Archived news and commentary: August 22 - 28, 2005

2005/08/22 - 2005/08/28
2005/08/15 - 2005/08/21
2005/08/08 - 2005/08/14
2005/08/01 - 2005/08/07
2005/07/25 - 2005/07/31
2005/07/18 - 2005/07/24

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Sunday, August 28, 2005

News and commentary:

"How to Win in Iraq" (Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., Foreign Affairs, from the September/October 2005 issue)
Krepinevich II: "No strategy will bring about an end to the insurgency quickly or easily. In that sense, the strategy presented here is the best of a bad lot. It is superior to the current "stay the course" strategy and to following an arbitrary timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, the solution advocated by many of the Bush administration's critics. Its chief virtue is that it reflects an understanding of the war's centers of gravity and attempts to balance the sometimes competing demands of these centers while also securing them. ...
Even if successful, this strategy will require at least a decade of commitment and hundreds of billions of dollars and will result in longer U.S. casualty rolls. But this is the price that the United States must pay if it is to achieve its worthy goals in Iraq. Are the American people and American soldiers willing to pay that price? Only by presenting them with a clear strategy for victory and a full understanding of the sacrifices required can the administration find out. And if Americans are not up to the task, Washington should accept that it must settle for a much more modest goal: leveraging its waning influence to outmaneuver the Iranians and the Syrians in creating an ally out of Iraq's next despot."

"Winning in Iraq" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2005/08/28)
Krepinevich I: "Krepinevich has now published an essay in the new issue of Foreign Affairs, "How to Win in Iraq," in which he proposes a strategy. The article is already a phenomenon among the people running this war, generating discussion in the Pentagon, the C.I.A., the American Embassy in Baghdad and the office of the vice president.
Krepinevich's proposal is hardly new. He's merely describing a classic counterinsurgency strategy, which was used, among other places, in Malaya by the British in the 1950's. The same approach was pushed by Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt in a Washington Post essay back on Oct. 26, 2003; by Kenneth Pollack in Senate testimony this July 18; and by dozens of midlevel Army and Marine Corps officers in Iraq.
Krepinevich calls the approach the oil-spot strategy. The core insight is that you can't win a war like this by going off on search and destroy missions trying to kill insurgents. There are always more enemy fighters waiting. You end up going back to the same towns again and again, because the insurgents just pop up after you've left and kill anybody who helped you. You alienate civilians, who are the key to success, with your heavy-handed raids.
Instead of trying to kill insurgents, Krepinevich argues, it's more important to protect civilians. You set up safe havens where you can establish good security. Because you don't have enough manpower to do this everywhere at once, you select a few key cities and take control. Then you slowly expand the size of your safe havens, like an oil spot spreading across the pavement. ...
The fact is, the U.S. didn't adopt this blindingly obvious strategy because it violates some of the key Rumsfeldian notions about how the U.S. military should operate in the 21st century."

"Sunnis Reject Draft of Iraqi Constitution" (Slobodan Lekic, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/28)
"Iraqi negotiators finished the country's new constitution Sunday without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs who helped prepare it, dealing a blow to the Bush administration and setting the stage for a bitter campaign leading up to an October referendum.
The 15 members of the Sunni panel said they rejected the document because of disagreements over such issues as federalism, Iraq's identity and references to Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath Party.
Sunni Arab negotiators also said in a joint statement that they had asked the United Nations and Arab League to intervene. ...
Also, Sunni Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer did not attend a ceremony marking the end of the drafting process. Asked why al-Yawer was absent, President Jalal Talabani said "he's sick," eliciting laughter from officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite. ...
Sheik Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the drafting committee, said the constitution "guarantees freedoms and equalizes between everyone, women and men and different ethnic groups and respects the ideologies of this nation and the religion of this society."
But the 15-member Sunni negotiating team immediately rejected the document as "illegitimate."
"We call upon the Arab League, the United Nations and international organizations to intervene so that this document is not passed and so that the clear defect in it is corrected," said the statement read by Abdul-Nasser al-Janabi."

"Liberals should beware of giving rights to people who hate us" (David Goodhart, The Sunday Times, 2005/08/28)
"Last year the House of Lords ruled it was contrary to the HRA [Human Rights Act] to detain without trial at Belmarsh nine non-citizens suspected of involvement in terrorism, but who could not be deported because of the treatment they might face. The government complied and placed the men under “control orders”.
In response Lord Hoffmann, the law lord, famously said that the real threat to the nation was not terrorism but the actions of a government that invoked the threat of terrorism to restrict liberty. The laws the judge was railing against may have been flawed, but they had been passed by a legislature that has to renew its mandate at least every five years and is subject to constant media scrutiny.
Judges, by contrast, are neither accountable nor representative (the law lords consist of 11 elderly men and one woman). In any case, a court is not an ideal setting for deciding the weight of a collective interest, such as security. ...
The complex debate about balancing individual rights and collective security can and should take place within the framework of the HRA with judges acting as a brake on over-hasty legislation and ensuring politicians stay within the bounds of proportionality.
But it is democratic politicians who should be decisive in this debate, because they have superior knowledge (through access to intelligence reports and so on), deeper legitimacy and are responsible for the consequences. ...
Allowing the settled view of democratic politicians and public opinion to influence the judicial process is not the first step to mob rule, as some of our legal mandarins imply. Indeed, it may be a condition of retaining public confidence.
It is one of the marks of a civilised society to offer sanctuary even to some unattractive outsiders and to hold on to due process in difficult times. But listening to human rights activists, one sometimes gets the impression that they believe the democratic nation state is the greatest threat to our liberty, rather than its bulwark."

"School Is Symbol of Death for Haunted Children of Beslan" (Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2005/08/28)
A report from Beslan: "One year later, the children are preparing to go back to school, many for the first time since the siege. Tamerlan and his classmates are at the heart of Beslan's struggle to endure. The first-graders are the most vulnerable group in this small city, psychologists said, because the only school day they know is the day they and their families became hostages.
"School means death for them," said Fatima Bagayeva, a psychologist at the local hospital who has been working with the youngest survivors. ...
Emilia Adyrkhayeva has already tried to go back. In March, the 7-year-old went to a combined kindergarten and elementary school, where, as at all schools in Beslan, local men now stand guard with automatic weapons. No one had prepared her for that. "She became very hysterical," said her father, Alan Adyrkhayev, a 41-year-old physician who quit practicing after the siege.
Several other first-graders left the same school after a daytime thunderstorm, according to the director, Yeza Tsgoyeva. "They were hiding under the desks," Tsgoyeva said. "They're still all very emotional. If you raise your voice accidentally, they get upset. Some of them get hysterical. I wonder if our authorities understand how deep the problems are." ...
The two women said they were trying to persuade Georgy to go against his mother's wishes. He shook his head as they raised the subject yet again.
"I don't want to go to school," Georgy said. 'I don't want to be dead.'"

"In a Corner of Pakistan a Debate Rages: Are Terrorist Camps Still Functioning?" (David Rohde and Carlotta Gall, The New York Times, 2005/08/28)
"During the past year, Taliban prisoners captured in Afghanistan, opposition politicians in Pakistan and Afghan and Indian government officials have said repeatedly that training camps are active in the Mansehra district and other parts of Pakistan, while Pakistani officials vehemently deny they exist.
Last summer, a young Pakistani captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan said in an interview with The New York Times that he was trained in the Mansehra district by the group Mr. Mohiyuddin said had been disbanded. An armed Pakistani captured in Afghanistan told a private Afghan television channel in June that he had been trained there.
In July, two militants told a Pakistani journalist working on contract for The New York Times that they met one of the July 7 London bombing suspects, Shehzad Tanweer, on a trip to a militant training camp in the Mansehra district last winter. Three Pakistanis recently sentenced to prison terms in Afghanistan for trying to assassinate the American ambassador said they had been trained in the district, an Afghan intelligence official said.
Another Pakistani captured in Afghanistan this month said he had been trained in the Mansehra district."

