Archived news and commentary: September 5 - 11, 2005

2005/09/05 - 2005/09/11
2005/08/29 - 2005/09/04
2005/08/22 - 2005/08/28
2005/08/15 - 2005/08/21
2005/08/08 - 2005/08/14
2005/08/01 - 2005/08/07

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, September 11, 2005

News and commentary:

"always remember,
never forget..."
(Rick Wilking, Reuters, 2005/09/11)
"A family member of a victim in the World Trade Center attack attends a ceremony for the attack on its fourth anniversary in New York September 11, 2005. The man's tattoo is in the memory of victims Mary and James Trentini killed in the crash of American Airlines flight 11. The Trentini's were scheduled to fly out Sept. 10 but Mr. Trentini was summoned for a day of jury duty on the 10th so they rebooked for Sept. 11."

"The monster in Britain's midst" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/09/11)
"The second story in the Mail on Sunday reveals that a Muslim barrister has claimed that the war in Iraq was planned by a secret group of Jews and Freemasons. Ahmad Thomson, a convert to Islam and a member of the Association of Muslim Lawyers,

'...claims this hidden alliance has shaped world events for hundreds of years and now controls governments in both Europe and America… He told the Mail on Sunday that the invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein was part of a masterplan by Jews and Freemasons to control the Middle East. “Pressure was put on Tony Blair before the invasion”, he said. ‘The way it works is that pressure is put on people to arrive at certain decisions. It is part of the Zionist plan and it is shaping events”.

This is of course the standard demented conspiracy delusion of the Muslim world and neo-Nazis and white supremacists across the globe. But Mr Thomson is no marginalised nutcase. For he has been appointed by the British government to advise it on how to tackle, ahem, Muslim extremism. And his views have hardly been concealed. For the story also reveals that in 1994 he published a book in which he claimed that Jews and Freemasons had conspired to control the Middle East and now controlled the governments of Europe and America; that the Nazis were a Christian backlash against the Jews; that the Jews had no right to live in the ‘Holy Land’ because they were not a pure race and therefore not true biblical Israelites; that Saddam Hussein was used as an excuse for American troops including thousands of Jews to occupy Saudi Arabia; and that Hollywood and the international media are controlled by Jews whose aim is to ‘re-educate’ Muslims.
This is the man the British government thinks will give them handy tips to counter Islamic extremism."

"Appease zealots at your peril" (David Selbourne, The Sunday Times, 2005/09/11)
"A fateful kowtowing to Muslim sensibilities began with the Rushdie affair, writes David Selbourne":
"The scale and speed of the Islamic advance have exacted a high price from Muslims themselves in the past decades. Their handicaps have mounted as a consequence of being seen as an actual or potential danger. After the 9/11 attacks, Muslims almost everywhere in the western world, Britain included, reported increasing hostility and discrimination. However, their negative “image”, about which Muslims are rightly anxious, has largely been of their own creation.
Not even well-intentioned liberals or human rights lobbyists have been able to protect Muslims from the effects of Islamist violence and threats. This was shown clearly in the Salman Rushdie case. ...
But some non-Muslims had no such hesitation about their positions, coming to the aid of militant Islam at its worst in a way that is now still more common. In March 1989 the former US president Jimmy Carter used Islam’s own vocabulary in saying that The Satanic Verses was not only “an arrow pointed at Muslims” but at religion in general. Billy Graham, the American evangelist, also declared against Rushdie’s novel. The historian Lord Dacre said he “would not shed a tear” if British Muslims were to “waylay Rushdie in a dark street”. Similarly, in September 1990 the former cabinet minister Lord Tebbit described Rushdie’s “public life” as “a record of despicable acts of betrayal of his upbringing, religion, adopted home and nationality”. He had used the right of free speech to “insult, demean and degrade” and was, in short, 'a villain.'"

"Ditch Holocaust day, advisers urge Blair" (Abul Taher, The Sunday Times, 2005/09/11)
"Advisers appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims.
They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia as well as people of other faiths.
The draft proposals have been prepared by committees appointed by Blair to tackle extremism. He has promised to respond to the plans, but the threat to the Holocaust Day has provoked a fierce backlash from the Jewish community.
Holocaust Day was established by Blair in 2001 after a sustained campaign by Jewish leaders to create a lasting memorial to the 6m victims of Hitler. It is marked each year on January 27.
The Queen is patron of the charity that organises the event and the Home Office pays £500,000 a year to fund it. The committees argue that the special status of Holocaust Memorial Day fuels extremists’ sense of alienation because it “excludes” Muslims.
A member of one of the committees, made up of Muslims, said it gave the impression that “western lives have more value than non-western lives”. That perception needed to be changed. “One way of doing that is if the government were to sponsor a national Genocide Memorial Day.
'The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims. It sends out the wrong signals: that the lives of one people are to be remembered more than others. It’s a grievance that extremists are able to exploit.'" (Hat tip: Harry's Place.)

