Archived news and commentary: October 3 - 9, 2005

2005/10/03 - 2005/10/09
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

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, October 9, 2005

News and commentary:

"Al-Qaida raises its head in Gaza" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/10/09)
"Has al-Qaida started operating in the Gaza Strip? A leaflet distributed in Khan Yunis over the weekend by al-Qaida's "Palestine branch" announced that the terrorist group has begun working towards uniting the Muslims under one Islamic state.
"The Muslim nation has been subjected, through various periods, to conspiracies by the infidels," the leaflet said. "[The infidels] have brought down the Islamic Caliphate, dividing the nation into small and weak states. They also managed to dilute the Islamic and character of the nation."
The leaflet said unity was the only way for Muslims to achieve victory over their enemies, adding that the terrorist group's chief goal was to enforce Islamic law in the entire world.
"Our efforts are now focused on establishing a strong and unified Muslim nation where love prevails among all its members," it added.
The leaflet, signed by al-Qaida of Jihad in Palestine, is the latest indication of al-Qaida's effort to establish itself in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal from the area.
On the eve of disengagement, a number of rockets were fired at the former settlements of Neveh Dekalim and Ganei Tal. An announcement claiming responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida members in the Gaza Strip was made by three masked gunmen who appeared in a videotape.
"We stress that this attack comes in the context of the Islamic jihad launched by our comrades in al-Qaida," the masked men said in the statement. They also vowed to step up their attacks on Israel."

"Peace is not the answer" (William Shawcross, Los Angeles Times, 2005/10/09)
"One of the most publicized new icons of the U.S. peace movement, grieving mother Cindy Sheehan, has attracted attention in the vibrant new media that have grown in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. All the Iraqis I know totally disagree with her public declarations that her son died for nothing. Those fighting the coalition approve and exploit her words.
"Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia," as the Islamo-fascists in Iraq call themselves, understands Western doubt and self-criticism. Its members are trying to create an impression of a country submerged in bloody chaos. They want to convince a world where understanding comes only from brief television images that Iraq has gone to hell. That is a lie. ...
The constitution may not be perfect. But, as the commentator Amir Taheri points out: "This is still the most democratic constitution offered to any Muslim nation so far."
That is thanks to the sacrifice of Casey Sheehan and others. It should be a source of pride in the United States. Thanks to the coalition Iraqis have more confidence in their future than we do. Iraqi refugees are not fleeing abroad in vast numbers, as happened during previous crises. The Iraqi dinar has strengthened, not weakened, against the currencies of other oil-producing nations. The mistakes that have been made in Iraq since its liberation do not alter the fact that the overthrow of Hussein has given Iraqis a chance they never had before and has shaken the ramshackle, corrupt and dictatorial foundations of the Middle East."

"Self-delusion kills" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2005/10/09)
"Will the liberal world look Islamism in the face and see a cult of slaughter and self-slaughter powered by messianic faith, the Jewish conspiracy theory of European fascism, imperialist dreams of world domination and a loathing of democracy, pluralism, religious tolerance and the emancipation of women? I live in hope, but the record suggests everyone but the perpetrators will be held responsible. ...
If you think I'm exaggerating, consider the attempts to show that the bombs in Bali were the fault of liberal democracies. Before a single fact on the motives of the killers was available, the Independent on Sunday declared: 'There can be little doubt that the bombs in Bali are linked to issues surrounding the war. It is no coincidence that Australia, whose citizens are likely to be the majority of the victims, is fully committed in Iraq.'
Actually, there could be a great deal of doubt, not least because the majority of the dead were Indonesian Hindus, who I assume the Islamists were happy to designate as pagans before murdering them. ...
Perhaps it is too easy to mock. When confronted with an ideology which mandates indiscriminate killing on an industrial scale, it is natural to seek rational explanations of the irrational; to pretend that Islamism is merely a reasonable, if bloody, response to legitimate concerns which could be remedied if we elected wiser leaders.
Yet the masochism - 'Kill us, we deserve it!' - the subliminal dislike of democracy and the willingness to turn al-Qaeda into the armed wing of every fashionable campaign from sustainable tourism to the anti-war movement will in the end disgrace the liberals by making them ridiculous."

"Now we know the truth about Iran, we must act" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/10/09)
"But now the cat is out of the bag. Not realising the sensitivity that Mr Straw attaches to Britain's dealings with Teheran, the unfortunate diplomat unwittingly strayed from his referendum brief and started laying into the Iranians with a gusto not seen in the British diplomatic service for decades. The Iranians, said the diplomat, were colluding with Sunni Muslim insurgent groups in southern Iraq. They were providing them with deadly terrorist technology that has been perfected by the Iranian-funded Hizbollah militia in southern Lebanon against the Israeli army. And their motivation was to deter Britain from insisting that Teheran abandon its controversial nuclear programme. ...
Mr ElBaradei's disinclination to make Iran fulfil its international obligations is, of course, one of the reasons that he has been awarded the Nobel peace prize, a decision that will have the mullahs falling about with laughter in Teheran this weekend. This, after all, was the same ElBaradei who said he had no evidence that Libya was building an atom bomb until Colonel Gaddafi saw the light after the Iraq war and publicly renounced his nuclear weapons programme.
Certainly, the longer the West prevaricates over Iran, the more inclined the Iranians are to think they can get their way by resorting to the tactics of the bully. The Iranians clearly do not share Mr Straw's aversion to military action: the moment we try to call them to account, they kill and maim our soldiers in southern Iraq.
With the help of last week's unscripted remarks by that diplomat, Britain and its European allies should face up to the reality of dealing with modern Iran and accept that their policy of appeasement towards the mullahs now lies in shreds." (See also: "Iran 'behind attacks on British'" (BBC News, 2005/10/05))

