Archived news and commentary: September 12 - 18, 2005

2005/09/12 - 2005/09/18
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

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

News and commentary:

"Afghans cast their ballots at the grand mosque..."
(Caren Firouz , Reuters, 2005/09/18)
"Afghans cast their ballots at the grand mosque during Afghanistan's parliamentary elections in Herat September 18, 2005."

"Millions of Afghans vote, defy Taliban threats" (David Brunnstrom, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/18)
Afghanistan III: "Taliban fighters failed to sabotage Afghanistan's first legislative elections in decades, with millions of voters turning out on Sunday for a ballot President Hamid Karzai called a defining moment for the nation.
There was no major violence against voters, despite more than two dozen harassing attacks by the guerrillas across the troubled south and east in which at least 14 people died.
"We're building our country, we're making our parliament," said Mohammed Twahir, 36, after voting in the southern city of Kandahar, once a bastion of support for the Taliban.
"Before there was no democracy, now we have democracy. Democracy means freedom."
That enthusiasm was echoed by many other voters.
"I'm so happy, I couldn't sleep last night and was watching the clock to come out to vote," said Qari Salahuddin, 21, in the eastern city of Jalalabad soon after voting began. ...
"I am so happy, so happy," said Khatereh Mushafiq, 18, her black veil decorated with white flowers pulled back from her beaming face as she went to vote at a girl's school in Kandahar.
'We are also now taking part in the government and in society. People must take part, people must have a say.'"

"Fear Pervades Danish Art Community" (Patrick, Dhimmi Watch, 2005/09/18)
"If the murderers of Theo van Gogh were seeking to deter other European artists from taking up Islam as a subject for artistic discussion, they have enjoyed some notable success. The latest news concerning radical Islam's intimidation campaign in Europe comes from Denmark, thanks to Filtrat.

Since the murder of the Islam critical Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, and the violent attack on a lecturer at the Danish Carsten Niebuhr Institute, Danish artists are fearful of criticising Islam.
Author, Kåre Bluitgen, is due to publish a book on the profit Mohammed in two weeks time, but so far no one has agreed to illustrated the work through fear of reprisals from Islamic extremists.
According to the author, three artists have turned down an offer to illustrate the book based on their fear of being attacked if they do so.
The president of the Danish Writers Union, Frants Iver Gundelach, said that it is a gross attack on freedom of speech, and the issue will be taken up at the next union meeting.

This story is eerily similar to the decision of the European Parliament to cancel an April screening of Van Gogh's last film "Submission", the making of which resulted in his murder. Parliament members later identified security concerns as their motive for calling off the screening." (See also: "Danish artists scared of Islam" (DR Nyheder, 2005/09/16))

"Arab and Muslim Anti-Semitism in Sweden" (Mikael Tossavainen, Jewish Political Studies Review, from the Fall 2005 issue)
"One Holocaust survivor, who gives lectures at schools all over the country about his experiences during the Shoah, tells of Arab and Muslim pupils who stay away from his talks, sometimes at their parents' request. Pupils, he says, who do attend rarely express hostility, but those who do are exclusively "of Middle Eastern origin." After his lectures he asks for the listeners' evaluations, and once a pupil from an Iraqi family wrote:

That, which happened in the Second World War I think it was a good thing of Hitler to treat the Jews that way because I hate Jews. After the war they tried to get a country because they didn't have a country and so they took a part of Palestine and they created little Israel because Hitler threw them out of every country and that thing today the lecture by the survivor was only crap. The film was bad and I think what Hitler did to the Jews served them right and I don't care what you the survivor talked about and I wish that the Palestinian people kill all the Jews. Jews are the most disgusting people in the world and the biggest cowards and because of what happened today I wasn't going to come to school because an ugly Jew comes to school.

Other lecturers and teachers have similar experiences, with pupils expressing their hatred of Jews in the same kind of terms. They rarely make any distinction among Jews, Israelis, or Zionists, and have very clear opinions about Jewish behavior or characteristics despite having had little or no interaction with Jews." (Hat tip: Rochi Ebner. See also: "Silence surrounds Muslim Jew-hatred" (Sverker Oredsson and Mikael Tossavainen, Dagens Nyheter/Watch, 2003/10/20))

"Saddam's Revenge" (Joe Klein, TIME, 2005/09/18)
Iraq II: "The secret history of U.S. mistakes, misjudgments and intelligence failures that let the Iraqi dictator and his allies launch an insurgency now ripping Iraq apart":
"More than a dozen current and former intelligence officers knowledgeable about Iraq spoke with TIME in recent weeks to share details about the conflict. They voiced their growing frustration with a war that they feel was not properly anticipated by the Bush Administration, a war fought with insufficient resources, a war that almost all of them now believe is not winnable militarily. "We're good at fighting armies, but we don't know how to do this," says a recently retired four-star general with Middle East experience. "We don't have enough intelligence analysts working on this problem. The Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] puts most of its emphasis and its assets on Iran, North Korea and China. The Iraqi insurgency is simply not top priority, and that's a damn shame." ...
In fact, none of the intelligence officers who spoke with TIME or their ranking superiors could provide a plausible road map toward stability in Iraq. It is quite possible that the occupation of Iraq was an unwise proposition from the start, as many U.S. allies in the region warned before the invasion. Yet, despite their gloom, every one of the officers favors continuing -- indeed, augmenting -- the war effort. If the U.S. leaves, they say, the chaos in central Iraq could threaten the stability of the entire Middle East. And al-Qaeda operatives like al-Zarqawi could have a relatively safe base of operations in the Sunni triangle. "We have never taken this operation seriously enough," says a retired senior military official with experience in Iraq. 'We have never provided enough troops. We have never provided enough equipment, or the right kind of equipment. We have never worked the intelligence part of the war in a serious, sustained fashion. We have failed the Iraqi people, and we have failed our troops.'"

"Iraq on the slide: is there time to save it?" (Tim Collins, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/09/18)
Iraq I: "Until recently I was optimistic for the future unity of Iraq. I was optimistic because the Iraqis I know, of all ethnic and religious groups, were determined to keep the nation together and always talked to me of "Shaab al Iraqi" - people of Iraq - and never as one of the factions, Shia, Sunni, Kurd or Christian.
They rejected talk of civil war. The insurgency, they believed, was many things but mainly the work of the Ba'athists and foreign jihadis, it was not an Iraqi civil war. But when does civil strife become civil war? That is the question that is on everyone's lips in Iraq as the country casts a bewildered eye over the carnage of the last bloody week. It was a week that saw the single most deadly attack since the invasion of March 2003, with more than 114 killed and 156 wounded in the poverty-stricken Khadhimiya district of northern Baghdad alone. One eyewitness said "it rained blood". ...
Despite the extensive goodwill that used to exist between the communities - with mixed marriages common - the bloody events of the last week do not augur well for the future. Civil war in Iraq is not yet inevitable, I believe, but with each new crisis its likelihood increases. The constitutional referendum on October 15, for instance, is being denounced in Sunni quarters as a charter for Shias and Kurds to divide the nation's wealth and power.
It is not too late to stop the slide in Iraq, but it is only the Iraqis themselves who can turn the position around. Like the loyalists of Northern Ireland, what the Sunni moderates lack is any substantial leadership - and therefore any hope of involvement in the country's decisionmaking process. Let us hope a leader emerges soon, or a descent into open and unambiguous civil war is, I fear, a distinct possibility."

