Archived news and commentary: April 18 - 24, 2005

2005/04/18 - 2005/04/24
2005/04/11 - 2005/04/17
2005/04/04 - 2005/04/10
2005/03/28 - 2005/04/03
2005/03/21 - 2005/03/27
2005/03/14 - 2005/03/20

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, April 24, 2005

News and commentary:

"Why Israel will always be vilified" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2005/04/24)
Aaronovitch on the decision of the Association of University Teachers council in Eastbourne to boycott two Israeli universities:
"After the vote had been won, Blackwell, a former Christian fundamentalist turned revolutionary socialist, told the press how glad she was to be part of a union that was 'prepared to stand up for human rights'. The problem here, as she will have realised, is that if the AUT was to boycott places with bad human rights records, there'd be a whole lot of boycottin' goin' on. ...
No, Israel's universities are not bad and Israel's human rights record is no worse than that of many other countries. So, inevitably, the tack shifts. Israel's universities are intrinsically racist, according to Blackwell, with 'Israeli academics routinely implicated in racist discourses against Arab students and Arabs in general'. ...
This is a genuinely, grade-A stupid argument, whether it emanates from the lips of Professor Steven Rose or the more sacred ones of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. ...
Unless, of course, you don't believe that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state at all within any borders. And this, as it happens, seems to be the view of Sue Blackwell, who describes Israel as 'an illegitimate state'. Unlike the United Nations, she does not believe it should have been set up and she would rather it disappeared. As she pointed out in 2003 to a previous AUT council: 'From its very inception, the state of Israel has attracted international condemnation for violating the human rights of the Palestinian people and making war on its neighbours.' Or, to put it even more bluntly, everything is all the fault of the Israelis." (See also: "The monstrous regiment of university teachers" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/04/06))

"Investigators resigned over oil-for-food inquiry 'cover-up'" (Charles Laurence and Henry Samuel, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/04/24)
"The two senior investigators on the Volcker commission, appointed by the United Nations to investigate the oil-for-food scandal, resigned last week because they feared a "de facto cover-up" over a report into Kojo Annan's business dealings.
The interim report, published last month, found "no evidence" that Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, had any "affirmative or improper influence" in the decision to give Swiss company Cotecna, for which his son, Kojo, was a consultant, a multi-million dollar contract to monitor Iraq's oil-for-food scheme.
It did, however, find fault with Mr Annan for inadequately investigating the affair, and raised questions about his relationship with Cotecna's management.
Last night, in the most explicit criticism so far directed at the report, Robert Parton, one of the senior investigators, told a lawyer involved with the Volcker inquiry that he thought the committee was "engaging in a de facto cover-up, acting with good intentions but steered by ideology".
The lawyer, Adrian Gonzalez, told The Sunday Telegraph that he believed the committee, headed by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was determined to protect the secretary-general."

Saturday, April 23, 2005

News and commentary:

"Afghanistan woman stoned to death" (BBC News, 2005/04/23)
"A woman has been stoned to death in Afghanistan, reportedly for committing adultery.
The killing is said to have taken place in the Urgu district of north-eastern Badakhshan province.
A local Afghan government official confirmed the death, and said the government would investigate the case.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said the woman had been sentenced to death by a decree from the local religious scholar.
Under Afghan law, cases such as this should go through the local courts.
A reporter for the BBC Pashto service in Afghanistan said the woman's husband recently returned from Iran after five years away.
The wife asked for a separation on the grounds that her husband could not support her.
However, he said she was having improper relations with another man.
It is not known if the couple had any children.
Correspondents say this is the second time a woman has been stoned to death since the ousting of the Taleban in 2001.
Both events happened in the same area.
During the Taleban's rule, women were regularly stoned to death for adultery."

"Top Army Officers Are Cleared in Abuse Cases" (Josh White, The Washington Post, 2005/04/23)
"An Army inspector general's report has cleared senior Army officers of wrongdoing in the abuse of military prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere, government officials familiar with the findings said yesterday.
The only Army general officer recommended for punishment for the failures that led to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan is Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. prison facilities in Iraq as commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade in late 2003 and early 2004. Several sources said Karpinski is expected to receive an administrative reprimand for dereliction of duty. ...
The investigation essentially found no culpability on the part of Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and three of his senior deputies, ruling that allegations they failed to prevent or stop abuses were 'unsubstantiated.'"

