Archived news and commentary: September 26 - October 2, 2005

2005/09/26 - 2005/10/02
2005/09/19 - 2005/09/25
2005/09/12 - 2005/09/18
2005/09/05 - 2005/09/11
2005/08/29 - 2005/09/04
2005/08/22 - 2005/08/28

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, October 2, 2005

News and commentary:

"A combination picture of video grabs from an amateur video..."
(Reuters, 2005/10/02)
"A combination picture of video grabs from an amateur video shows the sequence of the blast at the Raja restaurant and bar at Kuta Square in Bali October 1, 2005. Three bomb blasts ripped through crowded restuarants on Bali on Saturday, killing 25 people including foreigners and wounding 102 others, officials said. The sequence of the pictures should be seen from top (L-R), then bottom (L-R)."

"Amateur Video Captures Bali Blast Details" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/02)
"JAKARTA, Indonesia - The suspected suicide bomber — wearing a black T-shirt and clutching his backpack — enters a bustling Bali cafe and walks past diners at candlelit tables moments before a deadly blast.
The Raja Cafe was packed with local and foreign tourists, talking and sipping drinks when the suspect entered. He disappears from view and screams can be heard as the bomb explodes.
The chilling details of one of the three bombings that struck the Indonesian resort island on Saturday were captured on a video, taken by a tourist and obtained by Associated Press Television News.
The widely broadcast footage showed a bright flash with a loud bang and gusts of black smoke filling the frame.
The camera operator flees into the street, where panicked tourists in tank tops and shorts mill around in confusion."

"16 Muslims reportedly rape Christian girl" (Jeremy Reynalds, WorldNetDaily, 2005/10/02)
"A 12-year-old Christian girl was reportedly abducted and gang raped by 16 Muslim men in Pakistan.
The alleged offence occurred at Rawlpindi, bordering Pakistans capital city of Islamabad.
According to a news release from the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), Sara Tabasum escaped two weeks later while she was being transported to a new location. APMA reported Tabasum managed to jump out of the vehicle and escape while it was on a busy road. Although the youngster was pursued, she still managed to reach her family. ...
On Sept. 5, APMA stated, Tabasum went out late one night to buy some loaves of bread. She was reportedly abducted by her former neighbors and two other men. According to APMA, "They put a piece of cloth soaked in some intoxicant on her mouth, after which she fainted."
When Tabasum regained consciousness she found herself in Bibis house, where three men reportedly including Babar Bibi, raped her.
Tabasum was reportedly told that by Perveen Bibi that she could be "saved" if she embraced Islam and married one of Perveens Muslim brothers.
According to APMA, 'On refusing, Sara was beaten badly during captivity and shifted to another house ... where five persons raped her. She was repeatedly asked by Perveen and other men to embrace Islam and recite (the) Islamic creed to save herself from the misery. Perveens husband Babar even told her that they (had) killed her brother Suleman, and her mother (had) also embraced Islam. (With that in mind), it would be better for her to become (a) Muslim now, otherwise she could be killed or made (a) 'prostitute.'" (Hat tip: Fjordman.)

"The 'Torture Narrative' Unravels" (Robert L. Pollock, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/10/02)
"It's hardly a secret that Pfc. Lynndie England was sentenced last week for her role as "leash girl" in the infamous abuses photographed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003. But it was also noticeable that the denouement of this spectacular story was relegated to the innards of newspapers that had once given it weeks of front-page treatment. That's almost surely because the trial of the last of the Maryland Army Reservists to face justice -- like those of the others that came before her -- offered no evidence to support claims that the abuses were caused by a Bush administration that had "created the climate" or "set the tone" for "torture." ...
Have detainee abuses occurred elsewhere in the war on terror? Of course. But they were "widespread" only if you define that term geographically instead of by frequency. The adjective "systematic" has been similarly misused. Overall, more than 70,000 detainees have passed through U.S. military custody since late 2001. About 500 criminal investigations have been conducted into allegations of related misconduct, many of which were found to be unsubstantiated. But more than 200 people have already been disciplined for actions ranging from failure to report to prisoner abuse itself. ...
In short, all the evidence suggests a low rate of detainee mistreatment, one that compares favorably with U.S. civilian prisons, never mind that of other and earlier militaries. "The behavior of our troops is so much better than it was in World War II," Mr. Schlesinger told me last year. I called him this week to ask what we've learned since. "That the press exaggerated," he replied. The suggestion that Mr. Schlesinger and countless others -- from decorated officers to military juries -- have lent their good names to some kind of whitewash only reveals the remaining accusers for the crackpots they are."

"Unoccupied" (Abdallah Al Salmi, The Washington Post, 2005/10/02)
An interesting inside look at the newly "liberated" Gaza, but also revealing in its defeatism and victimization. Al Salmi complains that the Israeli settlers didn't leave a fully functional industrial infrastructure behind them, but instead "left nothing but some greenhouses behind". The very same "nothing", then, which "made Gush Katif one of Israel's agricultural export powerhouses"?
" Looking out of my eighth-floor window, I see that the irregularly interlaced urban and agricultural areas in view are no longer filled with excited crowds. It's quiet, depressing, apathetic. During the day, another bombardment rocks the office where I work in Gaza City. Everyone talks about air raids. No one talks about Egypt any more. No one mentions "the liberation."
With 1.3 million Palestinians living in heavily packed refugee camps, subject to IDF jets and militants' rockets, the 140-square-mile Strip is not a likely setting for a stable and prosperous life. The key to a successful future is a functioning economy, and we can't create an economy out of nothing. The Israeli settlers who had the support of a powerful government, financial backing, international friends and access to outside goods and resources left nothing but some greenhouses behind. ...
The world sees Gaza, I think, the way we saw ourselves a few weeks ago -- "liberated" from the Israelis. But I fear that the world now thinks it can ignore us. Given the passivity of the ruling authority, Gazans need help from outside to save the next generations from poverty and extremism. Without such help, Gaza is still a prison -- it has just become a little more spacious.
"I think we were better off before the Israelis left," said Mohammed, my neighbor. "At least we were termed 'occupied,' but now we are not; we have been left alone in this barren land."
I hope the world proves him wrong." (See also: "Will they sink or swim?" (The Economist, 2005/09/22))

"New Afghan women MPs pledge to roll back the tyranny of men" (Tim Albone, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/02)
"WOMEN poised to take their seats in Afghanistan’s new parliament later this month have promised to press for changes in the laws under which men are entitled to sell their young daughters to prospective husbands and teenage girls can be sent to jail for being raped.
Female candidates say they will fight for equal rights and the end of forced marriages. They will argue that all women should have the right to leave their homes without a male escort and should be free to choose whether to wear a burqa.
Preliminary results of the September 18 election are expected early this week and since a quarter of the seats have been reserved for women, many are confident that they will be elected.
Among them is Sabrina Sagheb, 25, who is typical of the new breed of female politician. Her election posters, showing her wearing lipstick and a yellow headscarf, angered conservatives but captured the hearts of young men.
Sagheb, head of the Afghan Basketball Federation, has promised to improve women’s rights if she is elected. “The gunslingers and conservatives are complaining about women getting seats in parliament but we have been mistreated and not given rights throughout the history of Afghanistan,” she said. “This needs to change.”