"An American in chains" (James Yee, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/09)
"James Yee entered Guantanamo as a patriotic US officer and Muslim chaplain. He ended up in shackles, branded a spy. This is his disturbing story":
"I was accused of mutiny and sedition, aiding the enemy and espionage, all of which carried the death penalty. I was regarded as a traitor to the army and my country. This was all blatantly untrue — as would be proved when, after a long fight, all the charges against me were dropped and I won an honourable discharge from the army.
I knew why I had been arrested: it was because I am a Muslim. I was just the latest victim of the hostility born the moment when the planes flew into the twin towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. ...
Some of the worst complaints that I received were about what was happening inside the interrogation rooms. Some of the translators — Muslim military personnel like me — told stories about female interrogators who would take off their clothes during the sessions. One would pretend to masturbate in front of detainees. She was also known to touch them in a sexual way and make them rub her breasts and genitalia. A translator who had witnessed this woman’s behaviour told me that her supervisor had told her to tone down the tactics but had not disciplined her.
Translators with the Joint Intelligence Group (JIG) also confirmed that some prisoners were forced to prostrate themselves in the centre of a satanic circle lit with candles. Interrogators shouted at them, “Satan is your God, not Allah! Repeat that after me!”
I came to believe that the hostile environment and animosity towards Islam were so ingrained in the operation that Miller and the other camp leaders had lost sight of the moral harm we were doing."

Saturday, October 8, 2005

News and commentary:

"The Unicef advert, which shows the Smurfs' village being bombed"
(Unicef/The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/08)

"Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers" (David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/08)
"The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.
The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement.
The animation was approved by the family of the Smurfs' late creator, "Peyo".
Belgian television viewers were given a preview of the 25-second film earlier this week, when it was shown on the main evening news. The reactions ranged from approval to shock and, in the case of small children who saw the episode by accident, wailing terror. ...
The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.
Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.
The final frame bears the message: 'Don't let war affect the lives of children.'"

"True Believers" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/08)
"Mark Steyn on those bogus BBC Bush God quotes:

I know plenty of journalists who in the course of their careers like to tweak and improve a quote every so often. You know, the guy doesn’t say quite what you want him to say, so you give it a nudge that’s a little more pithily expressed. There’s a lot of journalists who do that. They’re not meant to do it, but the trick, if you’re going to pass off fake quotes, is they shouldn’t be so obviously fake. And this one is.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and White House spokesman Scott McClellan have since both issued denials; Nabil Shaath now says he didn’t take Bush’s alleged words literally; and even the BBC is backing down (although, as Damian Penny points out, this is assumed by The Guardian to be the result of shadowy Murdoch influence rather than any doubts over the story).
So, who fell for this? Well, there were a pair of dopes in The Australian’s letters pages (“Any credibility the US may have had for leading a secular, morally superior campaign against terrorism is shattered”), and The Guardian and The Independent, which on Friday ran the quotes on their front pages. Here’s the Indy’s Rupert Cornwell:

The BBC reported that the White House had dismissed the allegations as “absurd”. “He’s never made such comments,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
But the BBC account is anything but implausible, given that throughout his presidency Mr Bush, a born-again Christian, has never hidden the importance of his faith.

Why, it just stands to reason that such a man would say things like: “God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.” The Guardian’s Simon Hoggart also suspended his cynicism:

Horrible to learn that George Bush gets messages from God. Just what we need in the world: one more powerful man who knows precisely what is in God’s mind."

(See also: "Mark Steyn on the Al Gore left, the National Review right, and trying to find a seat at the wedding" (Radio Blogger, 2005/10/06), "Bush: God told me to invade Iraq" (Rupert Cornwell, Independent 2005/10/07) and "Is bottled water the best they can do?" (Simon Hoggart, The Guardian, 2005/10/08). Also: "Meeting Recalled" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/06))

"Memo: NYC Attack Was Scheduled for Sunday" (Michael Weissenstein, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/07)
"NEW YORK - Details emerged about an alleged plot to attack the city's subways with bombs hidden in bags and possibly baby strollers as local and federal officials jostled over the credibility of the threat.
A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by The Associated Press said the attack was reportedly scheduled to take place on or around Sunday, with terrorists using timed or remote-controlled explosives hidden in briefcases, suitcases or in or under strollers. ...
In Iraq, authorities detained a third suspect in the plot and investigated whether a fourth had traveled to New York as part of the scheme, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. ...
Those arrested had received explosives training in Afghanistan, the law enforcement official said Friday. They had planned to travel through
Syria to New York, and then meet with operatives to carry out the bombings.
A federal official said one of the suspects arrested in Iraq apparently told interrogators that more than a dozen people were involved in the plot, and that they were of various nationalities, including Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis."

"Iraqi police are among 12 seized by British forces in Basra raid" (Rory Carroll, The Guardian, 2005/10/08)
"British forces launched a fresh crackdown in Basra yesterday when troops seized 12 Iraqis, including police officers, who were suspected of involvement in attacks against coalition forces.
A house filled with members of a Shia militia was raided just hours after Tony Blair accused Iran of exporting technology and explosives to guerrilla allies in Basra and other parts of southern Iraq.
The operation underlined a new policy of confronting militias, who are blamed for increasingly lethal roadside bombs that have killed eight soldiers, three of them British, in recent months.
The raid took place overnight and at short notice, Brigadier John Lorimer said in a statement. 'Some of the individuals we have arrested are linked to militia groups in Basra ... and some are members of the Basra police service. It is very concerning to us that members of Basra police are involved in terrorism. Nobody who has been involved in murdering multinational forces soldiers should be allowed to hide behind their uniform.'"

"Al-Jazeera Finds Its English Voice" (Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, 2005/10/08)
"Al-Jazeera, which is launching an English-language network with Washington as a major hub, has landed its first big-name Western journalist: David Frost. And the veteran BBC interviewer says he's perfectly comfortable with the unlikely marriage.
"I love new frontiers and new challenges," Frost, 66, said yesterday from London. He said the new network, al-Jazeera International, has promised him "total editorial control" and that he had checked out the company with U.S. and British government officials, "all of which gave al-Jazeera a clean bill of health in terms of its lack of links with terrorism."
But the Bush administration has repeatedly denounced al-Jazeera. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused the Qatar-based operation of promoting terrorism and "vicious lies" and has banned its reporters from Iraq. The State Department has complained about "false" and "inflammatory" reporting. ...
Al-Jazeera's reputation wasn't helped when a Spanish court last month sentenced former correspondent Taysir Alouni to seven years in prison on charges of collaborating with al Qaeda."