Added in archive:
"Sy Hersh Says It’s Okay to Lie (Just Not in Print)" (Chris Suellentrop, The New York Magazine, from the 2005/04/18 issue)

Friday, April 22, 2005

News and commentary:

"Norwegian preacher kindles religious strife" (Jonathan Tisdall, Aftenposten, 2005/04/22)
I suspect that the main reason that Sweden hasn't had its own Theo van Gogh case, is simply because Islam is never criticized here. If we had a Swedish van Gogh, I'm pretty sure he would be facing the same dangers as the Dutch one did.
The bleak truth is that when it comes to Islam, Europe is already failing Sharansky's "town square test" for free societies: "Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm?"
That said, Runar Søgaard is a certified idiot:
"Celebrity Pentecostal preacher Runar Søgaard is under protection by Swedish police after receiving death threats. A high-profile sermon where Sögaard called the prophet Mohammed "a confused pedophile" has triggered fears of religious war.
Søgaard, 37, enjoys celebrity status in Sweden after his marriage to recording star and Eurovision song contest winner Carola, even though they are now divorced.
"Even if I see Runar while he has major police protection I will shoot him to death," a radical Islamist told Swedish newspaper Expressen.
Persons connected to the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam claim to have received a fatwa, a decree from a Muslim religious leader, to kill Søgaard.
Muslim organizations have called Søgaard's sermon, which is on sale on CD at the Stockholm Karisma Center's web site, a hateful attack on Islam and fear the type of violent conflict that scarred the Netherlands after filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed by an Islamic extremist for a controversial film. ...
Søgaard said he fears for his life and understands that he has angered the wrong people. He received police protection after questioning by Swedish police.
Imam Hassan Moussa, head of Sweden's imam council, demanded that Christian communities repudiate Søgaard's remarks, and promised that Sweden would avoid the ugly scenes experienced in Holland."

"Moussaoui Says He Had Bin Laden's Approval" (AP/Netscape News, 2005/04/22)
Moussaoui II: "Zacarias Moussaoui admitted Friday that had al-Qaida's terror plot gone according to plan, the White House also would have been destroyed by a hijacked commercial airliner.
In a "statement of facts" compiled by prosecutors and signed Friday by Moussaoui, he acknowledged that Osama bin Laden gave his personal blessing and offered words of encouragement for the attack.
The man Moussaoui called his "father in jihad" selected the French citizen to learn to fly a Boeing 747 airliner so that he could pilot it into the White House.
"Sahrawi, remember your dream," bin Laden told Moussaoui. Abu Khaled al Sahrawi was one of the names Moussaoui used."

"Moussaoui Pleads Guilty in 9/11 Conspiracy" (Pete Yost, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/22)
Moussaoui I: "Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans and declared he was personally chosen by Osama bin Laden to fly a plane into the White House during a later attack.
Moussaoui admitted guilt in front of a packed courtroom only a few miles from where one of the four hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon in 2001. He pleaded to six conspiracy counts, four of which could bring the death penalty.
He said he would contest such a sentence, which prosecutors say they intend to pursue. "I will fight every inch against the death penalty," he said.
Asked by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema if prosecutors had promised him the possibility of a lighter sentence for his admission, Moussaoui said no. Then he added, "I don't expect any leniency from the Americans."
Brinkema accepted his pleas, making the French citizen the lone person convicted in a U.S. court in connection with the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people."

"War Is Muted as Issue in Britain, but Not for Its Muslims" (Alan Cowell, The New York Times, 2005/04/22)
"'Wherever there is a strong Muslim population, Tony Blair is going to lose,' said Mohammed Naseem, the chairman of Birmingham's Central Mosque. Dr. Naseem also supports the Respect movement, which is led from London by a maverick former Labor legislator, George Galloway, who visited twice with Mr. Hussein in prewar Iraq. ...
"For the first time you have got young British-born females wearing the hijab," said Parwez Hussain, 32, manager of an educational Web site, referring to the Islamic head scarf covering women's hair and neck and reflecting Islamic piety. "Half the voters are female," he said. "You don't know what they are going to do. Historically women didn't get involved. Now they make up half the people at political rallies." ...
On Tuesday, Islamic militants burst into a news conference in London held by representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest mainstream Muslim organization, and handed out leaflets saying, "Voting for any political party will guarantee your seat in hellfire forever,"
Later the same day, people from the same militant group clashed violently with followers of Mr. Galloway, the Respect leader in east London, saying it was un-Islamic to vote and that anyone who did so became an infidel." (See also: "Hate mob attacks Galloway" (Paul Waugh and Flora Stubbs, The Evening Standard, 2005/04/20), "From election launch to PR panic" (Dominic Casciani, BBC News, 2005/04/19) and "Jewish MP pelted with eggs at war memorial" (Richard Alleyne, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/04/11))

"Sept. 11 Suspects Go on Trial In Madrid" (Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post, 2005/04/22)
"MADRID, April 21 -- Two weeks before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a Syrian immigrant in Spain received a phone call from London. The caller reported that he had "entered the field of aviation" and that "classes were going well." He added, mysteriously, that "the throat of the bird has been slit."
The call was recorded by Spanish police as part of a long-term investigation into a suspected network of Islamic radicals, but it was weeks before the possible significance of the conversation was understood. Prosecutors here now say they believe "the bird" was a symbolic reference to the American bald eagle and that the caller was sending a message that the Sept. 11 hijackings were ready to proceed.
The wiretap will be a key piece of evidence against the Syrian, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, and two other men suspected of being al Qaeda members who go on trial in Madrid on Friday after a 3 1/2-year investigation into the use of Spain as a staging ground for the Sept. 11 attacks.
Each is charged with nearly 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization."

