Archived news and commentary: November 22 - 28, 2004

2004/11/22 - 2004/11/28
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

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, November 28, 2004

News and commentary:

"Ukraine - A Mandarine Speaks" (Clive Davis, clivedavis.blogspot.com, 2004/11/28)
Off topic of the day: "An illuminating op-ed by Peter Unwin, a former UK ambassador to Hungary in the 1980s. The voice of realism or Foreign Office cynicism? I can't help wondering what advice he gave the Hungarians when the Soviet Union was on its last legs:

"Imagine an election in Mexico that produces a president favourable to the United States, as elections there have done for 70 years now. But this time international observers, God forbid, detect electoral abuse. Vladimir Putin demands a recount, a rerun. Consider the outcry in the US. Unthinkable? Not really. Has there ever been a really fraud-free election in Mexico?" ...

And by the way, don't pay too much attention to all that rhetoric about spreading freedom:

'It is time for Britain and for western Europe to get real. For too long now we have gone along with the idea that spreading democracy on our terms is all good. Where there is a real demand for it, we should do what we can to help; but democracy that grows out of the barrels of Western guns will not endure.'"

(See also: "Putin should keep his nose out of Ukraine. So should we" (Peter Unwin, Independent, 2004/11/28))

"Iran Group Canvasses for Suicide Bombers" (Ali Akbar Dareini, AP/Chicago Tribune, 2004/11/28)
"TEHRAN, Iran -- The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.
It looked at first glance like a gathering on the fringes of a society divided between moderates who want better relations with the world and hard-line Muslim militants hostile toward the United States and Israel.
But the presence of two key figures -- a prominent Iranian lawmaker and a member of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards -- lent the meeting more legitimacy and was a clear indication of at least tacit support from some within Iran's government.
Since that inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses, with no sign Iran's government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.
On Nov. 12, the day Iranians traditionally hold pro-Palestinian protests, a spokesman for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement said the movement signed up at least 4,000 new volunteers." (See also: "Fars News Agency: First International gathering of candidates for suicide bombers" (Fars News Agency/activistchat.com, 2004/06/04))

"Report: FBI Finds Link Between 9/11, Madrid Bombs" (Reuters, 2004/11/28)
"The FBI has told Spanish investigators that one of three men believed to have planned the Sept. 11 attacks from Spain in the summer of 2001 also gave the order to carry out the Madrid blasts, the newspaper ABC reported. ...
Investigators have long concluded that the Sept. 11 attacks were partially planned in Spain in July 2001.
Hijacker Mohammed Atta, believed to have piloted one of the airliners that crashed into New York's World Trade Center, visited Spain two months before the attacks and met two men.
One was Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, who is being held by U.S. authorities, while the other was unidentified.
ABC said investigators now believe that third man was the one who in December 2003 activated the Qaeda cell that carried out the March 11 attacks, which Spaniards call "our Sept. 11."
ABC said investigators had narrowed his identity down to three candidates and believed he was a lieutenant of Mustafa Setmarian, increasingly considered to have been a leader of the Madrid train bombers and who may have held a leadership role for al Qaeda in Europe."

"Iran: Saudi Arabia has nuclear weapons" (UPI/The Washington Times, 2004/11/28)
"Iranian sources said the country has discovered Saudi Arabia has access to nuclear weapons and technology, the Middle East Newsline reported Sunday.
The sources said Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed an agreement in 2003 that stated Pakistan would assist the Arab kingdom in the deployment of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems.
Teheran University Professor Abu Mohammad Asgarkhani said in an address that Iran required a nuclear weapon following Pakistan and Saudi Arabia's acquisition of atomic weapons."

"The sorcerer's apprentices" (Angelo M. Codevilla, The American Spectator/Watch, November 2003 [2004/11/28])
An interesting essay on America's (and Britain's) "long history of bungling it in Iraq.":
"Despite freedom and impartiality, the occupation and elections would have to guarantee the territorial integrity of the country, prohibit religious fundamentalism, establish the rights of women, etc. How, no one could explain.
Saddam knew all this as well as the rest of the world. We do not know what he thought about it. But we now know what he did. Americans puzzled in January when Saddam emptied his jails of common criminals. Political prisoners were long dead. No one guessed that Saddam put the criminals on the street as part of a plan for after the war -- to augment regime loyalists in killing Americans and their collaborators. A few Americans puzzled at why Saddam did not take the opportunity to invite the US forces or anyone else to come -- peacefully -- and take whatever they thought were forbidden weapons. In Washington, even fewer paid much attention to the widely reported fact that the regime was apparently moving lock, stock, and barrel out of the palaces and ministries that Washington had publicly designated as targets of its "Shock and Awe" campaign. No one knew, of course, that Saddam had gathered over $1 billion for his post-war operations in Iraq. All sides in Washington also missed Saddam's decision to take his regime underground, expose the army and non-essential cadres to destruction, and to wage his fight after what America considered the war." (See also: "Will Iraq survive the Iraqi resistance?" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/12/23))

"Absolutely: Both Iraqis and Palestinians have a chance to escape the curse of absolutism" (David Pryce-Jones, National Review/Benador Associates, from the 2004/12/13 issue)
"Without irony or sarcasm, all sorts of people, including successive French presidents, described Saddam and Arafat as properly elected, and humbly addressed them as "Mr. President." After Arafat's death, the U.N. flew its flag at half mast, a mark of respect it did not show President Reagan.":
"In Iraq and the PA, there are now completing electoral rolls, and handfuls of brave spirits are discussing parties and candidates in small but select meetings. In both cases, one-man outfits are struggling to emerge as genuine interest groups. But the elections are to take place in the political deserts created by the previous twin absolutisms. In the absence of any agreed process for power-sharing, those with ambitions are likely to assert themselves in the only available way, namely through violence. ...
Those who suspect that they are going to lose the privileges of absolute rule have also understood that they must do everything possible to prevent such a catastrophe. ...
Obviously, the hazards of anarchy and civil war are real, and the outcome must be uncertain, but next January's elections could mark a first storming of the ancient citadel of Arab absolutism, which so far has been strong enough to frustrate all attempts to reform it from within or without. Should that prove the case, then it would be an example to the rest of the Arab world, and the United States will have created the circumstances, performing a human duty that no other power could."

"Islamic Recruiters Target Potential Jihadees" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/11/28)
"PARIS — In a Paris suburb, four young men watch a video where a man is about to get his throat cut.
It takes his killers two minutes and five seconds to saw off his head. In the small, dark living room where it's being watched, no one even flinches.
This is a recruitment video screened by a French convert to Islam who is looking to bring holy warriors into the fold. ...
In France, with more Muslims than any other European nation — nearly 6 million — that recruitment often starts in the mosque and the ethnic ghettos that ring the capital.
The battle over Islam, some scholars say, will not be fought in Iraq or Ramallah but right here, in the suburbs of London or Paris. And the failure to integrate second-generation immigrations into European society could have deadly consequences. ...
Imam Halima is a self-taught recruiter. He says he does not advocate violence but that Americans are bandits and holy war is a natural reaction for young Muslims.
"They are revolted and they want to kill as much as they can and die," Halima said." (See also: "Swedes Reach Muslim Breaking Point" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/11/26) and "Spain Battles Illegal Muslim Immigration" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/11/25))

"Schooled in jihad" (Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune, 2004/11/28)
A report from Pakistan: "In 1971, Pakistan had about 900 madrassas. Today, an estimated 20,000 madrassas educate as many as 1.5 million students a year.
One of the few things public schools and madrassas have in common is the teaching of jihad, an Islamic concept that has two meanings -- one a personal struggle against temptation and another a war of Muslims against aggressors. In Pakistan, particularly in the madrassas, jihad has essentially come to mean war. ...
Many students do not believe that bin Laden was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. They routinely attend protests against U.S. aggression. They talk of superpower ruthlessness, preferring to see the world through the prism taught inside madrassas: Muslims against the West.
The students firmly believe that America is out to destroy Islam, to crush any Muslim nation. For every argument, they cite some French book or an American newspaper article they once heard about, even if they never saw it.
They claim to know for a fact that thousands of Jews stayed home from jobs at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. They believe Musharraf to be a lackey of America. They show a lack of tolerance for any other religion.
"Islam comes in the world to dominate the world," says Syed Ali Mohiuddin, 20, who graduated from a madrassa in Rawalpindi."