Friday, October 7, 2005

News and commentary:

"'Anti-Semitism isn't a local side effect of a dirty war over a patch of land smaller than Wales. It's everywhere from Malaysia to Morocco, and it has arrived here'" (Nick Cohen, New Statesman, from the 2005/10/10 issue)
"Anti-Semitism isn't a local side effect of a dirty war over a patch of land smaller than Wales. It's everywhere from Malaysia to Morocco, and it has arrived here. When the BBC showed a Panorama documentary about the ideological roots of the Muslim Council of Britain in the Pakistani religious right, the first reaction of the Council was to accuse it of following an "Israeli agenda". The other day the Telegraph reported that Ahmad Thomson, a Muslim lawyer who advises the Prime Minister on community relations of all things, had declared that a "sinister" group of Jews and Freemasons was behind the invasion of Iraq.
To explain away a global phenomenon as a rational reaction to Israeli oppression, you have once again to turn the Jew into a supernatural figure whose existence is the cause of discontents throughout the earth. You have to revive anti-Semitism. ...
In 1878, George Eliot wrote that it was "difficult to find a form of bad reasoning about [Jews] which had not been heard in conversation or been admitted to the dignity of print". So it is again today. Outside the movies of Mel Gibson, Jews aren't Christ killers any longer, but they can't relax, because now they are Nazis, blood-soaked imperialists, the secret movers of neoconservatism, the root cause of every atrocity from 9/11 to 7/7.
It's not that the left as a whole is anti-Semitic, although there are racists who need confronting. Rather, it has been maddened by the direction history has taken. Deracinated and demoralised, its partisans aren't thinking hard enough about where they came from or - and more pertinently - where they are going."

"3rd Suspect Nabbed in Subway Terror Plot" (Michael Weissenstein, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/07)
"NEW YORK - The investigation into an alleged plot to bomb the city's subway moved forward on several fronts Friday as a third suspect was arrested in
Iraq and authorities looked into whether a fourth person had traveled to New York as part of the scheme, officials said.
A law enforcement official familiar with the case said the man's trip to New York was described by an informant who had spent time in
Afghanistan and proved reliable in past investigations.
"He's been a source of multiple correct information in the past," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. "Does that mean a fourth person he identified is in fact in New York? We don't know that."
The official added that authorities had not confirmed whether the fourth man even exists.
Alarmed by the informant's report of a plot to attack city subways with as many as 19 bombs in bags and possibly baby strollers, U.S. forces in Iraq arrested two suspected plotters who had been under close surveillance until Thursday morning, officials said. The third escaped until his arrest Friday.
City officials posted thousands of additional uniformed and plainclothes officers throughout the subway system and warned New Yorkers to keep their eyes open for anything out of the ordinary."

"U.S. Obtains Treatise By Bin Laden Deputy" (Robin Wright, The Washington Post, 2005/10/07)
"The United States has obtained a letter from Osama bin Laden's deputy to the leader of Iraq's insurgency that outlines a long-term strategic vision for a global jihad, with the next phase of the war to be taken into Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, according to U.S. officials.
But the letter, described by one senior administration official as a "treatise" from Ayman Zawahiri, also warns Abu Musab Zarqawi against alienating the Islamic world, and virtually reprimands the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda for beheading hostages and then distributing videotapes, officials said. ...
The letter of instructions and requests outlines a four-stage plan, according to officials: First, expel American forces from Iraq. Second, establish a caliphate over as much of Iraq as possible. Third, extend the jihad to neighboring countries, with specific reference to Egypt and the Levant -- a term that describes Syria and Lebanon. And finally, war against Israel.
U.S. officials say they were struck by the letter's emphasis on the centrality of Iraq to al Qaeda's long-term mission. One of the two excerpts provided by officials quotes Zawahiri, a former doctor from Egypt, telling his Jordanian-born ally, 'I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam's history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era.'"

"Woman who stood up to warlords wins seat in parliament" (Tim Albone, The Times, 2005/10/07)
"A woman who spoke out against warlords is one of the first people to be elected to Afghanistan’s new parliament, in provisional results released yesterday.
As the troubled country takes its first steps towards democracy, Malalai Joya, 27, will take her seat in the Wolesi Jirga, or House of the People, representing the remote province of Farah.
Ms Joya rose to national prominence when she criticised the role of warlords in Afghanistan at a conference to approve the new constitution in 2003.
As a result she faced death threats and had to campaign under tight security. However, her criticisms found favour with her constituency in the western province that borders Iran.
Five seats for parliament were allocated for Farah province, with one reserved for a woman. Ms Joya finished second in the poll with 7,813 votes.
“I am very happy, it’s a proud day for me,” Ms Joya said.
“I hope by being a member of parliament I will be able to serve my people, especially the women. I will do my best to stop the warlords and criminals from building any laws that will jeopardise the rights of Afghan people, especially the women,” she said."

"No dancing and no gays if Hamas gets its way" (Stephen Farrell, The Times, 2005/10/07)
"A vision of an Islamic society that bans mixed dancing and sternly disapproves of homosexuality has been given by Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior leader of Hamas in Gaza.
After controversies when a Hamas-led council halted a dance festival and Islamist gunmen stopped a rap band performing in Gaza, Dr Zahar defended the enforcement of a strict interpretation of Islam.
“A man holds a woman by the hand and dances with her in front of everyone. Does that serve the national interest?” Dr Zahar said on the Arabic website Elaph. “If so, why have the phenomena of corruption and prostitution become pervasive in recent years?”
Because of successes by Hamas in municipal polls and its likely strong showing in January’s parliamentary elections, secular Palestinians fear that it will try to impose its ultraconservative vision on them. Its Gaza heartland has no cinemas or bars, yet the West Bank has a brewery and Ramallah restaurants serve wine.
Dr Zahar condemned homosexual marriage, saying: 'Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?'"