"Saddam's men strike back in purge that left river of blood" (James Hider, The Times, 2005/04/22)
"ABU QADDUM lays out the pictures of mutilated bodies dredged from the Tigris River like a player dealing cards.
Some had their hands cut off, others are headless or burnt. Another was strangled, with his tongue lolling out. He thinks one bloated, slime-covered corpse might be his younger brother.
The shocking images come from Iraq’s new killing fields — the small town of Madain just 20 miles from Baghdad.
In other times the massacre might have prompted calls for international intervention. But there are already 150,000 US and British troops in Iraq and this was done under their noses. Abu Qaddum’s pictures are a terrifying testament to the chaos of Iraq.
Madain has had no police force since a mob of criminals and insurgents burnt down the police station last year. The police fled.
Sunni guerrillas quickly took over, running the town as their own criminal fiefdom and randomly killing Shia residents, whom they considered infidels and US sympathisers. Then they launched an all-out attempt to purge the town of its Shias.
News of this “ethnic cleansing” leaked out in confusing rumours. ...
Then the photographs of the bodies emerged and with them the tale of Abu Qaddum — a resident who survived the massacre and this week alerted President Talabani. “I think there may be 300 bodies in the Tigris,” he told The Times yesterday."

Thursday, April 21, 2005

News and commentary:

"War Isn't Fought in the Headlines" (Thomas X. Hammes, The New York Times, 2005/04/21)
"Just a couple weeks ago, politicians and pundits were pointing to the sudden reduction in the number of assaults on coalition forces in Iraq and speculating about the collapse of the insurgency. After all, attacks had decreased to fewer than 40 a day from a high of 140 a day just before the Iraqi presidential election in January. On April 10, Pentagon spokesmen began whispering to reporters about plans for an early withdrawal of American forces.
In contrast, the last week's papers have been full of reports about the increased sophistication of insurgent attacks on Americans, the growing violence against Iraqi civilians, and the audacity of an operation in which perhaps 150 people were reported to have been taken hostage in the town of Madaen. Now those same policy makers and pundits are warning that the insurgency is making a comeback.
In fact, neither proposition is true. The insurgency was not collapsing then and it is not resurgent now. Insurgencies are very long struggles - in modern military history they have lasted on average 10 to 15 years, and many - Palestine, Sri Lanka and Vietnam - have gone more than a quarter-century.
It is folly to predict long-term trends based on a few weeks of rebel activities. The only way a counterinsurgency can truly be successful is to establish effective, fair government that is accepted by the people - and that takes time."

"Arab Bank funded Hamas, al-Qaida" (Uriel Heilman, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/21)
"The New York branch of the Arab Bank was instrumental in financing Hamas, Al-Qaida and dozens of other terrorist groups, and some of those transactions were also handled by banks in the United States and Israel, according to a report in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal.
Arab Bank funneled more than $20 million to and from terrorist groups and charities affiliated with terrorist groups, including payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers who perpetrated attacks in Israel, the report said. The bank now may be subject to criminal charges for not disclosing to the US government suspicious transactions that resulted in the financing of terrorists. ...
Among the suspicious transactions were money transfers by the US-based Holy Land Foundation, which sent more than $3 million through Arab Bank to the Palestinian territories at a time when the US Treasury already has designated Holy Land as a front group for Hamas."

"Two U.N. oil-for-food probers resign" (Desmond O. Butler, AP/The Washington Times, 2005/04/21)
"Two senior investigators with the U.N. committee probing corruption in the oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they think a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed yesterday.
The investigators felt the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, played down findings critical of Mr. Annan when it released an interim report in late March related to his son, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee. ...
The investigators were identified as Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan. ...
Mr. Pieth acknowledged disagreements within the committee about how to interpret the evidence on Mr. Annan, but he denied that investigators were censored. He also praised the work of Miss Duncan and Mr. Parton.
"I have high esteem for both Robert and Miranda," Mr. Pieth said. "It's not a bad parting. I think they are very capable people."
Mr. Pieth added, however, that he thought the two investigators got "personally very involved" in the probe and so grew upset. "Again, this is the nature of things," he said."

