Archived news and commentary: October 10 - 16, 2005

2005/10/10 - 2005/10/16
2005/10/03 - 2005/10/09
2005/09/26 - 2005/10/02
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2005/09/12 - 2005/09/18
2005/09/05 - 2005/09/11

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Sunday, October 16, 2005

News and commentary:

"Anti-Semitic poem in children’s school book" (Jeremy Last, European Jewish Press, 2005/10/16)
"A poem which praises the murder of Jews by the Nazis has been included in a book of children’s poetry to be distributed amongst schools in the UK.
The publication, entitled Great Minds, features the work of school children aged 11 to 18 who won a nationwide literary competition.
But one poem has generated outrage amongst Jewish groups, politicians and Holocaust charities for its anti-Semitic content.
The entry by the 14-year-old Gideon Taylor is apparently written from the viewpoint of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
It includes the lines "Jews are here, Jews are there, Jews are almost everywhere, filling up the darkest places, evil looks upon their faces."
Another part reads: "Make them take many paces for being one of the worst races, on their way to a gas chamber, where they will sleep in their manger… I'll be happy Jews have died."
According to the Jewish Telegraph newspaper, the poem was the only entry in the entire book not to include the writer’s school or location.
Young Writers editor Steve Twelvetree, who also edited the book, said the poem was included as it illustrated how the writer was able to empathise with the infamous Nazi Fuehrer." (Hat tip: Rochi Ebner.)

"Suspected Insurgents Kill 11 in Thailand" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/16)
"BANGKOK, Thailand - About 20 suspected Muslim separatists stormed a monastery, hacked an elderly Buddhist monk to death and fatally shot two temple boys Sunday in southern Thailand, police said.
Two policemen and six other people were killed in separate incidents across Thailand's three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,000 people have been killed since a centurylong struggle for an independent state reignited in 2004.
Buddhist temples in the region are typically well-guarded by soldiers and local volunteers, but eight guards left the temple in Pattani province two weeks ago because of a funding shortage, police Maj. Narucha Suwallapa said.
"The insurgents are very cruel. They killed the monk, the temple boys, and set fire to the monks' living quarters," Narucha said.
Four monks escaped the attack unhurt, he said.
Two large statues at the temple were decapitated, according to a report by the state-run Thai News Agency."

"Iraqi Officials Count Ballots Following Saturday's Vote" (John F. Burns and Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2005/10/16)
"Officials at Iraq's election commission said that the early count pointed to a turnout as high as 65 per cent of the country's 15.5 million voters, a showing that would exceed the 58 per cent turnout in the January election that chose a transitional government. ...
Some Iraqis drew contrasts with the election three years ago to the day for Mr. Hussein. "I voted then, for Saddam, of course, because I was afraid," said Jabar Ahmed Ismail, 75, living on a $100-a-month pension from a lifetime as an oil pipeline repairman. "But this time, I came here by my own choice. I am not afraid anymore. I am a free man."
A Sunni, Mr. Ismail said he had voted for the constitution, despite appeals by many Sunni leaders for it to be rejected, and threats from Islamic militants to kill anybody participating in it. He said he did not really know what was in the constitution, but the fact that his opinion had been sought was enough for him to back it. "It gives me hope in God, and in my fellow men," he said. As for the insurgents, he said, they were "infidels," and added, "I don't accept them."
'I don't know what they want.'"

"One woman's war" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2005/10/16)
"Maryam Namazie personifies the gulf between liberal apologists and those who really want equality":
"Yet one of the most important feminists from the developing world has never been on Woman's Hour. I searched our huge cuttings database and could find only one mention of her in the national press over the past 10 years. Right-thinking, left-leaning people have backed away from Maryam Namazie because she is just as willing to tackle their tolerance of oppression as the oppressors themselves.
It was the decision of broad-minded politicians in Ottawa to allow Sharia courts in Canada which did it for her. They said if they were not established, the Muslim minority would be marginalised and to say otherwise was racism pure and simple.
After years of hearing this postmodern twaddle, Namazie flipped. Why was it, she asked, that supposed liberals always give 'precedence to cultural and religious norms, however reactionary, over the human being and her rights'? Why was it that they always pretended that other cultures were sealed boxes without conflicts of their own and took 'the most reactionary segment of that community' as representative of the belief and culture of the whole.
In a ringing passage, which should be pinned to the noticeboards of every cultural studies faculty and Whitehall ministry, she declared that the problem with cultural relativism was that it endorsed the racism of low expectations.
'It promotes tolerance and respect for so-called minority opinions and beliefs, rather than respect for human beings. Human beings are worthy of the highest respect, but not all opinions and beliefs are worthy of respect and tolerance. There are some who believe in fascism, white supremacy, the inferiority of women. Must they be respected?'"

