Archived
news and commentary: January 17 - 23, 2005
2005/01/17 - 2005/01/23
2005/01/10 - 2005/01/16
2005/01/03 - 2005/01/09
2004/12/27 - 2005/01/02
2004/12/20 - 2004/12/26
2004/12/13 - 2004/12/19
Sunday,
January 23, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Al-Zarqawi Said to Declare 'Fierce War'" (AP/ABC News, 2005/01/23)
"A speaker purporting to be Iraq's most feared terror leader declared a "fierce war" on democracy and said in an audiotape posted Sunday on the Web that the Americans were using next weekend's Iraqi elections to install the Shiites in power.
"We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology," said the speaker, who identified himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq. "Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it."
The speaker said candidates running in the Jan. 30 elections are "demi-idols" and those who vote for them "are infidels." U.S. and Iraqi officials fear insurgent attacks and have announced massive security measures to protect voters. ...
The speaker said democracy was based on un-Islamic beliefs and behaviors such as freedom of religion, rule of the people, freedom of expression, separation of religion and state, forming political parties and majority rule.
He said that freedom of expression is allowed "even cursing God. This means that there is nothing sacred in democracy." He said Islam requires the rule of God and not the rule of 'the majority or the people.'" (See also: "Zarqawi Tape Vows Lengthy War in Iraq - Web Site" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/20))"In tiny Baghdad bookshop, some dare to be hopeful amid the fear and misery" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/Boston.com, 2005/01/23)
"'I don't just see light at the end of the tunnel, I see light at the start and throughout the tunnel,' says Abbas, 41, in a typically upbeat remark. His partner Zeidan, 39, agrees.
"We must live like other people," Zeidan says. "Let a million of us die. That's the price of freedom. Have you heard of any society that gained freedom without sacrifices?"...
"I often debate the election with my Sunni friends," said Abbas. ''I keep telling them: 'Go to the polling stations and cast a blank ballot. If you just go, that will be a victory over terrorism and dictatorship.' For me, I will vote even if it costs me my life.''
"This election represents what is possible," Zeidan chimed in. 'It's the only chance we have. To me, it's the start of a new life, the exercise of a right we never had before.'""High Hopes, Hard Facts" (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, from the 2005/01/31 issue)
Inaugural Address VIII: "While Bush has been visionary in his goals, he has not provided much practical wisdom on how to attain them in a complex world. This lack of attention to the long, hard slog of actually promoting democracy might explain why things have gone so poorly in the most important practical application of the Bush Doctrine so far—Iraq. Convinced that bringing freedom to a country meant simply getting rid of the tyrant, the Bush administration seems to have done virtually no serious postwar planning to keep law and order, let alone to build the institutions of a democratic state. If this sounds like an exaggeration, consider the extraordinary words in the “after-action report” of the most important division of the American Army in Iraq, the Third Infantry Division, quoted in a recent essay by Michael O’Hanlon. It reads: “Higher headquarters did not provide the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized) with a plan for Phase IV [the postwar phase]. As a result, Third Infantry Division transitioned into Phase IV in the absence of guidance.”
From Versailles to Vietnam, this has always been the danger of American idealism. Not that the ideals were wrong or dangerous, but rather that, satisfied by the virtues of their grand goals, American policymakers lost sight of the practical realities on the ground." (See also: "Iraq Without a Plan" (Michael E. O’Hanlon, Policy Review, from the December 2004-January 2005 issue))
"The Eve of Destruction"
(The Village Voice, 2005/01/18)"He's a worldbeater, all right" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2005/01/23)
Inaugural Address VII: "I picked up the Village Voice for the first time in years this week. Couldn't resist the cover story: ''The Eve Of Destruction: George W. Bush's Four-Year Plan To Wreck The World.''
Oh, dear. It's so easy to raise expectations at the beginning of a new presidential term. But at least he's got a four-year plan.":
"Everyone lives next door now. Sept. 11 demonstrated that the paradox of America -- the isolationist superpower -- was no longer tenable.
That was what Bush accomplished so superbly in his speech: the idealistic position -- spreading liberty -- is now also the realist one: If you don't spread it, in the end your own liberty will be jeopardized. "It is the policy of the United States," said the president, "to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." By the end of his second term? Well, not necessarily. But what matters is that the president has repudiated the failed "realism" that showers billions on a friendly dictator like Egypt's Mubarak and is then surprised when one of his subjects flies a passenger jet into the World Trade Center.""A Higher Realism" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2005/01/23)
Inaugural Address VI: "The most significant thing about President Bush's inaugural address was the word he did not utter: terror. Until now the war on terrorism has been the administration's foreign policy paradigm, giving unity and coherence to disparate and morally contradictory policies: promoting democracy in the Middle East, for instance, while ignoring undemocratic practices in Russia and China. One would have expected Bush to make the war on terrorism the theme of his address. ...
The goal of American foreign policy is now to spread democracy, for its own sake, for reasons that transcend specific threats. In short, Bush has unmoored his foreign policy from the war on terrorism.
This is where Bush may lose the support of most old-fashioned conservatives. His goals are now the antithesis of conservatism. They are revolutionary. ...
But the pragmatic virtue of basing American foreign policy on the timeless principles of the Declaration of Independence is that they do reflect universal aspirations. Such a policy may attract wider support abroad than the war on terrorism has and a more durable support at home for an internationalist foreign policy. That is the higher realism that Bush now proclaims.""Oh, say can you see..." (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2005/01/23)
Inaugural Address V: "Since 11 September the most bizarre alliances have come into existence. The very far left and the very far right have effortlessly coalesced in their identification of Israel and Zionism as the true animating spirits of the war for democracy, in their flirtation with 9/11 conspiracy theories and in their support for the peculiarly murderous 'resistance' in Iraq. Slightly further in, hard-right isolationists such as Pat Buchanan quote approvingly from the works of John Pilger. One more shift discovers Hurdite super-pragmatists, 'old' European strategists and sensible socialists - seemingly unscarred by Rwanda and Bosnia - effectively agreeing that dramatic action on the international stage almost always makes things worse.
Finally, there's the improbable alliance between neo-conservatives and liberal interventionists, the meeting of the 'something must be done' brigade, with the 'America's the one to do it' movement.
I have pitched my tent, uneasily, on the edges of this last camp.""Divided We Stand" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2005/01/23)
"I spent Friday morning interviewing two 18-year-old French Muslim girls in the Paris immigrant district of St.-Ouen. (It is about a mile from the school where in March 2003 a French Muslim girl, who had refused the veil and rebuffed the advances of a Muslim boy, was thrown into a garbage can by three Muslim teenagers, who then tossed lighted cigarette butts into the can and closed the lid.)
Both girls I interviewed wore veils and one also wore a full Afghan-like head-to-toe covering; one was of Egyptian parents, the other of Tunisian parents, but both were born and raised in France. What did I learn from them? That they got all their news from Al Jazeera TV, because they did not believe French TV, that the person they admired most in the world was Osama bin Laden, because he was defending Islam, that suicide "martyrdom" was justified because there was no greater glory than dying in defense of Islam, that they saw themselves as Muslims first and French citizens last, and that all their friends felt pretty much the same.