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

News and commentary:

"Hate mob attacks Galloway" (Paul Waugh and Flora Stubbs, The Evening Standard, 2005/04/20)
"The bitter election battle in the East End has spilled into violence, with extremist Muslims and anti-war protesters targeting George Galloway and Oona King.
Anti-war campaigner Mr Galloway was forced to take refuge from Islamic militants who denounced him as a "false prophet".
The former Labour MP said "the police saved my life" after supporters of radical group Hizb-Ut-Tahrir clashed with members of his Respect party last night. ...
Mr Galloway was electioneering on the Osier council estate in Bethnal Green last night when a gang of 30 Muslim fundamentalists, who claim voting is un-Islamic, surrounded him and his supporters.
The men said they were angry at Mr Galloway's attempt to woo Muslim voters. They said they were "setting up the gallows" for him and warned any Muslim who voted for his anti-war Respect party that they faced a "sentence of death". ...
Speaking to the Standard minutes after the attack, Mr Galloway said it was clear the men were worried that he could become MP for an area with a large Muslim population.
"I was meeting people who live in the flats. Hizb-ut-Tahrir suddenly filled the room and blocked the door. I tried speaking calmly. They then said I was parading as a false prophet and served a sentence of death on me. They were claiming I was representing myself as a false deity and for this apostasy I would be sentenced to the gallows," he said.
'They said they were setting up the gallows for me. Thank God my daughter was not with me. She was in the car outside. Otherwise there would have been nobody to call the police. The police saved my life.'" (Hat tip: Tim Blair. See also: "From election launch to PR panic" (Dominic Casciani, BBC News, 2005/04/19) and "Jewish MP pelted with eggs at war memorial" (Richard Alleyne, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/04/11))

"Iraq 'hostages dumped in river'" (BBC News, 2005/04/20)
"The bodies of more than 50 men, women and children have been recovered from the River Tigris at the town of Suwayra, south of Baghdad.
Some had been decapitated or had their throats cut.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani revealed the gruesome discovery when asked a question about reports of hostage-taking in the town of Madain.
Meanwhile, in the town of Haditha, north-west of Baghdad, at least 19 men were found dead at a football stadium.
They had apparently been lined up against a wall and shot.
The interior ministry said they were Iraqi soldiers who had been abducted by insurgents while travelling to Haditha. ...
Iraqi forces raided Madain earlier this week, but found nothing.
President Talabani told reporters: "More than 50 bodies have been brought out from the Tigris, and we have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes.
"We will give you details in the coming days... terrorists committed crimes there [in Madain].
'It is not true that there were no hostages. There were, but they were killed and they threw the bodies into the Tigris.'"

"Pope Benedict XVI: Enemy of Jihad" (Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/04/20)
"In choosing Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has cast a vote for the survival of Europe and the West. ...
He contrasts the modern-day resurgence of Islam with the enervation of Europe. In old Europe, he has said, “we are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one's own desires.” Islam, on the other hand, is anything but relativistic: “The rebirth of Islam is due in part to the new material richness acquired by Muslim countries, but mainly to the knowledge that it is able to offer a valid spiritual foundation for the life of its people, a foundation that seems to have escaped from the hands of old Europe.”
In line with his call to Europeans to recover their own spiritual heritage, the new Pope opposes Turkey’s proposed entrance into the European Union: “Turkey,” he has declared, “has always represented a different continent, always in contrast with Europe.” But his objection is not simply geographical — in fact, he opposes the geographical oversimplifications that underlie Turkey’s EU bid: “Europe,” he has explained, “was founded not on a geography, but on a common faith. We have to redefine what Europe is, and we cannot stop at positivism.” A Europe newly defined as in some sense a Christian entity may outrage secularists, but a secular and relativist Europe has so far proved powerless against the Islamization of Europe — despite the fact that that Islamization threatens cherished Western notions of the equality of rights and dignity of all people." (See also: "Issue for Cardinals: Islam as Rival or Partner in Talks" (Ian Fisher, The New York Times, 2005/04/12)

"Please don't call it terrorism" (Daniel Pipes, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/20)
Pipes on Conflicts Forum: "The group's founder and leader, Alastair Crooke, 55, was a ranking figure in both British intelligence and European Union diplomacy, someone who hobnobs with insiders, gives upbeat speeches at premier venues ("It is Essential to Negotiate with Terrorists" at the London School of Economics; "Can Hamas Be A Political Partner?" at the Council on Foreign Relations) and enjoys a fawning press.
But Crooke's true identity came out in a clandestine meeting he held with the Hamas leadership in June 2002, at a time when he still represented the European Union. We have an account of the meeting, prepared by Hamas, which Crooke claims is inaccurate. It deserves reading in full for an insight into Crooke's amoral, craven, appeasing and dhimmi-like mentality:
He recounts to Hamas having insisted to two high-ranking European politicians that "the status of Europe in the eyes of the Palestinians has started to deteriorate" because Europe did not adequately support the Palestinians.
"The main problem [in the Middle East] is the Israeli occupation," which is music to Hamas ears.
"As for terrorism, I hate that word," he tells leaders of a leading terrorist organization, going on to imply that he instead sees Hamas operatives as "freedom fighters."
This last fits Crooke's routine public dismissal of terrorism as a threat. The West, he says, faces not "terrorism" (his quote marks) but a distinctly less-nasty 'sophisticated, asymmetrical, broad-based and irregular insurgency.'" (See also: "Document seized in the Palestinian Authority Preventive Security compound in Gaza" (intelligence.org.il, 2004/11/29))