"Window Into Al Qaeda" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/10/16)
"Rarely in wartime is it possible to read over the shoulder of the enemy and discover his most intimate thoughts about the battle. But the United States is claiming just such an intelligence coup with the capture of a letter from Ayman Zawahiri, the cerebral chief strategist of al Qaeda, to his hotheaded field commander in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi. ...
At the heart of the letter is an argument that al Qaeda must build a broad political movement in the Muslim world, even as it continues its military campaign to drive America and Israel from the region. Students of 20th-century history will recall a similar shift by the Communist Party in the 1930s, when it moved from a tight, exclusionary strategy to a broader one known as the "Popular Front." Zawahiri's call for mass Muslim politics, which would include those outside his own tight Salafist circle, is plausible because it tracks other recent statements. ...
Reading the Zawahiri letter, you sense that the field of battle is shifting. Al Qaeda is waging a political war for Muslim hearts and minds as it seeks to build a global caliphate. America shouldn't make the same mistake for which Zawahiri is upbraiding his Iraq commander -- fighting in the Iraq theater in ways that make it harder to win the larger war." (See also: "al-Qaeda No. 2: U.S. 'ran' from Vietnam" (AP/USA Today, 2005/10/12))

"Media utters nonsense, won't call enemy out" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2005/10/16)
Steyn on media's use of the terms "insurgents" and "militants":
"In the geopolitical Hogwart's, Islamic "militants" are the new Voldemort, the enemy whose name it's best never to utter. In fairness to the New York Times, they did use the I-word in paragraph seven. And Agence France Presse got around to mentioning Islam in paragraph 22. ...
And so Islamists who murder non-Muslims in pursuit of explicitly Islamic goals are airbrushed into vague, generic "rebel forces." You can't tell the players without a scorecard, and that's just the way the Western media intend to keep it. If you wake up one morning and switch on the TV to see the Empire State Building crumbling to dust, don't be surprised if the announcer goes, "Insurging rebel militant forces today attacked key targets in New York. In other news, the president's annual Ramadan banquet saw celebrities dancing into the small hours to Mullah Omar And His All-Girl Orchestra . . .". ...
I'm aware the very concept of "the enemy" is alien to the non-judgment multicultural mind: There are no enemies, just friends whose grievances we haven't yet accommodated. But the media's sensitivity police apparently want this to be the first war we lose without even knowing who it is we've lost to. C'mon, guys, next time something happens in the Caucasus, why not blame the "Caucasians"? At least that way, we'll figure it must have been right-wing buddies of Timothy McVeigh." (See also: "Rebels Launch Attacks in Southern Russia" (Fatima Tlisova, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/13))

"These two men are experts on rendition: one invented it, the other has seen its full horrors" (Neil Mackay, Sunday Herald, 2005/10/16)
"If there are two men in the world who know about “extraordinary renditions” then they are Michael Scheuer, the CIA chief who invented the programme, and Craig Murray, the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan who saw first-hand the devastating consequences for British intelligence of using renditions.
In exclusive interviews with the Sunday Herald they blew apart any justification for the rendition system, saying the US government deliberately refused to opt for a legal alternative to renditions which was presented to the President by the CIA and that the programme undermined Western democracy, damaged the prosecution of the war on terror and “contaminated British and US intelligence”. ...
Scheuer remains disappointed that his plan to bring suspects back to the US was rejected. “I said we should take them back to America as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, where we could have done so much more with them,” he adds. “Osama bin Laden had declared war on us, so we should have put them in PoW camps and let the Red Cross deal with them.
“If we had brought them to the US, the rendition programme would be being celebrated around the world today. We would have abided by the Geneva Conventions. It would have gone down in CIA lore as a tremendous operation if it was handled in a way commensurate with US law.” ...
Scheuer accepts that targets were tortured both before and after 9/11. “I have no doubt about it,” he says. 'You’d think I’m an ass if I said nobody was tortured. There was more of a willingness in the White House to turn a blind eye to the legal niceties than within the CIA. The Agency always knew it would be left holding the baby for this one.'" (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.)