"Voice of moderate Islam wins support" (Michael Sheridan, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/02)
"There has rarely been a political comeback like this one. For a man barred from office until 2008, Anwar Ibrahim, politician and former prisoner, is receiving a rapturous welcome on what looks distinctly like an election campaign in villages and towns across Malaysia.
“I’m talking about corruption,” he said. “Nepotism is still part of the game. Nothing has changed. I’d say we are 10 years behind the times here.”
The Malaysian government has every reason to be worried, because Anwar, 58, has become much more than a local figure.
He is emerging as an international spokesman for moderate Islam, with a teaching position at Georgetown University in the United States, invitations to Oxford and a demanding schedule of speeches and seminars around the globe.
He opposes the war in Iraq but attacks “the delusions” of those who worship Saddam Hussein rather than face home truths about the crisis in Muslim societies. He argues with Malaysia’s fundamentalists because, he says, “you have to draw a line” against compulsion in religion.
This week he is a speaker at a conference in London organised by the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability.
It is quite a renaissance for a man who was sacked from high office, convicted on charges of abuse of power, accused by the prime minister of being homosexual, beaten up by the country’s top policeman and imprisoned from 1998 to 2004."

"Australians describe scenes of carnage at Bali blast sites" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/02)
"SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian witnesses to the latest string of bombings in Bali spoke of scenes of carnage, panic and distress at the sites of the attacks that killed at least 25 people and injured scores more.
Australian cameraman Sean Mulcahy, who was dining near the blast at the beach resort of Kuta, said both areas where the bombs hit were scenes of devastation.
"There's a lot of injuries, a lot of horrific injuries, particularly in Kuta," he told ABC radio. ...
Speaking on Sky News, Mulcahy said the scene at the hospital could "only be described as something out of a war-zone."
"There was blood covering the entire floor... people were being resuscitated on the floor in the waiting room, people with limbs missing... it was utter chaos," he said. ...
[Vicki] Griffiths, who was holidaying with her husband Kim, had been dining with friends when the blast struck.
"The first explosion I actually thought was a gas bottle so I... just said to everyone, 'stay calm, it's probably just a gas bottle, we'll be okay'," Griffiths told ABC radio.
"Then another girl... said we should run to the beach so we picked our bags up and were just about to run and the second one went off just behind us... I think about eight feet.
"I was thrown, picked up with the blast to my back and I was picked up and thrown over the table to the ground and I landed on someone, I don't know who.
"Then Kim came and got me and dragged me along the sand, I couldn't get up," she said."

"Suicide Bombers Kill 25 in Bali Attacks" (Irwan Firdaus, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/02)
"BALI, Indonesia - Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests targeted tourist resorts on Bali with coordinated attacks that devastated three crowded restaurants on Saturday night, killing at least 25 people. Two al-Qaida-linked fugitives suspected of masterminding the 2002 nightclub bombings on the same Indonesian island may have been involved, a top anti-terrorism official said.
Saturday's near-simultaneous blasts struck two seafood cafes in the Jimbaran beach resort and a three-story noodle and steakhouse in downtown Kuta. Kuta is the bustling tourist center of Bali where two nightclubs were bombed three years ago, also on a busy Saturday night, killing 202 people.
Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai said he suspected two Malaysian fugitives alleged to be key members of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group masterminded the latest attacks. The two are also accused of orchestrating the 2002 bombings which killed mostly foreigners and two other attacks in the Indonesian capital in 2003 and 2004. The latter attacks also involved suicide bombers.
"The modus operandi of Saturday's attacks is the same as the earlier ones," said Mbai, who identified the two suspected masterminds as Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top.
He said the two were not believed to be among the three suicide attackers. The assailants' remains were found at the bombing scenes but they have not yet been identified, he said.
"I have seen them. All that is left is their head and feet," he told The Associated Press. 'By the evidence we can conclude the bombers were carrying the explosives around their waists.'"

Saturday, October 1, 2005

News and commentary:

"Dinner tables are swamped by the tide..."
(Darren Whiteside, Reuters, 2005/10/01)
"Dinner tables are swamped by the tide at the site of the bomb blasts that went off the day before, on Jimbaran Bay on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, October 2, 2005. Police investigating coordinated blasts on crowded restaurants on Indonesia's resort island of Bali that killed 25 people said on Sunday they were searching for clues to whether suicide bombers were to blame."

"Bali Bombings Leave 22 Dead, 50 Injured" (Wahjoe Boediwardhana, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/01)
"BALI, Indonesia - At least two bombs exploded almost simultaneously Saturday in tourist areas of the Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 22 people and wounding about 50 others, officials said. The blasts came a month after Indonesia's president warned of possible terrorist attacks.
The wounded included at least two Americans.
The blasts at two packed seafood restaurants in Jimbaran beach and a bustling outdoor shopping center in downtown Kuta were the work of terrorists, Indonesian President Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono said. He also warned that more attacks were possible.
"We will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice," he said after being briefed by top security officials. He also urged people "to be on alert."
The attacks occurred nearly three years to the day that bombings in Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. Those attacks, and subsequent deadly bombings in 2003 and 2004, were blamed on the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah."

"Karen of Arabia" (Jonathan Karl, The Weekly Standard, from the 2005/10/10 issue)
Saudi Women III: "The women were eager to talk, almost all of them insisting that Americans are all wrong about Saudi Arabia and the role of Saudi women. Soon, however, it became clear that these women, for the most part, are convinced their country is changing.
"Besides driving, name one way we don't have equal rights," said a student named Aram.
"Can you travel without permission of a male relative?" I asked.
"No. But we still travel."
"Do your brothers need permission?"
"No! But, of course, they tell their parents where they are going."
"Can you vote?"
"No. But we've only had one election so far. And I think I read that women and blacks in America weren't able to vote for a long time."
Many of them defended the driving ban. They like being driven around, they insisted. Although one woman in the audience told the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler, "We are very happy and satisfied, but we would be happier and more satisfied if we could drive." ...
"What do you want to be 10 years from now?" I asked several of the students.
"Lawyer," said one.
"Banker."
"Ambassador," said Aram, the woman student who had been most aggressively refuting the notion that Saudi women don't have everything they want.
"Ambassador?" I asked. "Does Saudi Arabia have any women ambassadors, anywhere in the world?"
"No," she said. But Aram, who just a few minutes earlier had defended the fact that her country did not allow women to vote, told me she is convinced that her country is changing so much that Saudi Arabia will soon have women ambassadors." (See also: "Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy" (Steven R. Weisman, The New York Times, 2005/09/28) and "Hughes Raises Driving Ban With Saudis" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2005/09/28))

"Gen. Musharraf 's Lies" (The Washington Post, 2005/10/01)
"Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf complains that his country is unfairly portrayed as a place where rape and other violence against women are rampant and frequently condoned. In fact, it deserves such a reputation. According to Pakistani human rights groups, thousands of attacks are reported every year, including gang rapes and "honor killings" of women who are accused of having affairs or who refuse an arranged marriage. Most of these attacks go unpunished. ...
Gen. Musharraf claims to champion a "moderate Islam" that respects the rights of women. But when Mukhtar Mai, a victim of a gang rape whose attackers have not been punished, tried to visit the United States earlier this year, the president barred her from leaving the country. In an interview with The Post last month, he claimed that he had relented. But then he said this: "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." This statement was, as Pakistani activists and the Canadian government soon pointed out, an outrageous lie. There is only one known case of a rape victim moving to Canada, a doctor who was assaulted by a military officer. A far more common outcome for rape victims is to be ostracized by their communities or jailed.
When Gen. Musharraf's statement provoked an uproar, he responded with another lie: He claimed that he had never made it. In fact, a recording of him speaking is available on The Post's Web site, washingtonpost.com. His words are quite clear. "These are not my words, and I would go to the extent of saying I am not so silly and stupid to make comments of this sort," the general said. Well, yes, he is."