"Stale Kofi" (Claudia Rosett, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/04/20)
"Now we have the charges by U.S. prosecutors that Koreagate's Tongsun Park shuttled millions in bribe money from Saddam Hussein to two high-ranking U.N. officials, referred to in the complaint as "U.N. Official #1" and "U.N. Official #2." Outside the U.N., the hunt is on to discover the identities of this duo.
And how is the U.N. handling the possibility that some of its high-ranking officials may be under investigation for sitting on illicit millions in secret payoffs from a former totalitarian regime under sanctions? In any private company, or any democratic government, this would fill top management not only with dismay, but with an urgent mission to ransack the place to the rafters, immediately.
At the U.N., there has been no sign of any such urgency. At a press briefing Monday, Kofi Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, when asked for details that might help identify the accused officials, told reporters to go check the library (where reporters were told the materials needed were not on file). Mr. Eckhard further advised that 'a deputy attorney general has issued a sealed indictment. So let's let that process run its course.'"

"Reports reveal Zarqawi nuclear threat" (Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 2005/04/20)
"Recurrent intelligence reports say al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi has obtained a nuclear device or is preparing a radiological explosive -- or dirty bomb -- for an attack, according to U.S. officials, who also say analysts are unable to gauge the reliability of the information's sources.
The classified reports have been distributed to U.S. intelligence agencies for several consecutive months and say Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, has stored the nuclear device or dirty bomb in Afghanistan, said officials familiar with the intelligence.
Click to Visit
One official said the intelligence is being questioned because analysts think al Qaeda would not hesitate to use a nuclear device if it had one.
However, the fact that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has reported the nuclear threat in several classified reports distributed since December indicates concern about it."

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

News and commentary:

"VOTE TODAY...
BECOME KAAFIR TOMORROW!"
(BBC News, 2005/04/19)
The leaflet given to journalists in the name of "The Saviour Sect". A PDF-version of the leaflet can be found here. It has photographs of Labour leader Tony Blair, Conservative leader Michael Howard, the Liberal Democrats' Charles Kennedy and George Galloway of Respect:
"The above are all shayaateen (devils), crooks, criminals and false gods. Voting for any political party which has a policy of legislating a law is Kufr Akbar (a major apostasy) and will take you outside the fold of Islam. It will also nullify all your good deeds and guarantee your seat in hellfire for ever."

"From election launch to PR panic" (Dominic Casciani, BBC News, 2005/04/19)
"When a well-organised group of hecklers from a fringe, Islamist group stormed a general election event organised by the Muslim Council of Britain, it was a PR disaster the organisation could have done without.
In chaotic scenes, the young and angry demonstrators stormed into one of London's most prestigious mosques, denounced the MCB leadership, damned the prime minister as a devil and decreed that Muslims who voted committed crimes against their very being.
Iqbal Sacranie, the MCB chief well known for his easygoing manner, found himself slapped in the face. ...
Chairs were scattered as the group forced their way through to the press conference.
Fists punched the air to an Islamic chant and cameras shifted their focus from the suit-wearing MCB to the slightly scruffy bunch of men, some of whom were masked.
"We are here to condemn you for apostasy!" shouted the lead figure with a self-possessed, absolute certainty. "Those Muslims who vote are Kafir [unbelievers]. Vote today and become Kafir tomorrow!"
Mild-mannered Sher Khan, the MCB's chair of public affairs, tried to speak up, to no avail. The demonstrators screamed: "You are the mouthpiece of the British government! You are Kafir - go to hell fire!" ...
On the stairwell, a demonstrator slapped a leaflet on to the forehead of Mr Sacranie. His colleague followed that up with an open-handed and aggressive shove in the MCB chief's face. The blow forced Mr Sacranie's head onto the wall as he absorbed the blow." (See also: "Jewish MP pelted with eggs at war memorial" (Richard Alleyne, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/04/11))

BENEDICTUM XVI
(L'Osservatore Romano, 2005/04/19)
"Reproduction made available by the Vatican's newspaper 'L'Osservatore Romano' (The Roman Observer) of their front page announcing in Latin that German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has become the new Pope Banedict XVI, at the Vatican Tuesday April 19, 2005." (See also: "Issue for Cardinals: Islam as Rival or Partner in Talks" (Ian Fisher, The New York Times, 2005/04/12))