"'Stealth' Islamists recruit students" (Ali Hussain, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/16)
"An Islamic organisation facing a ban under terrorism laws has launched a campaign to recruit university students using an anti-racist front organisation.
An undercover Sunday Times investigation has established that the party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has been recruiting under the name Stop Islamophobia at University College London (UCL), the School of African and Oriental Studies, Luton University and other institutions.
Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to establish a transnational state governed by Islamic law. It is reported to have thousands of members in Britain. One member said suicide bombers in Israel would go “straight to heaven”. ...
Members had a duty to “spread their message, not their name”. Ali said: “You definitely can’t have (Jews) as close friends.” A few days later, at a human rights demonstration at the Uzbek embassy in London, Ali introduced the reporter to Thaqib Razaq, 18, an A-level pupil and a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Razaq, from Walthamstow, northeast London, described how he had asked a Hizb ut-Tahrir “sheikh”, a senior member, what would happen if he became a suicide bomber. He said the reply was: “I can strap a bomb to myself and kill as many people as I can. I’m going to die shahid (martyr) and go to jannah (heaven).” ...
Razaq said: 'Stop Islamophobia is set up by us. But we don’t actually push it like that. The moment they link Hizb ut-Tahrir with Stop Islamophobia, they’ll bring the whole campaign down.'" (Hat tip: Daniel Pipes.)

"Holland fears killings over ban on burqa" (Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/16)
"Holland's Muslims have responded with outrage to government proposals to ban the burqa, and there are fears that Rita Verdonk, the minister behind the move, will be added to a list of “enemies of Islam” targeted for assassination.
The country was on high alert yesterday after talk of a burqa ban coincided with the arrest of a group suspected of planning to murder two politicians. ...
In a note skewered to Van Gogh’s chest, Mohammed Bouyeri, the 26-year-old killer who was jailed for life, left a list of “infidels” to be slaughtered, a threat that drove Geert Wilders, the conservative politician, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Muslim MP who appeared in Van Gogh’s film, into hiding.
They are under round-the-clock police protection but this has not stopped new death threats in the past few days. Last Friday police arrested seven people suspected of plotting to murder them and carry out other terrorist attacks on November 2, the anniversary of Van Gogh’s killing.
One of those arrested was Samir Azzouz, a 19-year-old of Moroccan origin, who in April was acquitted of charges of planning to attack Amsterdam airport and blow up a nuclear reactor. A spokeswoman for Verdonk acknowledged concerns that other supporters of Van Gogh’s killer might have added her name to the hit list." (See also: "Dutch unveil the toughest face in Europe with a ban on the burka" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2005/10/13))

"Russians help Iran with missile threat to Europe" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/10/16)
"Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran to acquire technology needed to produce missiles capable of striking European capitals.
The Russians are acting as go-betweens with North Korea as part of a multi-million pound deal they negotiated between Teheran and Pyongyang in 2003. It has enabled Teheran to receive regular clandestine shipments of top secret missile technology, believed to be channelled through Russia.
Western intelligence officials believe that the technology will enable Iran to complete development of a missile with a range of 2,200 miles, capable of hitting much of Europe. It is designed to carry a 1.2-ton payload, sufficient for a basic nuclear device.
The revelation raises the stakes in the confrontation between Iran's Islamic regime and the West - led by the United States and European countries including Britain."

"On the Streets of Iraq, Scenes of Joy and Determination" (The Washington Post, 2005/10/16)
"'Do you want us to tell you something?' asked Tamara Majeed, 11, when a visitor interrupted her friends as they sketched a chalk outline for tuki -- a form of hopscotch -- in the middle of a potholed street in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim district of 2 million.
Barely waiting for an answer, the group of schoolgirls in pigtails, bows and scarves burst into song.
"Let your vote revolt," their high voices sang in a made-for-the-day anthem learned recently in school. The song continued, referring to the former ruling party of Saddam Hussein: "Don't let us down -- don't make me return to the Baathist grave." ...
Abdul Hussein Ahmed, 63, emerged from a polling station in the southern city of Najaf with his purple ink-stained finger aloft. "Five members of my family were killed by Saddam and his people," he declared. "But now, with this constitution, everyone is equal under the law." ...
In Mosul's lower-middle-class neighborhood of Jazayer, voters expressed their joy over the referendum with a Kurdish debka, swirling and tapping their feet as Kurdish songs came uncontrollably from their mouths.
The debka, a celebratory dance, started at the exit of the polling station in Jazayer and slowly mushroomed. Three uniformed policemen in this northern city were joined by four youths, two wearing traditional Kurdish costumes, and before long the group was a spreading throng.
"When I came out of the polling center, I saw the group dancing. I was feeling great, having voted 'yes,' so I joined in," said Ribwar Ali Murad, 25, a Kurdish student at Mosul University. 'I am totally overjoyed with this day.'"

