Archived news and commentary: May 9 - 15, 2005

2005/05/09 - 2005/05/15
2005/05/02 - 2005/05/08
2005/04/25 - 2005/05/01
2005/04/18 - 2005/04/24
2005/04/11 - 2005/04/17
2005/04/04 - 2005/04/10

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, May 15, 2005

News and commentary:

"Activists of Pakistani religious group Pasban-e-Sahaba..."
(Tariq Mahmoud, AFP, 2005/05/15)
"Activists of Pakistani religious group Pasban-e-Sahaba burn a US flag during an anti-US demonstration in Peshawar, staged to condemn the alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book of Koran by US soldiers at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. The US magazine whose story of alleged desecration of a Koran holy book sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries said that its report might have been wrong."

"The Press’ Abu Ghraib: Newsweek Apologizes, After 15 People Are Dead" (Austin Bay, austinbay.net, 2005/05/15)
Newsweek II: "History may see Newsweek’s fatal “Koran flushing” story as the US press’ Abu Ghraib.
Under any circumstances, Newsweek’s flagrant, tragic error is an error a long-time-coming. The magazine’s “apology” doesn’t begin to account for the damage. ...
But why might this be the press’ Abu Ghraib? Here’s the connection: globe-girdling technology has once again amplified foolish behavior, lack of professionalism, and disregard for consequences into a tragedy. Consider Abu Ghraib, without the fevered hyperbole of The Nation or The Guardian. The behavior of US troops at the prison was inexcuseable – frat rat hazing, trailer trash porn, street punk threat taken up ten quanta to felony prisoner abuse. But dump the hyperbole and call Abu Ghraib what it was: rank felony abuse, not deadly torture. The global dissemination of Lynndie England’s dog leash photos, etc., (and magnification of the abuse by anti-American critics) made Abu Ghraib the political and historical scar it is. The US soldiers committed a crime, but information technology made the crime an international fiasco. ...
There’s a war going on, a global war, and Newsweek acts like it’s trying to “Get Nixon.” (Heck, the Washington Post owns Newsweek, and the Post’s halcyon was Watergate.) The problem is not simply a reporter’s mistake but editorial ignorance of the global information grid."

"Newsweek says Koran desecration report is wrong" (David Morgan, Reuters/My Way, 2005/05/15)
Newsweek I: "Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.
Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.
On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.
"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday." (See also: "The Editor's Desk" (Mark Whitaker, Newsweek, from the 2005/05/23 issue))

"The Mystery of the Insurgency" (James Bennet, The New York Times, 2005/05/15)
"The insurgents in Iraq are showing little interest in winning hearts and minds among the majority of Iraqis, in building international legitimacy, or in articulating a governing program or even a unified ideology or cause beyond expelling the Americans. They have put forward no single charismatic leader, developed no alternative government or political wing, displayed no intention of amassing territory to govern now.
Rather than employing the classic rebel tactic of provoking the foreign forces to use clumsy and excessive force and kill civilians, they are cutting out the middleman and killing civilians indiscriminately themselves, in addition to more predictable targets like officials of the new government. ...
"Instead of saying, 'What's the logic here, we don't see it,' you could speculate, there is no logic here," said Anthony James Joes, a professor of political science at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and the author of several books on the history of guerrilla warfare. The attacks now look like "wanton violence," he continued. "And there's a name for these guys: Losers."
"The insurgents are doing everything wrong now," he said. "Or, anyway, I don't understand why they're doing what they're doing."
Steven Metz, of the Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, said the insurgency could still be sorting itself out. Yet, he said, 'It really is significant that even two years in there hasn't been anything like any kind of political ideology or political spokesman or political wing emerging. It really is a nihilistic insurgency.'"

"Some Sunnis Hint at Peace Terms in Iraq, U.S. Says" (Steven R. Weisman and John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2005/05/15)
"The Bush administration, struggling to cope with a recent intensification of insurgent violence in Iraq, has received signals from some radical Sunni Arab leaders that they would abandon fighting if the new Shiite majority government gave Sunnis more political power, administration officials said this week.
The officials said American contacts with what they called "rejectionist" elements among Sunni Arabs - the governing minority under Saddam Hussein, which has generated the insurgency, and largely boycotted January's elections - showed that many wanted to participate in the political system, including the writing of a permanent constitution. ...
Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who was an adviser to the American occupation last year, working in the Green Zone with L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the occupation authority, said in an interview that those who might be willing to negotiate include some leading Sunni religious figures, as well as tribal Sunni tribal leaders and former officials in Mr. Hussein's ruling Baath Party who aspire to "reconstruct a kind of neo-Baath Party purged of Saddam's influence."
"Many of these elements have been signaling for a long time that they're ready to participate if they can be given a clear place in the system," Mr. Diamond said. By boycotting the election, he added, 'they shot themselves in the foot, but they're still knocking on the door.'"

"'Martyrs' In Iraq Mostly Saudis" (Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, 2005/05/15)
"Who are the suicide bombers of Iraq? By the radicals' account, they are an internationalist brigade of Arabs, with the largest share in the online lists from Saudi Arabia and a significant minority from other countries on Iraq's borders, such as Syria and Kuwait. The roster of the dead on just one extremist Web site reviewed by The Washington Post runs to nearly 250 names, ranging from a 13-year-old Syrian boy said to have died fighting the Americans in Fallujah to the reigning kung fu champion of Jordan, who sneaked off to wage war by telling his family he was going to a tournament.
Among the dead are students of engineering and English, the son of a Moroccan restaurateur and a smattering of Europeanized Arabs. There are also long lists of names about whom nothing more is recorded than a country of origin and the word "martyr." ...
In a paper published in March, Reuven Paz, an Israeli expert on terrorism, analyzed the lists of jihadi dead. He found 154 Arabs killed over the previous six months in Iraq, 61 percent of them from Saudi Arabia, with Syrians, Iraqis and Kuwaitis together accounting for another 25 percent. He also found that 70 percent of the suicide bombers named by the Web sites were Saudi." (See also: "The Face of Iraqi Terrorism" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2005/03/04))

"Bin Laden henchman 'seriously wounded'" (Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, The Sunday Times, 2005/05/15)
"Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been seriously wounded, according to a doctor who claims to have treated him last week.
The doctor told an Iraqi reporter in the western city of Ramadi that Zarqawi was bleeding heavily when he was brought into hospital on Wednesday. After treating his wounds the doctor tried to persuade him to remain, but the Jordanian-born terrorist’s minders drove him away.
The claim was supported yesterday by a senior commander in the Iraqi resistance who had been to Ramadi to investigate the report. The doctor, who refused to specify the nature of the wounds and asked not to be identified, was detained by the Americans on Friday for questioning, residents said."

