Archived news and commentary: April 25 - May 1, 2005

2005/04/25 - 2005/05/01
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

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, May 1, 2005

News and commentary:

"The academic ban - Nazi connection" (Yaakov Lappin, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/05/01)
"The Web site of Sue Blackwell, the Birmingham lecturer who presented motions calling for boycotts of Israeli universities, contains a recommended link to a Web site owned by an anti-Semitic neo-Nazi activist. Wendy Campbell, who owns the MarWen Media Web site, has promoted Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories discussing "unrivaled Jewish power," and maintains an additional Web site entitled "Exposing Israeli Apartheid," which is also linked by Blackwell.
MarWen Media, which is linked directly from Blackwell's Web site, advocates the views of Kevin Macdonald, an anti-Semitic pro-Nazi author, who has claimed Jews are responsible for a "breeding program" to conquer other "races."
Under the heading "Sue Blackwell's links on Israel and Palestine," Blackwell provides a link to the MarWen site, along with the following description: "MarWen Media offers the latest in groundbreaking documentaries, breaking through barriers and taboos that mainstream media – and even most alternative media do not venture." Blackwell writes that 'the documentaries, mostly about Israel, Zionism, and Palestine, are by Wendy Campbell; see her other site, Exposing Israeli Apartheid.'"

"The Bush Doctrine’s Next Test" (Victor Davis Hanson, Commentary, from the May 2005 issue)
"Specifically, the Bush administration is said to be guilty of gross inconsistency. While vigorously promoting the benefits of democracy for Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria, it has given a free pass to three regimes in particular that have long been regarded not as enemies but as key allies: Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, Pakistan in nearby South Asia. ...
Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia are not the equivalent of the Soviet Union’s satellite states of Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. Rather, they are the East Germany, Hungary, and Poland of the unfree Middle East: pivotal nations upon whose fate the entire future of the Bush Doctrine may well hinge. ...
Yet, in the explosive Middle East, doing nothing, which is essentially what realist advice amounts to, is no longer an option. For better or worse, now is hardly the time to let up on the pressure for democratic change. To the contrary, it is precisely the hour to increase such pressure wisely.
An obvious first step is to mark our distance from the three autocracies — indeed, we have already begun to do so, if with nowhere near the required consistency. With tact, American separation need not appear overtly punitive, nor need we gratuitously slander former allies even as we publicly prefer their internal voices of reform. Secretary Rice’s decision to avoid Egypt on her recent Middle East trip was what prompted Mubarak to pledge Egypt’s first multiparty presidential election later this year, and is a model of what can be done in the short term." (Hat tip: Malcolm Smordin.)

"The Visionary: Tales from the Wolfowitz era" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, from the 2005/05/09 issue)
A profile of Paul Wolfowitz: "For nearly a quarter century he warned about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. And for more than a decade he has advocated democracy for Iraq and the Middle East.
These ideas are no longer as controversial as they once were. When Wolfowitz, then a mid-level bureaucrat at the Defense Department, authored a paper in 1979 warning that Iraq was "the country most capable of undermining stability" in the Middle East, he did so at a time when the U.S. government was supporting Saddam Hussein. When Wolfowitz began to speak of the possibility of Islamic democracies throughout the region, his views were dismissed as utopian. ...
If, even after the successful elections of January 2005, the fragile Iraqi government fails, Wolfowitz -- fairly or unfairly -- will get much of the blame. But if Iraq succeeds, and if it continues to provide what Wolfowitz calls a "demonstration effect" for the region, he will rightly be able to claim credit. With the obvious exception of George W. Bush, no American policymaker has as much at stake in the future of Iraq as Paul Wolfowitz."

"Don't believe the lies about 'lies'" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2005/05/01)
"A few weeks ago, I made the case that the report of the Joint Intelligence Committee, as the Scott inquiry concluded, was consistent with the picture of Iraqi intentions and capabilities that Blair presented to parliament and the nation.
And now we have seen the Attorney General's advice from 7 March, which was widely leaked to the media as being a series of severe misgivings about the legality of war. In fact, it was nothing of the kind. To spin the advice, as many journalists have done, as showing that Goldsmith was saying that war 'could be illegal' is disingenuousness worthy of the slickest weasel. The advice shows, crucially, that the Attorney General thought that UN Resolution 1441 probably was permissive of military action against Iraq, without further decision of the Security Council.
That is the central point on which he disagreed with many (but by no means all) international lawyers. On 17 March, his judgment, firmed up by the government's assessment of Unscom's report on Iraqi non-compliance, and his reasons for coming to that judgment, was published in summary.
So where was the 'lie' about the advice? In practical terms, the answer hardly matters. Those who loathe Blair and do not care to be fair about this question will argue that he will get away with it in any case and will lament the moral turpitude of the British. But I regret the fact that most people will never know that there wasn't anything much to get away with, and that the words 'liar' and 'cheat' will remain in the popular consciousness, unexamined."