We were not in Kabul. We were standing outside their French public high school - a short ride from the Eiffel Tower.""The scariest prospect of all: Iran with the bomb" (Edward Luttwak, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/01/23)
"If Iran is to be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons, effective diplomatic or military action will have to come soon. Production facilities can be bombed but once actual weapons are assembled, locating and destroying them will become next to impossible. And Iran will then be in a position to threaten not just Israel, but all of our oil-producing Arab allies. ...
Unless European diplomacy obtains real guarantees from Iran, President Bush will soon have to decide to do to Iran what the Israelis did to Iraq. If he decides to attack, he will not announce it in advance: just a television broadcast the following morning announcing a job done. The "international community" will denounce the raid hysterically in public while approving of it whole-heartedly in private. ...
The truth is that nuclear- armed ayatollahs are unacceptable in Europe, America and Israel. Even the clerics, in their calmer and more rational moments, must know that accepting rewards for freezing Iran's nuclear programme is a better deal than getting bombed. But Iran will elect a new president on June 17. The campaign has just started. It is not the best of times for calm rationality.""The Night the Soldiers Came" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/01/23)
"The Washington Post’s Jackie Spinner meets a calm and reasonable Baghdad resident who turned against the US after ... well, you’ll find out soon enough. The sequence of extracts below is altered from the original to more closely describe events as they are alleged to have occurred:By all accounts, Imaad, 32, was a typical, mild-mannered college graduate who spoke English well and had quietly supported the U.S. presence in Iraq — until Jan. 5, the night the soldiers came.
The night they came — for vengeance!
His story about that night, told days later in his small living room, is the story of how the U.S. military made an enemy of one man during a 20-minute encounter.
A 20-minute encounter — with terror! ... For we are about to reach this story’s moment of Hitchcockian ultra-horror:
The soldiers went to search his bedroom. He heard laughing, and then they called for him, he said. Imaad went to his room and saw that the soldiers had ...
... found several magazines he kept hidden from his mother. They had pictures of girls in swimsuits and erotic poses. Imaad said the soldiers spread the magazines on his bed and put his Koran in the middle.
Bet you weren’t expecting that, thriller fans! Stephen King, eat your goddamn heart out!" (See also: "In One Night, Iraqi Turns From Friend to Foe" (Jackie Spinner, The Washington Post, 2005/01/23))
"The Next Islamist Revolution?" (Eliza Griswold, The New York Times Magazine, 2005/01/23)
A report from Bangladesh: "Under the current government, which has been in power since 2001 and includes two avowedly Islamist parties, journalists are frequently imprisoned. Last year, three were killed while reporting on corruption and the rise of militant Islam. Moreover, 80 percent of Bangladeshis live in villages that can be hard to reach and are under the tight control of local politicians. Foreign journalists in Bangladesh are followed by intelligence agents; people that reporters interview are questioned afterward.
Nonetheless, it is possible to travel through Bangladesh and observe the increased political and religious repression in everyday life, and to verify the simple remark by one journalist there: ''We are losing our freedom.'' The global war on terror is aimed at making the rise of regimes like that of the Taliban impossible, but in Bangladesh, the trend could be going the other way.
In Bangladesh, ''Islam is becoming the legitimizing political discourse,'' according to C. Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, federally financed policy group in Washington. ''Once you don that religious mantle, who can criticize you? We see this in Pakistan as well, where very few people are brave enough to take the Islamists on. Now this is happening in Bangladesh.'' The region, Fair added, has become a haven where jihadis can move easily and have access to a friendly infrastructure that allows them to regroup and train.""Muslims boycott Holocaust remembrance" (David Leppard, The Sunday Times, 2005/01/23)
Mahmood's condemnation ["People who were exterminated in the Holocaust were not just Jews."] is almost as outrageous as Sacranie's boycott:
"BRITISH Muslims are to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict.
Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Charles Clarke, the home secretary, saying the body will not attend the event unless it includes the “holocaust” of the Palestinian intifada. ...
This weekend the boycott by the leaders of Britain’s 1.2m Muslims was condemned by Khalid Mahmood, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr. 'I’m proud to be a Muslim. But if people are boycotting this then I think it’s a mistake. People who were exterminated in the Holocaust were not just Jews. There were Romany gypsies as well. Anybody who is interested in human rights should support this remembrance'""Second UN official 'linked to Saddam pay-off'" (Charles Laurence and Philip Sherwel, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/01/23)
"American prosecutors are investigating claims that a second senior United Nations official involved in the oil-for-food scheme may have been paid off by Saddam Hussein after an Iraqi-born American businessman struck a plea-bargain deal last week.
The testimony of Samir Vincent, who pleaded guilty to acting as a covert agent for Baghdad, indicates that Saddam's manipulation of the scheme began at its inception in 1996. ...
He made the claim that a UN official, who has not yet been named publicly, received cash payments from iraq in 1996 in his statement submitted as a "co-operating witness" to the United States federal court in Manhattan. A copy of the papers has been obtained by The Telegraph.
According to the indictment, Vincent was among a group of Iraqi officials and agents who agreed on the scheme to reward those who co-operated with Saddam with the oil vouchers. For his part, Vincent was allegedly rewarded with five oil contracts which he sold for between $3 million and $5 million."
Saturday,
January 22, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Islamophobia myth" (Kenan Malik, Prospect, from the February 2005 issue)
"Ten years ago, no one had heard of Islamophobia. Now everyone from Muslim leaders to anti-racist activists to government ministers wants to convince us that Britain is in the grip of a major backlash against Islam.
But does Islamophobia exist? The trouble with the idea is that it confuses hatred of, and discrimination against, Muslims on the one hand with criticism of Islam on the other. The charge of "Islamophobia" is all too often used not to highlight racism but to silence critics of Islam, or even Muslims fighting for reform of their communities.
In reality, discrimination against Muslims is not as great as is often claimed. When making a film on Islamophobia for Channel 4, I discovered a huge gap between perception and reality. ...
In the course of making my documentary, I asked dozens of ordinary Muslims across the country about their experiences of Islamophobia. Everyone believed that police harassment was common, although no one had been stopped and searched. Everyone insisted that physical attacks were rife, though few had been attacked or knew anyone who had. What is being created here is a culture of victimhood in which "Islamophobia" has become a one-stop explanation for the many problems facing Muslims." (See also: "What hate?" (Kenan Malik, The Guardian/kenanmalik.com, 2005/01/07))"The Hermit Nuclear Kingdom" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Review of Books, from the 2005/02/10 issue)
A review of "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty" by Bradley K. Martin ["simply the best book ever written about North Korea"] and "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies" by Victor D. Cha and David C. Kang:
"The 1994 agreement is constantly cited by administration hawks as proof that there's no point to reaching agreements with North Koreans, because they cheat. But such statements are made mostly by people who mix up the two ways to make nuclear weapons. In fact, the 1994 agreement achieved plenty. It halted North Korea's efforts to make nuclear weapons by using plutonium, although it's true that it did secretly continue to enrich uranium. But that route is less threatening than the plutonium route, which makes a larger volume of weapons possible. If it weren't for the 1994 agreement, North Korea would now have at least one hundred nuclear weapons, perhaps two hundred.