"Dear Diary" (Efraim Karsh, The New Republic, 2005/04/19)
A critique of Juan Cole: "Cole may express offense at the Protocols, but their obsession with the supposed international influence of "world Zionism" resonates powerfully in his own writings. How else can one describe his depiction of U.S. foreign policy as controlled by a ruthless Zionist cabal implanted at the highest echelons of the Bush administration and employing "sneaky methods of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of intelligence" to promote its goals? And what of Cole's claim that the pro-Israel lobby aipac, in alliance with the Christian Right, represents a sinister force controlling congressional decisions on policy toward Israel? "The Founding Fathers of the United States deeply feared that a foreign government might gain this level of control over a branch of the United States government, and their fears have been vindicated," Cole laments.
The chairman and CEO of this imaginary Zionist cabal is Israeli premier and Likud leader Ariel Sharon, whom Cole despises -- so much so that he cannot bring himself to refer to Sharon without resorting to the vilest invectives. He is the butcher of Beirut, a mafia don, war criminal, land grabber, starver of children, and so on. "Couldn't he shut his enormous pie hole[?]" Cole wonders of Sharon. ...
"[I]f Sharon and aipac decide that they need the US government to take military action against Iran," he ominously prophesied, "it is likely that the US government will do so." On another occasion, he speculated that the neocons had manipulated American forces in Iraq to try to capture the militant Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr "because he had objected so loudly to Sharon's murder of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the clerical leader of the Hamas Party." If you believe this, you'll believe anything. But perhaps that's what Cole has been banking on all along." (Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds. See also: "Arabists vs. the Middle East" (Michael J. Totten, michaeltotten.com, 2005/04/18))

"Make the UN Stand For Freedom" (Per Ahlmark, RealClear Politics, 2005/04/19)
"Is it reasonable to elect a pyromaniac to the board of a fire department? Of course not. So why is it that tyrannies like Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe are members of this Commission [on Human Rights]? Recent members also include Libya, Vietnam, Congo, and Syria – the Libyans were even elected chair-country. How can this be? ...
To prevent such vicious absurdities from continuing, the world’s democracies must unite to prevent any country that systematically violates human rights from being allowed to be a member of the Commission on Human Rights. ...
So the goal of all free countries should be that only other free countries are allowed seats on the Commission for Human Rights. Regimes that are “partly free” or “not free” should never be elected or appointed, for the only governments with the moral legitimacy to review and criticize human rights records are those that came to power through free elections and that can lose power when a new election defeats them. Those who have attained power through violence and fraud are not legitimate and should never more shame the UN by being members of this Commission. ...
Free peoples everywhere should remember that totalitarian forces and ideas cannot be defeated by being nice and accommodating. The Commission on Human Rights must rid itself of members that detest freedom. Otherwise, the sole UN agency that concentrates on freedom will be nothing more than a handmaiden to tyranny."

"Whither France?" (Barry Rubin, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/19)
"Just before the Iraq war, one of France's most impressive strategic analysts correctly predicted that the invading forces would find mass graves and other evidence of the terrible brutality of the Saddam Hussein regime. Can you imagine, he asked me, what will happen when this evidence comes out and French intellectuals demand to know why our government protected such a brutal dictatorship?
But that accounting has never taken place. Indeed, it says something about the nature of our current era that French President Jacques Chirac has managed to portray himself as an international hero while American President George W. Bush is widely seen as some sort of ravening beast. ...
Although Paris's policy often appeals to the Left it is really rather reactionary, oriented toward the preservation of the status quo for dictatorial rulers and the maximizing of financial benefits for itself. Indeed, the concepts of "progressive" and "humane" have been redefined basically to mean anything opposed to the policy or interests of the US.
One might think that propping up and protecting many of the world's most viciously repressive dictatorships would draw fire in a country with traditions like France's. Yet the reinvention of reactionary rulers as revolutionary heroes has worked very well for the French government. It appeals to France's growing Muslim minority too – but that was merely a side benefit, not the motivation for the policy."

"A Tenuous Mideast Spring" (Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, 2005/04/19)
"Lebanon, like much of the Middle East, seems to teeter between a historic political breakthrough and the restoration of a slightly modified status quo. "Is this the beginning of a spring of freedom, or will it be one of those desert mirages that the Middle East is known for?" asked the Egyptian opposition leader Saad Eddin Ibrahim. He answered: "It's not a mirage. But whether it's a full-fledged spring, I'm not sure." ...
"The plan for the Middle East that the Americans are selling is a plan the Lebanese have had for a long time," [Najib] Mikati told me as he prepared to form what he said would be a centrist government. "Now for the first time in our history we have the opportunity. And each of us has to ask ourselves, are we ready and capable to govern ourselves, yes or no?"
The Bush administration has been pushing hard for those elections, but as the situation grows cloudier so do U.S. interests. An "opposition" victory, after all, would empower not champions of human rights but many of the same warlords who fought the civil war. The Hezbollah movement, too, will gain strength -- and a new government is unlikely to press it to disarm its Islamic militia or withdraw the scores of missiles it has aimed at Israel.
That's not the outcome that many of the young people who joined the movement in Martyrs' Square imagined. "We wanted to sweep the old order away entirely," one thirtyish intellectual told me. 'Now it looks as if in the end, much of it will still be there.'"

