Archived news and commentary: December 13 - 19, 2004

2004/12/13 - 2004/12/19
2004/12/06 - 2004/12/12
2004/11/29 - 2004/12/05
2004/11/22 - 2004/11/28
2004/11/15 - 2004/11/21
2004/11/08 - 2004/11/14

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, December 19, 2004

News and commentary:

"PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY"
(TIME, 2004/12/19)

"Person of the Year 2004: George W. Bush" (Nancy Gibbs and John F. Dickerson, TIME, 2004/12/19)
"'Sometimes you're defined by your critics,' he says. "My presidency is one that has drawn some fire, whether it be at home or around the world. Unfortunately, if you're doing big things, most of the time you're never going to be around to see them [to fruition], whether it be cultural change or spreading democracy in parts of the world where people just don't believe it can happen. I understand that. I don't expect many short-term historians to write nice things about me." ...
Yet even halfway through his presidency, Bush says, he already sees his historic gamble paying off. He watched in satisfaction the inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "I'm not suggesting you're looking at the final chapter in Afghanistan, but the elections were amazing. And if you go back and look at the prognosis about Afghanistan — whether it be the decision [for the U.S. to invade] in the first place, the 'quagmire,' whether or not the people can even vote — it's a remarkable experience." Bush views his decision to press for the transformation of Afghanistan and then Iraq — as opposed to "managing calm in the hopes that there won't be another September 11th, that the Salafist [radical Islamist] movement will somehow wither on the vine, that somehow these killers won't get a weapon of mass destruction" — as the heart of not just his foreign policy but his victory."

"A gunman, left, shoots and kills a man lying in Baghdad's Haifa Street..."
(AP, 2004/12/19)
"A gunman, left, shoots and kills a man lying in Baghdad's Haifa Street after being pulled from a car Sunday, Dec. 19, 2004. The man at right on his knees was executed moments later, along with another man not shown in picture."

"Baghdad: 3 election organisers killed in ambush" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/12/19)
"About 30 gunmen ambushed a car Sunday in central Baghdad carrying employees of the Iraqi organization running next month's elections, killing three of the workers while two escaped unhurt, an official from the election body said.
Al-Lami said about 30 terrorists ambushed a car carrying five employees working for the commission's Baghdad office, hurling hand grenades at the vehicle and firing at it with machine-guns.
Three employees, including a security guard, were killed in the brazen ambush, while two escaped unhurt.
"They tried to drag them out of the car," he said of the gunmen, who eyewitnesses said later set fire to the vehicle and wandered the street openly brandishing their weapons. ...
"Police were unable to enter the Haifa Street area because it is off-limits. It is too dangerous," another police official said on condition of anonymity."

"Do we want the Turkish peasantry here?" (Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/12/19)
Turkey II: "In the Netherlands, following the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh by Islamic terrorists, disillusionment with multiculturalism has reached crisis levels. More people are now leaving than entering the country. The incomers are Turkish and Moroccan Muslims; the emigrants white Dutch Christians. Rotterdam will soon become the first European city with a Muslim majority. The once liberal, contented Dutch are now the fretting, neurotic Dutch, as their country becomes an overcrowded hell of mounting intolerance, Islamic and anti-Islamic. ...
Even saying this would cause me to be shunned at a dinner party in Islington. For one of the symptoms of the chronic immigration syndrome is that the intelligentsia of the host-country refuses to discuss, or even permit discussion, of its long-term consequences. Instead there is much witless, liberal maundering about the unassailable virtues of a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-ethos society.
Well, my little liberal friends, it hasn't turned out like that. Opinion polls show that 11 per cent of Britain's two million Muslims approved of the attacks of 9/11, and 40 per cent support Osama Bin Laden. Nearly 1,200 British Muslims have been trained in terror camps in Afghanistan; three British Muslims have become suicide bombers. British police are — finally — investigating 122 possible "honour killings" of women in immigrant communities."

"The dark side of Turkey's dream" (Jonny Dymond, The Observer, 2004/12/19)
Turkey I: "Just a few minutes drive from the relatively prosperous centre of Gaziantep lies the neighbourhood of Beydile, a classic Turkish shanty town. Breeze-block houses are thrown up at night to avoid building regulations, and the electricity, much of it purloined from power lines, comes and goes.
Families with seven or eight children are common: the people of Beydile fled from further east to escape the troubles of the Kurdish insurrection. But they brought with them the rural poverty they fled.
Many speak of Europe as if it were a pot of gold; many also express hope that their children might escape to the sunlit uplands of the EU. It is difficult to see what their barely educated children would do there, except live in a different kind of poverty, devoid of the community that just about keeps things together in Gaziantep."

"Under Iran's 'divinely ordained justice', girls as young as nine are charged with 'moral crimes'. The best that they can hope for is to die by hanging" (Alasdair Palmer, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/12/19)
Palmer on the horrendous case of "Leila M":
"Earlier this year, she confessed to the authorities that she had been working as a prostitute since she was a child — perhaps because she thought that they might help her escape her miserable existence.
The courts did respond by pulling Leila out of prostitution, but they also imprisoned her and used her confession to convict her of "moral crimes", for which the judges have decided the appropriate penalty is death.
They dismissed evidence from doctors and social workers that she has a severe mental handicap. This week, Iran's Supreme Court, which by law must confirm every death sentence imposed by the lower courts, will rule on whether to uphold her execution.
There is every indication that the Supreme Court will decide that Leila must die. Earlier this year, they upheld a sentence of death on 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi. Atefeh had also been convicted of "acts incompatible with chastity".
In her defence, she said she had been sexually assaulted by an older man. The judges did not care. So, on August 16, at 6am, Atefeh was taken from her cell and hanged from a crane in the main square of the town of Neka. ...
For Hajieh Esmailvand and Zhila Izadyar, the prospects are bleak. The best they can hope for is to die by hanging rather than being stoned. As for the mentally retarded Leila M — she seems likely to hang in public before Christmas."

