘an abuse of his right to free speech’, his ritual slaughter was ‘his very own martyrdom operation’ and we should ‘applaud Theo van Gogh’s death as the marvellous piece of theatre it was’.
Unable to make the moral distinction between offending someone and murdering them, Index on Censorship has forsaken liberal democracy in the clash of values that faces us; but it is not alone." (See also: "Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11))

"The fear myth" (The Economist, 2004/11/18)
"In the past fortnight, the Democrats have come up with lots of comfort-food explanations of George Bush's victory—from the idea that the rascal stole the election for a second time (there were a mere 3.3m votes in it, after all) to the notion that he rode into Washington, DC, at the head of an army of hooded fundamentalists. But perhaps the most dangerous of all these myths is the idea that Mr Bush terrified the voters into re-electing him. He divided the country along “fault lines of fear”, according to Maureen Dowd in the New York Times; he relied on “fear of and hatred for modernity”, added Garry Wills, polymath and devout Catholic. ...
The election certainly took place against a background of fear (Islamic fanatics are, after all, bent on killing as many Americans as they can). And the Republicans certainly played the fear card with gusto (as indeed did the Democrats: remember all the talk about reintroducing conscription). But if they are going to extract any useful lessons from their humiliation, the Democrats need to realise that the Republicans didn't just beat them on fear. They clobbered them on hope."

"Bin Laden Said Unable to Run Operations" (Robert Burns, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/18)
"Pakistan's military has been so effective in pressuring al-Qaida leaders hiding in the tribal region of western Pakistan that Osama bin Laden and his top deputies no longer are able to direct terrorist operations, a senior American commander said Thursday.
"They are living in the remotest areas of the world without any communications — other than courier — with the outside world or their people and unable to orchestrate or provide command and control over a terrorist network," said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of Central Command.
"They are basically on the run and unable to really conduct operations except, in the very long term, provide vision and guidance as Osama bin Laden does when he provides one of those tapes," he added, alluding to a bin Laden video tape released three weeks ago."

"Troops say al-Zarqawi headquarters found" (AP/MSNBC, 2004/11/18)
"U.S. troops sweeping through Fallujah on Thursday said they believe they have found the main headquarters of the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
In video footage shot by an embedded CNN, soldiers walked through one imposing building with concrete columns with a large sign in Arabic on the wall reading "Al Qaida Organization" and "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger." ...
Some papers had a picture of Saddam Hussein on it, while in another room, soldiers found a ski mask. Several bags of sodium nitrate, which can be used in making explosives, were also found on the premises.
Soldiers also found several dead bodies on the premises, and a giant crater was seen outside of the severely damaged building. The Washington Post reported at least nine bodies were found, all of which were clad in military fatigues."

"Death threats against Belgian justice minister" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/18)
Belgium II: "Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx said Thursday she and other politicians had received death threats, a day after a senator who criticized fundamentalist Muslims was forced into hiding.
"My name is in this letter," Onkelinx told reporters. News reports said two other lawmakers were named in the same threatening letter. ...
Senator Mimount Bousakla, 32, whose parents emigrated to Belgium from Morocco, went into hiding early this week after contacting police about receiving threatening telephone calls.
VRT said a fifth legislator, liberal Corinne De Permentier had also received a threatening letter posted from Spain that complained about her criticism of the all-encompassing burka robes that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan made compulsory for women there.
Bousakla last week criticized the official umbrella organization for Muslims in Belgium — the Muslim Executive — for not organizing protests against the killing of Van Gogh.
Over the weekend, an unknown caller threatened "to ritually slaughter her," said an official from her Socialist party."

"Orthodox Jew murdered in Antwerp" (Ronit Sela, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/18)
Belgium I: "Moshe Yitzhak Na'eh, who was shot in the head overnight Wednesday in Antwerp in what seems to be an anti-Semitic attack, died of his wounds late Thursday afternoon, Belgium's Prosecutors office announced.
Prosecutor's spokeswoman Dominique Reniers said, "We do not exclude any motive, but so far there are no indications that the motive was racist or extremist," she said. ...
Na'eh, 24, an ultra-Orthodox Jew and a father of three — the oldest five years old, the youngest an 18-months-old baby — was shot at about 2:20 a.m. on Lange Kievitstraat, near a Muslim neighborhood in Antwerp, Belgium, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities. ...
The rebbe's house is located near a bridge separating the Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods of Antwerp. Na'eh was walking along the bridge on his way home when he was shot in the head from close range."

"French insurgents killed in Iraq" (BBC News, 2004/11/18)
"Three Frenchmen have died fighting with insurgents against US-led troops in Iraq, reports say.
The men, all of Arab origin, were killed in the country over recent months as the insurgency has flared.
Two of the men were aged 19 and the third was 24 years old, a French official said.
Authorities estimate that around a dozen Frenchmen of North African or Arab background have travelled to Iraq to join the insurgency."