"A Girl's Chilling Death in Gaza" (Molly Moore, The Washington Post, 2004/11/28)
"On the morning of Oct. 5, Iman Hams, a slight girl of 13 wearing a school uniform and toting a backpack crammed with books, wandered past an Israeli military outpost on the Gaza Strip's southern border with Egypt.
The Israeli captain on duty alerted his troops to reports of a suspicious figure about 100 yards from the outpost. Soldiers fired into the air, according to radio transmissions, military court documents and witnesses.
"It's a little girl," a soldier watching from a nearby Israeli observation post cautioned over the military radio. "She's running defensively eastward. . . . A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."
Four minutes later, Israeli troops opened fire on the girl with machine guns and rifles, the radio transmissions indicated. The captain walked to the spot where the girl "was lying down" and fired two bullets from his M-16 assault rifle into her head, according to an indictment against the officer. He started to walk away, but pivoted, set his rifle on automatic and emptied his magazine into the girl's prone body, the indictment alleged.
"This is Commander," the captain said into the radio when he was finished. 'Whoever dares to move in the area, even if it's a 3-year-old -- you have to kill him. Over.'" (See also: "IDF to investigate death of schoolgirl in Gaza" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/10/05). Also: "Israeli Army to Probe Reports of Corpse Abuse" (Molly Moore, The Washington Post, 2004/11/20))

"Iran 'has secret nuclear lab'" (Peter Conradi, The Sunday Times, 2004/11/28)
"Iran is working on a secret nuclear programme for military purposes despite its promise to halt all uranium enrichment activities, a German news magazine claimed yesterday.
Citing documents from an unnamed intelligence agency, Der Spiegel said Iran had set up a laboratory in a secret tunnel near a nuclear facility in Isfahan. This would be able to produce large amounts of uranium hexafluoride gas which could, in turn, be used to enrich uranium — a vital component for a nuclear bomb.
Orders to build the tunnel were given last month by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, the magazine said."

Added in Author index:
Spengler

Added in archive:
"The assassin's master sermon" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/16)
"'It's the culture, stupid'" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/05)
"What Osama might have told America" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/02)
"In praise of premature war" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/10/19)
"When you forget why you hanged yourself" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/10/05)
"Squeegee men and suicide bombers" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/09/28)
"Bush, Marshal Foch and Iran" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/09/21)
"Why Americans love George W Bush" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/09/14)
"Islam: Religion or political ideology?" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/08/10)
"Careful what you Bush for" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/08/03)
"How America can win the intelligence war" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/06/15)
"Horror and humiliation in Fallujah" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/04/27)
"Will Iraq survive the Iraqi resistance?" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/12/23)
"Why America is losing the intelligence war" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/11/11)
"What the Jews won't tell you" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/11/04)
"Mahathir is right: Jews do rule the world" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/10/28)
"Why radical Islam might defeat the West" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/07/08)
"The secret that Leo Strauss never revealed" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/05/13)
"Why Europe chooses extinction" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/04/09)
"Bush's nerve is going to snap" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/03/04)
"The sacred heart of darkness" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/02/11)
"The 'Ring' and the remnants of the West" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2003/01/11)
"Do not click on this link" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2002/10/29)
"Live and let die" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2002/04/13)
"Sir John Keegan is wrong: radical Islam could win" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2001/10/12)
"Washington's racism and the Islamist trap" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2001/09/22)

Saturday, November 27, 2004

News and commentary:

"Germans help Iraqis recover memories from files" (Hugh Williamson, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/27)
"For Bakhtiar Amin the chance yesterday to visit the former headquarters of East Germany's Stasi secret police had personal significance beyond his duties as human rights minister in Iraq's interim government.
As he examined thousands of file cards in the archives of the ugly east Berlin ex-Stasi compound, he recalled a previous visit to Berlin, in 1980, when an assassination attempt against him and other Iraqi dissidents was foiled only at the last minute. Iraqi diplomats loyal to the former dictator Saddam Hussein, based in communist East Berlin, crossed into West Berlin carrying explosives, to blow up a conference involving 750 German and Kurdish students.
The intervention of West Berlin police prevented the attack, but, as Mr Amin recalled to the FT yesterday, it was not clear at the time 'what role the east German secret police played in allowing the Iraqi diplomats to operate in this way.'" (Hat tip: Davids Medienkritik.)

"Iraq Determined to Keep Election Date" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/27)
"Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman said Saturday the government was determined to hold the Jan. 30 elections on time despite calls by Sunni Muslim politicians to delay the balloting for six months because of deteriorating security.
About 17 Sunni Muslim politicians urged the government Friday to postpone the elections, in part to persuade Sunni clerics to abandon their call for a boycott and to enable the authorities to secure polling stations.
However, the interim constitution and the U.N. Security Council have mandated a ballot by the end of January to meet demands by religious leaders of the majority Shiite community, which has been insisting on elections since the early months of the U.S. military presence. A prominent Shiite figure said Saturday the timing of the election was "nonnegotiable."
"The Iraqi government is determined, as I told you before, to hold elections on time," said Allawi's spokesman, Thair al-Naqeeb." (See also: "Iraq Parties Demand Election Postponement" (Mariam Fam, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/26))

"Canada Free Press threatened with jail for supporting Bush" (Canada Free Press, 2004/11/27)
This charming mail to Canada Free Press made me think of a recent quote by Gerard Baker: "...the sort of liberals who tolerate everything except those who disagree with them.":

"Re: your article in the free press.
By your tone, and obvious despisal of the anti-Bush protestors, you and your free press is no more independent and fair than the corporate owned media. If you and your editors want to affiliate yourself with them, and should you have any say in Bush's visit here, as such you and your colleagues could be personally liable to prosecution under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act by virtue of section 21 of the Canadian Criminal Code, for crimes so serious that they are punishable in Canada by up to life imprisonment. ...

Gloria Bergen"

(Hat tip: InstaPundit. See also: "Bush the butcher not welcome in Ottawa" (Judi McLeod, Canada Free Press, 2004/11/25))

"The UN confronts its biggest scandal" (Tony Parkinson, The Age, 2004/11/27)
The Oil-for-Food Scandal: "A Syrian journalist was paid almost $2 million in illicit oil profits to serve as a mouthpiece in the public campaign in the Arab world to rail against sanctions as a genocide of the Iraqi people. ...
Benon Sevan, the director of the oil-for-food program, continues to deny he profited from oil vouchers allocated in his name. He, like others, will be awaiting anxiously an interim report, expected by January, from a UN-appointed inquiry.
It's bad enough for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that somebody he appointed to a position of trust may be implicated. But what has most besmirched the UN's reputation is the accusation it was linked organically to a multibillion-dollar scam set up to sustain the Iraqi dictator in power. ...
But maybe it was all about oil, after all, although in nothing like the way some critics of the war in Iraq would care to imagine. According to the former chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, Baghdad had an explicit strategy from 1998 on of creating divisions on the Security Council by pressuring Russia, France and China (along with non-permanent members such as Ukraine and Syria) to bring about the end to sanctions." (See also: "Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004" (Claudia Rosett, The New York Sun, 2004/11/26))

"Be sceptical about official sources, but don't turn to conspiracy theories" (Nick Robinson, The Times, 2004/11/27)
"Why is it that people who doubt everything they hear from “the authorities” will believe just about anything from anybody else?":
"Did you know, for example, that David Blunkett gave the story about an al-Qaeda attack on Canary Wharf to the Daily Mail in return for them agreeing not to cover the story about his paternity suit? You didn't? That is because it is nonsense. Not that that stopped the story being put about after I — and a man from the Mail — reported that “the authorities believed they had thwarted a 9/11-style attack”. Scepticism about this tale was a proper response. That is why I said on air that I could not verify the plot or say how close it had come to fruition. Doubt about the timing — on the eve of the Queen’s Speech — was perfectly proper, which is why I made clear that the timing was mine and not the Government’s. Suspicion that this was a another play in “the politics of fear” was, perhaps, inevitable even though we spelt out that this was a story about a threat said to have been averted and not a current danger. But no, some insist, it is all another Big Lie just like Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Thus, I find myself cast as either a liar or a willing dupe." (See also: "'Security services foil 9/11 attack in UK'" (ITV News, 2004/11/23))

"Troops Finding Scores of Bodies of Slain Iraqis" (Richard A. Oppel Jr., The New York Times, 2004/11/27)
"MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 26 - American troops have discovered 32 bodies here in the past two days, the latest sign that insurgents in the north are increasingly focusing their efforts on killing and terrorizing vulnerable Iraqis, especially those working with American forces.
Seventeen bodies were found Friday, after 15 were discovered Thursday, according to a military spokesman here. In the past eight days at least 65 bodies have been found, and one American commander says more than 20 have been confirmed as members of the new Iraqi security forces. ...
Many of the bodies found Friday were strewn about a cemetery in western Mosul, said First Lt. Eric Joyce. Some had been shot in the head, and one was decapitated, he said. The bodies appeared to be of men between 25 and 35 years old, Lieutenant Joyce said. Five were shrouded with blankets; four others, all shot in the head, were face down. Most of the bodies were bloated, "so you know they'd been dead for a while," he said. 'But a couple were brand-new. You could see the fresh blood.'"