See also:
"Iranian woman faces noose or stoning" (Reuters, 2004/12/18)
"Please Help to Save "Leila" from Execution by Mullahs!" (Blog-Iran!, 2004/12/11)
"The crinkling of the door woke little Leila up..." (Zohreh Torkamani, Etemad Newspaper/zaneirani, 2004/11/30)
"Symposium: Why the Mullahs Murdered Atefeh Rajabi" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/09/17)
"Death and the maiden in Iran" (Alasdair Palmer, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/08/29)

"Sizing Up the New Toned-Down Bin Laden" (Don Van Natta Jr., The New York Times, 2004/12/19)
"What intelligence officials and terrorism experts find particularly remarkable in his recent pronouncements is a shift in style from the raw anger and dark imagery of the post-9/11 days. They say he has subtly tempered his message, tone and even persona, presenting himself almost as an ambassador, as if he sees himself as an elder statesman for a borderless Muslim nation. ...
Intelligence officials are divided on what the two men are trying to accomplish. Some believe they are the leading advocates for what is increasingly being called Qaedism, an anti-Western gospel that they hope will inspire attacks all over the world. Others say the messages are intended to be jihad pep talks, or veiled triggers for new attacks. ...
Mr. bin Laden's attempt to engage Americans is occurring while his message to drive the United States out of the Muslim world is resonating with those among the 1.2 billion Muslims who believe the Qaeda leader eloquently expresses their anger over the foreign policies of the United States and Israel. In recent years, he has emphasized the Palestinians' struggle. "His genius lies in identifying things that are easily visible and easily felt by most Muslims," Mr. Scheuer said. "He has found issues that are simple, and that Muslims see playing out on their televisions every day." (See also: "Bin Laden Alive, Releases Audio Tape -- Web Site" (Miral Fahmy, Reuters/My Way, 2004/12/16) and "Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech" (Al-Jazeera.net, 2004/11/01))

"A Dark Christmas in Iraq" (Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, 2004/12/19)
"After a painful year of church bombings, death threats and assassinations, Iraq's 800,000 Christians have all but canceled Christmas.
"Officially, we are not celebrating this year," said Father Peter Haddad, who is in charge of the Virgin Mary Church in Baghdad.
Fearing insurgent attacks, bishops across the predominantly Muslim country recently announced that they would call off the usual Christmas festivals and celebrations. Some churches will also forgo Christmas Eve Mass, a step unheard of even during Saddam Hussein's regime.
Attendance has plummeted. During the holiday season, Haddad's church would have been packed with more than 700 people. Last Sunday, only 27 brave worshipers showed up.
Christians have lived in Iraq for hundreds of years, enjoying peaceful relations with Muslims for most of that time. But after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, insurgents began targeting the community, accusing Christians of cooperating with American "infidels" by working as interpreters, house cleaners and merchants. Harassment by Islamists became so bad that many Christian women took to wearing head scarves to blend in. ...
Christian leaders estimate that as many as 50,000 Christians have fled Iraq since last year, mostly to Jordan and Syria."

"Tapes reveal foul tirades of 'Chemical Ali'" (Colin Freeman, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/12/19)
"Gruesome tapes of Saddam Hussein's most feared henchman threatening to cut up his thousands of victims "like cucumbers" have been disclosed as Iraqi war-crimes judges began court proceedings against him yesterday. ...
[Ali Hassan] Al-Majid, then the secretary-general of the Ba'ath Party's northern bureau, can be heard ordering officials and army chiefs to carry out savage reprisals against any areas that try to resist.
"As soon as we complete the deportations we will start attacking them everywhere according to a systematic military plan," he says. "I will not attack them with chemicals just one day but I will continue to attack them with chemicals for 15 days."
Al-Majid even criticises his master for being too lenient when he orders that the families of Kurdish resistance leaders should not be harmed. "A message reaches me from that great man, the father [Saddam], saying 'Take good care of the families of the saboteurs…' Take good care of them? No, I will bury them with bulldozers." ...
Al-Majid, who describes the Kurds variously as "dogs" and "goats", also boasts of razing their houses and placing them in collectivised compounds "without any compensation".
Anybody who refuses to live in the ghettoes, he adds, should be rounded up by Ba'ath Party commanders to face his wrath. 'Immediately I will say, 'Blow him away, cut him open like a cucumber.''"

Saturday, December 18, 2004

News and commentary:

"Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali'"
(Reuters, 2004/12/18)
"A video grab shows Saddam Hussein's cousin and feared lieutenant Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali' appearing before an investigating magistrate in an undisclosed location, December 18, 2004."

"'Chemical Ali' on trial" (Lin Noueihed, Reuters, 2004/12/18)
"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's feared cousin "Chemical Ali" and a former defence minister have been questioned by an investigating judge, launching the first phase in war crimes trials of leaders of the toppled Iraqi government. ...
Official film released after the hearings showed Jouhi interviewing both men separately, at a desk in a large, bare room. Both arrived handcuffed and flanked by Iraqi policemen.
They appeared in good health, Hashem still burly but slimmer than before his arrest, Majid, displaying flashes of humour with the guards, showing his clear family resemblance to Saddam. Hashem also smiled and chatted with those around him.
Majid leant on a walking stick and appeared to be supported by one of the policemen as he stood before the judge."

"Iranian woman faces noose or stoning" (Reuters, 2004/12/18)
"TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian official says he is waiting for orders on whether to stone or hang a woman convicted of adultery, the latest in a chain of death sentences passed against women for "fornication".
The official from Iran's conservative judiciary said on Saturday that Hajieh Esmailvand's prison sentence, that began in January 2000, would end in less than a month — a jail term in the northern city of Jolfa that was always intended as a precursor to execution.
"Her (death) sentence is approved by the Supreme Court, but there are no orders to carry out the sentence. We do not yet know if it is by stoning or hanging," he told Reuters. ...
Nineteen-year-old "Leila M" in the central city of Arak is appealing to overturn a death sentence for fornication, her lawyer has told Reuters.
The lawyer said Leila had been forced into prostitution by her mother aged eight but rejected newspaper reports that she had a mental age of eight." (See also: "Please Help to Save "Leila" from Execution by Mullahs!" (Blog-Iran!, 2004/12/11) and "The crinkling of the door woke little Leila up..." (Zohreh Torkamani, Etemad Newspaper/zaneirani, 2004/11/30))

"Charles fights death penalty for converts" (Jonathan Petre, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/18)
Emphasis added: "The Prince of Wales is brokering efforts to end the Muslim death penalty on converts to other faiths, The Telegraph has learned.
He held a private summit of Christian and Muslim leaders at Clarence House this month to explore the centuries-old Islamic law under which apostates face persecution and even death.
As an advocate of inter-faith dialogue, Prince Charles has come under pressure to criticise the religious law that, campaigners say, has resulted in hundreds of executions in countries from Iran to Sudan.
Among the Christians at the confidential meeting was an Anglican archbishop from a part of Nigeria where Islamic Sharia law is enforced.
Others included the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, and the Pakistani-born Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali.
It is understood that the Muslim group, which included the Islamic scholar Zaki Badawi, cautioned the prince and other non-Muslims against speaking publicly on the issue.
It argued that Islamic moderates could have more influence on the traditional position if the debate remained largely internal.
A member of the Christian group said yesterday that he was "very, very unhappy" about the outcome."