Saturday, October 15, 2005

News and commentary:

"Large Turnout for Iraq Constitution Vote" (Lee Keith, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/15)
"Sunni Arabs voted in surprisingly high numbers on Iraq's new constitution Saturday, many of them hoping to defeat it in an intense competition with Shiites and Kurds over the shape of the nation's young democracy after decades of dictatorship. With little violence, turnout was more than 66 percent in the three most crucial provinces. ...
In the south, Shiite women in head-to-toe veils and men emerged from the poll stations flashing victory signs with fingers stained with violet ink, apparently responding in mass to the call by their top cleric to support the charter.
But in Sunni regions — both in Baghdad and several key heavily Sunni provinces — the high turnout seemed to consist largely of Iraqis voting "no" because of fears the charter would set in stone the Shiite domination they fear.
A day that U.S. and Iraqi leaders feared could become bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months. ...
Overall turnout was about 61 percent and surpassed 66 percent in seven of Iraq's 18 provinces, including key Sunni Arab-majority ones, according to initial estimates, election officials said Saturday."

"Iraqi Shiites flash victory signs..."
(Karim Kadim , AP, 2005/10/15)
"Iraqi Shiites flash victory signs, showing off their ink marked fingers, after voting in Iraq's constitution referendum, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Oct. 15 2005."

"An elderly Iraqi woman shows an ink colored finger..."
(Karim Kadim , AP, 2005/10/15)
"An elderly Iraqi woman shows an ink colored finger, confirming she has cast her vote, in Iraq's constitution referendum, after exiting a voting station in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Oct. 15 2005."

"An Iraqi woman raises her inked finger..."
(Ali Jasim , Reuters, 2005/10/15)
"An Iraqi woman raises her inked finger after voting in the constitutional referendum in Baghdad October 15, 2005."

"An Iraqi man shows his inked finger..."
(Slahaldeen Rasheed, Reuters, 2005/10/15)
"An Iraqi man shows his inked finger after voting in the constitutional referendum at a polling station in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk October 15, 2005."

"Minaa Ishaak, 82, raises his inked finger..."
(Ceerwan Aziz, Reuters, 2005/10/15)
"Minaa Ishaak, 82, raises his inked finger after casting his vote in a constitutional referendum in Baghdad October 15, 2005. 'I am voting for Iraq's future and the future of my children,' said Ishaak after voting 'yes' in the referendum."

"Iraqis Vote on Charter Amid High Security" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/15)
"Iraq's deeply divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds voted at heavily guarded polling stations across the country Saturday, deciding whether to support a new constitution aimed at establishing democracy after more than two decades of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule. ...
In towns where Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the voting in January parliamentary elections, they now were eager to cast ballots, most of them hoping to defeat a draft charter they fear will set in stone their domination by Iraq's Shiite majority.
"The government can't just sew together an outfit and dress the people up by force. We do not see ourselves or see our future in this draft," Gazwan Abdul Sattar, 27-year-old Sunni teacher, said after voting "no" in the northern city of Mosul.
In a nearby mostly Kurdish neighborhood, Bahar Saleh gave her support to the constitution.
"This constitution will at last give the Kurds their lost rights," the 34-year-old housewife said, coming from the polls with the red-and-green Kurdish flag wrapped around her body. ...
Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad's 1,200 polling stations with shootings and bombs, wounding seven voters, but there were no major attacks reported as U.S. and Iraqi forces clamped down with major security measures around balloting sites. ...
"Today, I came to vote because I am tired of terrorists, and I want the country to be safe again," said Zeinab Sahib, a 30-year-old mother of three, one of the first voters at a school in Baghdad's mainly Shiite neighborhood of Karrada. 'This constitution means unity and hope.'"

