Archived news and commentary: March 7 - 13, 2005

2005/03/07 - 2005/03/13
2005/02/28 - 2005/03/06
2005/02/21 - 2005/02/27
2005/02/14 - 2005/02/20
2005/02/07 - 2005/02/13
2005/01/31 - 2005/02/06

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, March 13, 2005

News and commentary:

"Will the Mideast Bloom?" (Youssef M. Ibrahim, The Washington Post, 2005/03/13)
"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
Listen to the conversations in the cafes on the edge of the creek that runs through this Persian Gulf city, and it is hard to believe that the George W. Bush being praised by Arab diners is the same George W. Bush who has been widely excoriated in these parts ever since he took office.
Yet the balmy breeze blowing along the creek carries murmurs of approval for the devoutly Christian U.S. president, whose persistent calls for democracy in the Middle East are looking less like preaching and more like timely encouragement.
Nowadays, intellectuals, businessmen and working-class people alike can be caught lauding Bush's hard-edged posture on democracy and cheering his handling of Arab rulers who are U.S. allies. Many also admire Bush's unvarnished threats against Syria should it fail to pull its soldiers and spies out of Lebanon before the elections there next month -- a warning the United Nations reinforced last week with immediate effects. For Bush, it is not quite a lovefest but a celebration nonetheless. ...
From Casablanca to Kuwait City, the writings of newspaper columnists and the chatter of pundits on Arabic language satellite television suggest a change in climate for advocates of human rights, constitutional reforms, business transparency, women's rights and limits on power. And while developments differ vastly from country to country, their common feature is a lifting -- albeit a tentative one -- of the fear that has for decades constricted the Arab mind."

"A vote for intolerance" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2005/03/13)
"There's a difference between a race, which you don't choose, and religious ideas which you do. If you are going to pretend that hatred of religious ideas is the same as racism, you might as well go the whole hog and ban the incitement of hatred of political ideas, such as Blairism. At the very least, you have to confront the problem that the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all contain incitements to religious hatred and should presumably be banned.
I'm sure peers will consider all of these tomorrow. They should also look at what is happening on the ground. Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society says that the proposed law is already strengthening extremists and allowing them to move from the fringe to the mainstream, and his charge is impossible to deny.
Since the promise of a religious hatred law was made, the godly have been on the march. The BBC was forced to pull a satirical cartoon about the Pope. When it stood firm and broadcast Jerry Springer - the Opera, its executives and their children were threatened. So, too, were workers for a tiny cancer charity which was given donations from a benefit performance of Jerry Springer.
Meanwhile, a mob of Sikh men has closed a play by a young Sikh woman at the Birmingham Rep, without a squeak of protest from Home Office ministers who are meant to stand up for the rule of law. Muslim leaders and MPs have explained that they expect the new law will be used to ban The Satanic Verses and any 'defamation of the character of the prophet Muhammad'. Across the media, there is already self-censorship and this is only going to get worse."

"We weren't lied to" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2005/03/13)
"The government didn't deceive anybody over Iraq and WMD, but was misled itself":
"Or, as Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru MP leading the Impeach Blair movement, has put it, the PM is guilty of 'deliberate repeated distortion, seriously misleading statements and culpable negligence'. In particular, Blair 'exaggerated the condition of Iraq's illicit weapons well beyond the assessments of the intelligence services or the UN inspectors'.
So this is what I want to say. This accusation is wrong and scrutiny of the Hutton and Butler reports (not so much their findings) and the evidence submitted to the inquiries shows that Blair was setting out - albeit in leadership-speak - what he was being told by the intelligence services. ...
As Butler summed it up: 'Intelligence supporting the JIC's judgments on Iraqi research and development programmes came from a range of sources and was, in our view, substantial.' Butler went on, more tellingly: 'By mid-September 2002, therefore, readers of JIC assessments' (ie Blair) would have had the following impressions: 'Continuing clear strategic intent ... to pursue its nuclear, biological, chemical and ballistic missile programmes', continuing efforts by the regime to 'sustain and where possible develop its indigenous capabilities', and 'the apparent considerable development, drawing on these capabilities, of Iraq's 'break-out' potential'.
And this, pretty much, is what we voters were told. It turned out to be wrong, but not, as so many have lazily called it, false. Now, you may take the view that the wrongness is sufficient reason to punish the government. That someone's head should roll for the fact that what was promised was different from what was delivered. But that, my fellow liberals, still wouldn't make the PM a liar."

"A terrifying envoy for the UN to handle: he tells the truth" (Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times, 2005/03/13)
"Every now and again you have to concede that Vice-President Dick Cheney has a sense of humour. The nomination of John Bolton, his hawkish ally at the State Department, to be the US ambassador to the United Nations was almost a practical joke on the liberal media. ...
Bolton’s real sin is to see the UN for what it is: an assembly of representatives of all world governments — some of which are democratic, some autocratic, and some of which are outright kleptomaniac, genocidal dictators.
This body can sometimes be effective in limited ways, but more often it defends the international status quo and sustains corruption.
Bolton’s deeper sin is to believe that democracy matters, that democratic regimes are more easily dealt with than non-democratic regimes and that institutions — such as the UN — that make no distinction between them have a serious credibility problem.
More than a decade ago Bolton blurted out the brutal truth: 'There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States, when it suits our interest and we can get others to go along.'" (See also: "Defending Bolton" (Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, 2005/03/09))

"Looting at Iraqi Weapons Plants Was Systematic, Official Says" (James Glanz and William J. Broad, The New York Times, 2005/03/13)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 12 - In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting.
The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away.
Dr. Araji said his account was based largely on observations by government employees and officials who either worked at the sites or lived near them.
"They came in with the cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," Dr. Araji said. 'They knew what they were doing; they knew what they want. This was sophisticated looting.'" (See also: "Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq" - News and commentary on the missing explosives in Iraq.)

"Tide of extremism is rising against us, say Jewish students" (Sean O'Neill and Yaakov Lappin, The Sunday Times, 2005/03/13)
"In her native Israel, Channa Gerrard is on the political left and involves herself in peace campaigns. In London, where she came to study Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, she believes that she is singled out as a Zionist extremist.
Ms Gerrard, 29, is one of a number of Israeli and Jewish students at the renowned college in Russell Square, Central London, who complain of being targeted by radical Muslim students in an increasingly isolating and intimidating atmosphere. ...
The latest sign of increasing anti-Semitism at the college is the publication this week in SOAS Spirit, the student union magazine, of an article advocating suicide terrorism by Palestinians.
The article, written by Nasser Amin, argues that violence is the best hope of the Palestinian people, describes Israel as a Jewish colony and says that all Zionists must be exposed. “Those who benefit from the immoral actions of a colonial state in which they have chosen to reside cannot be considered as innocent,” the article reads.
All Israeli adults, it continues, are “personally complicit in the national wrongdoing” and jeopardise their children’s lives by choosing to live there.
Ms Gerrard said that she found the language of the article deeply offensive. “I love studying here,” she said, 'but it has become quite stressful. There can be a very unpleasant atmosphere.'" (See also: "Jihad at the School of Orchestrated Anti Semitism" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/03/10))

"Italy to stop paying ransoms" (John Follai, The Sunday Times, 2005/03/13)
"The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised President George W Bush that he will not pay more ransoms to free hostages in Iraq.
The Italian government has denied newspaper reports that $6m (£3.1m) was paid for the release of Giuliana Sgrena, who worked for the Communist daily Il Manifesto. But senior officials and intelligence sources have confirmed that money did change hands. ...
Last year Italy paid a reported $5m (£2.6m) for the freedom of two aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. Hours after Sgrena was seized, Berlusconi announced that “negotiations” had begun. ...
Gustavo Selva, chairman of the standing committee for foreign affairs in the lower house of parliament, said: 'From now on there will be no more ransoms, no more concessions. If there are more kidnappings, the Italians will act in full agreement with the Americans. Intelligence services will try to locate the hostage and a military raid will be launched if necessary.'" (Also: "Selva claimed that the attack on the Toyota Corolla carrying Sgrena and Nicola Calipari, the intelligence officer, to Baghdad airport had been prompted by a satellite monitoring system. This detected that their vehicle did not have clearance from US military authorities. A signal alerted a mobile checkpoint near the airport and its soldiers opened fire.
“The Italian team should have known what to expect, but it appears they didn’t realise how sophisticated the American military are,” said Selva.")

"Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant" (Uzi Mahnaimi, The Sunday Times, 2005/03/13)
"Israel has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme.
The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert.
Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities.
The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed."

Saturday, March 12, 2005

News and commentary:

"U.N.: Assad Committed to Lebanon Pullout" (Samar Kassabli, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/12)
"DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad on Saturday restated his readiness for a complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agents from neighboring Lebanon, a key U.N. envoy said, adding that he would give the United Nations more details about a timetable for the pullout within days.
Also Saturday, Syria moved about 1,000 soldiers across the border into Syria — the first to come home since the latest redeployment began. ...
U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen met with Assad on Saturday in the northern city of Aleppo. Roed-Larsen said he was "much encouraged" by the Syrian leader's reassurances and called the meeting "very constructive." He refused to give other details.
"I will present U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan with further details of the timetable for a complete Syrian pullout from Lebanon upon arrival in New York early next week," Roed-Larsen said in a statement. 'The president has committed to withdraw all Syrian troops and intelligence from Lebanon.'"

"Meanwhile, Back in Baghdad" (Dan Senor, The Weekly Standard, from the 2005/03/21 issue)
Senor returns to postelection Baghdad and finds a "new Iraqi mood": "Even after Saddam's capture, many Iraqis seemed unable to fully believe that their country would not revert to tyranny, the only political reality most had ever known. Now, since the elections, Iraqis seem for the first time to be taking ownership of their country. They are proud, and determined not to let it go.":
"One of the Iraqi interim constitution's mandates resulted in every fourth position on each political party list being held by a woman. This produced female representation in the National Assembly at a higher rate than in the U.S. Congress.
Such newfound political rights are not as easily reversible as Western skeptics claim. A political constituency is being created, which was exactly the intent of the Iraqi Governing Council and the Coalition when they made this constitutional stipulation. Once women get comfortable with political power, it's not easy for Islamists to take it away without risk of revolt.
The example being set by Iraqis on women's rights goes beyond politics to myriad new women's rights organizations and to women's visibility in the press corps. Indeed, there is nothing more revolutionary than an Islamist politician being grilled by an abayah-clad female Iraqi reporter under the bright lights of pan-Arab television cameras broadcasting to the entire region."

"Saddam's $2m offer to WMD inspector" (Francis Harris, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/03/12)
Mr Ekeus has been aptly described as the "living proof that not all Swedish arms inspectors are fools":
"Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction.
Rolf Ekeus, the Swede who led the UN's efforts to track down the weapons from 1991 to 1997, said that the offer came from Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister and deputy.
Mr Ekeus told Reuters news agency that he had passed the information to the Volcker Commission. "I told the Volcker people that Tariq [Aziz] said a couple of million was there if we report right. My answer was, 'That is not the way we do business in Sweden.'" ...
Nile Gardiner, of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, who has followed the inquiries, said: 'It's the tip of the iceberg of what the Iraqis were offering. For every official like Ekeus who turned down a bribe, there are many more who will have been tempted by it.'"

"Assad tightens grip in Lebanon" (Sharon Cooke, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/03/12)
"Syrian troops may be stacking the ubiquitous portraits of their leader, President Bashar Assad, on trucks for the trip home from Beirut, but Damascus isn't ready to close up shop in Lebanon just yet.
On Thursday pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud reinstated Omar Karami, who resigned two weeks ago as prime minister and now appears poised to reclaim his former post after he received majority support by the Lebanese Parliament.
Lahoud and Karami are allies of the Syrian regime, which this week reluctantly agreed to pull back, first, to the Bekaa Valley by the end of the month, followed by another withdrawal to the Syrian border by May.
"The regime is doing anything it can to stay as long as it can" in Lebanon, said Ammar Abdel Hamid, a Syrian dissident.
Damacus has moved enough to give itself some wiggle room, but its military pullout is now being accompanied by a political bear hug.
Analysts here point out that the reaffirmed protocols of the ominously named Syrian-Lebanese Treaty of Fraternity and Cooperation Tuesday between Assad and Lahoud welded together the larger state and its vassal in formal bonds that might make separating even harder in the future."

Friday, March 11, 2005

News and commentary:

"Saudi University Lecturer: My Son's Teacher Was a Terrorist" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 877, 2005/03/11)
"The Saudi daily Al-Riyadh recently published an article titled "My Son's Teacher Was a Terrorist," by Badria bint Abdallah Al-Bishr, a lecturer in social sciences at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.":
"The day after the events of September 11, my other son, then in third grade in elementary school, showed me his charming drawing, the subject of which was: 'Draw the sight of the two airplanes blowing up the twin [towers].' The art teacher was not aware that some of the children had not seen this because [their parents] protect them from harmful sights. But the teacher had a different view, which he did not manage to repress even during art class.
This happened four years ago, [and] during this time I was angered by instances such as these, which did not stop happening to my children – until the day that we could have anticipated arrived.
After the [December 2004] attack on the Interior Ministry, the photos and full names of the terrorists were published. During dinner, while I was eating, my son told me that one of the terrorists had been his teacher at school. At that moment, I choked. One of the attackers of the Interior Ministry and [security] forces building was his teacher!!! ...
How can a parent protect his children if he sends them to school certain that they are in good hands [but in fact] he doesn't know that one of the terrorists will be his son's teacher?
If [children] are surrounded like this by the terrorist ideology, whether on the computer screen or in the newspapers, where can fathers take their children to rescue them from those who act with hypocrisy, identify with [the terrorist ideology], justify it, and think that we must first liberate Palestine before we condemn terror?"

"Sgrena operation 'kept from US'" (BBC News, 2005/03/11)
"US forces might not have known that slain Italian secret agent Nicola Calipari was in Iraq to secure a hostage’s freedom, Italian papers say.
Calipari was killed by US troops’ fire while escorting journalist Giuliana Sgrena by car to Baghdad airport. But the press quotes an Italian general who liaised between US forces and Italian intelligence as saying he did not know Calipari was on a rescue bid. His report is now in the hands of Rome prosecutors investigating the killing.
According to newspaper La Repubblica, Gen Mario Marioli helped the two Italian secret service agents obtain a special badge from the coalition forces on their arrival in Baghdad.
But Gen Marioli, who is the coalition forces’ second-in-command, reportedly was unaware that the officers were on a mission to free Ms Sgrena, and so the information he passed on to US officials was incomplete." (Hat tip: LGF. See also: "Was Italian Hostage's Car Speeding?" (ABC News, 2005/03/08))

"A Look Back: Turning points since September 11" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2005/03/11)
"How odd that conservatives, usually derided for their multicultural insensitivity and blinkered approach to the world abroad, had far more confidence in the Arab street than did liberals at home and Euro elites who patronized Arabs as nice "others" who were "different" rather than oppressed by murderous thugs in the manner of former Russians, Hungarians, Bosnians, and Afghans.
Every time the United States the last quarter century had acted boldly — its removal of Noriega and aid for the Contras, instantaneous support for a reunified Germany, extension of NATO, preference for Yeltsin instead of Gorbachev, Gulf War I, bombing of Milosevic, support for Sharon's fence, withdrawal from Gaza and decapitation of the Hamas killer elite, taking out the Taliban and Saddam — good things have ensued. In contrast, on every occasion that we have temporized — abject withdrawal from Lebanon, appeasement of Arafat at Oslo, a decade of inaction in the Balkans, paralysis in Rwanda, sloth in the face of terrorist attacks, not going to Baghdad in 1991 — corpses pile up and the United States became either less secure or less respected or both.
So it is also in this present war, in which our unheralded successes far outweigh our notorious mistakes."

"The sickness of Britain" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/03/11)
"A reader, who happens to be of mixed Sikh and Hindu parentage, emails me to say the following:
'In today's Guardian Timothy Garton Ash explains why we should be sympathetic and kind to Muslims who consider Osama to be a hero and make statements like this:

'I ask another Muhammad ("just call me Muhammad"), a voluble 16-year-old, about last year's bombings just down the road, at the Atocha station. Well, he says, he doesn't like to see people dying "even if they are Christians and Jews". But in this case, because of what Aznar did in the Iraq war'.