More on Mukhtar Mai and Shazia Khalid:
"Musharraf Denies Rape Comments" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2005/09/19)
"Musharraf's remarks on rapes in Pakistan decried" (Zeeshan Haider, Reuters, 2005/09/16)
"Another Face of Terror" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2005/07/31)
"Pakistani court orders suspects re-arrested in high-profile rape case" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/06/28)
"The 11-Year-Old Wife" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2005/06/21)
"Pakistan Lifts Travel Restrictions on Rape Victim" (Salman Masood, The New York Times, 2005/06/16)
"Pakistan's moderates are beaten in public" (Ali Dayan Hasan, International Herald Tribune, 2005/06/15)
"Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2005/06/14)
"Pakistan Rape Sparks Rally of Thousands" (Khalid Tanveer, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/07)
"When Rapists Walk Free" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2005/03/05)
"Pakistani Court Acquits Five Gang-Rape Convicts" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/03/03)
"Pakistan's gas fields blaze as rape sparks threat of civil war" (Declan Walsh, The Guardian, 2005/02/21)
"Baluchi blues" (The Economist, 2005/01/20)
"Sentenced to Be Raped" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2004/09/29)

"Algerian Voters Said to Approve President's Postwar Plan" (Michael Slackman, The New York Times, 2005/10/01)
"ALGIERS, Sept. 30 - The Algerian authorities said Friday that voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum that the president had promoted as a way for Algeria to move past the killing and violence of a civil war that spanned more than a decade.
But there was no independent oversight of the voting or counting, and anecdotal reports from around the capital region suggested that turnout was far lower than reported. Still, the interior minister, Noureddine Zerhouni, dismissed doubts about the integrity of the vote raised by reporters, human rights groups and opposition political leaders.
The government said 82 percent of eligible voters poured into the polls on Thursday, with 97 percent of ballots endorsing a measure to grant amnesty to those who committed all but the worst crimes in a civil war that claimed more than 100,000 lives.
"How do you explain these figures you gave when we noticed on the ground there wasn't any large turnout?" said Faisal Metaoui, a reporter for the independent Algerian newspaper Al Watan, at a morning news conference with the minister.
"If you did your work of journalism properly, you would have noticed and confirmed the figures," the minister shot back, noting that most Algerians voted at night.
The commanding victory and turnout figures have only heightened the criticism of the proposal, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's charter for Peace and National Reconciliation."

Friday, September 30, 2005

News and commentary:

"Mysterious Bombings Frighten Lebanese" (Zeina Karam, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/30)
"BEIRUT, Lebanon - A recent string of bombings — particularly the last brutal attack that maimed a prominent TV anchorwoman — has left many Lebanese frightened over who could be next and increasingly puzzled about what can be done to stop the mysterious attacks.
Sunday's bombing that injured TV personality May Chidiac — the first woman to be targeted — was the 14th explosion to hit Lebanon in the past year. The bombs have killed 28 Lebanese, including billionaire Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister.
Politicians are bracing for more violence as a U.N. investigation into Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination that is targeting Syria and its Lebanese allies nears its end.
"There is an atmosphere of terror in the country," said Ramonda Jalbout, a 33-year-old mother of two and a lawyer. "One feels afraid of everything, there is absolutely no sense of security, no protection. I've come to feel afraid even of driving my own car and parking it on the street." ...
Many Lebanese politicians have taken refuge abroad, choosing to stay away until security conditions improve. Others who remained here largely stay in heavily protected homes and travel in armed motorcades. Those abroad include legislator Saad Hariri, the son of the slain former premier whose assassination triggered mass protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April after nearly 30 years.
Since then, two anti-Syrian activists — former Communist party leader George Hawi and journalist Samir Kassir — were among those killed in the explosions. In addition, there are the "living martyrs" — Defense Minister Elias Murr, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, and Chidiac — who survived bombings with various injuries." (See also: "Car bomb wounds anti-Syrian journalist in Lebanon" (Lin Noueihed, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/25))

"Bad Choice for an Antiwar Voice" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/30)

"''Harry, what the hell are you doing campaigning for that crippled son-of-a-bitch that killed my son Joe?' [Joseph P.] Kennedy said, referring to his oldest son, who had died in the war. Kennedy went on, saying Roosevelt had caused the war. Truman, by his later account, stood all he could, then told Kennedy to keep quiet or he would throw him out the window.'

-- "Truman," by David McCullough, Page 328

The antiwar movement has found itself ill served by endowing absolute moral authority on [Cindy Sheehan,] a political radical who demanded that American troops leave not just Iraq but "occupied New Orleans." Who blames Israel for her son's death. Who complained that the news media went "100 percent rita" -- "a little wind and a little rain" -- rather than covering other things in the world, meaning her.
Most tellingly, Sheehan demands withdrawal not just from Iraq but also from Afghanistan, a war that is not only just by every possible measure but also remarkably successful. The mainstream opposition view of Iraq is that, while deposing the murderous Saddam Hussein was a moral and even worthy cause, the enterprise was misconceived and/or bungled, too ambitious and unwinnable, and therefore not worth expending more American lives. That is not Sheehan's view. Like the hard left in the Vietnam War, she declares the mission itself corrupt and evil: The good guys are the "freedom fighters" -- the very ones who, besides killing thousands of Iraqi innocents, killed her son, too.
You don't build a mass movement on that. Nor on antiwar rallies like the one last weekend in Washington, organized and run by a front group for the Workers World Party. The WWP is descended from Cold War Stalinists who found other communists insufficiently rigorous for refusing to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Thus a rally ostensibly against war is run by a group that supported the Soviet invasions of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and a litany of the very worst mass murderers of our time, including Slobodan Milosevic, Hussein and Kim Jong Il. You don't seize the moral high ground in America with fellow travelers such as these."

"Austria sabotages Turkish EU talks" (David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/30)
The absurdity is of course that Austria is "isolated 24-to-one" in its common sense approach to the question of Turkish membership in the EU. I'm very much against admitting Turkey into EU, based on social, cultural and economical factors, but I do see the need for forging closer partnerships not only with Turkey, but also with Maghreb. The all-or-nothing approach can only lead to two possible outcomes, both mistakes of historical proportions, either by admitting Turkey or by alienating it. The solution is a middle way entailing close partnerships but not full memberships, which is exactly what Austria proposes:
"Efforts to salvage one of the most ambitious and controversial projects in European Union history - the opening of talks to admit Turkey - ended in failure yesterday.
Turkish membership talks are due to begin on Monday. But Austria left the process deadlocked by sticking to demands that Turkey be offered something less than full membership.
A British-chaired meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels broke up after only an hour amid Austrian demands that the EU's formal invitation to Ankara be rewritten.
Austria's ambassador said the accession agreement should be stripped of a pledge that the goal of entry talks is EU accession for Turkey.
Austria also wanted the agreement rewritten to include a warning that even if Ankara meets all the EU's conditions, the bloc can still say no to full membership "if the Union is not in a position to absorb Turkey".
Such a half-invitation is unacceptable to Turkey, which has threatened to walk away if any new conditions are imposed.
The failed talks forced Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, to call an emergency meeting of foreign ministers for Sunday night - less than 24 hours before the Turkish delegation was due to arrive.
One EU source charged that Austria, where 80 per cent of voters oppose Turkish entry, "wants to stick two fingers up to the Turks". Another EU official said Austria was isolated 24-to-one. 'If you start accession negotiations, you can't suddenly move the goalposts.'"