"The Fear Born of a Much Too Personal Look at Jihad" (Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, 2004/11/27)
"About a month ago, under the pseudonym Doris Glück, she published a book in Germany, "I Was Married to a Holy Warrior," in which she described how she fell in love with an Egyptian, married him and then watched, appalled, as he became progressively more militant and, finally, fully engaged in jihad. ...
In their first seven years of marriage, she said, "my husband drank liquor, he had no beard, he didn't go to the mosque." But in 1994, the same year he became a German citizen, he broke his arm in a bicycle accident. With time on his hands, he started going to a mosque in Heidelberg, the university town along the Rhine where they were living, and before his wife knew it, he had committed himself to the Islamic cause. ...
"Islam is a wonderful thing," she said, "but they destroyed that in me, because my ex-husband hates unbelievers. He thinks it's O.K. to kill unbelievers." ...
But one day [in Bosnia] in 1996, she said, she went with her husband and others to the place near a mountain where three Serbs were executed, an incident that her husband filmed. One victim was shot to death by a group of women whose husbands or sons, he told her, had been killed by Serbs.
"Then there was a second man, a Serb, on his knees," Ms. Glück said. "I saw a big knife and then I saw his head cut off. I sleep with this memory every night. Afterwards, the mujahedeen played football with the head. Then a third Serb was shot by the men.
'I was so shocked that I couldn't tell where my husband was, if he was one of the men who shot, or if he only filmed.'"

"CIA report cites N. Korean proliferation threat" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2004/11/27)
"North Korea threatened in secret talks to export nuclear weapons and to conduct a test blast, according to a CIA report made public this week.
"In late April 2003 during the Six-Party Talks in Beijing, North Korea privately threatened to 'transfer' or 'demonstrate' its nuclear weapons," the semiannual report on arms proliferation to Congress stated.
"North Korea repeated these threats at the Six-Party Talks in August 2003."
The CIA's description was the first official confirmation that the official North Korean statements were a threat." (See also: "North Korea may export nukes" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2003/05/07))

Note: Wizbang's 2004 Weblog Awards is open for nominations. Thanks to Joe Katzman for nominating Watch in the Best European Blog category.

Friday, November 26, 2004

News and commentary:

"Swedes Reach Muslim Breaking Point" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/11/26)
"MALMO, Sweden — Swedish authorities in the southern city of Malmo have been busy with a sudden influx of Muslim immigrants — 90 percent of whom are unemployed and many who are angry and taking it out on the country that took them in.
"If we park our car it will be damaged — so we have to go very often in two vehicles, one just to protect the other vehicle," said Rolf Landgren, a Malmo police officer.
Fear of violence has changed the way police, firemen and emergency workers do their jobs.
There are some neighborhoods Swedish ambulance drivers will not go to without a police escort. Angry crowds have threatened them, telling them which patient to take and which ones to leave behind.
Because Sweden has some of the most liberal asylum laws in Europe, one quarter of Malmo's 250,000 population is now Muslim, changing the face and the idea of what it means to be Swedish. Asylum seekers may bring spouses, brothers and grandparents with them. Civil servants say the city is swamped.
"You have 1,000 students in a Swedish school. How many are Swedes? Two," said Lars Birgersson, principal of the Rosengard School." (See also: "Spain Battles Illegal Muslim Immigration" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/11/25) and "The Swedish Way" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/10/22))

"Fighting the Preachers of Hate" (Dominik Cziesche et al., Der Spiegel, 2004/11/26)
"No one likes to have guests like Hodja, a Turkish citizen who traveled to Germany for the sole purpose of contributing to the spiritual edification of his fellow Turks. "America is a great Satan, Great Britain is a lesser one, and Israel a blood-sucking vampire," he yelled into a prayer room in Bavaria.
Then the immigrant imam explained his vision of the future of Muslims in Germany: "Things will happen behind the scenes. You must be ready for the right moment. We must take advantage of democracy to further our cause. We must cover all of Europe with mosques and schools." His comments were greeted with loud applause from his audience of devout Muslims.
That was two years ago, at a time when, in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the security services had just begun taking a closer look at the inner workings of German mosques. At the time, however, politicians were still avoiding issues that were considered sensitive. ...
The state has learned its lesson. Tarik B., a Moroccan-born German from the Bavarian city of Augsburg, got a first-hand taste of the government's newly vigilant approach. When police officers raided his apartment, they found 250 apparently amateur audio tapes of sermons. The recordings were of Koran lessons and contained unmistakable references to kaffers, slang for "infidels," including such statements as: "This is why Allah, Glorious and Exalted, has made jihad a duty, so that the earth will be cleansed of these destroyers." The Augsburg public prosecutor's office filed suit against Tarik B. for incitement to hatred and violence."

"Turk lawmaker says US in Iraq worse than Hitler" (Gareth Jones, Reuters, 2004/11/26)
Fouad Ajami: "I think many people, particularly at the Pentagon and defense circles in Washington, have to be awakened to the fact that the Turkey they knew and felt comfortable with for decades in the aftermath of World War II is gone and gone forever.":
"The head of Turkey's parliamentary human rights group has accused Washington of genocide in Iraq and behaving worse than Adolf Hitler, in remarks underscoring the depth of opposition in Turkey to U.S. policy in the region. ...
"The occupation has turned into barbarism," Friday's Yeni Safak newspaper quoted Mehmet Elkatmis, head of parliament's human rights commission, as saying. "The U.S. administration is committing genocide...in Iraq."
"Never in human history have such genocide and cruelty been witnessed. Such a genocide was never seen in the time of the pharoahs (of ancient Egypt), nor of Hitler nor of (Italy's fascist leader Benito) Mussolini," he said.
"This occupation has entirely imperialist aims," he was quoted as telling the human rights commission on Thursday.
Elkatmis does not speak for Turkey's government but he is a prominent member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), a centre-right grouping with Islamist roots which has become increasingly critical of U.S. actions in Iraq."

"Europeans in no mood to welcome Turkey" (Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/26)
"Too big. Too poor. Too Muslim.
For most Europeans, the recent recommendation of the European Union's executive body to open membership talks with Turkey goes a step too far.
Although EU political leaders are expected to endorse the executive's recommendation at their Dec. 17 summit, public opinion in most of the EU's 25 member states is deeply opposed to Turkey joining the club.
Surveys indicate that a referendum on Turkish membership would fail in every major EU country.
In Germany, which has Europe's largest Turkish immigrant community, only 34 percent of the population is in favor of admitting Turkey. Opinion polls in France indicate that 75 to 80 percent of the French are against Turkey's membership."

"Iraq Parties Demand Election Postponement" (Mariam Fam, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/26)
"Seventeen political parties on Friday demanded postponement of the Jan. 30 elections for at least six months until the government is capable of securing polling places. Earlier, a mortar attack killed four employees of a British security firm and wounded at least 12 in Baghdad's Green Zone.
The parties, mostly Sunni Arab, Kurdish and secular groups, made the call in a manifesto signed at the home of Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, who said he believed the government was waiting for such a request before seriously addressing the question of whether an election could be held by the end of January."