The secret uranium program posed a real threat of proliferation, but the Bush administration's response to it led the North Koreans not only to continue with it but also to revive their plutonium program. Now we have the worst of both worlds, and North Korea could eventually be producing dozens of nuclear weapons each year.""Germany to Deport Hundreds of Islamists - Magazine" (Reuters, 2005/01/22)
"German officials are drawing up lists of hundreds of Islamic militants to be deported from the country under a new law making expulsions easier, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday.
Der Spiegel said authorities were already using their powers under an immigration law introduced this month in conducting an operation dubbed "Aktion Kehraus" ("Action Sweep Out").
The Interior Ministry declined to comment on the report beyond saying that deportations were a matter for Germany's 16 federal states.
Under new rules, potential deportees will not be able to use normal legal channels to challenge an expulsion order. A special panel of the Federal Administrative Court will be responsible, with no right of appeal.
Der Spiegel said judges were expected to deal with up to 2,000 cases per year.""Army Prepares 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq" (Michael P. Regan, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/22)
"Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp. ...
The $200,000, armed version will carry standard-issue Squad Automatic Weapons, either the M249, which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at a rate of 750 per minute, or the M240, which can fire about 700 to 1,000 7.62-millimeter rounds per minute. The SWORDS can fire about 300 rounds using the M240 and about 350 rounds using the M249 before needing to reload. ...
Its developers say the SWORDS not only allows its operators to fire at enemies without exposing themselves to return fire, but also can make them more accurate.
A typical soldier who could hit a target the size of a basketball from 300 meters away could hit a target the size of a nickel with the SWORDS, according Quinn." (See also: "Armed/Weaponized Infantry Robots for Urban Warfare and Counterinsurgency Ops" (Defense Review, 2004/12/13))"Palestinian groups look at ceasefire as Abbas seeks end to attacks" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/22)
"Three militant Palestinian groups, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades linked to the mainstream Fatah, said that they were ready to back new Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's bid to end armed conflict with Israel.
The Brigades said its member groups were prepared to halt attacks through a mutual ceasefire, in a welcome boost for the moderate Abbas who is seeking to persuade Israel of his ability to impose order in the territories.
There was, however, no announcement of any progress in Abbas's efforts to get the militant Islamic group Hamas to join the swing to seeking a political settlement. ...
After the Brigades' announcement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also said they were ready to consider seeking a conditional ceasefire with Israel.""Iraq refuses to say if Zarqawi detained" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2005/01/22)
"Iraq's interior minister on Saturday refused to comment on rumors that the top terror leader in the country had been taken into custody.
"I wouldn't like to comment for the time being," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said when asked about rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested. "Let's see. Maybe in the next few days we will make a comment about it."
Pressing him, a reporter asked, "Does that mean he is in custody?"
"No comment," the minister repeated.""The U.N. at Work: The world body gives financial support to Hamas" (Dore Gold, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/01/22)
"In 2003 and 2004, the Israel Defense Forces captured documentation showing how the U.N. Development Program was regularly funding two Hamas front organizations: the Tulkarm Charity Committee and the Jenin District Committee for Charitable Funds. The donations varied — sometimes $4,000 and sometimes $10,000. Receipts and even copies of thank-you notes to UNDP were discovered. ...
Another disturbing revelation from captured documents is the support provided by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for the "Koran and Sunna Society" of Kalkilya. UNRWA has been heavily penetrated by Hamas for years; Hamas members dominate many of its unions, including the teachers union. But this new link represented a further deterioration in the U.N.'s connections, for the "Koran and Sunna Society" defines itself as salafi — it adopts doctrines from militant Islam. Indeed, the "Koran and Sunna Society," which has six branches in the West Bank, distributes pamphlets published in Saudi Arabia that are often written by radical Wahhabi clerics. References to the value of martyrdom and jihad are not uncommon in these materials. One of the Society's schools, called "The Martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Intifada," received payments from UNRWA for educating children of Palestinian refugees in March and June of 2004.""Ideals and Reality" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2005/01/22)
Inaugural Address IV: "With that speech, President Bush's foreign policy doctrine transcended the war on terror. He laid down a standard against which everything he and his successors do will be judged.
When he goes to China, he will not be able to ignore the political prisoners there, because he called them the future leaders of their free nation. When he meets with dictators around the world, as in this flawed world he must, he will not be able to have warm relations with them, because he said no relations with tyrants can be successful.
His words will be thrown back at him and at future presidents. American diplomats have been sent a strong message. Political reform will always be on the table. Liberation and democratization will be the ghost present at every international meeting. Vladimir Putin will never again be the possessor of that fine soul; he will be the menace to democracy and rule of law. ...
The speech does not mean that Bush will always live up to his standard. But the bias in American foreign policy will shift away from stability and toward reform. It will be harder to cozy up to Arab dictators because they can supposedly help us in the war on terror. It will be clearer that those dictators are not the antidotes to terror; they're the disease.""Focus on Iran Causes Unease" (John Daniszewski, Los Angeles Times, 2005/01/22)
The Axis of Fahrenheit 9/11 fans: Hezbollah, Castro, Iran and now Lukashenko:
"Belarusian President Alexander G. Lukashenko, the leader routinely referred to as Europe's last dictator and one seen as being in the sights of the Bush administration, was sardonic in his reaction to Bush's call for an expansion of freedom.
"Suppose someone or other didn't really want such 'freedom,' soaked in blood and smelling of oil?" he asked his National Security Council on Friday. (Belarus thumbed its nose at Bush two days earlier when its state television aired "Fahrenheit 9/11," the anti-Bush documentary by U.S. director Michael Moore.)"
"The Birmingham Index"
(Muslims Against Advertising, January 2005)"Muslim group targets poster nudity" (Nicola Woolcock, The Times, 2005/01/22)
Emphasis added: "BILLBOARD adverts featuring partial nudity are being defaced by Muslim activists who are offended by displays of flesh.
The advertising watchdog has confirmed that increasing numbers of posters are being torn down or painted over in predominantly Islamic areas.
A website giving advice on how to vandalise billboards and listing potential targets has been set up by a group calling themselves Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD).
The campaign has gathered momentum since the Advertising Standards Authority banned an underwear advert from being sited near mosques.
Advertisements for perfume, hair dye, bras and television programmes are among those that have been attacked. Photographs of semi-dressed women are the most frequently targeted, with the offending body parts painted over or ripped off. ...
An Advertising Standards Authority spokeswoman said: ... 'One area we’re concerned about is causing religious offence — the use of religious imagery and also being sensitive to location. If something is offensive in a particular area then the company will normally take it down.'" (See also: Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD).)"Iraqi minister: Chalabi will be arrested" (CNN.com, 2005/01/22)
"Iraq's interim defense minister said former Iraq exile leader Ahmed Chalabi will be arrested Saturday and handed over to Interpol to face bank fraud charges in Jordan.
Saturday is both the final day of the Muslim pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca and the end of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice.
As the exiled political leader of the Iraqi National Congress, Chalabi was a key U.S. ally leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
"Chalabi is someone who has hurt his people," Defense Minister Hazem Sha'alan said on the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera.
"He robbed 1,500 families of their daily bread by bankrupting Bank Petra." ...
In his comments to Al-Jazeera, Sha'alan accused Chalabi of defaming him and the ministry, but didn't elaborate.