"Even if they are Christians and Jews" tells you all you need to know about the mindset of many Muslims in Europe, as though Christians and Jews are lesser people, scum, like dogs or animals. The left in this country is unable and unwilling to face up to the fact that there is a deep poison in the ideology of many of its idealised and romanticised "oppressed" lumpen masses. It is unable to accept that no matter what they do, there will still be people utterly deranged by an ideology of hatred that no amount of wretched and pathetic self flaggelation will defuse." (See also: "Our new Guernica" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2005/03/10))

"Don't wobble, Mr. President" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/03/11)
Hezbollah II: "Sadly, while Hizbullah's true colors were unfurled on Tuesday, the initial reaction of both Lebanon and the international community to this terror rally suggested that it is possible to prosper from such actions. Thursday, Syrian-backed Lebanese President Emil Lahoud reinstated Syrian-supported Prime Minister Omar Karameh to office just a week and a half after the opposition forced him to resign. And UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that the UN should recognize Hizbullah. In his words, "Even Hizbullah [is] talking about non-interference by outsiders... which is not entirely at odds with the Security Council resolution, that there should be withdrawal of Syrian troops."
For its part, after dropping a proposal to have Hizbullah placed on the EU's list of terror organizations, the European Parliament on Thursday slapped the organization with a wet noodle – meekly resolving that "if clear evidence exists of terrorist activities by Hizbullah, the [European] Council should take all necessary steps to curtail them."
Most disturbingly, Thursday's New York Times reported that the Bush administration is about to follow both the UN and France's lead in accepting Hizbullah as a legitimate political force in Lebanon. According to the report, which sources in Washington claim was leaked by the State Department, "the Bush administration is grudgingly going along with efforts by France and the United Nations to steer the party into the Lebanese political mainstream." (See also: "U.S. Called Ready to See Hezbollah in Lebanon Role" (Steven R. Weisman, The New York Times, 2005/03/10) and "Thousands Answer Hezbollah Call in Beirut" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/08))

"U.S. denies it's ready to accept Hezbollah political role" (Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, 2005/03/11)
Hezbollah I: "The European Parliament, meanwhile, branded Hezbollah a "terrorist" group Thursday, urging European Union ministers to take action against the organization.
"Parliament considers that clear evidence exists of terrorist activities by Hezbollah. The [EU] Council should take all necessary steps to curtail them," a non-binding resolution adopted by a big majority said.
The resolution, which also renewed a call for Syria to withdraw its troops and intelligence services from Lebanon, was adopted by 473 votes to eight with 33 abstentions.
The EU is under pressure from the United States and Israel to add the Iranian-backed Hezbollah to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations, obliging member states to seize its assets and take action against its members.
But several EU governments, concerned about upsetting delicate Middle East negotiations, have so far been reluctant, including France, Spain and Britain." (See also: "U.S. Called Ready to See Hezbollah in Lebanon Role" (Steven R. Weisman, The New York Times, 2005/03/10))

"Something terrible happened in our country" (Ken Satlov, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/03/11)
A report from Beirut: "I ask for the directions to Hariri's grave. "You can't miss it," a young man with a Hariri pin on his jacket tells me, "just follow the sound of the Koran."
The Koran is being read all day long since his funeral, and the monotonic, slow reading that dominates the city center, combined with the thousands of candles that are lit on Hariri's grave generate an almost mystical, unrealistic feeling. One can find people here day and night: They pray, cry, stand in silence, light candles and place flowers on Hariri's grave and on those of his six bodyguards who are buried beside him.
"The day after the funeral you had to stand in line if you wanted to light a candle for him, there just wasn't enough space," says 14-year-old Shereen, who comes with her friends to the grave every day after school.
"Before, we used to come downtown for a doughnut at Dunkin' Donuts and to shop for CDs at Virgin Megastore. Today it seems like ancient history. Something terrible happened in our country, and we just can't let go of the pain so quickly," she says.
Ii was here that it all began. I saw the grief and the mourning at Hariri's graveside gradually transform into anger and political action. Perhaps it started with the long white sheet of paper that was brought by representatives of the Hariri family. One could write down here all that was in one's heart, and I was astonished seeing for the first time undisguised accusations against the Syrian patron: "Syrial killers out! Free Lebanon now! Damascus is to blame for Hariri's death!" read some of the many signs waved here in broad daylight."

"A democratic electric shock" (Orly Halpern, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/03/11)
"'It's a democratic electric shock,' wrote Karam Gabr, managing editor of the Egyptian political weekly Ruz al-Yusuf.
Is this democratic hurricane storming through the stagnant, autocratic Middle East going to fade away, as Hizbullah's mass rally this week in Beirut made some suspect, or will it change the face of the region, as US President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and their neo-conservative circle have been hoping? ...
Professor Eyal Zisser, a Middle East expert at the Dayan Institute for Middle East Studies, believes that American pressure is "fundamental" to democratic reforms because it scares the regimes into either ordering the reforms themselves, or at least passively allowing them to happen. ...
But the most penetrating and invasive reform engine in the Middle East has been globalization. Satellite TV dishes dot Arab capitals and Internet is highly accessible in most Arab countries. Knowledge is power, and Mideastern regimes have made sure to control its flow by owning most print and broadcast media.
Now, however, times are changing, and "leaders can no longer control information," said Newton, "so now people can make their own judgments and form their own conclusions."
According to Zisser, the days when a regime could kill opposition members without the public learning of that are over, because now everyone learns about it immediately through the Internet and satellite TV.
"In one minute, you could have a demonstration in Damascus and it will be seen at that very moment everywhere in the world," said Zisser."

"Kuwait's Suffragettes: Muslim women seize the chance to claim their rights" (Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/03/11)
"All this week, hundreds of women have been demonstrating outside the Kuwaiti parliament building where the all-male legislature is debating a bill that would give women the right to vote and stand in elections. Kuwait's women have tried 10 times since 1971 to secure suffrage in a nation whose politics has been dominated historically by Islamicists and tribal groups. Sheikha Al-Nasif, head of the Kuwait Cultural and Social Women's Society, said the "time for bargains, delay and excuses is over. We must get our rights now."
Meanwhile, in Washington this week, women from 15 Muslim nations met at the State Department with Laura Bush, and the subject, as it tends to be with the Bushes these days, was freedom. "The vote in Afghanistan," Mrs. Bush said, "was especially sweet for women who had the chance to finally banish their Taliban oppressors."
The correlation between the two Bush military interventions and the political rise of women in Afghanistan and Iraq is direct and obvious. But now women throughout the Islamic world are accelerating similar claims for basic human and political rights. ...
If the women of the Middle East and elsewhere in the Islamic world -- numbering in the many millions -- secure a place in the political life and public order of their nations, the years 2000 to 2008 will carry historic import equal to the immediate post-Cold War period." (See also: "Kuwaitis demonstrate for women's suffrage" (Haitham Haddadin, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/07))

"Terror laws in disarray as suspect is let out of prison" (Richard Ford et al., The Times, 2005/03/11)
"Eight of the terror suspects held at Belmarsh and other prisons for the past three years are expected to be freed on bail by this afternoon, amid growing chaos in Britain’s antiterrorism laws. ...
The astonishing stand-off came on the day the courts released an Algerian suspected terrorist under the powers that expire at midnight on Sunday.
Among the other prisoners likely to be released today is the radical cleric Abu Qatada. He will be freed on the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings in which 191 people were killed. Spanish investigators linked him to a number of those who took part in the attack on four commuter trains.
The men have been held under laws passed after the September 11 attacks that have been declared unlawful by the law lords. They were being released under strict bail conditions, including electronic tagging. With Tony Blair refusing the demands of the Lords to set a time limit on his legislation, there was a risk that by Monday there could be no laws under which they could be held." (See also: "Terror Threat?" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, 2005/03/09))

"A Year After Madrid Attacks, Europe Stalled in Terror Fight" (Pamela Rolfe, The Washington Post, 2005/03/11)
Madrid III: "Shortly after the [Madrid] bombings, the European Union created the post of counterterrorism coordinator to facilitate cooperation among European governments. It appointed a Dutchman, Gijs de Vries, to the post, but the position lacks real power or resources, and intelligence officials in E.U. countries continue to resist sharing their most sensitive data.
Many proposals raised just after the attacks -- for a Europe-wide fingerprint and DNA database and biometric passports, for instance -- remain just proposals. Plans for a common arrest warrant, to make extradition of suspects easier, have faltered because some countries have withheld approval. ...
Even here in Spain, scene of the attacks, many of the pre-March 11 problems persist. In the weeks following the train blasts, Spaniards pledged to find ways to increase security and prevent attacks. But other than increasing communications channels among the security and intelligence branches and adding Arabic-speaking intelligence and judiciary workers, not much has been accomplished, according to security experts."