"Shiites Cut Off Talks on Charter" (Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer, The Washington Post, 2005/08/28)
"Iraqi Shiite Muslim leaders said early Sunday that they were ending negotiations on the country's constitution after months of increasingly divisive talks and planned to put the draft before the National Assembly later in the day, senior officials involved in the talks said.
Despite some compromises made by Shiites at the urging of the Bush administration, the draft appears not to have won the support of at least some of the negotiators representing Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.
"The chances of bringing Sunni Arabs to the political process are almost lost," said Salih Mutlak, the most vocal and most publicly unyielding of the Sunnis involved in talks on the constitution. 'The Sunni Arabs will suffer a lot, unfortunately. Everybody in Iraq is going to suffer from this.'"

Saturday, August 27, 2005

News and commentary:

"In this photo released by militant group Hamas..."
(AP/Hamas, 2005/08/27)
"In this photo released by militant group Hamas, a Palestinian, identifying himself as fugitive bombmaker Mohammed Deif, is seen during a rare video address made available in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, early Saturday, Aug. 27, 2005."

"Hamas Bombmaker Vows to Continue Attacks" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/27)
"Hamas on Saturday released a videotape of the man it says is a shadowy senior commander who has eluded Israeli forces for more than a decade, the Islamic militant group's latest salvo in a Palestinian power struggle over who should get credit for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The man, identifying himself as fugitive bombmaker Mohammed Deif, described Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a victory for armed resistance, rejected calls for his group to disarm, and vowed to continue attacks on Israel until the Jewish state is erased from the map.
"You are leaving Gaza today in shame," he said in comments directed toward Israel. "Today you are leaving hell. But we promise you that tomorrow all Palestine will be hell for you, God willing." ...
In the tape, Deif praised the armed struggle against Israel. "Without this jihad and this steadfastness, we did not achieve the liberation of the Gaza Strip," he said, adding that attacks should continue until Israel is eliminated."

"A War to Be Proud Of" (Christopher Hitchens, The Weekly Standard, from the 2005/09/05-12 issue)
"An apparent consensus exists, among millions of people in Europe and America, that the whole operation for the demilitarization of Iraq, and the salvage of its traumatized society, was at best a false pretense and at worst an unprovoked aggression. How can this possibly be? ...
It would take me, on my most eloquent C-SPAN day, at the very least five minutes to say that Abdul Rahman Yasin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center attack in 1993, subsequently sought and found refuge in Baghdad; that Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, Saddam's senior physicist, was able to lead American soldiers to nuclear centrifuge parts and a blueprint for a complete centrifuge (the crown jewel of nuclear physics) buried on the orders of Qusay Hussein; that Saddam's agents were in Damascus as late as February 2003, negotiating to purchase missiles off the shelf from North Korea; or that Rolf Ekeus, the great Swedish socialist who founded the inspection process in Iraq after 1991, has told me for the record that he was offered a $2 million bribe in a face-to-face meeting with Tariq Aziz. And these eye-catching examples would by no means exhaust my repertoire, or empty my quiver. Yes, it must be admitted that Bush and Blair made a hash of a good case, largely because they preferred to scare people rather than enlighten them or reason with them. Still, the only real strategy of deception has come from those who believe, or pretend, that Saddam Hussein was no problem."

"Galloway to go on anti-war tour of US with Jane Fonda" (Andrew Buncombe, Independent, 2005/08/27)
"George Galloway, the anti-war MP for Bethnal Green and Bow who rocked the US Senate earlier this year, is to be accompanied on a speaking tour of America by the actress and activist Jane Fonda.
Few things are more likely to antagonise US conservatives than the combination of Mr Galloway and Ms Fonda - still hated by the right because of her outspoken opposition to the war in Vietnam - joining to condemn the American presence in Iraq. But Mr Galloway can expect a thunderous reception from those he impressed with his performance before a Senate committee last May.
In a statement, Mr Galloway, the Respect MP, said: "I'm really pleased and excited to be going back to America to campaign against this illegal war and occupation. And to have Jane Fonda join me is fantastic. I'll be able to get that autograph at last."
He added: 'I'm sure that when the full implications of the constitutional settlement lashed-up by the puppet Iraqi government are understood that opposition will grow massively.'"

"Hamas cashes in on its Gaza 'victory'" (Patrick Bishop, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/08/27)
"It is not often that Palestinians here have something to cheer about. When they do, they make the most of it. With the last Jewish settlement evacuated and the Israeli army preparing to pack up, the reeking streets of the Gaza Strip are en fête.
Last week 30,000 gathered in Gaza City to sing, dance and wave flags. Political parties are organising carnivals and marches the length and breadth of this sliver of rubbish-strewn sand, crammed with 1.3 million people.
These are the Palestinians' VI celebrations: Victory over Israel. For that is how the episode is being presented, especially by Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement that claims that the more than 200 attacks it has launched in five years are the main reason the Israelis have quit.
A lot of Gazans seem to agree. When asked why the Israelis are leaving after 38 years, many reply "Qassams", a reference to the militarily ineffective but symbolically powerful home-made rockets that Hamas fires at soldiers, settlers and neighbouring Israeli towns.
Hamas spokesmen have outdone each other in inflating the "victory." One of them, Mahmoud al-Zahar, says the withdrawal is 'the most significant event in the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948.'"

"Beslan hostage-taker’s trial fails to satisfy the grieving families" (Jeremy Page, The Times, 2005/08/27)
"Eyes downcast, head bowed, Nurpashi Kulayev walked into the courtroom to face boys and girls whose school friends he is accused of killing.
Mr Kulayev, who was the only hostage-taker captured after the Beslan school siege a year ago, watched impassively as one 14-year-old boy broke down on the witness stand.
“Give this terrorist to us! We will tear the bastard apart!” shouted one woman as relatives packed the room.
This trial in Vladikavkaz, the regional capital, was supposed to bring a sense of justice and closure to the families of the 330 people, 186 of them children, killed on September 3, 2004. Instead it has fuelled their fury that Mr Kulayev, 25, a Chechen carpenter who admits being a hostage-taker, but denies killing anyone, is alone in the dock.
Many would rather see on trial the senior officials who, they say, are responsible for allowing the terrorists to take the school on September 1, and then botching the rescue. ...
Stanislav Kesayev, who runs the North Ossetian parliamentary commission investigating the siege, said that it would be impossible to be sure how the storming started. But he was certain that a lack of planning meant that the rescue descended into a free-for-all. “To understand how this happened, you have to live in this country of idiots,” he said."

"Shiites and Kurds Halt Charter Talks With Sunnis" (Dexter Filkins and James Glanz, The New York Times, 2005/08/27)
"Shiite and Kurdish leaders drafting a new Iraqi constitution abandoned negotiations with a group of Sunni representatives on Friday, deciding to take the disputed charter directly to the Iraqi people.
With the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, standing by, Shiite and Kurdish representatives said they had run out of patience with the Sunni negotiators, a group that includes several former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The Shiites and Kurds said the Sunnis had refused to budge on a pair of crucial issues that were holding up completion of the constitution.
The Shiites and Kurds reached their decision in meetings that ran late into Friday night, disregarding the Sunnis' pleas for more time.
The Shiite and Kurdish representatives sought to play down the importance of leaving the Sunnis out, saying that with their Baathist links, they had never truly spoken for the broader Sunni population. The Iraqi leaders who drafted the constitution defended it as a document that would ensure the unity of the country and safeguard individual rights.
"The negotiation is finished, and we have a deal," said Ahmad Chalabi, the deputy prime minister and a member of the Shiite leadership. 'No one has any more time. It cannot drag on any longer. Most of the Sunnis are satisfied. Everybody made sacrifices. It is an excellent document.'"