"Consensus and Iraq's constitution" (Larry Diamond, Los Angeles Times, 2005/10/15)
"Today's historic referendum in Iraq will almost certainly bring ratification of the draft constitution, but it won't be enough to resolve the paralyzing divisions that could lead to civil war. ...
Still, this week's compromise moves toward the genuine power sharing that is Iraq's only hope for stability. If that promise is to be realized, the next round of mediation must involve not just the U.S. but the U.N., and perhaps some role for Iraq's Arab neighbors.
Once the votes are in and the constitution is adopted, only weeks will remain until the Dec. 15 elections for the new parliament. It is vital that the Sunni communities participate fully so that they will be fully represented in the hard bargaining that lies ahead over the character and power balance of the new state.
Only then will the shattered and aggrieved Sunni minority have representatives with the political weight to press Sunni concerns effectively, and the legitimacy to make painful and sustainable concessions. Without such real inclusion, the insurgency will not diminish, and Iraq will continue to founder."

"Toward a new Iraq" (Joseph I. Lieberman and Jon Kyl, The Washington Times, 2005/10/15)
"Today's referendum on a new constitution is a critical step in Iraq's transition from decades of repression to representative government. Its predicted ratification will be another powerful statement that the majority of Iraqis prefer democratic government to the violence of foreign terrorists and diehard Saddamists.
In a recent article in the New York Review of Books, Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith wrote: "The [Iraqi] constitution has many flaws, but it provides a peace plan that might work, and it is therefore the most positive political development in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein from power." We agree. ...
For Iraqis, this constitutional referendum is a huge step toward building a true democracy. It is important to remember they would not have had this opportunity if U.S. and coalition forces had not overthrown Saddam Hussein. Nor could they now -- without our military presence -- provide the security needed to take advantage of this opportunity to govern themselves.
And we Americans have a continued national-security interest in helping the Iraqi people stabilize their country, and push back the Islamist terrorists who attacked us on September 11, 2001, and who will do so again unless we stop them.
The Iraqi constitution is a symbol of the progress Iraq has made in achieving self-determination and, taken together with the January election results, is strong evidence a free and democratic Iraq is possible and deserves our support." (See also: "Last Chance for Iraq" (Peter W. Galbraith, The New York Review of Books, from the 2005/10/08 issue))

"G.I.'s and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border" (James Risen and David E. Sanger, The New York Times, 2005/10/15)
"A series of clashes in the last year between American and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials.
The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to American and Syrian officials.
It illustrated the dangers facing American troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with Islamic extremists. He also named Iran.
One of Mr. Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it.
But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border - sometimes by accident, sometimes by design."

Friday, October 14, 2005

News and commentary:

"Syrian minister errs during eulogy" (UPI, 2005/10/14)
"Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa erred twice in his eulogy of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan calling the suicide an "assassination," said an-Nahar.
The public attorney who superintended an autopsy made the same mistake during a televised news conference.
"The 'tongue lapses' buttressed a worldwide conviction that Gen. Kanaan was 'willfully eliminated' to cover up a high-level involvement of the Assad regime in Lebanon's ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination, refuting the official Syrian claim that the 63-year-old general had committed suicide," reported Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper, on its Internet Web site
Sharaa held the Lebanese media and leakages by the U.N. commission responsible for Kanaan's 'assassination' in a televised statement at his funeral on Thursday. He did not correct the first 'slip of the tongue.' Later in the statement Sharaa again called Kanaan's death an 'assassination' with an instant correction of 'pardon, suicide.'
Chief public attorney Muhammad al-Louji told a televised news conference in Damascus Thursday that Kanaan shot himself with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. Al-Louji said an examination of the body and interviews with witnesses showed "Kanaan placed the tip of the revolver in his mouth and fired it."
"The act of killing, pardon, assassination, occurred at his office in the Interior Ministry at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday. He had left 45 minutes earlier, got into his car and drove home. He spent a little time there before returning to the office," al-Louji said." (Hat tip: Best of the Web Today. See also: "Syria Says Minister Committed Suicide" (Donna Abu-Nasr, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/12))

"Suicide bombing as altruism??" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2005/10/14)
"That's a new "theory" on the motivations of suicide bombers. Read the piece detailing the study and see if you can find a distinction between martyrdom - which kills only oneself - and suicide-bombing, which, of course, kills others. Money quote:

[S]o long as group mentality motivates the suicide, it is still altruistic, Pedahzur and his colleagues claim. They claim individuals who kill themselves in search of 'a lofty and glorious place for themselves' fall into a different but closely related category — 'acute altruistic suicide.'