"The big showdown" (Andrew Anthony, The Observer, 2005/09/18)
"New Yorkers queued around the block to see two British political heavyweights - writer Christopher Hitchens and MP George Galloway - square up over the war in Iraq. Andrew Anthony flew to america to take them both on...":
"'This country is the most evil empire the world has ever known,' announced Bill Mann, a short stocky man with a flat nose and a Brooklyn accent that made Tony Curtis sound like Gregory Peck. Mann informed me with unshakeable confidence that there would not be a single Hitchens supporter in the audience. 'I support Hitchens,' said David Katz, a rather lugubrious-looking character standing directly behind Mann. Suddenly a street-corner argument was served up like an undercard bout before the main event. Mann presented his thesis that America had killed more people than any other nation and that the Soviet Union liberated Europe. 'Yeah, tell that to the Poles, and the Czechs and the Romanians,' said Katz, as he defended America's global record on fighting for freedom. Katz's speech did not go down well with the crowd and one woman, who told me that she was a 'progressive egalitarian humanist', became so exasperated that she stormed off. 'It's OK,' explained Katz, 'that's my wife.' ...
Yet buried beneath the accusations and counter accusations, the sense of fringe politics betrayal and disloyalty, this dispute in a college hall also pointed to the heart of much larger issues such as anti-imperialism and principled intervention, totalitarianism and democracy, jihadi terrorism and American militarism. Thus it was a kind of theatrical representation of the disagreements that are currently reshaping, splitting and even destroying what was once known as the Left." (See also: "Galloway and Hitchens get down and very dirty" (James Bone, The Times, 2005/09/15))

"Death to the Crusade" (Ted Widmer, The New York Times, 2005/09/18)
Widmer on a Turkish bestseller: "The book, "Metal Storm," is available only in Turkish (as "Metal Firtina"), which is probably just as well. Written by Orkun Ucar (a science fiction writer) and Burak Turna (a reporter), this surprise best seller will give palpitations to anyone concerned about the image of the United States overseas.
Although its title might sound more like a Judas Priest album than a political thriller, "Metal Storm" offers a highly realistic account of an American war with Turkey. ...
The plot of "Metal Storm" unfolds something like this. American forces invade Turkey over two weeks in 2007. After war planners discover Turkey has a high concentration of borax, a strategic mineral needed for nuclear weapons and space technology, G.I.'s overrun Turkey from their position in neighboring Iraq. ...
Turkey responds with a creative solution straight out of a West Point seminar on worst-case scenarios. First, the Turks form a new alliance with China, Russia and Germany. Then, a brave Turkish secret agent named Gokan goes ballistic. In a shocking scene, he steals a poorly guarded nuclear weapon and takes out Washington. At the moment of impact, everything turns to vapor, including one Washington mother welcoming her children home from school. She leaves a trace outside her house "as if her photograph had been taken and the negative was there on the concrete." Presto, the crisis is over, catharsis achieved, and Turks can go to bed knowing the invader has been soundly and justly defeated." (See also: "'Mein Kampf' becomes Turkey bestseller, raising the question: Why?" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2005/03/18))

"You stink: Afghan electorate gripped by high politics" (Tom Coghlan and Colin Freeman, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/09/18)
Afghanistan II: "It is an insult normally confined to the playground rather than bandied around in political debate. But in the run-up to today's historic Afghan parliamentary elections, the vexed question of whether a certain candidate smells or not has become a potentially vote-winning issue.
Farida Kuchi, an illiterate Kuchi nomad whose only possessions are a donkey and a black tent, was incensed recently when her posh, university-educated parliamentary rival Parweena Durrani said that she stank to high heaven. Like any good politician, however, she has now managed to spin the slur to her advantage.
"Of course we smell bad," she told a gathering of fellow Kuchis huddled around a pungent dung fire on the plains outside Kabul. "We are Kuchis and we have to live in dirty places and use animal dung for our fires. Go to Parweena's office in Kabul tomorrow and see if she doesn't tell you that you have a bad smell? I am a real Kuchi. What does she know about the problems of the Kuchi?" Her audience nodded in agreement.
While the rhetoric may be a world away from Westminster, there is little doubting the enthusiasm among Afghanistan's novice politicians in their battle to become the country's first democratically elected MPs."

"Old Guard Lurks in Afghanistan Amid Vast Throng of Candidates" (N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post, 2005/09/18)
Afghanistan I: "The chance to represent hitherto powerless groups has attracted thousands of political newcomers to the race, including recent university graduates, members of the nomadic Kuchi tribe and nearly 600 women -- who are guaranteed a little more than one-fourth of the seats. Yet most of the top contenders are power brokers from the past: aging communist generals who worked for the Soviets, rapacious Islamic militia commanders who overthrew the communists before falling at each other's throats, and ex-Taliban ministers who took power from the warring factions. ...
In the final days preceding the vote, however, the most palpable feature of the race was the sheer diversity of candidates.
Bashar Dost, a former planning minister who resigned after accusing foreign assistance organizations of squandering Afghanistan's aid money on fancy cars and equipment, rumbled around Kabul in a large truck passing out handbills to throngs of children. Meanwhile, cell phones across the city buzzed with text messages promoting the virtues of more tech-friendly candidates.
Posters featuring the grinning visage of Sabrina Saghbe, a female basketball player who at 25 is the youngest candidate in the race, were plastered on shop doors under billboards featuring dour photographs of Abdurrab Rasul Sayyaf, a Muslim militia commander with a white, nearly waist-length beard and an even longer record of wartime atrocities."

Saturday, September 17, 2005

News and commentary:

Sabria Saqib
(Sohrab Kabuli, Afghan LORD, 2005/09/16)
More photos by Sohrab Kabuli here.

"Young and female - a brave new face of Afghan politics" (Declan Walsh, The Guardian, 2005/09/17)
"Among the stony-faced mugshots on posters plastered across election-crazed Kabul, one stands out. At first glance it looks like an ad for a Bollywood blockbuster: a close-up of a pretty young woman with an alluring smile against a canary yellow background.
But this is the face of Sabrina Sagheb, the youngest candidate in tomorrow's landmark parliamentary elections, who has created a stir across Kabul with her splashy campaign and outspoken views. "If elected I will face up to the old men with guns that destroyed our country," said the 25-year-old development worker on the final day of campaigning. "Now it is our turn to fight with them."
It is a tough battle. Tomorrow's vote is beset with perils.
Yesterday gunmen dragged candidate Abdul Hadi from his house in Helmand province and killed him, the sixth candidate to die. The Taliban have warned voters to boycott the poll to avoid getting caught in fresh attacks.
Meanwhile Hawa Alam Nuristani, a television presenter turned candidate, was being treated in an American military hospital yesterday after gunmen in Nuristan province dragged her from her car and shot her three times in the legs.
But the poll has also fired the imagination of young Afghans, who see politics as a way to wrench power away from the big men of violence. "The politicians we supported before have betrayed us. They start wars, put our money in their pockets and do nothing for the young," said Reza Hashimi, a 20-year-old carpet weaver." (Hat tip: Normblog.)

"Car Bomb on Baghdad's Outskirts Kills 30" (Slobodan Lekic, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/17)
"A car bomb ripped through a market in a poor Shiite Muslim neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad at sunset Saturday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 38, police said. ...
Interior Ministry police Maj. Falah al-Mhamadawi said an explosives-packed car was parked in front of fruit and vegetable stands in the market at Nahrawan, about 20 miles east of Baghdad, a poor suburb heavily populated by Shiites.
He said at least 30 people were killed and 38 wounded.
At al-Kindi hospital, police Lt. Abdulal Ibrahim said the dead and injured from the market blast were brought to the hospital in pickup trucks and residents told him there were more victims coming.
Some of the wounded lay bleeding on the hospital grounds, screaming in pain. Several had lost limbs.
"I came with my brother Hamid, whose right leg was blown off below the knee," said Alaa Mohammed, outside the hospital. "I saw neighbors putting him in a truck so I just jumped in with him."
Shiites have suffered the brunt of massive campaign of bomb and shooting attacks launched on Wednesday and claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq."

"Beware, within the walls of our capital city lurks the Trojan newt" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/17)
"Ken [Livingstone] denied that Qaradawi had said most of the things attributed to him. He blamed "hostile" sources. He said he didn't "agree" with Qaradawi about suicide bombing (rather in the tone of voice in which one says that one doesn't agree that claret is better than burgundy), but that he lived in a free society and so it was easy for him to condemn. Qaradawi, the Mayor said, was like Pope John XXIII - of all the Muslim thinkers in the world today he was "the most progressive force for change".
Actually, almost all the Qaradawi quotations are well sourced. Even when quotations from his own website, www.Islamonline.net, are not his own words they are underwritten by the website's declaration that Sheikh Qaradawi chairs a committee to "ensure that nothing on this site violates the fixed principles of Islamic law". In the sheikh's interpretation, these fixed principles include support for female genital mutilation, sympathy for the judicial killing of homosexuals "to maintain the purity of Islamic society", "the conquest of Romiyya [Rome]", the rejection of dialogue with Jews in favour of "the sword and the rifle", and the exaltation of suicide bombing - "...the death we welcome", "...we have the children bomb". Yet Ken told the Commons that Qaradawi is "totally opposed to terrorism". Of the London bombs on July 7, Qaradawi said: "We cannot pat these misguided boys on the back but we do want to listen to them." ...
This man is the Mayor of our greatest city. He condemns the bombing of that city (because it was an attack on "working-class Londoners", not on "the mighty and the powerful"). But he is friends with our enemies. New York had Mayor Giuliani at its darkest moment. We have Mayor Livingstone. We are in trouble." (See also: "Equivalences" (David T, Harry's Place, 2005/09/14))