"The Way of the Commandos" (Peter Maass, The New York Times Magazine, 2005/05/01)
"In a country of tough guys, Adnan Thabit may be the toughest of all. He was both a general and a death-row prisoner under Saddam Hussein. He favors leather jackets no matter the weather, his left index finger extends only to the knuckle (the rest was sliced off in combat) and he responds to requests from supplicants with grunts that mean ''yes'' or ''no.'' Occasionally, a humble aide approaches to spray perfume on his hands, which he wipes over his rugged face.
General Adnan, as he is known, is the leader of Iraq's most fearsome counterinsurgency force. It is called the Special Police Commandos and consists of about 5,000 troops. They have fought the insurgents in Mosul, Ramadi, Baghdad and Samarra. It was in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, where, in early March, I spent a week with Adnan, himself a Sunni, and two battalions of his commandos. ...
Early one evening, I was sitting in his office when an officer entered with a click of his heels -- an Iraqi salute of sorts. He reported to Adnan that a rebel weapons cache had been discovered, and Adnan congratulated him -- but issued a warning. ''If even one AK-47 is stolen,'' he said, ''I will kill you.'' After a pause, he smiled and refined the threat. ''No,'' he said, ''I will kill your'' -- and he used a coarse word that referred to the officer's most private body part. There was nervous laughter. Everyone seemed certain that not a single gun, or single anything, would go missing."

"Bush, the Great Shiite Liberator" (Lee Smith, The New York Times, 2005/05/01)
"If one of the Bush administration's strategic goals was to shake up the established order in the Middle East, the formation of Iraq's new government last week was a raging success.
To be sure, any sort of democratic government in Iraq is groundbreaking. But after nearly 1,400 years of Sunni-dominated Islamic history, for a predominantly Shiite government to preside over an Arab state is utterly revolutionary.
Coming in the same week that the last Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, which is 40 percent Shiite, the developments in Iraq seemed likely to have repercussions that the Middle East will feel for some time to come - in ways that even the sagest observers cannot foresee.
In the Arab world, Shiites have largely been second-class citizens since A.D. 656, when Hussein, a grandson of Muhammad, was tortured and beheaded after a climactic battle with the Sunnis. That social order persisted through Mongol invasions, the Ottoman Empire and British occupation, until now."

"U.S. Report Clears G.I.'s in Death of Italian Agent" (Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Robert F. Worth, The New York Times, 2005/05/01)
"The car carrying the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena that was struck with a deadly hail of gunfire as it sped toward Baghdad International Airport on March 4 ignored warnings from American soldiers who used a spotlight, a green laser pointer and warning shots to try to stop it as it approached a checkpoint, the American military said in a report released Saturday evening.
The gunfire killed Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent who was in the back seat with Ms. Sgrena. The driver and Ms. Sgrena were wounded. Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, the ground commander in Iraq, has approved a recommendation that soldiers involved in the shooting not be disciplined, the military said.
The report's exoneration of the soldiers, which was made public last week, angered Italian officials and threatened to further inflame relations between the United States and Italy, one of its staunchest allies in the war in Iraq."

"Revealed: Iran’s nuclear factory" (Elahe Mohtasham, The Sunday Times, 2005/05/01)
"Elahe Mohtasham was given unique access to a plant that brought her face to face with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions":
Last week I became the first independent western academic analyst to gain access to the building where the UF6 is produced. ...
This provided a unique opportunity to assess what was happening at the heart of the nuclear programme as officials from Iran, Britain, France and Germany were preparing for talks in London to resolve a looming diplomatic crisis.
What I found was that thoughts of nuclear warheads appear to be far from the minds of the energetic young scientists. However, work at Esfahan has advanced further than published reports suggest. ...
At the end I asked how much UF6 had been made at Esfahan. The latest information published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose inspectors visit every three to four weeks, showed that 40-45kg had been produced by last June.
“The IAEA has been informed that in October three tonnes of UF6 were made,” said one of the scientists.
The information was highly significant: it proved that Iran has the capacity to produce UF6 on an industrial scale. Would it be able to make enough to feed 50,000 centrifuges planned for the Natanz enrichment plant, I asked? “Yes,” came the reply."