Friday, August 26, 2005

News and commentary:

"Iraqis hold up a poster of ousted President Saddam Hussein..."
(Faris Mahdawi, Reuters, 2005/08/26)
"Iraqis hold up a poster of ousted President Saddam Hussein during a demonstration in the streets of Baquba, 60kms northeast of Baghdad August 26, 2005. Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baquba calling for the return of ousted President Saddam Hussein."

"Hoax leaves Ill. student paper embarrassed" (Jim Suhr, AP/seattlepi.com, 2005/08/26)
"We believed what we were told..." Via Tim Blair and Florida Cracker, who notes that the "reporters checked nothing for two years.":
"Kodee Kennings' story was pure gold. For nearly two years, the motherless 8-year-old spoke and wrote movingly of her struggle to deal with her soldier father being shipped off to fight in Iraq, and Southern Illinois University's student newspaper chronicled her thoughts in its pages.
But there was no Kodee Kennings, and the elaborate hoax exposed Friday left The Daily Egyptian embarrassed.
"Certainly for us it's a sad day," said Eric Fidler, Daily Egyptian faculty adviser for the past year. "Some good can come from this, but it doesn't help our reputation. All we can do is be upfront with what happened and what we know."
A 2004 SIU graduate who posed as Kodee's guardian says she and a former Daily Egyptian editor concocted the story to help his career. He denies that and says he was duped, too.
A 10-year-old girl who posed as Kodee in public appearances and a man who pretended to be her father say they were unwitting participants in the scam and believed they were acting in a film.
The tale began to unravel last week when the Daily Egyptian heard that the soldier had been killed in Iraq and subsequent investigations by the student newspaper and the Chicago Tribune exposed that he did not exist.
The Egyptian issued a complete retraction, apology and a news article Friday explaining what happened.
"There is no pleasant way to put it," the newspaper said. "We didn't check the facts carefully. We believed what we were told without verifying." (See also: "Anti-Israel Venom at University of Illinois Paper" (Deborah Passner, CAMERA, 2005/08/24))

"The Paranoid Style" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2005/08/26)
"It is becoming nearly impossible to sort the extreme rhetoric of the antiwar Left from that of the fringe paleo-Right. Both see the Iraqi war through the same lenses: the American effort is bound to fail and is a deep reflection of American pathology.
An anguished Cindy Sheehan calls Bush "the world's biggest terrorist." And she goes on to blame Israel for the death of her son ("Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel").
Her antiwar venom could easily come right out of the mouth of a more calculating David Duke. Perhaps that's why he lauded her anti-Semitism: "Courageously she has gone to Texas near the ranch of President Bush and braved the elements and a hostile Jewish supremacist media." ...
Such a strange, strange world we live in now of David Duke praising Cindy Sheehan's scapegoating Israel.
George Bush who risked his presidency to free millions of Iraqis is to be the moral equivalent of Jefferson Davis — but perhaps is just as hated by the unhinged Right because he is not enough like their beloved Jefferson Davis.
Forcing imperial Japan to surrender is the same as terrorists blowing up the World Trade Center.
And stopping the genocide of Saddam and promoting constitutional government are warmongering.
And all this nonsense transpires in the midst of a war in which the only way we can lose is to turn on each other and give up."

"The Stakes After Gaza" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2005/08/26)
"It is not the Gaza withdrawal itself but what follows that could lead to another and final extinction of Jewish independence, this time not just for 2,000 years but forever.
What follows is the world saying, almost in unison, that the Gaza evacuation is just the beginning of a total Israeli retreat, one Dunkirk to be followed by many more. What follows is Condoleezza Rice declaring that "it cannot be Gaza only," a thrilling encouragement to the Palestinians jeering the Israeli withdrawal with chants of "Gaza today, Jerusalem tomorrow."
Is this what the Bush administration wants? More unilateral concessions to an implacable enemy whose "moderate" leader, Mahmoud Abbas, declares that "we will not rest until they leave from all our land" -- when Palestinian maps show "our land" as nothing less than all of British Palestine with Israel totally eradicated?
This is a prescription for Israel's suicide. Or rather murder, because the Israelis are not prepared to march blindly into further unrequited concessions. The final concession will be getting into boats and sailing back to where?
Poland?"

"PA decries 'Israeli crime' in Tulkarm" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/08/26)
The men behind the suicide bombings in Netanya in July and Tel Aviv in February "had been recruited to the Palestinian security forces in line with understandings reached recently with Israel", according to Saeb Erekat.
The real massacres were of course the ones committed by the terrorists, but the continued Palestinian massacre on language itself should also be noted:

Netanya, Tuesday, July 12, 2005
A suicide bomber "blew himself up among a group of teens near a shopping mall." Five people were killled, among them two girls aged 16, and about 90 wounded.
The explosive belt detonated by the terrorist "weighed about 10 kilograms. The belt also contained nails and ball bearings".

Tel Aviv, Friday, February 25, 2005
A suicide bomber "blew himself up amid a crowd of young Israelis waiting to enter a nightclub near the Tel Aviv beachfront".
"The explosion sent bodies sprawling and covered the street and sidewalk with blood, body parts and debris. Cars were mangled and windows were blown out. Store signs came crashing down and wires dangled from buildings along the beachfront strip."
Five people were killed, among them two women in their twenties, and about 50 wounded.

"The Palestinian Authority on Thursday condemned the killing of five Palestinians by the IDF in Tulkarm late on Wednesday night, saying Israel would have to bear the consequences of the operation.
Several armed groups threatened to resume their attacks on Israel in response to the killings.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the Israeli "despicable crime" was in the context of continued attempts by Israel to destroy the unofficial truce and the peace process. ...
PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei told reporters in Ramallah that the killings showed Israel was not interested in maintaining the calm. "This is a brutal operation," he said. "Israel is continuing to perpetrate crimes, including the construction of the racist separation wall and settlements, especially in Jerusalem and its surroundings." Qurei said the situation was now "extremely dangerous" and called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to halt its settlement policy. ...
PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the Tulkarm operation as a "massacre," saying it would destroy all efforts to revive the peace process. ...
'They had handed over Tulkarm [to the PA] and said that they would stop the violence against Palestinians everywhere. Three of the martyrs were wanted by Israel and had been recruited to the Palestinian security forces in line with understandings reached recently with Israel.'" (See also: "Israeli troops kill Islamic Jihad leader - witnesses" (Muan Shadid, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/24))

"The President may be waiting on a friend – but he'd be a fool to cry" (Gerard Baker, The Times, 2005/08/26)
"All this is leading many in America, even conservatives, even neoconservatives, to begin to doubt the wisdom of the war. Did we really fight to make Iraq safe for fundamentalist mullahs to force women into hiding while thuggish Sunni, Shia and Kurdish militias duke it out on the streets? Mission accomplished?
And it leads inevitably, to the question at the heart of the neoconservative world view: weren’t we better off with a dictatorship, that, for all its faults, at least walled in the chaos? The answer is still “no”.
Not just because the case for invading Iraq was based on the former regime’s grotesque defiance of international law — demonstrated repeatedly from the invasion of Iran up to UN Security Council resolution 1441. Nor is it that the moral imperative for powerful, free states to intervene on behalf of oppressed peoples is compelling.
The reason is that the apparent stability that Saddam provided for us was a false stability. You can’t treat a people as he did for 30 years and not create the conditions for explosive violence with long-term implications for your own people and way beyond your own borders. Indeed what we are seeing now is not what would have happened in the absence of Saddam, but the consequences of what Saddam did to his own people for all that time. You cannot build an international order by embracing tyranny for half the world — we tried that in Iran and Saudi Arabia and Indonesia for decades. We didn’t get stability; we got violence, much of it directed at us."

