Archived news and commentary: November 29 - December 5, 2004

2004/11/29 - 2004/12/05
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

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, December 5, 2004

News and commentary:

"French Connection to Oil for Food Probed" (FOX News, 2004/12/05)
"PARIS — As investigators dig into the scandal-plagued U.N. Oil-for-Food program, one question keeps surfacing — how deep does the link between French officials and Saddam Hussein go?
The CIA’s Iraq Survey Group released a report in September that, in part, suggested that French businessmen and politicians with close ties to French President Jacques Chirac may have received bribes from Saddam. It also said that French companies may have sold weapons to Iraq on the eve of the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.
But French officials maintain that accusations of wrongdoing and illegal profiting against France have been made without proof. ...
Over three decades Charles Pasqua's name has been linked to a series of French corruption scandals, but the former French interior minister has maintained his innocence and has never been convicted of any wrongdoing.
Now, Pasqua is being eyed as a player in the Oil-for-Food scandal. The CIA’s report listed Pasqua as having received oil vouchers from Saddam, vouchers that would have given him a profit of at least $400,000.
“I have never received anything from Saddam Hussein,” he said through an interpreter.
FOX News asked Pasqua why his name ended up in the CIA report?
“It's a good question,” he said. 'It's not only my name that's there. The names of other French officials are included.'"

"Embraceable E.U." (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2004/12/05)
"By accident of history and geography, the European paradise is surrounded on three sides by an unruly tangle of potentially catastrophic problems, from North Africa to Turkey and the Balkans to the increasingly contested borders of the former Soviet Union. This is an arc of crisis if ever there was one, and especially now with Putin's play for a restoration of the old Russian empire. In confronting these dangers, Europe brings a unique kind of power, not coercive military power but the power of attraction. The European Union has become a gigantic political and economic magnet whose greatest strength is the attractive pull it exerts on its neighbors. Europe's foreign policy today is enlargement; its most potent foreign policy tool is what the E.U.'s Robert Cooper calls "the lure of membership." ...
Cooper is not alone in his expansive European vision. Among leading European policymakers, Germany's Joschka Fischer seems the most dedicated to using enlargement and the E.U.'s attractive power for strategic purposes. Before Sept. 11, 2001, Fischer was suspicious of bringing Turkey into the European Union and inheriting such nightmarish neighbors as Iraq and Syria. But now he regards Turkey's membership as a strategic necessity. "To modernize an Islamic country based on the shared values of Europe would be almost a D-Day for Europe in the war against terror," he argues, because it "would provide real proof that Islam and modernity, Islam and the rule of law . . . [and] this great cultural tradition and human rights are after all compatible." This 'would be the greatest positive challenge for these totalitarian and terrorist ideas.'"

"Bush is the last anchorman for a nation drifting apart" (Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times, 2004/12/05)
"All that is solid melts into air": "Unlike the days of Carson there is no unifying American centre any more. Even for humour. Even before you go to bed. We are all subcultures now." ...
We live, it seems, in an age in which authority is absent. There was a time when the BBC back home as well as abroad, for example, commanded universal respect. Not so much any more. Ditto the monarchy. Or the top political parties.
But in America the decline of authority has been particularly swift. The erosion of privacy means that every public figure has his soiled laundry on the internet — affidavits and all. Only recently the presidency was reduced to evidence about oral sex. ...
In a world where the anchors have retired into irrelevance, this president has provided rigidity to the ship of state. It may prove too rigid, too unyielding and too prone to error. But it is solid. And solidity is what Americans now lack — and unconsciously yearn for."

"The Anatomy of a Myth" (Dick Meyer, The Washinton Post, 2004/12/05)
Meyer on the Moral Values Doctrine: "From the modest experiment of one exit poll question, a Unified Theory of Election 2004 was hatched. ...
Several days later, American Prospect Executive Editor Michael Tomasky expressed the apocalyptic Democratic interpretation in his column: "The reelection of a president such as George W. Bush for the reasons the exit polls tell us he evidently won is a culminating event in the political retreat of modernity, a condition of existence whose fundamental tenet was the triumph of scientific skepticism over what used to be called 'blind' faith." Wow. ...
A Nov. 22 op-ed in Newsday by political scientist Laura R. Olson also took off from the fatal assumption. "The much-touted exit poll finding that moral values were the most important Election Day concern of 22 percent of voters highlights the fact that a sizable number of Americans expect political leaders to offer a prophetic vision," she wrote. I'm not picking on her; that's just one example of many I could have cited. ...
Despite the best efforts of myth-busters, the moral values doctrine has morphed from a simple poll finding to a grand explanatory theory to gospel truth. This contaminated strain of punditry needs to be eradicated before it spreads further."

"Watchdog 'bowed to pressure from Iran' on bomb materials" (Damien McElroy, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/12/05)
"The world nuclear watchdog dropped a claim that Iran bought large quantities of a metal used to trigger explosions in atomic weapons after bowing to objections from Teheran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency at first accepted Western intelligence reports that the Islamic republic had bought "huge amounts" of beryllium from "a number of nations", but removed the claim from its final report on Iranian compliance with nuclear non-proliferation rules, published 10 days ago.
An earlier draft of the IAEA report, seen by The Telegraph, said that Iran had manufactured material to use with the beryllium that it had purchased as a "nuclear initiator in some designs of nuclear weapons".
A spokesman for the IAEA conceded that the agency had removed any mention of beryllium from its report, but said that the change was insignificant."

Saturday, December 4, 2004

News and commentary:

"This conspiracy theory is terrible" (Ben Macintyre, The Times, 2004/12/04)
"The burgeoning belief in conspiracy extends well beyond the bestseller lists and the Church. In a cynical age we are eager — nay, determined — to believe the worst, to assume that we are being misled by the authorities. This is the Michael Moore theory of society: forget logic or evidence, we know we are being deceived by evil people in a gigantic conspiracy, so proof is immaterial.
The things-are-never-as-they-seem tendency is in the ascendant and almost every theory gets a hearing: a cabal of neocons, variously Jewish and fundamentalist Christian, has overrun the White House and the President is being operated by remote control... ...
Scepticism of authority is a sign of healthy democracy, but there is something unhealthy about a society so disheartened with democracy that it is prepared to swallow almost any conspiracy theory. We should treat the sceptics with greater scepticism, because it is a short step from conspiracy to David Icke, prophet of the wildly improbable. Now here is a really scary and inexplicable phenomenon: ten million people a month reportedly log on to Mr Icke’s website to learn such revealed truths as 'America’s Apollo 11 photographed a human skeleton on the Moon when it landed there in 1969. Intriguingly, the skeleton appears to have been wearing jeans.'"

"Annan's Post at the U.N. May Be at Risk, Officials Fear" (Warren Hoge and Judith Miller, The New York Times, 2004/12/04)
"UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 3 - United Nations officials fear that Secretary General Kofi Annan may have lost the confidence of the organization's most powerful constituent, the United States. They also say members of the Bush administration may want Mr. Annan to resign because of his disagreements with Washington about Iraq and the growing scandal over the Iraq oil-for-food program.
Concern at high levels of the secretariat was reinforced by President Bush's pointed refusal on Thursday to express confidence in Mr. Annan's continuing in office. He also linked American financial support to the United Nations to a full accounting of the program and Saddam Hussein's diversion of over $20 billion while under United Nations sanctions. ...
American criticism of Mr. Annan has already prompted a backlash. On Friday, the European Union added its support for Mr. Annan to that of Russia, China, Britain and France. On Tuesday, 54 African nations sent a letter of support.
Staff members have circulated an internal e-mail message calling the charges "totally unfounded" and verging "on the hysterical." Ahmad H. Fawzi of Egypt, who has served the United Nations in Baghdad, said that by Thursday, the note had 3,170 signatures." (See also: "Kofi Annan Must Go" (Norm Coleman, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/12/01))

Note: Watch will not updated until next Saturday, December 11, because of family matters. Tips on news and commentary are highly appreciated. Send them to: watch-at-windsofchange.net. Until then.