"Zarqawi network appeals for help in first signals of defeat" (World Tribune.com, 2004/11/26)
"Sunni insurgents backing Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi have expressed alarm at the prospect of a defeat by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
An audio tape said to be from Al Zarqawi charged Muslim clerics with letting down the insurgency "because of your silence." ...
Islamic sources said that for the first time in more than a year the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Al Zarqawi appears to have lost control over many of its insurgents in the Sunni Triangle.
The sources said Iraqi and U.S. assaults on major insurgency strongholds in such cities as Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi and Samara have resulted in heavy insurgency casualties and a break in the command and control structure. ...
The Internet has also reflected the growing concern that Islamic insurgents would be routed in Iraq. A message posted on an Islamic website appealed for help from Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority." (See also: "Purported Al-Zarqawi Tape Raps Scholars" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/24))

"Target: The Jewish state" (Arieh O'Sullivan, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/26)
"Iran is the only country that openly calls for wiping the Jewish state "off the face of the earth." It tries to undermine and indeed halt all peace efforts between Israel and our Arab neighbors through terrorist proxies like Hizbullah in Lebanon and an increasing number of Palestinian terror groups.
"They want the bomb and will do everything they can to get the bomb," says one senior Israeli security source. "They are not crazy, but they do have an irrational streak and are very calculated. They do not take any spontaneous actions or actions out of context. History has shown that rogue nations tend to use diplomacy as a cover while they complete their work," he says. ...
Teheran's efforts have been designed to gain time. They are excellent at playing the West for apparent concessions. Israeli intelligence has confirmed that Iran is actually running a double nuclear program, one that is open to inspections and access by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the other a secret one run by the military to make nukes.
Senior military sources told the Post that in the worst-case scenario, Iran could produce a nuclear bomb within two years. Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for Iran's exiled opposition National Council of Resistance, has reportedly said "between 350 and 400 nuclear physicists" are involved in the weapons program."

"Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004" (Claudia Rosett, The New York Sun, 2004/11/26)
"One of the next big chapters in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal will involve the family of the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, whose son turns out to have been receiving payments as recently as early this year from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program.
The secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, was previously reported to have worked for a Swiss-based company called Cotecna Inspection Services SA, which from 1998-2003 held a lucrative contract with the U.N. to monitor goods arriving in Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the oil-for-food program. But investigators are now looking into new information suggesting that the younger Annan received far more money over a much longer period, even after his compensation from Cotecna had reportedly ended.
The importance of this story involves not only undisclosed conflicts of interest, but the question of the role of the secretary-general himself, at a time when talk is starting to be heard around the U.N. that it is time for him to resign, and the staff labor union is in open rebellion against "senior management."

"Nightmare at Foggy Bottom: Arabists Panicked At Prospect of Rice's Appointments" (Geostrategy-Direct.com/Free Republic, 2004/11/26 [2004/11/25])
"But Powell is gone, to be replaced by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Foggy Bottom is scared. Nowhere is the fear more palpable than in the department's Near East Bureau. There, the fear is that Rice will bring in her own Middle East team and sideline the naysayers who opposed the war in Iraq, a vigorous campaign against Iranian nuclear weapons and the boycott of the late Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. ...
Rice has been considering appointing Daniella Pletka, a senior researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, to be the new assistant secretary of state.
Pletka is different from Burns as night is to day. A scholar on the Middle East and former congressional aide, Pletka does not share Foggy Bottom's approach of holding U.S. foreign policy captive to pleasing Saudi Arabia and its allies. Indeed, Pletka believes that the Arab kingdom is desperate for U.S. help and is even willing, if pressed, to make meaningful democratic reforms.
The prospect of Burns being replaced by a conservative scholar as Near East bureau chief is a nightmare for many career diplomats. Department sources said many diplomats are discussing a mass resignation if Pletka is appointed."

"For a Small Girl in Darfur, A Year of Fear and Flight" (Emily Wax, The Washington Post, 2004/11/26)
"More than any other hardship, more than hunger and sickness and violence, the 22-month conflict in Sudan's Darfur region has been a crisis of people in flight. Since the early spring of 2003, more than 1.5 million people have been driven from their farmland by conflict, forced to abandon the millet and wheat and watermelon patches tilled by their forefathers and head into the unknown.
The forced exodus is part of a wider, government-backed effort to remove Africans from their land and give nomadic Arabs, who are allied with the Arab-dominated Khartoum government, more room to graze their cattle, according to the United Nations and human rights advocates. ...
African farmers and Arab herders have engaged in sporadic violence for years, but no one can remember a time when so many people were driven from their homes. In less than two years, the new conflict has virtually eradicated African village life in Darfur, a rugged region the size of France, and there are growing fears that it may never be restored."

"The State of Iraq: An Update" (Adriana Lins de Albuquerque et al., The New York Times, 2004/11/26)
"Other recent trends are somewhat more encouraging: foreign aid is beginning to be spent more quickly, even if much of it is being directed toward security rather than rebuilding cities and towns; Iraqi security forces are now being trained more rigorously - and they're beginning to perform better on the battlefield; the overall quality of public services may finally be inching ahead of late-Saddam Hussein levels; the transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government has continued to deflect some of the anti-American anger on the street; and Iraqis are for the most part bullish on their future. ...
On balance, the data show that security trends in Iraq are generally poor, economic trends are promising but glacial in pace, and political trends are hopeful but fragile."

"Iranians Retain Plutonium Plan in Nuclear Deal" (William J. Broad and Elaine Sciolino, The New York Times, 2004/11/26)
"The recent nuclear accord European officials signed with Iran appears to have halted Tehran's uranium enrichment program at least temporarily, but it leaves Iran free to make plutonium, which can also be used as fuel for nuclear weapons, diplomats and arms experts say. ...
Weapons experts say plutonium is often preferred to enriched uranium for compact warheads on missiles because it takes a smaller amount to produce a significant blast. ...
Although European officials said they would try to address plutonium production in wide-ranging talks with the Iranians next month, there were signs yesterday that Iran's commitment to the uranium freeze was in doubt.
Diplomats said that Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring group, that despite the agreement, it wanted to be allowed to operate about two dozen uranium centrifuges for research purposes."

Added in archive:
"Hate 101: Climate of hate rocks Columbia University" (Douglas Feiden, New York Daily News, 2004/11/21)

Thursday, November 25, 2004

News and commentary:

"Happy Fake Turkey Day!" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2004/11/26)
"AFP celebrates Fake Turkey Day's first anniversary by recycling the turkey myth, in much the same way as the old New York Sun used to run its "Yes, Virginia" editorial every Christmas:

It was one year ago that Bush slipped away from the ranch — and the army of journalists deployed to nearby Waco — to make a surprise, lightning visit to lift the spirits of US troops serving in Iraq.
Once in Baghdad, Bush helped serve troops and posed for cameras carrying a fake turkey, before returning immediately to Texas.

It’s interesting to revisit immediate media reaction to Turkeygate; Bush was said to be "haunted" and "embarrassed" over "credibility questions" arising from the alleged plastic poultry incident. One year on, the only haunted and embarrassed people facing credibility questions are these guys:

Mark Lawson, the BBC, Antonia Zerbisias, Alan Ramsey, Phillip Adams, Matt Taibbi, Mark Morford, A.L. Kennedy, Heather Wokusch, Ian McNamara, Gregg Easterbrook, Saul Landau, W. David Jenkins, David Lindorff, Babes against Bush, Naomi Klein, Howard Dean, Daniel Patrick Welch, Yamin Sakaria, Collins Ezeanyim, Marc Perkel, David Sirota, William Saletan, Jon Bon Jovi, Buddy Grizzard, Patricia Earnest, Kevin Dawson, Mark Engler, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, John Kerry, Colleen Redman, Linwood Barclay, Mark Lawson (again), Antonio Yegles, Nick Grimm, Mick Youther, Michael Organ, Suzanne Malveaux, Ben Tripp, Neil Mitchell, Richard L. Berke, Michael Moore, Evelyn Pringle, and Charles P. Pierce."