"Playing The Shiite Card" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/08/26)
Constitution III: "[Ammar] Hakim, 34, is the oldest son of Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite party known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is probably the most potent political force in the country today. He now lives in Najaf, the Shiite equivalent of the Vatican, where he helps direct the party's social and charitable network. But he and his family lived 23 years in exile in Iran. To put it bluntly, Hakim represents what might be called the "Shiite card" in the Iraqi poker game. ...
If I could sum up his theme in one sentence, it is that the United States should continue to bet on democracy in Iraq -- which of necessity means relying on Iraq's Shiite majority and the mullahs who speak for it. In essence, he was calling for a strategic alliance between Najaf and Washington.
I told Hakim through an interpreter that many Americans were close to despair about Iraq. We see continuing violence and few signs that Iraq's security forces will be strong enough to maintain order once American troops leave. Here's how Hakim responded: "The truth is, this is a grand plan, and any time you are engaged in a grand plan, you will face difficulties. But we will overcome them. We are now in the final quarter of these difficulties." I'm not sure I agree with him that the troubles are nearly over, but I must say that I was moved by his answer.
Hakim told me he had visited the Lincoln Memorial, and I asked what he had thought as he looked up at the face of the man who kept America together during its own brutally violent civil war. He said the American experience was a lesson for Iraqis "in pooling people of various ethnic backgrounds into one law and order." He added that he hoped future generations of Iraqis would look at their current leaders with the same gratitude that Americans feel when they regard Lincoln."

"Political Violence Surges in Iraq" (Ellen Knickmeyer and Anthony Shadid, The Washington Post, 2005/08/26)
Constitution II: "Political violence surged Thursday along many of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian fault lines, while Shiite and Sunni Arab political leaders haggled past a third deadline without reaching accord on a draft constitution.
As the two-day death toll around Iraq reached 100, fighting between two powerful Shiite militias in the southern city of Najaf subsided, with 19 reported dead overall. The clashes Wednesday night and Thursday between the Mahdi Army, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and fighters allegedly linked to the government-allied Badr Organization were the deadliest between Iraqi militia forces since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
In Baghdad, 13 Iraqi police officers, 27 Iraqi civilians and an unidentified American security force member were killed when dozens of fighters believed to be former members of Saddam Hussein's security apparatus laid siege to a neighborhood late Wednesday, openly walking the district's streets in black masks and carrying AK-47s and grenade launchers, according to the U.S. military, Iraqi officials and witnesses. East of the capital, the bodies of 36 other men, their identities unknown, were found heaped Thursday near a road leading toward Iran, security officials told news agencies."

"Charter Talks in Iraq Reach Breaking Point" (Dexter Filkins and James Glanz, The New York Times, 2005/08/26)
Constitution I: "Talks over the Iraqi constitution reached a breaking point on Thursday, with a parliamentary session to present the document being canceled and President Bush personally calling one of the country's most powerful Shiite leaders in an effort to broker a last-minute deal.
Mr. Bush intervened when some senior Shiite leaders said they had decided to bypass their Sunni counterparts, as well as Iraqi lawmakers, and send the document directly to Iraqi voters for their approval.
The calls by Shiite leaders to ignore the Sunnis' request for changes to the draft constitution provoked threats from the Sunnis that they would urge their people to reject the document when it goes before voters in a national referendum in October.
At day's end, American officials in Washington declared that the Iraqis had made "substantial and real progress" toward a deal on the constitution. And senior Iraqi leaders said they would make a last-ditch effort on Friday to strike a deal.
But after so many days of fruitless negotiations, some senior political leaders here suggested that time had run out.
"There are still some negotiations, but if we don't have any compromise, then that's it," said Sheik Khalid al-Atiyya, a Shiite negotiator. 'We will go to the election to vote on it.'"

Thursday, August 25, 2005

News and commentary:

"Bush vs. the Mother" (Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, 2005/08/25)
A report from Camp Casey on Cindy Sheehan and the anti-war movement:
"The movement likes to think of itself as open and inclusive, but in practice it often comes off like a bunch of nerds whose favored recreation is coming up with clever passwords for their secret treehouse. The ostensible political purpose may be ending the war, but the immediate occupation for a sizable percentage of these people always seemed to be a kind of rolling adult tourist attraction called Hating George Bush. Marches become Hate Bush Cruises; vigils, Hate Bush Resorts. Hence the astonishingly wide variety of anti-Bush tees (Camp Casey featured a rare film-fantasy matched set, home at various times to BUSH IS SAURON and DARTH INVADER); the unstoppable flow of Bush-themed folk songs. ...
There are times when American politics seems like little more than two groups in a fever to prevent each other from trespassing upon their respective soothing versions of unreality. At one point at Camp Casey, an informal poll taken around a campfire revealed that six out of a group of ten protesters, selected at random, believed that the United States government was directly involved in planning the 9/11 bombings. Flabbergasted, I tried to press the issue.
"Do you know how many people would have to be involved in that conspiracy?" I said. "I mean, start with the pilots . . ."
"The planes were flown by remote control," a girl sitting across from me snapped." (Hat tip: Tim Blair.)

"Polis" (Martin Peretz, The New Republic, 2005/08/25)
"In any case, the real question is whether the Palestinians are willing to contemplate compromise. Not since American and European innocents swallowed the line that Josef Stalin really didn't want all of Eastern Europe has there been such widespread gullibility about a political movement's intentions. ...
One of Mashaal's lieutenants, Mahmoud Zahar, impressed upon the pan-Arab daily Arshaq Al Awsat that "neither the liberation of the Gaza Strip nor the liberation of the West Bank or even Jerusalem will suffice us. Hamas will pursue the armed struggle until the liberation of all our lands. We don't recognize the state of Israel or its right to hold on to one inch of Palestine. Palestine is an Islamic land belonging to all the Muslims." After a meeting with Qurei, Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders informed reporters that they were assured that "there would be no attempt" by the PA "to collect weapons from the resistance groups." No PA officials denied this. Well, Prime Minister Sharon, can't you find some more generous common ground with these folks? Secretary Rice, have you heard about this in your morning briefings?
In The Jerusalem Post last Thursday, the political commentator Saul Singer astutely observed that the Greater Israel movement may have been broken by -- of all people -- Ariel Sharon, but what almost nobody has noticed is that Greater Palestine is still alive. Its irredentist and jihadist idea suffuses each and every Palestinian crowd. "Palestinians," Singer wrote, "including Abbas, do not even have to call their goal 'Greater Palestine' because to them that is what the word 'Palestine' means. The Palestine of Palestinian maps, poetry, dreams, and legal claims includes all of Israel." There is no reason for great optimism. Gaza will be a relief to Israel. But partial relief: It does not change the stakes or even the odds." (Hat tip: Barry Kaplovitz.)