Friday, December 3, 2004

News and commentary:

"Man escapes jail for threatening MP Wilders" (Expatica, 2004/12/03)
A "120-hour community service order and a two-month suspended jail term" for a public death threat against a Dutch politician. The hyperliberal justice system in parts of Europe often actually seems to diminish crimes to non-significance, which actually punishes the victim as his or her suffering apparently is worth next to nothing. And will any Islamist be disconcerted by this sentencing? I doubt it. In practice, it encourages crimes like these rather than the opposite:
"AMSTERDAM — An appeals court in The Hague decided Friday against jailing a 30-year-old man who threatened to kill anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders.
The public prosecutor (OM) demanded last month that defendant Farid A., of Schiedam near Rotterdam, be jailed for the crime. But the appeals court rejected the OM's application.
The court instead affirmed a lower court's sentence of a 120-hour community service order and a two-month suspended jail term.
Taking part in an internet discussion forum earlier this year, A. had written: "Wilders must be punished with death for his fascistic comments about Islam, Muslims and the Palestinian cause".
He also added a photo of the Independent MP who is a focal critic of Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands."

"AP: Navy Probes New Iraq Prisoner Photos" (Seth Hettena, AP/My Way, 2004/12/03)
"CORONADO, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head.
Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison occurred months later.
An Associated Press reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing Web site by a woman who said her husband brought them from Iraq after his tour of duty. It is unclear who took the pictures, which the Navy said it was investigating after the AP furnished copies to get comment for this story." (See also pictures: "Die Folterbilder der 'Navy-Seals'" (AP/Stern, December 2004))

"Russia's Putin Calls U.S. Policy 'Dictatorial'" (Douglas Busvine, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/12/03)
"NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of pursuing a dictatorial foreign policy and said mounting violence could derail progress toward bringing peace and democracy to Iraq.
Putin also criticized the West for setting double-standards on terrorism, pursuing Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan and Iraq while giving refuge to "terrorists" demanding Chechnya (news - web sites)'s independence from Russia. ...
"Even if dictatorship is packaged in beautiful pseudo-democratic phraseology, it will not be able to solve systemic problems," Putin said. "It may even make them worse."
Putin did not name the United States, but clearly had the administration of President Bush in mind when he said policies "based on the barrack-room principles of a unipolar world appear to be extremely dangerous." (See also: "Putin Accuses U.S. of Double Standard" (Rajesh Mahapatra, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/12/03):
"Putin, who has been angered by U.S. and European denunciations of the Ukraine election as rigged unacceptable, began a three-day visit to the Cold-War era ally with continued criticism of Washington, saying it seeks a "dictatorship of international affairs."
"Even if dictatorship is wrapped up in a beautiful package of pseuo-democratic phraseology, it will not be in a position to solve systemic problems," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying in a speech Friday night in New Delhi.")

"Hamas official: We will agree to two states, peace with Israel" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/12/03)
"In an apparent change in long-standing policy, a top Hamas leader said Friday the group would accept the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as a long-term truce with Israel.
Hamas has long sought to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic Palestinian state, rejecting peace accords and carrying out suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed hundreds of people and badly damaged peace efforts.
"Hamas has announced that it accepts a Palestinian independent state within the 1967 borders with a long-term truce," Sheik Hassan Yousef, the top Hamas leader in the West Bank, told The Associated Press, referring to lands Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day war.
Yousef said the Hamas position was new and called it a "stage." In the past, Hamas has said it would accept a state in the 1967 borders as a first step to taking over Israel. Yousef did not spell out the conditions for the renewable ceasefire nor did he say how long it would last.
"For us a truce means that two warring parties live side by side in peace and security for a certain period and this period is eligible for renewal," Yousef said. 'That means Hamas accepts that the other party will live in security and peace.'" (See also: "Hamas leader says would consider 10-year truce" (Haaretz, 2004/11/29))

"UN re-opens inquiry into pardoned official" (AFP/ABC News, 2004/12/03)
"The scandal-plagued United Nations has made an unexpected about-face, saying it would reconsider the case against its top watchdog official.
Dileep Nair has been controversially pardoned by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on allegations of favouritism and corruption allegations.
The UN staff union had voted overwhelmingly that UN management had "further eroded the trust" of employees by clearing Mr Nair in what one senior union official called a "whitewash".
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard says that the United Nations would now listen to staff complaints about the Nair case."

"Leaving the hall of mirrors" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/12/03)
Glick on opportunistic America- and Israel-bashing:
"Then we have the Palestinian violinist. ... The incident at the roadblock was investigated by the IDF and the findings, released this week, show that the Palestinian in question was asked to remove his violin from its case by the soldiers and that he began playing his instrument on his own initiative. Indeed, the report reveals that the soldiers had to ask him to stop playing. But what does the truth matter when the image can be used by the Israel-bashing radical Left to "prove" that its narrative, in which Israel is the aggressor and Palestinians are innocent victims, is right and reality is wrong? ...
If we can be convinced that they are right and reality is wrong, they will never have to pay a price for all their mendacious notions of Israeli racism and American imperialism. They will never be taken to task for the thousands who have died as a result of their conviction that anyone who fights for the right to be free and unmolested by Third World fascists is by definition a fascist.
The only way to fight these people is to refuse to play by their rules. We must be able to look in the mirror and realize that indeed we are the good guys here. And we must be willing to look at the rotten evil that characterizes the ideology of our enemies and say that defeating them is the mission of our generation." (See also: "Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at roadblock" (Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 2004/11/29))

"How Far We’ve Come" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/12/03)
"Yet despite them all, and after this bloody month of November, here we are now on the eve of elections — the most unlikely of all events in the last half-century of civilization. Just think of it: In place of the past Hussein mass murdering and the present ogres of Fallujah, we are to witness an effort to jump-start democracy in the heart of the caliphate of old, right between the world's worst two governments in Syria and Iran, amid treacherous folk like the Saudis, Jordanians, and al Jazeera cheering the insurgents on. ...
There may well be even more terrible things to come in Iraq than what we have seen already, but there will also be far better things than were there before. And there will come a time, when all those who slandered the efforts — the Germans, the French, the American radical Left, the vicious Michael "Minutemen" Moore, the pampered and coddled Hollywood elite, the Arab League, and the U.N. will assume that Iraq is a "good thing" like Afghanistan, and that democracy there really was preferable — after they had so bravely weighed in with their requisite "ifs" and "buts" — to the mass murders of Saddam Hussein. Yes, they will say all this, but it will be for the rest of us to remember how it all came about and what those forgotten soldiers and people of Iraq went through to get it — lest we forget, lest we forget...."

"Soiled Rotten" (Denis Boyles, National Review, 2004/12/03)
Boyles finds a pattern in European politics:
"The point is you could be forgiven for thinking that opposition to U.S. policies in Iraq and elsewhere is a consequence of ideological or strategic disagreements. But there is no ideology any more. There's only anti-Americanism, scandal, and corruption. And of course stupidity: According to a survey of 4,000 Britons under the age of 35 reported in the Independent, 60 percent of them have never heard of Auschwitz, and of those who thought the name was familiar, three quarters really didn't know much about what had gone on there. At least they'll never forget." (See also: "Most younger people have never heard of Auschwitz" (Ian Burrell, Independent, 2004/12/03): "Six out of ten people under the age of 35 have never heard of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp that was the scene of the biggest mass murder ever recorded.")