Saturday, April 30, 2005

News and commentary:

"Two Killed, Eight Injured in Two Cairo Attacks" (Tom Perry and Edmund Blair, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/30)
"CAIRO (Reuters) - A bomber and two veiled women attacked tourists in separate incidents that killed two people in Cairo on Saturday, targeting a museum and a tourist bus, official sources said.
An Egyptian man was killed and seven people injured near the museum in what Cairo's security chief said was a suicide attack.
In the other attack -- the first in living memory by women in Egypt -- the two veiled women opened fire on the bus in southern Cairo but missed, Cairo's Security Director Nabil el-Azabi said.
One of the women then shot dead the other and the second was wounded, possibly by herself, the official sources said.
Those injured in the bombing were three Egyptians, an Israeli couple, one Italian woman and a Swedish man, the official sources added. "They are in stable condition in hospital," said Tourism Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi.
Shortly afterwards, the two veiled woman opened fire at the bus on the Salah Salem highway, one of the main arteries through the south of the city.
The bombing near the museum, one of Egypt's most popular tourist destinations, was a suicide operation, Azabi said."

"The Arabization of Europe" (Mordechai Nisan, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/30)
A review of Bat Ye'or's "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis":
"For Bat Ye'or, Islamic jihad denies dhimmis their dignity and right to self-defense. A mental process evolves with the internalization of self-degradation by the dhimmi victims who, over time, deny themselves the right to even criticize Islam and Muslim policies. Instead, the dhimmis – European countries like France – symbolically pay the poll tax (jizya) in the currency of investments in the Arab world, diplomatic support for the Arab world, and by turning a blind eye to Islamic and Palestinian terrorism. In return for which Europe expects to be rewarded with security, business contracts and oil, while spared the wrath of Islam. ...
A profound psychological change has swept Europe. With the Palestinization of Jesus, Christianity is being Islamicized. European history is being sterilized by propagating the idyllic "Andalusian myth" of ancient Islamic tolerance and Muslim-Christian symbiosis in the Middle Ages. European politics have been hijacked by the Arabs, who have successfully bound a tired and battered continent to the Islamic jihad against Israel."

"The Autumn of the Autocrats" (Fouad Ajami, Foreign Affairs, from the May/June 2005 issue)
"The entrenched systems of control in the Arab world are beginning to give way. It is a terrible storm, but the perfect antidote to a foul sky. The old Arab edifice of power, it is true, has had a way of surviving many storms. It has outwitted and outlived many predictions of its imminent demise.
But suddenly it seems like the autumn of the dictators. Something different has been injected into this fight. The United States -- a great foreign power that once upheld the Arab autocrats, fearing what mass politics would bring -- now braves the storm. It has signaled its willingness to gamble on the young, the new, and the unknown. Autocracy was once deemed tolerable, but terrorists, nurtured in the shadow of such rule, attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Now the Arabs, grasping for a new world, and the Americans, who have helped usher in this unprecedented moment, together ride this storm wave of freedom."

"England to Plead Guilty in Abu Ghraib Abuse Case" (T.R. Reid and Josh White, The Washington Post, 2005/04/30)
"Pfc. Lynndie R. England, the woman seen holding an Iraqi prisoner on a leash in the iconic photo from the Abu Ghraib prison, will plead guilty to seven charges stemming from abuse of prisoners there, her attorney said yesterday.
With a general court-martial scheduled to begin Monday at Fort Hood, Tex., England agreed to a plea agreement yesterday, Rick Hernandez said. The deal will reduce the maximum sentence she faces to 11 years in prison. On Monday, he said, England will make a personal appeal to a military jury for a lighter sentence.
Army prosecutors agreed to drop two of nine charges against England, the lawyer said. If convicted on all the original charges, she could have faced 16 1/2 years in prison.
The 22-year-old Army reservist from rural Fort Ashby, W.Va., will plead to two counts of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of dereliction of duty, Hernandez said.
She will be the seventh enlisted soldier to face criminal penalties in the Abu Ghraib case. No commissioned officers at the prison, and no senior officer in the chain of command, has been charged."

"Muslim US sergeant is sentenced to death" (Alec Russell, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/04/30)
"An American sergeant has been sentenced to death for a fatal attack on fellow soldiers that was blamed on his religious extremism and hatred for the United States.
If the sentence is carried out, Sgt Hasan Akbar would be the first US soldier executed in more than four decades.
Two officers were killed and 14 soldiers wounded in the attack early on March 23, 2003, just before the start of the war against Iraq. The sergeant rolled grenades into troop tents in the northern Kuwait desert and then opened fire on soldiers. ...
According to the prosecution, he launched the attack the night before the unit moved into Iraq because he was concerned about Americans killing fellow Muslims.
"He is a hate-filled, ideologically driven murderer," said Lt Col Michael Mulligan, the chief prosecutor.
He attacked with "a cool mind" to achieve "maximum carnage", prosecutors said.
They highlighted an entry in a 1997 diary in which Akbar wrote: 'My life will not be complete unless America is destroyed.'" (See also: "American Held in U.S. Camp Attack" (Patrick McDowell, AP/The Washington Post, 2003/03/22))

Friday, April 29, 2005

News and commentary:

"Iraq Attacks Kill at Least 41; 3 GIs Die" (Thomas Wagner, AP/My Way, 2005/04/29)
"Insurgents unleashed a series of car bombings and other attacks across Iraq on Friday, killing at least 41 people, including three U.S. soldiers, and wounding dozens of people a day after the country's first democratically elected government was approved.
Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly threatened more violence in an audiotape on the Internet, warning President Bush the insurgents "will not rest until we avenge our dignity."
At least 11 car bombs exploded in and around Baghdad on Friday, including four suicide attacks in quick succession in the Azamiyah section of central Baghdad. ...
The audiotape purportedly from al-Zarqawi was posted Friday on a Web site known for carrying messages from Islamic militant groups. The speaker directly addressed Bush. ...
The audiotape urged al-Zarqawi's followers to step up their attacks on American soldiers, vowing to 'make swords drip with their blood.'"

"Anti-Semitism in East End election fight" (Yaakov Lappin, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/29)
"As the election campaign enters its final phase, the [London] mayor [Ken Livingstone] has been increasingly used as an icon by organizations hostile to Israel and Anglo Jewry, in order to spearhead a number of campaigns, some of which aim to mobilize Muslim voters. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a radical political pressure group dedicated to "exposing Zionist Members of Parliament," ran an article on its web site which defended Livingstone, entitled: "Zionists want their pound of flesh!"
Livingstone's actions have also inspired the Islamic Society at the University of London's School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) – which had attempted to ban Israeli speakers from campus – to make the mayor an "honorary president" of the students' union, in an "emergency meeting" which was later deemed illegal. ...
Ironically, however, Galloway himself is now in need of police protection, after receiving death threats from extremist Islamists, who are opposed to any Muslim participation in the British elections.
A Respect party launch event was raided earlier this month by masked Islamists, pledging allegiance to a group calling itself the "Saviour Sect." The militants are headed by Sheikh Omar Bakri, former head of the disbanded pro-al-Qaida group, al-Muhajiroun."

"Muslim Group in France Is Fertile Soil for Militancy" (Craig S. Smith, The New York Times, 2005/04/29)
"Raouf Ben Halima, 39, sleeps on his side, never on his stomach. He enters the bathroom leading with his left foot but puts his pants on leading with his right. Instead of using a fork when he eats, he uses his index finger, middle finger and thumb.
Mr. Halima is a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, or Preaching Party, a global army of Muslim missionaries helping to expand their religion and reinforce their faith. They believe that emulating the habits of the Prophet Muhammad is the surest way to restore Islam to its intended path.
So Mr. Halima and his associates shave their upper lips but let their beards grow. They wear their pants or robes above the ankle because the prophet said letting clothes drag on the ground is a sign of arrogance.
"Halfway between the knee and the ankle is best," Mr. Halima explains, sitting amid stacks of religious tracts in his small home.
His comments, made recently to a reporter during conversations about the growth of militant Islam, offered a rare window on the beliefs of a group that is unsettling to many here. The Tablighi are one of the primary forces spreading Islamic fundamentalism in Europe today, and many young Muslim men pass through the group on the way toward an extreme, militant interpretation of the religion."

"A Crucial Window for Iraq: 15 Weeks to Pull Together" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2005/04/29)
"The new government, with 17 ministries led by Shiites, 8 by Kurds, 6 by Sunni Arabs, and 1 by a Christian, faces a deadline of Aug. 15, to win parliamentary approval for a permanent constitution. That leaves 15 weeks - not much longer than the 12 weeks it took to form the Jaafari government - to settle issues on which Arabs and Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, religious politicians land secularists have potentially polarizing views.
Principally, these issues include the role of Islam, and whether future Shiite-led governments should be free to adopt Shariah law and other elements of conservative Islam; the division of powers and oil revenues between central and regional governments; and the geographical boundaries - especially the potentially explosive issue of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, claimed by Sunnis and Kurds alike - to be granted to the proud and wary Kurds.
Overshadowing these issues is the insurgency, and the particular challenges it poses for the Shiites who will dominate the government. The war has been driven by die-hard Hussein loyalists, unreconciled Baathists and Islamic militants, all Sunnis, for whom a Shiite majority government is anathema. Even American officials concede that the accession of the Jaafari government may harden militants' resolve to fight on.
The fact that almost a third of the 274 assembly members were absent from the vote on the new government spoke for the insurgents' power."

Thursday, April 28, 2005

News and commentary:

"Iraq's Parliament OKs a Partial Cabinet" (Qassim Abdul-Zahar, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/28)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - After nearly three months of political wrangling,
Iraq's interim National Assembly approved a partial Cabinet Thursday, ushering in the country's first elected government since the fall of
Saddam Hussein and raising hopes for an end to the insurgency.
However, the 37-member Cabinet still has two vacancies, five acting ministers and fails to incorporate in a meaningful way the Sunni Arab minority due to a dispute over the suitability of Baathists who served in Saddam Hussein's regime. The Sunnis are believed to be the driving force in the insurgency.
The historic decision also was made with a third of legislators in the 275-member National Assembly absent.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari told reporters that decisions over the vacant and acting Cabinet positions will be made in three to four days."