"Australian leader says body found in Fallujah likely that of kidnapped aid worker" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/18)
"Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday a body found in the strife-torn Iraqi city of Fallujah likely was that of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan.
"The body found in Fallujah appears to have been Margaret's and the video of the execution of a Western woman appears on all the available information to have been genuine," Howard told Parliament.
Howard did not say which body he was referring to but on Sunday, Marines found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman on a street in Fallujah during the U.S. assault on the insurgent stronghold." (See also: "Video May Show CARE Director Being Killed" (Robert H. Reid, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/16) and "Marines Find Woman's Body in Fallujah" (Edward Harris, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/14))

"Law and Disorder" (Martin Peretz, The New Republic, 2004/11/18)
Peretz on Arafat: "By his mourners you shall know him. The North Koreans declared three days of official mourning. And Robert Mugabe attended the cortege in Cairo. Kofi Annan was "deeply moved" by Arafat's passing, certainly more deeply moved than he was by the plight of the Bosnians, the Tutsis, and the million-plus Sudanese, victims of his stubborn indifference. As Arafat's body was about to leave Paris, Jacques Chirac uttered words that were very French, straining for the portentous and ending with the slightly absurd: "I have come to bow before President Yasir Arafat and pay him a final homage." The post-Madrid bombing Socialist government of Spain expressed its "great sadness." Why can't the Europeans — including even the Chechen-traumatized Russians and the newly traumatized Dutch — call Arafat what he was: Osama bin Laden's ideological mentor and the mentor of virtually all the world's prominent terrorists? In my mind, it's rather simple: Arafat, from the 1972 Munich massacre through three decades of random murder of Israeli civilians, killed mostly Jews. And Jews are always guilty of something."

"The Road to Arab Democracy" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2004/11/18)
Taheri on President Bush's plan for the democratization of the Middle East and North Africa:
"This, of course, is a high-risk strategy: Democracy has powerful and well-entrenched enemies in the region. The Bush plan is opposed both by the ruling elites (who fear losing their often illegitimate privileges and powers) and a variety of oppositionists who use anti-Americanism as the key element of their political message. ...
In 1990s Algeria, for example, the Islamists fought ferociously to prevent presidential and parliamentary elections. The only acceptable elections to them were based on "one man, one vote, once." Their slogan was min al-sanduq il al-sanduq — "from the box to the box," meaning "from the ballot box to the coffin." They murdered thousands of candidates and voters, in most cases by slitting their throats. In one 1996 local election south of Algiers, a ballot box was filled with the severed parts of a candidate's corpse.
Today, the Islamists' fear of free elections is plain in both Iraq and the Palestinian territories. That same Algerian slogan is now scribbled on the walls of towns in the "Sunni Triangle." A statement issued by the self-styled Islamic Coalition of Iraq last Thursday put it plainly: 'It is the sacred duty of all true believers to prevent the holding of any elections by using whatever means necessary.'"

"Your Tax Dollars at Work" (Anne Bayefsky, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/11/18)
"The U.N. has a problem with anti-Semitism: It doesn't know what it is.
In order to figure it out, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Unesco invited a group of experts to Barcelona last week. Their mission: to provide the U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diéne, with advice on anti-Semitism as well as "Christianophobia and Islamophobia." ...
At the end of the meeting a draft report, prepared with the assistance of U.N. staffers, was shared with participants, who now have a few days to confirm the outcome. The report will become a U.N. document, and it will be disseminated around the world. ...
In other words, according to the U.N. experts' draft report, discrimination against individual Jews is bad, while "anti-Zionism" — the denial to the Jewish people of an equal right to self-determination — is not. ...
Simply put, Jews are responsible for anti-Semitism. Or, if it weren't for Israel's annoying insistence on defending itself, on the same terms as would be applied to any other state faced with five decades of wars and terrorism aimed at its obliteration, Jews would be better off."

"American blues" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2004/11/18)
"And, on the other side of the pond, through Europe. We don't have so many Christian fundamentalists any more. Compared with the American religious right, Rocco Buttiglione, the withdrawn Italian Catholic candidate for European commissioner, is a dangerous liberal. But we do have Islamic fundamentalists, in growing numbers. And, I would say, we have secular fundamentalists: people who believe that to live by the tenets of Islam, or other religions, is incompatible with what it is to be fully human, and want citizens to be educated and the state to legislate accordingly. While I have been in America, the possible consequences have been played out on the streets of prosperous, pacific, tolerant Holland, with the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, and the counter-attack on an Islamic school. If America has its culture wars, its Kulturkampf, so do we. And ours could be bloodier.
So the expressions of European solidarity after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks ( "Nous sommes tous Américains" ) should acquire a new meaning and a new context after the November 2 2004 elections. Hands need to be joined across the sea in an old cause: the defence of the Enlightenment. We are all blue Americans now."