Saturday, May 14, 2005

News and commentary:

"'We Must Declare War on Islamist Propaganda'" (Der Spiegel, 2005/05/14)
An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
"SPIEGEL: The murderer [of Theo Van Gogh] left behind a death threat against you, a five-page letter stuck to Van Gogh's chest with a knife.
Hirsi Ali: I didn't find out about that until two days later. From then on my life was turned upside down. The police moved me from place to place, first to a navy barracks, then to a police academy, and from there to a resting room in the offices of the minister for Europe.
SPIEGEL: What did you feel during those days?
Hirsi Ali: I felt stunned. Only now has it become clear to me how concrete and deadly the threat is. But I also understood that this fatwa isn't just directed against me, but against Holland, against the entire Western world. We are all targets. In the eyes of radical Muslims, any country in which Muslims can be criticized openly is an enemy of Islam. ...
SPIEGEL: So now you are once again working as a member of parliament, giving interviews and publishing. Your book "I Accuse" will appear in Germany on Wednesday. Has your life returned to normal?
Hirsi Ali: Normal? I am guarded 24 hours a day. My bodyguards are always with me, everywhere I go. There are two bedrooms in my apartment, one for me, and the other for two bodyguards who take turns sleeping. Whenever I open my door, the door to the other bedroom opens and they check to see what's going on. ...
SPIEGEL: Now you are beginning to sound like a martyr yourself. The September 11 terrorists also died for an idea.
Hirsi Ali: I would like to draw a distinction there. If we all keep still and remain silent, there will be more than just one or two deaths. I prefer to follow the philosopher Karl Popper. He says that freedom is not to be taken for granted. It is vulnerable. One must fight for it and be willing to die for it. The Islamic scene is very aggressive. Those Muslims who wish to kill someone receive a great deal of support from their home countries. There is plenty of wealth, there are plenty of sponsors and there are plenty of desperate people who choose this path. We must defend ourselves if we wish to preserve our Western values. The price we pay is to be threatened." (See also: "Daughter of the Enlightenment" (Christopher Caldwell, The New York Times Magazine, 2005/04/03)

"It may be Europe's most liberal city - but if you are gay, you had best beware" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2005/05/14)
"When the editor of one of America’s leading gay magazines visited the world’s gay capital a fortnight ago, he assumed that he would be safe.
But as Chris Crain, editor of the Washington Blade, was walking hand in hand with his boyfriend near one of the gay districts in Amsterdam, two men standing on a street corner spat at his face. He stopped to ask why, was called a “fag” and suddenly the two youths turned into seven.
Surrounded, Mr Crain was kicked to the ground by the gang and ended up in hospital with a broken nose and badly bruised face.
His attackers were Moroccan youths, blamed by Dutch gay rights groups for a disturbing rise of gay-bashing, as conservative Islamic culture clashes with Dutch liberalism.
For the first time, the Amsterdam Tourist Board has issued a warning to gay visitors to be careful in the city. In the first country to legalise homosexual marriage, gays are increasingly fearful of holding hands in public. Some have been chased out of their houses and middle-class gays are moving to rural areas for safety. ...
Herman Terbalkt, of the Amsterdam Tourist Board, said: “Gay visitors should be careful and alert. Some people in Amsterdam are not tolerant of other people. It is a social problem.” ...
“In the last three or four years, we’ve seen an increase in gay people reporting incidents (of aggression against them) by members of minority groups,” said a spokesman for Amsterdam’s Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, quoted in the Amsterdam Weekly newspaper.
COC Nederland, the Dutch gay rights organisation, which led the struggle for acceptance, said that the tolerant climate was 'slipping away like sand through the fingers.'" (See also: "The New 1930s In Europe" (Bruce Bawer, andrewsullivan.com, 2005/05/09) and "Looking hate in the face" (Chris Crain, Washington Blade, 2005/05/03))

"'Free Muslims Against Terrorism' march draws few in Washington" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/05/14)
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - A march in the US capital organized by the Free Muslims Against Terrorism group, whose members seek to promote democracy while rejecting the use of radical Islam, drew only a few dozen supporters.
"Our numbers might not be big today but our hearts are, and we are not going to give up," said Kamal Nawash, president of the group, who promised bigger crowds at next year's demonstration.
The group claims to gather together 'American Muslims and Arabs of all backgrounds who feel that religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9/11 era.'" (See also: "Muslims' Unheralded Messenger" (Don Oldenburg, The Washington Post, 2005/05/13))

"'High death toll' in Uzbekistan" (BBC News, 2005/05/14)
"Thousands of protesters have reappeared on the streets of Andijan in Uzbekistan despite heavy bloodshed on Friday.
President Islam Karimov blamed the violence on Islamic extremist "criminals". He said about 10 soldiers, and "many others", were killed.
However, witnesses said troops opened fire on unarmed civilians. Some said they had seen at least 200 bodies. ...
The violence erupted after days of peaceful protest in the eastern city of Andijan, against the imprisonment of 23 local business leaders accused of Islamic extremism.
A mob reportedly seized arms from a local garrison, before raiding the prison where the men were held and freeing them, along with thousands of other inmates.
They also took control of administrative buildings in the city and took government workers hostage, according to reports.
Just before dusk, troops moved in and opened fire on the crowds in the city square.
Men, women and children fled in panic. One woman spoke of "indiscriminate firing", and said she saw "bloody corpses" lying in a ditch." (See also: "Nine Dead, 34 Wounded in Uzbekistan Clashes" (Bagila Bukharbayeva, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/05/13))

"Stigma of life in 'Traitors' Village'" (Tim Butcher, BBC News, 2005/05/14)
"In Gaza, a community of Arabs accused of collaborating with Israel live under Israeli protection. Tim Butcher has been to visit the place known as the 'Traitors' Village.'":
"The sheikh and the 350 other Arabs who live in this tiny, dusty corner of Gaza, Palestinian land occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, have to be protected by the Jewish state.
In the eyes of many Palestinians, the village of Dahaniya is "the village of traitors'".
Arabs who helped the Jewish state have ended up here, corralled together in a sort of dusty witness protection programme. ...
Earlier this year, Palestinians elsewhere in the occupied territories meted out justice to a convicted Arab collaborator.
In front of a large crowd, Muhammad Mansour was beaten, shot at close range in the side of the head and then the mother of one of the men he betrayed was then called forward to stab his lifeless corpse and pluck out his eyes.
It was a display of Old Testament-style brutality and I wondered if it might one day be applied to the villagers of Dahaniya." (Hat tip: Melanie Phillips.)

"A crime that cannot be forgiven" (Sara Berger, Philadelphia Inquirer, 2005/05/14)
"Some things are unforgivable. What Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his many accomplices did to my brother Nick is unforgivable. It was not an act of war; it was a cold-blooded, premeditated heinous crime. To call it anything else suggests that it is an acceptable act of war, an acceptable response to America's military action. It is not.
The world would be a better place if al-Zarqawi was no longer in it. He is pure evil. I don't think someone like him is capable of any human feeling anymore. The only way to keep people like him from harming thousands of other people is to eliminate them.
Before this happened, I did not comprehend the magnitude of his evil and of people like him. But to experience the heinousness of what he did to someone as good and as innocent as my brother has totally changed my perspective. I don't know how to respond in a humane way to such inhumane acts. I don't think a humane response is necessary." (Hat tip: Tim Blair.)