Sha'alan also blamed Chalabi for dismantling the Iraqi army and police forces after the U.S.-led invasion. In a separate interview with the Arab network Al-Arabiya, Sha'alan also blamed the United States for dismantling the Iraqi army."Added in archive:
"What hate?" (Kenan Malik, The Guardian/kenanmalik.com, 2005/01/07)
Friday,
January 21, 2005
News and
commentary:
"U.S. President George W. Bush gestures..."
(Larry Downing, AP, 2005/01/20)
"U.S. President George W. Bush gestures from the reviewing stand of the inaugural parade as a Texas float goes past in Washington, January 20. 2005.""Norwegians Confused by Bush Salute" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/21)
"OSLO, Norway - Many Norwegian television viewers were shocked to see U.S. President George W. Bush and family apparently saluting Satan during the U.S. inauguration.
But in reality, it was just a sign of respect for the University of Texas Longhorns, whose fans are known to shout out "Hook 'em, horns!" at athletic events.
The president and family were photographed lifting their right hands with their index and pinky fingers raised up, much like a horn.
But in much of the world those "horns" are a sign of the devil. In the Nordics, the hand gesture is popular among death metal and black metal groups and fans.
"Shock greeting from Bush daughter," a headline in the Norwegian Internet newspaper Nettavisen said late Wednesday above a photograph of Bush's daughter, Jenna, smiling and showing the sign.
Bush, a former Texas governor, was simply greeting the Texas Longhorn marching band as it passed during a Washington D.C. parade in the president's honor, explained Verdens Gang, Norway's largest newspaper." (See also: "Sjokkhilsen fra Bush-datter" (Ole Valaker, Nettavisen, 2005/01/20))"The Spectator sport of Jew-baiting" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/01/21)
"In the run-up to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, pieces are naturally popping up about the Holocaust. The Spectator has such a piece -- and uses the opportunity to accuse the Jews of turning into Nazis.
The article is by Anthony Lipmann, an Anglican who did not know he had been born a Jew until he was 16 and whose mother had been in Auschwitz. Having described how she would barely talk about the experience, and introduced us to his own tortured soul -- racked with guilt about how he might have behaved, etc -- he then unleashes this:'"What would I have done?" I ask myself. "What should I be doing now? What am I doing for those being persecuted today — among them the Palestinians, who are suffering at the hands of Jews? But for a turn of fate, could I have been a Nazi too?"'
He then tells us he is sure that 'we Jews must excise hate' and that:
'I will think not just of the crematoria and the cattle trucks but of Darfur, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Jenin, Fallujah...This little band of 600 [concentration camp victims who are going to a reception hosted by the Queen] has a terrible responsibility — to live well in the name of those who did not live and to discourage the building of walls and bulldozing of villages. Even more than this, they — and all Jews — need to be the voice of conscience that will prevent Israel from adopting the mantle of oppressor, and to reject the label ‘anti-Semite’ for those who speak out against Israel’s policies in the occupied territories.'
At any time this would be disgusting stuff. As a piece marking the liberation of Auschwitz, it is obscene." (See also: "How I became a Jew" (Anthony Lipmann, The Spectator, from the 2005/01/22 issue))
"Shun Terror, Imam Urges Muslims in Eid Sermon" (Mahmoud Ahmad, Arab News, 2005/01/21)
"MAKKAH, 21 January 2005 — As millions of faithful marked Eid Al-Adha yesterday, Muslims were warned against heeding militant calls to wage terrorist attacks in the name of Islam.
The warning came, amid a surge in militant attacks in Muslim countries and beyond, from Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, while addressing Haj pilgrims in a customary Eid sermon. The imam also advised Islamic scholars to preach moderation to confront this “rotten” phenomenon.
“Islam is the religion of moderation. There is no room for extremism in Islam,” he said. ...
“Because Muslims have strayed from moderation, we are now suffering from this dangerous phenomenon of branding people infidels and inciting Muslims to rise against their leaders to cause instability,” Al-Sudais said.
'The reason for this is a delinquent and void interpretation of Islam based on ignorance ... faith does not mean killing Muslims or non-Muslims who live among us, it does not mean shedding blood, terrorizing or sending body parts flying.'""On Tyranny" (William Kristol, The Weekly Standard, from the 2005/01/31 issue)
Inaugural Address III: "Informed by Strauss and inspired by Paine, appealing to Lincoln and alluding to Truman, beginning with the Constitution and ending with the Declaration, with Biblical phrases echoing throughout — George W. Bush's Second Inaugural was a powerful and subtle speech.
It will also prove to be a historic speech. Less than three and a half years after 9/11, Bush's Second Inaugural moves American foreign policy beyond the war on terror to the larger struggle against tyranny. It grounds Bush's foreign policy — American foreign policy — in American history and American principles. If actions follow words and success greets his efforts, then President Bush will have ushered in a new era in American foreign policy.""Way Too Much God" (Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/01/21)
Inaugural Address II: "The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul." ...
"Renewed in our strength — tested, but not weary — we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom."
This is — how else to put it? — over the top. It is the kind of sentence that makes you wonder if this White House did not, in the preparation period, have a case of what I have called in the past "mission inebriation." A sense that there are few legitimate boundaries to the desires born in the goodness of their good hearts.
One wonders if they shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not.""Smiles for the family, a fiery warning for the world" (Julian Borger, The Guardian, 2005/01/21)
Inaugural Address I: "In arguably the most combative inauguration speech for 50 years, Mr Bush made clear that the Afghan and Iraqi wars had not diminished his determination to take the counter-terrorism campaign to America's enemies. He depicted those conflicts as part of a much broader mission, which he phrased in almost messianic terms. ...
He also suggested the struggle against oppression was ordained by God, exporting the ideas enshrined in the US constitution that all people have God-given rights.
"History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction set by liberty and the author of liberty," the president said. The deliberate use of language familiar to evangelical Christians won more cheers from the crowd than any other phrase.
With this radical address, Mr Bush nailed his colours once and for all to the neoconservative mast, committing himself to an activist foreign policy.""Tomorrow's Threat" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2005/01/21)
"The great democratic crusade undertaken by this administration is going far better than most observers will admit. That's the good news. The bad news is a development more troubling than most observers recognize: signs of the emergence, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet empire, of an anti-American bloc anchored by Great Powers. ...
It is no accident that Russia has begun hinting at making common cause with China. This is potentially ominous because of China's rising power and its status as the leading have-not nation on the planet, the Germany of the 21st century. In December, during the week of the rerun Ukrainian election that finally brought the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to power, Russia made two significant moves toward China. First was the announcement of intensified economic cooperation in developing Russia's vast energy resources. More ominous was the Russian defense minister's Dec. 27 announcement of, "for the first time in history," large joint military exercises on Chinese territory.
China in turn is developing relationships with such virulently anti-American rogue states as Iran. Add such various self-styled, anti-imperialist flotsam as Syria, North Korea, Cuba and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, and you have the beginnings of a significant "anti-hegemonic" bloc -- aimed at us.""Most Iraqis Remain Committed to Elections, Poll Finds" (Karl Vick, The Washington Post, 2005/01/21)
"An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey.
The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months. ...
"I think people will be shocked," said an official of another international organization deeply involved in preparing Iraq's nascent political class for the ballot. The official, who insisted that neither he nor his organization could be identified because of security concerns, said most Iraqis remained intent on exercising their right to elect a government after decades of dictatorships.