"Semper Fi. The story of Fallujah isn't on that NBC videotape" (The Wall Street Journal, 2004/11/18)
Indeed: "Some 40 Marines have just lost their lives cleaning out one of the world's worst terror dens, in Fallujah, yet all the world wants to talk about is the NBC videotape of a Marine shooting a prostrate Iraqi inside a mosque. Have we lost all sense of moral proportion? ...
In a more grateful age, this would be hailed as one of the great battles in Marine history — with Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Hue City and the Chosin Reservoir. We'd know the names of these military units, and of many of the soldiers too. Instead, the name we know belongs to the NBC correspondent, Kevin Sites.
We suppose he was only doing his job, too. But that doesn't mean the rest of us have to indulge in the moral abdication that would equate deliberate televised beheadings of civilians with a Marine shooting a terrorist, who may or may not have been armed, amid the ferocity of battle." (See also: "NBC Says Marine Shot Dead Wounded Iraqi Prisoner" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/15))

"A New Low" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/18)
"Here's how the journalist, Robert Fisk, begins an article on the brutal murder of Margaret Hassan:

Who killed Margaret Hassan? After the grief, the astonishment, heartbreak, anger and fury over the apparent murder of such a good and saintly woman, that is the question that her friends — and, quite possibly, the Iraqi insurgents — will be asking. This Anglo-Irish lady held an Iraqi passport. She had lived in Iraq for 30 years, she had dedicated her life to the welfare of Iraqis in need. She hated the UN sanctions and opposed the Anglo-American invasion. So who killed Margaret Hassan?

Fisk goes on to imply and then weasels away from implying that the U.S. or Allawi were behind her murder. I really don't know what else to say." (See also: "What price innocence in the anarchy of Iraq?" (Robert Fisk, The Independent, 2004/11/17) and "Allawi Death Rampage Continues" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2004/11/18))

"Blasphemy law revival upsets the Dutch elite" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/11/18)
Theo van Gogh LVI. Where is Index on Censorship when you need them? Oh, that's right, they are busy accusing van Gogh of abusing free speech:
"A proposal to revive a blasphemy law to calm sectarian tensions in Holland has outraged artists, writers and the political elite.
The plan follows the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-Moroccan extremist in Amsterdam two weeks ago.
The killing was followed by bomb attacks on mosques and reprisal attacks on churches.
In response, the Dutch justice minister, Piet Hein Donner, has proposed enforcing a 1932 law banning "scornful blasphemy".
The minister told the Dutch parliament on Tuesday that the law was needed to curb "hateful comments", whether oral or written, that were destabilising the country.
"If the opinions have a potentially damaging effect on society, the government must act," he said. "It is not about religion specifically, but any harmful comments in general."
Mr Donner, a Christian-Democrat, said strict enforcement was needed to stop "explosive material" setting off yet more violence.
His announcement horrified Holland's free-thinking intelligentsia, mostly congregated in the university enclaves of Amsterdam, Delft, Utrecht and The Hague.
A group of writers and artists published a letter in the Volkskrant newspaper condemning the idea as an assault on free speech and asking whether they would be hauled before an inquisition for poking fun at religion." (See also: "A good time to clean up the law" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/14): "The correct response to Mr. Donner's ludicrous plan was offered today by immigration secretary Rita Verdonk. To paraphrase her words: the problem isn't the people that do the insulting, it's the people that feel insulted. Or, in the words of Mrs. Verdonk: 'I think the average Muslim has a lower level of tolerance than the average Dutch. And I can't imagine that my colleague Mr. Donner intends to take us all to that lower level of tolerance.' According to Mrs. Verdonk, we'd be rewarding intolerant Muslims for their intolerance.")

"Powell Says Iran Is Pursuing Bomb" (Robin Wright and Keith B. Richburg, The Washington Post, 2004/11/18)
"The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Wednesday.
Separately, an Iranian opposition exile group charged in Paris that Iran is enriching uranium at a secret military facility unknown to U.N. weapons inspectors. Iran has denied seeking to build nuclear weapons.
"I have seen some information that would suggest that they have been actively working on delivery systems. . . . You don't have a weapon until you put it in something that can deliver a weapon," Powell told reporters traveling with him to Chile for an Asia-Pacific economic summit. "I'm not talking about uranium or fissile material or the warhead; I'm talking about what one does with a warhead." ...
"There is no doubt in my mind -- and it's fairly straightforward from what we've been saying for years -- that they have been interested in a nuclear weapon that has utility, meaning that it is something they would be able to deliver, not just something that sits there," Powell said."