"U.S. says its offensive near Syrian border 'neutralized' insurgent sanctuary" (Mohammed Barakat, AP/The Boston Globe, 2005/05/14)
"OBEIDI, Iraq - The U.S. military pronounced its weeklong offensive near the Syrian border over Saturday, saying it had successfully "neutralized" an insurgent sanctuary and killed more than 125 militants.
During the weeklong operation, many more suspected insurgents were injured and 39 with "intelligence value" were captured, the military said in a statement. It provided no details about the detainees.
Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during the campaign known as Operation Matador, during which American forces searched the Euphrates River villages of Karabilah, Rommana and Obeidi for followers of Iraq's most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ...
"During the seven-day operation, Marines disrupted the known infiltration routes through the region and disrupted sanctuaries and staging areas," the military said. It said U.S. and Iraqi forces would return in the future.
Marines searching small towns near the Syrian border discovered numerous weapons caches containing machine guns, mortar rounds and rockets. Six car bombs and material for making other explosive devices also were found, the statement said."

"Pro-war film spotted on Croisette" (Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, 2005/05/14)
"George Bush and Tony Blair will whoop for joy. A strongly pro-war film has been premiered at the Cannes film festival - and it comes from Iraq.
The main part of Hiner Saleem's Kilomètre Zéro, premiered in competition for the Palme D'Or, is set in 1988 against the backdrop of the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Kurds at the hands of Saddam's cousin, "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid.
It is framed by scenes of the main characters, now exiled in France, rejoicing at the fall of Baghdad in 2003.
"I am against war of any kind," Saleem said. "But we didn't have the luxury to say, 'For the time being, we will be exterminated'.
"If you say that the US is an imperialist country, then you are right. Had Sweden, Liechtenstein, France, come, it would have been wonderful. But they gave the US free rein; I am extremely pleased."
The scene of jubilation in the final moments of the film was "still valid. I would like to say I am optimistic, he said.
'The problem with Iraq is that it was not born of the will of a single people, but because Churchill wanted it. Power went to the people who had the most Kalashnikovs.'"

"Saddam spies 'offered to help Chirac get re-elected'" (Francis Harris et al., The Daily Telegraph, 2005/05/14)
"Saddam Hussein's spies planned a wide-ranging scheme to bribe members of the French political elite in the run-up to the Anglo-American invasion, including an offer to help fund President Jacques Chirac's 2002 re-election campaign.
That bid failed, according to Iraqi secret service papers seen by The Daily Telegraph, when Mr Chirac's aides allegedly said they did not need the cash. ...
A memo from the head of the 2nd Department of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service, purported to report on conversations between its representative in Paris and Roselyne Bachelot, then a member of the National Assembly and the spokesman for Mr Chirac's re-election campaign. The Mukhabarat described Mrs Bachelot as "a friend of Iraq".
The spies claimed that Mrs Bachelot offered an assurance that France would veto any American proposal to invade Iraq at the UN Security Council and would work to have UN-approved sanctions against Saddam lifted."

"Newsweek sparks global riots with one paragraph on Koran" (Catherine Philp, The Times, 2005/05/14)
"At least nine people were killed yesterday as a wave of anti-American demonstrations swept the Islamic world from the Gaza Strip to the Java Sea, sparked by a single paragraph in a magazine alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran.
As Washington scrambled to calm the outrage, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, promised an inquiry and punishment for any proven offenders. But at Friday prayers in the Muslim world many preachers demanded vengeance and afterwards thousands took to the streets, burning American flags. ...
The most violent protests were in Afghanistan, where the death toll in clashes between demonstrators and security forces reached fourteen after a third day of rioting. Three people were killed and twenty-two injured near Faizabad, in Badakhshan province, when a thousand rioters burnt down aid agencies’ offices.
Worshippers in Pakistan poured on to the streets after prayers, chanting “Death to America”, and burning American flags. In Jakarta, hundreds gathered noisily at a mosque. Thousands marched through the streets of a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza."

Friday, May 13, 2005

News and commentary:

"Nine Dead, 34 Wounded in Uzbekistan Clashes" (Bagila Bukharbayeva, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/05/13)
"ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan - Outrage over the terror trial of 23 Muslims exploded into broader unrest in eastern Uzbekistan on Friday when armed protesters stormed a jail to free defendants, clashing with police in violence that brought thousands of protesters into the streets. At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded, witnesses and officials said.
One protester, who put the death toll as high as 20, said 30 soldiers were being held hostage because they were shooting at demonstrators. Two of the dead were children, Sharif Shakirov, a brother of one of the defendants told The Associated Press.
President Islam Karimov and other top officials rushed to the eastern city of Andijan, where the government insisted it remained in control despite the chaos, though it blocked foreign news reports for its domestic audience."

"Palestinians unleash anti-Israeli & anti-US messages on eve of Israeli Independence Day and Abbas visit to US" (Michael Widlanski, IMRA, 2005/05/13)
Palestinian Media II: "The Palestinian Authority's print and broadcast media launched a broad propaganda attack against Israel and the United States on Friday morning-two days before the May 15 anniversary of the founding of Israel, a date the Palestinians mark as "Al-Nakba": "The Catastrophe." Coming less than two weeks before Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is set to visit Washington to seek aid and to proclaim his successes in promoting moderation and democracy, the Palestinian propaganda campaign illustrated how, sometimes, it seems that little has changed in the Palestinian media after the death of Yasser Arafat.The campaign seemed to peak Friday but over the last two weeks and today it has included the following:
*-- Systematic accusations from Palestinian officials and the Palestinian media that Israel is planning attacks on Islamic holy sites such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount;
*-- Charges of Israel using radiation poisoning and new weapons on Palestinian travelers and demonstrators, respectively;
*-- Harsh portrayals of Israel and the United States in mosque speeches and the cartoons of newspapers-both controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA); and
*-- Glorification of dead or escaped Palestinian terrorists." (Hat tip: Rochi Ebner.)

"Palestinian Friday Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris: Muslims Will Rule America and Britain, Jews Are a Virus Resembling AIDS" (MEMRI TV, 2005/05/13)
Palestinian Media I: "The following are excerpts from a Friday sermon on Palestinian Authority TV. The preacher is Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris. PA TV aired this sermon on May 13, 2005. ...
'With the establishment of the state of Israel, the entire Islamic nation was lost, because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers.
You will find that the Jews were behind all the civil strife in this world. The Jews are behind the suffering of the nations. ...
We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relived of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.'"