"I think the real story of this election is what's gone on beneath the radar," the official said. 'They may not know what they're voting for. But I think they recognize it's something called democracy.'" (See also: "80 percent say they plan to vote" (David R. Sands, The Washington Times, 2005/01/20))
Thursday,
January 20, 2005
News and
commentary:
"President and Mrs. Bush..."
(Doug Mills, The New York Times, 2005/01/20)
"President and Mrs. Bush at their last stop for the night, the 'Commander in Chief Ball.'""Inaugural Address by President George W. Bush" (The White House, 2005/01/20)
"We have seen our vulnerability — and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny — prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder — violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.
We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.
America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.
So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
"A child offers his prayers..."
(Sayyid Azim, AP, 2005/01/20)
"A child offers his prayers as Kenyan Muslims joined their counterparts around the world in commemorating the Feast of Sacrifice, Eid al Adha, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005 in Nairobi, Kenya. Eid al Adha is marked the day after pilgrims observing the annual Hajj ascend Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia where Islam's 7th century prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon in the year 632, three months before his death.""Our turn to speak now" (Mohammed, Iraq the Model, 2005/01/20)
Mohammed responds to Sarah Boxer's outrageous article on Iraq the Model:
"From Boxer's point of view, an Iraqi who supports America's efforts in liberating his country from the worst tyrant in modern history and rebuilding his country after that is either a paid agent or a mentally confused person. As if clear thinking is an exclusive gift that only a journalist from the NYT could possess while anyone outside her office is simply confused. ...
Boxer has forgotten to mention a single word about our efforts in building the "Arabic blogging tool". We've been doing that for months now with support from the American people via "Spirit of America".
She forgot to acknowledge that we're trying through this project to spread freedom of speech in the Arabic world by giving our people the opportunity to voice their opinions through a tool that overrides the barrier of language.
Now, as I understood it, journalists are usually in support of anything that brings freedom of speech, and more tolerance and understanding while lessening violence.
But maybe it's just that this tool will be the response that Boxer and her colleagues fear the most; they will have to deal with thousands of Iraq the models when our countrymen begin using this tool." (See also: "Shame on the New York Times" (Jeff Jarvis, Buzz Machine, 2005/01/18))"Baluchi blues" (The Economist, 2005/01/20)
"IN PAKISTAN, appalling crimes against women, such as honour killing and gang rape, are generally reported, if at all, in brief and on the inside pages of newspapers. Yet the rape of a female doctor two weeks ago in Sui, a town in the conservative, western province of Baluchistan, has made front-page headlines. What has caused this rush of conscience in one of the world's more male-chauvinistic parts?
Not, alas, the rape itself, which was unextraordinary. Two weeks ago, Shazia Khalid was raped by four men at Sui hospital, where she works. One of her attackers was allegedly an army captain of the Defence Security Group (DSG), a unit whose job is to guard local gas installations owned by Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL), a state-owned company. Scenting an opportunity for confrontation with the government, leaders of the local Bugti tribe demanded justice. Whereupon the PPL and DSG rejected calls for an investigation and whisked the victim off to Karachi, forbidding her to speak to journalists.
If the authorities were hoping to hide the crime in Sui, they failed. Bugti tribesmen have launched attacks on gas pipelines running through their area, forcing gas plants to close and causing energy shortages across the country. Thousands of tribesmen have converged on Sui, as have government soldiers.""Inside information on the New Jersey murders" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2005/01/20)
Via Daniel Pipes: "Assuming Spencer's information is accurate, it raises a most alarming prospect of the importation of Shari‘a to America. I suspect, however, that government, media, academy, churches, and others will prefer not to see this horrifying development for what it is.":
"The Armanious family had inspired several Muslims to convert to Christianity — or thought they had. These converts were actually practicing taqiyya, or religious deception, pretending to be friends of these Christians in order to strengthen themselves against them, as in Qur'an 3:28: "Let believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful -- he that does this has nothing to hope for from Allah -- except in self-defense."
It was these "converts" who knocked on the door of the Armanious home. Of course, the family, not suspecting the deception, was happy to see the "converted" men and willingly let them in to their home. That's why there was no sign of forced entry. Then the "converted" Muslims did their grisly work. ...
The murders send a signal from the Muslims to the Copts: we are going to behave here the same way we behaved in Egypt, and the First Amendment and American law enforcement will not protect you. Don't expect America to keep you safe from us. The oppression and harassment you thought you had left behind in Egypt has now come to you.
This means, if Armanious's friend is correct, that this is indeed America's Theo van Gogh murder: indication that all Muslims in the nation do not, as we are supposed to believe, unanimously accept the parameters of American pluralism. That at least some are willing to enforce Sharia penalties right here, right now." (See also: "'Islamic Hate' Eyed In Slays" (Douglas Montero and Stefan C. Friedman, New York Post, 2005/01/16))"Hizbollah threatens UK suicide attacks" (The Herald, 2005/01/20)
"Hizbollah, the hardline religious group, yesterday threatened to carry out suicide attacks in London in an attempt to kill a UK-based Iranian exile television presenter said to have made insulting comments about Islam.
Manouchehr Fouladvand, on the US-based Farsi language MA-TV, has been accused of mocking Mohammed and the Koran. There have been demands in Iran for the broadcaster's death.
Mojtaba Bigdeli, spokesman for Iran's Hizbollah group, warned the British government must ban the satellite channel, run by Iranian exiles, within 30 days or face the consequences. "After one month, our commandos will carry out suicide attacks in London against the shameless presenter of the channel. He has crossed our red lines by insulting our prophet and Islamic values."
Mr Bigdeli said Hizbollah had the approval of leading clerics to kill him.""Zarqawi Tape Vows Lengthy War in Iraq - Web Site" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/20)
"An audio tape purportedly from al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has urged militants to prepare for a lengthy holy war against U.S.-led forces in Iraq, saying victory could take months and years. ...
"The fruits of jihad (holy war) come after much patience and a lengthy stay in the battlefield ... which could last months and years," he said. "In the fight against the arrogant American tyrant who carries the flag of the cross, we find that despite its military might it is being crushed emotionally and morally.
"Our battle with the enemy is a battle of streets and towns and has many tactical, defensive and offensive methods. Fierce wars are not decided in days or weeks," he said, adding that U.S. forces had not achieved victory by entering Falluja.""Vice President Cheney on inauguration day" (Don Imus, MSNBC, 2005/01/20)
"R. CHENEY: Well, we are, I’d say, very concerned about Iran, because for two reasons, again, one, they do have a program. We believe they have a fairly robust new nuclear program. ... The other problem we have, of course, is that Iran is a noted sponsor of terror. ... We’ll continue to try to address those issues diplomatically, continue to work with the Europeans. At some point, if the Iranians don’t live up to their commitments, the next step will be to take it to the U.N. Security Council, and seek the imposition of international sanctions to force them to live up to the commitments and obligations they’ve signed up to under the non-proliferation treaty, and it’s—but it is a—you know, you look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list.
IMUS: Would that mean us again?
R. CHENEY: I think it means a serious effort to use the...
IMUS: Why don’t we make Israel do it?
R. CHENEY: Well, one of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked, that if, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards.""Should hateful speech be punished?" (Ronald P. Sokol, International Herald Tribune, 2005/01/20)
"The question of whether hateful speech - be it anti-Semitic, racial epithets, religion-bashing, flag-mutilation, draft-card burning, sexist or any other speech that offends - should be criminally punished is a profoundly troubling issue which democratic societies have answered differently.