"Divided They Stand" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2005/08/25)
Constitution II: "'The Bush administration finally did something right in brokering this constitution,' [Peter W.] Galbraith exclaimed, then added: "This is the only possible deal that can bring stability. ... I do believe it might save the country." ...
Galbraith says he is frustrated with all the American critics who argue that the constitution divides the country. The country is already divided, he says, and drawing up a constitution that would artificially bind three divergent societies together would create only friction, violence and civil war. "It's not a problem if a country breaks up, only if it breaks up violently," Galbraith says. "Iraq wasn't created by God. It was created by Winston Churchill." ...
[Reuel Marc] Gerecht is also upbeat about this constitution. It's crazy, he says, to think that you could have an Iraqi constitution in which clerical authorities are not assigned a significant role. Voters supported clerical parties because they are, right now, the natural leaders of society and serve important social functions.
But this doesn't mean we have to start screaming about a 13th-century theocratic state. Understanding the clerics, Gerecht has argued, means understanding two things. First, the Shiite clerical establishment has made a substantial intellectual leap. It now firmly believes in one person one vote, and rejects the Iranian model. On the other hand, these folks don't think like us.
What's important, Gerecht has emphasized, is the democratic process: setting up a system in which the different groups, secular and clerical, will have to bargain with one another, campaign and deal with the real-world consequences of their ideas. This is what's going to moderate them and lead to progress. This constitution does that. Shutting them out would lead to war."

"Islamic Slant in Charter Decried" (Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, 2005/08/25)
Constitution I: "In an effort to strike a compromise between the nation's religious and secular communities, Iraq's proposed constitution reserves a central place for Islamic law in the legal system while safeguarding personal freedoms and democracy. ...
For instance, the draft constitution makes Islam the "official religion" of Iraq and "a main source" of law rather than "the" source, as many Shiite conservatives sought. But secularists remain concerned about a clause that prohibits any law that "contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam." ...
The Iraqi draft constitution also calls for gender equality and privacy rights and prohibits laws that contradict democracy or "basic freedoms" guaranteed by the charter. ...
In Iraq, Iyad Jamal Din, a Shiite Muslim cleric and political activist who opposes mixing religion and government, voiced similar concerns. "It tries to preserve human rights, but within a choking religious society that is a clone of the Iranian system," he said. "I fear this constitution will lead us into a dark society controlled by extremists." ...
"The problem is that there are no agreements on these questions," said Peter W. Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia who advised Kurdish politicians on the constitution. "It allows any cleric to make his own interpretation of the law and opens the door to a whole range of abuses."
Galbraith said the draft fell well short of the sort of democratic government the Bush administration hoped to install in Iraq. "The U.S. now has to recognize that they overthrew Saddam Hussein to replace him with a pro-Iranian state," he said."

"Last telephone calls capture rising panic of 7/7 bus bomber" (Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2005/08/25)
"The youngest of the July 7 bombers made three desperate telephone calls begging for help from the other members of the terror cell just minutes before he blew himself up on a London bus.
The frantic last messages of Hasib Hussain, 18, are seen by Scotland Yard as vivid proof that the British-born Muslim extremists knew they were going to die in the attacks.
The teenager clearly panicked when he realised he could not get on to a Northern Line Tube to detonate his rucksack bomb as the service had been suspended because of a broken down train.
Knowing that all four men were supposed to synchronise the timing of the explosions, Hussain ran out of King’s Cross Underground station and tried to reach his accomplices by mobile telephone.
It was just before 9am, but by then all his fellow bombers were already dead. The other three had triggered their devices within seconds of one another at 8.50am.
Hussain is believed to have first called Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, the alleged leader of the group, saying: 'I can’t get on a train. What should I do?'"

"British Detail Policy on Radicals" (Kevin Sullivan, The Washington Post, 2005/08/25)
The Muslim Association of Britain's position seems to be that there should be a law against the publication of, for example, "The Satanic Verses", but that a law forbidding the glorification of terrorist violence constitutes a "war on freedom of speech".:
"The British government will deport and ban people who "foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence," the country's top law enforcement official announced Wednesday.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke outlined the new policy, the most detailed explanation to date of proposals announced this month by Prime Minister Tony Blair. Clarke said a list of "unacceptable behaviors" includes the use of Web sites, writing, preaching, publishing or distributing materials that "seek to provoke others to terrorist acts" or "foster hatred".
"Individuals who seek to create fear, distrust and division in order to stir up terrorist activity will not be tolerated by the government or by our communities," Clarke said. His statement detailed measures directly resulting from last month's transit system bombings in London, which killed 56 people, including four presumed bombers, and injured 700. ...
"I see in this a war on freedom of speech," Azzam Tamimi, a senior leader of the Muslim Association of Britain, said in a telephone interview.
"Prosecuting people for their speech will not prevent a frustrated, angry young man from committing an act of violence," he said. 'They don't do it because someone tells them to. They do it because they have no hope.'" ( See also: "Acts of hate: full list of 'deportation' acts" (The Times, 2005/08/24))

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

News and commentary:

"Anti-Israel Venom at University of Illinois Paper" (Deborah Passner, CAMERA, 2005/08/24)
"The University of Illinois newspaper, the Daily Illini, is making a dubious name for itself as one of America’s more recklessly anti-Israel student publications. Flouting journalistic norms that mandate accuracy, ethics and responsible sourcing it has repeatedly run false, anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic commentaries.
“Stop turning a blind eye” (Dec 11, 2003) is on this unfortunate list. Written by Mariam Sobh, a journalism student and regular Illini columnist, the op-ed contained a grotesque, invented quote attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as well as a spurious reference to another non-existent quote, by another Israeli official, supposedly from the New York Times. This is a pattern with the Illini columnist. In her zeal to vilify Israel, Sobh consistently turns to unreliable sources to prove her point. Both the extreme invective against Israel and the permissive editorial policy allowing student and community writers to use the pages of the newspaper for propaganda are apparently habitual. ...
Mariam Sobh introduced her Dec 11 piece with the following statement, purportedly uttered by Ariel Sharon, in order “to show a clearer picture of the Israeli leadership:”

"I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.

This shocking quote, a staple on Arab propaganda Web sites, is an internet hoax for which the journalism student, not surprisingly, provided no source. There is no record of any “General Ouze Merham” or any truth to the claim that Sharon made the quoted comments. The paper’s decision to run such an inflammatory statement with no attribution is indefensible." (Hat tip: Solomonia.)

"Gail Collins Is Unsettled" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2005/08/24)
Constitution IV: "Yesterday the New York Times published an editorial bemoaning, as the headline put it, "Iraq's Unsettling Constitution":

The draft constitution given to Iraq's national assembly last night does little to advance the prospects for a unified and peaceful Iraq. Nor does it reflect well on the Bush administration, which let its politically motivated obsession with an arbitrary deadline trump its responsibility to promote inclusiveness, women's rights and the rule of law.

The Times complains of "divisive provisions, like the enshrinement of Islamic law and the threats to women's family and property rights." Blogger "Alenda Lux" offers some perspective. Here's a quote from the constitution:

The religion of the state . . . is the sacred religion of Islam. Followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law. . . . No law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.

Unsettling? Not according to the New York Times. For this quote is from the Afghan constitution, not the Iraqi one -- and when Afghanistan approved its constitution, the Times was exultant, seeing it as a triumph of, as a Jan. 6, 2004, editorial's headline put it, "Islamic Democracy":

Afghanistan's new Constitution offers hope that the beleaguered nation can finally evolve into a modern, democratic state. . . . And it balances the goal of an Islamic state with the promise to abide by the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. America's ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was right to call it "one of the most enlightened constitutions in the Islamic world."