Thursday, October 6, 2005

News and commentary:

"President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy" (The White House, 2005/10/06)
"In the past few months, we've seen a new terror offensive with attacks on London, and Sharm el-Sheikh, and a deadly bombing in Bali once again. All these separate images of destruction and suffering that we see on the news can seem like random and isolated acts of madness; innocent men and women and children have died simply because they boarded the wrong train, or worked in the wrong building, or checked into the wrong hotel. Yet while the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane.
Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom. ...
Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence -- the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago. In fact, we're not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers -- and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder."

"Imam demands apology for Mohammed cartoons" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/10/06)
"Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten is facing accusations that it deliberately provoked and insulted Muslims by publishing twelve cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.
The newspaper urged cartoonists to send in drawings of the prophet, after an author complained that nobody dared to illustrate his book on Mohammed. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Mohammed.
Twelve illustrators heeded the newspaper's call, and sent in cartoons of the prophet, which were published in the newspaper one week ago.
Daily newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad said one Muslim, at least, had taken offence.
'This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims,' Imam Raed Hlayhel wrote in a statement. 'Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world. We demand an apology!' ...
Flemming Rose, cultural editor at the newspaper, denied that the purpose had been to provoke Muslim. It was simply a reaction to the rising number of situations where artists and writers censured themselves out of fear of radical Islamists, he said.
'Religious feelings cannot demand special treatment in a secular society,' he added. 'In a democracy one must from time to time accept criticism or becoming a laughingstock.'
It is not the first time Hlayhel has created headlines in Denmark. One year ago, he became the target of criticism from Muslims and non-Muslims alike, when he said in a sermon during Friday prayer, that Danish women's behaviour and dress invited rape." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch. See also: "Image of Muhammad" (Kurt Westergaard, Fjordman, 2005/10/05) and "Fear Pervades Danish Art Community" (Patrick, Dhimmi Watch, 2005/09/18))

"Meeting Recalled" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/06)
"Er, reputable sources quoted by the BBC paint an interesting picture of George W. Bush:

In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.
Nabil Shaath says: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …” And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, “Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” And by God I’m gonna do it.’"
Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: “I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

Those quotes sound a little imaginative." (See also: "God told me to invade Iraq, Bush tells Palestinian ministers" (BBC Press Office, 2005/10/06))

"Police Investigate New York Subway Terror Threat" (ABC News, 2005/10/06)
"The New York Police Department and FBI are investigating a "credible" tip that 19 operatives have been deployed to the city to place bombs in the subway, and security in the subways has been increased. Department of Homeland Security sources told ABC News they were very doubtful the threat information is credible, however.
The city's police department said it was taking the threat seriously and believed the source was reliable, but also urged the public not to be alarmed because the information had not been verified. ...
According to sources in intelligence, emergency services and police headquarters, the intelligence community developed information that the threat may have involved pharmacists from Iraq coming to New York for some kind of chemical attack targeting the subways.
Three insurgents, one or more of whom are pharmacists, were arrested during a raid by a U.S. military and intelligence community team, sources said, and one of those caught disclosed the threat. Because it slipped out during the arrest, the plot was deemed credible.
After several days of work, sources said, the NYPD became increasingly concerned because it was unable to discredit the initial source and additional information from the source.
The 19 operatives were to place improvised explosive devices in the subways using briefcases, according to two sources."

"The Quiet Americans" (Rob Anderson, The New Republic, 2005/10/06)
"In late July, news surfaced that Iran had executed two gay teenagers -- ostensibly for sexual assault, but most likely for the crime of being gay. As pictures of their executions spread around the Internet, American gay and lesbian activists responded swiftly: The president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay and lesbian political organization, sent a letter to Condoleezza Rice urging her to take action; the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the gay and lesbian division of Human Rights Watch both issued statements on their websites; news outlets like The Washington Blade and Gay City News uncharacteristically led their coverage with an international story; and gay journalists like Doug Ireland and TNR senior editor Andrew Sullivan -- who sit on opposite ends of the political spectrum -- publicized the news on their blogs.
For the most part, however, interest was short lived. Last month, when Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to New York to visit the United Nations, he was greeted by thousands of Iranian protesters from the United States and overseas. America's gay and lesbian activists did not join in. Ireland, who has tirelessly reported abuses against gays and lesbians in Iran, was livid; he wrote that the failure of gay activists to protest Ahmadinejad represented the "the death of gay activism."
But Ireland was only half right. When it comes to the oppression of gays and lesbians in Muslim countries, gay activism hasn't died; it never really existed." (See also: "'Next Time, You'll Be Executed': A young, gay Iranian torture victim speaks out" (Doug Ireland, Gay City News, 2005/09/20), "Iran and the Death of Gay Activism" (Doug Ireland, Gay City News, 2005/09/08) and "Islamists versus Gays" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2005/07/20))

"Europe's Wahhabi Lobby" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2005/10/06)
"At the end of September, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), an international body made up of 55 nations -- including such dictatorships as nearby Belarus -- called for a day-long roundtable in the lovely and spiritual city of Warsaw. The topic was 'Intolerance and Discrimination Against Muslims.'":
"Thus, a religious functionary from Britain, Imam Dr. Abduljalil Sajid of the grandly (and, it appears, falsely) titled Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony, used up much of the morning's discussion with loud denunciations of Tony Blair for his alleged assault on civil rights in the wake of "7/7." Before that this religious leader, when asked which school of Islamic law, or madhdhab, he followed, said, "I shoot all madhdhabs."
Imam Sajid regaled the audience with the many times he had confronted Blair, insisting to the British prime minister that Islam and terrorism are completely unconnected from one another. He also offered up a diatribe against internment at Guantanamo. In the minds of many Muslims at the event, it seemed, the London bombings and the attacks that preceded them, as well as the radical ideology that inspired them, are irrelevant; the only thing that matters is to push back against the legal response of the British, U.S., and other European authorities.
The phrase "the Fight Against Extremism" was included on the agenda of the meeting, but not one word was said about it until the very end, when Turkish diplomat Omur Orhun let his voice sink to a near-whisper. He affirmed, in closing the deliberations, that the problem of extremism would eventually have to be taken up, "because that is what brought us all here." But to listen to many of the other participants one might have thought fear of Muslims among non-Muslims in Europe was a purely gratuitous expression of bias, or, as Nuzhat Jafri of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women put it, a product of 'U.S. foreign policy decisions.'"