"Iraq's relentless tide of murder" (Anthony Loyd, The Times, 2005/09/30)
"Saad Rashid is just another statistic in Iraq’s war. The farmer and father of seven was driving through Baghdad when two cars filled with gunmen raked his vehicle with bullets.
Badly wounded, he dragged himself from his car and tried to run. His attackers shot him in the legs, then walked up and finished him off. It was 11am in a crowded street.
“I collected him from the mortuary. He had 12 bullets in him and they had shot him through the mouth,” Akram Hussein, 28, his nephew, said.
“He had no obvious enemies, but he was a Shia from the Amiri tribe, and that was reason enough for him to be attacked.”
Mr Rashid, 42, joined the ranks of hundreds of ordinary Iraqis murdered this year in seemingly random violence. Some are shot at home or in the street. Others are abducted and found floating in the Tigris, their hands bound and throats cut. Each dawn reveals bodies dumped by the roadsides or on rubbish tips.
Some are killed individually or in small groups. Others, such as with the barely publicised discovery of 22 bodies on Tuesday near al-Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, are killed in large numbers. Their deaths are the background to more spectacular outrages on Iraq’s march to a potential civil war.
“Hundreds of Iraqis have died like this in the past eight to nine months,” said John Pace, head of the UN Human Rights Office for Iraq. 'The number has increased exponentially in the past five months and remarkably in the last three. The pattern is regular; it’s systematic and we must presume there is a sophisticated form to these attacks.'"

"Algerians Vote, Weighing Grief Against Peace" (Michael Slackman, The New York Times, 2005/09/30)
"BLIDA, Algeria, Sept. 29 - This nation's referendum on Thursday was an emotional moment for many Algerians, who had to decide whether to accept their president's request to forget the violence of a civil war that left more than 100,000 people dead and to offer amnesty to many of those responsible.
It was nearly silent at the Martyr's Cemetery here Thursday morning, but for a few sobs and the shuffle of feet along the dirt paths, as about 30 men and women whose relatives were killed during the civil war visited their graves. For these survivors, it was a tearful protest and a forceful no to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation.
"We support peace based on certain requirements - justice, dignity and respect for those who were killed," said Cherifa Keddar, leader of an organization representing victims of the war, as she visited the graves of her brother and sister. ...
This referendum would continue Mr. Bouteflika's consolidation of power. It not only would grant amnesty to those who committed all but the most heinous crimes and effectively exonerate government security forces for killings, torture or kidnappings, but it also would grant the president broad authority in carrying out the proposed charter."

Thursday, September 29, 2005

News and commentary:

"Saddam Hussein: On Trial" (Dan Senor, The Weekly Standard, 2005/09/29)
"Much like Iraq's "purple finger" election in January, a trial will begin in October that could help change the lens through which Arabs see their world. For the first time, an Arab despot, Saddam Hussein, will be tried by his own people. The trial will be beamed by satellite into millions of Arab homes and around the globe. It will afford a peek into the depths of human evil and, embarrassingly, if incidentally, into the concurrent indifference of Western nations to Iraqi suffering. Thus far, the accountability of Nuremberg, the Hague, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone has eluded Arab-Muslim leaders. This is about to change. ...
Saddam's legal strategy, as explained to me by a leading member of the defense team -- Abdul Haq al-Ani, retained by Saddam's daughter -- is fourfold: ...
By airing the dirty laundry of America's foreign policy over the past several decades, Saddam's lawyers believe that they will embarrass the Bush administration into abruptly ending the trial and figure out a way to cut a deal with Saddam, which will include returning him to power. Seriously. How likely is this? According to al-Ani, odds are better than 50 percent that it could happen within a year. Yes, he truly believes that Saddam or, as the defense team refers to him, "President Hussein," could be back running Iraq by this time next year. ...
As for his own motives, al-Ani told me that even he believes Saddam Hussein is despicable for the illegal imprisonment and torture of innocent Iraqis. So why is he defending him? 'Because I'm anti-American. I'm not for Saddam. I'm anti-American. And defending Saddam is the best way I can express it.'" (Hat tip: Best of the Web Today.)

"To Stop An Arc of Violence" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/09/29)
"ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq -- If Iraq slips toward civil war, this town along the Sunni-Shiite fault line will be one of the flash points. Talking to U.S. troops at a base near here, you come away with a idea of what the war looks like out in the killing zone -- and how hard it is to mesh U.S. strategy with the nightmarish reality of the Iraqi insurgency.
This war is in many ways a series of disconnects, and you sense them during a visit to Forward Operating Base Kalsu, as the Army calls its garrison here. It's a war in which U.S. troops remain upbeat, even as support deteriorates back home; in which the appearance of stability in much of Iraq is shattered by spasms of hideous violence; in which U.S. military strategy is confounded by Iraq's political disarray. ...
Straddling the Sunni-Shiite fault line, the troops here see the two realities of Iraq. The Shiite areas to the south are fairly calm; Iraqi military and police units, nearly all Shiite, are increasingly effective in keeping the peace there. Najaf, for example, is protected by six checkpoints manned by Iraqi police. Lt. Col. James Oliver, who has responsibility for these areas, says that he hopes to be able to turn over Karbala and Najaf provinces entirely to Iraqi control by the end of October.
The Sunni areas to the north are ground zero for the insurgency. The fighters travel easily from place to place, sheltered by an intimidated local population. Tribal and clan chieftains operate as a kind of local mafia, selling their services to the well-financed insurgents. There is no effective Iraqi army or police presence in these Sunni areas. Nor is there a Sunni militia that might maintain a rough peace, the way Shiite and Kurdish militias have done in their areas."

"Abuse of Electroshock Found in Turkish Mental Hospitals" (Craig S. Smith, The New York Times, 2005/09/29)
"Turkey's psychiatric hospitals are riddled with horrific abuses, including the use of raw electroshock as a form of punishment, according to a human rights report issued in Istanbul on Wednesday, just days before Turkey begins formal talks to join the European Union.
The report, by Mental Disability Rights International, a Washington-based group, came after several visits in the past year by the group's investigators to psychiatric hospitals and other facilities for people with developmental or mental disabilities.
While the report details many types of abuses, it said the most disturbing involved the use of electroconvulsive therapy without anesthesia to treat a wide range of illnesses in adults and children. ...
The human rights group estimated that unmodified shock treatment was used on nearly a third of patients undergoing psychiatric crises at the government-run hospitals, including children as young as 9."

"New groups planning London attacks, warns anti-terror chief" (Rosie Cowan, The Guardian, 2005/09/29)
Close, but no cigar. "We have close links with the Muslim community but the next step is getting them to share information.":
"The police officer in overall charge of London's anti-terrorist operation has told the Guardian that Scotland Yard is tracking a number of potential terrorist suspects who may be planning further attacks.
In his first full interview since the July 7 atrocities, Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman said none of the individuals was linked to the blasts on July 7, or the attempted bombings two weeks later.
No master plot had been discovered, but Mr Hayman said that the force, and Londoners, would have to accept that the city was now a prime target. He anticipated other terrorist cells, which may well be British, would launch attacks. ...
Mr Hayman also admitted that getting the Muslim community to trust the police was proving a long and difficult process.
'There has been progress but starting from a regrettably low baseline. We have close links with the Muslim community but the next step is getting them to share information. I fully understand how difficult that is, the repercussions of arrests and so on, but that has to be weighed against the mass loss of life that could result from further atrocities.'"