"Sharon fears arrest if he visits London" (Ian MacKinnon, The Times, 2005/09/17)
"Britain is desperate to avoid a diplomatic row with Israel after Ariel Sharon apparently snubbed an invitation from Tony Blair to visit London, claiming that he feared arrest.
The Israeli Prime Minister is understood to have cited the case of a senior general who narrowly escaped detention at Heathrow on war crimes charges last week. Doran Almog remained on an El Al Boeing 747 rather than risk falling into the hands of Scotland Yard after a human rights group lodged charges that cannot be brought in Israel.
Mr Blair suggested that Mr Sharon could visit Britain when the pair met for talks on the sidelines of the United Nations’ 60th anniversary summit in New York. The Israeli premier shot back that because of his years of army service he could also find himself facing arrest.
“I would really like to visit Britain,” Mr Sharon was said to have told Mr Blair. 'The trouble is that I, like Major-General Almog, also served in the (Israeli Defence Force) for many years. I too am a general. I have heard that the prisons in Britain are very tough. I wouldn’t like to find myself in one.'" (See also: "Britain's descent into madness (2)" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/09/14))

Friday, September 16, 2005

News and commentary:

"Musharraf's remarks on rapes in Pakistan decried" (Zeeshan Haider, Reuters, 2005/09/16)
"Outrage mounted in Pakistan and abroad on Friday over President Pervez Musharraf's comment that many Pakistanis felt that crying rape was an easy way to make money and move to Canada.
Prime Minister Paul Martin has already condemned the remarks made by Musharraf, who is in the United States having addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.
London-based rights group Amnesty International said Musharraf should apologize, and newspapers back home decried their leader's attitude.
Musharraf told the Washington Post in an interview published on Tuesday that Pakistan should not be singled out on rape issues as other countries had the same problems.
"You must understand the environment in Pakistan ... This has become a money-making concern. A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped," the Post quoted Musharraf as saying. ...
Amnesty International said it was outraged at the remarks by Musharraf, who is due to address an audience of Pakistani-American women in New York on Saturday.
"This callous and insulting statement requires a public apology from President Musharraf to the women of Pakistan and especially to victims of rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence that are rampant with impunity in Pakistan," the group said in a statement issued on Thursday.
'His statement is an offence to women all over the world.'" (See also: "Musharraf: No Challenge From Bush On Reversal" (Glenn Kessler and Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/13))

"Leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq Al-Zarqawi Declares ‘Total War’ on Shi'ites..." (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 987, 2005/09/16)
"The following are excerpts from a speech by the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi. The speech was published in audio form on the Internet and downloaded by MEMRI from the website of Al-Qaeda's Jihad Media Battalion (www.k-j-i.tk) on September 14, 2005. ...
'Based on all that I have mentioned, and after the world has come to know the truth about this battle and the identity of its true target, the Al-Qaeda organization in the Land of the Two Rivers has decided: First, since the government of the descendant of Ibn Al-'Alqami and the servant of the Cross, Ibrahim Al-Ja'fari, has declared a total war against the Sunnis in Tel'afar, Ramadi, Al-Qaim, Samarra, and Al-Rawa, under the pretext of restoring rights and eliminating the terrorists, the organization has decided to declare a total war against the Rafidite Shi'ites throughout Iraq, wherever they may be. This is a fitting reward, because you started the aggression.
Beware. By Allah, we will not treat you with compassion, and you will have no mercy from us. Any sect that wants to spare itself the attacks of the mujahideen must immediately renounce the Al-Ja'fari government and its crimes. Otherwise, their fate will be the same, and he who warns has done his duty.
Second, from now on, whoever is proven to belong to the Pagan [National] Guard, to the police, or to the army, or whoever is proven to be a Crusader collaborator or spy – he shall be killed.'"

"Gaza greenhouses: looters gold dust" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/16)
"Once the epitome of high-tech and worth millions in desperately needed trade, the greenhouses of Gaza have been stripped bare by their former Jewish owners and pillaged by the Palestinians.
Fitted out with sophisticated, computer-programmed irrigation systems, rich New York Jews forked out 14 million dollars to buy the hothouses from former Israeli settlers and donate them to the Palestinians. ...
But pillagers, taking advantage of the chaos reigning over some evacuated settlements in the days since Israel left and ceded control of Gaza to the Palestinians, made a bee-line for greenhouses seen as gold dust. ...
Taking a quick tour of the ruins of the largest Jewish settlement bloc, Gush Katif, is enough to ascertain that if most of the greenhouses' metal frames are still in place, they are cavernous shells.
Electricity sub-stations have been gouged open and their wires yanked out, impossible to know whether it's the handiwork of settlers or looters.
Few greenhouses have even a pipe left as ripped tarpaulin flaps in the wind. ...
Palestinian forces are now installed outside most of the greenhouses, but that doesn't stop the looters from continuing to carve out treasures.
Three pillagers were slicing through the fence when a police patrol orders them off the premises.
Suddenly a guard comes out from behind the bushes. Carrying pliers, he was helping the looters."

"Iraqi Cleric Urges Unity Against Violence" (Tarek El-Tablawy, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/16)
"A leading Sunni cleric called for religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against violence as Iraq endured a third consecutive day of sectarian killings — the worst, a suicide car bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed at least 12 worshippers as they left Friday prayers.
The bombing in Tuz Khormato, where a young Saudi man was later arrested wearing a bomb belt on his way to a second mosque, was the latest suicide attack following al-Qaida in Iraq's declaration of all-out war on Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. ...
Sheik Mahmud al-Sumaidaei, a leading Sunni cleric whose group is linked to the country's insurgency, criticized militants for targeting civilians. He called for Iraq's religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against further bloodshed.
"I call for a meeting ... of all the country's religious and political leaders to take a stand against the bloodshed," al-Sumaidaei said during his sermon at Baghdad's Um al Qura Sunni mosque.
"We don't need others to come across the border and kill us in the name of defending us," he declared, a reference to foreign fighters who have joined the insurgency under the banner of al-Qaida. "We reject the killing of any Iraqi."
In Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad, authorities said the attacker detonated his explosives-packed car as worshippers flowed out of the Hussainiyat al-Rasoul al-Azam mosque, a Shiite Turkmen place of worship.
Police said 12 people were killed and 23 wounded in the bombing, which also destroyed 10 shops and eight cars."

"Our Rock of Sisyphus" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2005/09/16)
"If on September 12, Americans could have been asked whether they were willing to make the sacrifices we have already tragically incurred to achieve the end of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein , the democratic stirrings in the Middle East, and the avoidance of another September 11, most would have reluctantly done so.
But after two-and-a-half years of televised beheadings, suicide bombers, and improvised explosive devices, most would now not. Two elections and four years later the country is polarized in the manner of 1864 or 1968. ...
Where does this leave us four years later?
Not in as bad a situation as most would argue. If the trends of the last month — more Iraqi participation, constitutional discussions, fewer attacks on Americans, Iraqi predictions of fewer U.S. troops needed — hold steady, then the public will grudgingly restore their support, the Middle East really will be forever altered, and the anti-war left will retreat to lick its wounds. ...
But right now all this is in the hands of a brilliant U.S. military that must stabilize Iraq, train a viable military, ward off foreign intruders — and do that without losing very many more soldiers and in very little time. An impossible task for any other military — but just possible for ours.
So I think we will accomplish all that, as we have pushed the rock almost to the summit. But it is heavier than ever and one or two more of our stumbles and it could come crashing back — just as it was ready to roll over the top and cascade down the other side."

"Bet my genocide's bigger than your genocide: the sad cult of suffering" (Mick Hume, The Times, 2005/09/16)
"How did a discussion about combating Islamic extremism turn into an infantile game of “my Holocaust is as big as your Holocaust”?
After July 7, the Government set up several committees to advise it on tackling extremism in the Muslim community. Now these advisers reportedly want Tony Blair to scrap the annual Holocaust Memorial Day and replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the plight of Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere. They say a special memorial to Jewish victims “sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims” who “feel hurt” that they are not included.
If anything in our hyperbolic culture still merits being seen as an exclusive event, I would have thought it was the Nazi’s industrialised campaign of genocide that killed six million Jews. Yet today it seems that millions more — by no means all of them Muslims — want to be recognised as having had a Holocaust of their own.
A quick internet search reveals an (almost) A to Z of groups whom it is claimed have experienced genocide: Armenians, Bosnian Muslims, Chechens/Cambodians, Darfur Christians, East Timorese, Falun Gong followers, Gay men, HIV/Aids sufferers, Iraqis/Irish, Jews, Kosovans, Laotians, Maoris, Native Americans, Palestinians, Roma, Slaves in America, Tutsis/Tibetans, Unborn children, Victims of motor cars, White South African farmers, Xhosa, Yugoslavs, Zulus. (My apologies to any forgotten genocide victims with the initials O or Q.) It might seem a wonder that there are any of us left behind to commemorate the dead.
No doubt some have strong evidence of mass slaughter. But when almost any experience of suffering, past or present, can be branded genocide, so that a US news network carries the headline “New Orleans evacuee: ‘It’s Genocide!’ ”, it inevitably demeans the word and belittles the singular horrors of the Nazi Holocaust." (See also: "Ditch Holocaust day, advisers urge Blair" (Abul Taher, The Sunday Times, 2005/09/11))