"200 pledge willingness to carry out suicide attacks against Americans, Israelis" (Nasser Karimi, AP/CBC News, 2004/12/03)
"TEHRAN, Iran, (AP) - Some 200 masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery Thursday to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis.
The ceremony was organized by the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a shadowy group that has since June been seeking volunteers for attacks in Iraq and Israel.
A spokesman, Ali Mohammadi, described Thursday's group as the "first suicide commando unit," though another official has claimed members already have carried out attacks in Israel.
"Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands," Mohammadi said." (See also: "Iran Group Canvasses for Suicide Bombers" (Ali Akbar Dareini, AP/Chicago Tribune, 2004/11/28) and "Fars News Agency: First International gathering of candidates for suicide bombers" (Fars News Agency/activistchat.com, 2004/06/04))

"Galloway" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/12/03)
Galloway II: "Some things are worth reiterating. The libel verdict won by Saddam-supporter George Galloway does not depend on the notion that Galloway's ties to Saddam were disproven. They haven't been. Nor was this case decided by a jury. The case was won because, in the judge's view, the Telegraph had not given Galloway sufficient time or space to respond to the charges:

Mr Justice Eady said Mr Galloway was not given sufficient opportunity to refute the claims in the Telegraph that he had received up to £375,000 a year from Saddam. ...

Such a judgment wouldn't stand a chance in an American court - but then Britain's libel laws are far tougher than America's; and there's far less freedom of speech in the UK than in the U.S. Here's the Telegraph's official response. It's deeply depressing. The verdict stands regardless of whether the story is proven true or not." (See also: "Galloway wins libel case against Telegraph" (Chris Tryhorn, The Guardian, 2004/12/02) and "Galloway judgement" (The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/02))

"Galloway wins libel case over Saddam claims" (Caroline Davies, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/03)
Galloway I: "George Galloway was awarded £150,000 libel damages against The Daily Telegraph yesterday after a High Court judge ruled that he had been "seriously defamed" over the newspaper's coverage of documents naming him and found in Iraq. ...
Among the documents was one from the head of Iraqi Intelligence to Saddam's office purporting to show Mr Galloway had received money from the regime through the oil-for-food programme to fund his political work on behalf of Iraq and that he had requested more money.
The newspaper claimed it was responsible journalism and in the public interest to publish the documents and a right to comment on the contents. It faces £1 million costs. ...
'While we have no doubt that these documents are authentic, it has never been The Daily Telegraph's case to suggest that we could prove the information contained within them is true.'"

Thursday, December 2, 2004

News and commentary:

"A Fighting Faith" (Peter Beinart, The New Republic, 2004/12/02)
"Today, three years after September 11 brought the United States face-to-face with a new totalitarian threat, liberalism has still not "been fundamentally reshaped" by the experience. ... On health care, gay rights, and the environment, there is a positive vision, articulated with passion. But there is little liberal passion to win the struggle against Al Qaeda — even though totalitarian Islam has killed thousands of Americans and aims to kill millions; and even though, if it gained power, its efforts to force every aspect of life into conformity with a barbaric interpretation of Islam would reign terror upon women, religious minorities, and anyone in the Muslim world with a thirst for modernity or freedom.
When liberals talk about America's new era, the discussion is largely negative — against the Iraq war, against restrictions on civil liberties, against America's worsening reputation in the world. In sharp contrast to the first years of the cold war, post-September 11 liberalism has produced leaders and institutions — most notably Michael Moore and MoveOn — that do not put the struggle against America's new totalitarian foe at the center of their hopes for a better world. As a result, the Democratic Party boasts a fairly hawkish foreign policy establishment and a cadre of politicians and strategists eager to look tough. But, below this small elite sits a Wallacite grassroots that views America's new struggle as a distraction, if not a mirage. Two elections, and two defeats, into the September 11 era, American liberalism still has not had its meeting at the Willard Hotel. And the hour is getting late."

"Al-Jazeera’s Psyops" (Hassan Hanizadeh, Tehran Times, 2004/12/02)
Blame the Jews Part 767,983. Al-Jazeera was founded by Zionist agents in order to tarnage the image of Islam:
"Many media experts believed that the new network would create a revolution in the field of information dissemination, particularly in the Arab states on the Persian Gulf.
However, at the same time, rumors arose suggesting that the network was established by U.S. and Israeli agents in order to present a bad image of Islam to the world. ...
But the actions of the network gradually revealed the fact that Al-Jazeera officials, on the orders of Zionist agents, are trying to divide Islamic countries and tarnish the image of Islam. ...
By broadcasting abhorrent scenes of the beheadings of foreign hostages by the criminal agents of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist group, the network succeeded in increasing anti-Muslim sentiment throughout the world, particularly in the West.
Following the advice of U.S. and Israeli experts in psychological operations (psyops), Al-Jazeera took actions which gave Westerners a negative image of Islam and Muslims.
In fact, the Al-Jazeera network was founded at exactly the same time when Iranian President Mohammad Khatami introduced his Dialogue Among Civilizations initiative as a logical strategy to bring the West and the Islamic world closer together.
Of course, the Zionists were not pleased at the idea because they believe that increased proximity between the Islamic world and the West is not in their interests. And that is why they founded the Al-Jazeera network to tarnish the image of true Islam." (Hat tip: The Corner.)

"Torture Can Be Used to Detain U.S. Enemies" (AP/ABC News, 2004/12/03)
"WASHINGTON Dec 2, 2004 — U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of foreigners as enemy combatants are allowed to use evidence gained by torture in deciding whether to keep them imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government conceded in court Thursday.
The acknowledgment by Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle came during a U.S. District Court hearing on lawsuits brought by some of the 550 foreigners imprisoned at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The lawsuits challenge their detention without charges for up to three years so far.
Attorneys for the prisoners argued that some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the detainees 'have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court.'"

"Bitter lemons" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2004/12/02)
"Why are so many west Europeans being such lemons about Ukraine's orange revolution? Every day brings a new example of some feeble, back-handed or downright hostile reaction.
Yesterday, it was Simon Jenkins in the Times describing the crowds in Kiev as a "mob". (Dictionary definition: "a riotous or disorderly crowd of people; rabble".) ...
In between, we have two representatives of a pressure group with a highly dubious track record, Mark Almond and John Laughland, informing us that somewhere behind or among the demonstrators were, respectively, agents of George Soros and Ukrainian, anti-semitic neo-Nazis. In the Berlin Tagesspiegel, I read a comparison of the opposition's tactics with those of Lenin in 1918... ...
For 25 years, I have heard these same old arguments against supporting the democratic oppositions in eastern Europe. Those oppositions, we are told, threaten European "stability". Behind or beside them are nasty nationalists and/or the CIA. We must respect the legitimate security interests of Moscow (an argument originally used to justify the continued existence of the Berlin Wall). A ghastly Pandora's box will be opened by ....... (fill this space with: Poland's Solidarnosc, Charter 77, the Leipzig demonstrators - sorry, mob - in 1989, anti-Milosevic students in Belgrade, Georgian rose revolutionaries, or now Ukrainians)." (See also: "When is as mob not really a mob? Why, when it's our mob, of course" (Simon Jenkins, The Times, 2004/12/01): "Mobs are wayward monsters and hot to the touch. Mobs brought both communism and fascism to power. ... We may accept the mob as a necessary evil, but should remember that evil it remains.")

More on Ukraine:
"The Freedom Haters" (Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, 2004/12/01)
"The East Turned Upside Down: Carnival and conspiracy in Ukraine" (Jesse Walker, Reason, 2004/11/30)
"PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes" (David Aaronovitch, The Guardian, 2004/11/30)
"The Gloom Patrol" (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 2004/11/30)

"What if it's not Israel they loathe?" (Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/12/02)
"Conventional wisdom also insists that the US is hated by Muslims because it is pro-Israel. That view is shared by most American officials posted to the Arab capitals. But is it not possible that the reverse is true — that Israel is hated because it is pro-American?":
"If Muslims hate the US because it backs Israel which, in turn, is oppressing Muslims in Palestine, then why don't other oppressed Muslims benefit from the same degree of solidarity from their co-religionists?
During Ramadan, news came that more than 500 Muslims had been killed in clashes with the police in southern Thailand. At least 80 were suffocated to death in police buses under suspicious circumstances.
The Arab and the Iranian press, however, either ignored the event or relegated it to inside pages. To my knowledge, only one Muslim newspaper devoted an editorial to it. And only two newspapers mentioned that Thailand was building a wall to cordon off almost two million Muslims in southern Thailand — a wall higher and longer than the controversial "security fence" Israel is building. ...
And what about Chechnya which is, by any standard, the Muslim nation that has most suffered in the past two centuries? Last October the Muslim summit in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, gave a hero's welcome to Vladimir Putin, the man who has presided over the massacre of more Chechens than anyone in any other period in Russian history.
Right now there are 22 active conflicts across the globe in which Muslims are involved. Most Muslims have not even heard of most of them because those conflicts do not provide excuses for fomenting hatred against the United States.
Next time you hear someone say the US was in trouble in the Muslim world because of Israel, remember that things may not be that simple."