"College Coarse" (Efraim Karsh, The New Republic, 2005/04/28)
Karsh on the decision of the Association of University Teachers council to boycott two Israeli universities:
"Were the AUT truly concerned about declining standards and restricted academic freedoms in the Palestinian universities of the West Bank and Gaza, it would have addressed its grievances to the real culprit: the corrupt and oppressive Palestinian Authority that has been in control of these institutions for nearly a decade.
That instead of doing so the association chose to single out a vibrant democracy with a distinguished record on human rights and extraordinary scientific and scholarly achievements for academic boycott resonates of darker periods in European history in which Jews were ostracized and denied free access to institutions of higher learning. Only now it is the Jewish State of Israel, rather than individual Jews, that is singled out for ostracism.
Academic discourse is about the free flow of ideas and the building of bridges, not exclusion and segregation, let alone on the bigoted grounds of religion, race, or nationality. The majority of AUT members must now resist the hijacking of their professional association for the political agenda of a small group of militant fanatics. Otherwise, this will not have been our finest hour, to say the least." (See also: "Why Israel will always be vilified" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2005/04/24) and "The monstrous regiment of university teachers" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/04/06))

"Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East" (Bernard Lewis, Foreign Affairs/RealClear Politics, from the May/June 2005 issue)
"Despite these difficulties, there are signs of hope, notably the Iraqi general election in January. Millions of Iraqis went to polling stations, stood in line, and cast their votes, knowing that they were risking their lives at every moment of the process. It was a truly momentous achievement, and its impact can already be seen in neighboring Arab and other countries. Arab democracy has won a battle, not a war, and still faces many dangers, both from ruthless and resolute enemies and from hesitant and unreliable friends. But it was a major battle, and the Iraqi election may prove a turning point in Middle Eastern history no less important than the arrival of General Bonaparte and the French Revolution in Egypt more than two centuries ago.
The creation of a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increasing signs that it has already begun. At the present time there are two fears concerning the possibility of establishing a democracy in Iraq. One is the fear that it will not work, a fear expressed by many in the United States and one that is almost a dogma in Europe; the other fear, much more urgent in ruling circles in the Middle East, is that it will work. Clearly, a genuinely free society in Iraq would constitute a mortal threat to many of the governments of the region, including both Washington's enemies and some of those seen as Washington's allies."

"Lebanon's Hope" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2005/04/28)
Withdrawal II: "With just four days be fore the deadline set by the United Na tions' Security Council was to expire, Syria completed its military withdrawal from Lebanon this week, ending an occupation that had began almost 30 years ago.
The event, a setback for President Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime, is a major victory for pro-reform forces in both Lebanon and Syria.
In Lebanon, the pro-reform movement has already scored a number of victories. It has brought down a Syrian-appointed prime minister, forced the creation of a neutral caretaker Cabinet and quashed attempts at postponing next month's election. The opposition has also forced the authorities to accept an international investigation of the February assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
More importantly, perhaps, the anti-Syrian coalition has also succeeded in preventing the passage of a new electoral law designed to gerrymander many constituencies to give the anti-democratic parties an automatic majority in the next parliament.
The ending of the Syrian military occupation is also a major success for international diplomacy. The United States, the European Union, the Arab states and the United Nations worked together in an unprecedented show of unity."

"Back to Syria -- And Beyond" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/04/28)
Withdrawal I: "Lebanon and Syria now offer two new fronts in the broader battle for political change in the Arab world. In Lebanon, U.S. and European aid will be crucial in keeping a fractious coalition together through next month's elections. A new Lebanon would be a model for the secular, multi ethnic democracy that is proving so difficult to establish in Iraq. But without a strong Lebanese army (which the French and other Europeans could help train) and a gradual disarmament of the Shiite militia Hezbollah, this new Lebanon will be stillborn.
What's ahead in Syria is even more intriguing. Intelligence analysts aren't sure whether Assad is an inept bungler or really has a plan for change in Syria and will use the Lebanon disaster as an opportunity. A big conference of the Baath Party is scheduled for June, and Syrians say Assad has been signaling that he will use it to end one-party rule and allow greater freedom. Is Assad sincere about these changes? Is he politically powerful enough to pull them off? Fasten your seat belts for the next wild ride on the Middle East roller coaster."