"Jihad's Fresh Face" (Waleed Ziad, The New York Times, 2005/09/16)
"This new wave of fundamentalism, unlike all the others before it in the Islamic tradition, is inherently anti-intellectual and reactive; it is more reminiscent of the anarchical movements of 19th-century Russia. This "Islamism" is nihilistic, expressing a lack of faith in all political systems, in history, and in all past social developments. The jihadists justify their actions by claiming that they are returning to "pure" Islamic sources to establish a "government of God." Of course, the paradox here is that the Koran does not lay down a mode of governance. What perhaps we in the United States do not understand is that in rejecting the status quo, these groups demonize not just the West, but mainstream Islamic culture and philosophy as well; they pose perhaps the greatest existential threat to 1,400 years of Islamic tradition. ...
A good strategy would be to support groups across the Muslim world, both secular and religious, that provide social services where the government falls short; they range from women's rights organizations like the Union for Feminine Action in Morocco to trade groups like the Lebanese Businessmen Association.
We must foster these organizations - along with a free press and educational and cultural institutions. ...
It is vital, however, that we not be put off from helping organizations tied to Islam - faith-based parties calling for peaceful democratic reforms are emerging across the Muslim world as the main political opposition. They are the necessary counterweights to central governments, and without them, autocratic rule, and the neo-fundamentalism that it breeds, will remain the norm."

"Breakfast With Talabani" (Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/09/16)
Iraq II: "Mr. Talabani, a hearty man at 72, represents a country presented to the world daily on TV and in print as falling into an insurgent abyss of bombs and blood. Amid this, he conveys remarkable calm and confidence.
"Two weeks ago I was in Najaf," he says of the holy city (population 560,000) in the Shiite south. "I went into the streets and into the people and it was calm." He claims that 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces are calm: "All Iraq is not Fallujah and Tal Afar." ...
New Iraq's ability to get as far politically as it has turns in no small part on its major players acting responsibly, rare in any nation but noteworthy in a country widely predicted to be heading inevitably to civil war. Mr. Talabani is one such person. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leader of the south's Shiites, is provenly another, as Mr. Talabani explained:
"In the 1920s when British forces came to Iraq, Shiites resisted and they lost everything. This time the Shiites did not make that mistake. For example Sistani, he doesn't call the foreign forces 'occupiers'; he calls them 'guests.' Tell 'the guests' to do so and so. The Sunnis have repeated the mistake of the Shiites of the '20s. Now the Sunnis understand they made a big mistake, and they are trying to improve relations with the United States." ...
He acknowledged that Iraq's transition poses a challenge in the region: 'All Arab states are afraid of a democracy. A democratic Iraq with different nationalities -- Kurds, Arabs Turkomen, Shiites, Sunnis -- will inspire all the Middle East. The Sunnis of Saudi Arabia, the Kurds of Iran, Syria, Turkey -- when they see this, it will inspire all of them. For that reason none in the Middle East is helpful in having a democratic Iraq.'"

"Good news from Iraq" (Brian P. Golden, The Boston Globe, 2005/09/16)
Iraq I: "January's election turnout was astounding; it will certainly be surpassed this fall. A recent poll in the Arabic newspaper Al Hayat reports that 88 percent of Iraqis plan to vote in the October referendum. The Kurds and Shi'ites, comprising 80 percent of the population, embrace the draft constitution. Even disgruntled Sunni Arab leaders are redoubling their efforts to register voters. Many Sunnis will vote in opposition, but opposition in a democracy isn't a bad thing; it's a victory.
And what does this mean for the insurgency? It's a disaster. The insurgency is despised because Iraqi civilians suffer most at their hands. Recently, even the spiritual leader of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader, demanded that attacks on civilians cease. And in the spring, Leslie Gelb of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations took a tour of Iraq and met with local leaders. He observed that while Iraqis are often frustrated with the Americans, they absolutely hate the insurgency and its murderous destruction. Despite threats, Iraqis will continue to defy the insurgency by voting. ...
I work with a man who translates for the Coalition. Years ago, his family fled Iraq, but he refused to stay away while American soldiers fought the genocidal dictator in the place of his birth. He explains that Saddam was responsible for the murder of his own father. He insists that he will express gratitude to American soldiers by welcoming us as ''honored guests" in his Baghdad home once Iraq is free and at peace. I look forward to that day."

Thursday, September 15, 2005

News and commentary:

"Pallywood - 'According to Palestinian Sources...'"
(The Second Draft, September 2005)
Boston University History Professor Richard Landes's new media watch-dog project, The Second Draft, was launched yesterday. Don't miss "Pallywood - 'According to Palestinian Sources...'", a film by Richard Landes and Nidra Poller:
"International news media extract a few convincing instants of staged scenes - sight-bytes, and present them as news..."
(Hat tip: Rochi Ebner. See also: "Solomonia Interview: Richard Landes" (Martin 'Solomon', Solomonia, 2005/08/30))

"Why do we tolerate intolerance?" (Rod Liddle, The Spectator, from the 2005/09/17 issue)
"According to the Daily Telegraph, a Muslim barrister who ‘advises’ the Prime Minister has said that Mr Blair is the victim of a sinister conspiracy between the Freemasons and the Jews, who control him and took us to war in Iraq. Ahmad Thomson, from the Muslim Association of Lawyers, has previously denied that six million Jews died in the Holocaust: that’s a ‘big lie’, he avers. There are quite a few people who think along similar lines to Mr Thomson, particularly in the United States. Mr Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, was one such. These people call the US government ZOG — the Zionist Occupation Government — and they tend to have rather too many canisters of weedkiller in their basements. You might have heard similar sentiments from David Icke, too, although David believes that it is giant lizards rather than Jews pulling the strings. My point is that these people are usually lumped together under the generic heading of ‘nutters’. And sometimes ‘psychos,’ ‘weirdoes’, ‘loonies’, etc. But in Britain you can believe such paranoid, irrational gibberish and not merely be tolerated and excused the eponym ‘barking madman’ but actually be invited to divulge your stupidity to the Prime Minister personally. ...
When Islam appears on the agenda, the goalposts are moved: the normal rational thought processes are not applied. Suddenly those Left-liberal shibboleths are not very important: they can be forgotten. Append the description ‘Muslim’ to anyone and all bets are off; he or she can get away with pretty much anything, be it the execution of homosexuals or the idea that Jews and Freemasons are running the government. This springs from the misconception, widespread on the Left, that being anti-Islam is in some way ‘racist’. It is not. It has nothing to do with race — as I daresay Mr Ahmad Thomson, that lawyer I mentioned earlier, would confirm. One is not born believing that the world is a Zionist conspiracy any more than one is born believing that we are all the subjects of giant alien lizards." (See also: "The monster in Britain's midst" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/09/11))

"Duke prof: Osama bin Laden 'a very high-minded and welcome voice in global politics'" (Robert Spencer, Dhimmi Watch, 2005/09/15)
"Bruce Lawrence is the Duke professor who says that jihad means "being a better student, a better colleague, a better business partner. Above all, to control one's anger." Now he has joined to that bit of wisdom the assertion that Osama bin Laden needs to take his place among the world's statesmen. ...

Bruce Lawrence, professor of religion, is publishing a book of Osama bin Laden’s speeches and writings. ...
“If you read him in his own words, he sounds like somebody who would be a very high-minded and welcome voice in global politics,” Lawrence said.
After analyzing his writings, Lawrence said he concluded bin Laden does not have an ultimate goal that he wants to achieve in his jihad but that he does have a specific target.