The Times observes that the Afghan constitution "specifically grants equal rights to women, even promising two Parliament seats in each province to women." The Iraqi constitution ... has similar provisions:

Iraqis are equal before the law without discrimination because of gender, ethnicity, nationality, origin, color, religion, sect, belief, opinion or social or economic status. . . . No less than 25% of Council of Deputies seats go to women.

But these provisions go totally unmentioned in the Times' hand-wringing editorial. ...
Gail Collins & Co. are heavily invested in the idea that America shouldn't have liberated Iraq in the first place. Failure in Iraq -- unlike in Afghanistan -- would vindicate them, and that is why they are so eager to find signs of it. What really unsettles America's defeatists is the prospect of success." (See also: "Iraq's Constitution" (Alenda Luz, 2005/08/23). (Also: "Islamic Democracy" (The New York Times, 2004/01/06) and "Iraq's Unsettling Constitution" (The New York Times, 2005/08/24))

"Israeli troops kill Islamic Jihad leader - witnesses" (Muan Shadid, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/24)
"Israeli undercover troops killed four Palestinians, one of them an Islamic Jihad leader, in a raid on Wednesday night in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank, witnesses and a military source said.
Ribhi Amara, a leader of Islamic Jihad, was among those killed, they said. The group is bent on Israel's destruction.
Israeli forces entered the camp and surrounded the building, the witnesses said. The military source said the men were killed in a gunbattle.
"There was accurate information about a house in Tulkarm and forces came to make arrests of 5 men known to have been inside. When the army approached, they were fired upon, returned fire and killed 3, possibly 4, men," the source said.
"The intention was to come to arrest them. All were wanted and all were armed," the source said.
The group was apparently behind suicide bombings in the Israeli city of Netanya that killed 5 people in July and at a Tel Aviv nightclub in February that also killed 5 people, Israel Radio said." (See also: "Suicide Bomber Kills 2 Near Israel Mall" (Gavin Rabinowitz, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/07/12) and "Suicide Bombing Kills at Least 4 at Tel Aviv Club" (Alan Cowell and Greg Myre, The New York Times, 2005/02/26))

"Witness: Islamic Jihad Planned Strike In U.S." (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2005/08/24)
"A startling new Al-Arian update from the Tampa Tribune (thanks to Sr. Soph). Chuckles from the defendants' supporters? Because they are only too ready to believe that American officials are lying and trumping up their case against the Rumpled Academic. Unfortunately for them, however, much of Sami's jihad activity seems to have been captured on tape.

TAMPA - The Palestinian Islamic Jihad planned an attack inside the United States, but it might have been thwarted by federal law enforcement, an FBI agent testified Tuesday afternoon.
Agent Kerry Myers said all information about the plot was classified and he could not discuss it.
He made the revelation early in his cross-examination as a witness in the terror-support trial of former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian and three other men. U.S. District Judge James Moody later ordered prosecutors to present evidence about the plot to him during a closed meeting in his chambers to determine whether defense attorneys should have access to it.
Defense attorney William Moffitt had asked Myers whether the Islamic Jihad ever committed a terrorist attack outside Israel or the occupied territories.
It has not, but its leaders threatened to attack the United States three times, Myers said.
During a rapid-fire exchange in which both men's voices rose, Moffitt asked Myers whether anyone ever acted on those threats.
"I can tell you there was a plot to commit terrorist acts in the United States," he said. "It was interdicted, I believe."
Moffitt asked when that happened.
"It's classified," Myers said, drawing chuckles from defendants' relatives and supporters in the courtroom gallery."

(See also: "Witness: Islamic Jihad Planned Strike In U.S." (Michael Fechter, Tampa Tribune, 2005/08/24))

"Acts of hate: full list of 'deportation' acts" (The Times, 2005/08/24)
"The Home Office today published a list of "unacceptable behaviours" which will lead to the deportation or exclusion of any foreign national who commits them from the UK.
According to the Home Secretary the list is indicative rather than exhaustive and covers any non-UK citizen whether in the UK or abroad.

Terrorist violence

Cannot foment, justify, glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs

Terrorist acts

Cannot seek to provoke others to terrorist acts

Criminal acts

Cannot foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts

Inter-community violence

Cannot foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

Method

Individuals who do the above by any means or medium are caught by the legislation, including:

- writing, producing, publishing or distributing material;

- public speaking including preaching

- running a website

- using a position of responsibility such as teacher, community or youth leader"

"Why Iraq's Sunnis fear constitution" (Dan Murphy and Jill Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor, 2005/08/24)
Constitution III: "But at root of the Sunni rejection of the constitutional process is fear itself. The psyche of this community, from which Saddam Hussein's most fervent supporters were drawn and who enjoyed privileged positions until his regime was toppled, has been badly damaged in the past few years.
Many fears about the new Iraq are expressed throughout Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods. They fear that Iraq's new masters will punish them for supporting Mr. Hussein's regime; they fear they don't have leaders or social cohesion; and they fear their former status will never be regained. ...
The current draft constitution on the table specifically outlaws Hussein's old Baath party, which many Sunnis interpret as an effort to target them as a community.
Shiites have also been pushing for a strong role for their clerics in advising Iraq's lawmakers. The current draft contains language banning any law "that violates the sharia," and opens the door to Shiite religious leaders helping to set the law of the land. ...
But all the concerns now swirling around the Sunni community have made many determined to turn out in force in the next national elections scheduled for December.
"Sunnis made a mistake by not participating in the elections," says Mustafa Ali Kareem al-Bayati, a Sunni living in north- eastern Baghdad.
He says there are banners in his neighborhood encouraging people to vote and he says he will be sure to. "Our destiny will be decided in these days."
Indeed, what most Sunnis want now is for the constitutional process to stop, and for new elections to be held, which they expect would yield them more influence." (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

"Secular Iraqis Say New Charter May Curb Rights" (Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2005/08/24)
Constitution II: "Some secular Iraqi leaders complained Tuesday that the country's nearly finished constitution lays the groundwork for the possible domination of the country by Shiite Islamic clerics, and that it contains specific provisions that could sharply curtail the rights of women.
The secular leaders said the draft, which was presented to the National Assembly on Monday, contains language that not only establishes the primacy of Islam as the country's official religion, but appears to grant judges wide latitude to strike down legislation that may contravene the faith. To interpret such legislation, the constitution calls for the appointment of experts in Shariah, or Islamic law, to preside on the Supreme Federal Court. ...
"This is the future of the new Iraqi government - it will be in the hands of the clerics," said Dr. Raja Kuzai, a secular Shiite member of the Assembly. "I wanted Iraqi women to be free, to be able to talk freely and to able to move around."
"I am not going to stay here," said Dr. Kuzai, an obstetrician and women's leader who met President Bush in the White House in November 2003.
Other Iraqi leaders who helped draft the constitution say the fears of nascent theocracy are unfounded. The new draft constitution, they point out, contains language guaranteeing equal rights for all Iraqis, as well as freedom of expression and religion. And it contains important safeguards, such as, in some cases, the requirement of super-majorities to approve laws."