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

News and commentary:

"Anglican leadership in Iraq feared dead" (Ruth Gledhill and Jenny Booth, The Times, 2005/09/28)
"The entire lay leadership team of the main Anglican church in Iraq is presumed to have been killed after they were attacked while returning from a conference in Jordan.
The team of five Iraqi-born Anglicans including the lay pastor and his deputy, should have returned two weeks ago from the conference.
Canon Andrew White, of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, who is the clergyman in charge of the church, said: "Anglican leaders in Baghdad have been missing for two weeks and they are presumed dead."
Those missing include Maher Dakel, the lay pastor; his wife, Mona, who leads the women's section of the church; their son Yeheya; the church's pianist and music director, Firas Raad; the deputy lay pastor; and their driver, whose name has not been disclosed.
Canon White last heard news of the five on September 13, when he was told that they had been attacked the day before while returning from Jordan on the notoriously dangerous road between Ramadi and Fallujah.
"It is the most dangerous area in Iraq," he said. 'One of two things must have happened. They either got kidnapped or they died. But we have had no ransom demand or anything.'"

"'Teach France' Campaign Begins" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/09/28)
"France’s massive commitment to the war in Iraq has made it enemy No. 1 of radical Islamists:

An Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a call for action against France, which it describes as “enemy No 1”, intelligence officials said on Tuesday.
"The only way to teach France to behave is jihad and the Islamic martyr,” said the group’s leader, Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, also known as Abdelmalek Dourkdal, in an internet message earlier this month.
He was quoted as saying: “France is our enemy No 1, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community."

If only France had not become involved in Hurricane W. Hitlerburton’s terrible racist war. It might also have saved them from all those bombings in 1995. Actually, it turns out that French fighters are in Iraq — just on the wrong side:

About a dozen French youth are currently in Iraq preparing to become suicide bombers in the country’s insurgency, French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday.
'At this very moment, we know that there are a dozen French youth who are in Iraq, ready to become suicide bombers,” Sarkozy told France 3 television.'"

(See also: "France is 'enemy No 1'" (AFP/News24, 2005/09/27) and "Dozen French potential suicide bombers in Iraq" (AFP/Expatica, 2005/09/26))

"Remember that last year US troops were disinvited..." (Franco Alemán, Barcepundit, 2005/09/28)
"Remember that last year US troops were disinvited for the October 12 parade in Madrid? Remember that one year before that, when Zapatero hadn't yet gained power with the 'push' of the jihadists on March 11, he conspicuously refused to stand up when the Stars and Stripes was passing in front of him ("Why should I? It's not my flag"; see this post for background).
Well, guess which countries are good for Zapatero: he's inviting for this year's October 12 military parade... Cuba and Venezuela!

The Spanish national holiday, October 12, commemorating Columbus's discovery of America, will see all the Latin American countries, including Cuba and Venezuela, participate in the traditional military parade. The holiday is two days before the Ibero-American summit, to be held in Salamanca. The armies of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez will march through the streets of Madrid. In 2003, at the very same parade, then opposition leader Zapatero refused to stand up as the United States flag passed by as a protest against the Iraq war.

You'll see him raising, that's for sure." (Hat tip: Tim Blair in the post above. See also: "Cuban, Venezuelan troops to participate in Spanish military parade on national holiday" (The Spain Herald, 2005/09/28))

"Heart of Darkness" (Foaud Ajami, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/09/28)
"The remarkable thing about the terror in Iraq is the silence with which it is greeted in other Arab lands. Grant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi his due: He has been skilled at exposing the pitilessness on the loose in that fabled Arab street and the moral emptiness of so much of official Arab life. The extremist is never just a man of the fringe: He always works at the outer edges of mainstream life, playing out the hidden yearnings and defects of the dominant culture. Zarqawi is a bigot and a killer, but he did not descend from the sky. He emerged out of the Arab world's sins of omission and commission; in the way he rails against the Shiites (and the Kurds) he expresses that fatal Arab inability to take in "the other." A terrible condition afflicts the Arabs, and Zarqawi puts it on lethal display: an addiction to failure, and a desire to see this American project in Iraq come to a bloody end.
Zarqawi's war, it has to be conceded, is not his alone; he kills and maims, he labels the Shiites rafida (rejecters of Islam), he charges them with treason as "collaborators of the occupiers and the crusaders," but he can be forgiven the sense that he is a holy warrior on behalf of a wider Arab world that has averted its gaze from his crimes, that has given him its silent approval. He and the band of killers arrayed around him must know the meaning of this great Arab silence.
There is a cliché that distinguishes between cultures of shame and cultures of guilt, and by that crude distinction, it has always been said that the Arab world is a "shame culture." But in truth there is precious little shame in Arab life about the role of the Arabs in the great struggle for and within Iraq. What is one to make of the Damascus-based Union of Arab Writers that has refused to grant membership in its ranks to Iraqi authors? The pretext that Iraqi writers can't be "accredited" because their country is under American occupation is as good an illustration as it gets of the sordid condition of Arab culture. For more than three decades, Iraq's life was sheer and limitless terror, and the Union of Arab Writers never uttered a word."

"Mr. Flanigan's Answers" (The Washington Post, 2005/09/28)
Absence of standards II: "How can it be that an officer of the United States armed services, concerned about detainee mistreatment that he has personally witnessed, could struggle in vain for 17 months to learn the standards of humane treatment the military is applying? The answer to this question appears starkly in the written responses to questions from senators by Timothy E. Flanigan, President Bush's nominee to serve as deputy attorney general: The Bush administration has no standards for humane treatment of detainees. Capt. Fishback is looking for something that doesn't exist. ...
Mr. Bush has promised that all detainees will be treated humanely. Yet, when asked how he would define humane treatment, Mr. Flanigan declared that he does "not believe that the term 'inhumane' treatment is susceptible to a succinct definition." Did the White House provide any guidance as to its meaning? "I am not aware of any guidance provided by the White House specifically related to the meaning of humane treatment."
Mr. Flanigan could not even bring himself to declare particularly barbaric interrogation tactics either legally or morally off-limits. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) asked him about "waterboarding," mock executions, physical beatings and painful stress positions. Mr. Flanigan responded: "Whether a particular interrogation technique is lawful depends on the facts and circumstances," and without knowing these, "it would be inappropriate for me to speculate about the legality of the techniques you describe." And he reiterated that "inhumane" can't be coherently defined.
All of which is to say that anything short of outright torture goes -- or, at least, that nothing is absolutely forbidden."