While France has taken the view that such speech should be criminally punished, the United States has historically adopted a different stance. For the latter, even offensive speech must be permitted if freedom of expression - to which both countries fervently adhere - is to be respected. ...
The American view on hateful speech was first expressed by another Jewish judge, Louis Brandeis. Writing in 1927, Justice Brandeis gave the view its classic expression: "If there is time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avoid the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."
Hateful speech is by definition profoundly disturbing. While censorship may be the politically easy response, experience suggests that it may be neither necessary nor desirable." (Hat tip: Erik.)"An American in Paris" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2005/01/20)
"While officially every European government is welcoming the inauguration of President Bush, the prevailing mood on the continent (if I may engage in a ridiculously sweeping generalization!) still seems to be one of shock and awe that Americans actually re-elected this man.
Before Mr. Bush's re-election, the prevailing attitude in Europe was definitely: "We're not anti-American. We're anti-Bush." But now that the American people have voted to re-elect Mr. Bush, Europe has a problem maintaining this distinction. ...
Funnily enough, the one country on this side of the ocean that would have elected Mr. Bush is not in Europe, but the Middle East: it's Iran, where many young people apparently hunger for Mr. Bush to remove their despotic leaders, the way he did in Iraq.
An Oxford student who had just returned from research in Iran told me that young Iranians were "loving anything their government hates," such as Mr. Bush, "and hating anything their government loves." Tehran is festooned in "Down With America" graffiti, the student said, but when he tried to take pictures of it, the Iranian students he was with urged him not to. They said it was just put there by their government and was not how most Iranians felt.
Iran, he said, is the ultimate "red state." Go figure.""Terror threat seen rising ahead of vote in Denmark" (International Herald Tribune, 2005/01/20)
"The Danish domestic intelligence service said Wednesday that there was an increased terror threat against Denmark in advance of national elections next month, but stopped short of saying if any direct threats had been made.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for early elections on Feb. 8, nine months ahead of the end of his four-year term in a bid to capitalize on favorable opinion polls.
Mindful of Denmark's support of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, Danish antiterror officials said they would increase their vigilance during the campaign and on election day.
"There is a heightened terror threat during the election campaign," said Lars Findsen, adding the Danish Intelligence Security Service had the March 11 terror attacks in Madrid in mind. ...
Since Denmark sent troops to Iraq, Rasmussen has been assigned two bodyguards. Other top government members receive similar protection, when necessary. Denmark's royal family has permanent police guards.""Ayatollah revives the death fatwa on Salman Rushdie" (Philip Webster, The Times, 2005/01/20)
"A FATWA against the author Salman Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran’s spiritual leader last night in a message to Muslim pilgrims.
British officials anxiously played down comments after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Muslims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Rushdie was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam, according to the Iranian media.
His words came during a lengthy tirade against “Western and Zionist capitalists” and the US-led War on Terror. ...
Ayatollah Khamenei said in his message: “They talk about respect towards all religions, but they support such a mahdour al-damm mortad as Salman Rushdie.” In Sharia, or Islamic law, mortad is a reference to someone who has committed apostasy by leaving Islam while mahdour al-damm is a term applying to someone whose blood may be shed with impunity.""80 percent say they plan to vote" (David R. Sands, The Washington Times, 2005/01/20)
"A clear majority of Iraqis said they plan to vote in the Jan. 30 elections and remain hopeful about their country's future despite a murderous insurgency, according to a poll to be released today.
The countrywide survey, conducted by the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI), also found increased popular awareness of the election, closer identification with political parties and a growing level of trust in Iraqi institutions such as the interim government, the police and the election commission. ...
Overall, 81.7 percent of those polled said they were "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to vote.
Strong majorities in Shi'ite Muslim southern Iraq, in Baghdad and in the Kurdish-dominated north said they intend to vote.
Even in Sunni Arab lands — the heart of the resistance to the U.S.-based interim government — 53.5 percent of those surveyed said they were leaning toward voting, while 38.4 percent said they were "somewhat unlikely" or "very unlikely" to vote. The remainder said they did not know or gave no answer." (See also: "Iraqis Remain Committed to Elections" (IRI, 2005/01/20))
Wednesday,
January 19, 2005
News and
commentary:
"This is a picture released by a British Court Martial..."
(AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/18)
"This is a picture released by a British Court Martial, Tuesday, Jan, 18, 2005 in Osnabrueck, Germany which claims to show Lance corporal Darren Larkin standing on an Iraqi detainee and Cpl. Daniel Kenyon taking a photograph in the rear that is to be used in the Court Martial of three British soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers facing allegations they mistreated Iraqis.""The Army's shame" (Roger Boyes, The Times, 2005/01/19)
"BOUND, blindfolded and tied in a net, an Iraqi prisoner lies helpless on bare concrete at a British base near Basra. Crouching with a pool of water at his feet, he is powerless as a British soldier stands on him.
Lance Corporal Darren Larkin appears to be pretending to surf on his victim, seemingly unaware that he is in a country where even the slightest contact with the soles of the feet is regarded as a grave insult.
At least three comrades from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers look on, two taking photographs. ...
The photograph was one of 22 presented yesterday at the court martial of Larkin and two of his comrades who are accused of “shocking and appalling” abuse and sadistic maltreatment of Iraqi detainees.
In one, two detainees are apparently forced to simulate anal sex while giving the thumbs up, in a pretence that their act was voluntary. In another, a prisoner lies trussed on the floor while a soldier appears to swing a punch.""Images of humiliated Iraqis heap disgrace on the Army" (Roger Boyes, The Times, 2005/01/19)
"IN A windswept, run-down barracks that once served Hitler’s Wehrmacht, a panel of army judges confronted horrific images yesterday of humiliated Iraqi prisoners which are certain to tarnish the reputation of the service for a generation.
Panel members shook their heads at the amateur colour photographs which painted a picture of the Army far from the glossy images used in recruitment campaigns.
Some of the photographs — developed from the camera of Fusilier Gary Bartlam, who was convicted last week — show naked Iraqi captives performing simulated acts of oral and anal sex.
Others show one of the defendants attacking a prisoner; in another frame a captured and bound Iraqi is suspended in a cargo net from the prongs of a forklift truck.
All the incidents are said to have occurred on a sultry day in May 2003, at Camp Bread Basket, a depot for humanitarian supplies about half a mile from Basra.""The ballot, not the bullet, will see off Iraq's religious terrorists" (John Keegan, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/01/19)
"Since the American leaders - particularly the neo-conservatives who inaugurated the war - took it for granted that Western-style politics would readily take root in Iraq, if offered as an alternative to Saddam's dictatorship once overthrown, religious terrorism baffles their approach.
Yet not altogether. Neo-Islamists are a minority, even in the most pious Muslim countries, and few Muslims, however devout, wish to die as suicide fighters. A majority of Muslims everywhere are familiar with what Western civilisation offers and are eager to enjoy its rewards.
That explains in part the extensive opposition to the holding of the impending elections in Iraq. Successful elections and the establishment of a government bring a mandate that shakes the claims of even the most committed Islamists to enjoy the right to oppose its authority. ...