"Saddam begins memoirs from behind bars" (Roula Khalaf, Financial Times, 2005/05/13)
"Saddam Hussein has decided to write his memoirs while he languishes in an Iraqi jail awaiting trial after more than two decades of being responsible for brutal abuses.
According to Giovanni di Stefano, who is a member of Mr Hussein's legal team, the former writer of allegorical novels better known as Iraq's dictator resolved in recent weeks to start writing his biography.
Mr di Stefano promised: “There will be quite considerable detail. The Americans [holding him] are relaxed about it and we've seen some of the translation.”
Do not expect a confession. In his first appearance before an Iraqi judge in July last year, Mr Hussein, looking old and tired, was as defiant as ever, rejecting the court's jurisdiction and defending his 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr Hussein is writing about his childhood in Iraq, his early exile to Egypt and his misguided military adventures.
He will try to embarrass the great powers that once saw him as a useful buffer against the expansionist ambitions of Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. In particular, says Mr di Stefano, he will tell how France and Britain double-crossed him by also helping Iran's Islamic republic during its eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s."

"Remembering World War II: Revisionists get it wrong" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2005/05/13)
"The German novelist Gunter Grass — who served in the Wehrmacht — recently lectured in the New York Times about postwar “power blocs,” in terms that suggested the Soviets and the Americans had been morally equivalent. German problems of reunification, he tells us, were mostly due to a capitalist West, not a Communist East that caused them.
Grass advances the odd idea that Germany was not liberated from American hegemony (“unconditional subservience”) until Mr. Schroeder’s recent anti-Bush campaign distanced the Germans from the United States. To read this ahistorical sophistry of Grass is to forget recent European and Russian complicity in arming Saddam, their forging of sweetheart oil deals with the Baathist dictatorship, and the disturbing German anti-Semitic rhetoric that followed Schroeder’s antics. Unmentioned are the billions of American dollars and years of vigilance that kept the Red Army out of Western Germany, or the paradox that the United States is ready to leave Germany on a moment’s notice — which might explain the efforts of the Schroeder government to keep our troops there. ...
A West German intellectual like Grass does not inform us that he was always free to migrate to East Germany to live in socialist splendor rather than remain unhappy in capitalist “subservience” in an American-protected West Germany — or that some readers of the New York Times who opposed Hitler might not enjoy lectures about their moral failings from someone who once fought for him. Such revisionists never ask whether they could have written so freely in the Third Reich, Tojo’s Japan, Mussolini’s Italy, Soviet Russia, Communist Eastern Europe — or today in such egalitarian utopias as China, Cuba, or Venezuela." (See also: "The Gravest Generation" (Günter Grass, The New York Times, 2005/05/13))

"Muslims' Unheralded Messenger" (Don Oldenburg, The Washington Post, 2005/05/13)
"Kamal Nawash would like to see tens of thousands of Muslim Americans join his March Against Terrorism tomorrow morning at Freedom Plaza, but he likely won't. Only a few hundred showed up to another group's anti-terrorism march in Phoenix last April, and on his permit application, Nawash has tapered his dreams to 1,200 people -- and four portable toilets. Still, he longs for something like the 2002 Palestinian-rights rally at the Ellipse, which drew several thousand -- all those abayas, chadors and headscarves sprinkled among the crowd.
Nobody's expecting a Million Muslim March, not even close, and more than a few critics think it's the right message, but Nawash is the wrong messenger.
"We may not draw a lot of people, who knows?" says Nawash, 34, the outspoken president of the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism, which he founded last year. "But the point is that it is done." ...
Told of his critic's attacks, Nawash says it is 'certainly not surprising. . . . They hate us now more than they hate the biggest enemies of Islam. They despise us because we're the biggest danger to them. They had a total monopoly over what Islam was and now we are providing an alternative to Muslims. . . . Everyone sees that most of the terrorism in the world is done by Muslims. I mean, people are cutting people's heads off while reading the Koran! When are they going to realize we have a problem? When are they going to speak up against it?'"

"Iraqis soldier on without power, water, jobs, sewers" (Richard Beeston, The Times, 2005/05/13)
"The invasion of Iraq and its aftermath caused the deaths of 24,000 Iraqis, including many children, according to the most detailed survey yet of postwar life in the country.
The UN report paints a picture of modern Iraq brought close to collapse despite its oil wealth. Successive wars, a decade of sanctions and the current violence have destroyed services, undermined health and education and made the lives of ordinary Iraqis dangerous and miserable.
The survey for the UN Development Programme, entitled Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004, questioned more than 21,600 households this time last year. Its findings, released by the Ministry of Planning yesterday, could finally resolve the debate over how many Iraqis were killed in the war that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
The 370-page report said that it was 95 per cent confident that the toll during the war and the first year of occupation was 24,000, but could have been between 18,000 and 29,000. About 12 per cent of those were under 18."

"Protests Against U.S. Spread Across Afghanistan" (Carlotta Gall, The New York Times, 2005/05/13)
"KABUL, Afghanistan, May 12 - Anti-American violence spread to 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and into Pakistan on Thursday as four more protesters died in a third day of demonstrations and clashes with the police.
Hundreds of students took part in three separate demonstrations here in the capital, where they burned an American flag, and a provincial office of CARE International was ransacked in a continuation of the most widespread protests against the American presence since the fall of the Taliban government more than three years ago. ...
The Afghan authorities and Kabul residents said the spate of violence was the fault of outsiders, who they said were seeking to capitalize on student protests stirred up by reports, most recently in the May 9 issue of Newsweek, that Americans had desecrated the Koran during interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Islamic fundamentalist political parties, remnants of the former Taliban government and a renegade anti-American commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, are all possible sources of the violence, said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry."

Thursday, May 12, 2005

News and commentary:

"Oil for Food: The List Goes On" (Claudia Rosett, National Review, 2005/05/12)
"The latest insights into this cosmos of U.N.-fostered corruption come by way of a bipartisan report just released by the Senate Permanent Subcomittee on Investigations, or PSI, led by Coleman. In detail, with supporting documentation, the report shows how Saddam Hussein, via Oil-for-Food, gave rights to buy millions of barrels of underpriced Iraqi oil to two politicians who supported his regime: former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and British Member of Parliament George Galloway.
In a press release, Coleman notes: “This report exposes how Saddam turned the Oil for Food program on its head and used the program to reward his political allies like Pasqua and Galloway.”
That’s news, because both Pasqua and Galloway have denied allegations that they received any such riches from Saddam’s regime. Galloway last year won a libel suit in the U.K., against the British Daily Telegraph, over similar allegations — which were based on documentation different from that produced by Senate investigators.
The importance of this Senate report goes well beyond those two names, however. Using documents from Saddam’s own records, supplemented by interviews with officials of the former Saddam regime, Senate investigators are uncovering detailed new evidence that Oil-for-Food served as a vehicle for Saddam to thwart sanctions, fund terrorists, and buy political influence within the U.N.’s own Security Council." (See also: "Galloway faces renewed claims over Saddam oil" (David Pallister et al., The Guardian, 2005/05/12))

"The Old Right/New Left/Neo-Nazi Alliance" (Steven Zak, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/05/12)
"How much difference is there, really, between the far-Left, the far-Right, and overt white supremacists? How do the public stances of Michael Moore, Pat Buchanan, and David Duke compare? Proponents of both extreme views now think and sound so much alike, they sound like soulmates. ...