"Kojo cashed in on daddy, notes reveal" (Niles Latham, New York Post, 2004/12/02)
"The son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan used his father's worldwide connections to wheel and deal with heads of state — at U.N. gatherings — on behalf of a controversial Swiss company that won a lucrative oil-for-food program contract, The Post has learned.
The intense lobbying by Annan's 29-year old son, Kojo, was disclosed in a raft of internal company documents — including Kojo Annan's expense reports — that the company recently turned over to congressional committees under a subpoena. ...
According to records reviewed by The Post, Kojo Annan, while working for the Cotecna firm, enjoyed extraordinary access to U.N. diplomats and other international dignitaries because of his father's position."

"U.S. to Increase Its Force in Iraq by Nearly 12,000" (Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, The New York Times, 2004/12/02)
"The American military presence in Iraq will grow by nearly 12,000 troops by next month, to 150,000, the highest level since the invasion last year, to provide security for the Iraqi elections in January and to quell insurgent attacks around the country, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
The Pentagon is doing this mainly by ordering about 10,400 soldiers and marines in Iraq to extend their tours - in some cases for the second time - for up to two months, even as their replacement units begin to arrive. The Pentagon is also sending 1,500 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division in the next two weeks for a four-month tour."

"All aboard the terrorists' bus to Iraq" (Jack Fairweather, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/02)
Syria II: "In April, the 23-year-old [Abdullah] boarded a convoy of American GMCs in Aleppo, northern Syria, with 10 other fighters from the area.
He had been recruited at a mosque 30 miles south of Aleppo, built last year by a local sheikh with business interests in Iraq and strong sympathies with the resistance. It is brazenly entitled the Mujahideen Mosque. ...
They were told they would be relieving Syrian mujahideen already in Iraq, part of a regular "troop" rotation, and would be expected to fight until they in turn were either killed or replaced.
In return Abdullah's family would be paid $3,000 (£1,600) a month by the mosque – more than most American soldiers in Iraq and a fortune in Syria where average salaries are less than £10 a week. ...
"We are Muslims, we should do jihad. We should go to Palestine but it is difficult to enter - but in Iraq it is easy to kill the Jews." ...
Several prominent mosques in Damascus, including the large Bilal al-Hashemi mosque, have reputations as staging posts for Syrian fighters, suggesting a logistical and financial operation beyond the ability of any one tribal leader. The US military believes there may be as many as 2,000 foreign fighters in Iraq, mostly from Syria."

"Mosques sending fighters to Iraq" (Jack Fairweather, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/02)
Syria I: "A network of Syrian mosques is sending men, money and weapons to Iraq, fuelling the insurgency.
An investigation by the Telegraph has shown that Arab volunteers are streaming across the border despite Damascus government claims that it is curbing cross-border terrorism.
Much of the traffic is financed by former members of Saddam Hussein's regime living in the Syrian capital and has the backing of prominent tribal leaders. ...
Support for the Iraqi resistance is widespread in Syria amid fears of an American invasion of the country.
Several hundred Syrians are recruited, equipped and sent to Iraq every month.
Iraqi exiles say that members of Saddam's former Ba'athist regime pay £1,600 a month to the families of the fighters."

Added in archive:
"Assault on freedom" (Nick Cohen, New Humanist, 2004/09/06)
"We must be free to criticise without being called racist" (Polly Toynbee, The Guardian, 2004/08/18)
"Crucifying public debate: If we aren't free to 'incite religious hatred', we aren't free" (Josie Appleton, spiked online, 2004/07/07)
"Why I've changed my mind on vilification laws" (Amir Butler, The Age, 2004/06/04)
"The moral decay of Australia" (Peter Costello, The Age, 2004/06/01)

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

News and commentary:

"Muslims in the Guardian" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/12/01)
Phillips on The Guardian's poll and special report on Muslims in Britain, here commenting on the choice of Tariq Ramadan, "who the paper described as ‘one of the most revered Muslim scholars in the world’", as a panelist:
"Ramadan is a descendant of Hasan al Banna who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, the extreme sect which fathered modern Islamofascism. In August, the US revoked Ramadan’s entry visa on the grounds that he had connections with terrorist activity. He has vehemently denied this. But this is what the Islam scholar Daniel Pipes has revealed of Ramadan’s history:

• ‘He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of the Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Mr. Turabi in turn called Mr. Ramadan the "future of Islam."
• Mr. Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.
• Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian indicted for Al-Qaeda activities, had "routine contacts" with Mr. Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge (Baltasar Garzón) in 1999.
• Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the American embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had studied with Mr. Ramadan.
• Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is "any certain proof" that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.
• He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and Madrid as "interventions," minimizing them to the point of near-endorsement. ...

Ramadan believes that Islam should replace western civilisation. He wants western culture Islamicised, gradually excising all references to Christianity and Judaism altogether. He has been accused of outright prejudice against Jews. One writer has said of him: ‘His problem is not the modernization of Islam, but the Islamification of modernity’ (‘Esprit et Vie,’ February 17, 2000).
This is the man to whom the Guardian turned to pronounce on ‘how to accommodate diversity and equality within a western democracy’. How long will western democracy last when its proponents turn to such a man to answer such a question? And where dos this leave ‘mainstream’, ‘non-extremist’ Islam when someone like Ramadan is ‘one of the most revered Muslim scholars in the world’?" (See also: "British Muslims want Islamic law and prayers at work" (Alan Travis and Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 2004/11/30) and "Why Revoke Tariq Ramadan's U.S. Visa?" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2004/08/27))

"Saddam 'raided UN arms sites for suicide attacks'" (Patrick Cockburn, Independent, 2004/12/01)
"As American forces closed in on Baghdad last year, senior members of Saddam Hussein's government devised a plan to send suicide bombers in vehicles packed with devastating high-energy explosives that were under UN safeguards. ...
A letter to Saddam from Dr Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, five days before the fall of Baghdad, suggests taking the HMX from underground bunkers, where it had been kept under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and giving it to suicide bombers.
He wrote: "It is possible to increase the explosive power of the suicide-driven cars by using the highly explosive material [HMX] which is sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] and stored in the warehouses of the Military Industry Departments." ...
It now appears that senior officials in the Iraqi government were discussing the removal of the HMX before the fall of Saddam. The letter from Dr Sabri, obtained by The Independent, was sent on 4 April 2003 as US tanks were advancing on Baghdad. It said that the world was getting the impression that Iraqi civilians were co-operating with American soldiers.
Dr Sabri suggested that the best way of preventing US troops getting too close to Iraqi civilians was 'to target their vehicle checkpoints with suicide operations by civilian vehicles in order to make the savage Americans realise that their contact with Iraqi civilians is as dangerous as facing them on the battlefield.'" (Hat tip: Angus Cook and Norm Geras. See also: "Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq" - News and commentary on the missing explosives in Iraq.)