"Holland Daze: The Dutch rethink multiculturalism" (Christopher Caldwell, The Weekly Standard from the 2004/12/27 issue)
"Early this month, another Schiedam native, a 30-year-old man known in his police dossier as Farid A., was found guilty of issuing death threats over the Internet. When the conservative Dutch politician Geert Wilders described Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last year as a "terrorist leader," Farid A. posted a picture of him on an Islamist website urging: "Wilders must be punished with death for his fascistic comments about Islam, Muslims, and the Palestinian cause." That was a year ago, and since then, Wilders has done even more to tick off Muslim radicals. ...
But Wilders also had to go into hiding. He now appears in public only for legislative sessions in the Hague, where he travels under armed guard. He complained in mid-December that the death threats had hampered his ability to build his party. The head of a conservative think tank told newspapers he had been advised by security personnel to stay away from Wilders. Anyone who declared himself for one of those 28 seats that looked ripe for the plucking would thereby place himself on a death list, too. One strange but highly professional video that can be downloaded off the Internet shows drawings of machine guns, then photographs of Wilders with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and then captioned panels reading:

name: geert wilders
occupation: idolator
sin: mocking Islam
punishment: beheading
reward: Paradise, in sha Allah

In early December, an appeals court in the Hague confirmed the punishment of Farid A. of Schiedam. He was sentenced to 120 hours of community service." (See also: "Man escapes jail for threatening MP Wilders" (Expatica, 2004/12/03))

"It is Muslims who have most to fear from Islamists" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/18)
"Readers may remember that, last week in this column, I defended the right of people to say — though it is not a proposition with which I agree — that the Prophet Mohammed was a paedophile.
So my question to whoever happens to be Home Secretary is whether it would be an offence under the new law to assert this proposition. Muslims are also very offended by any pictorial depiction of the Prophet; so I asked whether such depictions would also be an offence under the law. ...
The reaction to my own article shows the problem. The Muslim Association of Britain (not to be confused with the MCB) said that what I had written was "repulsive", composed out of an "arrogance borne by only the most zealous of racists". Because of my "filth and drivel", I should be dismissed from The Daily Telegraph, and the paper should apologise. Just in case the point was missed, the MAB reminded the paper of the lessons of the Salman Rushdie affair.
It also referred readers to a website, IslamOnline.net which globalises the denunciation of my column with a Cairo dateline and offers a link to a discussion of what should happen to non-Muslims who insult the Prophet ("In Islam, it is well known that the punishment for the one who insults the Prophet is to be killed… However, we Muslims are advised to be forgiving and pardoning.")" (See also: "The British Inquisition" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/12/15) and "Is it only Mr Bean who resists this new religious intolerance?" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/11))

"Briton freed from Guantanamo prison tells European rights body of U.S. abuse" (CBC News, 2004/12/18)
"PARIS (AP) - A Briton released from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told Europe's top human rights body Friday he was beaten, shackled, kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of "systematic abuse" in custody.
Jamal al-Harith's testimony before a Council of Europe panel came as part of an inquiry by the body into human rights abuses at the U.S. prison camp to be made public in a report due out early next year.
Reading from a 10-page statement, al-Harith described his two-year detention at Guantanamo Bay as a period of continual mistreatment that ranged from humiliation and 15-hour interrogations to physical abuse he said left scars. ...
Al-Harith said he was kept mostly in a wire cage and given food marked "10 to 12 years beyond their usable date," as well as "black and rotten" fruit. Sometimes, unmuzzled dogs were brought to the cage and encouraged to bark, he said. ...
Robert Lizar, al-Harith's lawyer, urged the panel to use strong language in its report and to condemn U.S. behaviour at Guantanamo that he called "totally shocking and unacceptable from international norms."
"The actions are closer to those of kidnappers and bandits, than to those of a state with a strong tradition of liberty and due process," Lizar said."

"EU offer to Turkey 'a triumph for tolerance and world peace'" (Ambrose Evans-Prichard and Andrew Sparrow, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/18)
Turkey III: "The Prime Minister hailed the accord as a triumph for tolerance and world peace.
"It is an immensely significant day for Europe. It shows that those who believe that there is some fundamental clash of civilisations between Christians and Muslims are actually wrong, that we can work together, that we can co-operate together," he said.
"We are stating as a fundamental principle that the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country does not mean it should be barred from the European Union. On the contrary, if it fulfils the same principles of democracy and human rights, then Muslim and Christian can work together. That is a very, very important signal right across the world." ...
The offer to embrace Turkey flies in the face of public opinion across most of Europe, where antipathy to radical Islam has risen sharply since the terrorist attacks in America and Madrid."