He doesn't have an ultimate goal, eh? Apparently Lawrence did not read the writings he was editing all that closely. Osama makes it quite clear in his message to the American people of November 24, 2002 that he is waging "Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah's Word and religion reign Supreme." He criticizes the United States for failing to adopt Islamic law: "You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator."
What, then, is his goal? To restore the caliphate and Sharia in the Islamic world, and then by offensive jihad to extend it over the non-Muslim world. This is emphasized not only by Osama but by other jihadists around the world. How could Lawrence have missed it?" (See also: "Prof publishes bin Laden’s words" (Orcun Unlu, The Chronicle, 2005/09/13))

"Election fever hits Afghanistan ahead of Parliamentary vote" (Akram Gizabi, Eurasia Daily Monitor, 2005/09/15)
"On the plus side, the euphoria is overwhelming. Almost the entire country is caught up in election fever. There is hardly any city, town, or village where there are no election activities planned. With three days to go, the excitement and anxiety are beyond description. There are huge posters and banners appearing on every conceivable surface in the capital, from rooftops to buildings to lampposts. Cars and vans equipped with loudspeakers travel throughout the city, announcing various candidate messages. Mosques and town halls are reserved for public meetings. The campaign process will end tomorrow, Friday September 16, about 48 hours before the polls open. ...
There are at least four major hurdles still standing in the way of the elections.
The first problem is security. Since March about 1,200 people been killed, including insurgents, government soldiers, candidates, and election workers. About 76 soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition have also reportedly been killed in the same period. Most operations have been carried out in the volatile provinces of Khost, Zabul, Kandahar, Helmand, and Kunar (Hewad, September 13).
Second, the enormous number of candidates in some provinces, and especially in Kabul, poses a formidable problem. Since seats for both the lower house of parliament as well as the provincial council can be selected on a province-wide basis, all the names of the candidates must appear on the ballot papers. In Kabul alone, there are about 400 candidates for the lower house and each individual ballot paper consists of eight pages with some 50 candidates on each page. It is a newspaper-size page crowded with names, pictures, symbols, and numbers for each individual candidate. For an illiterate, elderly Afghan voter, male or female, the task of locating the right candidate is daunting." (Hat tip: Publius Pundit.)

"Galloway and Hitchens get down and very dirty" (James Bone, The Times, 2005/09/15)
"George Galloway, the anti-war Respect Party MP from Bethnal Green, is guilty of "sinister piffle". Christopher Hitchens, the pro-intervention polemicist who writes a column for Vanity Fair, practises "Goebbellian tricks".
The two rival titans of the raging row over Iraq engaged in an intellectual prize fight in New York last night that quickly degenerated into knock-down, drag-out bar-room brawl.
Before a jeering crowd of more than 1,000 in a college auditorium, the two men - once allies on the Left - hurled invective at each other for almost two hours, until exhaustion set in.
A scruffy, sweating Mr Hitchens accused Mr Galloway of being an apologist for dictators, fresh from Damascus where he had praised the 145 attacks a day by Iraqi insurgents on coalition troops.
"The man’s hunt for a tyrannical fatherland never ends," Mr Hitchens said. "The Soviet Union let him down, Albania’s gone ... Saddam’s been overthrown... But on to the next, in Damascus." ...
Mr Galloway, inexplicably tanned and looking worthy of the nickname "Gorgeous George" in a well-pressed biege suit, denounced Mr Hitchens as a former-Trotskyist stooge for a reactionary government in Washington bent on dominating the Iraqi people. ...
Even as accomplished a demagogue as Mr Galloway eventually overstepped the mark. To boos from the audience, he suggested that American foreign policy was to blame for the September 11 attacks - particularly Washington’s support for Israel.
"Some believe that those aeroplanes on September 11 came out of a clear blue sky. I believe they came out of a swamp of hatred created by us," he proclaimed."

"Second Day of Iraq Mayhem Kills 31" (Slobodan Lekic, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/15)
Iraq II: "Suicide bombers inflicted another day of mayhem in the capital Thursday, killing at least 31 people in two attacks about a minute apart that targeted Iraqi police and Interior Ministry commandos. The carnage left nearly 200 people dead just two days. ...
Recent violence only served to deepen the misery in Baghdad, where streets were noticeably quieter Thursday — deserted in the southern Dora district where the latest bombings were concentrated.
U.S. and Iraqi forces using loudspeakers roamed the district warning residents to stay indoors because five more suicide car bombers were believed to be in the area.
Many victims of Wednesday's attacks were killed shortly after dawn when a bomber lured day laborers to his small van with the promise of work, then detonated his explosives in the heavily Shiite Kazimiyah district."

"Terrorists unite to plot Iraqi civil war" (Anthony Loyd, The Times, 2005/09/15)
Iraq I: "A terrorist mastermind has united insurgent groups in Baghdad to target the Iraqi Shia Muslim community with the aim of bringing civil war to Iraq, The Times has learnt.
According to US military intelligence sources, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man responsible for the bloodiest acts of terror in Iraq over the past two years, now commands thousands of fighters from various rival groups and is set to order further waves of bombings. ...
“The al-Qaeda organisation in Mesopotamia is declaring all-out war on the Rafidha [a pejorative term for Shias], wherever they are in Iraq,” said the 38-year-old in an audio message released on an Islamic website. He urged Sunni Muslims to “wake up from your slumber” and joint the fight. ...
In Tal Afar itself yesterday, where some 10,000 US and Iraqi troops have been engaged in a massive offensive to recapture the ethnically divided town from Sunni insurgents, commanders spoke of the “horrible” abuses they had uncovered. The details were prophetic reminder of what al-Qaeda’s supremacy may bode.
“The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine, in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child’s body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents,” said Colonel H R McMaster, a senior American commander in the town."

Added in archive:
"Solomonia Interview: Richard Landes" (Martin 'Solomon', Solomonia, 2005/08/30)

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

News and commentary:

"Hamas militants blew a gaping hole in the concrete barrier..."
(AFP, 2005/09/14)
"The wall separating the Southern Gaza Strip Palestinian town of Rafah and Egypt blows up near a crowd of people wanting to cross over the border into Egypt. Hamas militants blew a gaping hole in the concrete barrier which had been hastily erected in a bid to stop Palestinians surging across the Gaza Strip border into Egypt."

"Gunrunners Smuggle Weapons Into Gaza" (Lara Sukhtian, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/14)
Gaza V: "Palestinian gunrunners smuggled hundreds of assault rifles and pistols across the Egyptian frontier into Gaza, dealers and border officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The influx confirmed Israeli fears about giving up border control and could further destabilize Gaza.
Black market prices for weapons dropped sharply, with AK-47 assault rifles nearly cut in half to $1,300 and even steeper reductions for handguns. ...
Around 8 p.m. Wednesday, about two hours after the deadline for closing the border, an Egyptian officer bellowed into a bullhorn for Palestinians to stop entering Egypt and prepare to return to Gaza.
The frontier was still porous later, however, with Egyptian police pushing back Palestinians scaling the concrete wall on the Gaza side and trying to sneak through the barbed-wire fence on the Egyptian side. Up to 750 Egyptian border guards were expected Thursday morning, Egyptian police said.
Palestinian security forces in Gaza apparently were doing little to stop infiltrators. At midday, Hamas militants blew a hole in the Gaza wall, making it even easier for people to enter the 18-foot-wide buffer zone leading to Egypt's fence."

"After gunfire, Abbas doesn't show up" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/09/14)
Gaza IV: "Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday issued a stiff warning to various armed militias responsible for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in PA-ruled territories.
Abbas, who was unable to attend a rally on Wednesday to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip because of the presence of scores of militiamen, said the PA was running out of patience in the wake of increased chaos.
"We will no longer tolerate from this day the security anarchy, the armed chaos and the kidnappings," he said. "The principle that unites us is that we have one authority, one law and one legal weapon." ...
Abbas's decision to stay away from the rally at the former Neveh Dekalim settlement is seen as a severe blow to his efforts to enforce law and order. Only a few hundred people showed up for the rally that was organized by the PA.
During the rally, which was boycotted by some Palestinian groups, a Hamas activist grabbed a microphone from a singer and PA policemen had to shoot into the air to rescue the singer. No one was hurt."

"Spot the Idiot" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2005/09/14)
"In today's Boston Globe, one Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, who works with the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University, actually argues for a policy of appeasing al Qaeda:

Though dismissed widely, the best strategy for the United States may well be to acknowledge and address the collective reasons in which Al Qaeda anchors its acts of force. Al Qaeda has been true to its word in announcing and implementing its strategy for over a decade. It is likely to be true to its word in the future and cease hostilities against the United States, and indeed bring an end to the war it declared in 1996 and in 1998, in return for some degree of satisfaction regarding its grievances. In 2002, bin Laden declared: ''Whether America escalates or deescalates this conflict, we will reply in kind."