"Barghouti Seeking Palestinian Presidency" (Mohammed Daraghmeh, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/12/01)
So a convicted mass murderer is going to run for Palestinian president after all:
"Jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti declared his candidacy for president Wednesday, a stunning last-minute reversal that shook up Palestinian politics ahead of the Jan. 9 vote for Yasser Arafat's replacement.
Adding to the uncertainty, the militant group Hamas said it would boycott the election. It was the first sign of open divisions between the interim Palestinian leadership and the Islamic opposition group since Arafat's death Nov. 11. ...
Last week, Barghouti sent a message from his prison cell saying that he would not pursue the presidency for the sake of unity in the ruling Fatah movement. But Wednesday, he abruptly changed his mind.
Cheered by supporters who shouted "With our blood and souls, we will redeem you, Marwan," Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, dropped off his registration documents at the Palestinian election headquarters ahead of a midnight deadline. "I officially registered Marwan," she told reporters. Earlier, the campaign paid a $3,000 deposit, associates said."

"The Islamization of Europe?" (David Pryce-Jones, Commentary, from the December 2004 issue)
"Still another phenomenon familiar from the Soviet era has lately made a repeat appearance in the West, and that is voluntary accommodation, or fellow-traveling, among non-Muslims.":
"In Britain, a judge has agreed to prohibit Hindus and Jews from sitting on a jury in the trial of a Muslim. The British Commission for Racial Equality has ordained that businesses must provide prayer rooms for Muslims and pay them for their absences on religious holidays. In a town in the Midlands, a proposal to renovate a hundred-year-old statue of a pig was rejected for fear of giving offense to Muslims. The British Council, an international organization for cultural relations, fired a staff member who published articles in the Sunday Telegraph arguing that the roots of terror and jihad were nourished in the soil of Islam, while the BBC canceled the contract of a popular television journalist for allegedly using negative language to describe the Muslim Arab contribution to mankind. ...
Religious society is not far behind: even as bin Laden speaks of wresting Spain (“al-Andalus”) from the infidels by violence, the cathedral of Santiago has considered removing a statue of St. James Matamoros (“the Moor slayer”), lest it give offense to Muslims. For the same reason, the municipality of Seville has removed King Ferdinand III, hitherto the city’s patron saint, from fiesta celebrations because he fought the Moors for 27 years. In Italy, where Islamists have threatened to destroy the cathedral of Bologna because of a fresco illustrating the Prophet Muhammad in the inferno (where Dante placed him), thought has been given to deleting the art-work from the walls. Even the Pope has apologized for the Crusades. In secular Denmark, the Qur’an (but not the Bible) is now required reading for high-school students. And so forth."

See also:
"British Council official sacked over anti-Islam articles" (Hugh Muir, The Guardian, 2004/09/02)
"Church to remove Moor-slayer saint" (BBC News, 2004/05/03)
"The Boar War; Muslims angry at plan to bring back historic statue of wild pig" (Mail on Sunday/CNN Money, 2004/03/21)
"BBC halts Kilroy for race 'rant'" (BBC News, 2004/01/09)
"'Islamic plot' to destroy cathedral fresco" (Bruce Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/06/24))

"'You Must Admit You Are a Victim'" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/12/01)
Taranto unearths a piece from Nov. 7, "written by one Mel Gilles, 'who has worked for many years as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse,' and who 'draws some parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to the election'":

Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, "Why did they beat me?"
And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.
They will tell you, every single day.
The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence. ...
First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized.

(See also: "The Politics of Victimization" (Mel Gilles, mathewgross.com, 2004/11/07). Also: "The Morning After" - News and commentary on the post-election debate after President Bush's victory. This is hopefully the ultimate in the genre of "post-election selection trauma", so I guess this is a perfect occassion for closing that collection. The trauma, however, will almost certainly continue FOUR MORE YEARS.))

"Why Women’s Voting Is Complicated" (Raid Qusti, Arab News, 2004/12/01)
A bizarre and revealing column from the Saudi daily, explaining "all the difficulties of letting women vote in the forthcoming local elections", found via Best of the Web Today:
"One of the comments made by a Saudi female, responding to my last article, is that we do not need separate ballot centers for men or women so that sinful mixing could not occur. Instead we could have different voting hours for men and women. Women could come, for example, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. And men could come from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. That way there would be no mixing. Good suggestion.
But employing Saudi women to answer queries from Saudi women is not easy, especially in remote areas. Then of course the problem still exists of finding women who are willing to work in village or small towns. If the women are willing then they would need male escorts to stay with them there, in addition of course to finding male drivers since women are not allowed to drive here.
Hypothetically, let's say all these were resolved. That is, the municipality had given itself enough time to set up everything, even employed women to assigned areas, and everything was set to go. Continuing the hypothesis further, let's say that some Saudi women who registered their names and later nominated themselves as candidates actually won and had become official members of the municipality council. In other words, these women are now officials. . . .
If a single woman won and became a member of the municipality council that would mean the government would have to construct a separate building for her. Whether she is one female, two, or ten, Saudi law forbids men and women to work in the same establishment."

"Kofi Annan Must Go" (Norm Coleman, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/12/01)
"While many questions concerning Oil-for-Food remain unanswered, one conclusion has become abundantly clear: Kofi Annan should resign. The decision to call for his resignation does not come easily, but I have arrived at this conclusion because the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch. ...
The consequences of the U.N.'s ineptitude cannot be overstated: Saddam was empowered to withstand the sanctions regime, remain in power, and even rebuild his military. ...
Since it was never likely that the U.N. Security Council, some of whose permanent members were awash in Saddam's favors, would ever call for Saddam's removal, the U.S. and its coalition partners were forced to put troops in harm's way to oust him by force. Today, money swindled from Oil-for-Food may be funding the insurgency against coalition troops in Iraq and other terrorist activities against U.S. interests. Simply put, the troops would probably not have been placed in such danger if the U.N. had done its job in administering sanctions and Oil-for-Food." (Hat tip: Belmont Club.)

"A Royal Military Police Sergeant celebrates..."
(Free Republic, 2004/12/01)
From a gallery of "Photos from Iraq (the mass-media forgot)" (Free Republic, 2004/12/01): "A Royal Military Police Sergeant celebrates the reopening of a school in Basrah where she led a $10,000 refurbishment project."

"The Freedom Haters" (Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, 2004/12/01)
Applebaum weighs in on the "it's-all-an-American-plot" conspiracy theory of the Ukraine uprising, with an example from the Guardian which I'd missed: "In a separate article, the same paper described the whole episode as a "postmodern coup d'etat" and a "CIA-sponsored third world uprising of cold war days, adapted to post-Soviet conditions.": ...
"The larger point, though, is that the "it's-all-an-American-plot" arguments circulating in cyberspace again demonstrate something that the writer Christopher Hitchens, himself a former Trotskyite, has been talking about for a long time: At least a part of the Western left — or rather the Western far left — is now so anti-American, or so anti-Bush, that it actually prefers authoritarian or totalitarian leaders to any government that would be friendly to the United States. Many of the same people who found it hard to say anything bad about Saddam Hussein find it equally difficult to say anything nice about pro-democracy demonstrators in Ukraine. Many of the same people who would refuse to condemn a dictator who is anti-American cannot bring themselves to admire democrats who admire, or at least don't hate, the United States. I certainly don't believe, as President Bush sometimes simplistically says, that everyone who disagrees with American policies in Iraq or elsewhere "hates freedom." That's why it's so shocking to discover that some of them do." (See also: "Ukraine's postmodern coup d'etat" (Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, 2004/11/26))

More on Ukraine:
"The East Turned Upside Down: Carnival and conspiracy in Ukraine" (Jesse Walker, Reason, 2004/11/30)
"PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes" (David Aaronovitch, The Guardian, 2004/11/30)
"The Gloom Patrol" (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 2004/11/30)