"Spanish Muslims issue fatwa on bin Laden" (Isambard Wilkinson, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/03/11)
Madrid II: "Muslims in Spain issued a fatwa against Osama bin Laden yesterday.
The ruling by the Islamic Commission of Spain, the main body representing the nation's one million Muslims, came on the eve of the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, which were linked to the al-Qa'eda network.
The commission's leader, Mansur Escudero, said the group had consulted Muslim leaders in other countries, such as Libya and Morocco - home to most of the suspects in the March 11 bombings.
The fatwa said that, in accordance with the Koran, "the terrorist acts of Osama bin Laden and his organisation al-Qa'eda... are totally banned and must be roundly condemned as part of Islam".
The fatwa is believed to represent the first major condemnation of bin Laden by a mainstream Muslim organisation."

"In Madrid, Annan Calls for a Global Drive Against Terrorism" (Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times, 2005/03/11)
Madrid I: "In a bid to reinvigorate the U.N.'s role in international security, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday proposed a global treaty against terrorism at a summit in Madrid.
In a keynote speech, Annan called terrorism an attack on the U.N.'s "core values" and said the world body must be at the forefront of the battle against it. ...
At the top of the U.N.'s agenda is an international treaty outlawing terrorism, Annan said, and the world must stop wrangling over the definition of the term and start fighting the threat. A comprehensive convention against terrorism has been stalled by governments' disagreement on who should be considered a terrorist. Some states want to exempt so-called freedom fighters and people resisting occupation, for example.
Annan attempted to cut through the debate by endorsing the view that terrorism is any action intended to cause death or serious harm to civilians with the purpose of intimidation.
"I believe this proposal has clear moral force, and I strongly urge world leaders to unite behind it," he said.
During a discussion, Amr Moussa, leader of the Arab League and a member of the U.N. panel commissioned by Annan, did not reject the definition but argued for a greater focus on the root causes of extremist violence, such as poverty, injustice and occupation." (See also a transcript of the speech: "A Global Strategy for Fighting Terrorism" (Safe Democracy, 2005/03/10))

"Pentagon Seeks to Transfer More Detainees From Base in Cuba" (Douglas Jehl, The New York Times, 2005/03/11)
"The Pentagon is seeking to enlist help from the State Department and other agencies in a plan to cut by more than half the population at its detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in part by transferring hundreds of suspected terrorists to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen, according to senior administration officials. ...
The White House first embraced using Guantánamo as a holding place for terrorism suspects taken in Afghanistan, in part because the base was seen as beyond the jurisdiction of United States law. But recent court rulings have held that prisoners there may challenge their detentions in federal court.
Indeed, the Pentagon has halted, for the last six months, the flow of new terrorism suspects into the prison, Defense Department officials said. ...
The proposed transfers would represent a major acceleration of Pentagon efforts that have transferred 65 prisoners from Guantánamo to foreign countries. The population at Guantánamo includes more than 100 prisoners each from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, a senior administration official said, and the United States might need to provide money or other logistical support to make possible a large-scale transfer to any of those nations."

"Karami Comeback Risks More Turmoil in Lebanon" (Nadim Ladki, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/11)
"BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's president reappointed pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami on Thursday, risking a fresh battle with the opposition which had forced the Sunni Muslim politician to quit only 10 days ago.
The attempt to form another Syrian-backed government in Lebanon coincided with intense international pressure on Damascus to release its political and military grip on its neighbor. ...
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was "very unhappy" at the decision. "I very much hope that this is an interim government," he told reporters in London, saying he was worried about how forthcoming elections will be conducted.
The United States, which has been demanding that Syria end its involvement in Lebanon, was also critical of the appointment.
"Prime Minister Karami said when he resigned the first time that he was resigning because he couldn't be effective," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters in Washington.
'If ever there were a time that Lebanon needed effective government, that time is now.'"

Added in archive:
"Hundreds of Kuwaiti women rallied..." (Yasser Al-Zayyat, AFP, 2005/03/07)
"Kuwaitis demonstrate for women's suffrage" (Haitham Haddadin, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/07)
"Pakistan Rape Sparks Rally of Thousands" (Khalid Tanveer, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/07)
"www.FreeNoor.com" (Nasser Nouri, AP, 2005/03/06)
"What have the Americans ever done for us? Liberated 50 million people..." (Gerard Baker, The Times, 2005/03/04)
"Mukhtar Mai, victim of a gang rape, sheds tears..." (Khalid Tanveer, AP, 2005/03/03)
"Pakistani Court Acquits Five Gang-Rape Convicts" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/03)

Thursday, March 10, 2005

News and commentary:

"Jihad at the School of Orchestrated Anti Semitism" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/03/10)
"Activities at SOAS [School of Oriental and African Studies] become ever more disgusting. An article in the latest issue of the School's magazine 'Spirit' -- a glossy publication freely available in the Union lounge -- is entitled 'When Only Violence Will Do' by Nasser Amin. It urges the destruction of Israel and violence against Israelis. In summary, it says that all Jewish 'colonies' (not just those after 1967) are wrongful and must be dismantled, violence is justified, Zionists must be exposed, and all Israelis are legitimate targets. Here are some exerpts: ...

'The oft repeated view that Israeli victims of Palestinian violence are mainly 'innocents', as Sheikh Yusuf implies, faces the easy objection that those who benefit from the immoral actions of a colonial state in which they have chosen to reside cannot be considered as innocent. They are personally complicit in national wrongdoing, exacerbated by the fact that all Israeli adults, including the women, serve in what is indubitably an imperialist-terrorist organisation, the IDF. By choosing to raise their children in a colony at war with an indigenous people, the Israelis jeopardise the lives of these genuine innocents, who deserve to be protected from the crimes of their parents. Non-violent resistance is no solution either. We know what the Israelis can do to unarmed peace activists. Violence, rather than feebleness, generates power for the oppressed". ...

This article should surely be brought to the attention of the police. We are getting to the stage where it is becoming dangerous even to express support for Israel. When is the government going to acknowledge the anti-Jewish poison that has been released into the national bloodstream and start taking measures to counter it? When is the Jewish community going to stop hiding behind its collective armchair and start making a public protest about all this? Are the SOAS and London University administrators going to wait until a Jewish student is beaten or killed before tackling this lethal hatred that makes such a mockery of an academic institution?"

"Suicide Bomber Kills 47 at Iraq Funeral" (Sindbad Ahmed, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/10)
"MOSUL, Iraq - A suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners Thursday, splattering blood and body parts over rows of overturned white plastic chairs. The attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 100, came as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.
The explosion, in a working class neighborhood of this northern city, destroyed a large tent pitched next to a smaller one on a grassy patch in the courtyard of a mosque. Survivors scrambled to get the wounded to a hospital, lugging them to ambulances and cars in blankets or prayer rugs as a strong smell of gunpowder filled the yard. ...
Blood was spattered across the grass, car windows were shattered and survivors wailed as corpses were loaded onto the backs of pickup trucks. Others simply folded newspapers over the faces of the dead. The body parts that were strewn around the area were believed to be of the bomber."