Of course, this is the same paper that, in October 2001, published an op-ed titled "Getting to Yes With the Taliban." What's next, 'How to Win Friends and Influence Kim Jong Il?'" (See also: "Time to talk to Al Qaeda?" (Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould, The Boston Globe, 2005/09/14))

"Britain's descent into madness (2)" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/09/14)
"Israel’s Maj.-Gen. Doron Almog who flew to Britain to raise money for a charitable cause, was warned by Israel’s ambassador to London not to disembark from his El Al flight at Heathrow because British detectives were waiting to arrest him. The arrest warrant had been issued on Saturday by the Bow Street Magistrate's Court at the request of a pro-Palestinian group. The warrant alleged that in 2002 Almog had ordered the demolition of 59 Palestinian homes in Rafah. Gen. Almog decided not to alight from the plane, and remained aboard until it turned around and returned to Israel. ...
While the Israeli 'human rights' worm might just finally be beginning to turn, Britain's legal establishment with its power-crazed, anti-democratic mania for supra-national jurisdiction and its elevation of international and human rights law to the status of unchallengeable holy writ has created a hospitable judicial environment for any group with a grievance to criminalise acts of military self-defence if civilians get caught in the cross-fire. A judicial structure, in other words, that can now be used to emasculate the defence of the free world by empowering its enemies to hound and persecute those who are trying to mount that defence.
To cap this madness, Machover has now also called for the arrest of the Israel ambassador – for warning Alog that he was about to be arrested by the forces of a state that appears to have taken leave of its senses.
No doubt if Almog had torched a synagogue or two, he’d have been hailed as a heroic fighter for freedom." (See also: "Investigation urged after Israeli officer avoids arrest" (Vikram Dodd and Conal Urquhart, The Guardian, 2005/09/13))

"Equivalences" (David T, Harry's Place, 2005/09/14)
"According to Livingstone, the Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sheikh Qaradawi is an equivalent figure to the convenor of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII. ...
Let's make no bones about it. Ken Livingstone is an active apologist for the deliberate targeted murder of civilians.
He is also the worst sort of liar: when caught out, he simply escalates the lie and repeats it as loudly as possible. Confronted with evidence of Qaradawi's politics and his role in the promotion of the deliberate targeted murder of civilians, he seeks to impugn the sources. When it is pointed out that the sources include material on Qaradawi's own website, Livingstone's response is that Qaradawi "is not responsible for everything on the website that operates under his name". When Qaradawi's endorsement of the various punishments for homosexuality are cited, Livingstone's replies like a professional spin doctor, describing Qaradawi's views, which are included in a fatwa with religious-legal force as "a series of questions of a philosophical nature".
Qaradawi's true parallel is not a reforming Pope. It is, rather, a figure like David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and white supremacist who has been attempting - unsuccessfully - to build a mainstream political career." (See also: "Radical imam like pope, says mayor" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/14))

"Explosions in Iraq Kill 152, Injure 542" (Slobodan Lekic, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/14)
Iraq II: "More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital in rapid succession Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The one-day death toll was believed to be the worst in the capital since major combat ended in May 2003, and Al-Jazeera said Al-Qaida in Iraq linked the attacks to the recent killing of about 200 militants from the city of Tal Afar by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Before dawn Wednesday, 17 men were killed by insurgents in the village of Taji north of Baghdad, which pushed the death toll in all violence in and around the capital to 169. ...
The al-Qaida statement posted on a militant Web site declared that "the good news that the battles of revenge for the Sunni people of Tal Afar began yesterday."
"We will give you more news about operations in Baghdad and other cities as soon as we receive them," according to the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed."

"75 Killed in Baghdad Blast; Amended Charter Approved" (Robert F. Worth, The New York Times, 2005/09/14)
Iraq I: "BAGHDAD, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 14 - A suicide car bomber killed at least 75 people when it ripped through a gathering of day laborers waiting for work on Wednesday morning in one of Baghdad's largest Shiite districts.
The bomb detonated at 6:50 a.m. at Aruba Square in the Khadamiya district of northern Baghdad, where large numbers of laborers typically gather in the morning in hopes of being hired for the day. Another 162 were wounded by the blast, according to an official with the Interior Ministry.
The attack appeared to be the latest sectarian strike directed against Shiites in Baghdad, who have been repeatedly targeted by Sunni Arab insurgents and terrorists bent on exploiting Sunni-Shiite divisions across Iraq.
On Tuesday, the leaders in the Shiite-dominated National Assembly said they approved a final, modified version of the proposed new constitution. But the charter still does not come close to mollifying Sunni leaders who had hoped to win far broader changes in the document before the Oct. 15 national referendum."

"You'll pay, bomber warns Aussies" (Sian Powell and Natasha Bita, The Australian, 2005/09/14)
"Sentenced to death for his role in the embassy bombing in Jakarta last year, the terrorist known as Rois had an unrepentant message for Australia.
"All of you will receive heavier punishment than what you have done to me," he said, smiling, as he was led away by armed police. "It should be borne in mind that any act of injustice against Muslims anywhere in the world will not go unavenged. Muslims will certainly avenge this."
Chief judge Rocki Panjaitan said yesterday that Iwan Darmawan Mutho - alias Rois - had been proven "legally and convincingly guilty" of terrorism for his role in last September's attack on the Australian embassy - funded, the bomber told police, by al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden.
Eleven people were killed in the blast, including a 16-year-old schoolgirl and the suicide bomber Heri Golun.
Rois turned to the South Jakarta District Court after his sentence was read, raised his fist and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). A mob of supporters joined in the shout and later sang a jihad march.
Rois joins Bali bombers Mukhlas, Imam Samudra and Amrozi bin Nurhasyim on Indonesia's death row and, like them, he said he welcomed a martyr's death.
"I thank God because God has shown me this is an evil court," Rois said, refusing to say if he would appeal. 'I reject the verdict, because it is derived from evil law, not from the law of God. I thank God, because if we are sentenced to die with an evil law, we are sure we will have a holy death.'"

"Radical imam like pope, says mayor" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/14)
"An Islamic scholar who has been accused of supporting suicide bombers was likened by Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, yesterday to Pope John XXIII.
He said that Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam who is banned from America, was "an absolutely sane Islamist engaged with the world" who believed in democracy and an increasing role for women.
"Of all the Muslim leaders in the world today, Sheikh Qaradawi is the most powerfully progressive force for change and for engaging Islam with western values," Mr Livingstone told the Commons home affairs select committee.
"I think his is very similar to the position of Pope John XXIII." ...
The mayor conceded that he did not condemn "and may be prepared to endorse" suicide bombings in Israel because the Palestinians "only have their bodies" as weapons. His views were shared by a majority of Muslims, said Mr Livingstone.
He also said it was easy for those in the West to condemn all violence but "I don't know what I would be doing if I was in Uzbekistan, dealing with that government."
Asked about al-Qaradawi's views on homosexuality - he is said to consider it an "abominable practice" and questioned whether gays should be put to death - Mr Livingstone said that much of his website was 'a series of questions of a philosophical nature.'"

"Egyptians and Palestinians Make a Mockery of Their Accords with Israel" (DEBKAfile, 2005/09/14)
Gaza II: "The sights and scenes in Gaza Strip immediately after the Israeli troop pullback Monday, Sept 12, filled Israel’s defense leaders with dread. Total loss of control was manifested by the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian border police, who stood by as tens of thousands of Palestinians indulged in a wild orgy of destruction, burning, looting and hurling themselves back and forth across the Gazan-Egyptian border unchecked.
Long months of painstaking negotiations with Egypt, the Palestinians and the United States for coordination on post-evacuation security were trampled underfoot. IDF sources estimated Tuesday night, Sept 13, that in two days, about 20,000 Palestinians had flocked into Egyptian Sinai from the Gaza Strip – most intending to stay there - and 3,000 Palestinians had crossed into the Gaza Strip.
Not a single Palestinian security officer was visible on the horizon. Egyptian border police, deployed under a binding protocol with Israel to block the border to unauthorized traffic, obligingly helped infiltrators clamber over the wall marking the frontier.
Many Palestinians were no doubt spontaneously celebrating a sense of freedom. But, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, this spontaneity was exploited if not generated by the Hamas and Jihad Islami terrorist groups. With the help of Egyptian troops, they used the tide of people to cover the illegal transfer from northern Sinai into the Gaza Strip of hundreds of terrorists with sidearms, Qassam missiles, long-range rockets, and anti-tank and ground-air missiles."

"Gaza-Egypt border remains open despite Israeli demands" (Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/09/14)
Gaza I: "Just hours after the IDF pullout from the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, thousands of Palestinians forced their way through the border crossing and rushed into Egypt. The crossing has since turned into an open passage, with thousands streaming across.
On Tuesday, unconfirmed media reports claimed weapons had changed hands and made it to the PA side.
In preparation for the handover of the Philadelphi corridor to Egyptian and PA security control, Israel shut down its headquarters at the crossing a week ago. The understanding was that once the PA received control of the Gaza Strip, it would assume the responsibility of monitoring the border with Egypt and act to prevent terror and weapons smuggling.
Ever since the army left Gaza, the situation has approached anarchy, strengthening Israeli fears that terror organizations will take advantage of the situation to restock their weapons' supplies and improve their capabilities. ...
Another cause for concern is the fact that the same PA policemen who are meant to enforce the law were spotted looting, setting fire to synagogues and joining in the massive destruction of buildings left in the settlements."