"Tape Released: American al Qaeda Member Warns of Attacks" (Brian Ross, ABC News, 2005/09/11)
"In an apparent Sept. 11 communiqué broadcast on ABC News, an al Qaeda operative threatens new attacks against cities in the US and Australia.
"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing. At this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," the tape warns. "We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace as laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators."
American intelligence officials believe the man who appears on the tape to be Adam Gadahn of Orange County, Calif. Last year, Gadahn delivered a similar taped communiqué for al Qaeda. That tape was later deemed authentic. ...
The taped diatribe lasts 11 minutes. Like past tapes, it appears to include the same graphics and production techniques recognized by U.S. officials as part of al Qaeda's standard propaganda production. In this tape, the speaker levels threats against the U.S. and Great Britain.
"Don't believe the lies of the liars at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and 10 Downing Street," Gadahn insists. "They have dispatched your sons and daughters to die lonely deaths in the burning deserts of Iraq and the unforgiving mountains of Afghanistan."
Only a few years ago, Adam Gadahn was a southern California teenager with interests in the environment and heavy metal music."

"Al-Qaeda 'link to 7/7' found in Iraq" (Antony Barnett and Mark Townsend, The Observer, 2005/09/11)
"British intelligence officials in Iraq are questioning an al-Qaeda operative after information relating to the 7 July London bombings was allegedly found on his computer drive.
The man, who has not been named, was captured by US forces last month. He is understood to have had a portable computer drive on him that showed 'knowledge' of the attacks that killed 56 people.
Colonel Robert Brown, commander of 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, in Mosul told a reporter in Iraq working for the news agency UPI about the arrest, but refused to discuss the specific nature of the information.
However, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq confirmed that the information on the drive 'related to the London bombings and showed knowledge'. Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Boylan confirmed that both British and US intelligence are questioning the individual. Boylan said he was not yet in a position to confirm if the information on the computer amounted to plans of the intended attack drawn up prior to the bombing."

"Lawlessness in Gaza Ahead of Handover" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/11)
"Palestinian gunmen briefly abducted an Italian journalist and attacked government buildings Saturday in the Gaza Strip, signs of the lawlessness that threatens to intensify in the territory after Israel hands it over to the Palestinians early next week. ...
Masked gunmen abducted Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi of the Corriere della Sera daily in the Gaza town of Deir El-Balah but released him unharmed about four hours later, Palestinian officials said.
Palestinian security officials said the kidnappers were among the 60 armed Palestinians who earlier in the day occupied the local governor's headquarters and Interior Ministry offices in the town, demanding jobs with the Palestinian Authority. They took Cremonesi in an attempt to bolster their claims, the officials said.
In Gaza City, three gunmen opened fire from their car at the Interior Ministry press office, touching off a brief gunbattle with the building's guards. No one was injured and the gunmen escaped, the ministry said in a statement. ...
Israel threatened on Saturday to deliver an unprecedentedly harsh response to any attacks from Gaza after Israeli troops quit the territory.
"An hour after we leave the field, there will be a strategic change...in the nature of our response to even an attempt at terror," Maj.-Gen. Yisrael Ziv, the military's chief of operations, told Israel Radio. 'We shall have a far more extreme reaction to any attempt.'"

Saturday, September 10, 2005

News and commentary:

"What the British are reading about us this morning" (Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Corner, 2005/09/10)
Katrina XI. This must be the most moronic Katrina comment made yet. Which says a lot:
"From a friend in London:

this is from The Sun, the UK's largest newspaper, on saturday, Sept 10 2005, in a column by Jeremy Clarkson. I quote this verbatim (it's not up on their website, so i'm typing it in)

"Hollywood has taught America that the military can solve anything. It's full of chisel-jawed heroes who never leave a man on the field and never fail to get the job done. So they'd have New Orleans sorted out in a jiffy.
Unfortunately, on the street you've got some poor, starving soul helping themselves to a packet of food from a ruined, deserted supermarket. And as a result, finding themselves being blown to pieces by a helicopter gunship. With the none-too-bright soldiers urged on by their illiterate political masters, the poor and needy never stood a chance. It's easier and much more fun to shoot someone than make them a cup of tea. Especially if they're black."

I've been watching a lot of the Katrina coverage. Somehow I missed the military gunships killing poor, hungry civilians."

"Terror plot targeted Blair, says ex-British police chief" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/10)
"Terrorists linked to the Al-Qaeda organisation were suspected of plotting to assassinate British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a parade in 2002, the country's former top police officer said in a Sunday paper.
John Stevens, who headed London's Metropolitan Police until earlier this year, told Blair about the feared threat against him and his wife, Cherie, according to his memoirs, serialised in the News of the World newspaper.
Stevens said that he was informed about credible intelligence of a plot to shoot dead the Blairs using snipers at a June 2002 parade in London to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne. ...
The couple were surrounded by "covertly-armed" officers during the celebrations, but Stevens said he was worried as the dignitaries gathered near Buckingham Palace, the queen's London residence.
"I felt acutely nervous as the procession approached," he said.
"I was constantly scanning faces in the crowd for signs of trouble and thinking: 'I hope to God nothing comes from somewhere.'
'The fact that nothing untoward did happen was again a tribute to our intelligence gathering and the precautions we took.'"