"The Pentagon’s new pin-up boy" (Toby Harnden, The Spectator, from the 2005/03/12 issue)
"Over the years [Walid] Jumblatt’s colourful pronouncements kept him well away from the Oval Office guest list. In 2003 he not so much as stepped but cartwheeled over the mark. Reflecting on the news that Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy Pentagon chief and top Washington neoconservative, had emerged unscathed from a rocket attack in Baghdad, he said, ‘We hope that next time the rockets will be more accurate and effective in getting rid of this virus and his like, who wreak corruption in the Arab lands.’
In case anyone was unsure where he was coming from, Jumblatt noted that the true axis of evil was one of ‘oil and Jews’. President George W. Bush was a ‘mad emperor’ while Tony Blair’s ‘idiot laugh’, ‘peacock appearance’ and preened hair were signs of a deep moral corruption. ‘People who pay that much attention to their appearance are fascists by nature. Or they have psychological or sexual complexes.’ ...
Jumblatt, sipping Arabic coffee in a cavernous anteroom decorated with his collections of 19th-century French rifles and Roman glass, appeared genuinely chastened. ‘I do appreciate his dismissing my awful remarks wishing him to be dead,’ he said. ‘I was in this old, closed mindset of denouncing the imperialist.’
Looking around the Arab world, not least in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, where thousands had gathered to demand an end to a Syrian occupation that began in 1976, Jumblatt concluded that Bush’s brand of freedom and democracy was the wave of the future. ‘Slowly but surely the Berlin Wall of Arab regimes is crumbling,’ he said, pausing as one of his parrots screeched." (See also: "Beirut's Berlin Wall" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/02/23))

"The Arab spring" (Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, 2005/03/10)
"'IT IS time to set down in type the most difficult sentence in the English language. That sentence is short and simple. It is this: Bush was right.'
Thus spake columnist Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star, author of such earlier offerings as ''Incurious George W. can't grasp democracy," ''Time for US to cut and run," and, as recently as Jan. 25, ''Bush's hubristic world view."
The Axis of Weasel is crying uncle, and much of the chorus is singing from the same songsheet.
Listen to Claus Christian Malzahn in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel: ''Could George W. be right?" And Guy Sorman in France's Le Figaro: ''And if Bush was right?" And NPR's Daniel Schorr in The Christian Science Monitor: ''The Iraq effect? Bush may have had it right." And London's Independent, in a Page 1 headline on Monday: ''Was Bush right after all?"
Even Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's ''Daily Show" and an indefatigable Bush critic, has learned the new lyrics. ''Here's the great fear that I have," he said recently. 'What if Bush . . . has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may . . . implode.'" (See also: "Freedom's Fair-Weather Friends" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2005/03/09))

"'Teachable Moments': But who will teach the teachers?" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review/Private Papers, 2005/03/10)
"It recently came to light that University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill had slandered some of the 9/11 victims as “Little Eichmanns,” who may well have deserved punishment for their participation in what went on “in the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers.” ...
Churchill, it turns out, has no Ph.D., although it is the terminal degree required under normal circumstances at all such major research universities. Few, other than poets, novelists, and artists, are ever hired for tenure-track positions without it. Churchill probably also lied in claiming American Indian ancestry, thereby gaining entrée to favorable hiring and tenure considerations.
The disturbing story went on for days, as accounts of former Weather Underground ties, a past trip to Libya to cultivate dictator Muammar Qaddafi, and several prior arrests surfaced about Churchill. The public further learned that the $114,032-a-year Churchill may have distorted his Vietnam-era military service, and routinely misrepresented scholarly texts to fit his own particular revisionism. ...
In other words, Ward Churchill’s plight gives us a glimpse into the strange world of the contemporary postmodern university of tenured ideologues, where professed identity politics, ethnic or gender chauvinism, and a disbelief in empiricism allow a con man to bully his way to guaranteed lifetime employment, and a handsome salary, and the right to say anything at all, no matter how inflammatory." (See also: "The Record of a Radical" (Jacob Laksin, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/02/10), "Ward Churchill Is Just The Beginning" (David Horowitz, Rocky Mountain News/FrontPageMagazine, 2005/02/09) and "Scholar Defiant Amid Furor Over 9/11 Remarks" (Keith Coffman, AP/My Way, 2005/02/09))

"Gender bias in IKEA instructions?" (Reuters/CNN.com, 2005/03/10)
"OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA is guilty of sex discrimination by showing only men putting together furniture in its instruction manuals, Norway's prime minister says.
IKEA, which has more than 200 stores in 32 nations, fears it might offend Muslims by depicting women assembling everything from cupboards to beds. Its manuals show only men or cartoon figures whose sex is unclear.
"This isn't good enough," Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik was quoted Thursday as telling the daily Verdens Gang. "It's important to promote attitudes for sexual equality, not least in Muslim nations."
"They should change this," he said. "There's no justification for it."
IKEA stores are visited by 365 million people a year around the world. Many products have to be assembled by the buyer -- the "flat pack" concept saves the company huge amounts in transport, storage and sales space.
Bondevik added: "I myself have great problems with screwing together such furniture."
Verdens Gang quoted an IKEA spokeswoman as saying: 'We have to take account of cultural factors. In Muslim countries it's problematic to use women in instruction manuals.'"

"The Beirut Tea Party" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2005/03/10)
"The fact that Hezbollah had to resort to a mass rally, just like the Lebanese democracy movement's, is itself a victory for the democrats. Hezbollah clearly felt that it must prove it is as popular a force as the democratic opposition. But something tells me that those Hezbollah demonstrators who were waving the picture of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, were uncomfortable. And this is Hezbollah's weak spot: deep down, it and its supporters know that when they raise the pictures of Syria's president, they are raising the question of whose interests they have at heart. ...
The impact on Hezbollah will be much more powerful if it's the Lebanese democrats and the Saudis and the Europeans who ask Hezbollah over and over, "Do you have a real vision for a modern, progressive and pluralistic Lebanon? If so, why are you waving the picture of the Syrian president?"
If Hezbollah puts down Assad's picture and comes up with an answer to that question, that would be a big deal. If not, it could spell big trouble, which is why Joseph Samaha wrote in Wednesday's Lebanese daily Al Safir, 'Yesterday was the sort of day in which homelands are founded or destroyed.'"

"U.S. Called Ready to See Hezbollah in Lebanon Role" (Steven R. Weisman, The New York Times, 2005/03/10)
"After years of campaigning against Hezbollah, the radical Shiite Muslim party in Lebanon, as a terrorist pariah, the Bush administration is grudgingly going along with efforts by France and the United Nations to steer the party into the Lebanese political mainstream, administration officials say.
The administration's shift was described by American, European and United Nations officials as a reluctant recognition that Hezbollah, besides having a militia and sponsoring attacks on Israelis, is an enormous political force in Lebanon that could block Western efforts to get Syria to withdraw its troops. ...
The new posture of the administration was described by its officials, who asked not to be identified because of longstanding American antipathy toward Hezbollah.
"Hezbollah has American blood on its hands," an administration official said, referring to such events as the truck bombing that killed more than 200 American marines in Beirut in 1983. 'They are in the same category as Al Qaeda. The administration has an absolute aversion to admitting that Hezbollah has a role to play in Lebanon, but that is the path we're going down.'"

Added in archive:
"Neocons May Get the Last Laugh" (Max Boot, Los Angeles Times, 2005/03/03)

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

News and commentary:

"Syria's President Bashar al-Assad waves..."
(Khaled al-Hariri, Reuters, 2005/03/09)
"Syria's President Bashar al-Assad waves from the presidential palace at some of the tens of thousands of Syrians who marched in support of Assad, who is facing international pressure over neighboring Lebanon, in Damascus March 9, 2005."

"Tens of thousands rally for Syrian president" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/09)
"DAMASCUS (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people converged on Damascus in a show of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is under intense international pressure over his regime's dominance of neighbouring Lebanon.
The crowd chanted "God, Syria, Bashar" and "One, one, one, Syria and Lebanon are one" as they brandished portraits of the Syrian president, his late father Hafez al-Assad and the head of the Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
The rally, broadcast live on Syrian state television, came a day after a massive pro-Syrian rally in Beirut organised by Hezbollah in a bid to counter the international demands for Damascus to end its three-decade military and political grip on Lebanon.
At the call of one leading demonstrator, the crowd headed to the presidential palace amid shouts of "We want to see you Bashar," prompting the Syrian leader to appear at a window of the building and wave to the crowd."