"Spain Battles Illegal Muslim Immigration" (Steve Harrigan, FOX News, 2004/11/25)
"Although only nine miles separate Africa from Europe, that stretch contains some of the most dangerous currents in the world. Now, some people in Africa are so desperate, they are ready to pay $1,000 a head just to get across, and they'll take their chances on anything that floats.
Seventy-five people from the Moroccan village of Tangier drowned trying to cross the waters last month. When FOX News approached families of the victims, they started to cry. One man lost 21 relatives.
With no electricity, jobs, education, or running water, there is nothing to do but wait for someone to get them out of the area. "These people are so desperate they are ready to die," said Khalil Jemmah, a Moroccan aid worker. "It's just a question of who gets here first, the smugglers or the terrorists."
More often than not, it's the terrorists who are getting there first.
It was a Moroccan who is accused of killing filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands this month. The murder set off weeks of ethnic and religious clashes and skirmishes in Spain in what may eventually become a pan-European battle, fueled by the failure to integrate a new, illegal Muslim population."

"Al-Janabi Redux" (Wretchard, Belmont Club, 2004/11/25)
A spiritual leader in a sleepy little town: "In the AP's version of events, Fallujah was a sleepy little town until it was transformed into a Frankenstein place by heavy-handed American intervention and Al-Janabi a man of peace driven to the brink by events. According to the Associated Press account:

Religious fervor and hatred of Americans brought Omar Hadid and Abdullah al-Janabi together in a partnership that played a major role in transforming Fallujah from a sleepy Euphrates River backwater into a potent symbol of Arab nationalism. ...

Hadid is described as ordinary tradesman and al-Janabi a dreamy Sufi mystic. "Fallujah residents and Iraqis with close family ties to the city said al-Janabi was more a spiritual leader -- deeply respected ... ", though it does allow that he sullied his hands on occasion. "al-Janabi, in his 50s, headed the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which set up Islamic courts that meted out Islamic punishments, executed suspected spies and enforced a strict Islamic lifestyle." But he was a good guy gone bad.

Al-Janabi, on the other hand, is a Sufi, a mystical version of the faith that seeks closeness to God through the cleansing of one's soul. Sufis abhor violence, but al-Janabi found in Hadid a like-minded partner as Salafis and Wahhabis began to prevail over Sufis in Fallujah."

(See also: "Fallujah Leaders Were Local, Not Foreign" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/TBO.com, 2004/11/25). Also: "Marines in Falluja Find Rebel Leader's Arsenal" (Robert F. Worth, The New York Times, 2004/11/24) and "Blood, knives, cage hint at atrocities" (James Janega, Chicago Tribune/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/22))

"A civil war on terrorism" (The Economist, 2004/11/25)
Theo van Gogh LXIX: "The Muslim population of France is now nearly 10% of the total. And it is officially projected that the three largest Dutch cities will have 50% non-western populations (most of them Muslim) by 2020. Yet even these figures need not be alarming, if Muslim populations assimilate easily. It is here that traditional liberal attitudes are undergoing a re-think. For Mohammed B, the murderer of Theo Van Gogh, was not a marginalised or oppressed figure. He spoke excellent Dutch and was studying for a diploma. It looks increasingly apparent that — as with the 9/11 hijackers — the problem is not lack of integration or opportunity, but a vicious ideology. ...
But Mr Wilders quotes Dutch academics who estimate that around 10-15% of the Dutch population of 1m Muslims sympathise with jihadist ideology. He says that the 150 suspected terrorists should be deported or imprisoned immediately. But he also demands a similar fate for those Dutch citizens who endorse jihadist ideology, whether in print, in a sermon or in an internet chat-room. Mainstream Dutch politicians still recoil from such measures, believing them to be incompatible with traditional freedoms — and likely to radicalise Dutch Muslims further. Launching a war on terrorism is one thing; a civil war on terrorism is altogether more daunting."

"French-Arab Slum Youths Joined Insurgency" (Scheherezade Faramarzi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/25)
"PARIS - The two teenage friends hardly seemed like Islamic radicals. They smoked marijuana, drank beer, listened to rap and wore jeans.
Yet the pair of French Muslims died insurgents in Iraq — one a suicide car bomber, say relatives who traced the young men's path from the slums of Paris through a religious school in Syria to the fight against the U.S.-led coalition next door. ...
Although the number of French-born fighters in Iraq appears small — perhaps a dozen or more — anti-terrorism officials worry that some of the young men of mostly Tunisian and Algerian descent will return home with combat skills to wage jihad in France.
"They become like stars," Gilles Leclair, director of France's Anti-Terrorism Coordination Unit, told The Associated Press. Leclair confirmed the deaths of el-Hakim, Badjoudj and Tarek W., and he suggested there were more like them in Iraq.
"We have intelligence information that some people are still present in Iraq," Leclair told AP. But he said that "it's too early to say we have 10, 15, 40."
El-Hakim and Badjoudj lived in the same northern Paris neighborhood. Both were unemployed and came from broken families." (See also: "French insurgents killed in Iraq" (BBC News, 2004/11/18))

"Arab world: 73.72% want Hamas to replace Arafat" (The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/25)
"A survey of the Arab world organized by the Al-Arabia network website after the death of Yasser Arafat, showed 73.72% want a Hamas representative to replace Arafat, ITIM reported. In contrast only 0.7% expect that one of the PLO leaders will take over.
25.58% were in favor of an independent candidate.
113,107 participants from across the Arab world took part in the survey.
The organizers of the survey explained that the Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad organization stand for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the land of historic Palestine, a concept that the PLO gave up on when the Oslo discussions began."

"Solana has to retract claim over Hamas" (George Parker and Harvey Morris, Financial Times, 2004/11/25)
"Javier Solana, European Union foreign policy chief, was on Thursday forced to issue a retraction after saying he had made "direct contact" with Hamas, listed by the EU as a banned terrorist group. ...
However Mr Solana's office quickly issued a "clarification". His spokeswoman said: "Any mention of contacts or meetings with Hamas referred to soundings and impressions conveyed to him but gathered by governments and other parties on the ground."
"At no time did the High Representative or his office hold direct contacts with Hamas or any other organisation appearing on the EU terrorist list". Israel denounced the "inconsistency" between Mr Solana's original remarks and the EU's decision to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation." (See also: "EU's Solana secretly met Hamas" (Reuters, 2004/11/25))

"British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pays his respects..."
(Kevin Frayer, AP, 2004/11/25)
"British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pays his respects at the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, at the compound of his former headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday Nov. 25, 2004."

"Straw lays wreath at Arafat's grave" (Madeline Chambers, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/25)
Melanie Phillips: "A garland for terror and respect for mass murder.":
"Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has laid a wreath at Yasser Arafat's grave during a West Bank visit for talks on how to revive peacemaking with Israel after the Palestinian leader's death.
Straw paid brief respects to Arafat at his black-marble tomb in the battered West Bank compound where Israeli forces cooped him up for the last two and a half years of his life before he fell ill, was airlifted to France and died two weeks ago aged 75.
Straw wrote something in a condolence book nearby but reporters were barred from reading it.
Straw's gesture reflected the fact that the European Union maintained contacts with Arafat in his last years rather than shun him as Washington did, accusing him of inciting violence, although EU relations with him cooled markedly near the end."

"Iraqi forces find 'chemical bomb' factory in Fallujah, US diplomat slain" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/25)
"Iraq's national security chief Kassen Daoud said a chemical bomb factory was found in Fallujah, while US forces said they discovered a huge cache of weapons in a mosque inside the devastated city.
National guardsmen found a "chemical materials laboratory that was used to make explosives and toxic substances," Daoud told reporters in Baghdad, adding that there were also pamphlets showing how to make explosives and toxic substances, including anthrax.
The US military said the largest weapons cache in Fallujah was found in a mosque which it described as a suspected safe house where rebel cleric Abdullah al-Janabi preached 'anti-coalition rhetoric.'"

"Al-Zarqawi Lieutenant Arrested in Mosul" (Sameer N. Yacoub, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/25)
"A lieutenant of Iraq's most feared terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was captured a few days ago in Mosul, and Iraqi troops searching suspected terrorist hideouts in Fallujah discovered a laboratory with manuals on manufacturing explosives and toxins — including anthrax, Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday. ...
National security adviser Qassem Dawoud identified al-Zarqawi's alleged lieutenant as Abu Saeed, but he gave no further details."