Friday, December 17, 2004

News and commentary:

"S. Africa Attacks U.S. Over AIDS Drug" (Alexandra Zavis, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/12/17)
"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - President Thabo Mbeki's ruling party published a stinging attack Friday on top U.S. health officials, accusing them of treating Africans like "guinea pigs" and lying to promote a key AIDS drug.
The criticism reinforces fears of doctors and activists that new questions about the testing of nevirapine could halt use of the drug that's credited with protecting thousands of African babies from catching HIV from their mothers.
The article, published in the online journal ANC Today, was responding to Associated Press reports this week that U.S. health officials withheld criticism of a nevirapine study before President Bush launched a 2002 plan to distribute the drug in Africa.
Documents obtained by AP show Dr. Edmund C. Tramont, chief of the National Institutes of Health's AIDS division, rewrote an NIH report to omit negative conclusions about the way a U.S.-funded drug trial was conducted in Uganda, and later ordered the research to continue over the objections of his staff. Tramont's staff worried about record-keeping problems, violations of federal patient safeguards and other issues at the Uganda research site.
"Dr. Tramont was happy that the peoples of Africa should be used as guinea pigs, given a drug he knew very well should not be prescribed," the article said. "In other words, they entered into a conspiracy with a pharmaceutical company to tell lies to promote the sales of nevirapine in Africa, with absolutely no consideration of the health impact of those lies on the lives of millions of Africans." (See also: "AP: U.S. Officials Knew of AIDS Drug Risks" (AP/ABC News, 2004/12/14))

"U.S. Designates Al-Manar TV as 'Terrorist'" (Reuters, 2004/12/17)
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department on Friday designated al-Manar television -- the station for Lebanon's Hizbollah's anti-Israel guerrillas -- as a terrorist organization, a notice published in the Federal Register said.
"Acting under the authority of ... the Immigration and Nationality Act ... and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of State has concluded that al-Manar is a 'terrorist organization' within the meaning of that section of the INA," the notice said.
The designation is effective upon Friday's publication.
The United States has already designated Hizbollah as a foreign terrorist organization, and the State Department has been open in its criticism of al-Manar's satellite television programs.
"We consider (al-Manar) to be disgusting programing that preaches hatred and violence and ... ideas that are antithetical to the values which we believe in," department spokesman Adam Ereli said at a briefing on Dec. 9." (See also: "French court to stop Hizbullah television" (Michel Zlotowski, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/30) and "Hezbollah-linked TV station allowed to broadcast in EU" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/19))

"Cracked Icons" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2004/12/17)
"What is preached in the madrassas on the West Bank, in Pakistan, and throughout the Gulf is no different from the Nazi doctrine of racial hatred. What has changed, of course, is that unlike our grandfathers, we have lost the courage to speak out against it. In one of the strangest political transformations of our age, the fascist Islamic Right has grafted its cause onto that of the Left’s boutique “multiculturalism,” hoping to earn a pass for its hate by posing as the “other” and reaping the benefits of liberal guilt due to purported victimization. By any empirical standard, what various Palestinian cliques have done on the West Bank — suicide murdering, lynching without trial of their own people, teaching small children to hate and kill Jews — should have earned them all Hitlerian sobriquets rather than U.N. praise."

"Wanted: Israeli neocons" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/12/17)
"Indeed, the very thought that Palestinian society must be democratized meets its staunchest opposition from Israeli elites. In his column in Yediot Ahronot last Friday, Nahum Barnea, Israel's journalistic supremo and proud socialist, wrote scathingly of Bush's attachment to the notions of democracy and morality. Speaking of Bush's reading of Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy, which argues that peaceful relations are contingent on individual freedom and democracy, Barnea sneered, "The book publisher can now advertise it as 'the only book the president has read in the last 10 years.'" He then went on to witheringly criticize Sharansky's book, describing it as "clear, easily digestible, unburdened by doubt, moralistic, very positive and totally simplistic." ...
And yet, as The Washington Post's editorialist noted on Wednesday, even as the Arab potentates were berating the Americans for daring to discuss democracy with them, Arab human rights activists who also participated in the conference insisted that the Americans continue to pressure their governments and that "Palestinian and Iraqi issues should not be used as excuses for not launching reforms."
And what did these people want? They demanded that their governments 'allow free ownership of media institutions and sources; allow freedom of expression and especially freedom of assembly and meetings; ensure women's rights and remove all forms of inequality and discrimination against women in the Arab world; and immediately release reformers, human rights activists and political prisoners.'" (See also: "Straight Talk" (The Washington Post, 2004/12/15))

"The Case for Democracy" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/17)
An interview with Nathan Sharansky on his (and Ron Dermer's) new book, "The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror":
"FP: You distinguish between "fear" and "free" societies. Briefly explain to our readers what you mean by this paradigm.
Sharansky: Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected. In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned. One can determine whether a society is free by applying what we call the “town-square test.” Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society. ...
Fear societies are inevitably composed of three separate groups: True believers, dissidents and doublethinkers. True believers are those who believe in the ideology of the regime. Dissidents are those who disagree with that ideology and are prepared to say so openly. Doublethinkers are those who disagree with the ideology but who are scared to openly confront the regime.
With time, the number of doublethinkers in a fear society inevitably grows so that they represent the overwhelming majority of the population. To an outside observer, the fear society will look like a sea of true believers who demonstrate loyalty to the regime, but the reality is very different. Behind the veneer of support is an army of doublethinkers." (See also: "Two Great Dissidents" (Joel C. Rosenberg, National Review, 2004/11/19))

"Osama's Big Lie" (Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/17)
"In a recent article, I explained that some Westerners in positions of influence – such as Britain’s former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and U.S. Naval Postgraduate School professor John Arquilla – had been pushing for negotiation with al-Qaeda even before the late October release of bin Laden’s videotape. The position of these scholars rests on a key error: the conflation of al-Qaeda’s short-term grievances (such as the U.S. military presence in the Muslim world) with its long-term goals.
Michael Scheuer made this mistake in a recent interview on Meet the Press. Scheuer, a former CIA agent, was the anonymous author of Imperial Hubris. On Meet the Press, Tim Russert asked Scheuer if he believed “that being ‘tough on Israel’ would in any way change Osama bin Laden’s agenda or desire to destroy America.” Scheuer’s telling reply: “His agenda is not to destroy America, Mr. Russert. He simply wants us out of his neighborhood. He wants us out of the Middle East.” ...
Al-Qaeda’s objective is not limited to U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East. Rather, the network views this pull-out as a necessary prerequisite to the attainment of its ultimate goal: the establishment of an Islamist super-state ruled by the harshest version of Islamic law, primed to re-conquer formerly Muslim lands and pursue an aggressive expansionist agenda.
This broad agenda will not change if the West chooses to negotiate with terrorists and give ground on some issues." (See also: "The Dissident" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/11/22))