"Senate Supports Interrogation Limits" (Charles Babington and Shailagh Murray, The Washington Post, 2005/10/06)
"The Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, underscoring Congress's growing concerns about reports of abuse of suspected terrorists and others in military custody.
Forty-six Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, the latest sign that alarm over treatment of prisoners in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is widespread in both parties. The White House had fought to prevent the restrictions, with Vice President Cheney visiting key Republicans in July and a spokesman yesterday repeating President Bush's threat to veto the larger bill that the language is now attached to -- a $440 billion military spending measure. ...
The Senate's 90 to 9 vote suggested a new boldness among Republicans to challenge the White House on war policy. The amendment by McCain, one of Bush's most significant backers at the outset of the Iraq war, would establish uniform standards for the interrogation of people detained by U.S. military personnel, prohibiting "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment while they are in U.S. custody."

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

News and commentary:

"Image of Muhammad"
(Kurt Westergaard, Fjordman, 2005/10/05)
"Danish author Kåre Bluitgen had difficulties in getting artists to illustrate his book about Muhammad due to fear of reprisals from Islamic extremists. Jyllandsposten, Denmark's largest newspaper, responded by asking 40 illustrators to make drawings of Muhammad, and published twelve in this Saturday's edition. Not all of them were good, but here's the best one, made by Kurt Westergaard." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch. See also: "Muhammeds ansigt" (Jyllands-Posten, 2005/09/30) and "Fear Pervades Danish Art Community" (Patrick, Dhimmi Watch, 2005/09/18))

"Iran 'behind attacks on British'" (BBC News, 2005/10/05)
"Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have caused the deaths of all eight UK soldiers killed in Iraq this year.
A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
He said they provided the technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq. The Iranians had denied this, he added.
While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made. ...
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the technology had come from Hezbollah in Lebanon via Iran and produced an "explosively shaped projectile".
He said that dissidents from the Mehdi army, a militia controlled by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, were suspected of carrying out the attacks.
One of their leaders, Ahmed al-Fartusi, was arrested by British forces recently and was "currently enjoying British hospitality", as the official put it.
It was that arrest which sparked off an anti-British protest in Basra recently."

"At Least 25 Killed in Iraq Mosque Blast" (Ali Al-Fatlawi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/05)
"HILLAH, Iraq - A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad as hundreds of worshippers gathered for prayers on the first day of Ramadan and for the funeral of a man killed in an earlier bombing. At least 25 people were killed and 87 wounded.
The explosion hit the Husseiniyat Ibn al-Nama mosque, ripping through strings of lightbulbs and green and red flags hung around the entrance to celebrate the start of the holy month. The mosque's facade was ravaged, shops nearby were detroyed and several cars were damaged.
Hundreds of men had gathered at the mosque, located in the center of Hillah, for prayers before returning home to eat the meal that ends the day's sunrise to sunset fast, when the blast went off at 6 p.m.
Others were there for the funeral service of a restaurant owner who was killed by a bomb that ripped through his restaurant Monday."

"No deal with death" (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 2005/10/05)
"It is the curse of the thinking classes – to imagine they can reason even the bloodiest mass-murderer into peace.
When 3000 civilians were killed in the September 11 attacks, then ABC 774 host Virginia Trioli announced her plan for peace with terrorist boss Osama bin Laden.
Shouldn't we be "sitting down with" the al-Qaida leader, she asked? Shouldn't we "talk to him, understand their anger, listen to them"?
What charming faith in the disarming power of a deep and meaningful chat. Such a hallmark it's become of our Left, tuned to its ABC.
I say that because Trioli's acting replacement in her drive shift, Libby Price, has now asked listeners to suggest terms for "peace talks" with al-Qaida and the men behind these latest Bali bombings, in which 22 died.
Sure, we shouldn't really negotiate with killers, Price said on Monday, but "things have progressed so far beyond that".
To save ourselves we must open talks -- if not with bin Laden himself, at least with "someone within the (al-Qaida) organisation that doubts what's happening". ...
So let's check. The leaders of these terrorists say we must submit to Islam or die. Peace is not possible. And any of us may be killed -- even bombed with nuclear weapons -- because we are infidels. Or whatever.
Perhaps you can see something in this that's worth negotiating over the bodies of the Bali dead.
But if so, you are as mad as these men. The difference is they still have their pride." (Hat tip: Tim Blair.)

"A chilling message for the infidels" (Scott Atran, The First Post, October 2005)
"Just six weeks before last Saturday's terrorist atrocity in Bali, in a jail cell in Jakarta, I interviewed Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), al-Qa'eda's main ally in the region, and the group on which western attention is focused in the hunt for culprits. ...
SA: What can the West, especially the US, do to make the world more peaceful?
ABB: They have to stop fighting Islam. That's impossible because it is sunnatullah [destiny, a law of nature], as Allah has said in the Koran. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam.
SA: What if they persist?
ABB: We'll keep fighting them and they'll lose. The batil [falsehood] will lose sooner or later. I sent a letter to Bush. I said that you'll lose and there is no point for you [to fight us]. This [concept] is found in the Koran. ...
SA: So this fight will never end?
ABB: Never. This fight is compulsory. Muslims who don't hate America sin. What I mean by America is George Bush's regime. There is no iman [belief] if one doesn't hate America.
SA: How can the American regime and its policies change?
ABB: We'll see. As long as there is no intention to fight us and Islam continues to grow there can be peace. This is the doctrine of Islam. Islam can't be ruled by others. Allah's law must stand above human law. There is no [example] of Islam and infidels, the right and the wrong, living together in peace." (Hat tip: Free Will.)