"A Matter of Honor" (Ian Fishback, The Washington Post, 2005/09/28)
Absence of standards I. The letter that Capt. Ian Fishback sent to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), "expressing his frustration at the absence of clear standards governing how the military should treat detainees.":
"Dear Senator McCain:
I am a graduate of West Point currently serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army Infantry. I have served two combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division, one each in Afghanistan and Iraq. While I served in the Global War on Terror, the actions and statements of my leadership led me to believe that United States policy did not require application of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan or Iraq. On 7 May 2004, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's testimony that the United States followed the Geneva Conventions in Iraq and the "spirit" of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan prompted me to begin an approach for clarification. For 17 months, I tried to determine what specific standards governed the treatment of detainees by consulting my chain of command through battalion commander, multiple JAG lawyers, multiple Democrat and Republican Congressmen and their aides, the Ft. Bragg Inspector General's office, multiple government reports, the Secretary of the Army and multiple general officers, a professional interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, the deputy head of the department at West Point responsible for teaching Just War Theory and Law of Land Warfare, and numerous peers who I regard as honorable and intelligent men.
Instead of resolving my concerns, the approach for clarification process leaves me deeply troubled. Despite my efforts, I have been unable to get clear, consistent answers from my leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of detainees. I am certain that this confusion contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment. I and troops under my command witnessed some of these abuses in both Afghanistan and Iraq." (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan. See also: "Pattern of Abuse" (Adam Zagorin, TIME, 2005/09/23))

"A model presents a creation by Saudi designer Zaki..."
(Jamal Saidi, Reuters, 2005/09/26)
"A model presents a creation by Saudi designer Zaki for her fall and winter 2005/2006 collection during a fashion week for Arab designers held at Biel hall in Beirut September 26, 2005."
[More Zaki Bin Aboud at Yahoo! News.]

"Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy" (Steven R. Weisman, The New York Times, 2005/09/28)
Sadui Women II. More than equal under the abaya [emphasis added]:
"JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 27 - The audience - 500 women covered in black at a Saudi university - seemed an ideal place for Karen P. Hughes, a senior Bush administration official charged with spreading the American message in the Muslim world, to make her pitch.
But the response on Tuesday was not what she and her aides expected. When Ms. Hughes expressed the hope here that Saudi women would be able to drive and "fully participate in society" much as they do in her country, many challenged her. ...
"We're not in any way barred from talking to the other sex," said Dr. Nada Jambi, a public health professor. "It's not an absolute wall." ...
At the meeting with the Saudi women, television crews were barred and reporters were segregated according to sex. American officials said it was highly unusual for men to be allowed in the hall at all. ...
"There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country," said Dr. Siddiqa Kamal, an obstetrician and gynecologist who runs her own hospital.
"I don't want to drive a car," she said. "I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?"
"Women have more than equal rights," added her daughter, Dr. Fouzia Pasha, also an obstetrician and gynecologist, asserting that men have obligations accompanying their rights, and that women can go to court to hold them accountable.
Ms. Hughes appeared to have left a favorable impression. "She's open to people's opinions," said Nour al-Sabbagh, a 21-year-old student in special education. "She's trying to understand."
Like some of her friends, Ms. Sabbagh said Westerners failed to appreciate the advantages of wearing the traditional black head-to-foot covering known as an abaya.
"I love my abaya," she explained. 'It's convenient and it can be very fashionable.'" (See also: "Global war on women" (Ralph Peters, USA Today, 2005/09/26))

"Hughes Raises Driving Ban With Saudis" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2005/09/28)
Saudi Women I: "JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 27 -- Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes questioned Tuesday the Saudi ban on driving by women, telling a crowd of several hundred Saudi women, covered head to toe in black clothing, that it had negatively shaped the image of Saudi society in the United States.
"We in America take our freedoms very seriously," Hughes said. "I believe women should be free and equal participants in society. I feel that as an American woman that my ability to drive is an important part of my freedom."
Women in the audience applauded after she also mentioned that they should have a greater voice in the Saudi political system, including eventually receiving the right to vote. ...
Fouzia Pasham, a gynecologist, defended the ban, saying women who drive in other countries have to keep "a good smiling face" as they are forced to shuttle around town picking up their children and running errands.
But a mother of four, who would give her name only as Tulien, said she had secretly learned to drive in the desert and was frustrated by the ban, even though she could afford two drivers. "We are very happy and satisfied, but we would be happier and more satisfied if we could drive," she said."

"Zarqawi 'Hijacked' Insurgency" (Bradley Graham, The Washington Post, 2005/09/28)
"The top U.S. military intelligence officer in Iraq said Abu Musab Zarqawi and his foreign and Iraqi associates have essentially commandeered the insurgency, becoming the dominant opposition force and the greatest immediate threat to U.S. objectives in the country.
"I think what you really have here is an insurgency that's been hijacked by a terrorist campaign," Army Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner said in an interview. "In part, by Zarqawi becoming the face of this thing, he has certainly gotten the funding, the media and, frankly, has allowed other folks to work along in his draft." ...
U.S. military leaders say they now see Zarqawi's group of foreign fighters and Iraqi supporters, known as al Qaeda in Iraq, as having supplanted Iraqis loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein as the insurgency's driving element. ...
"You'll see some of the old regime elements on there, mainly just to maintain pressure and, frankly, accountability," Zahner said. "But when you look at those individuals central to the inflicting of huge amounts of violence, it really is not those folks. The Saddamists, the former regime guys, they're riding this."
By contrast, Zarqawi's network, although numerically still a small fraction of the insurgency, is said to be behind a disproportionately large share of the violence."

"Israel Unleashes Barrage in Gaza City" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/28)
"GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli aircraft unleashed a barrage of missiles early Wednesday and fired artillery into the Gaza Strip for the first time, pushing forward with an offensive despite a pledge by Islamic militants to halt their recent rocket attacks against Israel. ...
The Israeli airstrikes early Wednesday knocked out power throughout nearly all of Gaza City. The army said it targeted three buildings used for "terror activity" by Palestinian militants and an access route in northern Gaza used by militants to fire rockets.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the army would attack Palestinian militants relentlessly to force them to stop firing rockets at Israeli towns. ...
The fifth straight day of airstrikes came hours after Islamic Jihad militants on Tuesday declared a halt to their recent rocket attacks, and armed Palestinian groups pledged to honor a tattered cease-fire, seeking to end the Israeli offensive.
Tensions were further inflamed when Hamas militants released a video showing a bound and blindfolded Israeli businessman whom they kidnapped and later killed. The kidnapping appeared to signal a new tactic in the militants' fight against Israel."

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

News and commentary:

Abu Azzam
(MNFI/Reuters, 2005/09/27)
"A military handout photo released September 27, 2005 shows Abdallah Najim Abdallah Muhammad al-Juwari, otherwise known as Abu Azzam. Iraqi security and Coalition forces killed Azzam during an early morning raid in Baghdad September 25, 2005."

"No. 2 Leader of al-Qaida in Iraq Killed" (Thomas Wagner, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/27)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Tuesday their forces had killed the No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization in a weekend raid in Baghdad, claiming to have struck a "painful blow" to the country's most feared insurgent group.
Abdullah Abu Azzam led al-Qaida's operations in Baghdad, planning a brutal wave of suicide bombings in the capital since April, killing hundreds of people, officials said. He also controlled the finances for foreign fighters that flowed into Iraq to join the insurgency.
Abu Azzam, who an Iraqi government spokesman said was an Iraqi, was the top deputy to the group's leader, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Azzam was on a list of Iraq's 29 most-wanted insurgents issued by the U.S. military in February and had a bounty of $50,000 on his head. ...
Abu Azzam was killed early Sunday when U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told the AP.
"They went in to capture him, he did not surrender, and he was killed in the raid," Boylan said.
The Iraqi and U.S. forces targeted the building after a tip from an Iraqi citizen, Kubba said. During the raid, the troops captured another militant in the apartment with Abu Azzam, Kubba said.
Abu Azzam — whose real name is Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed Al-Jawari — was the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Kubba and Boylan said.
He was the group's "amir" or leader in Anbar, the vast western province that is the heartland of the insurgency, until spring, when he became the amir in Baghdad and led operations in and around the capital. He was "responsible for the recent upsurge in violent attacks in the city since April 2005," the military said."