"Regime change slowly advances along the road to Damascus" (Dean Godson, The Times, 2005/09/10)
"If Anthony Eden's wife felt as though the Suez Canal flowed through her drawing room at No 10, then Mrs Bashar Assad could surely be forgiven for complaining that the coffin of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, now dominates her domestic quarters in Damascus. She had been preparing to accompany her husband to this week’s meeting of the UN General Assembly. One of the trip’s main purposes was to “showcase” the first couple of Baathist Syria: shots of them frolicking with their attractive children in Central Park, an appearance on the Charlie Rose show, plus the inevitable Third World retail therapy on 5th Avenue.
But in a stunning display of the regime’s vulnerability, the Syrian President has aborted the visit. Assad was terrified that he might be indicted while in New York off the back of the inquiry into the Hariri killing conducted by the chief UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis. The dour but dogged German had already fingered four pro-Syrian Lebanese security officials and is now — with the help of the French and other secret services — following the powder trail all the way back to Damascus. This is likely to bring him very close to Assad himself."

Friday, September 9, 2005

News and commentary:

"In Egypt, no going back" (Mona Eltahawy, International Herald Tribune, 2005/09/09)
Egypt II: "Egyptians will not forget this. Regardless of a Mubarak victory, nothing can wipe our memories clean of the criticisms heaped on Mubarak and his cronies by Nour and other opposition candidates.
The concern now is what will happen to the opposition movement after Mubarak wins. Along with Nour and the other candidates contesting Wednesday's poll, there is also a small but active opposition movement that has held almost weekly anti-Mubarak demonstrations since December.
The world must not forget them. ...
Egypt is not the country it was just 10 months ago, when the opposition movement defied those laws and took to the streets to say "Kifaya!" - "Enough!" - to Mubarak. A member of Nour's Tomorrow Party told me he wasn't worried about a crackdown because 'it is too late to stop the train of democracy or even reduce its speed.'"

"Mubarak Sweeps Contested Race in Egypt" (Nadia Abou El-Magd, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/09)
Egypt I: "President Hosni Mubarak swept Egypt's first contested race for his job, according to preliminary results Thursday, an expected victory in an election praised as progress toward democratic reform despite allegations of fraud.
The election commission — criticized as controlled by Mubarak's government — insisted Wednesday's ballot was a success, though there were widespread reports of irregularities, and voter turnout was perhaps as low as 30 percent. The commission also dismissed calls by the runner-up for a repeat of the vote. ...
Mubarak took 78-80 percent of the vote, according to a preliminary count, an election commission official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to announce results. Final results were expected Friday or Saturday.
His top opponent, Ayman Nour of the opposition Al-Ghad party, took 12 percent — a strong showing for a relative unknown and one that could make him a more formidable political power."

Thursday, September 8, 2005

News and commentary:

"Crescent of Embrace"
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2005/09/08)
Via Tom Bevan at RealClearPolitics: "Perhaps I'm being oversensitive, but is anyone else struck by the fact that the design for the memorial unveiled yesterday in Pennsylvania to commemorate the crash of UAL Flight 93 on 9/11 bears a striking resemblance to one of the major symbols of Islam?" (Note: Michelle Malkin and LGF have more on the "Crescent of Embrace".)

"Iran and the Death of Gay Activism" (Doug Ireland, Gay City News, 2005/09/08)
"The architect of Iran’s lethal anti-gay crackdown, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will be in New York City next week, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly on September 14.
Yet, despite the fact that every major Western European capital has seen demonstrations against the reign of terror targeting gays in the Islamic Republic of Iran—where homosexuality is a capital crime—not a single gay or human rights organization here has seen fit to call a protest timed for Ahmadinejad’s U.N. address. ...
But even though the international criminal Ahmadinejad is coming to our town, the silence here is deafening. Where is the leadership from the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force? Where are the Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats? Where are the so-called gay radicals like Queer Fist? Where are our gay elected officials, numerous in New York City? They’re all inventing excuses not to protest the Ahmadinejad visit and Iran’s executions of gays and minor children." (See also: "Islamists versus Gays" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2005/07/20))

"It always lies below" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2005/09/08)
Katrina X: "Before our attention wanders on to the next headline story, let's learn Katrina's big lesson. This is not about the incompetence of the Bush administration, the scandalous neglect of poor black people in America, or our unpreparedness for major natural disasters - though all of those apply. Katrina's big lesson is that the crust of civilisation on which we tread is always wafer thin. One tremor, and you've fallen through, scratching and gouging for your life like a wild dog. ...
The basic point is the same: remove the elementary staples of organised, civilised life - food, shelter, drinkable water, minimal personal security - and we go back within hours to a Hobbesian state of nature, a war of all against all. Some people, some of the time, behave with heroic solidarity; most people, most of the time, engage in a ruthless fight for individual and genetic survival. A few become temporary angels, most revert to being apes.
The word civilisation, in one of its earliest senses, referred to the process of human animals being civilised - by which we mean, I suppose, achieving a mutual recognition of human dignity, or at least accepting in principle the desirability of such a recognition. (As the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson did, even if he failed to practise what he preached.) Reading Jack London the other day, I came across an unusual word: decivilisation. The opposite process, that is, the one by which people cease to be civilised and become barbaric. Katrina tells us about the ever-present possibility of decivilisation."