"Breaking the silence" (Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian, 2005/10/05)
"Rania al-Baz's popularity as a TV news presenter was always an implicit threat to Saudi Arabia's repressive, male-dominated culture. But it wasn't until her husband beat her so badly he thought he had killed her - and she decided to publish the photos of her injuries - that she really shook Saudi society.":
"In 1998, Rania met and married Fallatta, a singer whom she met at the television studio. It was no arranged love match, it was instant attraction. After heady days of inseparability, and later marriage, Baz's career flourished, while his waned. Fallatta became "regularly violent" towards her, she says, but she was loath to take action, leave or denounce him for fear of losing custody of her three young children, as usually happens in Saudi divorce cases. "Once, I complained to my grandmother," says Baz. "I said, 'I am like his maid in the house.' And she replied straightforwardly, 'Correct, you are his maid.'"
On the night of April 12 last year, Fallatta returned home to find his wife on the telephone. "There has been innuendo that I had a lover to justify what he did," says Baz, "but that was not true. It was a female friend, and when he came in I put the phone down. We talked and he became violent - he was a violent man, important in his own eyes, and possessive."
She pleaded with her husband not to beat her, but he punched her in the face. "I'm not going to beat you, I am going to kill you," he said. Then he began to smash her head, face down, against the floor, while a servant and their five-year-old son watched on. At the same time he was also throttling her, releasing his grip momentarily to demand that she repeat the Shahadah testimony of faith - which Islam requires a dying person to recite - three times: "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Messenger." Baz obediently spoke her lines until she lost consciousness." (See also: "Rania Al-Baz, a familiar face on Channel 1..." (Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News, 2004/04/12))

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

News and commentary:

"Whose al-Qaida problem?" (Sasha Abramsky, openDemocracy, 2005/10/04)
"Much of the left’s opposition to the Iraq war and the Bush administration’s anti-terror campaigns – voiced by figures like Tariq Ali, Robert Fisk, George Galloway, Naomi Klein, and John Pilger – has blinded it to the need to engage with real problems and threats":
"British journalists Robert Fisk, John Pilger, and Tariq Ali, along with British MP George Galloway, and, on the other side of the Atlantic, commentators such as Naomi Klein have all essentially blamed Britain and the United States for bringing the attacks upon themselves. While being careful to denounce the bombers and their agenda, these advocates uttered variations on the same theme: get out of Iraq, bring home the troops from all points east, curtail support for Israel, develop a more sensible, non-oil-based energy policy, and our troubles would dissipate in the wind. ...
They assume that groups like al-Qaida are almost entirely reactive, responding to western policies and actions, rather than being pro-active creatures with a virulent homegrown agenda, one not just of defence but of conquest, destruction of rivals, and, ultimately and at its most megalomaniacal, absolute subjugation.
It misses the central point: that, unlike traditional “third-world” liberation movements looking for a bit of peace and quiet in which to nurture embryonic states, al-Qaida is classically imperialist, looking to subvert established social orders and to replace the cultural and institutional infrastructure of its enemies with a (divinely inspired) hierarchical autocracy of its own, looking to craft the next chapter of human history in its own image. ...
It is because bin Ladenism is waging war against the liberal ideal that much of the activist left’s response to 11 September 2001 and the London attacks is woefully, catastrophically inadequate. For we, as progressives, need to uphold the values of pluralism, rationalism, scepticism, women’s rights, and individual liberty and oppose ideologies and movements whose foundations rest on theocracy, obscurantism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and nostalgia for a lost empire."

"Race fears spark St. George ban" (CNN.com, 2005/10/04)
Ice cream, Piglet and now the English flag: "LONDON, England (CNN) -- British prison officers who wore a St. George's Cross tie-pin have been ticked off by the jails watchdog over concerns about the symbol's racist connotations.
The pins showing the English flag -- which has often raised hackles due to its connection with the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries -- could be "misconstrued," Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said in a section on race in a report on a jail in the northern English city of Wakefield.
The banner of St. George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the military expeditions by European powers to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims, and later became the national flag of England. ...
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, said Tuesday the red cross was an insensitive reminder of the Crusades.
"A lot of Muslims and Arabs view the Crusades as a bloody episode in our history," he told CNN. "They see those campaigns as Christendom launching a brutal holy war against Islam. ...
Doyle added that it was now time for England to find a new flag and a patron saint who is 'not associated with our bloody past and one we can all identify with.'" (Hat tip: The Corner.)

"Arab World Jittery on Eve of Ramadan" (Nadia Abou El-Magd, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/04)
"CAIRO, Egypt - The Middle East is jittery as it heads into Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual introspection that has become a time of increased attacks by suicide bombers who believe they receive extra blessings.
Egyptian police planned increased watchfulness throughout the month, while insisting no specific threats had been received. But Israel warned its citizens to stay away from Egypt's beach resorts in the Sinai peninsula, calling the threat of attacks substantial.
Militants have not issued specific Ramadan-related threats, but the spike in violence in recent years — especially suicide attacks in Iraq — has been notable.
One possible reason is the belief by some Islamic extremists that those who die in combat for a holy cause during Ramadan are especially blessed.
"This is a month that has a spiritual feel to it, which condones the issue of jihad (holy war)," said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on Islamic groups. Tradition holds the Prophet Muhammad led his forces in winning battles against nonbelievers during Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month on the Islamic calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon.
Observance this year starts Tuesday across much of the Middle East, following the announcement by religious officials that the new crescent moon had been sighted Monday night."

"Tunisian online protest blocked" (Rebecca MacKinnon, Global Voices Online, 2005/10/04)
Via Instapundit: "As Tunisia prepares to host the controversial World Summit for the Information Society in November, Tunisian opposition activist Neila Charchour Hachicha informs Global Voices that the online freedom of speech protest site launched by Tunisians on Monday, www.yezzi.org has already been blocked by the Tunisian authorities.
The online protest, called “Freedom of Expression in Mourning,” is organized by The Tunisian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Cyberspace (Association Tunisienne pour la Promotion et la Défense du Cyberespace). Here is how they describe the protest and its motivations: ...

Continuous impunity of tyrants, who violate on a daily basis the right of their people to freedom of expression, shows that apart NGO, it is illusory to count on “democratic” governments to support the right of free access to independent information. ...