"The London and Paris 'street' is still roiling'" (Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/03/09)
"Over the past two weeks several Western capitals, including London and Paris, have witnessed feverish activity by more than two dozen groups organizing meetings and marches to mark the second anniversary of the liberation of Iraq. The aim is not to celebrate the event and express solidarity with the emerging Iraqi democracy, but to vilify George W. Bush and Tony Blair, thus lamenting the demise of Saddam Hussein. ...
That remnants of the totalitarian Left and various brands of fascism should march to condemn the liberation of Iraq is no surprise. What is surprising is that some mainstream groups, such as the British Liberal-Democrat Party and some former members of Tony Blair's Labor government, should join these marches of shame. ...
Why are so many Westerners, living in mature democracies, ready to march against the toppling of a despot in Iraq but unwilling to take to the streets in support of the democratic movement in the Middle East?
Is it because many of those who will be marching in support of Saddam Hussein this month are the remnants of totalitarian groups in the West plus a variety of misinformed idealists and others blinded by anti-Americanism?
Or is it because they secretly believe that the Arabs do not deserve anything better than Saddam Hussein?
Those interested in the health of Western democracies would do well to ponder those questions."

"Freedom's Fair-Weather Friends" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2005/03/09)
"The recent spate of good news from the Middle East has prompted a wave of second thoughts from erstwhile supporters of the tyrannical status quo. The Washington Post, the Washington Times and blogger Bill Rice all have roundups of the recent "By George, Maybe George Was Right" articles and comments. ...
Well, not all of them. As the Post notes, the Independent's own America-hating polemicist Robert Fisk "begged to differ" and "predicted that Bush's call for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon would only hurt the Lebanese." ...
Another hilariously strained effort to deny credit to President Bush appears in this week's Time magazine:

Across the Middle East last week, a tide of good news suggested that another corner might be near. Amid the flush of springlike exuberance, though, it was hard to know which events history would immortalize. Was it President Hosni Mubarak's startling announcement that Egypt would hold its first-ever secret ballot, multiparty presidential elections? Was it the popular demonstrations in Beirut two days later that finally forced the resignation of the Syrian-backed Prime Minister and his Cabinet? Or did the start of something momentous come on Thursday, when Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah welcomed Syria's President Bashar Assad to Riyadh and not only told Assad to get Syria's 14,000 troops out of Lebanon but also announced to the world that he had said so?

What's missing from the list of possible turning points? The Iraqi election, of course." (See also: "Is Bush Right?: President's Critics Reconsider Democracy's Prospects in the Middle East" (Jefferson Morley, The Washington Post, 2005/03/08))

"Terror Threat?" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, 2005/03/09)
"A notorious London-based imam — described by U.S. officials as Osama bin Laden's principal "ambassador" in Europe — may soon be back on the streets because Britain's highest court has struck down an anti-terror law allowing him to be detained without trial. The preacher, known as Abu Qatada, has been held in a British prison for more than two years. ...
Abu Qatada is by far the most prominent, and, in the view of U.S. officials, menacing, of the detainees. A Jordanian-Palestinian preacher, he is believed to have once served as a London-based mentor for such suspected terrorists as Zacarias Moussaoui, the French militant now awaiting trial in Virginia as an alleged co-conspirator in the September 11 attacks, and Richard Reid, the London-born petty criminal convicted in Boston of trying to blow up a transatlantic airline flight with a bomb built into his shoe.
A number of tapes containing speeches by Abu Qatada were found in an apartment in Hamburg, Germany, used by Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers, and the preacher’s name has turned up in numerous wiretaps and police reports on jihadi cells in such countries as Italy, Spain and France. Jordanian authorities have also indicted Abu Qatada, accusing him of conspiring with Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the infamous Jordanian leader of Al Qaeda forces in Iraq, for plotting to attack U.S. and Jordanian targets before the millennium celebrations in January 2000. A German police informant has described Abu Qatada as a leader of the British cell of Tawhid, a Jordanian jihad group founded by Zarqawi."

"Don't be fooled - this is no Arab glasnost" (Fraser Nelson, The Washington Post, 2005/03/09)
"The fact remains that Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia all know that the pro-war camp in the West is desperate for some good news - and will take any it can get at face value. Indeed, several newspaper columnists have spent the last fortnight dancing a jig.
The Arab leaders have worked out how a democratic gift-horse is never looked in the mouth. So many in the West are easily hoodwinked by just the semblance of democracy, as long as it helps them win arguments with opponents back home.
In short, we are being sold a pup. This is no Arab glasnost. The autocrats are simply switching tactics. Once it was enough to side with one superpower or another. Then, it was enough to make friends with a member of the United Nations Security Council. Now, Arab autocrats believe the recipe for being left alone to their agenda of repression is to pay lip-service to democratic reform. It’s amazing how far a little democratic symbolism can get you. ...
Economic development, human freedom, full property rights and a pluralistic political culture are the conditions for democracy. They can grow, but, without them, any democracy project will fall. So we are still at stage one in the Middle East.
And any chances of proceeding to stage two mean keeping up the pressure - and not being fooled by decoys thrown up by Arab despots.
Spreading democracy is the only way to win the war on terror. We are, alas, still a long way from this victory." (Hat tip: Rochi Ebner.)

"Defending Bolton" (Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, 2005/03/09)
"For the record, let me begin by repeating a few quotes from John Bolton, newly nominated as ambassador to the United Nations, just so that no one can accuse me of naivete. He has said, "The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." He has said that "wishful thinking about the United Nations . . . ran into a wall of reality in Kosovo." He has been skeptical of U.N. peacekeeping operations, skeptical of the U.S. obligation to pay its U.N. dues, skeptical of just about everything, really, to do with the United Nations.
All of which makes him an ideal candidate to be America's U.N. ambassador. Bolton -- whom I've met but don't know well -- is blunt, which is an advantage in an institution where words are more often used to disguise meanings than to elucidate. He is unafraid of being disliked, which will be an advantage in a place where everyone will dislike him. In the past he has been unafraid of arguing his points, even in Europe, where they are deeply unpopular. Most of all, though, Bolton, who has been writing about the United Nations for decades, is one of the few people in public life willing to draw the distinction between what the United Nations actually is and what everybody would like it to be."

"Democracy in Lebanon" (Walid Phares, The Washington Times, 2005/03/09)
"Lebanon, if enabled to function freely, can provide:
• 1. A sophisticated web of audio-visual and printed media, unparalleled in the Arab world. It can outnumber and overwhelm the subversive media in the region. On that ground alone, Lebanon can win a whole segment of the war on terror.
• 2. It can provide a center for training and educating entire generations of cadres who would be able to lead into democratization.
• 3. It can stimulate an economic recovery in the region and revive financial connections between the emerging democracies in the region.
• 4. It can use the resources of its vast and influential diaspora to inject both economic initiatives in the Arab world and the Middle East.
• 5. It can serve as one of the most important strategic centers for security cooperation between the United States, the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab hinterland.
• 6. It can develop the seeds of a culture of peace, which is needed to initiate a real cultural of peace between Israel, the emerging Palestinian democracy and the Arabs.
• 7. It can stimulate emancipation of women, minorities and multi-ethnic democracies.
• 8. It can play a significant diplomatic role in the cooperation between the countries of the region and the West, as it has done in the past, but under more important strategic circumstances.
The "Cedars Revolution" has paved the way. Removing the Syrian occupation from Lebanon now will allow its civil society to join the international campaign against terrorism and help win the war of ideas."

"Can Hezbollah Go Straight?" (Michael Young, The New York Times, 2005/03/09)
"Beirut, Lebanon — At Syria's request, Lebanon's Hezbollah organized a huge demonstration in downtown Beirut yesterday, as a counterweight to weeks of anti-Syrian protests. The numbers notwithstanding, and despite the party's claim that the rally was not directed against the Lebanese opposition, Hezbollah will come to regret this moment, which has placed the party squarely athwart much of Lebanese society on the question of Syrian hegemony.
As international and Arab pressure mounts on Damascus to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, Hezbollah has become the last rampart of the Syrian order here. ...
Now, by supporting Syria, Hezbollah can no longer claim to be above the fray. Its desire to pursue resistance will almost certainly hit up against the reluctance of other communities, and indeed many Shiites, to see Lebanon suffer the backlash of Israeli and perhaps American retaliation. ...
The party can undeniably bring out many supporters, as it did yesterday, but it has also discredited itself by so effectively defending Syrian hegemony over Lebanon. Now Hezbollah can straddle the fence no longer. It must decide whether to take its chances as a national party in a Lebanon free of Syrian domination, or risk losing all that it has built up by becoming Syria's unwelcome enforcer."