"Omigod, another fascist conspiracy in the murky world of Hollywood" (Clive Davis, The Times, 2005/09/08)
"I'm willing to be proved wrong, but I already have a sense of foreboding about Sam Shepard’s new play, due to receive its European premiere at the Donmar next month. Why am I so pessimistic? Well, for one thing, there’s the author’s own description of The God of Hell as a “take-off on Republican fascism”. Some writers just love throwing that F-word around, don’t they? Perhaps it gives them a frisson as they swap stories about the dark belly of the American gulag. (Yes, it can be really tough in Hollywood.) ...
[Terry] Teachout happens to be an admirer of Shepard, but this time he was, let’s say, underwhelmed by a work in which, as he wrote, “a smirking prancing fellow made up to look like Paul Wolfowitz invades the house of a Wisconsin farmer and his wife, festoons their kitchen with American flags, hooks up the genitalia of the man of the house to an electric torture machine, and administers painful shocks until he agrees to surrender his heifers to the government for use in an unspecified but self-evidently nefarious secret project”.
Yes, very subtle. The point is that Teachout wasn’t particularly surprised by the play’s Manichean worldview. The melancholy truth is that 95 per cent of the arts “community” is so committed to its party line that the notion that others might hold a different view on the great issues of the day barely registers. I can’t think of a sweeter irony than the fact that people who devote so much energy to condemning the conformism and dogmatism of Middle America often turn out to be the most conformist and dogmatic folk of them all." (See also: "When Drama Becomes Propaganda" (Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/06/06))

"Medical Records Say Arafat Died From a Stroke" (Steven Erlanger and Lawrence K. Altman, The New York Times, 2005/09/08)
"The medical records of Yasir Arafat, which have been kept secret since his unexplained death last year at a French military hospital, show that he died from a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unidentified infection.
The first independent review of the records, obtained by The New York Times, suggests that poisoning was highly unlikely and dispels a rumor that he may have died of AIDS. Nonetheless, the records show that despite extensive testing, his doctors could not determine the underlying infection.
Arafat seemed frail in his final months but not, by anyone's account, at death's door when he suddenly fell ill last October. After more than two weeks without improvement, he was airlifted to a French hospital, where he died on Nov. 11. The cause of death was never announced and speculation has remained rife.
The records indicate that Arafat did not receive antibiotics until Oct. 27, 15 days after the onset of his illness, which was originally diagnosed as "a flu." That was only two days before he was transferred to the Percy Army Teaching Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris, and it was probably too late to save him, according to Israeli and American experts consulted by The Times, who agreed to review the records on condition they not be named.
His doctors in Ramallah also did not seem to recognize that he suffered from a serious blood disorder, disseminated intravascular coagulation, or D.I.C., which was never controlled and led to his death.
But even the French doctors never discovered the specific cause of the infection that led to the bleeding disorder, the records show. "It's a big puzzle," said a specialist in infectious diseases."

"Abbas Vows to Find Palestinian Killers of Security Aide" (Greg Myre, The New York Times, 2005/09/08)
"The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, pledged Wednesday to track down the Palestinian gunmen who had assassinated his security adviser, a killing that delivered a new challenge to his leadership just days before Israeli troops are to leave the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Abbas also canceled a trip to New York next week for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, which will now coincide with Israel's planned withdrawal of its soldiers from Gaza.
Mr. Abbas said he would punish those responsible for the fatal shooting of the adviser, Moussa Arafat, 61, a cousin of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader who died last November. Mr. Abbas, who has been staying in Gaza during the Israeli pullout, convened his national security council and the security forces were placed on heightened alert.
In the attack early on Wednesday, about 100 gunmen stormed Moussa Arafat's four-story family compound in Gaza City after exchanging gunfire with his security guards for 30 minutes and dragged him in his pajamas to the street, where they shot him. Gunmen seized his 29-year-old son, Manhal, who also is a security officer, and wounded four bodyguards. The Palestinian authorities were trying to negotiate the son's release into the night."

"Egypt Holds a Multiple-Choice Vote, but the Answer Is Mubarak" (Michael Slackman, The New York Times, 2005/09/08)
"Egyptians voted Wednesday in the nation's first multicandidate race for president, and while Egypt has clearly not yet shaken off decades of one-man, one-party rule, the streets were calm, protesters were allowed to block city traffic and voters could cast a ballot for someone other than Hosni Mubarak.
This election was far from free and fair, based on visits to polling stations around the city. But it was a step forward, no matter how small, for a country that has operated under a state of emergency for decades, that has never allowed opposition candidates to appear on a presidential ballot and that routinely sanctioned violence as a tool on Election Day, political analysts and government critics said.
"There are violations but in comparison to before, it's much better than we expected," said Gasser Abdel Razeq, a member of the board of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and a frequent critic of the government's heavy-handed tactics.
Independent civic groups said turnout seemed low, but election officials said figures would not be immediately available. Mr. Mubarak's party was eager to bolster the vote's credibility by encouraging higher turnouts.
Still, it was clear that Mr. Mubarak would win - and that his supporters would do what they needed to make that happen."