Therefore throughout the WSIS and in order to get the attention of the Tunisian and the International public opinion to the cruel absence of freedom of expression and information in Tunisia, and the obvious incoherence between the principles of this world summit and its hosting by the violent and repressive Tunisian regime, a working group has been gathered under the sponsorship of the Tunisian Association for the promotion and defense of the Cyberspace (TAPD - Cyberspace) in order to launch the campaign:

“Freedom of Expression in Mourning!”

This campaign starts today, October 3, 2005, and will end with the closure of the World Summit on the Information Society. Within the framework of this campaign, we will immediately start an initiative defined by the following actions:

* Since we are physically unable to demonstrate within Tunisian public spaces, we will use the internet to organize permanent virtual demonstrations in order to express our total disapproval with the Tunisian dictatorial regime."

"Stupid Terrorists" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2005/10/04)
Pipes names some honorary members of the "Stupid Terrorists Club":

"• Mohammed Salameh, the terrorist who returned to the rental agency in 1993 to retrieve the $400 deposit he had paid on a truck subsequently used to blow up the World Trade Center. His penny-pinching lead to his own capture and that of several other bombers.
• Zacarias Moussaoui, thought to have been the would-be 20th hijacker of the September 11, 2001, attacks, was sitting in jail on that date because his disheveled and impoverished appearance at a flight instruction school was so discordant ("there's really something wrong with this guy") that two of its staff phoned the FBI. In April 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism.
• Michael Wagner, an African-American convert to Islam associated with Al-Qaeda, did not wear a seat belt and that got him stopped by the police in July 2004 near Council Bluffs, Iowa. His car contained "flight training manuals and a simulator, documents in Arabic, bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles, a night-vision scope for a rifle, a telescope, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition."
• Zaynab Khadr, accused by Canadian authorities of having "willingly participated and contributed both directly and indirectly towards enhancing the ability of Al Qaeda to facilitate its criminal activities," returned to Canada in February with a computer chock full of documents that the authorities say "provide insights into the tactics, techniques and procedures" of Al-Qaeda and other groups."

"Islamist way or no way" (Mark Steyn, The Australian, 2005/10/04)
Steyn II: "I found myself behind a car in Vermont, in the US, the other day; it had a one-word bumper sticker with the injunction "COEXIST". It's one of those sentiments beloved of Western progressives, one designed principally to flatter their sense of moral superiority. The C was the Islamic crescent, the O was the hippie peace sign, the X was the Star of David and the T was the Christian cross. Very nice, hard to argue with. But the reality is, it's the first of those symbols that has a problem with coexistence. Take the crescent out of the equation and you wouldn't need a bumper sticker at all. Indeed, coexistence is what the Islamists are at war with; or, if you prefer, pluralism, the idea that different groups can rub along together within the same general neighbourhood. ...
Bali three years ago and Bali three days ago light up the sky: they make unavoidable the truth that Islamism is a classic "armed doctrine"; it exists to destroy. The reality of Bali's contribution to Indonesia's economic health is irrelevant. The jihadists would rather that the country be poorer and purer than prosperous and pluralist. For one thing, it's richer soil for them. If the Islamofascists gain formal control of Indonesia, it won't be a parochial, self-absorbed dictatorship such as Suharto's but a launching pad for an Islamic superstate across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. ...
That's why they blew up Bali in 2002, and last weekend, and why they'll keep blowing it up. It's not about Bush or Blair or Iraq or Palestine. It's about a world where everything other than Islamism lies in ruins." (See also: "Why Ask Why?" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/10/03))

"Making a pig's ear of defending democracy" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/04)
Steyn I: "Alas, the United Kingdom's descent into dhimmitude is beyond parody. Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (Tory-controlled) has now announced that, following a complaint by a Muslim employee, all work pictures and knick-knacks of novelty pigs and "pig-related items" will be banned. Among the verboten items is one employee's box of tissues, because it features a representation of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. ...
So these little news items that pop up every week now are significant mostly as a gauge of the progressive liberal's urge to self-abase and Western Muslims' ever greater boldness in flexing their political muscle.
After all, how daffy does a Muslim's willingness to take offence have to be to get rejected out of court? Only the other day, Burger King withdrew its ice-cream cones from its British restaurants because Mr Rashad Akhtar of High Wycombe, after a trip to the Park Royal branch, complained that the creamy swirl on the lid resembled the word "Allah" in Arabic script. ...
When every act that a culture makes communicates weakness and loss of self-belief, eventually you'll be taken at your word. In the long term, these trivial concessions are more significant victories than blowing up infidels on the Tube or in Bali beach restaurants. An act of murder demands at least the pretence of moral seriousness, even from the dopiest appeasers. But small acts of cultural vandalism corrode the fabric of freedom all but unseen.
Is it really a victory for "tolerance" to say that a council worker cannot have a Piglet coffee mug on her desk? And isn't an ability to turn a blind eye to animated piglets the very least the West is entitled to expect from its Muslim citizens? If Islam cannot "co-exist" even with Pooh or the abstract swirl on a Burger King ice-cream, how likely is it that it can co-exist with the more basic principles of a pluralist society." (See also: "Ungulates Unwelcome" (Marcus, Harry's Place, 2005/10/03) and "The Crescent of Pistachio" (Andy McCarthy, The Corner, 2005/09/19))

"Path to EU opens for Turkey after last-minute deal" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2005/10/04)
"After 40 years knocking on Europe’s door, Turkey became the first Muslim country to start membership talks with the EU early today after Britain brokered an 11th-hour deal and persuaded Austria to abandon its veto threat.
The EU took one of the biggest steps in its 50-year history after two days of negotiations that seemed perpetually on the brink of collapse. ...
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister, dashed to Luxembourg to start the talks in a special ceremony chaired by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary.
After Turkey’s entry talks began, Mr Straw said: “We have just made history. The EU and Turkey agree we want this ever closer relationship. It means we have an EU founded on values, not history.”
A triumphant Mr Gul said: “I hope this will be good for Turkey, for the EU and the world. It is a win-win situation.”
The start of talks averted a rift between predominantly Christian Europe and its huge Muslim neighbour to the East, and rescued Britain’s EU presidency. Turkey’s entry talks are expected to take ten years, when it would become the largest member state in EU."