"How to Win the Battle of Ideas in the Middle East" (Fouad Ajami and Robert Satloff, The Washington Institute, November 2004)
A transcript of a talk held by Fouad Ajami and Robert Satloff at the Washington Institute on November 10, 2004:
"Fouad Ajami: ... When anyone tells me that they condemned the September 11 attacks, I know he's engaged in mischief. I know that the next thing he is going to talk about is what he really aims to talk about. And, so, when Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for example — who opines that it's permissible to kill American civilians in Iraq — says his bona fide is to say "On your day of grief and sorrow, I actually condemned [the] September 11, 2001 attacks," I think that's absurd.
And I don't want to pick on the Arabs only here. I just want to remind you that there was someone else who drove a truck through that loophole, a man by the name Jean-Marie Colombani, the editor of Le Monde, who on September 12 wrote this famous piece called "Nous Sommes Tous Americains," ("We're all Americans.") Afterward, he then began to bludgeon America, always stating "Hey, I condemned the September 11, 2001 attacks." Well, I think I'm one of very small handful of people who actually read Jean-Marie Colombani's original, September 12 essay. And even that essay was nasty. ...
And one of the things I say about this anti-Americanism and the debates that we engage in —"why they hate us" — is the following: The Shia have ten days of self-flagellation, the Ashura, the ten days of mourning for Imam Hussain, but America is very different. America has 365 days of self-flagellation. This is the background to a lot of these public diplomacy concerns." (Hat tip: Across the Bay.)

"MEMRI TV Project: Mothers of Hizbullah Martyrs: We are Very Happy and Want to Sacrifice More Children" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 819, 2004/11/25)
"On the occasion of "Martyrs Day," Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV recently broadcast statements from the mothers of several martyrs, including an interview with Umm Said ("Mother of Said"). ... The following are excerpts: ...
Martyr's mother #2: "We cherish the memory of the martyrs' blood. I'm proud of my son's martyrdom."
Martyr's mother #3: "I am prepared to sacrifice my life. All I want is martyrdom. I'm willing for all my children to become martyrs. May my husband also become a martyr, and Allah willing, may I die as a martyr."
Martyr's mother #4: "Compared to others, what I sacrificed is nothing. It's true I sacrificed a son, but others have sacrificed two or three. I hope more of my sons will become martyrs."
Martyr's mother #5: 'Allah be praised. I thank Allah for all the good He has bestowed upon us. He has blessed us with martyrdom. Allah willing, we too will be martyred, just as they did.'" (See also: "Hezbollah-linked TV station allowed to broadcast in EU" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/19))

"Perfidious France" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/11/25)
"As the Simon Wiesenthal Centre reports, France has revoked its ban on Hezbollah's viciously Jew-hating al Manar broadcasting organisation from transmitting its hate-filled frenzy into France. The Centre states:

'The spike in Moslem attacks on Jews in France last year paralleled Al-Manar's transmission of the horrific Syrian miniseries "Al-Shatat" ("The Diaspora"), based upon The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that depicts rabbis ritually slaughtering children to mix their blood into matzah for Passover! The Center's initial protest galvanized broad public support leading the Broadcasting Authority to ban these broadcasts, which were in clear violation of French laws against spreading antisemitism.'

So why has France suddenly revoked the ban? I am told this was being demanded as the quid pro quo for the release of the French hostages in Iraq (remember them?) who I am also told have been moved to Iran. This deal has been on the cards for weeks. Thus the French barter the lives of some of their citizens for many others; thus they display gross cynicism and absence of principle, decency or indeed a sense of self-preservation; thus they once again show that in the fight against terror, they are on absolutely the wrong side." (See also: "Urgent action: Urge President Chirac to block Hezbollah's Antisemitic and hate TV from broadcasting into France" (Simon Wiesenthal Centre, 2004/11/24) and "Hezbollah-linked TV station allowed to broadcast in EU" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/19))

"Why We Are In Iraq" (David Horowitz, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/11/25)
An edited version of a speech on "the 'unholy alliance' between radical Islam and the American left, and its effect on the politics of the Democratic Party" given at Georgetown University on October 14, 2004:
"How is it possible that people who think of themselves as advocates of social justice can lend aid and comfort to Islamic radicals who behead people and blow women's heads off with AK-47s when they are suspected of having sexual relations outside of marriage? How can self-styled progressives embrace these people? They embrace them under the logic that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and their enemy is the United States. ...
The radical left does not understand that the root cause of social problems is humanity. There will never be a socially just world because the world is always going to be run by human beings, and human beings are in their nature corrupt, selfish and fallible. If you don't understand that, you are simply delusional, in denial. Thus radicals have the same goal as jihadists, which is paradise. And the same enemy, which is the Great Satan, i.e., us. You cannot read a page of Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn or Michael Moore and not understand that America is the great Satan, the root of the world's evil, worthy of destruction. It is this faith that forges the unholy alliance.
To confront our enemy we must reverse the perception. The mantra of the left is the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Out of simple consideration of self-defense, we must adopt the view that the friend of my enemy is my enemy." (Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin.)

"Bush's European Itinerary" (Gerard Baker, The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/11/29 issue)
Theo van Gogh LXVIII: "The reaction in the Netherlands to the murder was almost as troubling as the murder itself. Mosques were firebombed, the country's large, mostly Muslim, immigrant population was under siege. But at the same time the authorities demonstrated how inert European leadership has become in dealing with the terrorist threat at home and abroad — playing down the significance of the killing as a terrorist act. Much of the commentary in Europe focused on van Gogh's sins in inflaming radical Muslim opinion. ...
These apparently unconnected events ought to force Europeans to look a bit harder at the decay in their own societies. Even as the authorities go to absurd lengths to justify politically correct tolerance of those intent on destroying the very foundations of free societies; even as they seek, by contrast, to eliminate traditional Christian values and principles from European public discourse; even as they try to block American attempts to bring about a better, more enlightened, world for the people of Iraq and the broader Middle East, their own society is sliding steadily into an ugly maelstrom of intolerance, fear, and hatred."

"EU's Solana secretly met Hamas" (Reuters, 2004/11/25)
"EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said he held secret talks with the Palestinian militant group Hamas even though it is on the European Union's list of banned organisations.
"I have had direct contact with Hamas but not in the last few days," Solana told BBC Radio in an interview broadcast on Thursday. "Those meetings were not long. They were just to pass a clear message of where the international community was."
He declined to say who he met or where the meetings took place. Asked how long ago they took place, he said: "months".
Foreign Minister Jack Straw, talking to the BBC from Jerusalem, declined to comment directly and repeated British policy on Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction.
"Our position is very clear. We do not have contact with Hamas," Straw said."

Added in archive:
"'Take that article down. In Index it's disgraceful'" (Frank Fisher, Index on Censorship, 2004/11/18)

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

News and commentary:

"Full Transcript: Bat Ye'or" (The Religion Report, 2004/11/24)
A transcript of a radio interview with Bat Ye'or:
"Stephen Crittenden: You say that in France it’s no longer acceptable to criticise Islam or the Arab countries, but I want to put it to you that that’s changing. ...
Bat Ye’or: No, policies are not starting to change at all, because they cannot change, it is too late for them to change. ...
The way I see the problem, it is a total destruction of Western civilisation and thought. For instance, we do not say any more that jihad was a genocidal war; we have accepted Islamic version of history: jihad is a war of liberation against us and dhimmitude which is not even understood what it is, dhimmitude is called tolerance. ... So the West is obeying this law of Sharia without even knowing it. ...
Stephen Crittenden: Where do you think this is all going?
Bat Ye’or: It is going to disaster, because either Europe will become the new continent of dhimmitude or there will be a very savage xenophobic movement, because this immigration was not integrated properly, it happened too quickly. It is not only because the immigration was Muslim, because this would happen with any immigration, when you bring millions of people coming into a country in a very short term, they won’t integrate necessarily. But on top of it there is a refusal from the Muslim population often, not always, to integrate because they reject totally the Judaeo-Christian civilisation. I mean for 13 centuries they fought to destroy it, and if we are not aware — us non-Muslims and Muslims — of this past, we will not be able to come together, to bridge through our differences, and we have to recuperate this whole history that has been totally destroyed by the Janissary, Edward Said, in order to build with the Muslims a future of peace, not on dhimmitude because this will be our future, but on freedom and equal respect."