Acute altruistic suicide 'stems from a strong religious conviction in the glorious destiny which awaits the perpetrator in the afterlife,' Pedahzur said. 'With a serene conviction derived from the feeling of duty accomplished, this person is carried to his death in a burst of faith and enthusiasm.'

Faith alone, however, does not a terrorist make, Ginges cautioned. 'I found personal devotion to and belief in Islam unrelated to support for terrorism,' he said. Religious organizations find it easier to generate support for terrorism not because of their beliefs but rather 'because of the link between collective rituals and altruism,' Ginges said.

It seems to me that if Islamic fascists wanted merely to blow themselves up, few of us would object. In fact, it might be worth encouraging. Win-win: they go to "heaven", we get to ride the subway in peace. But these people are mass-murderers. I guess it takes an academic to see that as altruism." (See also: "Altruism at heart of suicide attacks, studies show" (Mike Martin (Science & Theology News, 2005/10/14))

"Baghdad Blackout Caused by Sabotage" (Hamza Hendawi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/14)
Iraq III: "Insurgents sabotaged power lines Friday, plunging the Iraqi capital into darkness and cutting off water supplies on the eve of a landmark vote on a constitution that would define democracy in
Iraq.
The charter — hammered out after months of bitter negotiations — is supported by a Shiite-Kurdish majority but has split Sunni Arab ranks after last-minute amendments designed to win support among the disaffected minority.
In Friday sermons across the nation, the message from Shiite pulpits was an unequivocal "yes," but it was not so clear-cut in Sunni Arab mosques — varying from "yes," "no" and "vote your conscience."
Amid security concerns, Iraqis were hunkered down for most of the day in their homes, with the streets of the Iraqi capital almost empty hours before a 10 p.m. curfew and the country sealed off from the outside world as borders and airports were closed for Saturday's referendum.
The widespread power outage hit soon after sundown, when Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan, leaving Baghdad's skyline black except for pinpoints of light from private generators. Water also ran out in homes in some parts of the capital and water pressure waned.
The insurgents took out several electrical towers between the northern towns of Kirkuk and Beiji, 180 miles from Baghdad, said Mahmoud al-Saaedi, an Electricity Ministry spokesman. He could not say how they were hit."

"Iraq Insurgents Attack Sunni Party Office" (Thomas Wagner, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/14)
Iraq II: "Sunni insurgents launched five attacks against the largest Sunni Arab political party on the eve of Iraq's crucial referendum Friday, bombing and burning offices and the home of one of its leaders in retaliation after the group dropped its opposition to the draft constitution. ...
Before dawn, someone threw a grenade at the house of the main cleric of the Abu Hanifa Mosque, pro-Islamic Party Sheik Muayad al-Azami, but no one was hurt in the explosion. The night before, his son was threatened by Sunni opponents during prayers, al-Azami said.
In four other attacks, Islamic Party offices were damaged by roadside bombs in Baghdad and the northern towns of Beiji and Seniyah, and by an arson attack in Fallujah, police said. No injuries were reported. Fallujah is the city west of Baghdad that was heavily damaged by a U.S. offensive against insurgents in 2004.
Before Friday, Sunni insurgents had rarely targeted a Sunni political party. It "was expected because of (the party's) new stand toward the referendum," Iraqi army Maj. Salman Abdul Yahid said after the Baghdad blast. "Insurgents had threatened to attack the group and its leaders to get revenge," he told The Associated Press."

"An American 'Debacle'?" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2005/10/14)
"In a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed entitled “American Debacle” Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national-security adviser to President Carter, begins with:

Some 60 years ago Arnold Toynbee concluded, in his monumental “Study of History,” that the ultimate cause of imperial collapse was “suicidal statecraft.” Sadly for George W. Bush's place in history and — much more important — ominously for America's future, that adroit phrase increasingly seems applicable to the policies pursued by the United States since the cataclysm of 9/11. ...