"Iraq Soldiers May Be Among 41 Bodies Found" (Todd Pitman, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/09)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials said Wednesday that 41 bodies — some bullet-riddled, others beheaded — have been found at two sites, and they believe some of the corpses are Iraqi soldiers kidnapped and killed by insurgents. ...
Authorities found 26 of the corpses late Tuesday in a field near Rumana, a village about 12 miles east of the western city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, police Capt. Muzahim al-Karbouli and other officials said.
Each of the bodies had been riddled with bullets — apparently several days earlier. They were found wearing civilian clothes and one of the dead was a woman, al-Karbouli said.
South of Baghdad in Latifiya, Iraqi troops on Tuesday found 15 headless bodies in a building inside an abandoned former army base, Defense Ministry Capt. Sabah Yassin said. The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children. Their identities, like the others found in western Iraq, were not known."

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

News and commentary:

"ALL OUR DISASTERS ARE FROM AMERICA"
(Sharif Karim, Reuters, 2005/03/08)
"A Lebanese woman shouts slogans and holds up a banner during a pro-Syrian rally in central Beirut March 8, 2005. Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Lebanese flooded central Beirut on Tuesday for a pro-Syrian rally called by Hizbollah that dwarfed previous protests demanding that Syrian troops quit Lebanon."

"Thousands Answer Hezbollah Call in Beirut" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/08)
"Hundreds of thousands jammed a central Beirut square Tuesday, chanting support for Syria and anti-U.S. slogans in a thundering show of strength by the militant group Hezbollah — a rally that greatly outnumbered recent demonstrations against Syria's presence in Lebanon.
The demonstration came hours before Syria began redeploying its troops within Lebanon to an area closer to the two countries' border. President Bush, who rejects this as a half-step, said Tuesday that "freedom will prevail in Lebanon" and demanded that Syria withdraw completely.
But that was not the sentiment among the protesters in Riad Solh square, where two huge banners read, in English: "Thank you Syria" and "No to foreign interference." The latter was a reference to U.S. and U.N. pressure on Syria — but not to the Syrian military, which the protesters made clear they were happy to have stay."

"About Giuliana Sgrena" (Zacht Ei, 2005/03/08)
"Mr. Harald Doornbos is a veteran war reporter. He is no archetypical hawk nor a staunch supporter of the United States. In fact, he used to be a reporter for the communist newspaper 'De Waarheid' (The Truth, or Pravda, if you like) before it went bust. (This doesn't necessarily mean he was ever a communist, by the way. De Waarheid used to be a huge employer.)
However, this doesn't make him overly sympathetic towards Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist who was held hostage by Iraqi insurgents. Some snippets from this article which was published today in a Dutch Christian broadsheet.

'Be careful not to get kidnapped,' I told the female Italian journalist sitting next to me in the small plane that was headed for Baghdad. 'Oh no,' she said. 'That won't happen. We are siding with the oppressed Iraqi people. No Iraqi would kidnap us.'
It doesn't sound very nice to be critical of a fellow reporter. But Sgrena's attitude is a disgrace for journalism. Or didn't she tell me back in the plane that 'common journalists such as yourself' simply do not support the Iraqi people? 'The Americans are the biggest enemies of mankind,' the three women behind me had told me, for Sgrena travelled to Iraq with two Italian colleagues who hated the Americans as well. ...
'You don't understand the situation. We are anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, communists,' they said. The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers, the enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear.' ...
With her bias Sgrena did not only jeopardize herself, but due to her behavior a security officer is now dead, and the Italian government (prime minister Berlusconi included) has had to spend millions of euros to save her life. It is to be hoped that Sgrena will decide to have a career change. Propagandist or MP perhaps. But she should give up journalism immediately."

"Was Italian Hostage's Car Speeding?" (ABC News, 2005/03/08)
As Charles Johnson points out, this witness account corroborates what Sgrena herself claimed in "My Truth": "The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell.":
"A senior U.S. military official tells ABC News he believes the investigation into the fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence officer by U.S. troops in Iraq will ultimately prove the officer's car was traveling in excess of 100 mph. ...
Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told his country's parliament today that the shooting was an accident, but he contradicted the U.S. military's account of the incident. The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which controls Baghdad, said in a statement that the vehicle was "traveling at high speeds" and did not stop at the checkpoint, despite a number of warnings. The military said U.S. soldiers only opened fire after the car ignored the warnings.
Fini, however, said the car was traveling no faster than 25 mph, and disputed the U.S. military's assertion that several warnings were given. He said the U.S. government must conduct a thorough investigation, "that responsibilities be pinpointed, and, where found, that the culprits be punished."
But, according to the senior U.S. military official, the car was traveling at speeds of more than 100 mph. The driver almost lost control several times before the shooting as the car hydroplaned through large puddles, the official told ABC News. The car had not gone through any previous checkpoints, the source added.
The official also denied previous claims that a tank opened fire on the car." (See also: "My truth" (Giuliana Sgrena, il manifesto, 2005/03/06))

"They made a democracy and called it peace" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2005/03/08)
"Animals breed by instinct, but faith in the future is a precondition for the reproduction of human society. Wounded animals crawl into a hole and die; humiliated cultures turn sterile and pass out of memory. Germany eschewed democracy for a reason, believing that its hope for survival lay in collective identity. In light of the facts, one might say that this belief was not incorrect, but merely evil and tragic. I do not believe that the Islamic world, either, will succumb to democratization along American lines without an upheaval on the scale of World War II. ...
Those who seem to think that such provocations as the murder of Theo van Gogh by terrorists will revive Europe's will to live, eg Victor Davis Hanson, sadly misestimate the depth to which Europe has sunk. After World War I, I wrote two years ago, "no shred of credibility was left in the Christian idea of souls called out of the nations for salvation beyond the grave. In 1914 Europe's soldiers still fought under the illusion of a God that favored their nation. Germany fought World War II under the banner of revived paganism. For today's Europeans, there is no consolation, neither the old pagan continuity of national culture, nor the Christian continuity into the hereafter" (Why Europe chooses extinction, April 8, 2003). Europe will offer no resistance to Islam, which will triumph in that continent no later than 2100, according to Bernard Lewis."¨

"A Neo-Conservative's Caution" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2005/03/08)
"These developments [in the Middle East] find some neo-conservatives in a state of near-euphoria. Rich Lowry of the National Review calls them "a marvelous thing." Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post writes that "We are at the dawn of a glorious, delicate, revolutionary moment in the Middle East."
I too welcome these developments, but more warily. Having been trained in Middle Eastern history makes me perhaps more aware of what can go wrong:

• Yes, Mahmoud Abbas wishes to end the armed struggle against Israel but his call for a greater jihad against the "Zionist enemy" points to his intending another form of war to destroy Israel.
• The Iraqi elections are bringing Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a pro-Iranian Islamist, to power.
• Likewise, the Saudi elections proved a boon for the Islamist candidates.
• Mubarak's promise is purely cosmetic; but should real presidential elections one day come to Egypt, Islamists will probably prevail there too.
• Removing Syrian control in Lebanon could well lead to Hezbollah, a terrorist group, becoming the dominant power there.
• Eliminating the hideous Assad dynasty could well bring in its wake an Islamist government in Damascus.

Note a pattern? Other than the sui generis Palestinian case, one main danger threatens to undo the good news: that a too-quick removal of tyranny unleashes Islamist ideologues and opens their way to power. Sadly, Islamists uniquely have what it takes to win elections: the talent to develop a compelling ideology, the energy to found parties, the devotion to win supporters, the money to spend on electoral campaigns, the honesty to appeal to voters, and the will to intimidate rivals."

"A Printemps Arabe?" (Gregory, The Belgravia Dispatch, 2005/03/08)
"A grudging nod to W from Le Monde's editorialists! ...

Mais ce "printemps arabe", selon l'expression des médias américains, doit être encouragé et au besoin défendu par tous ceux qui voient dans le respect des droits de l'homme une valeur universelle.
Le mérite de George W. Bush est d'avoir tenu ce discours dès le lendemain des attentats du 11-Septembre - mis à part quelques écarts de langage sur "la nouvelle croisade". Il a développé l'idée que les peuples musulmans avaient le droit à la liberté, à la démocratie, à la prospérité. Il ne l'a pas fait seulement par altruisme mais parce qu'il est convaincu qu'une telle évolution correspond aux intérêts de sécurité des Etats-Unis.