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

News and commentary:

"Swarms of locusts obscure the Giza pyramids..."
(Aladin Abdel Naby, Reuters, 2004/11/17)
"Swarms of locusts obscure the Giza pyramids near Cairo, November 17, 2004. The pink locusts that swept through Cairo recalled the plague of biblical Egypt, flying high above tall towers and scaring pedestrians who stamped on them or ran for cover."

"Probe: Oil funds paid for bombers" (Desmond Butler, AP/Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 2004/11/17)
Oil for Food Scandal III: "Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail.
The former Iraqi president tapped secret bank accounts in Jordan — where he collected bribes from foreign companies and individuals doing illicit business under the humanitarian program — to reward the families up to $25,000 each, investigators told The Associated Press.
Documents prepared for a hearing today by the House International Relations Committee outline the new findings about how Saddam funneled money to the Palestinian families."

"Iraqis Angry, Distraught at Aid Worker's Murder" (Mussab al-Khairalla, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/17)
"Iraqis reacted with anger and disbelief Wednesday to news that British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan, who worked in Iraq for decades before being kidnapped a month ago, had been killed by her captors. ....
One of the hospitals she regularly supported was a spinal cord clinic in Baghdad run by Qayder al-Chalabi, who said her loss was a huge blow to all Iraqis.
The killers "made a very big mistake. This was the wrong person," he told Reuters Wednesday.
"I cannot imagine that these things could happen to her because she was a very humanitarian person. She felt our suffering, she understood the suffering of the Iraqi people.
We need to admire and remember her. We must have a ceremony every year to remember her," he said, adding that he believed a statue should be erected in her honor.
Hassan was kidnapped Oct. 19 as she was being driven to work in Baghdad, where she was the director of the local operation of aid organization Care International.
A video released to Arabic news channel Al Jazeera showed a hooded figure shooting a blindfolded woman in the head." (See also: "Video May Show CARE Director Being Killed" (Robert H. Reid, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/16))

"Why the dogs didn't bark" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2004/11/17)
"In April, al-Jazeera won the First Battle of Fallujah with lurid anti-American lies. This time around, the Middle- Eastern media continued to mill propaganda, but the fury was missing as Fallujah fell.
What happened? ...
With their repeated slaughters of the innocent, their suicide bombing campaign against civilian and government targets, their assassinations of doctors, engineers and educators, and their un-Islamic practice of ceremonial human sacrifice (celebrated on videotape), the terrorists have begun to divide themselves from decent Muslims everywhere, as well as from Arab leaders who tacitly condoned their past activities.
The terrorists are losing the battle for hearts and minds, as well as the struggle for the future of Islam. That doesn't mean that the United States will suddenly be loved in the Middle East, only that terrorists will have ever more difficulty finding a refuge or new sources of support."

"Europe doesn't believe in democracy" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/11/17)
"The monstrous global crimes of the 20th century — the collective guilt which is still the motor force of European political consciousness — were all thought to have been generated (or at least condoned) by popular will.
The political instincts of the people are far too inflammable and mercurial to be trusted. Better leave the serious business of law-making and governance to a professional class of administrators, an enlightened elite who will not be subject to the whims and volatile passions of the mob whose vicissitudes have brought such disgrace on our countries. ...
It may sound apocalyptic, but I do believe that the democratic experiment in continental Europe, begun just over 200 years or so ago, is coming to a close.
The European Union is creating what it hopes will be a benign oligarchy. Real political power will reside once again within elite circles (as it does already in France) which will conduct their business in the corridors rather than in the assemblies.
Meanwhile, the United States will persevere with the belief, which Europe regards as crass, that giving ordinary people power over their governing class is the only hope for peace and security. Democracy, and what it entails, is not what unites us, Mr Blair. It is what divides us."

"Come Clean, Kofi" (Claudia Rosett, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/11/17)
Oil for Food Scandal II: "With estimates soaring of graft and fraud under the United Nations Oil for Food program in Iraq, we are hearing a lot about the need to "get to the bottom" of this scandal, the biggest ever to hit the U.N. To get to that bottom will need a much harder look at the top — where Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself resides.
That violates all sorts of taboos. But so, one might suppose, does a United Nations that allowed Saddam Hussein to embezzle at least $21.3 billion in oil money during 12 years, with the great bulk of that sum — a staggering $17.3 billion — pilfered between 1997-2003, on Mr. Annan's watch.
These are the record-breaking new estimates released Monday by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whose staffers, despite Mr. Annan's refusal to cooperate, have spent the past seven months voyaging deep into the muck of Oil for Food. At a hearing Monday, these investigators surfaced to tell us the theft and fraud under Oil for Food was at least twice as bad as earlier reports had suggested, and that all this is just a preview of yet more appalling disclosures they expect to release early next year."