"The Grim Reaper, Riding a Firetruck in Iraq" (Steve Fainaru, The Washington Post, 2005/04/19)
"HUSAYBAH, Iraq -- Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Butler shook himself from the rubble of a suicide truck bombing. He staggered to the ledge of his three-story guard tower and stared into a cloud of white smoke.
Butler, 21, of Altoona, Pa., was temporarily deafened by the blast, but he recalled what came next with cinematic clarity. The white smoke parted to reveal a clean red fire engine. It sped past a mural bidding travelers "Goodbye From Free Iraq" and hurtled directly toward Butler, who shot at the fire engine until it exploded about 40 yards away from him.
This true-life nightmare occurred on Monday last week. The attack on this remote Marine outpost abutting the Syrian border caused only minor injuries, but it signaled a dramatic change in the methods of the insurgents, who have staged mostly guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks against the U.S. military for two years."

"Moussaoui Planning To Admit 9/11 Role" (Jerry Markon, The Washington Post, 2005/04/19)
"Zacarias Moussaoui has notified the government that he intends to plead guilty to his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and could enter the plea as early as this week if a judge finds him mentally competent, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.
Moussaoui's plan to plead guilty comes over his attorneys' objections and still has several obstacles -- including Moussaoui's own whim. The French citizen, the only person charged in the United States in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, tried to plead guilty in 2002, claiming an intimate knowledge of the plane hijackings. But he rescinded his plea a week later. His mental state has been an issue in the case ever since, and U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria is scheduled to meet with Moussaoui this week to determine if he has the mental capacity to enter a plea now, the sources said."

Monday, April 18, 2005

News and commentary:

"When George met Salam" (Brian Wheeler, BBC News, 2005/04/18)
Salam Pax vs. George Galloway. Via USS Neverdock, who notes that The Scotsman reports on what the BBC leave out: "Challenged by Mr Pax that only 21% of Iraqis want US and UK troops out of their country, Mr Galloway said there was no point in engaging in discussion 'because you and I will never agree.'":
"'I know who you are,' said Mr Galloway, warily eyeing Mr Pax, whose weblog gave the world an insight into the lives of ordinary Iraqis in the run-up to the US-led invasion.
Mr Pax wanted to know why Mr Galloway wanted the immediate withdrawal of occupying troops from Iraq.
"I really don't think we are going to agree on this. You supported the war and I opposed it," said Mr Galloway.
"You welcomed the invasion of foreign armies into your country. I opposed it. So we are not going to agree on this, which is why I didn't think it would be productive to have a discussion with you and I do have to go now."
But Mr Pax - whose real name has never been revealed - pressed the point.
Galloway: "I just want to be honest with you. You can not demand that our armed forces occupy your country - that's a matter for us.
"It's not a matter for you - it's a matter for us. Now I think there are millions of people in this country who think the war was illegal, was wrong shouldn't have happened and should be immediately withdrawn from. We are entitled to that point of view and we are."
Mr Pax "shouldn't have supported" the war in the first place, added Mr Galloway.
But Mr Pax countered that would be tantamount to supporting the continuation of a regime like Saddam's."

"My name is wrongful quarry" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/04/18)
"The British theatre is doing its valiant bit to promote the propaganda of lies and hatred towards the Jewish state. ‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’, a dramatised version of the writings of the International Solidarity Movement activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in disputed circumstances while attempting to prevent the destruction of Palestinian houses, has received the kind of enthusiastic reviews one would expect from an intelligentsia which has almost universally inverted victim and murderer in the Arab war against Israel. The ISM have been, on the most charitable analysis, attempting to prevent Israel from taking the measures it deems necessary to protect its citizens from mass murder or, according to the less charitable interpretation, actively assisting the Palestinian homicide squads. Either way, to eulogise Rachel Corrie is the theatre of moral dementia. ...
The only discordant note in this sickening festival of humbug is sounded by Clive Davis in the Times:

'With no attempt made to set the violence in context, we are left with the impression of unarmed civilians being crushed by faceless militarists. Early on, Corrie makes a point of informing us that more Israelis have been killed in road accidents than in all the country’s wars put together. As she jots down thoughts in her notebook and fires off e-mails to her parents, she declares that “the vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance”. Even the late Yassir Arafat might have blushed at that one.'"

"Two Ibrahims and Two Women" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/04/18)
A report from the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Qatar:
"Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center in Cairo, is the moral and intellectual hero of the Egyptian civil society movement. His long imprisonment, trial, and eventual vindication — for the crime of monitoring Egypt's "elections" and of trying to take objective opinion polls — was in some ways the catalyst for the developments that are now occurring in his country. He described sitting in prison, partly kept from freezing by an embroidered coverlet that had arrived with a letter from Nelson Mandela (who knows how chilly jails can be, even in hot countries), and writing an open letter to Saddam Hussein telling him to resign for the good of the Iraqi people. This must have seemed quixotic at best at the time; the jailers certainly thought he was crazy. But last year in Qatar, Dr. Ibrahim helped promulgate the Manifesto of the Muslim Democrats, and this year, he says, he has seen more progress and more protest than it would then have been possible to imagine.
As we were chatting over coffee, an Iraqi passerby, not connected with the conference, came up to introduce himself. He was almost crying as he thanked Dr. Ibrahim for being one of the few Arab voices to have opposed Saddam from way back. "We shall never forget you. Our lives were meaningless. Happiness was impossible. We could not be human. Now our life is more risky but worth living." If these words were uttered by an outsider, they might sound trite, but I tell you that there is a tone of voice than cannot be faked."