"Oil-for-Food Panel Rebukes Annan, Cites Corruption" (Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, 2005/09/08)
"A U.N.-appointed panel investigating corruption in prewar Iraq's oil-for-food program delivered a scathing rebuke of Secretary General Kofi Annan's management of the largest U.N. humanitarian aid operation and concluded that Kojo Annan took advantage of his father's position to profit from the system.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, the head of the Independent Inquiry Committee, said blame for the program's failure was shared by the Security Council, other members of the United Nations and Annan's senior advisers. In a dramatic appearance before the Security Council, Volcker warned Annan and the 15-nation council to change the way they do business or face a worldwide loss of public support.
"Our assignment has been to look for mis- or mal-administration in the oil-for-food program, and for evidence of corruption within the U.N. organization and by contractors. Unhappily, we found both," Volcker told the council. ...
Volcker sharply criticized Annan and his top advisers, principally Deputy U.N. Secretary General Louise Frechette. He said they did not exercise adequate oversight over Sevan, and made "minimal efforts" to address sanctions violations with Iraqi officials or to ensure that "critical evidence" of wrongdoing was brought to the Security Council's attention." (See also the report: "The Management of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme" (The Independent Inquiry Committee, 2005/09/07))

Added in archive:
"When Drama Becomes Propaganda" (Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/06/06)

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

News and commentary:

"Leading Imam Warns of Moslem Extremists" (Radio Sweden, 2005/09/07)
"Sweden’s leading Moslem cleric says he has received death threats after condemning the July 7th attacks in London.
Writing in the newspaper “Expressen” Tuesday, the head of the Swedish Council of Imams, Hassan Moussa, says the London bombings convinced him to stop qualifying his criticism of terrorism in his Friday sermons.
The day after his unreserved condemnation, he started receiving threats, even inside his own mosque.
He writes that unfortunately there is a small minority of Moslems in Sweden with extremist opinions. Sweden’s head Imam calls for representatives of all political parties and religious denominations here, as well as the police and social services, to meet and discuss what to do about the threat." (Hat tip: Martin Lindeskog. See also [in Swedish]: "Svenska islamister hotar att döda mig" (Hassan Moussa, Expressen, 2005/09/06) and "Bomber från helvetet" (Hassan Moussa, Expressen, 2005/07/09))

"Coalition Forces Rescue U.S. Hostage" (Sinan Saleheddin, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/07)
"Coalition forces acting on a tip from an Iraqi detainee Wednesday rescued American hostage Roy Hallums from an isolated farm house south of Baghdad, a military statement said. An Iraqi also was rescued.
The 57-year-old contractor, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., had been held since being kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in Baghdad's Mansour district on Nov. 1 [2004].
"Hallums is in good condition and is receiving medical care," the military said.
He was held in a farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad, the statement said, adding that rescuers were tipped to his whereabouts by an unidentified Iraqi detainee.
"I want to thank all of those who were involved in my rescue — to those who continuously tracked my captors and location, and to those who physically brought me freedom today," Hallums said in the military statement.
"To all of you, I will be forever grateful. Both of us are in good health and look forward to returning to our respective families. Thank you to all who kept me and my family in their thoughts and prayers." ...
A family Web site was topped with a headline: 'Roy IS FREE!!!!!! 9/7/05.'"

"Egypt Votes in Contested Race for President, a First" (Michael Slackman, The New York Times, 2005/09/07)
Egypt II: "Egyptian voters went to the polls today in this nation's first multicandidate race for president, but the initial refusal to allow any form of nongovernment poll monitors and the ruling party's overwhelming presence on the streets and at the voting stations led to concerns about the integrity of the process.
Polling stations around the capital were swamped with supporters for President Hosni Mubarak, inside and outside, and in several districts around the city people who said they would vote for the president were given raffle tickets offering prizes that include a free apartment, a pilgrimage to Mecca, a bedroom furniture set, and television sets, refrigerators and stoves. ...
At many polling stations, Mubarak supporters cut an intimidating presence, literally standing over voters as they cast their ballots. One man videotaped people in his polling station, saying he was there to document those who turned out for Mr. Mubarak. Khalid Ahmed Mohammed stood beside voters chanting, "Hosni! Hosni!" in a very threatening manner. And in at least one polling station, the only person who appeared to be in charge was a ruling party representative, wearing a Mubarak button as he told people where to go to vote. ...
But in the Egyptian context, even some of the government's harshest critics said that while the process appeared heavily tilted in favor of Mr. Mubarak, it was far better than in years past, when voters were bullied by thugs and ballot boxes were brazenly stuffed.
"There are violations, but in comparison to before, it's much better than we expected," said Gasser Abdel Razeq, a member of the board of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights."

"New Mubarak means same old problems, say opponents" (Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, 2005/09/07)
Egypt I: "Old habits die hard, especially in Egypt. When President Hosni Mubarak launched his election campaign, the party faithfully declared their support in traditional fashion. "With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice for you," they chanted, but the president was not pleased and asked them to stop.
Those are the words that Arab crowds have parroted for decades, pledging eternal loyalty to Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat among others, but in the new world of Egyptian politics they are seriously off-message - the equivalent of singing The Red Flag at a Labour rally in Britain.
Today, after 24 years in power, the veteran Egyptian leader will face the first competitive election of his presidency, against nine challengers. Drawing a discreet veil over the past, posters hail him as "a crossing to the future". The president has been repackaged, rejuvenated and remarketed: he is New Mubarak.
Though 77 years old, he looks remarkably youthful in all the pictures - testimony, perhaps, to the effectiveness of Grecian 2000, stage makeup, judicious lighting and Adobe Photoshop.
His speeches have a softer tone, he has taken off his tie to acquire a more relaxed look, he sips tea with peasants and is seen less often with his sunglasses ("dictator glasses", as the spin doctors call them). In tune with the times, he has a website in Arabic and English (mubarak2005.com) where anyone can apparently send messages direct to the president. ...
The readily digestible New Mubarak package comes with promises of economic progress and political reform which - for the president's opponents - raise the question of why he did so little about them during his first four terms."