Let us hope that the American believers in elections as the best cure for political trouble are proved right in Iraq, as they have usually been elsewhere.""Rice targets 6 'outposts of tyranny'" (Nicholas Kralev, The Washington Times, 2005/01/19)
"Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice yesterday branded six countries, including Iran and North Korea, as "outposts of tyranny," coining a term reminiscent of President Bush's "axis of evil" three years ago.
Miss Rice, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vowed to use diplomacy to address "the threats to our common security" and to "spread freedom and democracy throughout the globe."
"That is the mission that President Bush has set for America in the world, and it's the great mission of American diplomacy today," she said.
"To be sure, in our world, there remain outposts of tyranny, and America stands with oppressed people on every continent," she said, naming Cuba, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Belarus and Zimbabwe."
Tuesday,
January 18, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Die Stimme ihres Herrn"
(Stern/Davids Medienkritik, 2005/01/18)
"In an article published on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Stern magazine labels US National Security Advisor and future Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "The Voice of her Master.” And if that weren’t bad enough, a picture intended to make Stern's condescending message unmistakably clear accompanies the article: 'Always at the Service of her Master George W. Bush: Condoleezza Rice.'""Shame on the New York Times" (Jeff Jarvis, Buzz Machine, 2005/01/18)
"Sarah Boxer's story on IraqTheModel in today's New York Times Arts section is irresponsible, sloppy, lazy, inaccurate, incomplete, exploitive, biased, and -- worst of all -- dangerous, putting the lives of its subjects at risk. Let's start with her lead:When I telephoned a man named Ali Fadhil in Baghdad last week, I wondered who might answer. A C.I.A. operative? An American posing as an Iraqi? Someone paid by the Defense Department to support the war? Or simply an Iraqi with some mixed feelings about the American presence in Iraq? Until he picked up the phone, he was just a ghost on the Internet.
So here is a reporter from The New York Times -- let's repeat that, The New York Times -- speculating in print on whether an Iraqi citizen, whose only apparent weirdness and sin in her eyes is (a) publishing and (b) supporting America, is a CIA or Defense Department plant or an American.
Ms. Boxer, don't you think you could be putting the life of that person at risk with that kind of speculation? In your own story, you quote Ali -- one of the three blogging brothers who started IraqTheModel -- saying that "here some people would kill you for just writing to an American." And yet you go so much farther -- blithely, glibly speculating about this same man working for the CIA or the DoD -- to sex up your lead and get your story atop the front of the Arts section (I'm in the biz, Boxer, I know how the game is played).
How dare you? Have you no sense of responsibility? Have you no shame?" (See also: "Pro-American Iraqi Blog Provokes Intrigue and Vitriol" (Sarah Boxer, The New York Times, 2005/01/18))"This is not Apocalypse Now in Iraq, but it might be the genesis of hope" (Michael Gove, The Times, 2005/01/18)
"In the past few weeks the number, and weight, of those concluding that the Iraq war has been a foolish adventure has grown. And many of the weightiest, including John Maples, the former Shadow Foreign Secretary, writing on these pages last week, have invoked the long shadow cast by the Vietnam War Memorial. ...
In contrast to insurgents who are either nostalgic for Saddam’s reign or, in the case of the Islamists, dreaming fondly of the restoration of a medieval caliphate, a radically different and more hopeful future looks likely to be embraced by Iraq’s majority. In Iraq, unlike Vietnam, it is the Americans who are offering an escape from the corrupt status quo that prevails in the region. If democracy takes root, then Iraq has a chance to transcend the miseries of arbitrary and autocratic rule which, so sadly, imprison many other Arab peoples.
If the Iraqi elections due to be held in less than two weeks’ time are successful that will give the coalition something the Americans never enjoyed in Vietnam — a clear political victory. The insurgents will have been defeated in their principal aim, the denial of democracy." (See also: "Why I was wrong about Iraq" (John Maples, The Times, 2005/01/14))"Where the reporting stops" (The Jerusalem Post, 2005/01/18)
Via Andrew Cochran: "Well, excuse me, but how about the "journalists" in the Arab world who were either on Saddam's or Arafat's payroll? Why hasn't the media seen fit to pursue those secret arrangements and admit that perhaps those payments twisted the coverage of those two thugs by Westeern media?":
"In addition to her work at the French news agency [AFP], [Palestinian journalist Majida] Batsh was also a reporter for the PA's official organ, Al-Ayyam. In other words, she was also on the PA's payroll, since the Ramallah-based newspaper was established and is financed by the PA. Al-Ayyam's editor, Akram Haniyeh, has been listed as an adviser to Yasser Arafat.
But Batsh was not the only journalist at AFP who was working simultaneously for the PA. One of the agency's correspondents in the Gaza Strip is Adel Zanoun, who also happens to be the chief reporter in the area for the PA's Voice of Palestine radio station. ...
Meanwhile, the Associated Press and Reuters, which have their own TV production services, rely almost entirely on footage provided to them by Palestinian crews covering events in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The material, distributed to thousands of subscribers worldwide, mostly focuses on Palestinians as victims of IDF operations; the cameramen decide from which angle to film and which material to send at the end of the day to their employers in Jerusalem.
The Associated Press also has a journalist – Muhammad Daraghmeh – who works for the PA's Al-Ayyam. "It's like employing someone from the [Israeli] Government Press Office or one of the Israeli political parties to work as a journalist," comments a veteran foreign journalist based in Israel.""Archbishop Kidnapped in Iraq Is Freed" (Victor L. Simpson, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/18)
"A Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq was released Tuesday without payment of ransom, the Vatican said. The prelate said his kidnappers didn't realize who he was when they abducted him a day earlier in the northern city of Mosul.
Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa was back resting in his home shortly after his 19-hour-long kidnapping ended and told Vatican Radio he had not been mistreated. ...
Casmoussa was quoted as telling the Italian news agency ANSA that he thought Pope John Paul II's strong appeal on his behalf was a "decisive factor" in his release. The Vatican had called the abduction a "despicable terrorist act" and demanded that the kidnappers free him immediately." (See also: "Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release" (Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella, Reuters, 2005/01/17))"Rage Explodes at Egyptian Family's Funeral" (Andrea Elliott, The New York Times, 2005/01/18)
"JERSEY CITY, Jan. 17 - The funeral for an Egyptian immigrant family found slain in their home here erupted into a scene of chaos and roiling emotion on Monday, with some mourners jumping on top of cars, shoving each other and threatening to beat a Muslim cleric who was escorted to safety by the police.
The source of the disruption at the Coptic Christian service appeared to be the presence of Muslims, who said they had come to pay their respects. ...
"Those are killers!" yelled one man as Sheik Tarek Yousof Saleh, a Muslim cleric from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, left the funeral site, escorted by police officers. "We don't want them in the church!"