Added in archive:
"The monster in Britain's midst" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/09/11)

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

News and commentary:

"Palestinian men scavenge through the rubble..."
(Yannis Behrakis, Reuters, 2005/09/13)
"Palestinian men scavenge through the rubble of the destroyed former Jewish settlement of Dugit in Gaza September 13, 2005. Palestinian police Tuesday blocked off abandoned Jewish settlements and chased after scavengers in a first attempt to impose order after chaotic celebrations of Israel's pullout from Gaza."

"Synagogue Desecrations" (HonestReporting, 2005/09/13)
Gaza II: "Mere hours after Israel completed its historic withdrawal from Gaza on Sunday (Sept. 11), Palestinian mobs descended on former Jewish settlements, desecrating their synagogues by burning them to the ground and looting anything left.
While observers the world over were saddened and outraged, some media outlets tried to justify the sacrilege, or even blame it on Israel... ...
A Knight Ridder story, euphemistically entitled 'Palestinians besiege buildings hours after Israelis leave Gaza', included this 'explanatory' quote at the top of the article:

"I want to destroy everything here as they did the Al Aqsa mosque," said Mahmoud Malahi... "It's a symbol of occupation. Destroying it is a symbol of Islam."

Israel is well-known to protect Muslim places of worship under its control. The very site mentioned - the Al Aqsa mosque - is an outstanding example of this policy, for it has never been touched by Israel, and remains in perfect shape and in active use atop the Temple Mount."

"Police Try to Impose Order in Gaza Strip" (Lara Sukhtian, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/13)
Gaza I: "Palestinian police Tuesday blocked off abandoned Jewish settlements and chased after scavengers in a first attempt to impose order after chaotic celebrations of
Israel's pullout from Gaza. The overwhelmed forces were unable to halt looting of the area's prized greenhouses.
Egyptian guards, meanwhile, failed for a second straight day to control a rush across the Gaza-Egypt border, which was a formidable barrier when patrolled by Israel. With the Israelis gone, Gazans dug under walls and climbed over barriers to get to Egypt, where they stocked up on cheap cigarettes, medication and cheese. Egyptian forces on Monday fatally shot a Palestinian during the mad rush, witnesses said.
The chaos raised new questions about the ability of Palestinian forces to impose order in Gaza.
The greenhouses, left behind by Israel as part of a deal brokered by international mediators, are a centerpiece of Palestinian plans for rebuilding Gaza after 38 years of Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority hopes the high-tech greenhouses will provide jobs and export income for Gaza's shattered economy.
During a tour of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia implored Palestinians to leave the structures intact, even as people scavenged through debris elsewhere in the settlement.
"These greenhouses are for the Palestinian people," he said. "We don't want anyone to touch or harm anything that can be useful for our people."
Just minutes away, crowds of looters in the Gadid settlement overwhelmed hundreds of guards trying to protect the greenhouses. Guards acknowledged that in many cases, they were unable to stop the looting." (Hat tip: Gateway Pundit, who has more on the situation in Gaza.)

"George Galloway Is Gruesome, Not Gorgeous" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/09/13)
"As for the jihadist and Baathist resisters: They "are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day."
Change only the name, and this is flat-out Bin-Ladenist hysteria. (It also fails to mention the fact that even Saddam Hussein's constitution recognized that Iraq was a state of Arabs and Kurds. There are at least 1 million Kurds in Baghdad alone, and I doubt that the ancestral Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Russians, and Druse of Jerusalem consider themselves members of "the Arab nation.") As for the "operations," they may not amount to 145 per day, but they have included the demolition of the U.N. and Red Cross offices in Baghdad, the deliberate murder of schoolchildren, the video-slaughter of journalists and aid workers, the leveling of Shiite mosques, and the assassination recently of Sheikh Omar Ibrahim al Duleimi, a Sunni cleric who opposes the coalition presence but who urged his followers to vote in the upcoming elections. I might add that the "operations" have also included the killing of hundreds of American soldiers, including Spc. Casey Sheehan, who died in the successful attempt to bring order and water to Sadr City, and over whose graves Galloway invites us to shed the tears of the crocodile — and then to capitulate to the killers. No shame. No shame at all.
Thus, and thanks in part to Eve and Jane, the "anti-war" movement has as its new star a man who is openly pro-war, but openly on the other side. A man who supported the previous oppressors of the region — the Soviet army in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq — who supports its current oppressors — Bashar Assad and his Lebanese proxies—and who still has time to endorse its potential future tyrants in the shape of the jihadists in Iraq and elsewhere. Galloway began his political life as a fifth-rate apologist for the Soviet Union, but he has now diversified into being an apologist for Stalinism, for fascism, and for jihadism all at once!"

"Christianity Dying in Its Birthplace" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2005/09/13)
"What some observers are calling a pogrom took place near Ramallah, West Bank, on the night of September 3-4. That's when 15 Muslim youths from one village, Dair Jarir, rampaged against Taybeh, a neighboring all-Christian village of 1,500 people.
The reason for the assault? A Muslim woman from Dair Jarir, Hiyam Ajaj, 23, fell in love with her Christian boss, Mehdi Khouriyye, owner of a tailor shop in Taybeh. The couple maintained a clandestine two-year affair and she became pregnant in about March 2005. When her family members learned of her condition, they murdered her. That was on about September 1; unsatisfied even with this "honor killing" – for Islamic law strictly forbids non-Muslim males to have sexual relations with Muslim females – the Ajaj men sought vengeance against Khouriyye and his family.
They took it two days later in an assault on Taybeh. The Ajajs and their friends broke into houses and stole furniture, jewelry, and electrical appliances. They threw Molotov cocktails at some buildings and poured kerosene on others, then torched them. The damage included at least 16 houses, some stores, a farm, and a gas station. The assailants vandalized cars, looted extensively, and destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary.
"It was like a war," one Taybeh resident told the Jerusalem Post. Hours passed before the Palestinian Authority security and fire services arrived. The 15 assailants spent only a few hours in police detention, then were released. As for Khouriyye, the Palestinian Arab police arrested him, kept him in jail, and (his family says) have repeatedly beat him. ...
A cousin, Suleiman Khouriyye, pointed to his burned house. "They did this because we're Christians. They did this because we are the weaker ones," he said The Khouriyyes and others recall the assailants shouting "Allahu Akbar" and anti-Christian slogans: 'Burn the infidels, burn the Crusaders.'" (See also: "Muslims ransack Christian village" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/09/05))

"Hiroshima, Abu Ghraib, Dresden: but which is highest on the cruelty scale?" (David Aaronovitch, The Times, 2005/09/13)
"Aren’t the moral advantages conferred upon us because we didn’t behave with the close brutality of the Nazis or the Japanese cancelled out by the high-flying death dealt out on Dresden or Hiroshima? Aren’t suicide bombers merely an unarmed people’s response to an Israeli firepower that itself kills civilians?
Letter after letter in newspapers suggests these equations, so how come (I thought, returning from Ranau) they don’t work for me? And this is despite the fact that I can see the virtue of them. ...
I think intention matters. If your violence is caused by a desire for Lebensraum at the expense of racial inferiors, the intention is obviously less honourable than, say, that of removing Saddam Hussein. But if the desire behind the Iraq invasion had been, as some critics charged, merely to annex Iraq’s oil, then all deaths caused by the coalition would have been morally repugnant.
And the motivation matters. I believe that it is depraved to take pleasure from the murder, ill-treatment or torture of fellow human beings. Societies which permit or encourage such behaviour are inferior moral societies to those where it is regarded as shaming. ...
It’s important, it seems to me, that we don’t confuse ourselves with false equivalence. The result of that would be an incapacity to take any action that carried even the risk of harm. But it’s just as important to understand that this doesn’t let us off the hook. If we became careless of whether or not people suffer because of our choices, we could still become the thing we hate."