"Iraqi Unit Brings Calm To a Rebel Stronghold" (Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post, 2005/04/28)
"A former Iraqi National Guard (ING) unit that U.S. officers consider one of the most capable units in the Iraqi army, the 302nd formally took charge early this year in Haifa, part of a growing swath of central Baghdad being turned over to Iraqi forces. ...
In 15 months of street fighting here, the 1,000-man battalion has lost 26 men to assassinations, suicide bombings and block-by-block combat, a higher fatality rate than the U.S. military has suffered here or in all of Iraq. But in recent weeks, attacks have fallen off sharply. Insurgents still sometimes throw grenades down narrow alleys at the soldiers or fire a few rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle and run. But they're attempting little else here, at least for now."

Added in archive:
"Religious extremists an insult to our values" (Pamela Bone, The Age, 2005/04/14)

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

News and commentary:

"Iraqi MP Killed; No Government Announced" (Michael Georgy, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/27)
"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen assassinated an Iraqi woman member of parliament Wednesday in a fresh shock to politicians whose failure to form a government three months after elections has allowed violence to thrive unchecked.
Iraqi police said Lame'a Abed Khadawi, a member of caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party, was shot dead outside her house in eastern Baghdad. She is the first person in the 275-seat National Assembly to be killed.
Allawi himself survived a suicide car bomb attack on his convoy this month. ...
Iraq's al Qaeda wing said it had killed two Interior Ministry officials in an ambush on their car in west Baghdad on Wednesday, according to an Internet statement.
The group said it had killed Lieutenant Jihad La'eebee, his son, who was also an Interior Ministry official, and three bodyguards. The statement could not be immediately authenticated."

"U.S. Figures Show Sharp Global Rise In Terrorism" (Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, 2005/04/27)
"The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last year, according to U.S. government figures, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks that the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on terrorism due to Congress this week.
Overall, the number of what the U.S. government considers "significant" attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides who were briefed on statistics covering incidents including the bloody school seizure in Russia and violence related to the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir.
Terrorist incidents in Iraq also dramatically increased, from 22 attacks to 198, or nine times the previous year's total -- a sensitive subset of the tally, given the Bush administration's assertion that the situation there had stabilized significantly after the U.S. handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government last summer."

"US at least seizes Zarqawi's laptop" (Peter Grier and Faye Bowers, The Christian Science Monitor, 2005/04/27)
"The United States military has not yet managed to catch Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top Al Qaeda-linked terrorist in Iraq. But they have perhaps snagged the next best thing: his laptop.
In today's Internet world even a brutal terror figure apparently carries his life on a personal electronic device. A February raid by a covert US military unit came so close to Zarqawi that he fled from the vehicle in which he was traveling on foot, leaving his computer behind, say government sources.
On the hard drive was everything from information about Zarqawi's medical condition to pictures of himself, kept in a file labeled "My Pictures."
"His computer ... has provided a treasure trove of information," says a Pentagon official who asked to remain nameless."

"Last Syrian Troops Pull Out of Lebanon" (Sam F. Ghattas, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/27)
"MASNAA, Lebanon - Syria's last soldier in Lebanon walked across the border Tuesday, welcomed home with cheers and flowers after a modest farewell from the Lebanese, a quiet end to a once indomitable 29-year military presence that was the key to Damascus' control of its neighbor. ...
The two dozen or so Lebanese who stood at the border were less charitable as they watched the last 250 Syrians leave — remnants of a one-time mighty force of 40,000 that ran the country virtually unchallenged since arriving as peacekeepers in 1976.
"I feel like someone who was suffocated and jailed and has finally emerged from jail," said Shaaban al-Ajami, mayor of the Lebanese border village of Majdal Anjar.
"We don't want to say goodbye. We are happy to see them leave," said Hussein Mansour, 27, who stood at the border holding the lone Lebanese flag."

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

News and commentary:

"Lebanese civilians celebrate and dance..."
(Jamal Saidi, Reuters, 2005/04/26)
"Lebanese civilians celebrate and dance after the last Syrian troops crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border At Masnaa in the Bekaa valley April 26, 2005. Syria pulled its last troops and intelligence agents ending three decades of domination over Lebanon. Lebanon's Syrian-installed security apparatus showed signs of crumbling with the resignation of the country's most powerful security chief Jamil Al-Sayyed yesterday."