"Glee and Anger Greet Iraq's Draft Charter" (Ellen Knickmeyer and Bassam Sebti, The Washington Post, 2005/08/24)
Constitution I: "A new draft constitution that would transform Iraq into a loose federal union sparked celebrations Tuesday in the streets of the Shiite south and an angry rally in the Sunni Arab heartland, where some chanted for the return of Saddam Hussein.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, called instrumental by all sides in prodding the constitution toward completion, defended it against complaints that it gave Islamic law too much power, particularly over women. Khalilzad said the draft was "right for Iraq at the present time." ...
And in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, traditional wedding parties turned into street celebrations, with revelers waving posters for the new constitution.
Sunni negotiators and ordinary Sunnis, meanwhile, complained bitterly that the draft had been presented to parliament."

Added in archive:
"'It's called courage'" (Lisa Ramaci-Vincent, Murdoc Online, 2005/08/21)
"What Cindy Sheehan Really Wants" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/08/19)

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

News and commentary:

"Jordan says Syrian militants behind rocket attack" (Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/23)
"Syrian militants linked to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were behind last week's rocket attack on U.S. warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Jordanian security officials said on Tuesday.
Zarqawi's Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, in which the rockets missed their targets, but hit a warehouse and a hospital, killing a Jordanian soldier, and struck the Israeli port of Eilat.
An Internet statement said those who had carried out the strikes had "withdrawn ... and returned safely to their base."
The Jordanian officials identified the suspects as an Iraqi named Mohammed Hameed Hassan, also known as Abu Mukhtar, and a Syrian named Mohammed Hassan Abdullah al-Sahli and his two sons.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said Sahli had been part of an al Qaeda sleeper cell in Amman. He was arrested shortly after his sons, Abdullah and Abdul-Rahman, fled across the border to Iraq with Hassan on Friday.
They said the Syrians had used forged Iraqi passports to enter Jordan, a tightly policed pro-Western kingdom where militant attacks are rare.
Another security source said the four-member group had received direct orders from Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has led a campaign of bombings and kidnappings in postwar Iraq."

"PA won't disarm Hamas, Islamic Jihad" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/08/23)
"Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced on Monday that they have reached an agreement with the Palestinian Authority according to which the two groups would not be disarmed.
The agreement was reportedly achieved during talks in Damascus between PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Qurei met Sunday night in Damascus with leaders of various radical groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and discussed ways of cooperating with them after implementation of the disengagement plan is completed.
Sources close to the two groups said Qurei made it clear that the PA would not confiscate the weapons of any of the armed groups in the Gaza Strip.
Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader based in Syria, said the meeting was held in a "cordial atmosphere" and that the two sides agreed that the Palestinians should have a joint strategy after disengagement.
"We stressed during the meeting that the Palestinians have the right to continue the resistance [against Israel] and that there would be no attempt to collect weapons from the resistance groups," he said.
"The weapons of the resistance were founded to defend the Palestinian people and resist the occupation," he added. 'The Gaza victory was achieved with the weapons of the resistance, which is the only strategy to drive Israel out of the rest of our lands.'"

"Don't Underestimate the Mullahs" (Gary Milhollin, The New York Times, 2005/08/23)
"What must Iran do to make a bomb? This month it started an essential part of the process. It resumed the conversion of about 37 tons of natural uranium into the gaseous form that can be fed into centrifuges. Those machines, by spinning the gas at high speed, enrich its potency - either to a low level for fueling a reactor, or to a high level for fueling a bomb. These 37 tons, which should be ready for enrichment in a month or so, would be sufficient for six to nine weapons.
Why does the administration think it will take up to 10 years to process this material? The intelligence estimate is secret, but foreign and American officials involved in monitoring Iran's efforts tell me that Washington assumes Iran's centrifuges are of poor quality and that Iranian scientists may have trouble connecting them into what is called a cascade, in which the uranium must flow from one machine to the next.
This prediction, however, discounts an overwhelming amount of countervailing evidence. First, an official at the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran's nuclear progress in detail, told me that his agency is confident that the Iranians can produce high-quality centrifuges. ...
In 2002, Iranian scientists enriched a small amount of uranium in an experimental cascade at the Kalaye Electric Company, a secret operation in Tehran that the International Atomic Energy Agency didn't discover until 2003.
After a year's operation of such a cascade, Iran would have one bomb's worth of highly enriched uranium, and could have built and started running 2,000 more centrifuges. Continuing at this pace would yield three bombs' worth of enriched material in three years, and about six bombs' worth in four."

"Win in Iraq: Failure would have disastrous consequences" (The San-Diego Union-Tribune, 2005/08/23)
For all the "Get out now!" defeatists: "Is this mission impossible, as many of the critics assert? Certainly not.
Saddam Hussein sits in a cell, the new Iraq has a freely elected Parliament, will soon have a constitution and a permanent government after elections in December. Not bad for a process that began just 30 months ago.
To those who doubt that a military victory in Iraq is possible, consider the enemy that U.S. and coalition forces confront – a few thousand mostly Sunni terrorists opposed by the overwhelming majority of Iraqis, who are Shia and Kurds. Only a minority of Iraq's minority Sunnis support the terrorists, whose murderous attacks on Iraqi civilians are turning more and more Iraqis against them.
Now consider the alternatives to winning in Iraq.
Immediate withdrawal would produce certain catastrophe. It would leave Iraq a failed state largely defenseless against a terrorist tide supported by al-Qaeda. It would destabilize the Middle East and hand America's terrorist enemy a stupendous victory far more damaging than 9/11. No wonder, then, that there is virtually no support in the U.S. Congress for immediate withdrawal.
Setting a deadline for withdrawal, as only a single senator now proposes, would demoralize the new Iraqi government and embolden the terrorists to wait us out, as they surely would.
Simply hanging on in Iraq until a political pretext permits an early exit, as some fear Rumsfeld favors, risks defeat on the installment plan."

"Iraqis Submit Charter, but Delay Vote" (Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer, The Washington Post, 2005/08/23)
Constitution I: "The draft constitution submitted Monday stipulates that Iraq is an Islamic state and that no law can contradict the principles of Islam, negotiators confirmed.
Opponents have charged that the latter provision would subject Iraqis to rule by religious edicts of individual clerics or sects.
The opponents also said women would lose gains they made during Hussein's rule, when they were guaranteed equal rights under civil law in matters including marriage, divorce and inheritance. The draft constitution says individuals can choose to have family matters decided by either religious or civil law.
Supporters say a separate bill of rights would protect women, and provisions of the constitution say no law can contradict democracy or that bill of rights.
Khalilzad, speaking to CNN early Tuesday, called the proposed constitution a "very good" draft that guarantees equal rights for all. An American serving as adviser to the Kurds, Peter Galbraith, disagreed that the charter protected women's rights and condemned what he called the Bush administration's "hypocrisy" on that issue in the constitution."

Monday, August 22, 2005

News and commentary:

"The Intellectuals and Socialism: As Seen from a Post-Communist Country Situated in Predominantly Post-Democratic Europe" (Václav Klaus, klaus.cz, 2005/08/22)
A brilliant speech by Czech President Václav Klaus held during the Regional Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society:
"Illiberal ideas are becoming to be formulated, spread and preached under the name of ideologies or “isms”, which have – at least formally and nominally – nothing in common with the old-styled, explicit socialism. These ideas are, however, in many respects similar to it. There is always a limiting (or constraining) of human freedom, there is always ambitious social engineering, there is always an immodest “enforcement of a good” by those who are anointed (T. Sowell) on others against their will, there is always the crowding out of standard democratic methods by alternative political procedures, and there is always the feeling of superiority of intellectuals and of their ambitions.
I have in mind environmentalism (with its Earth First, not Freedom First principle), radical humanrightism (based – as de Jasay precisely argues – on not distinguishing rights and rightism), ideology of “civic society” (or communitarism), which is nothing less than one version of post-Marxist collectivism which wants privileges for organized groups, and in consequence, a refeudalization of society. I also have in mind multiculturalism, feminism, apolitical technocratism (based on the resentment against politics and politicians), internationalism (and especially its European variant called Europeanism) and a rapidly growing phenomenon I call NGOism.
All of them represent substitute ideologies for socialism. All of them give intellectuals new possibilities, new space for their activities, new niches in the market of ideas. To face these new isms, to reveal their true nature, and to be able to get rid of them, may be more difficult than in the past." (Hat tip: The Brussels Journal.)