"A lot to swallow" (Economist, 2004/12/17)
Turkey II: "Most of Turkey’s land mass is in Asia Minor. Bringing it into the EU would extend the border of “Europe” to the edge of Iraq, Iran and Syria. Turkey has 72m people, and by 2020 is expected to have more than Germany, currently the EU’s most populous member. And its GDP is just 27% of the current EU’s average, making it far poorer even than the members that joined this year. Europe’s biggest spending programmes, on farming and regional aid to poor areas, could become unsustainable if extended to Turkey in their current form.
And then there is the question of Islam. Nearly all Turks are Muslims, and the country’s current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leads a party with Islamist roots. ... There is no obvious reason why Islam should be incompatible with EU membership — unless the question is begged by defining “Europe” as inherently Christian.
Most of the EU’s politicians are unwilling to do that. And most of them are similarly unwilling to appear stingy by publicly making the argument that Turkey is too poor to take on. But Turkey offers another big reason to be sceptical about its European credentials: its human-rights record. Though this has improved in recent years, Turkey remains a rough place by European standards. Its prison conditions are poor, corruption is rife, and women and girls suffer discrimination (and sometimes “honour killings” for adultery and similar transgressions). Most prominently, Turkey’s Kurdish population still struggles for full equality."

"EU-Turkey talks set for October" (BBC News, 2004/12/17)
Turkey I: "The EU has offered to begin membership talks with Turkey next year, with 3 October given as a start date.
EU leaders said the aim of the talks - which could take up to 15 years - would be full membership, but Turkey's entry could not be guaranteed.
Discussion between EU leaders on finalising the offer resumes at the two-day summit on Friday morning. ...
The BBC's William Horsley in Brussels says says doubts voiced by France and Austria about Turkey's accession have led to an offer that is hedged by strict conditions and falls short of a promise of eventual membership. ...
But European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hailed the offer.
"Tonight the EU has opened its door to Turkey," he said."

"Anti-terror laws rejected on Clarke's first day" (George Jones and Joshua Rozenberg, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/17)
"The Government was dealt a second body blow in 24 hours yesterday when Charles Clarke's first day as Home Secretary was overshadowed by a ruling from the law lords striking at the heart of anti-terror measures inherited from David Blunkett.
The law lords ruled by an eight to one majority that the indefinite detention of foreign suspects without charge or trial in Belmarsh prison breached their human rights.
The news of the ruling was relayed to Mr Clarke as he attended his first Cabinet meeting as Home Secretary.
In a written statement to MPs, he made clear that the remaining 12 of the original 17 detainees would stay in custody while he - then Parliament - decided what action to take. ...
The law lords held that a central part of the anti-terrorism legislation introduced by Mr Blunkett after September 11 was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lord Hoffman described the case as one of the most important to come before them in recent years because it called into question the ancient liberty of freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention.
The real threat to the life of the nation, he said, came not from 'terrorism but laws such as these.'"

Thursday, December 16, 2004

News and commentary:

"Bin Laden Alive, Releases Audio Tape -- Web Site" (Miral Fahmy, Reuters/My Way, 2004/12/16)
"DUBAI (Reuters) - An audio recording purportedly by Osama bin Laden, praising gunmen who carried out a Dec. 6 attack in Saudi Arabia, was posted on the Internet on Thursday, suggesting the al Qaeda leader is still alive.
In the recording, the speaker blessed a group of Saudi al Qaeda militants who stormed the U.S. consulate in Jeddah in the first attack on a Western mission in Saudi Arabia. ...
The speaker on the tape blasted Saudi rulers as "corrupt Zionists" who were stooges of the United States and whose rule was "an extension of the crusader wars against Muslims." ...
"Some people say that yes it (reform) is possible because they started holding national dialogues and they started with municipal elections, but I say that this will not change anything," the speaker said. "The only way to reform is the toppling of the regime through armed struggle."
The man gave Saudi rulers an ultimatum -- either allow Saudis to choose their own ruler or face being deposed." (See also: "Saudi Militants Attack U.S. Consulate" (AP/ABC News, 2004/12/06))

"In praise of 'Jesusland'" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, from the 2004/12/18 issue)
"These days we don’t say ‘Christendom’, of course, except in an ironic way. We say ‘the Muslim world’ all the time, without thinking — ‘The Iraq invasion enraged the entire Muslim world,’ declares the Democrats’ website. The notion of a ‘Muslim world’ is acceptable to the progressive mind. ‘The Christian world’ is a more problematic concept. ...
It’s easy, in an otherwise wholly secular West, to mock the religiosity of Jesusland. But if eternal salvation remains unproved, the suspension of disbelief required of Eutopian secularists grows daily. If you were one of those ‘redneck Christian fundamentalists’ the world’s media are always warning about, you might think the Continent’s in for what looks awfully like the Four Horsemen of the Euro-Apocalypse: Famine — the end of the lavishly funded statist good times; Death — the self-extinction of European races too selfish to breed; War — the decline into bloody civil unrest that these economic and demographic factors will bring; and Conquest — the recolonisation of Europe by Islam.
But it goes without saying that Europeans are far too rational and enlightened to believe in such outmoded notions as apocalyptic equestrians. If there is ‘choice on earth’, I’ll bet on Jesusland. Happy holidays." (See also: "Jesusland" (Unknown/Matthew Yglesias, 2004/11/03))

"It's the F-Time Show With Chevy Chase" (Richard Leiby, The Washington Post, 2004/12/16)
Another example of how the worldview of certain certified liberals seems to be just an inverted version of reality. Chevy Chase encapsulates this bizarro world tendency perfectly with only five words aimed at Bush: "This guy started a jihad."
As for his "usual comedic self," I heard this Bush/Hilton sisters joke on Letterman the other week.
[UPDATE. Here it is, via Marc van Gestel (2004/11/19): "'It's kind of weird. Bush wins the election and everyone is leaving. In fact the Bush twins are being replaced by the Hilton sisters.' -- David Letterman"]:
"Even certified Hollywood liberals were reeling after Chevy Chase's potty-mouthed Bush-bashing Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, where the actor hosted an awards ceremony staged by People for the American Way.
For most of the evening, Chase was his usual comedic self, delivering lines like "This just in -- resignations in the upper echelon of the Bush administration. The Bush sisters have resigned and are being replaced by Paris and Nicky Hilton. Back for more news later."
After actors Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon delivered speeches accepting their Defender of Democracy awards, Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a "dumb [expletive]." He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, 'I'm no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad.'"