"Deposed Gaza security chief Moussa Arafat assassinated" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2005/09/07)
"Dozens of Palestinian gunmen stormed the home of deposed Gaza security chief Moussa Arafat before dawn Wednesday and shot him dead, witnesses and police said.
Arafat, 65, a cousin of the late leader, Yasser Arafat, was fired earlier this year by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. He was, however, still a member of the administration under the title 'military advisor' to Abbas. It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were.
At dawn Wednesday, Abbas called an emergency meeting of his security commanders and Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
Moussa Arafat was linked to corruption charges and had many powerful enemies, and it was thought that his killing was related to internal conflicts.
The gunmen fired at his house in Gaza City and fired rocket-propelled grenades, then stormed the house, killing Arafat. His oldest son, Nimhel, who is a senior security official, was either kidnapped or escaped, police at the scene said.
The brazen killing was certain to shake Palestinian politics, just as Abbas struggles to assert control of Gaza with the Israeli pullout."

"Corrupt and blundering: Saddam oil inquiry savages UN" (Francis Harris, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/07)
"The United Nations will today be attacked by an independent inquiry as corrupt, incompetent and wasteful in the harshest condemnation it has received since its founding.
The year-long investigation, overseen by the former US Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, will conclude that the UN was guilty of "illicit, unethical and corrupt behaviour" in running the $64 billion oil-for-food programme, designed to help Iraq's poor during a decade of sanctions.
The timing could hardly be worse for the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, who next week will host a summit in New York marking the world organisation's 60th birthday.
World leaders attending will be asked to approve his plans for wide-ranging reform.
But the report will criticise the Ghanaian secretary general for his stewardship and that of his Egyptian predecessor, Boutros Boutros Ghali.
Also condemned are the UN's notoriously cumbersome bureaucracy and its 15-member Security Council.
The inquiry rejected constant complaints from Mr Annan and his senior staff that they were the victims of a politically motivated campaign by Right-wing politicians and journalists.
The report states: 'As the years passed, reports spread of waste, inefficiency, and corruption even within the UN itself. Some was rumour and exaggeration, but much, too much, of it has turned out to be true.'"

"Hurricane victims are better off in Texas, former US first lady suggests" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/07)
Katrina IX: "Hurricane Katrina victims in Houston, Texas were "underprivileged anyway" and life in the Astrodome sports arena is "working very well for them," former first lady Barbara Bush said.
The comments by the mother of President George W. Bush have fueled the ire of some Americans, who see the Bush family as out-of-touch patricians.
"Almost everyone I've talked to says 'we're going to move to Houston,'" Bush said in a radio interview after visiting evacuees at the Astrodome with her husband, former president George Bush.
"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said.
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this -- this is working very well for them."
Her comments aired late Monday on Marketplace, an American Public Radio show broadcast nationwide."

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

News and commentary:

"Myth, Fact, and the al-Dura Affair" (Nidra Poller, Commentary, from the September 2005 issue)
Via Melanie Phillips: "As Poller says, there is no conclusive evidence to prove beyond doubt that the killing of Mohammed al Dura was an atrocious lie staged to whip up hatred of Israel, most lethally in the Arab world. But the evidence assembled in this article strongly suggests that France 2 is guilty of one of the most monstrous pieces of deception of modern times whose effects in terms of fomenting hatred, violence and mass murder have been incalculable.":
"Luc Rosenzweig, a retired Le Monde journalist who had doubted the veracity of the al-Dura news report from the first, completed an investigative article in which he formally accused France-2 of an “almost perfect media crime.” His essay was scheduled to appear in the mainstream newsweekly l’Express on the fourth anniversary of the intifada. But the magazine’s editorial director, Denis Jeambar, decided to delay publication in order to double-check Rosenzweig’s facts.
Given his position, Jeambar was able to arrange a meeting with France-2’s news director. He was accompanied there by Rosenzweig and Daniel Leconte, a prize-winning TV producer. Asking simple questions about Abu Rahmeh’s satellite feed, the trio got shocking answers. They requested the 27 minutes of raw footage showing the al-Duras pinned down by Israeli gunfire; they were shown a half-hour of fake battle scenes similar to those described above. They asked why there were no pictures of Israeli soldiers aiming at the al-Duras; they were told that on this point the cameraman had retracted his testimony, given “under pressure” to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. They asked to speak to the cameraman, then said to be undergoing medical treatment in Paris; they were told he did not speak French and that his English was too rudimentary (patently untrue). They asked to see the scene of the child’s death throes, professedly edited out by Charles Enderlin because it was “too unbearable”; they were told that no such images existed. They in turn produced pictures of a dead child, identified as Muhammad al-Dura, who had been admitted to Gaza’s Schifa hospital at noon or 1 PM on September 30, several hours before the alleged incident occurred; his face did not match that of the boy in the shooting scene, his wounds did not match the eyewitness descriptions." (Note: The article can also be found here.)