"Death in Bobur Square" (Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian, 2005/09/13)
"Ed Vulliamy pieces together for the first time the full story of the Uzbek massacre that the world forgot":
"The first shooting began at 8am, says Hakim, as government militiamen drove up, opened fire and left, during which time he saw a woman and child killed. The car was followed by a military jeep, spraying the crowd with gunfire. Then "it came from all sides," says Dolim. "We had gone expecting speeches, not bullets." ...
The shooting continued sporadically until 5pm, when two columns of armed personnel carriers arrived. "The second [column] opened fire directly at us," says Yuldash. "I saw people falling around me, women and children too; screaming and blood everywhere. I saw at least five small children killed." ...
Further along, a military unit was lined up in battle formation, as though facing an advancing army, not an unarmed crowd. Soldiers were lying behind sandbags; behind them were APCs. As the fleeing people approached, they were assailed by gunfire. The slaughter lasted 90 minutes. "The dead were lying in front of me piled three-thick," says Nizomidin. "At one point, I passed out. When I regained consciousness, it was raining - on the ground, I could see water running with blood."
There was one street open, "one way out", says Pulat. Turning right here, a few survivors made their escape. "To get to that street," says Nizomidin, "I had to climb over the bodies. There were dead women and children; I saw one woman lying dead with a small baby in her arms."
Not everyone took that escape route immediately. Nafruz, 34, lay on the ground, realising that "whoever raised their head would be shot. I was surrounded from all sides by shooting." It seems likely, from the size of ordnance described by the survivors, and the fact that bodies were reportedly being flung back a metre and a half when hit, that anti-aircraft weaponry was being used against the unarmed crowd. "My clothes were covered in brains and blood," says Nafruz. 'I stayed two hours after the shooting stopped, then crawled over the bodies to the college.'"

"Talabani Says Iraqis Could Replace Many U.S. Troops" (Jim VandeHei, The Washington Post, 2005/09/13)
"Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in an interview yesterday that the United States could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year, declaring there are enough Iraqi forces trained and ready to begin assuming control in cities throughout the country.
After the White House and Pentagon were contacted for comment, however, a senior adviser to Talabani called The Washington Post to say Talabani did not intend to suggest a specific timeline for withdrawal. "He is afraid . . . this might put the notion of a timetable on this thing," the adviser said. "The exact figure of what would be required will undeniably depend on the level of insurgency [and] the level of Iraqi capability."
In the interview, Talabani said he planned to discuss reductions in U.S. forces during a private meeting with President Bush today, and said he believed the United States could begin pulling out some troops immediately.
"We think that America has the full right to move some forces from Iraq to their country because I think we can replace them [with] our forces," Talabani said. 'In my opinion, at least from 40,000 to 50,000 American troops can be [withdrawn] by the end of this year.'"

Added in archive:
"Leading Imam Warns of Moslem Extremists" (Radio Sweden, 2005/09/07)

Monday, September 12, 2005

News and commentary:

"Palestinians stand on the top of a burning synagogue..."
(Suhaib Salem, Reuters, 2005/09/12)
"Palestinians stand on the top of a burning synagogue at the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, southern Gaza Strip, September 12, 2005. Jubilant Palestinians planted flags on the rubble of Jewish settlements and set synagogues ablaze on Monday as Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation."

"This Is “Tackling Extremism”?" (Andrew McCarthy, National Review, 2005/09/12)
"It's a good thing the Brits are only "tackling" extremism. Who knows what they would do if they decided to start promoting it?":
"Well, first came the word that an invitation to participate in the effort had been extended to the media secretary for the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, known for his anti-Semitism, who refers to Osama bin Laden as a "freedom fighter," and describes Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman ("the blind sheikh" behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspiracy) as "courageous." ...
Now comes the latest, from Sunday's Times of London:

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....

What is the reasoning? How would it possibly advance the cause of suppressing militancy to suppress memory of the atrocity that is central to the 20th Century history of Europe and to the grandeur of Britain's singularly heroic role in that history? Why, by preventing Muslims from feeling "hurt and excluded," of course. ...
If all this were not stunning enough, the Times adds in the briefest of asides that Blair's extremism tacklers will also lodge objection to the prime minister's proposal to ban the noxious Hizb ut-Tahrir organization. This militant group is barred throughout much of the Islamic world. Nonetheless, Blair's very helpful advisers contend it should be keep its wide berth in England because, they claim, it does not advocate violence in or against the U.K." (See also: "Ditch Holocaust day, advisers urge Blair" (Abul Taher, The Sunday Times, 2005/09/11))

"'An Islamist threat like the Nazis'" (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, 2005/09/12)
"The threat of the radical Islamists taking over Europe is every bit as great to the United States as was the threat of the Nazis taking over Europe in the 1940s. ...
Disconnected from their homelands, isolated from their non-Muslim neighbors and fellow workers, alienated from their elders, Europe's young Muslims find a weird, disembodied, globalized radical Islam appealing.
Muslim sections of Paris, Rotterdam and other European cities already are labeled "no-go zones" for ethnic Europeans, including armed policemen.
As the Muslim populations -- and their level of cultural and religious assertiveness -- expand, European geography will be "reclaimed" for Islam. Europe will become pockmarked with "little Fallujahs" that effectively will be impenetrable by anything much short of a U.S. Marine division.
Not only will Islamic cultural aggression against a seemingly passive and apologetic indigenous population increase, but the zone of safety and support for the actual terrorists will expand as well.
If the current leaders of Europe do not respond to the Islamist threat boldly and effectively, the common European people might decide to defend their culture as vigilantes. In that case, Europe again will become a bloody urban battleground."

"On Iraq, Short Memories" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2005/09/12)
"If you read even respectable journals these days, including this one, you would think that no more than six or seven people ever supported going to war in Iraq. A recent piece in The Post's Style section suggested that the war was an "idea" that President Bush "dusted off" five years after Bill Kristol and I came up with it in the Weekly Standard.
That's not the way I recall it. I recall support for removing Saddam Hussein by force being pretty widespread from the late 1990s through the spring of 2003, among Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, as well as neoconservatives. ...
I recall broad bipartisan support for removing Hussein right up to the eve of the war. In March 2003, just before the invasion, I signed a letter in support of the war along with a number of former Clinton officials, including deputy national security adviser James Steinberg, ambassador Peter Galbraith, ambassador Dennis Ross, ambassador Martin Indyk, Ivo Daalder, Ronald Asmus and ambassador Robert Gelbard. ...
It's interesting to watch people rewrite history, even their own. My father recently recalled for me a line from Thucydides, which Pericles delivered to the Athenians in the difficult second year of the three-decade war with Sparta. 'I am the same man and do not alter, it is you who change, since in fact you took my advice while unhurt, and waited for misfortune to repent of it.'"

"Lesson One for the modern Muslim: remember, this is not the 8th century" (Salman Rushdie, The Times, 2005/09/12)
"A few weeks ago, in an article written in response to the London bombings, I wrote about the urgent need for a “reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age”. ...
Several writers challenged me to take the next step and hypothesise the content of such a reform movement. The nine thoughts that follow form an initial response to that challenge, and focus primarily on Britain. ...
Reformed Islam would reject conservative dogmatism and accept that, among other things, women are fully equal to men; that people of other religions, and of no religion, are not inferior to Muslims; that differences in sexual orientation are not to be condemned, but accepted as aspects of human nature; that anti-Semitism is not OK; and that the repression of free speech by the thin-skinned ideology of easily-taken “offence” must be replaced by genuine, robust, anything-goes debate in which there are no forbidden ideas or no-go areas.
Reformed Islam would encourage diaspora Muslims to emerge from their self-imposed ghettoes and stop worrying so much about locking up their daughters. It would emerge from the intellectual ghetto of literalism and subservience to mullahs and ulema, allowing open, historically based scholarship to emerge from the shadows to which the madrassas and seminaries have condemned it.
There must be an end to the defensive paranoia that led some Muslims to claim that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks and, more recently, that Muslims may not have been behind the 7/7 bombings either (a crackpot theory exploded, if one may use the verb, by the recent al-Jazeera video).
Not so much a reformation, as several people said in response to my first piece, as an Enlightenment. Very well then: let there be light." (See also: "The Right Time for An Islamic Reformation" (Salman Rushdie, The Washington Post, 2005/08/07))

"Last Israeli Soldiers Pull Out of Gaza" (Lara Sukhtian, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/12)
"MORAG, Gaza Strip - Thousands of triumphant Palestinians poured into abandoned Jewish settlements early Monday, setting empty synagogues on fire and shooting in the air, as the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza Strip, completing Israel's pullout after 38 years of occupation.
Palestinian police stood by helplessly as gunmen raised flags of militant groups in the settlements and crowds smashed what was left in the ruins or walked off with doors, window frames, toilets and scrap metal. Initial plans by Palestinian police to bar the crowds from the settlements for the first few hours quickly disintegrated, illustrating the weakness of the Palestinian security forces and concerns about growing chaos after Israel's departure.
Gaza's night sky turned orange early Monday as fires roared across the settlements. Women ululated, teens set off fireworks and crowds chanted "God is great."
Just after sunrise, the last column of tanks rumbled out of Gaza, passing through the Kissufim crossing into Israel."

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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