"Oh what a lovely jail" (Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, 2004/12/16)
"Al-Qaida supporters detained in Saudi Arabia have appeared in a television documentary about al-Haer jail, 25 miles south of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and delivered rave reviews of life inside.
"I swear to God, they [the jailers] are nicer than our parents," said Othman al-Amri, once No 21 on the kingdom's list of most-wanted terror suspects.
The programme, broadcast on Saudi television late on Monday, included brief footage from inside the jail, showing clean facilities and beds lined next to one another.
It signalled a new effort by the authorities to encourage militants to give themselves up and to allay suspicions that they would be ill treated if they did so. But persuading them to opt for al-Haer may prove difficult.
In September at least 67 prisoners died and 20 others were injured, along with three guards, when fire swept through part of the jail.
Five British expatriates were detained in al-Haer after being wrongly accused of causing explosions in 2000. The men gave televised confessions, which they later said were extracted after days of sleep deprivation and beatings."

"EU ignores critics and opens door to Turkey" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/16)
"Defying public opinion across Europe, European Union leaders including Tony Blair will today open the way for Turkey to become its first Muslim member.
Barring a last-minute upset, the nation of 71 million will start formal entry talks next autumn with a view to joining as an equal partner around 2015, pushing the borders of the EU as far as Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
The European Parliament votes 407 to 262 to open EU entry talks
The text to be agreed by EU leaders at a two-day summit in Brussels gives warning that final accession "cannot be guaranteed beforehand", and speaks of "an open-ended process" that could be halted at any time if Ankara violates Europe's core values. ...
Helmut Kohl, the former German chancellor, called today's summit a charade, accusing EU leaders of offering Turkey a pledge that can never be fulfilled. ...
But France is emerging as the country most likely to scupper Ankara's bid, with two thirds of voters now hostile to accession. President Jacques Chirac, an increasingly lonely friend of Turkey, broadcast to the nation last night to explain the need to reach out to Ankara."

"Iraq poll countdown begins" (Jack Fairweather, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/16)
"Iraq's fledgling political parties began official campaigning yesterday for national elections next month, with the interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, pledging to work for national unity. ...
The party blocs with joint lists of candidates are based on largely ethnic and religious lines. Iraq's main Shia parties - the Ad-Dawr Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq - have formed the United Iraqi Alliance.
The Shia – who make up 60 per cent of the population – were excluded from power under Saddam's regime.
The UIA, with heavy backing from Iran, is expected to command an overall majority in the new assembly, and may force Mr Allawi's own secular-orientated bloc on to the sidelines.
Iraq's two main Kurdish parties have also joined forces to contest the national ballot and elections for a Kurdish national assembly."

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

News and commentary:

"The British Inquisition" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/12/15)
"All lovers of life and liberty must surely have felt a deep chill descend when reading the sinister reaction of the Muslim Association of Britain to the article by Charles Moore in the Telegraph , protesting at the proposed law against incitement to religious hatred. We have been told that this law would not criminalise free speech on maters of legitimate interest and debate, merely incitement to hatred. The answer to that is that the distinction between the two is highly subjective and open to abuse. What more graphic illustration of that very point can there be than the MAB’s reaction to Moore’s article. Objecting that Moore had insulted the Prophet, the MCB not only called for him to be sacked but as the Guardian reported:

'The MAB said the article was full of "skewed interpretations and poisonous lies" and interpreted it as a "clear incitement to religious hatred and division". Speaking on its behalf, Anas Altikriti said: "Almost 15 years on from the infamous Salman Rushdie affair, one would have thought that the likes of the Daily Telegraph and its editors would have known better than to allow such filth and drivel to adorn their pages."'

The threat is absolutely plain. Moore’s offence is being equated with the Satanic Verses affair, for which Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death by an Iranian fatwa until eventually the threat was lifted. I am told that the police are now considering whether Moore needs protection. This sets in devastating context the concern that the proposed law will give rise to court cases intended to suppress necessary debate about Islam." (See also: "Sack Moore, angry Muslims tell Telegraph" (Steven Morris and Faisal al Yafai, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/14) and "Is it only Mr Bean who resists this new religious intolerance?" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/11))

"Arrest throws British hate laws into focus" (Hannah K. Strange, United Press International, 2004/12/15)
"The arrest of British National Party leader Nick Griffin for incitement to racial hatred has thrown a spotlight on controversial Home Office proposals to tighten the existing legislation.
Griffin was arrested Tuesday as the result of a police investigation prompted by a BBC documentary "Secret Agent," in which a filmmaker went undercover in the BNP to expose the deep racism at the heart of the party's philosophy. ...
"I heard the BNP leader Nick Griffin give a speech inciting racial hatred and the founder, John Tyndall, inciting racial hatred, and I heard some awful anti-Semitic remarks," filmmaker Jason Gwynne later told the BBC. ...
The arrest of Griffin and other BNP members is indeed timely. A controversial Home Office proposal is currently under consideration by Parliament that would outlaw incitement to religious hatred, thereby protecting those who are not already covered by race hate laws. ...
And amid this debate, all eyes will no doubt be on Griffin. While much of the public is repulsed by the BNP, any law that is seen to infringe on the right to free speech will be automatically viewed with suspicion. The details that emerge in his case, and the subsequent verdict should he go to trial, will likely be seen as a test of whether the law is needed and whether in practice it will truly be enforceable." (See also: "BNP leader bailed after racial incitement arrest" (The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/14))

"Give peace a chance, Arafat's successor tells Palestinians" (Inigo Gilmore and Anton La Guardia, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/15)
"The interim Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, called on militants yesterday to lay down their arms after four years of bloody revolt, saying violence had damaged the cause of independence. ...
"The uprising should be kept away from arms because it is a legitimate right of the people to express their rejection of the occupation by popular and social means," he told the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. "The use of arms has been damaging and should end."
He said the Palestinian security services were in a state of chaos and had to be reformed. Mr Abbas may reflect the tacit views of many Palestinians weary of the mayhem in the occupied territories, and the economic collapse it has caused.
"What Abbas is doing is trying to clean up the mess left behind by Arafat," said a senior Palestinian official. "I would not say he's a pacifist, but he does believe that the use of violence was and is a strategic mistake."