Monday, October 3, 2005

News and commentary:

"Afghan ethnic Hazara meet in a mosque in Kabul..."
(Tomas Munita, AP, 2005/10/03)
"Afghan ethnic Hazara meet in a mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 3, 2005. Thousands of people staged angry protests in Afghanistan against the killing of a prominent election candidate last week, demanding the resignation of a powerful provincial governor they claim was behind the attack."

"Thousands protest killing of Afghanistan election frontrunner" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/03)
"KABUL (AFP) - Thousands of people marched through
Afghanistan's capital and a key northern city as protests against the assassination of a leading candidate in last month's elections spread across the country.
Unidentified attackers gunned down Ashraf Ramazan and his guard a week ago in northern Mazar-i-Sharif. The ethnic Hazara leader was running third in the Balkh province race for a parliamentary seat after the September 18 vote.
Around 2,000 people, most of them Hazaras, took to the streets of Kabul, blaming the killing on the rival ethnic Tajik administration of Mazar-i-Sharif and demanding they be sacked and brought to justice, witnesses said on Monday.
"We will continue our peaceful demonstration until the government responds to our demands. If needed, we will also go on hunger strike," protester Murad Ali told AFP."

"Why Ask Why?" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/10/03)
Hitchens on the latest Bali bombings: "Never make the mistake of asking for rationality here. And never underestimate the power of theocratic propaganda. The fanatics look at the population of Bali and its foreign visitors and they see a load of Hindus selling drinks—often involving the presence of unchaperoned girls—to a load of Christians. That in itself is excuse enough for mayhem. They also see local Muslims following syncretic and tolerant forms of Islam, and they yearn to redeem them from this heresy and persuade them of the pure, desert-based truths of Salafism and Wahhabism. (One of the men on trial in Bali had been in trouble before, in his home village, for desecrating local Muslim shrines that he regarded as idolatrous.) And then, of course, Australians must die. Why would that be? Well, is it not the case that Australia sent troops to help safeguard the independence of East Timor and the elections that followed it? A neighboring country that assists the self-determination of an Indonesian Christian minority must expect to have the lives of its holidaymakers taken. ...
Consider this, look again at the awful carnage in Bali, and shudder if you ever said, or thought, that the bombs in London in July, or the bombs in Baghdad every day, or the bombs in Bali last Friday, are caused by any "policy" but that of the bombers themselves. ...
So, what did Indonesia do to deserve this, or bring it on itself? How will the slaughter in Bali improve the lot of the Palestinians? Those who look for the connection will be doomed to ask increasingly stupid questions and to be content with increasingly wicked answers."

"ITS ME PIGLIT
HELP HELP!"
(E. H. Shepard, poohnet.co.uk)
From "Eeyore's Picture Place", a gallery of E. H. Shepard's artwork in the Winnie-the-Pooh books.

"Ungulates Unwelcome" (Marcus, Harry's Place, 2005/10/03)
"Dudley Council have ordered the removal of piggy banks and all other porcine effigies after complaints:

Workers in the council's benefits department have been told to remove or cover up all pig products including toys, porcelain, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.
It comes after a Muslim worker said they were offended by pig-shaped stress relievers delivered to the authority."

(See also: "Toy pigs must go at council" (Express & Star News, 2005/10/01). Also: "Pigs tale banned to 'placate Muslims'" (Yorkshire Post, 2003/03/05))

"Austrians Don't Want Turkey in EU" (William J. Kole, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/03)
"VIENNA, Austria - Austrians have thought of themselves as Europe's gatekeepers ever since they vanquished the Ottoman Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. Today, they're slamming the door shut on Turkey again by raising doubts over whether the mostly Muslim nation belongs in the
European Union. But ancient animosities are mingled with modern fears, and Austrians insist they're not racist or xenophobic — just deeply distrustful. ...
History also sheds light on the hostility. Among Austrians' first lessons at school is the story of the epic battle of 1683 that halted the Islamic empire's westward march. Had the outcome been different, much if not all of modern Europe might have been Muslim today — "under the crescent instead of the cross," as the Viennese expression goes.
Seventy-three percent of respondents to a new poll published over the weekend by the Austria Press Agency said they believe the cultural differences between Turkey and the rest of the EU are too great to justify membership. About 1,000 people aged 18 and over were surveyed; no margin of error was given. ...
Austrians aren't the only ones questioning whether the 25-nation bloc should take in Turkey. A slim majority of all Europeans share that view, other polls show.
Among them is former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who led the effort to draft the first EU constitution. "Good sense would be to know if Turkey is — 'yes' or 'no' — a European country. History and geography answer 'no,'" he told the French weekly Journal du Dimanche.
On Monday, France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said the French have "serious reservations" about EU membership for Turkey and would prefer a partnership." (See also: "Austria sabotages Turkish EU talks" (David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/30))

"Photos of Heads Used to ID Bali Bombers" (Chris Brummitt, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/03)
"BALI, Indonesia - Investigators hunting for the masterminds of three suicide bombings on the popular resort island of Bali hoped to quickly identify the bombers Monday, with Indonesia's newspapers publishing photographs of their severed heads.
Police also sought three accomplices believed to still be on the resort island, and enlisted a former operative of Southeast Asia's top terrorist group to help track down the plotters of Saturday's attack, which killed at least 22 people, including the bombers, and wounded 104. ...
Sanglah, the main hospital treating the victims, posted a death toll of 29 on a bulletin board. A police spokesman, Maj. Gen. Aryanto Budihardjo, told reporters in the capital that 22 had been killed, including the three bombers.
Fourteen Indonesians, two Australians and one Japanese man were among the dead. Officials were trying to identify the nationalities of the other corpses.
The 104 wounded included 49 Indonesians, 17 Australians, six Americans, six Koreans, and four Japanese, officials said."

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Articles of the week

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

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

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Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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