"Text of Proposed Iraq Constitution" (AP/The New York Times, 2005/08/22)
Constitution III: "Article Two
The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal.
1. Islam is a main source for legislation.
_ a. No law may contradict Islamic standards.
_ b. No law may contradict democratic standards.
_ c. No law may contradict the essential rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution.
2. This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people and guarantees all religious rights; all persons are free within their ideology and the practice of their ideological practices."

"Iraq draft says laws must conform to Islam" (Reuters/Netscape News, 2005/08/22)
Constitution II: "BAGHDAD, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A draft constitution for Iraq to be presented to parliament on Monday will make Islam "a main source" for legislation and ban laws that contradict religious teachings, members of the parliamentary drafting panel said.
One said the text, agreed by the ruling Shi'ite and Kurdish coalition over Sunni Arab objections, would read: "Islam is a main source for legislation and it is not permitted to legislate anything that conflicts with the fixed principles of its rules."
Shi'ite delegate Jawad al-Maliki said the wording was fixed.
It appeared to be something of a compromise after secular Kurds had objected during negotiations to Islam being "the main source" of laws. It was not clear how legislation would be subjected to the test of conforming to Islamic principles."

"Iraq Leaders Withhold Constitution" (Qassim Abdul-Zahra, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/22)
Constitution I: "BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi leaders finished their draft constitution Monday and prepared to submit it to parliament — but withdrew it in the final minutes in order to give time to win over the Sunni Arab community whose support is key to ending the insurgency.
The parliament gathered with just minutes remaining before a midnight deadline to adopt the constitution, which still faced fierce resistance from minority Sunnis over the issue of federalism, which they fear could cut them out of most of the country's vast oil wealth, as well as power relations among the provinces.
Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani then announced that there was strong interest in reaching unanimity on the draft "so that the constitution pleases everyone."
"All these groups in the coming three days will try, God willing, to reach accord on some points that are still disagreements," he said. "The draft constitution has been received and we will work on solving the remaining problems, God willing."
He then adjourned the session without a vote."

"No evidence Atta identified before 2001 attacks: Pentagon" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/22)
Able Danger II: "A Pentagon review has so far found no evidence that a secret intelligence operation identified Mohammad Atta as a member of a US-based Al-Qaeda cell before the September 11, 2001 attacks, a spokesperson said.
Representative Curt Weldon and Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer have charged that Atta and three other September 11 hijackers were identified as early as mid-2000 through a data-mining program codenamed "Able Danger."
But Lawrence DiRita, a Pentagon spokesman, said a review of materials related to Able Danger has so far turned up no evidence that it identified Atta, the reputed leader of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon."

"Navy Officer Affirms Assertions About Pre-9/11 Data on Atta" (Philip Shenon, The New York Times, 2005/08/22)
Able Danger I: "An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.
The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command. "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."
His comments came on the same day that the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters that the Defense Department had been unable to validate the assertions made by an Army intelligence veteran, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and now backed up by Captain Phillpott, about the early identification of Mr. Atta."

"Last Jewish Settlers Leave Gaza" (Kristen Stevens, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/22)
"The last Jewish settlement in Gaza was evacuated Monday, wrapping up Israel's historic pullout from the coastal strip after settlers held a farewell march behind Torah scrolls and a massive menorah, then boarded armored buses and left. ...
The settlers left Netzarim in a caravan of buses with Israeli flags poking out of darkened bulletproof windows and private cars and trucks loaded with belongings. A settlement leader sat in the front of the first bus clutching a Torah.
Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, head of Israel's southern command, declared the evacuation of Gaza over.
"We completed today the evacuation of the Israeli presence from the Gaza Strip," he said.
Although several stragglers were reported to still be in Netzarim, the army said no one was left.
Harel said it would take several weeks before the Israeli military dismantles its bases and hands over the territory to the Palestinians. Until that time, he said, 'we don't plan on allowing any Palestinians into the area until the evacuation process is complete and we feel we are ready.'"

"'Blow up No 10 and Tony Blair with it' - Scots Muslim's terror rant sparks anger" (Craig Mcdonald, Daily Record, 2005/08/22)
"A Scots-based Muslim leader caused outrage yesterday by saying he would be "very happy" if bombers blew up Downing Street with Tony Blair inside. Dr Yaqub Zaki, deputy leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, insisted he would not condemn such an attack.
He said: "I say go ahead, I would be very happy. The IRA did it. They had rockets that were ready to rain down on No 10.
"It would be a shame because it's a beautiful Georgian property. I wouldn't like to see it destroyed but as for its inmates, well, I don't care much for what happens to them." Zaki, a white Muslim convert from Greenock, Renfrewshire, said he was not calling for the Prime Minister's execution. But he admitted he would "not be upset" if No 10 was attacked.
The 60-year-old scholar also claimed in an interview that British agents may have been behind last month's London bombings.
He said: "I cannot exclude the hypothesis that they were the work of agents provocateurs working for British intelligence to create a case for war against the Muslims."
Zaki expressed doubts that Muslims were behind the September 11 attacks. And he vowed to defy Government plans to make it illegal to glorify terrorism.
He said: 'If I want to praise the sacrifice of somebody in Palestine who blows themselves up, I will.'"

"In Letter, Saddam Casts Self As Martyr" (Jamal Halaby, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/08/22)
"Facing trial and possible execution for the massacre of his fellow Muslims, ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sought in a letter published Sunday to cast himself as a martyr, writing that his "soul and existence is to be sacrificed" for the Arab cause.
A Jordanian friend received the letter through the International Committee of the Red Cross, which verified its authenticity and said it had been censored by Saddam's American captors in Iraq.
"My soul and my existence is to be sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq," said the letter, published in two Jordanian newspapers and made available to The Associated Press. ...
Facing possible execution if found guilty in upcoming trials, Saddam's letter appeared to include musings on his mortality.
"Life is meaningless without the considerations of faith, love and inherited history in our nation," the letter said.
"It is not much for a man to support his nation with his soul and all he commands because it deserves it since it has given us life in the name of God and allowed us to inherit the best," he wrote in a what appeared a call to Arabs to follow in his footsteps."

"US yields to demand for Islamic role in Iraq laws" (Oliver Poole, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/08/22)
"The United States yesterday finally abandoned the fading dream of turning Iraq into a beacon of secular democracy in the Middle East, as it backed demands for the new constitution to enshrine Islamic religious law.
This raises the prospect of new laws being assessed against verses from the Koran, and risks alienating the country's non-Muslim minorities as well as more secular Muslim groups, particularly the Kurds.
The move came 24 hours before the expiry of a deadline for the constitution to be approved, and will appease the Shias who dominated in January's election.
Though still not going as far as fundamentalist Islamic groups had demanded - they wanted Islam to be the "sole" source for legislation - the wording marks a fundamental concession by the US as it ends the possibility of a separation of religion and state. It paves the way for far more conservative social legislation, for example diminishing the divorce rights of women, as it could allow Islamic clerics to serve on the high court, which will be responsible for interpreting the constitution."

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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)

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