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

News and commentary:

"Illiberal Europe" (Emanuale Ottolenghi, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/12/14)
"Behind Europe's commitment to liberal democracy lurks an illiberal tradition. Every time freedom has failed in Europe, it is to that tradition – of violent repression, totalitarianism, xenophobia, and intolerance – that Europeans have reverted. ...
The new challenge to European liberal democracies – Islam's appearance across the continent – may well lead to the same rapid descent into the abyss of intolerance.
For too long mainstream European political parties labelled as racists those clamoring for restricted immigration or aggressive integrationist policies.
The result? Voters have turned to extremists who have no shame in fanning the flames of hatred.
Europe's default option – hatred in the wake of tolerance's failure – is but a stone's-throw away. ...
Judging by the way race relations are handled in Europe, two clear patterns emerge.
Freedom will be curtailed to protect intolerant cultures and communities.
Citizens will grow increasingly alienated from this state of affairs. They will vent their frustration by supporting extremist political groups, or by taking justice into their own hands and unleashing violence against the minorities they resent."

"Afghan Forces Catch Mullah Omar's Security Chief" (Mirwais Afghan, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/12/14)
"Afghan security forces have captured Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's personal security chief as he traveled in a van to the southern city of Kandahar, provincial officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
The capture of Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan, who headed Mullah Omar's household security, could help U.S. and Afghan forces track down his boss, one of the most wanted fugitives in the U.S.-led war on terror. ...
"We have arrested top Taliban figures Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan and Mullah Qayoom Angar on the way between Arghandab and Kandahar. They were carrying a satellite telephone and some important documents," said a senior Kandahar security official, who requested anonymity.
The official said eight more Taliban fighters were arrested in Kandahar after the two men were caught, unarmed, on Monday evening. A cache of remote control bombs, time bombs and several other explosive devices and radios was also seized."

"Mentally-ill girl who was sold for sex faces death penalty in Iran" (Angus McDowall, The Independent, 2004/12/14)
"A teenage girl with a mental age of eight is facing the death penalty for prostitution in Iran. The trial comes only four months after the hanging of another mentally ill girl for sex before marriage in a case that has prompted a human rights lawyer to prepare a charge of wrongful execution against the presiding judge.
The girl, known as Leyla M, is in prison while the Supreme Court decides on her "acts contrary to chastity", among the most serious charges under Iranian law. Under the penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed.
In an interview on a Persian-language website, the 19-year-old says she was forced into prostitution by her mother at the age of eight. Amnesty International refers to reports that say she was repeatedly raped, bore her first child aged nine and was passed from pimp to pimp before having another three children."

"BNP leader bailed after racial incitement arrest" (The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/14)
"Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has been released on bail after his arrest in connection with an investigation into inciting racial hatred.
It follows a television documentary exposing the extent of alleged racism in the organisation.
Earlier it was revealed that the party's founding chairman John Tyndall had been held on Sunday.
The 70-year-old from Brighton was arrested on suspicion of the same offence following a speech he made in Burnley in March, a BNP spokesman said.
Parts of the speech were covertly filmed and shown in a BBC programme. ...
The documentary, screened in July, featured covertly-filmed footage showing BNP activists allegedly confessing to race-hate crimes and party leader Mr Griffin condemning Islam as a "vicious, wicked faith".
Twelve people have been arrested in connection with the programme." (For more on BBC’s "The Secret Agent", see also: "Blowing up the BNP" (Sandy Starr, spiked, 2004/07/16))

"We need protection from the pedlars of religious hatred" (Iqbal Sacranie, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/14)
Via John Derbyshire, who notes that Sacranie is "arguing, basically, for stronger laws against blasphemy," but also acknowledges that he has "no compelling moral or jurisprudential arguments against blasphemy laws, and Western Civ. got along fine with them for several centuries; but where will our liberals be on this?"
Andrew Stuttaford, however, is "no fan of blasphemy laws under any circumstances as, basically, I don't see why one particular ideology, religious or otherwise, should be immune from criticism.":
"As for the comments of Iqbal Sacranie, you link to, for disingenuousness and dishonesty they take some beating. An overwhelming sense of nausea makes it difficult to go through the whole thing, but these words alone should sound alarm bells enough:

"We can make a critical distinction between the substance and form of free speech. The law need not infringe on the substance but can assist to moderate the form."

When I want my free speech "moderated", Mr. Sacranie, I'll let you know.":
"We seem to be revisiting the arguments that came to the fore during the Satanic Verses affair. Is freedom of expression without bounds? Muslims are not alone in saying "No" and calling for safeguards against vilification of dearly cherished beliefs. ...
Stirring up hatred against people simply because of their religious beliefs or lack of them ought to be regarded as a social evil. The BNP's ongoing Islamophobia can and has led to criminal acts, abuse, discrimination, fear and disorder. At the moment, there are laws against those who are stirred into committing these offences, but not against those that do the stirring. In opposing the incitement to religious hatred provision, Charles Moore, Rowan Atkinson and the National Secular Society are unwittingly strengthening the hand of those, such as the BNP, who peddle religious hatred." (See also: "Is it only Mr Bean who resists this new religious intolerance?" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/11))

"Foreign terrorists in Fallujah" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2004/12/14)
"U.S. military forces captured more than 30 foreign fighters during recent combat in Fallujah and found equipment used by terrorists to make fake passports and documents, a senior military official in Iraq said. ...
One finding of the battle of Fallujah was that no single nation was the main home of the foreigners who were killed or captured. The list of foreign fighters who were identified included nationals from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Morocco and Algeria, said the officer, speaking on condition that he not be named.
In addition to the 30 captured foreign fighters, the remains of more than 40 others have been identified as non-Iraqis. Many of those killed in the recent fighting also may have been foreign terrorists, but did not carry any identification.
"The number of foreign fighters that were found in the city was lower than we expected," the official said, adding that many fled the city and others were killed but not identified."