"Tehran's Triumph: Europe and the U.N. bless Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon" (The Wall Street Journal, 2004/12/01)
"So the International Atomic Energy Agency adopts a resolution Monday holding Iran to a "non-legally binding," "voluntary" and "confidence-building" commitment to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Tehran immediately declares it will abide by the agreement for no more than a few months. And our European friends tell us it's a triumph of their tough-minded but subtly adaptive brand of diplomacy.
In the words of fashion philosophe Kenneth Cole, Are they putting us on? ...
Even without the 20 centrifuges, the Iranian-European entente is a triumph for Tehran. It gives the mullahs diplomatic cover against the U.S. It implies a promise of open-ended European economic, technical and political aid. And it gives Iran the right to restart its nuclear programs at any moment without even being in technical breach of the IAEA resolution. All this without even touching Iran's undeclared and illicit nuclear programs, which are active and numerous and mostly beyond the IAEA's capacity to monitor." (See also: "Iran hails UN nuclear 'victory'" (BBC News, 2004/11/30) and "Board Accepts Nuclear Vow by Iranians" (Elaine Sciolino, The New York Times, 2004/11/30))

"U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early, Inquiry Finds" (Josh White, The Washington Post, 2004/12/01)
"A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December 2003 warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees, a finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison that touched off investigations into prisoner mistreatment.
The report, which was not released publicly and was recently obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that some U.S. arrest and detention practices at the time could "technically" be illegal. ...
The investigation, by retired Col. Stuart A. Herrington, also found that members of Task Force 121 — a joint Special Operations and CIA mission searching for weapons of mass destruction and high-value targets including Saddam Hussein — had been abusing detainees throughout Iraq and had been using a secret interrogation facility to hide their activities."

"U.N. Report Urges Big Changes; Security Council Would Expand" (Warren Hoge, The New York Times, 2004/12/01)
"The United Nations on Tuesday proposed the most sweeping changes in its history, recommending the overhaul of its top decision-making group, the Security Council, and holding out the possibility that it could grant legitimacy to pre-emptive military strikes. ...
The panel was very critical of the Human Rights Commission, a body that has often brought the United Nations into disrepute by incorporating some of the worst rights violators like Cuba, Libya and Sudan into its membership. The commission, which is based in Geneva, "suffers from a credibility deficit that casts doubt on the overall reputation of the United Nations," the report said." ...
Addressing the critical issue of the legitimacy of the use of force, a source of crippling tension at the United Nations last year when the United States was seeking Security Council authorization to go to war in Iraq, the panel said it found no reason to amend the charter's Article 51, which restricts the use of force to countries that have been attacked."

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

News and commentary:

"Israeli Conspiracy Anglo American Terrorism"
(Paul Denton, amalgamatedlampblack.com, 2004/11/30)
From a gallery of "Photos from George W. Bush's visit to Ottawa, November 30" (Paul Denton, amalgamatedlampblack.com, 2004/11/30)

"The Barriers Come Down: Antisemitism and Coalitions of Extremes" (Dave Rich, AXT, November 2004)
"Unsurprisingly, the history of friendly contact and cooperation between the British far right on the one hand, and either the far left or Muslim and Islamist organisations on the other, is minimal to say the least. ... But what has happened is that the rhetoric of far left and Islamist organisations is increasingly similar to that of the far right whenever Israel, Zionism, Jewish political activity and the Iraq war are mentioned.":
"These are strange times for the British far right. Long left alone on the political extremes where they obsessed about secret Jewish machinations behind every government policy, all of a sudden they think they have noticed the most unlikely people agreeing with them. The British National Party advised its members to read The Guardian for information about "the Zionist cabal around President Bush". Followers of the neo-Nazi Combat 18 have found themselves publicly supporting the President of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, while the National Front found itself in sympathy with Labour MP Tam Dalyell. ...
For Islamists and the far left - the third side of this totalitarian triangle - there has been a headlong tumble into each other's arms. A series of anti-war rallies in 2003 - Britain's biggest ever political demonstrations - were organised jointly by The Stop the War Coalition, which is led by Lindsey German of the Socialist Workers Party and Andrew Murray of the Communist Party of Britain, and the Muslim Association of Britain, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. ...
Many on the far left view Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as being in the romantic tradition of anti-imperialist liberation movements, despite the fact that their radical Islamist ideology and agenda are entirely at odds with those of the left. Spark, published by the youth wing of Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, hailed Asif Mohammed Hanif, a British Muslim who carried out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in April 2003, as a "hero of the revolutionary youth" who carried out his bombing "in the spirit of internationalism". A British delegation from the Che-Leila Youth Brigade, a radical left wing student group named after Che Guevara and Leila Khaled, held a meeting with Palestinian Islamic Jihad the day after an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber had killed 17 people on a bus in Megiddo in June 2002."

"Early anti-Bush demos fizzle in Canada" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/30)
Careful now, you might be threatened with life imprisonment if you're not anti-Bush enough:
"OTTAWA (AFP) - Hopes for early mass protests in the streets of Ottawa on the eve of Tuesday's visit by US President George W. Bush fizzled out, as journalists outnumbered demonstrators.
A loose coalition of groups opposed to just about everything Bush supports had promised two demonstrations hours before Bush was due to jet into Ottawa Tuesday aboard Air Force One.
The first demonstration — of Palestinians and sympathisers of the Palestinian cause opposed to Washington's support of Israel — attracted less than 40 demonstrators.
According to a quick head count by journalists, the protest attracted 39 demonstrators, 42 journalists and television crew members and three police officers.
A second, ostensibly larger, demonstration scheduled for the midst of the evening rush hour — was called by a group calling itself Students Against Bush.
Nobody turned up."

"The crinkling of the door woke little Leila up..." (Zohreh Torkamani, Etemad Newspaper/zaneirani, 2004/11/30)
The horrendous story of the Iranian girl "Leila M", who was sold into prostitution as a child and now faces the death penalty for prostitution:
"After each violent rape, she used to think of it as some sort of “dads play”. Leila gave birth to her first child when she was nine and was sentenced to a hundred lashes [for prostitution] around the same time. At the age of twelve, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his concubine (temporary wife). Her mother-in-law became her new pimp, selling her body without her consent. At the age of fourteen, she received another one hundred lashes sentence and, then was moved to the maternity ward to give birth to her twins. After the end of her first temporary marriage period, her family sold her again. The new pimp was a 55 years old man, married with two children, who hosted Leila’s customers in his own place. ...
Her innocent narration of the story of her life, her difficult childhood and how she gave birth to her twine daughters renders me wordless. “How much did the customers usually pay you?” I asked “I never got anything” she replied in her childish tone, still wearing a bitter smile “When I was with mum, she usually bought me chewing gums or cheese rings” and added “Maybe mum or my [temporary] husbands were receiving money. I never saw a cent”.
Leila M., 18, was found guilty of prostitution [a sever offence under Iranian laws], fornication and incest and was sentenced to death. The prison’s social worker tested her IQ several times and the result was always the same: she has the IQ of an 8 years old girl." (See also: "The Islamic Republic about to stoning a 13 years-old girl" (Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service, 2004/10/16))

"French court to stop Hizbullah television" (Michel Zlotowski, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/30)
"Just eleven days after granting a license to Hizbullah's Al-Manar television channel enabling it to broadcast in France and all over the European Union, CSA, the French Broadcasting Authority, has asked the Conseil d'Etat, the French equivalent of the Supreme Court, to stop the broadcasts. ...
In spite of the channel's written commitments to abide by French law, Al-Manar broadcasts may constitute a breach of public order, wrote CSA President Dominique Baudis.
The CSA "has identified several programs liable to constitute severe violations of the commitments of Al-Manar," wrote Baudis, quoting a program broadcast on November 23 mentioning 'The Zionist attempts to transmit dangerous diseases like AIDS through exports to Arab countries.'" (See also: "Perfidious France" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/11/25) and "Hezbollah-linked TV station allowed to broadcast in EU" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/19))

"Fatal Failure: The U.N. won’t recognize the connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism" (Anne Bayefsky, National Review, 2004/11/30)
"Last June, the United Nations held its first-ever conference on anti-Semitism. Though the organization's very raison d'etre rises from the ruins of Auschwitz and Belsen, it has never produced a single resolution dedicated to combating anti-Semitism or a report devoted to this devastating global phenomenon. For those who saw light at the end of the tunnel, this week the prospect of enlightenment at the General Assembly came to an inglorious conclusion. One mention of "anti-Semitism" made it into one paragraph of a general resolution on religious intolerance. Fifty-four U.N. states — of the 153 members that cast votes — refused to support even that.
What's going on? Let's connect the dots. Immediately before voting against concern for anti-Semitism, the same countries refused to support a call for governments "to ensure effective protection of the right to life...and to investigate...all killings committed for any discriminatory reason, including sexual orientation." Anti-Semitism and killing people because of their sexual orientation are acceptable to almost every one of the 56 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
The resolution involving killing homosexuals is only one of many U.N. human-rights resolutions in which the OIC stands with the violator, not the victim. The real question is: How do they get away with it, let alone pass themselves off as seriously interested in human rights, including those of Palestinians?"