"Certainly, there are a number of stories sloshing around the news now...The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist, Jewish...with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists. Rocketing around the web and spilling into the press are many stories about Israeli spies in America at the time of 9/11...." - Alexander Cockburn (columnist and editor of far-left magazine “Counterpunch”)

"But if you care to lay out the clear and copious evidence of ... Israel's obvious foreknowledge of the attacks of 9/11, then you are automatically labeled ‘anti-Semitic,’ probably the most hateful and onerous title that can be conferred on a human being." - David Duke (referring to a theory popularized by Antiwar.com’s Dennis “Justin” Raimondo)"

"A man who has mattered" (George Will, Town Hall, 2005/05/12)
"'I can't tell you,' Paul Wolfowitz says with justifiable asperity, "how much I resent being called a Wilsonian." As he retires as deputy secretary of defense and becomes head of the World Bank, the man most responsible for the doctrinal justification of the Iraq War, and who has been characterized as representing Woodrow Wilson's utopian, rather than the realist, strain in American foreign policy, begs to differ. The question, he says, is who has been realistic for almost four decades.
The sprouting of freedom through the fissures in the concrete of dictatorships began, he recalls, in Greece, Spain and Portugal in the mid-1970s. This, he believes, disturbed Soviet leaders, and should have: It called into question the realism of "realists" who, he says, "were factually wrong" in dismissing the possibility of undermining the Soviet regime with pressures short of force. ...
He says, however, that to the very limited extent that "academic things" shaped him, they were classes on America's Constitutional Convention and Lincoln's political thought, classes stressing that "the foundations of liberal democracy are about a helluva lot more than elections."
They are also about private property as a bulwark of the individual's zone of sovereignty, and about the hopefulness that depends on the reality of material progress. Therefore leading the World Bank will tidily close the circle of a remarkable Washington career that began in the summer of 1966, when as a 22-year-old graduate student he was an intern in the Bureau of the Budget, precursor of the Office of Management and Budget, working on problems of economic development. He has never been elected to office or served in a president's Cabinet, but he has mattered much more than most who have." (Hat tip: Barry Kaplovitz.)

"Realists vs. idealists" (Henry A. Kissinger, International Herald Tribune, 2005/05/12)
"In a world of jihad, terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, President Bush in his second inaugural address put forward a challenge at once going beyond the interests of any one country and that different societies could embrace without prejudice to their own interests.
He elaborated that the United States seeks progress toward freedom, not its ultimate achievement in a defined time, and that it recognizes the historical evolution that must be the foundation of any successful process. On this basis, realists and idealists should go forward together.
A clear-eyed commitment to the freedom agenda should keep the following principles in mind:
The process of democratization does not depend on a single decision and will not be completed in a single stroke. Elections, however desirable, are only the beginning of a long enterprise.
Americans need to understand that successes do not end their engagement but most probably deepen it. For as we involve ourselves, we bear the responsibility even for results we did not anticipate.
Elections are not an inevitable guarantee of a democratic outcome. Radicals like the Hezbollah and Hamas seem to have learned the mechanics of democracy in order to undermine it and establish total control." (See also: "Some atomic arm-twisting" (Henry Kissinger, The Australian, 2005/05/11))

"Galloway faces renewed claims over Saddam oil" (David Pallister et al., The Guardian, 2005/05/12)
"George Galloway, the newly elected MP for the anti-war Respect party in east London, this morning faces allegations from the US Senate over whether he benefited from the Iraq oil-for-food programme run under Saddam Hussein.
A US Senate committee report published today claims to have uncovered "significant evidence" that the former Labour MP was allocated millions of barrels of oil from the Saddam regime. It bases its conclusions on previously disclosed documents from the Iraqi ministry of oil and interviews with senior officials of the regime, plus unnamed Iraqi sources. ...
The US report concludes: 'The evidence obtained by the sub-committee, including Hussein-era documents from the ministry of oil and testimony from senior Hussein officials, shows that Iraq granted George Galloway allocations for millions of barrels of oil under the oil-for-food programme.
Moreover, some evidence indicates that Galloway appeared to use a charity for children's leukaemia to conceal payments associated with at least one such allocation.'"

"One month's toll in Iraq: 67 suicide bombers" (Michael Howard and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, 2005/05/12)
"The number of suicide attacks in Iraq has reached a record high, with more than 67 insurgents blowing themselves up in the month of April alone.
New figures revealed by diplomatic and Iraqi security sources yesterday show that of the 135 car bombings that month, which took hundreds of lives and inflicted thousands of injuries, more than half were suicide missions. The number of car bombings has doubled since March.
The level of suicide attacks has raised fears that American and Iraqi forces are losing the battle to prevent foreign fighters, prepared to die for the cause of defeating the US occupation, entering the country.
Most suicide bombers are believed to come from outside Iraq, intelligence sources say, although they operate with local support.
A western diplomat said that, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein, sui cide bombers now account for most of the car bomb attacks that are causing destruction on a daily basis. "There is an apparent free flow of suicide bombers into Iraq," he said."

"Palestinians likely to delay vote" (Fran Coombs and Willis Witter, The Washington Times, 2005/05/12)
"The Palestinian Authority is close to postponing a scheduled July 17 vote for a new parliament — possibly until next spring — in the face of a strong showing by Hamas in recent local elections.
Confusion dominated a session of the parliament yesterday at which lawmakers considered alternative dates, ranging from this November to April 2006.
"I cannot say so with 100 percent certainty, but it looks like they will be delayed," said Qadura Fares, 43, a former Cabinet minister who represents Ramallah in the parliament. ...
Within the clearly rattled Fatah leadership, many older members are pushing for elections next spring to give them time to prepare for a surge in support for Hamas, while Mr. Ghneim and others are hoping to compromise on a date in November." (See also: "Hamas gains on Fatah in Palestinian town elections" (Mohammed Assadi, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/05/09))

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

News and commentary:

"An Iraqi man sits grieving next to empty coffins..."
(Bassem Daham, AP, 2005/05/11)
"An Iraqi man sits grieving next to empty coffins outside a hospital after a suicide car bomb exploded in a small market in Tikrit, 130 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, May 11, 2005, killing at least 27 people and wounding 75. Most of the killed people were Iraqi Shiites workers from Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, seeking jobs in Tikrit."

"Retaking the university: a battle plan" (Roger Kimball, The New Criterion, from the May 2005 issue)
"The spectacle of a highly paid academic with a fabricated background comparing the victims of 9/11 to a Nazi bureaucrat was too much. Churchill’s fellow academics endeavored—they are still endeavoring—to rally round. But the public wasn’t buying it. Such episodes, as Victor Davis Hanson noted in National Review recently, were like “a torn scab revealing a festering sore beneath.”

Ward Churchill’s plight gives us a glimpse into the strange world of the contemporary postmodern university of tenured ideologues, where professed identity politics, ethnic or gender chauvinism, and a disbelief in empiricism allow a con man to bully his way to guaranteed lifetime employment, and a handsome salary, and the right to say anything at all, no matter how inflammatory. ...