Monday, December 13, 2004

News and commentary:

"A Message From The Iraq Resistance" (Information Clearing House, 2004/12/13)
A video message from the "media platoon of the Islamic Jihad Army." Found via Andrew Sullivan, who points out that the "striking thing about this piece of video propaganda for the insurgency in Iraq is how Western-left it appears. From the British accent narrating the talking points to the weird challenge to "use the euro!", it's an interesting mesh of the anti-globalist, anti-American ideology in Europe and the murderous, Jihadist creed.":
"People of the world! These words come to you from those who up to the day of the invasion were struggling to survive under the sanctions imposed by the criminal regimes of the U.S. and Britain.
We are simple people who chose principles over fear.
We have suffered crimes and sanctions, which we consider the true weapons of mass destruction. ...
We thank all those, including those of Britain and the U.S. , who took to the streets in protest against this war and against Globalism. We also thank France , Germany and other states for their position, which least to say are considered wise and balanced, til now."

"'Who the Devil Really Was'" (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, from the 2004/12/20 issue)
"I arrived in London the day after Hamid Karzai's inauguration as Afghanistan's newly elected president. Britain's most serious left-of-center newspaper, The Guardian, reported on the event in detail, noting that after decades of war, coups and bloodshed, this was a historic day. Its op-ed page had a somewhat different interpretation. It carried a huge, lurid cartoon of Dick Cheney, surrounded by Bush, Rumsfeld and Karzai, all looking drunk or mad or both, and singing, "Ashghanistan! Ashghanistan! From Sea to Shining Sea!!!" Is this the European left's response to elections in Afghanistan? If so, it had better brace itself for even worse news: elections in Iraq. ...
And I could be wrong about Iraq, in the sense that things could get much worse. Civil war, rampant anti-Americanism and terrorism are all part of the possible future. But what I am not wrong about is that a more decent, pluralistic Iraq would make a huge difference in the Arab world. Already the preparations for Iraq's elections are stirring debate and discussion among its neighbors. Remember, these are the first genuine, national elections in the entire region. As 300 million Middle Easterners watch Iraqis going to the polls, they will surely ask a simple question: 'Why not us?'"

"Undiplomatic Imbalance: The antisemitism at the U.N. is a problem for more than just Israel" (Anne Bayefsky, National Review, 2004/12/13)
"There is a curious omission in the 129-page report on United Nations reform recently produced by a 16-person panel "of eminent and experienced people" at the request of Secretary General Kofi Annan. The U.N.'s own website, under "Main Bodies," lists the General Assembly, the Security Council, and directly below, the "Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People." But nowhere does the reform report mention this committee.
The omission goes to the heart of what's really ailing the U.N. For the past four decades the United Nations has become the personal propaganda machine of the nom de guerre of Arab and Islamic states — Palestinians. Their aim is to demonize, debilitate, and destroy the state of Israel — the thriving democratic beachhead in their midst — for a start. The original U.N. mission, to protect the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, has been hijacked and corrupted by nations that neither share the universal values of the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights nor have democratic intentions." (See also: "Fatal Failure: The U.N. won’t recognize the connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism" (Anne Bayefsky, National Review, 2004/11/30))

"Sontag Award Nominee I" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/12/13)
"'The Iraqi killer of Reserve Navy Lt. Kylan Jones-Huffman has been brought to justice in an Iraqi court. Although he has since changed his story, he at one point admitted to killing Jones-Huffman with a bullet through the back of the neck while the latter was stuck in traffic in downtown Hilla. The assassin said that he felt that Jones-Huffman "looked Jewish." The fruits of hatred sowed in the Middle East by aggressive and expansionist Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza against the Palestinians and in south Lebanon against Shiites continue to be harvested by Americans.' - Juan Cole, in a new low, on his blog." (See also: "Press Roundup for Sunday" (Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 2004/12/12))

"Sontag Award Nominee II" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/12/13)
"'The United States has lost the war in Iraq, and that's a good thing. I don't mean that the loss of American and Iraqi lives is to be celebrated. The death and destruction are numbingly tragic, and the suffering in Iraq is hard for most of us in the United States to comprehend. The tragedy is compounded because these deaths haven't protected Americans or brought freedom to Iraqis. They have come in the quest to extend the American empire in this "new American century." So, as a U.S. citizen, I welcome the U.S. defeat for a simple reason: It isn't the defeat of the United States -- its people or their ideals -- but of that empire. And it's essential that the American empire be defeated and dismantled.' - Robert Jensen, Dallas Star-Telegram." (See also: "A defeat for an empire" (Robert Jensen, Star-Telegram, 2004/12/08))

"City, Fed Probes Eye Pardongate Billionaire As A 'Major Player' In Saddam's Scam" (Niles Lathem, New York Post, 2004/12/13)
"Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.
Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said.
"We think he was a major player in this — a central figure," a senior law-enforcement official told The Post. ...
Investigators say they have received information that Rich and Ben Pollner, a New York-based oil trader who heads Taurus Oil, set up a series of companies in Liechtenstein and other countries that they used to put together deals between Saddam and his international supporters in the controversial oil-voucher scheme — which the dictator designed to win international support against U.S. sanctions at the United Nations."

"9/11 Cases Proving Difficult in Germany" (Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post , 2004/12/13)
"HAMBURG -- After three years of failing to hold anyone accountable for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Germany is preparing to expel accused members of the Hamburg-based cell that led the hijackings and send them to countries with more aggressive records of prosecuting terrorism.
Although two criminal trials are still pending, German officials, legal experts and lawyers involved in the cases said the massive investigation into the al Qaeda cell has been stymied by this country's lax anti-terrorism laws, unfavorable judicial rulings and a lack of evidence, making it increasingly doubtful that anyone here will be convicted.
The state of affairs is apparent at the judicial complex in Hamburg, where one of the defendants, Mounir Motassadeq, is being tried on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Despite the gravity of the charges, he is a free man, walking alone from his home to the century-old courthouse each morning, unguarded."

"Marines clear out Fallujah" (Sharon Behn, The Washington Times , 2004/12/13)
"FALLUJAH, Iraq — Marines yesterday cleared bodies from buildings at the scene of their biggest battle since the fall of Baghdad, securing this former insurgent stronghold for the return of thousands of civilians and upcoming elections.
But six weeks before the historic vote, a U.S. official said, fewer than 1 percent of eligible Iraqis have responded to a voter-registration drive, forcing authorities to look for other ways to build up voter lists.
Iraqis cite security worries as the main reason for the slow response, with some expressing fears of continued violence and corruption even after the Jan. 30 election for a legislative assembly."

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Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

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