"Marines in Falluja Find Rebel Leader's Arsenal" (Robert F. Worth, The New York Times, 2004/11/24)
"United States marines and Iraqi soldiers today discovered the empty home of Abdullah Janabi, the insurgent leader of this city's mujahedeen council, and his bomb-laden mosque, where they found a massive supply of weapons that dwarfed any of the hundreds of caches yet found, military officials said. ...
The mosque, in a residential area just north of the main east-west artery known as Highway 10, included at least a dozen brick outbuildings packed with bombs, guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and ammunition. The diversity of the weapons surprised the officers here: in the street outside, a ship mine stood in a puddle. ...
Mr. Janabi's house, a few blocks away, contained no weapons and was oddly peaceful. ...
On a table were stacks of documents, including passports (the only country he had traveled to recently was Syria, a translator who read the document said) and other identification papers for Mr. Janabi and members of his family. ...
Also found in the house were files showing the names of people who had been tortured and executed for cooperating with the Americans and their allies, military officials said.
There were also more than 500 letters from the families of insurgents who had been killed or wounded, asking for compensation from Mr. Janabi, said a military translator on the scene. They included the families of fighters from Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, and about 100 native Fallujans." (See also: "Troops Move to Quell Insurgency in Mosul" (Anthony Shadid, The Washington Post, 2004/11/17))

"Falluja Rebels Had Enough Arms to Rule Iraq - U.S." (Michael Georgy, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/24)
"Arab militants and insurgents who ruled the volatile city of Falluja before a U.S.-led offensive this month had enough weapons to take over all of Iraq, Marine officers said on Wednesday.
"We found enough weapons in Falluja for the insurgency to take over the whole country," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Wilson told a news conference at a U.S. base near the western city. ...
Wilson said the Marines were surprised by the number and range of weapons, from home-made flame throwers to surface-to-air missiles, found in a city that was seen as the backbone of a relentless insurgency." (See also a presentation from the 1st MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) Effects Exploitation Team, with photos of weapon caches, slaughter houses etc. in Fallujah: "What Really Happened in Fallujah" (fototime.com, 2004/11/23). Hat tip: The Donovan.)

"Purported Al-Zarqawi Tape Raps Scholars" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/24)
"An audiotape purportedly made by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lashed out Wednesday at Muslim scholars for not speaking out against U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying they have "let us down in the darkest circumstances."
It was unclear whether the tape posted Wednesday on the Internet was intended as a direct threat against Iraq's Sunni religious establishment, who have come under attack recently with the slaying this week of two Sunni clerics by gunmen.
"You have let us down in the darkest circumstances and handed us over to the enemy. ... You have quit supporting the mujahedeen," said the voice on the tape, purported to be al-Zarqawi's. "Hundreds of thousands of the nation's sons are being slaughtered at the hands of the infidels because of your silence."
On the tape, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, al-Zarqawi addressed his comments to the "ulama" — senior Islamic clerics and scholars."

"PROPHET"
(GlobalSecurity.org)
From DEBKAfile's article below: "The Prophet system is named for “The Prophets” Delta Company, 104th Military Intelligence Battalion, 4th Infantry Division. Nothing could represent a greater antithesis to the Prophet Mohammed and his Koran than the unit’s emblem of a star-spangled, white-bearded wizard grasping a magical cosmic ball with electronically charged hands."

"An American “Prophet” Takes on the Prophet Mohammed’s Fighters in Iraq" (DEBKAfile, 2004/11/24)
"On November 19, Lt. Col. Steve Iwicki, director of the Actionable Intelligence Department of the Army G2, announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s “units of action” due for shipment to Iraq will be equipped with the first unmanned vehicles of the Prophet collection system. ...
A ground commander equipped with a Prophet will receive on his laptop a comprehensive picture of electronic emitters within a battle arena of any size up to 150km wide and 120 kilometers deep. He will have a full view of his own forces in relation to the enemy and be guided in mid-combat to openings that will give his troops the advantage.
In the course of battle, he will be able to pinpoint, collect and electronically attack emitters, however large or small, beyond the reach of conventional reconnaissance – whether small, hidden knots of Iraqi guerrillas using any kind of communications or signaling gear, including a mobile phone, gadgets for remote-control of explosive devices or bomb cars, or even an Iraqi guerilla command center operating deep inside Iran or Syria. US commanders often know where an enemy position across the Iraqi border is located. The Prophet extends their reach and arms them with the option of long-distance electronic attack."

"Europe pays the price for its cultural naïveté" (William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune, 2004/11/25)
Theo van Gogh LXVII: "This specifically Dutch tragedy was created by good intentions combined with false assumptions about the human, social and political realities of cultural difference. After the Nazi catastrophe, racial and cultural distinctions were interpreted as cause for discrimination and conflict, and accordingly were not only avoided but denied. Certain illusions about the nature of man were — and are — promoted. People in the West want to continue to believe in these illusions, despite all that history has done to disprove them.
They include the belief that the core values of the Western democracies are innate, and that education, the liberalization of political and social institutions, and political action can liberate these values among people who don't yet recognize them. It is believed that all men and women are headed not only toward liberal democracy but also toward secularism or religious indifference.
Western political (and even economic) values are said to be universal, valid for all societies now and in the future. Hence the unity of mankind is only a matter of time. The moral complexity of the human condition in the past is ignored, or is simply unknown.
It all adds up to a naïve version of the belief in inevitable human progress that arose during the French Enlightenment and has inspired virtually every Western political ideology we have known since — and that history has repeatedly disproved."

"Muslim preacher in hiding over death wish remark" (Expatica, 2004/11/24)
Theo van Gogh LXVI: "A Muslim preacher has provoked a storm of protest by admitting on Dutch television he wants parliamentarian Geert Wilders to die.
Wilders, an independent Conservative MP, plans to set up a party "to tackle Islamic extremism" in the Netherlands.
Abdul-Jabbar van de Ven, 25, told the media on Wednesday afternoon he had gone into hiding as a result of the outcry about his remark.
In a statement to define his position, Van de Ven claimed he did not want to incite anyone to murder Wilders, nor did he wish Wilders to contract a fatal illness.
"I don't wish that on him with either my tongue or my pen. But I would not mourn [his death], just as the great majority of the Dutch public would not mourn if Osama bin Laden was found dead tomorrow." ...
Asked by presenter Andries Kneuvel if he wanted Wilders to die within the next two years, Van de Ven said yes, preferrably due to illness. Wilders has received death threats for criticising Islam.
Van de Ven said he hoped Wilders was not murdered by a Muslim and that murder in general was wrong.
He did admit however that he felt "some joy" on hearing of the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on 2 November."

"The silencing of Theo van Gogh" (Ronald Rovers, Salon.com, 2004/11/24)
Theo van Gogh LXV: "On his Web site, the Healthy Smoker, van Gogh had predicted the assassination: "I suspect Fortuyn will be the first in a line of politically incorrect heretics to be eliminated," he wrote. "This is what our multicultural society has brought us: a climate of intimidation in which all sorts of goatfuckers can issue their threats freely." ...
Anger toward him had certainly been rising to a boiling point all year. In May, he was slated to act as chairman of a public debate called "Happy Chaos" at the Amsterdam City Theatre. Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of a relatively small but provocative Belgian Islamic organization, refused to sit at the table with van Gogh. One of the organizers claimed Jahjah said, "We're not taking any more of that pig." When Jahjah left the stage, van Gogh took the microphone and said: "So this is what some Muslims think of democracy!" After Jahjah left, he said to the crowd: "Why would he be afraid to talk to me? After all, he's the prophet's pimp and he has bodyguards." The debate was canceled. ...
In a society that tries to offer equality and fundamental rights to all its citizens, van Gogh always called himself "a fundamentalist when it comes to free speech." On a public radio show in May, he said: 'People always tells me I cross the line. But free debate is a war of ideas. It's a place where we should be able to hurt each other.'"