He was invited to Hamilton College by “the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture,” a left-wing, activist redoubt that for the decade of its existence has devoted its considerable resources to transforming a liberal arts education into an exercise in radical repudiation of American society, its manners, morals, and political filiations. It was the Kirkland Project, for example, that invited Susan Rosenberg, the convicted felon and former member of the Weather Underground, to be an “artist- and activist-in-residence” and teach a seminar on “Resistance Memoirs: Writing, Identity and Change.” It was a satellite of the Kirkland Project that a couple of years ago invited Annie Sprinkle, the former prostitute and porn star, to preside over a workshop (but of course) designed to educate “students and faculty on how better to pleasure themselves.”
Now the point about the Kirkland Project is not how extreme it is but how ordinary. (I use the term in its statistical, not its normative, sense.) There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of similar organizations at American colleges and universities." (See also: "'Teachable Moments': But who will teach the teachers?" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review/Private Papers, 2005/03/10))

"Relentless Bush Baffles His Critics" (Richard Brookhiser, The New York Observer, from the 2005/05/16 issue)
"This President is committed to democracy, and liberals who have long loved such rhetoric, as well as conservatives who have long distrusted it, are beginning to realize the fact. Mr. Bush believes the ultimate answer to the Islamist menace is draining the swamps of dictatorship, impotence and self-hatred masked as hatred in the Middle East. He also believes that the way to keep the post-Soviet world on keel is to encourage democratic and anti-imperial tendencies in its component parts. He uses both violence and patience; he has fought two wars, and he is willing to hold a Saudi’s hand. But he seems truly relentless in his approach. ...
And is traditional diplomacy even desirable, once people enter the equation of international affairs? When subjects want to take their lives into their own hands and become citizens, should they be talked over and around by their rulers? If Mr. Bush sometimes seems a little rough, that is partly because he is broadening the discussion. Who knew the oil-patch rich kid would be such a sans-culotte?"

"Some atomic arm-twisting" (Henry Kissinger, The Australian, 2005/05/11)
"If George W. Bush's first term was dominated by the war against terrorism, the second will be preoccupied with the effort to stem the spread of nuclear weapons.
Proliferating countries invariably present their efforts as goals to which they have every right to aspire, such as enhancing electricity generation. In Iran's case, this is a pretext. For an oil producer such as Iran, nuclear energy is a wasteful use of resources. What Iran really seeks is a shield to discourage intervention by outsiders in its ideologically based foreign policy.
This is the main reason it will be difficult to fashion a package of incentives to spur denuclearisation of Iran. Most foreseeable incentives, in one way or another, increase Iran's dependence on the states against which the proliferation is really directed and probably increase Iran's capacity to threaten them by other means. ...
The key issue between the US and Europe should not be over the necessity of pressure if diplomacy fails but the definition of it, the timing and precisely by what process that pressure is designed to lead to a non-nuclear Iran.
It is in that context that the proposition that regime change is the most reliable guarantee for Iran's denuclearisation must be evaluated. ...
In the case of Iran, the chances for progress of the European diplomacy are slight. But they need to be explored. Such a course will also leave us in the best position to draw the consequences from failure of negotiations."

"The Best Man for the Job" (James A. Baker and Edwin Meese III, The New York Times, 2005/05/11)
"The image that critics are painting of John Bolton, President Bush's nominee to be our representative at the United Nations, does not bear the slightest resemblance to the man we have known and worked with for a quarter-century.
While we cannot speak to the truthfulness of the specific allegations by his former colleagues, we can speak to what we know. And during our time with Mr. Bolton at the Justice and State Departments, we never knew of any instance in which he abused or berated anyone he worked with. Nor was his loyalty to us or to the presidents we served ever questioned. And we never knew of an instance in which he distorted factual evidence to make it fit political ends. ...
n his service as assistant attorney general and assistant secretary of state, we had complete confidence in him - and that confidence turned out to have been well placed. In our view he would be no different in fulfilling his duties as our United Nations ambassador. ...
At a time when all sides acknowledge that fundamental reform is needed at the United Nations lest it see its moral stature diminished and its possibilities squandered, we need our permanent representative to be a person of political vision, intellectual power and personal integrity. John Bolton is just that person."

"Four Killed in Afghan Anti-U.S. Riots" (AP/FOX News, 2005/05/11)
"JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Shouting "Death to America!" more than 1,000 demonstrators rioted and threw stones at a U.S. military convoy Wednesday, as protests spread to four Afghan provinces over a report that interrogators desecrated Islam's holy book at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Police fired on the protesters, many of them students, trying to stifle the biggest display of anti-American anger since the ouster of the ruling Taliban militia 3 1/2 years ago. There were no reports of American casualties, but the violence left four dead and 71 injured in Jalalabad, a city 80 miles east of the capital, Kabul. ...
The source of anger was a brief report in the May 9 edition of Newsweek that interrogators at Guantanamo placed Qurans on toilets to rattle suspects, and in at least one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico said the U.S. military was investigating. "This allegation is contrary to our respect for cultural customs and fundamental belief in the freedom of religion," Plexico said." (See also: "Gitmo: SouthCom Showdown" (Michael Isikoff and John Barry, Newsweek. from the 2005/05/09 issue))

"Iraqi Insurgents Go on Rampage, Kill 61" (Thomas Wagner, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/05/11)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four car bombs and a man with explosives strapped to his body killed at least 61 people and wounded more than 100 in three Iraqi cities Wednesday as hundreds of U.S. troops pushed through a lawless region near the Syrian frontier in an offensive aimed at followers of Iraq's most-wanted terrorist.
This week's offensive came amid a surge of deadly car bombings, ambushes and other attacks after Iraq's first democratically elected government was announced April 28. Insurgents are averaging about 70 attacks a day this month, up from 30-40 in February and March, said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.
In Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, a man with hidden explosives slipped past security guards protecting a police and army recruitment center on Wednesday and blew himself up just outside the building where some 150 applicants were lined up. At least 30 people were killed and 35 injured, police said." ...
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomb exploded in a small market near a police station, killing at least 27 people and wounding 75, police and hospital officials said. The attacker swerved into a crowd after heavy security prevented him from reaching the police station, police said.
Three more car bombs targeting a police station and patrols exploded Wednesday in Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14, police said."

"'They Came Here to Die'" (Ellen Knickmeyer, The Washington Post, 2005/05/11)
"JARAMI, Iraq, May 10 -- Screaming "Allahu Akbar'' to the end, the foreign fighters lay on their backs in a narrow crawl space under a house and blasted their machine guns up through the concrete floor with bullets designed to penetrate tanks. They fired at U.S. Marines, driving back wave after wave as the Americans tried to retrieve a fallen comrade.
Through Sunday night and into Monday morning, the foreign fighters battled on, their screaming voices gradually fading to just one. In the end, it took five Marine assaults, grenades, a tank firing bunker-busting artillery rounds, 500-pound bombs unleashed by an F/A-18 attack plane and a point-blank attack by a rocket launcher to quell them.
The Marines got their fallen man, suffering one more dead and at least five wounded in the process. And according to survivors of the battle, the foreign fighters near the Syrian border proved to be everything their reputation had suggested: fierce, determined and lethal to the last."