More on Mohammed Al Dura:
"Anatomy of a French Media Scandal" (Ricki Hollander, CAMERA, 2005/02/23)
"French TV Sticks by Story That Fueled Palestinian Intifada" (Eva Cahen, CNS News, 2005/02/15)
"Photo of Palestinian Boy Kindles Debate in France" (Doreen Carvajal, The New York Times, 2005/02/07)
"The Israeli Crime That Wasn’t" (Alyssa A. Lappen, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/28)
"The mythical martyr" (Stephane Juffa, The Wall Street Journal/Backspin, 2004/12/06 [2004/11/26])
"Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?" (James Fallows, The Atlantic, from the June 2003 issue)

"L.A.'s Thwarted Terror Spree" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.com, 2005/09/06)
"Terrorist plans that fail don't make headlines, but they should. This was a near-miss. Home-grown radical Islam has arrived and will do damage.
Even though most Jews resist acknowledging it, the Muslim threat is changing Jewish life in the United States. The golden age of American Jewry is coming to an end.":
"The Jewish High Holidays this year fall in early October, and that's when a massacre was planned against two Los Angeles synagogues, as well as other targets, according to an indictment just handed down against four young Muslim men.
Law enforcement traces the origins of this plot to 1997. That's when Kevin Lamar James, a black inmate at New Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, Calif., founded Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (Arabic for "Assembly of Authentic Islam" and known as JIS). JIS promotes the sort of jihadi version of Islam typically found in American prisons As the indictment puts it, James, now 29, preached that JIS members have the duty "to target for violent attack any enemies of Islam or ‘infidels,' including the United States government and Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel." ...
They conducted surveillance of American government targets (military recruitment stations and bases), Israeli targets (consulate in L.A. and El-Al airlines), and Jewish targets (synagogues). The trio monitored the Jewish calendar and, the indictment notes, planned to attack synagogues on Jewish holidays "to maximize the number of casualties."
They acquired an arsenal of weapons. To fund this undertaking, they set off on a crime wave, robbing (or attempting to rob) gas stations 11 times in the five weeks after May 30. They engaged in physical and firearms training. Finally, they tried recruiting other Muslims.
But Patterson dropped a mobile telephone during the course of one gas station robbery, and the police retrieved it. Information from the phone set off an FBI-led investigation that involved more than 25 agencies and 500 investigators. The police staked out Patterson and Washington, arresting them after they robbed a Chevron station on July 5. Washington's apartment turned up bulletproof vests, knives, jihad literature, and the addresses of potential targets. Patterson was waiting to acquire an AR-15 assault rifle."

"Krekar threatens Norway" (Nina Berglund, Aftenposten, 2005/09/06)
"Norway's most controversial refugee has lodged a threat against the country that has hosted him and his family for the past 14 years. Mullah Krekar calls his possible deportation "an offense" that shouldn't go unpunished.
Oslo newspaper Aftenposten reported Tuesday that Krekar, in an interview with Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, vowed he will never go along with a deportation order issued by Norwegian authorities. Cabinet Minister Erna Solberg initially ordered him sent out of the country in February 2003, calling Krekar a threat to national security.
Krekar fled Iraq in the early 1990s and landed in Norway in 1991. He later, however, started travelling back to northern Iraq, where he played a key role in building up the guerrilla group known as Ansar al-Islam.
Now Krekar claims he faces torture and a death sentence if the Norwegian authorities send him back to Iraq. He told Al-Jazeera, therefore, that "everyone must know" that a deportation to Iraq "is an offense that shouldn't be made without punishment." ...
Krekar also spoke positively about suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and developments in the Muslim world. "The whole world must see that Jihad... is increasing in its scope with Allah's pardon," he said. "This trend represents solidarity in the Muslim community."
He added that he thinks "Jihadists" won't ease up "until they see Islam's house equipped with Saladins sable, Mohammed's conquering turban and Osama bin Laden's vision." He thus combined three important symbols used by Islamic extremists."

"Iran nuclear weapons 'years away'" (BBC News, 2005/09/06)
"Iran is still several years away from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, according to a study published by an influential London-based think tank.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies has assessed Iran's nuclear, chemical, biological and long-range missile activities.
It says a diplomatic showdown with the European Union and the United States could be inevitable.
Iran's political restraint thus far may not last, the report's authors say.
One of them, Dr Gary Samore, told the BBC that it might take five years for Iran to overcome all the technical difficulties to produce a nuclear weapon.
But given Tehran's cautious behaviour so far, a decision on whether to build such a capability may be much further away.
"They're trying to avoid international reaction and I think it's perhaps more likely that they would try to develop their nuclear capabilities over a much longer period of time, a decade or 15 years," he said.
The assessment from the IISS comes two weeks before a meeting in Vienna to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Iran's Strategic Weapons Programmes - A Net Assessment" charts the political history and progress of Iran's nuclear programmes since its origins under the Shah in the late 1950s."