"Tearful Lynndie England gets 3 years in prison" (Adam Tanner, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/27)
"Lynndie England, the U.S. soldier pictured holding a leash to a naked Iraqi inmate at
Abu Ghraib prison in a scandal that prompted global outrage, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison and given a dishonorable discharge.
In sentencing testimony just hours before, England, who had faced a maximum of nine years behind bars, said she was sorry for her actions but said she remained an American patriot. ...
England, 22, was convicted on Monday of abuse such as being photographed pointing to the genitals of a naked Iraqi prisoner in a section of the prison were the administrative clerk did not have any official duties.
She stood at attention to hear the verdict and remained standing and looking toward the front of the courtroom after the trial ended as tears welled in her eyes. Her mother, Terrie, then came over to give her a very long hug. ...
In her court testimony, the former West Virginia chicken factory worker blamed her involvement on Charles Graner, the abuse ringleader and father of her child.
"I was embarrassed because I was used by Private Graner; I didn't realize it at the time," she said, sometimes pausing at length to gather her thoughts. 'I trusted him and I loved him.'"

"Hamas releases picture of Nuriel" (Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/09/27)
"Hamas released on Tuesday graphic pictures of Sasson Nuriel taken after his abduction but before he was murdered.
The photograph was published after Hamas terrorists claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing Nuriel, the 51-year-old Jerusalem man who was found dead Monday.
Hamas announced that it had established new "kidnapping units" whose top priority would be capturing Israelis to be held hostage as leverage in prisoner release negotiations with Israel.
Nuriel's kidnappers said in a statement that they had abducted him on Wednesday with the intention of trading him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
However, after Israel began a series of arrest raids against West Bank terrorists, they decided to kill him, the statement said.
The body of Sasson Nuriel of the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev was found Monday morning in the West Bank village of Beitunya, near Ramallah, five days after he was reported missing." (See also: "Body of abducted J'lem man found near Ramallah" (Amos Harel and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz, 2005/09/26))

"Enforce Islamic Law in Canada?" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2005/09/27)
"Then, in October 2003, an organization called the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice proposed the creation of Muslim Arbitration Boards (internally, it used Islamic terminology for these, Darul-Qada). As explained by the institute's founder, Syed Mumtaz Ali, the boards, arbitrating on the basis of Islamic law, the Sharia, would permit a Muslim to live according to Islam's "complete code of life." ...
Interestingly, the main opposition came from Muslim women's groups, who feared that ignorant, isolated females would submit to the inescapably misogynistic Sharia, a law code that permits parents to marry off pre-pubescent girls, men to marry multiple women, husbands alone to divorce, fathers automatically to win custody of children over certain ages, and sons to inherit more than daughters.
The anti-Sharia campaign succeeded. On Sep. 11 – after almost two years of public debate – the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, held that religious-based arbitrations "threaten our common ground." He announced that "There will be no Sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." ...
That Orthodox Jews and others might lose out points to an emerging pattern, whereby efforts to integrate Muslims into the West upset a benign status quo. Other recent examples:

• French nuns for the first time must take off their cowls for identity card or passport pictures because of anti-hijab legislation. Likewise, French schoolchildren may not wear crosses or Stars of David to class.
• Large populations – British underground riders, American airport passengers, Russian theater-goers – must undergo extensive security checks, thanks to Muslim terrorists.
• Danes marrying foreigners face extensive restrictions to bring them into Denmark because of immigration abuses (the "human visa" problem) involving Muslims.
• Santas, Nativity plays, Christmas carols, and Bibles are banned in Western countries so as not to offend Muslim sensitivities.

Unremarked upon by most Westerners, Islam's presence has started to change their way of life."

"The left and hysteria" (Dennis Prager, Town Hall, 2005/09/27)
"If you want to understand the Left, the best place to start is with an understanding of hysteria. Leading leftists either use hysteria as a political tactic or are actually hysterics.
Take almost any subject the Left discusses and you will find hysteria.
The Patriot Act: According to leftist spokesmen and groups, the Patriot Act is a grave threat to liberty and democracy. It is frequently likened to the tactics of a fascist state. This is pure hysteria. The Los Angeles Times recently published statistics concerning the use of the Act. Through 2004, of the 7,136 complaints to the Justice Department's inspector general, one was related to the Patriot Act. ...
The war in Iraq: It is not enough for leftist opponents of the war to argue that the war is a mistake, was initiated due to faulty intelligence, or is being poorly prosecuted. Rather they charge that President Bush lied, that the war was waged for Halliburton, and that America is engaged in a criminal and imperialist enterprise. Each charge is a form of hysteria. ...
Racism: There is no worse charge than racism. Acting hatefully toward people because of their skin color is among the most vile acts a person can engage in. Yet the Left throws that charge around as if it were the essence of the American people (which, come to think of it, is what many on the Left believe). Most of the time, however, the charge of racism -- such as when it is directed at opponents of race-based affirmative action -- is just another example of hysteria. ...
None of this is to deny that the Right also gets hysterical. Some right-wing reactions to immigration and Terry Schiavo provide such examples.
But the irony in all of this is that the Left sees itself as the side that thinks intellectually and non-emotionally. And that is hysterical."

"Purported al Qaeda Newscast Debuts on Internet" (Daniel Williams, The Washington Post, 2005/09/27)
"An Internet video newscast called the Voice of the Caliphate was broadcast for the first time on Monday, purporting to be a production of al Qaeda and featuring an anchorman who wore a black ski mask and an ammunition belt.
The anchorman, who said the report would appear once a week, presented news about the Gaza Strip and Iraq and expressed happiness about recent hurricanes in the United States. A copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, was placed by his right hand and a rifle affixed to a tripod was pointed at the camera. ...
The lead segment recounted Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the narrator proclaimed as a "great victory," while showing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia walking and talking among celebrating compatriots. ...
A commercial break of sorts followed, which previewed a movie, "Total Jihad," directed by Mousslim Mouwaheed. The ad was in English, suggesting that the target audience might be Muslims living in Britain and the United States.
The final segment was about Hurricane Katrina. "The whole Muslim world was filled with joy" at the disaster, the anchorman said. He went on to say that President Bush was 'completely humiliated by his obvious incapacity to face the wrath of God, who battered New Orleans, city of homosexuals.'"

"Baghdad Neighborhood's Hopes Dimmed by the Trials of War" (Ellen Knickmeyer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/27)
"In the chaotic, hopeful April of 2003, Baghdad's Karrada district was one of those neighborhoods where residents showered flowers on U.S. forces entering the capital. Revelers threw water on one another and the Americans, exuding joy at the crushing of a dictatorship that had silenced, tortured and killed their people.
Now, with the end of the third and in many ways hardest summer of the U.S.-led occupation, the lights of Karrada are dimmer. The collapse of Iraq's central power system has left Baghdad averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.
The crowds on the sidewalks have thinned -- kidnapping and other forms of lawlessness since the invasion mean Baghdad's comparatively liberated women seldom leave home without a good reason.
Car bombings and other insurgent attacks, as unknown in Baghdad before the invasion as suicide subway bombings were in London until this summer, have killed more than 3,000 people in the capital since late spring."