"Defiant Iran plans nuclear revival" (Ewen MacAskill and Robert Tait, The Guardian, 2005/05/11)
"The Iranian government threatened to provoke a full-blown international crisis yesterday by confirming that it is to resume its suspended nuclear programme.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said such a move would automatically halt two years of negotiations between Tehran and the European trio - Britain, France and Germany - and see immediate referral to the United Nations security council. Sanctions could follow and bring a dangerous standoff between the US, backed by Israel, and Iran.
The US, in a view shared by Europe and Israel, suspects Iran is covertly trying to secure a nuclear weapon. Iran claims it only wants nuclear power for civil purposes.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said yesterday: "The decision to resume some activities has been taken and now we are discussing the timing for resuming. But this decision is imminent as well." Twenty-four hours earlier, he said a decision would be made 'within days.'"

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

News and commentary:

"German President Horst Koehler..."
(Michael Dalder, Reuters, 2005/05/10)
"German President Horst Koehler visits the new Holocaust memorial in Berlin May 10, 2005. Berlin unveiled its haunting new memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe on Tuesday, culminating 17 years of charged debate and controversy over how Germany should remember the darkest chapter in its history. The memorial is designed by U.S. architect Peter Eisenmann and consists of 2,711 charcoal-grey rectangular pillars, which rise from the ground and form a tight grid through which visitors can wander."

"'Never again'" (Uzi Arad, Haaretz, 2005/05/10)
"The term "existential threat" is not a common component in the concept of security among most countries. That is not the case in Israel, however, where the scars of the Holocaust deeply cut into our being.
The historical imperative usually describing what the Holocaust has inculcated in us is "never again." But against what is this imperative directed? Seemingly, against everything that was lacking then: that never again will they be able to cause so many of our people to fall; never again will we stand helpless; never again will Jewish blood be spilled without revenge and retribution.
There are two tracks on Israel's political-security agenda, and the combination of the two more forcefully raises the question of existential threats. On the one hand, Iran perseveres in its march toward attaining nuclear weaponry, defying Europe, the U.S., and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory. Iran does not hide the fact that the launch system it has deployed is intended to reach Israel and threaten its citizens.
On the other hand, Israel - pressured by the killing of its citizens - is in the midst of a process through which it has withdrawn behind a wall toward the 1967 lines, which Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz borders." Thus the Iranian threat, which can become existential, is getting closer to Israel even while it is retreating behind a fence."

"So, some people think I'm rightwing..." (David Aaronovitch, The Guardian, 2005/05/10)
"Since I decided, in January 2003, that if Iraq was invaded I would not oppose it, I have had the almost astral experience of finding myself excommunicated from the movement, sometimes by fellow journalists who I know do not possess a political bone in their entire bodies.":
"And it doesn't matter what is proved to have happened. Hutton? Butler? The attorney general's advice? Never mind what they actually say - that intelligence did judge that Saddam possessed WMDs, that the attorney general did advise that the war was probably legal - the cartoonists tell you that Blair is a liar, the comedians tell you that Blair is a liar, so he's a liar." ...
Sometimes this predetermination becomes bizarre. Let me take one example, where I could take thousands. These are the words used by writer Richard Gott to describe Blair during this election campaign. "An arrogant and God-fuelled appeaser", and "a war criminal who should be locked up behind bars without a vote". And this is Gott on Iraqi leaders in mid-2002. "Saddam has had a violent past", but "is not a charismatic leader", partly because he uses "unconvincing rhetoric" and is "incompetent at getting his message across". Problems are caused by his "lack of sophistication and the secretive nature of his regime". Fortunately, however, his deputy, Tariq Aziz - Yuletide host of the new MP for Bethnal Green and Bow - is "an intelligent, articulate and persuasive politician". Gott, on a journey to Baghdad, notices that the many pictures of Saddam are not defaced at all. Is it, he asks, 'terror, or apathy, or a cultural reluctance to disturb something associated with the state? It is difficult to say, but of overt signs of opposition to the regime, there are none.'"

"Hamas poll successes put Gaza withdrawal in doubt" (Stephen Farrell, The Times, 2005/05/10)
"Plans for withdrawal from the Gaza Strip suffered a double setback yesterday as Israel took fright at the growing electoral strength of the Islamic militant group Hamas, and Ariel Sharon announced that he was postponing the pullout for three weeks.
Results from last week’s municipal elections, published yesterday, showed Hamas sweeping to power in major towns, raising the prospect that Israel might have to hand power in Gaza to an organisation ostensibly dedicated to its destruction. ...
Fatah came out ahead in the municipal elections, but Hamas won in the all-important major urban centres. Election officials said that Fatah captured about 50 of 84 municipal councils and Hamas 30, including Rafah in Gaza, and the West Bank town of Qalqilya."

"100 Rebels Killed in U.S. Offensive in Western Iraq" (Richard A. Oppel Jr., The New York Times, 2005/05/10)
"A Marine task force swept through a wide area of western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing 100 insurgents and raiding desert outposts and city safe houses belonging to insurgents who have used the area to import cars, money, weapons, and foreigners to fight United States and Iraqi forces in Baghdad, Mosul and other cities, American military officials said Monday.
The attack, involving more than 1,000 troops including a Marine regimental combat team that includes soldiers and sailors, appears to be the largest combat offensive in Iraq since the Marines invaded Falluja six months ago. It comes as senior American commanders have increasingly blamed the porous border with Syria for allowing a never-ending stream of armed jihadists to enter Iraq and replenish the insurgency as quickly as fighters can be killed and captured.
The military believes the insurgents have had a free run in the heavily Sunni area around Qaim and Ubaydi, in the Jazira Desert near where the Euphrates River crosses from Syria to Iraq. At least three marines have been killed in the operation, two on Sunday in Qaim and Ubaydi, and another on Monday in Qaim. Some insurgents killed in the operation are believed to be foreign fighters, military officials said Monday."