"The Kiss of Death" (Lee Smith, Slate, 2004/11/24)
"In the last few months, a number of American journalists have argued that the White House's efforts at reform in the Middle East are counterproductive. Because of the Bush administration's "ineptitude, arrogance, and mendacity," writes the American Prospect's Michael Steinberger, "Washington's word is now mud, and overt U.S. support for political reform is considered the kiss of death." ...
Egypt, Jordan, and the Arab League are recommending that Iraq postpone its January elections. No doubt Arab officials know the region better than we do, but we should at least be savvy enough to recognize that they have their own motives for wanting to delay elections. What would happen to Arab regimes if Jordanians and Egyptians and all the other Arabs wanted elections like the Iraqis? Oftentimes the Muslim world's voices of moderation, its "liberals, reformers and businessmen," have a stake in preserving the status quo. ...
"Asking the Arab world to reform," says the Syrian intellectual Ammar Abdulhamid, "is dabbling with its innermost political life." That is to say, any real reform in the Arab world will have to go well beyond cosmetic changes and address the political, economic, and social structures that sustain Arab regimes and preserve the status quo. Clearly, the region's governments won't do that work if they're not compelled to do so."

"Let's hear it for the Marines" (Janan Ganesh, The Times, 2004/11/24)
"The motto of the US Marine Corps is Semper Fidelis, or “always faithful”. And faith is exactly what the Western media eschew in their relentlessly cynical coverage of the American Armed Forces, which plunged to a new nadir last week with the outrage at a Marine who shot dead an injured and unarmed Fallujah terrorist. Their determination to portray the Americans as trigger-happy louts and the Iraqi terrorists as mere “rebels” slanders the former, sanctifies the latter and betrays everybody who trusts journalists to be objective.
Each American transgression is covered exhaustively and reproachfully, while triumphs, such as the trouble-free elections in Afghanistan and the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure, are treated as background noise. The torture of a few dozen prisoners in Abu Ghraib, for example, received far more attention than the restoration of the Marsh Arabs’ homeland. ...
Shackled by laws, norms and protocol concocted by legalists, the US Armed Forces — who have done more for freedom of the press than all the world’s journalists combined — are put in an impossible position. It is nauseating enough that they are now casually disparaged as “hicks” and “rednecks” by do-nothing civilians, without the supposedly objective media joining in."

"Iraq's New Court Finds Itself on Trial" (Michael A. Newton, The New York Times, 2004/11/24)
"The worst kind of hypocrisy is the sort that pretends to stand on principle. The latest example is the failure of the United Nations, our European allies and nongovernmental groups to support Iraqi efforts to bring Saddam Hussein and his henchmen to justice.":
"Last month I spent a week in London working with the group of judges and prosecutors who form the core of the special tribunal. They are a distinguished group of patriots who know more than any outsider how critical the rule of law will be for the future of their country. ... Unfortunately, their pleas for assistance are going unanswered. For example, some of the most experienced practitioners from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia had initially agreed to participate in the London sessions. At the last minute, however, the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, lamely insisted that these experts were all too busy in The Hague to help the Iraqis, and he ordered them to stay home.
Similarly, Amnesty International has issued a press release insisting that the "trial of Saddam Hussein must draw on international expertise," but has failed to provide any such help. Human Rights Watch took testimony from Iraqi victims who thought they were helping develop cases against Iraqis suspected of crimes. But according to American officials, the organization, without consulting the witnesses, refused to provide all the statements or to give all the victims' identities to the special tribunal. Human Rights Watch has even taken issue with the statute's ban on former Baath Party members sitting in judgment of the accused. Would the group have wanted Nazis passing judgment at Nuremberg?"

"N. Koreans detail deadly experiments on prisoners" (Jeremy Kirk, The Washington Times, 2004/11/24)
"North Korean scientists are said to have conducted lethal gas experiments on political prisoners in the 1970s that were still happening as recently as 2002.
In 10 hours of interviews Monday, three North Koreans detailed chilling experiments in which prisoners were placed in glass chambers and exposed to chemicals that killed them within hours, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles. ...
Mr. Cooper detailed an account from a 31-year-old North Korean chemist who said he was involved in one of two parallel groups involved in experiments.
The chemist's group experimented on animals, and recorded data on a chart.
The defector told Mr. Cooper that if the experiments were successful, "we then turned over the results to our colleagues, and they were experimenting on human guinea pigs." (See also: "North Korea tested lethal gas on humans - Wiesenthal" (stuff, 2004/11/24): "Victims in the experiments described by the other two witnesses were put into a glass cell hooked up for audio, Cooper said quoting one of the witnesses. "It didn't just take two and a half hours for a prisoner to die. There was two-way communication in terms of audio," he said, adding this implied the scientists were also monitoring the degree of suffering during a slow death.")

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

News and commentary:

"INTELLIGENCE OVERHAUL"
(CBS Evening News, 2004/11/23)
"Dan Rather is seen in this image made from television during the CBS Evening News in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004. The hard-charging embodiment of CBS News who saw his reputation damaged by an ill-fated report on President Bush's National Guard service, said Tuesday he will step down as 'CBS Evening News' anchor in March after nearly a quarter-century in the job."

"Is the world watching?" (Johan Norberg, johannorberg.net, 2004/11/23)
Off topic of the day II: "Right now in the freezing cold, almost 100 000 Ukranians are protesting against the stolen election in central Kiev, and a huge demonstration has also started in the city of Lviv. The municipal councils in both cities have said they only take orders from the liberal presidential candidate Yushchenko, the real winner of the election. At the same time, security forces have said that they are ready to put down the protests "quickly and firmly".
Where are the concerned European politicians who should condemn the fraud, and who could be with these crowds to show their support? And where are the "human shields"? A lot of young westerners were willing to risk their lives to stop the war on Iraq. Aren’t they willing to risk some discomfort to stop one of Europe’s biggest countries from slipping back to dictatorship?" (UPDATE 2004/11/24. See also: "Human Shields, Ukraine Wants You!" (Kristian Karlsson, Tech Central Station, 2004/11/24): "Apparently, releasing 25 million Iraqis from the prison that Saddam Hussein built around them is a worse offense than trampling the democratic rights of 48 million Ukrainians. Defending democracy just ain't any fun when there's no Dubya to mock.")

"Outrageous Intolerable Incitement: the Ivory Coast and France, France and America" (John Rosenthal, Transatlantic Intelligencer, 2004/11/23)
Off topic of the day I. Rosenthal on reports that French troops have “decapitated” Ivorian protestors in Abidjan and fired into a crowd of civilians: "The context for the beheading charges is a confrontation that took place on November 9 between Ivorian protestors and French troops having taken up heavily armed positions in front of the Hotel Ivoire, not far from Laurent Gbagbo’s Presidential residence. The French forces are accused of having fired into the crowd. Depending on sources, anywhere from 7 to upwards of 60 Ivorians are said to have been killed in the incident, with many more wounded. Not only is this allegation in itself plausible, but a spokesperson for the French army admitted in an November 14 interview with the Swiss television channel TSR that it is true. ...
It does not require a very elaborate demonstration to be able to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if it were not the French, but rather the American military that was caught on videotape firing into a crowd of civilians, it would be all over the airwaves 24/7." (See also: "Ivory Coast Violence Breaks French Connection" (Craig Timberg, The Washington Post, 2004/11/13))

"Mass Offensive Launched South of Baghdad" (Tini Tran, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/23)
I guess you actually are obliged to have a degree in moral equivalence to work for AP. Let me try: "The police arrested a suspected murderer today. In other violence, a man was murdered by masked gunmen.":
"Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched raids and arrested suspected insurgents Tuesday in a new offensive aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
In other violence, masked gunmen assassinated a Sunni cleric north of Baghdad — the second such killing in as many days — and insurgents hit a U.S. convoy with a roadside bomb near the central Iraq city of Samarra, prompting the Americans to open fire, killing an Iraqi, hospital officials said.
The new offensive was the third large-scale military assault this month aimed at suppressing Iraq's persistent insurgency ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30.
The region of dusty, small towns south of the capital has become known as the "triangle of death" for the frequent attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms on U.S. and Iraqi forces there and for frequent ambushes on travellers."