"Some shunning the Palestinian hard stance" (Thanassis Cambanis, The Boston Globe, 2005/09/06)
"[Jamal al-Dura] is only the most famous of a minority of Gaza Palestinians who are rejecting the all-encompassing culture of intifadah, jihad, and martyrdom that has turned camps like Bureij and Jabaliya into locomotives of the Palestinian militant factions.
These Palestinians believe Gaza has reaped few results from decades of war and militia leadership; now, these disenchanted Palestinians say, it's time to replace calls to arms and total victory over Israel with real improvements for Palestinians, like better education, housing, and jobs. ...
"Celebrate the achievement of your martyrdom," thundered Hamas official Subhi Rasheed, the imam at Friday prayers in Jabaliya, a refugee camp north of Gaza City. ''The Jews will never stop assassinating you unless the Islamic nation is strong."
Such rhetoric has long been the staple of places like Jabaliya, which is nicknamed ''The Citadel of the Martyr Warriors" because its youths have long fed the factional Palestinian militias, mostly Hamas and Fatah.
''Citadel of fools is more like it," declared Jamal abu Nasser, the owner of a taxi fleet whose dispatch center is across the street from the main Hamas mosque in Jabaliya.
''Look at them," he said as hundreds of teenagers in green Hamas baseball caps and headbands converged on the mosque, preparing for a Friday afternoon militia rally. ''They act like it's some kind of wedding."
Abu Nasser, 52, said he tired of the imam's kind of talk a decade ago. He is a no-nonsense businessman who holds forth for hours at his dispatch center, indifferent to the scores of young Hamas and Fatah supporters who can hear his scathing critique of the leaders he describes as ''corrupt, delusional militants."
''We cannot defeat Israel. Jerusalem will never be a Palestinian capital. This is empty talk," Abu Nasser said. 'Most people don't understand this reality.'"

Monday, September 5, 2005

News and commentary:

"Insurgents Seize Key Town in Iraq" (Ellen Knickmeyer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/05)
"BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 -- Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led Al Qaeda in Iraq took open control of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, tribal leaders and other residents in the city and surrounding villages said.
A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."
Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a woman lay in a street of Qaim. A sign left on her corpse declared, "A prostitute who was punished."
Zarqawi's fighters had shot to death nine men in public executions in the city center since the weekend, accusing the men of being spies and collaborators for U.S. forces, said Sheikh Nawaf Mahallawi, a leader of a Sunni Arab tribe, the Albu Mahal, that had battled the foreign fighters.
Dozens of families were fleeing Qaim daily, Mahallawi said.
"It would be insane to attack Zarqawi's people, even to shoot one bullet at them," Mahallawi said. 'We cannot attack them. But we will not stand still if they attack us. We hope the U.S. forces end this in the coming days. We want the city to go back to its normal situation.'"

"Insurgents Attack Iraq Interior Ministry" (Slobodan Lekic, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/05)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents launched a surprise attack on Baghdad's heavily guarded Interior Ministry building Monday, killing two police officers and wounding several others, officials said. In southern
Iraq, two British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.
Insurgent casualties were unknown in the rare daylight assault, which began soon after sunrise and lasted about 15 minutes. Thunderous explosions could be heard in the center of Baghdad as insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
At least four U.S. Apache and Black Hawk helicopters flew over the area in central Baghdad after the firefight, including one with large Red Cross signs on the fuselage.
The Apaches were later joined by U.S. Army patrols in armored vehicles combing the streets to try to hunt down the attackers.
The two British soldiers died when their armored Land Rover was destroyed by a bomb in the Zubeir area, about 12 miles west of Basra. The deaths brought to 95 the number of British military personnel killed in Iraq."

"Muslims ransack Christian village" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/09/05)
"Efforts were under way on Sunday to calm the situation in this Christian village east of Ramallah after an attack by hundreds of Muslim men from nearby villages left many houses and vehicles torched. ...
The attack on the village of 1,500 was triggered by the murder of a Muslim woman from the nearby village of Deir Jarir earlier this week. The 30-year-old woman, according to PA security sources, was apparently murdered by members of her family for having had a romance with a Christian man from Taiba.
"When her family discovered that she had been involved in a forbidden relationship with a Christian, they apparently forced her to drink poison," said one source. "Then they buried her without reporting her death to the relevant authorities." ...
The attack is one of the worst against Christians in the West Bank in many years. Residents said it took the PA security forces several hours to reach Taiba. Others complained that the IDF, which is in charge of overall security in the area, did not answer their desperate calls for immediate help.
"More than 500 Muslim men, chanting Allahu akbar [God is great], attacked us at night," said a Taiba resident. "They poured kerosene on many buildings and set them on fire. Many of the attackers broke into houses and stole furniture, jewelry and electrical appliances."
With the exception of large numbers of PA policemen, the streets of Taiba were completely deserted on Sunday as the residents remained indoors. Many torched cars littered the streets. At least 16 houses had been gutted by fire and the assailants also destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary.
"It was like a war, they arrived in groups, and many of them were holding clubs," said another resident."

"Palestinian Legislator Pleads Guilty to Assisting Militant Group" (Greg Myre, The New York Times, 2005/09/05)
"A prominent member of the Palestinian parliament, Husam Khader, pleaded guilty on Sunday in an Israeli military court to charges of assisting an armed Palestinian faction that has carried out many attacks against Israel, the military said.
Before his arrest two years ago, he was best known as a leading critic of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader who died last November.
Mr. Khader frequently accused the Palestinian Authority of corruption and often referred to the Palestinian leadership as a "mafia."
But Israel said Mr. Khader, who is in his mid-40's and comes from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, also helped finance attacks by the militant group Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
The group was responsible for many shootings and bombings in the past several years and is linked to the Fatah movement, which Mr. Arafat led until his death. Mr. Khader was considered a rising figure in Fatah despite his differences with Mr. Arafat and other Fatah leaders."

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)

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