Monday, May 9, 2005

News and commentary:

"Abu Ghraib - 6"
(Fernando Botero, The New York Times, 2005/05/08)
"A prisoner and a guard dog are depicted in this work by Fernando Botero."
See also: "'Great Crime' at Abu Ghraib Enrages and Inspires an Artist" (Juan Forero, The New York Times, 2005/05/08)

"Abu Ghraib Isn't Guernica" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/05/09)
"The superficially clever thing to say today is that Lynddie England represents all of us, or at any rate all her superiors, and that the liberation of Iraq is thereby discredited. One odd effect of this smug view is to find her and her scummy friends — the actual inflicters of pain and humiliation — somehow innocent, while those senior officers who arrested them and put them on trial are somehow guilty. There is something faintly masochistic and indecent about that conclusion.
There's also something indecent about any comparison of this with the struggle of the Spanish Republic. If Fallujah is "Guernica," then the U.S. Marines are Herman Goering's Condor Legion. If Abu Ghraib is "Guernica," then the U.S. Army is a part of the original "Axis" between Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco. I wonder if any sympathizer of this view would accept its apparent corollary: that the executions and tortures inflicted by the Spanish Communists — crimes now denied by nobody, though Picasso excused them at the time — axiomatically discredit the anti-fascist cause? And this distortion of the record is all the more extraordinary, since a much more natural analogy is close at hand. Gen. Franco's assault on the Spanish Republic — an assault that claimed to be, and was, a rebel "insurgency" against the elected government — consisted of an alliance of fascist parties, religious extremists, and Muslim fighters. It was led by the frightened former oligarchy, and its cause was preached from the pulpit, and its foot-soldiers were Moorish levies from North Africa and "volunteers" from Germany and Italy. How shady it is that our modern leftists and peaceniks can detect fascism absolutely everywhere except when it is actually staring them in the face. The next thing, of course, if we complete the historic analogy, would be for them to sign a pact with it. And this, some of them have already done."

"The New 1930s In Europe" (Bruce Bawer, andrewsullivan.com, 2005/05/09)
Bruce Bawer on the growth of Islamo-fascism in Europe, in an e-mail "prompted by a gang of Moroccan youths who gay-bashed ... a leading gay journalist, Chris Crain, last week, for holding hands with his boyfriend on the street":
"I would encourage all responsible-minded people, to get up to speed on what's going on in the Netherlands, and in Western Europe generally. The country I cherished a few years ago as the most liberal in the world has an increasingly large – and increasingly alienated – population of extreme reactionaries who despise, and seek to destroy, its liberalism. It is frankly stunning that Crain, in his posting, doesn't even mention Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, who were murdered for daring to take on this intolerance, or Dutch Parliament members Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders, who have also spoken out and as a result are forced to live (respectively) on a Marine base and in a prison in order to avoid being murdered.
One night in December 1998, T. and I were walking along the Singel canal in central Amsterdam when a Moroccan teenager pulled a knife and demanded money. (T. saw the knife, but the kid held it so low and so close to me that I didn't see it.) A half dozen of his friends hovered nearby, at the edge of the canal, looking threatening. I told him angrily to hit the road. He hesitated, looked back at his friends, and then they all ran off. We were lucky. Year by year, it's only got worse. The assaults are more frequent now, and more likely to be violent. They're less about money now and more about contempt – not just toward gays but toward all infidels." (See also: "Looking hate in the face" (Chris Crain, Washington Blade, 2005/05/03))

"A Palestinian child..."
(Mohammed Zaatari, AP, 2005/05/09)
"A Palestinian child wearing a head band with the Arabic words 'Jerusalem for us' holds a real gun during an anti-Israeli demonstration in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon, in southern Lebanon, Monday, May 9, 2005."

"Hamas gains on Fatah in Palestinian town elections" (Mohammed Assadi, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/05/09)
"RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas's
Fatah party came out ahead in Palestinian local elections but Hamas militants won key urban centers in a show of strength, according to official returns released on Monday.
The solid performance by Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction but abiding by a de facto ceasefire, suggests it could mount a serious challenge to the long-supreme Fatah in a parliamentary election set for this summer.
Electoral successes by Hamas could upset Abbas's agenda to talk peace with Israel after a 4 1/2-year Palestinian revolt.
Election committee officials said Fatah captured about 50 of 84 municipal councils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But Hamas won around 30 including larger towns such as Rafah in Gaza and Qalqilya in the West Bank.
Hamas dominated the outcome in Gaza, raising Israeli concern that it could emerge as the predominant power in the territory after a pullout of Jewish settlers planned for July or August."

"Let him live" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/05/09)
Blair on the efforts to save kidnapped Australian Douglas Wood:
"Less worthy are comments from Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, described as the “spiritual leader of Australian Muslims”, who is on his way to Iraq to rescue Douglas Wood — and to score vile and opportunistic political points in the process:

Calling for all Muslims to pray for Mr Wood, he says the 63-year-old engineer was in Iraq to help the Iraqi people and he should not suffer because of politics, “be they right or wrong”. "We value your jihad and your efforts, and we call upon you to do something for the sake of our community and all Australian society, which does not support Howard’s pro-American policies,” the Egyptian-born Sunni tells the kidnappers.

That line about “valuing jihad” was too much even for Keysar Trad, the Sheik’s former translator:

The former translator for Australia’s Muslim leader has criticised the mufti’s choice of language in a message sent to the captors of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.
"He has used language that’s not consistent with our expectations as Australians and I think he could have stopped at the first part of his statement without going this far and the message would have been just as clear."

(See also: "Mufti's plea: free our brother" (Paul McGeough, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005/05/09) and "Mufti's message sparks hostage controversy" (The Age, 2005/05/09))

"Palestinian warriors who refuse to let Lebanon go" (Nicholas Blanford, The Times, 2005/05/09)
"The Palestinian commander and his six fighters sheltered from a biting wind in their tiny post thousands of feet above the Bekaa Valley. An AK47 rifle hung from the roof, with two magazines bound together with yellow tape and an old military radio connected to car batteries.
“We have many posts in the Bekaa (Valley), but we are not going to leave any of them because the Palestinian issue has not been resolved,” said Abu Abdullah, the commander, whose Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command stands vigil on the lonely, windswept plateau.
The pro-Syrian Palestinian faction is defying growing calls in Lebanon to shut down its bases in the Bekaa Valley, which runs alongside the rugged mountainous border with Syria. The militant faction, far from abiding by a United Nations resolution calling for its withdrawal, after Syrian troops left the country two weeks ago, is bolstering its positions, witnesses say."

"A New Political Setback for Iraq's Cabinet" (Richard A. Oppel Jr., The New York Times, 2005/05/09)
"One of four Sunni Arabs picked this weekend to join Iraq's new Shiite-controlled cabinet abruptly rejected the job on Sunday, saying he first learned of his selection from a television news report on Saturday night. He added that he felt his selection would further a quota system for Sunnis that would only make sectarian problems worse. ...
In the capital, the National Assembly approved six new cabinet ministers on Sunday, including the unwilling candidate, Hashim al-Shibli, who had been named human rights minister. But on a day when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had hoped to complete his cabinet and end the contentious political battles that delayed his government, the rejection was another embarrassment. ...
"I heard about it watching TV," he said. "No one talked to me or asked me about it before. This morning they called me and tried to congratulate me on my 'new job,' but I said no. I refused this because this is sectarianism, and I don't believe in sectarianism. I believe in democracy."

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

Weekly archive

2006/12/04 - 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13 - 2006/11/19
2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

› From 2001/09/11 -



Monthly index

December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006

› From September 2001 -



Author index

› Ajami, Fouad - Johnson, Paul
› Kagan, Robert - Ye'or, Bat



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