"Debacle" (Norm Geras, normblog, 2005/04/26)
"Blogging from where I am, I only get to certain things late in the (UK) day, if I get to them at all. But I won't pass up the brief chance I have to comment on the piece of muck by Richard Gott published in today's Guardian. ...
In connection with Tony Blair's alleged criminality Gott makes reference to 'history's hall of infamy'. Well, he and the rest of his present-day ilk are set fair to join that very hall in their own right: those senior figures on what once saw and represented itself as a new, democratic, anti-Stalinist left, but who have lately caved in and gone politically berserk; people who have been on the wrong side of nearly all, or indeed all, of the key international conflicts since the first Gulf War, resolutely anti-American and ready in this with cheap and grotesque Hitler-Nazi references, but somehow a little bit less resolute in what their alignment might mean with respect to the likely future of the most noxious movements and lethal regimes there are; 'democrats' in everything except a proper recognition of the democracy that exists in the US and other Western nations, and of what the absence of democracy means for those peoples for whom it is in fact - daily, ruinously - absent; loud denouncers of the abuses and crimes or alleged crimes of the US, or the UK, or Israel, but more tactful and tactical in relation to other and much worse; people for whom George W. Bush is a more hated figure than Saddam Hussein or anyone else is or was, and for whom the discontinuation of that monster's rule in Iraq today seems to be of less importance morally than the failure to find WMD there or an 'international law' to which many of them have never shown any visible attachment hitherto." (See also: "The prime minister is a war criminal" (Richard Gott, The Guardian, 2005/04/26))

"Freed Iraq Hostage Says U.S. Report Insults Italy" (Paul Holmes, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/26)
A former hostage saved by an Italian agent killed when U.S. troops in Iraq opened fire on their car branded a report clearing the soldiers of blame a "slap in the face for the Italian government" Tuesday. ...
A U.S. Army official, briefing reporters in Washington on the preliminary results of the investigation, said Monday that the soldiers had followed their rules of engagement and should therefore face no charges of dereliction of duty.
The probe was conducted jointly with the Italians but the Army official said Italy, a close ally in Iraq, had balked at endorsing the report. Rome disagreed with its findings on the car's speed and whether the Italians kept U.S. troops informed. ...
Sgrena, a veteran war correspondent for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, said the findings were even more disappointing than she had expected, given the Americans had initially called the shooting an accident.
"Now they're not even talking about an accident, at least according to the reports, but it seems they want to lay all the blame on the Italians," Sgrena told TG3 television.
'This represents a slap in the face for the Italian government.'"

"U.S. Likely to Clear GIs in Iraq Shooting" (John J. Lumpkin, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/04/26)
"American soldiers who shot and killed an Italian intelligence officer in a friendly fire incident in Baghdad generally followed instructions for dealing with potential threats, a U.S. investigation is expected to conclude.
But the probe into the March 4 shooting is also expected to raise concerns about the rules of engagement at a Baghdad checkpoint, a senior U.S. defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been finished. ...
According to Italian news reports, Italian officials disagreed with the U.S. findings and were refusing to sign it. Ben Duffy, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Rome, said the United States was still hoping for a combined report."

"Lebanon heads down road to democracy as Syrians go home" (Nicholas Blanford, The Times, 2005/04/26)
"SYRIAN troops complete their withdrawal from Lebanon today, ending almost 30 years of occupation and paving the way for the country’s first free and fair elections in a generation.
Positions were bulldozed and checkpoints dismantled as the last tanks and artillery guns were removed for the short trip home. Lorries filled with troops and equipment belched black diesel smoke as they ground up the hills of the eastern Bekaa. Green military buses festooned with Syrian flags and portraits of President Assad ferried soldiers across the border.
A monument dedicated to Syrian soldiers who died in Lebanon’s wars will be unveiled at a ceremony this morning in the Bekaa Valley town of Rayak formally marking an end to Syria’s military presence.
With almost all Syrian troops gone from Lebanon, Rustom Ghazale, the head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, the mukhabarat, has vowed to be the last soldier to leave. Once his vehicle crosses the border at Masnaa today, the military road connecting the two countries will be closed."

"Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms" (Dana Priest, The Washington Post, 2005/04/26)
"U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site (http://www.gpo.gov), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics." (See also: "Comprehensive Revised Report with Addendums on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (Duelfer Report)" (GPO Access, 2005/04/25))

Monday, April 25, 2005

News and commentary:

"President Bush greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch..."
(Gerald Herbert, AP, 2005/04/25)
"President Bush greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch in Crawford, Texas Monday, April 25, 2005. President Bush is seeking relief from record-high gas prices and support for Middle East peace as he opens his Texas ranch to Abdullah. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer."

"Putin calls Soviet Union's breakup 'catastrophe'" (CBC News, 2005/04/25)
"MOSCOW - The collapse of the Soviet Union was "the greatest political catastrophe of the last century," Russian president Vladimir Putin said Monday as he delivered his annual state of the nation address.
The former KGB agent said the 1991 breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a "true drama" that left tens of millions of Russian people living outside Russia, in breakaway republics formerly under Soviet control.
"The epidemic of destruction extended even to Russia itself," he told the country's two houses of parliament, saying personal savings were wiped out and "old ideals" were destroyed.
Putin has come in for international criticism recently over what some see as a rollback in press and judicial freedom, as well as democratic rights.
His nostalgia for a time of superpower glory in which secret police spied on their fellow citizens and thousands were imprisoned for seeking reforms has also raised eyebrows.
But in Monday's speech, Putin said Russia's main goal now is to develop a free and democratic society, though he clarified that it would be a democracy based on Russian traditions instead of Western ideals." (See also: "Putin address to nation: Excerpts" (BBC News, 2005/04/25): "The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. And for the Russian people, it became a real drama. Tens of millions of our citizens and compatriots found themselves outside the Russian Federation...")