Translation:

But this "Arab Spring", per the expression of the American media, must be encouraged and if needed defended by all those who see respect for human rights as a universal value.
The merit of George Bush is to have held firm to his discourse from the day after 9/11--apart from some unfortunate language about "the new crusade." He developed the idea that the Muslim peoples have the right to freedom, to democracy, to prosperity. He didn't do this only out of altruism but because he is convinced that such evolution corresponds to the security interests of the United States.

As I said, grudging. But pas mal nevertheless, eh?" (See also: "Printemps arabe" (Le Monde, 2005/03/08))

"Is Bush Right?: President's Critics Reconsider Democracy's Prospects in the Middle East" (Jefferson Morley, The Washington Post, 2005/03/08)
"In countries where President George Bush and his policies are deeply unpopular, online commentators are starting to think the unthinkable.
"Could George W. Bush Be Right?" asked Claus Christian Malzahn in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel. Essayist Guy Sorman asked last month in the Paris daily Le Figaro (by subscription), "And If Bush Was Right?" In Canada, anti-war columnist Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star answered: "It is time to set down in type the most difficult sentence in the English language. That sentence is short and simple. It is this: Bush was right." ...
Given Bush's insistence that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would lead to a democratic political order in the Middle East, many Europeans are "somewhat embarrassed" by these developments, Sorman wrote in Le Figaro.
"Hadn't they promised, governments and media alike, that the Arab street would rise up [against U.S. military forces], that Islam would burn, that the American army would get bogged down, that the terrorist attacks would multiply, and that democracy would not result nor be exported?"
"These dramas did not occur," Sorman says. 'Either Bush is lucky, or it is too early to judge or [Bush's] analysis was not false.'" (See also: "Could George W. Bush Be Right?" (Claus Christian Malzahn, Der Spiegel, 2005/02/23))

"Critic of U.N. Named Envoy" (Glenn Kessler and Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, 2005/03/08)
"President Bush named Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton yesterday as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a surprise choice that would send an outspoken critic of the world body's effectiveness to its inner councils. ...
Bolton acknowledged yesterday that he has written critically of the United Nations, saying one highlight of his career was his role in the successful 1991 repeal of the General Assembly 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism, "thus removing the greatest stain on the U.N.'s reputation."
He said he has consistently stressed in his writings that "American leadership is critical to the success of the U.N., an effective U.N., one that is true to the original intent of its charter's framers."
Bolton, 56, served in the administration of George H.W. Bush, father of the current president, as assistant secretary of state for international organizations, and in the Reagan administration as an assistant attorney general. He keeps a mock grenade in his office, labeled 'To John Bolton -- World's Greatest Reaganite.'" (See also: "Bush to U.N.: Drop Dead" (Fred Kaplan, Slate, 2005/03/07): "'There is no such thing as the United Nations,' Bolton said a decade ago on a panel of the World Federalist Association. 'If the U.N. Secretariat Building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.'")

"Hopes dim for early Syrian exit from Lebanon" (Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, 2005/03/08)
"Prospects for an early withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon faded yesterday when the countries' presidents agreed only a partial time-table which appeared to fall well short of international demands.
A pullback to the eastern part of Lebanon will be completed by the end of this month, according to yesterday's agreement, but no date has been set for all the 14,000 Syrian troops to leave.
As Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, met Emile Lahoud, the Syrian-backed Lebanese president, in Damascus, tens of thousands of anti-Syrian demonstrators took to the streets of Beirut, chanting: "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" ...
Today Hizbullah, the Shia organisation backed by Syria and Iran, is due to hold a rival rally in central Beirut to "thank" Syria for helping Lebanon.
Some of yesterday's marchers thought that Hizbullah, whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Sunday announced plans for the rally, might muster an even larger crowd.
"They are very organised, in a different sort of way," said Laila, a 19-year-old student."

Monday, March 7, 2005

News and commentary:

"Hundreds of Kuwaiti women rallied..."
(Yasser Al-Zayyat, AFP, 2005/03/07)
"Hundreds of Kuwaiti women rallied outside parliament to press for their political rights as MPs convened to discuss setting a date to debate a bill that would give women the vote in the Gulf state."

"Kuwaitis demonstrate for women's suffrage" (Haitham Haddadin, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/07)
"KUWAIT (Reuters) - Around 500 Kuwaiti activists, mostly women, demonstrated outside parliament on Monday to demand female suffrage amidst tensions in the Gulf Arab state over a government drive to grant women political rights.
"Women's rights now," chanted the crowd, which included women dressed in abayas, or traditional long black cloaks. Some of the demonstrators wore veils over their faces.
"Our democracy will only be complete with women," said a placard written in Arabic. "We are not less, you are not more. We need a balance, open the door," said one written in English.
The crowd later attended a parliamentary session which approved a state request for a committee to speed up reviewing a bill allowing women to vote and run for parliament.
"In all Muslim countries from Indonesia to Morocco, voting and running for office are among women's rights but we in Kuwait alone say 'No' ... Is it possible that 1 billion Muslims are wrong and we in Kuwait are right," lawmaker Mohammed al-Saqr said to applause from female activists in the public gallery."

"Pakistan Rape Sparks Rally of Thousands" (Khalid Tanveer, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/07)
"MULTAN, Pakistan - Thousands of women rallied in eastern Pakistan on Monday to demand justice and protection for a woman who said she was gang-raped at the direction of a village council, after a court ordered the release of her alleged attackers.
The victim, Mukhtar Mai, also attended the rally in Multan, a major city in the eastern province of Punjab.
Waving signs and chanting, the demonstrators, many of them from nearby villages, joined the rally. Organizer Farzana Bari said more than 3,000 women were at the event.
"We will fight for justice for Mukhtar Mai," the women chanted during the rally, while others carried placards reading: "Give protection to Mukhtar Mai." (See also: "When Rapists Walk Free" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2005/03/05) and "Pakistani Court Acquits Five Gang-Rape Convicts" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/03))

"Head of Islamic Jihad Taught Middle East Studies at US University" (Arutz Sheva, 2005/03/07)
"The terrorist behind the Stage Club in Tel Aviv over a week ago taught Middle East Studies at a University in the US before he moved to Syria.
47-year-old Ramadan Shallah is the head of Islamic Jihad who was caught on tape ordering the attack by telephone from Damascus. A transcript of the call was given to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Shallah was a PhD student at Durham University, in England from 1985-1990, where he wrote his thesis on the merits of Islamic Banking.
Shallah then moved from Durham to the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he taught Middle Eastern studies and headed the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank affiliated with the university.
In 1995 he became the head of Islamic Jihad and is now wanted for murder by Israel." (Hat tip: Rochi Ebner.)

"A sudden, powerful stirring" (Fouad Ajami, USNews.com, from the 2005/03/14 issue)
"In retrospect, it was an appearance by President George W. Bush before the National Endowment for Democracy, in November 2003, that signaled the birth of a new "diplomacy of freedom" in the Arab world.":
"Today the Arab world is beset by a mighty storm. For decades, the American choice in Arab-Islamic lands was stark. The "civil society" there was truculent and malignantly anti-American, while the rulers seemed like eminently reasonable men willing to strike bargains in the shadows. It was easy to accept their authoritarianism as the cultural practice of the Arabs: This was what Bush called the "soft bigotry of low expectations." ...
Now the ground has shifted. A budding popular opposition has taken to the streets of Cairo. In one poignant word, its banners proclaim its politics, and tell us so much about that country and its modern-day pharaoh: Kifaya (enough) is the name of the movement. Egypt has wearied of its ruler, of his family, of the mediocrity of his regime. "Enough" said the crowd that wanted done with the emergency decrees, with the corruption and the plunder. ...
The world is one large echo chamber. These young people in the streets of Beirut beheld Ukraine's Orange Revolution; they saw the "Revolution of Purple Ink" (Iraq's vote), and they wanted their own festival of national unity. A young woman I reached in Beirut was proud to tell me that her husband had left for "the demo" and was insistent that I reach him at the demonstration on a cellphone. I duly complied: The man then held the phone up so I could take in the tumult. For years, these people feared Syria's secret police. Now, on the far side of fear, they have discovered a ne