"The East Turned Upside Down: Carnival and conspiracy in Ukraine" (Jesse Walker, Reason, 2004/11/30)
Ukraine III. Walker on conspiracy theories regarding the revolt in Ukraine:
"In New Statesman, Mark Almond declares that "the two Georges" — Bush and Soros — may be enemies back in the States, "but outside America the missionaries of Soros's lavishly funded 'Open Society' foundations march in parallel columns with the Bush administration." In The Guardian, Ian Traynor argues that the campaigns were "an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes." ...
There's a bit of truth to this story, but only a drop. The resistance movements are indeed interrelated, and American money did help nudge them forward. But there's no evidence that they're a creation, let alone a catspaw, of the United States. "The whole U.S. assistance thing is way overplayed," argues Jack DuVall, president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and co-author of A Force More Powerful, a history of "people power" revolutions. ...
Most important, says DuVall, 'You can't simply parachute Karl Rove into a country and manufacture a revolution.'" (See also: "People power? Or George power?" (Mark Almond, New Statesman/BHHRG, 2004/11/29) and "US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev" (Ian Traynor, The Guardian, 2004/11/26))

"PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes" (David Aaronovitch, The Guardian, 2004/11/30)
Ukraine II. Aaronovitch on John Laughland, the British Helsinki Human Rights Group and Sanders Research Associates:
"Where reporters in Kiev, including the Guardian's own Nick Paton-Walsh, encounter a genuine democracy movement, Laughland comes across "neo-Nazis" (Guardian), or "druggy skinheads from Lvov" (Spectator). And where most observers report serious and specific instances of electoral fraud and malpractice on the part of the supporters of the current prime minister, Laughland complains only of a systematic bias against (the presumably innocent) Mr Yanukovich. ...
And where does it all end up? A couple of weeks ago Sanders commended to his clients "John Laughland's series of articles [showing that] the attack on Iraq is just the southern offensive of a larger campaign to tighten the noose on Russia." And he continued, "What is less well understood are the risks that the unravelling political compact in Israel poses for the United States and Great Britain, whose political processes, intelligence services, military, media and financial establishments are so thoroughly enmeshed with Israel's."
Read that last sentence again and then ask yourself: in what way are Britain's media and financial interests "thoroughly enmeshed" with Israel's?"

"The Gloom Patrol" (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 2004/11/30)
Ukraine I: "On foreign policy, the Left has completely forsaken the American creed [of progressivism] in favor of a profoundly and wrong-headedly conservative pessimism.":
"The last three months or so tell the bitter tale.
Right now, in Ukraine, we are witnessing a genuine democratic revolution against the post-Soviet status quo, with hundreds of thousands of ordinary people refusing to allow an election to be stolen by kleptocratic thugs.
And who is celebrating this spontaneous, powerful and entirely progressive uprising? The Right, and no one but the Right. The good news is being blasted out of Kiev by conservative bloggers (particularly the married couple "Tulipgirl" and "Discoshaman") and promoted by conservative bloggers stateside.
Bloggers on the Left largely greeted the uprising with skeptical distance and worry. Because the president offered his moral support to the uprising, obsessively anti-Bush commentators seem reflexively to be skeptical of it.
This democratic uprising follows by only a few months the democratic triumph in Afghanistan — a world-historical event that seemed to disappoint the Left because it went well.
And now, in 63 days, we'll see an election in Iraq for the purpose of selecting the officials who will be responsible for drafting a new democratic constitution for the country. To prepare the way for this astonishingly hopeful event, dozens of brave Americans lost their lives over the past weeks destroying the insurgent base of operations inside Fallujah.
And how is the Left reacting? With the same bleak, defeatist, fearful and pessimistic affect that impaired its ability to recognize the importance of the Afghan election and the vital power of the Ukrainian revolt." (See also Tulipgirl's and Discoshaman's blog: Le Sabot Post-Moderne.)

"Delay Gains Iraq Nothing" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2004/11/30)
The Iraqi Election II: "But postponing elections for fear of terrorist attacks means only one thing: Terrorism works.":
"Arab Sunnis must understand that they can't revive their domination of Iraqi politics, not six months from now or ever. The old Iraq of domination and despotism must be buried. A similar change was made in Afghanistan, where the Pushtuns, who had held exclusive sway for two centuries, ended up accepting a new pluralist system in which power belongs to the people as a whole. ...
Democracy means taking concrete risks in the hope of abstract rewards. The prospect of elections could concentrate Iraqi minds more effectively than any publicity campaign to sell them democracy.
If the independent Iraqi Election Commission is satisfied that it can ensure free and fair elections in most of the provinces on Jan. 30, the exercise must go ahead. The U.S.-led Coalition, and all those interested in helping the Iraqi people exercise their democratic rights, as a first step toward ending the foreign military presence, must do all they can to help the elections take place on time."

"U.S. Needs To Learn Patience" (Daniel Pipes, The New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2004/11/30)
The Iraqi Election I: "In Iraq, American impatience could have mortal consequences.":
"The central government is far from achieving control over all of Iraq and doing so could take several years. Baghdad needs to focus on this existential problem, rather than worry too soon about the complex political issues facing a nascent democratic government of Iraq. Stability now, says I, and democracy later. ...
There are many steps ahead, such as creating voluntary institutions (political parties, lobby groups, etc.), entrenching the rule of law, establishing freedom of speech, protecting minority rights, securing property rights and developing the notion of a loyal opposition.
Elections can evolve with these good habits. Voting should start at the municipal level and gradually move up to the national level. Also, they should begin with legislatures and move to the executive branch.
These processes will take time, for it is no simple matter to bring Iraq’s fractious population together or to throw off the totalitarian habits of past decades."

"... And why we urgently need new answers" (Sarfraz Manzoor, The Guardian, 2004/11/30)
"The walls of the university hall were plastered with signs that read "Being Muslim and British" with an arrow pointing forwards. The arrows directed us to a large hall where for the next three hours we heard young British Muslims discuss among themselves the compatibilities and contradictions of being British and Muslim. ...
The purpose of the gathering was to address some specific questions, but what came through loudly for me was the reluctance of many to actually address them. Rather than grapple with some of the genuine concerns the rest of the country has about Islam, it was easier to argue semantics than substance. What do you mean by integration? What do you mean by identity? What do you mean by British? It seemed easier to squabble over definitions. ...
In the end, however, the settled conclusions of the groups were less nuanced. There were the usual complaints against the portrayal of Muslims in the media and the British government's foreign policy, and a general grumble that anyone even dared to ask about the loyalty and commitment of British Muslims to their country. This reluctance to be self-critical may be partly a result of feeling embattled and not wanting to wash dirty laundry in front of others, but I think it is also owing to a failure of creative thinking from British Muslims. Put simply, there is a tendency to want to have the cultural cake and eat it too: to say yes we are different and no we are not different at the same time." (Hat tip: Melanie Phillips.)