In a telephone interview yesterday afternoon, Sheik Saleh said he never intended to cause trouble and regretted attending the funeral. "I didn't come to hurt anyone, I came to support them," said Sheikh Saleh, 42, the imam of the Oulel Albab Mosque on Bay Ridge Avenue, sounding shaken. 'I am sorry.'" (See also: "'Islamic Hate' Eyed In Slays" (Douglas Montero and Stefan C. Friedman, New York Post, 2005/01/16))
Monday,
January 17, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Down with Kim Jong-il. Let's all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime"
(The Daily NK/Reuters, 2005/01/17)
"Anti-North Korean slogans written on a portrait of the North's leader Kim Jong-il is seen in this still image from a video footage which was taken in Hoeryong, north Hamgyong province in North Korea in late November, 2004 and released by a South Korean group in Seoul January 17, 2005. ""Activist: Video Shows Dissent in Communist N.Korea" (Jack Kim, Reuters, 2005/01/17)
"A South Korean group said on Monday it had obtained what it said was the first visual evidence of dissent in communist North Korea that indicated an organized attempt at a movement against its leader, Kim Jong-il.
A 35-minute video clip viewed by Reuters showed a portrait of Kim taken inside a factory building and defaced by writing that demanded freedom and democracy.
Such an act would be considered a grave crime in the North and bring capital punishment without trial to the perpetrator, said Do Hee-youn, who heads the South Korean group that made the clip available. ...
"The gentle and ordinary people of North Korea need a new leader," a male voice narrates in the background as the clip showed the defaced portrait of Kim in full military uniform. ...
"Down with Kim Jong-il. Let's all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime," read the poster seen on the wall inside a factory.""Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release" (Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella, Reuters, 2005/01/17)
"The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday and the Vatican demanded his quick release and deplored what it branded an act of terrorism.
Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq, where churches have been the target of a bombing campaign that has rattled the tiny Christian minority.
"We have received news of the kidnapping of the ... Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters.
'The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry.'""Abbas Orders Forces to Prevent Attacks" (Lara Sukhtian, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/01/17)
"Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security forces Monday to try to prevent attacks against Israel and to investigate a shooting at a Gaza Strip crossing that killed six Israeli civilians last week.
However, Palestinian officials would not provide details of the order, and it was unclear how it would be translated into action, if at all. Abbas insists he will use persuasion, not force, to rein in armed groups.
A Hamas spokesman said the Islamic militant group will continue carrying out attacks. ...
"A decision was taken that we will handle our obligation to stop violence against Israelis anywhere," Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.""Postmodern War" (Victor Davis Hanson, City Journal, from the Winter 2005 issue)
"It would have been extremely messy to have shot the first 400 looters who began a cascading riot that ruined $13 billion in Iraqi infrastructure. Storming rather than pulling back from Fallujah in April 2004 would have offended the press, the professors, and the Europeans. Arresting or killing Moqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 might have angered the Arab world and invited parlor debate among the mandarins back home, but such measures also would have shown ironclad American resolve and eventually would have impressed even our enemies.
The key in irregular, as in conventional, war remains the will to win. ...
Not finishing off a defeated Republican Guard in 1991 or sparing looters in April 2003 or breaking off the siege of Fallujah in April 2004 only ensures that more corpses will pile up later. President Bush’s so-called Axis of Evil in 2002 — Iraq, Iran, and North Korea — all had in common unfinished business with the U.S. military that had led to a bellum interruptum of sorts. In contrast, the Grenada communists, Noriega, Miloševic, and the Taliban were all defeated, and only after that were their societies rebuilt—and thus Grenada, Panama, Serbia, and Afghanistan now do not belong to the axis of anything. Perhaps for all the debate over how to fight irregular wars in an age of global terrorism, we would do best to recall the realistic, if inelegant, words of the owner of the Oakland Raiders, the infamous Al Davis: 'Just win, baby.'""The Coming Wars" (Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 2005/01/17)
"The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. Much of the focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites, both declared and suspected. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids. “The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible,” the government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon told me.
Some of the missions involve extraordinary coöperation. For example, the former high-level intelligence official told me that an American commando task force has been set up in South Asia and is now working closely with a group of Pakistani scientists and technicians who had dealt with Iranian counterparts. (In 2003, the I.A.E.A. disclosed that Iran had been secretly receiving nuclear technology from Pakistan for more than a decade, and had withheld that information from inspectors.) The American task force, aided by the information from Pakistan, has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations." (See also: "Statement from Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence DiRita on Latest Seymour Hersh Article" (United States Department of Defenmse, 2005/01/17): "Mr. Hersh’s article is so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed.")"Women's magazine offers tips to terrorists" (John Phillips, The WashingtonTimes, 2005/01/17)
Via Tim Blair: "You've tried Ab Blaster! You've tried Thigh Blaster! You've tried Butt Blaster, you filthy whore! But only our Total Body Blaster can GUARANTEE you'll lose POUNDS of unsightly limbs, eyes, bones, and internal organs ... INSTANTLY!":
"ROME — Al Qaeda has introduced an online women's magazine with articles including dietary advice for suicide bombers and tips on how to "dominate the passions" before blowing yourself up, according to Italy's SISDE secret service.
SISDE analysts disclosed the existence of Al Khansa, the unusual monthly Internet publication for female militants that is hosted by several Islamist Web sites, in the Italian spy service's quarterly review Gnosis. ...
"Among the Web pages of this newly born female review in Arabic, you won't find the usual fashion features that fill the pages of ladies' magazines the world over, except for a section dedicated to fitness with advice on diet and training to follow so as to acquire not a catwalk waistline, but martyrdom in the holy war."
With its bizarre format including articles on "breathing gymnastics to conquer the passions," evidently essential knowledge for those tempted to have a final fling before strapping on an explosive-laden corset, Al Khansa could indicate that al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has made a strategic choice in favor of "women's emancipation through martyrdom," according to the Gnosis report.""Britain's online imam declares war as he calls young to jihad" (Sean O'Neil and Yaakov Lappin, The Times, 2005/01/17)
"AN EXTREMIST London cleric is using live broadcasts on the internet to urge young British Muslims to join al-Qaeda and has condoned suicide terrorist attacks. Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has lived in the UK for 18 years on social security benefits, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and told his followers that they were in a state of war with Britain.
The Times monitored Mr Bakri Mohammed’s nightly webcasts in which he declared that the “covenant of security” under which Muslims live peacefully in the UK had been “violated” by the Government’s tough anti-terrorist legislation, The Syrian-born radical said: “I believe the whole of Britain has become Dar ul-Harb (land of war). In such a state, he added, 'the kuffar (non-believer) has no sanctity for their own life or property.'""U.N. Official Says Iraqi Vote 'Is on Track'" (Doug Struck, The Washington Post, 2005/01/17)
"BAGHDAD, Jan. 16 -- The voting lists have been checked, the ballots printed. Red stain is ready to mark the finger of each voter, and the poll locations and names of candidates -- until now secret -- soon will be published. Despite threats, a rushed timetable and the murder of eight election workers, preparations for Iraq's elections are almost finished, according to the U.N. representative on the country's elections board.
"Everything is on track," Carlos Valenzuela, a veteran election organizer for the United Nations, said Sunday. "It was a very tight time frame. Luckily, there was no slippage."
Valenzuela, who has helped carry out elections in such places as East Timor, Cambodia and the Palestinian territories, said he was surprised that logistics for the Jan. 30 elections have been assembled in less than a year."
See the archive for earlier news and commentary.
Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
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people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent.
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Articles
of the week
"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)
"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)
"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)
"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)
"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)
›
AOTW Archive
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)
Weekly archive
2006/12/04
- 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13
- 2006/11/19
2006/11/06
- 2006/11/12
2006/10/30
- 2006/11/05