Monday, September 26, 2005

News and commentary:

"Enough...
Future Youth"
(Jamal Saidi , Reuters, 2005/09/26)
"Lebanese students during a sit-in at Saint Josef University in Beirut September 26,2005. Lebanese students at universities in Lebanon held sit-in to protest a car bomb that seriously wounded prominent anti-Syrian news anchor May Chidiac on Sunday."

"Global war on women" (Ralph Peters, USA Today, 2005/09/26)
"The sudden transition of women from men's property to men's partners in our own country unleashed dazzling creative energies. In the historical blink of an eye, we doubled our effective human capital — and made our society immeasurably more humane. Our half-century of stunning economic growth has many roots, but none goes deeper than the expansion of opportunities for women.
But such unprecedented freedom threatens traditional societies. Behavior patterns that prevailed for millennia are suddenly in doubt. Relationships that granted males the power of life and death over female relatives have disappeared from successful cultures. Defensively, the failing cultures left behind cling harder than ever to the old ways amid the tumult of global change.
The true symbols of the War on Terror are the Islamic veil and the two-piece woman's business suit. ...
We do not think of our troops abroad as fighting for women's rights. But they are. This is the titanic struggle of our time, the liberation of fully half of humanity. Islamist terror is only one aspect of it. But we can be certain of two things: In the end, freedom will win. And no society that torments women will succeed in the 21st century."

"Anti-War, My Foot" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/09/26)
"Saturday's demonstration in Washington, in favor of immediate withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq, was the product of an opportunistic alliance between two other very disparate "coalitions." Here is how the New York Times (after a front-page and an inside headline, one of them reading "Speaking Up Against War" and one of them reading "Antiwar Rallies Staged in Washington and Other Cities") described the two constituenciess of the event:

The protests were largely sponsored by two groups, the Answer Coalition, which embodies a wide range of progressive political objectives, and United for Peace and Justice, which has a more narrow, antiwar focus.

The name of the reporter on this story was Michael Janofsky. I suppose that it is possible that he has never before come across "International ANSWER," the group run by the "Worker's World" party and fronted by Ramsey Clark, which openly supports Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milosevic, and the "resistance" in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Clark himself finding extra time to volunteer as attorney for the génocidaires in Rwanda. ...
To be against war and militarism, in the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is one thing. But to have a record of consistent support for war and militarism, from the Red Army in Eastern Europe to the Serbian ethnic cleansers and the Taliban, is quite another. It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies of liberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side. Was there a single placard saying, "No to Jihad"? Of course not. Or a single placard saying, "Yes to Kurdish self-determination" or "We support Afghan women's struggle"? Don't make me laugh." (See also: "Bad Company" (Investor's Business Daily, 2005/09/23))

"Gunmen Kill Five Shiite Teachers in Iraq" (Lee Keath, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/26)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents dragged five Shiite Muslim schoolteachers and their driver into a classroom, lined them against a wall and gunned them down Monday — slayings in
Iraq's notorious Triangle of Death that reflect the enflamed sectarian divisions ahead of a crucial constitutional referendum.
The shooting was a rare attack on a school amid Iraq's relentless violence, and it was particularly stunning since the gunmen targeted teachers in a school where the children were mainly Sunnis. Elsewhere Monday, a suicide attack and roadside bombings killed 10 Iraqis and three Americans, bringing to at least 52 the number of people killed in the past two days. ...
Classes had just ended at the Al-Jazeera Elementary School in the village of Muelha, 30 miles south of Baghdad, when the shooting took place at about 1:15 p.m.
Police Capt. Muthana Khaled said that as five Shiite teachers got into a minivan to head home, two cars pulled up carrying gunmen wearing police uniforms as a disguise.
The nine gunmen forced the teachers and their driver out of the van in front of students who were milling outside the school. The attackers dragged the six men into an empty classroom, lined them against a wall and shot them to death, Khaled said. The gunmen escaped."

"Body of abducted J'lem man found near Ramallah" (Amos Harel and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz, 2005/09/26)
"Less than a day after Hamas declared a complete halt to attacks against Israel in the Gaza Strip, security forces on Monday announced that a West Bank Hamas cell has abducted and killed a businessman from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev.
Security forces found Sasson Nuriel's body Monday morning, in an industrial zone west of the West Bank city of Ramallah, after several days of searches. Before dawn Monday, they arrested a Hamas man in Ramallah suspected of involvement in the abduction.
The Shin Bet security service classified the incident as a terror attack. ...
Nuriel's wife reported him missing around midnight Wednesday, after he failed to come home from work. The Shin Bet said he was kidnapped Wednesday afternoon."

"Al Qaeda leader sentenced to 27 years" (Elisabeth O'Leary, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/26)
"MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's High Court jailed an al Qaeda leader for 27 years on Monday, finding he conspired with the September 11 plotters but clearing him and two others of killing 2,973 people in the attacks on New York and Washington.
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, Driss Chebli and Ghasoub al Abrash Ghalyoun could have faced jail sentences of more than 74,000 years each if convicted of helping plan the September 11 attacks.
But in a setback for prosecutors and magistrates who have spent years investigating the case, the High Court threw out the most serious charges. ...
Among those convicted was Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni, who was sentenced to seven years for collaborating with a terrorist group.
The Arab satellite broadcaster denounced the sentencing of Alouni, who interviewed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks.
"This is a black day for the Spanish judiciary which has deviated from all the norms of international justice," Al Jazeera news editor Ahmed al-Sheikh told the station."

"England Convicted in Abu Ghraib Abuse Case" (T. A. Badger, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/26)
"Army Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted Monday by a military jury on six of seven counts.
England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.
The jury of five male Army officers took about two hours to reach its verdict. Her case now moves to the sentencing phase, which will be heard by the same jury beginning Tuesday.
England tried to plead guilty in May to the same counts she faced this month in exchange for an undisclosed sentencing cap, but a judge threw out the plea deal. She now faces a maximum of nine years in prison.
England, wearing her dark green dress uniform, stood at attention Monday as the verdict was read by the jury foreman. She showed no obvious emotion afterward."

"A Shift on Iraq" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/09/26)
"DOHA, Qatar -- Posted on a bulletin board at Centcom headquarters here is a 1918 admonition from T.E. Lawrence explaining what he learned in training Arab soldiers: "It is better to let them do it themselves imperfectly than to do it yourself perfectly. It is their country, their way, and our time is short."
That quote sums up an important shift in U.S. military strategy on Iraq that has been emerging over the past year. The commanders who are running the war don't talk about transforming Iraq into an American-style democracy or of imposing U.S. values. . ...
President Bush and other administration officials continue to speak about Iraqi democracy in glowing terms, but you don't hear similar language from the military. After watching Iraqi political infighting for more than two years, they're more cautious. "I think we'd be foolish to try to build this into an American democracy," says one general. "It's going to take a very different form and character." The military commanders have concluded that because Iraqis have such strong cultural antibodies to the American presence, the World War II model of occupation isn't relevant. They've sharply lowered expectations for what America can accomplish.
What Abizaid and his commanders seem to fear most is that eroding political support for the war in the United States will undermine their strategy for a gradual transition to Iraqi control. They think that strategy is beginning to pay off, but it will require several more years of hard work to stabilize the country. The generals devoutly want the American people to stay the course -- but the course they describe is more limited, and more realistic, than recent political debate might suggest."

 

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

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

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

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

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

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

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

Weekly archive

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