"Legally brutalised" (Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, 2004/11/30)
Islamic law II: "A survey conducted for the Egyptian government a few years ago found that one woman in three had been beaten at some time by her husband. Of those women, 45% had been beaten at least once in the past year and 17% had been beaten three or more times during the same period.
Shocking as this may seem, most Egyptian women regard beating as a normal and more or less acceptable part of life. Almost 86% of the women surveyed thought husbands were justified in hitting their wives sometimes, and a large majority said a refusal to have sex was sufficient grounds for beating.
The survey also showed the percentage of women aged 20-29 who thought beating was justified for a range of other domestic "offences":

"Talking back" to a husband: 70%
Talking to another man: 65%
Spending too much money: 42%
Burning the dinner: 26%

Violent husbands can generally avoid prosecution on religious grounds, because the Egyptian penal code excludes acts committed "in good faith, pursuant to a right determined by virtue of the Shari'a" (Islamic law)."

"British Muslims want Islamic law and prayers at work" (Alan Travis and Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 2004/11/30)
Islamic law I: "Muslims in Britain want greater recognition of their faith with the introduction of Islamic law for civil cases and time off for prayers during the working day, but are equally committed to greater participation in British life.
A special Guardian/ICM poll based on a survey of 500 British Muslims found that a clear majority want Islamic law introduced into this country in civil cases relating to their own community. Some 61% wanted Islamic courts - operating on sharia principles - "so long as the penalties did not contravene British law". ...
The poll also found a high level of religious observance with just over half saying they pray five times a day, every day - although women are shown to be more devout than men. The poll reveals that 88% want to see schools and workplaces in Britain accommodating Muslim prayer times as part of their normal working day." (See also the poll [PDF]: "Muslim Poll - November 2004" (ICM/The Guardian, November 2004). On the question "President Bush and Tony Blair have said that the war on terror is not a war against Islam. Do you agree or disagree?", 80% "Disagree". On the other hand, 86% don't think it is "acceptable for religious or political groups to use violence for political ends.". Also: "Special Report: Young. Muslim and British" (The Guardian, November 2004))

"Report Details Fallouja's Arsenal" (Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 2004/11/30)
"U.S. forces in Iraq seized more than three times as many weapons caches in the former rebel stronghold of Fallouja in the last three weeks as are confiscated throughout the country during an average month, according to a new intelligence summary. ...
Among the most novel finds was an ice cream truck that had been converted into a mobile car-bomb factory, with all the parts and weaponry needed to turn any vehicle into a weapon on the spot.
"You got an ice cream truck, it's loaded with munitions, weapons, equipment to construct a car bomb," said a senior U.S. military official here, who declined to be identified. "It could potentially drive anywhere, stop, convert a car into a car bomb and drive away…. I don't think there was any ice cream."
The report also underscored mosques' central role in the insurgency. Sixty-six of the city's 133 mosques were discovered with significant quantities of weapons."

"Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo" (Neil A. Lewis, The New York Times, 2004/11/30)
"The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. ...
The report of the June visit said investigators had found a system devised to break the will of the prisoners at Guantánamo, who now number about 550, and make them wholly dependent on their interrogators through "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions." Investigators said that the methods used were increasingly "more refined and repressive" than learned about on previous visits.
"The construction of such a system, whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence, cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture," the report said. It said that in addition to the exposure to loud and persistent noise and music and to prolonged cold, detainees were subjected to 'some beatings.'"

"Iran hails UN nuclear 'victory'" (BBC News, 2004/11/30)
Iran II: "A top Iranian official has claimed a "great victory" over the US after the UN said it would not punish Iran's nuclear activities with sanctions.
Hassan Rohani said Iran would never give up its right to nuclear power. ...
The UN atomic agency IAEA has welcomed Iran's offer to freeze enrichment in a statement on Monday that did not mention any threat of future sanctions.
Washington had been pushing for Iran to be censured by the UN Security Council.
Mr Rohani said the "whole world had turned down America's calls".
"We have proved that, in an international institution, we are capable of isolating the US. And that is a great victory," Mr Rohani said.
He added that the US representative at the IAEA meeting in Vienna "was enraged and in tears, and everybody said that the Americans had failed and we had won".
It was Iran's first direct comment on the nuclear controversy since the IAEA resolution on Monday."

"Board Accepts Nuclear Vow by Iranians" (Elaine Sciolino, The New York Times, 2004/11/30)
Iran I: "In a defeat for the Bush administration, the 35-country ruling board of the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a mildly worded resolution on Monday welcoming Iran's total freeze on a sensitive part of its nuclear program.
The resolution, passed by consensus without a vote, removes the possibility that the group will drag Iran before the United Nations Security Council for possible censure or even sanctions. ...
The Bush administration has repeatedly tried without success to persuade its fellow board members to debate Iran's case in the Security Council. But it decided to go along with the board's decision to accept the resolution, only to turn around to vent its disappointment and rage.
In a nine-page statement to the closed-door session of the board after the resolution passed, Jackie Wolcott Sanders, the head of the American delegation, accused Iran of deceit and the board of the I.A.E.A, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring organization, of irresponsibility.
She also charged that Iran's assertion that it wants to produce only nuclear energy, not bombs, is untrue, and that Iran has a clandestine nuclear weapons program that "poses a growing threat to international peace and security."
More ominously, she said that the United States could decide unilaterally to send the Iran case before the Council, a move opposed by Britain, Germany, Russia, China and other countries."

Added in archive:
"Germans help Iraqis recover memories from files" (Hugh Williamson, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/27)
"Europeans in no mood to welcome Turkey" (Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/26)

Monday, November 29, 2004

News and commentary:

Mohammed Bouyeri, November 2, 2004
(Opsporing Verzocht, 2004/11/29)
From: "Vragen moord op Theo van Gogh" (Opsporing Verzocht, 2004/11/29)
Via Zacht Ei: "The police have just released this picture of Mohammed Bouyeri. It was taken on the second of November."

"Al-Zawahiri Vows to Keep Fighting U.S." (Bret Baier et al., FOX News, 2004/11/29)
"Top Usama bin Laden lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahiri vowed in a videotape excerpt shown Monday to continue fighting the United States until its policies change.
Al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's right-hand man, referred to the recent U.S. presidential election on the tape, shown on Al-Jazeera television. ...
"The results of the elections do not matter for us," al-Zawahiri said in the three-minute excerpt. "Vote [for] whoever you want, Bush, Kerry or the devil himself. This does not concern us. What concerns us is to purge our land from the aggressors."
Al-Zawahiri also accused the United States of trying to coerce the Muslim world through force to satisfy Israel and to achieve its own interests. He said the invasion of Iraq was only a prelude to what the whole Muslim world might be subjected to by the United States.
He advised the Americans to choose between one of two things: 'Either you choose to treat us with respect and based on an exchange of interests ... or we will continue to fight you until you change your policies.'"

"Report: PA orders end to incitement" (The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/29)
If true, it is good news indeed: "The Palestinian Authority leadership has ordered PA-controlled media to stop all incitement against Israel and Jews, the London-based Arabic daily A-Shark Al-Awsat reported Monday.
The order also pertains to video clips, songs and music videos which call for the continuation of the armed intifada, the paper reported.
According to the report, the order was given 24 hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged the Palestinians to put an end to incitement as a prerequisite to the resumption of talks based on the road map peace plan." (Hat tip: Harry's Place.)

"Sheikh Yusef: Hamas ready for 'hudna'" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2004/11/29)
Spencer unearths Hamas's old site: "For history's sake, here, from Hamas's site, is what the organization calls its "Glory Record." ...

Hamas operations - The Glory Record ...
3. Boureen Operation: The militant Hamdan Hussein Al:najar, a member of Hamas, killed the Israeli settler Ya'coub Berey using a big rock as his weapon. The militant was shot down as a martyr after he had ambushed an Israeli patrol using the dead settler's weapon. ...
13. Askalan Road Operation: While driving a taxi, the militant Jameel Ismail Al:baz, a member of Hamas, ran over a group of Israelis waiting on this road on 19 July 1991. He was able to kill corporal Nadaf Der'ey and injure another soldier. Then the militant was able to escape but he was l