"Peace 'Irreversible'; India, Pakistan Soften on Kashmir" (Terry Friel and Kamil Zaheer, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/18)
"NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Declaring their peace process irreversible, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan agreed Monday to open up the militarized frontier dividing Kashmir, capping a landmark visit to New Delhi by President Pervez Musharraf.
In a significant coming together, Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said they would work toward a "soft border" in Kashmir, opening meeting points for divided families and boosting trade, travel and cooperation across the frontier.
Reading a joint statement as he stood next to Musharraf, Singh said the two, "conscious of the historic opportunity created by the improved relations and the overwhelming desire of the peoples of the two countries for durable peace...determined that the peace process was now irreversible. ...
The three-day visit by the Delhi-born Musharraf was originally intended as an informal trip to watch Pakistan play India in cricket -- Pakistan won Sunday -- but effectively turned into a summit with Singh, born in what is now Pakistan."

"Black Slaves, Arab Masters" (Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/04/18)
An overview of jihad slavery: "The scale and scope of Islamic slavery in Africa are comparable to the Western trans-Atlantic slave trade to the Americas, and as Willis has observed (somewhat wryly), the former “…out-distances the more popular subject in its length of duration”. Quantitative estimates for the trans-Atlantic slave trade (16th through the end of the 19th century) of 10,500,000 (or somewhat higher), are at least matched (if not exceeded by 50%) by a contemporary estimate for the Islamic slave trade out of Africa. Professor Ralph Austen’s working figure for this composite of the trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean traffic generated by the Islamic slave trade from 650 through 1905 C.E., is 17,000,000. Moreover, the plight of those enslaved animist peoples drawn from the savannah and northern forest belts of western and central Africa for the trans-Saharan trade was comparable to the sufferings experienced by the unfortunate victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade."

"Terrorism Tempers Shift to Openness" (Scott Wilson and Daniel Williams, The Washington Post, 2005/04/18)
"Morocco and Kuwait, monarchies at opposite ends of the Arab world that have moved faster than many of their neighbors to adopt political reforms, offer case studies of how the simultaneous pursuit of democratic change and repression of terrorism has created new sources of tension and uncertainty. ...
Kuwait University's student union, the student government representing an enrolled population of about 18,000, is the largest fully democratic institution in the oil-gushing kingdom. Unlike in voting for the emirate's parliament, which is restricted to men 21 and older who are not soldiers or police officers, both men and women are eligible to vote and seek office in the student union.
The outcome is that student life at Kuwait University is dominated by a coalition of tradition-bound, sometimes anti-American Islamic groups that have harassed young women about their dress, forced the university to build expensive separate facilities for male and female students, split sections of the faculty into bitter ideological factions, and helped ignite a national debate about the risks and benefits of political liberalization.
Islamic groups rule not only the student union, but Kuwait's national teachers union, other professional associations and scores of charities and businesses. When these civic organizations have held elections during the last decade, Islamic groups frequently have swept to power." (See also: "A New Power Rises Across Mideast" (Scott Wilson and Daniel Williams, The Washington Post, 2005/04/17))

"Hostages will die unless Shia flee their homes, say terrorists" (Oliver Poole, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/04/18)
"Sunni Arabs who seized control of a town south of Baghdad have threatened to kill "hostages unless the area's Shia population abandon their homes and flee, Iraqi officials said yesterday.
The Iraqi army said armed groups were using loudspeakers to warn all Shia to leave within 24 hours.
The raid marked the first time since the US invasion that the terror tactic of "ethnic cleansing", familiar from the Balkans and Africa, has been deployed in Iraq. ...
The first indications of serious problems in Madain came on Thursday when an empty Shia mosque was damaged by an explosion.
Armed Sunni gangs took to the streets in pick-up trucks on Friday, reportedly seizing hostages and repulsing local police efforts to detain them. Over the weekend the Iraqi government said the town was no longer under its control.
Dozens of Shia families were said yesterday to be leaving for Kut to the south or Baghdad to the north." (See also: "Iraqis Dispute Reports of Hostage-Taking" (Caryle Murphy, The Washington Post, 2005/04/18): "Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers and police commandos, supported by U.S. military helicopters, maintained positions Sunday around the central Iraqi town of Madain, where residents disputed widespread reports that scores of Shiite Muslims were held hostage by Sunni extremists. In a search of homes on the outskirts of the town, Iraqi police found only three hostages, one of them Kurdish, Police Capt. Ahmad Kamal told a Washington Post special correspondent on the scene. "And they were kidnapped because they were working for Americans, not for the reason they were talking about," he added.")

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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