"Official: Zarqawi Eludes Capture; Computer Discovered" (ABC News, 2005/04/25)
"Jordanian rebel Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — Iraq's most wanted fugitive — recently eluded capture by American troops, but left behind a treasure trove of information, a senior military official told ABC News.
On Feb. 20, the alleged terror mastermind was heading to a secret meeting in Ramadi, just west of Fallujah, where he used to base his operations, the official said. ...
What the task force did find in the vehicle confirmed suspicions that Zarqawi had just escaped. The official said Zarqawi's computer and 80,000 euros (about $104,000 U.S.) were discovered in the truck.
Finding the computer, said the official, "was a seminal event." It had "a very big hard drive," the official said, and recent pictures of Zarqawi. The official said Zarqawi's driver and a bodyguard were taken into custody.
The senior military official said that they have since learned Zarqawi jumped out of the vehicle when it passed beneath an overpass, presumably to avoid detection from the air, and hid there before running to a safe house in Ramadi."

"The forgotten Rachels" (Tom Gross, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/25)
Gross on the play "My Name Is Rachel Corrie", which opened this month at the Royal Court Theatre:
"'Corrie was murdered after joining a non-violent Palestinian resistance organization,' writes Emma Gosnell in the Sunday Telegraph ("murdered" is a term even Corrie's staunchest defenders have hesitated to use up to now).
Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph talks of "Corrie's concern for suffering humanity...one leaves the theatre mourning not only Rachel Corrie but also one's own loss of the idealism and reckless courage of youth."
In one of the most astonishing comments, Michael Billington, the Guardian's critic, writes of the play: "The danger of right-on propaganda is avoided." ...
Rachel Corrie's death was undoubtedly tragic. But ultimately, this play isn't really about Corrie, but about fomenting hatred of Israel. The production is now sold out and there is talk of it being staged in America. The Royal Court is also rushing out a printed edition of the play to give to schools." (See also: "My name is wrongful quarry" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/04/18))

"A dying lion that can still do harm" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/04/25)
"Anti-Semitism, which has become pervasive among Britain's aristocracy and the chattering classes in the media, culture and academia, is a sign of Britain's steep and steady slide into nihilistic self-destruction. Their animus toward Israel and toward Jews who refuse to denounce the Jewish state has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with them. They are fully aware of the threats posed by the international jihad; but rather than fight it they have tried to appease it by at once denying its danger, obsessively embracing Palestinian terrorists and calling for Israel's destruction. They do this even as the jihadis in their own country make it clear that they are unappeasable.
There is nothing Israel can do to stem Britain's decline. All we can do is keep our distance from that self-destructive society which, like a dying lion, can still do us great harm if we let it get close to us." (See also: "Why Israel will always be vilified" (David Aaronovitch, The Observer, 2005/04/24))

"Battle for Egypt's Future" (Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, 2005/04/25)
"CAIRO -- Ayman Nour, the liberal Egyptian opposition politician whose jailing early this year has made him the leading challenger to President Hosni Mubarak, recently tried to launch his campaign for September's presidential election by knocking on doors. Police stopped him, telling him he didn't have permission. He tried to stage a conference for 1,500 of his supporters. A fire set by pro-government thugs forced the temporary clearing of the hall. When that failed to stop the meeting, the electricity was cut off.
It gets worse. Nour says he has been served with a court order mandating demolition of a community center he has maintained in the Cairo neighborhood of Bab al Shariya, his political base. Pro-government newspapers have reported that his penthouse apartment also will be demolished. One weekly paper that recently began appearing alongside Nour's party organ at newsstands published an article detailing how the 40-year-old parliamentarian might be assassinated: A sniper, it predicted, would open fire on his car.
Then there is the continuing criminal case, which almost everyone outside Mubarak's government, and some inside it, regards as blatantly political. A trial date has been set for June 28, and Nour says the case has been assigned to a notorious Egyptian security court judge. That judge is known for his closeness to Mubarak and for the seven-year sentence he imposed four years ago on another liberal dissident, Saad Eddin Ibrahim. "I lie in bed at night thinking that either I'm going to end up in jail or I'm going to be killed," a visibly anxious Nour told me last week. 'To say the least, this campaign has gotten off to a very bad start.'"

 

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Articles of the week

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

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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