Such gloom seems to be the fashion of the day. Iraq is now routinely dismissed as a quagmire or “lost.” Osama bin laden is assumed to be still active, while we are beginning the fifth year of the war that is “longer than World War II.” Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo purportedly are proof of our brutality and have lost us hearts and minds, while gas prices spiral out of control. ...
The war against the terrorists may be entering the fifth year, but despite over 2,000 combat fatalities, we have still only lost a little over 2/3s of those killed on the very first day of the war, almost 50 months ago — quite a contrast with the over 400,000 American dead at the end of World War II. And a wrecked Japan and Germany were not on a secure path to democracy until six years after America entered the war, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan that were defeated without killing millions and already have held plebiscites on new constitutions. ...
The story of the war since September 11 is that the United States military has not lost a single battle, has removed two dictatorships, and has birthed democracy in the Middle East. ...
If we look at all these questions dispassionately, and tune out the angry rhetoric on the extreme Left and Right, then we can see things are becoming better rather than worse — even as the media and now the public itself believes that a successful strategy is failing." (See also: "American debacle" (Zbigniew Brzezinski, Los Angeles Times, 2005/10/09))

"How can a country that victimises its greatest living writer also join the EU?" (Salman Rushdie, The Times, 2005/10/14)
Rushdie on the Orhan Pamuk case: "On September 1, 2005, Pamuk was indicted by a district prosecutor for having “blatantly belittled Turkishness” by his remarks. If convicted, he faces up to three years in jail. Article 301/1 of the Turkish penal code, under which Pamuk is to be tried, states that “a person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years..." ...
José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, says that Turkey’s entry into the EU is by no means assured, that it will have to win over the hearts and minds of the deeply sceptical EU citizenry. The Turkish application is being presented (most vociferously by Tony Blair and Jack Straw) as a test case for the EU. To reject it, we are told, would be a catastrophe, widening the gulf between Islam and the West. There is an element of Blairite poppycock in this, a disturbingly communalist willingness to sacrifice Turkish secularism on the altar of faith-based politics. But the Turkish application is indeed a test case for the EU, a test of whether the Union has any principles at all. If it has, its leaders will insist on charges against Orhan Pamuk being dropped at once — there is no need to keep him waiting for justice until December — and on further, rapid revisions to Turkey’s repressive penal code.
An unprincipled Europe, which turns its back on great artists and fighters for freedom, will continue to alienate its citizens, whose disenchantment has already been widely demonstrated by the votes against the proposed new constitution. So the West is being tested as well as the East. On both sides of the Bosphorus, the Pamuk case matters."

"Saudi King: Terror Is Work of the Devil" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/14)
"Islamic terrorism is "the work of the devil," and Saudi Arabia will fight it "until we eliminate this scourge," King Abdullah said in an interview broadcast Friday.
In the interview with ABC-TV's Barbara Walters, he also said the kingdom will expand the rights of women and eventually allow them to drive.
The king denied assertions that his government finances schools that teach a fundamentalist philosophy of Islam that can lead to militancy.
Saudi Arabia "will fight the terrorists, and those who support them or condone their actions, for 10, 20 or 30 years if we have to, until we eliminate this scourge," the king said.
When asked why groups such as al-Qaida, the terror network led by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, had taken root in the kingdom, he replied: "Madness and evil. It is the work of the devil." ...
Abdullah, who became king on the death of his half-brother Fahd in August, told ABC he was committed to increasing the rights of Saudi women, who are currently not permitted to drive cars and who need a male relative's permission to travel abroad or attend university.
"I believe the day will come when women drive," he said. "In fact, if you look at the areas in Saudi Arabia, the deserts and in the rural areas, you will find that women do drive.
Driving licenses for women "will require patience. In time, I believe it will be possible," the king said in the ABC report, which was posted on the network's Web site." (See also: "Saudi King's Delicate Balancing Act" (ABC News, 2005/10/13))

"More Palestinians killed in internal strife this year" (Amos Harel, Haaretz, 2005/10/14)
"For the first time since the start of the intifada, more Palestinians have been killed in internal violence since the start of the year than those who have died in clashes with Israel, according to an official report published Thursday.
In the report, the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry cited 219 deaths as a result of inner-Palestinian violence compared to 218 deaths at the hands of Israeli security forces over the course of the first nine months of this year. The statistics reflect the relative calm in the territories vis-a-vis Israel as well as the increasing anarchy in PA-controlled areas.
The ministry, which oversees the PA's security services, argued that the data speaks to the dangers inherent in the deteriorating security situation within the PA. It called on all the factions within the PA to support efforts in enforcing the law."

"Some Sunnis Now Support Constitution, Splitting Opposition" (Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2005/10/14)
Iraq I: "Sunni Arab leaders who have endorsed the latest draft of the new constitution strongly defended their show of support on Thursday, saying recent compromises on the document will spur recalcitrant Sunnis to take part in coming elections.
They made their remarks a day after several prominent Sunni Arabs denounced the compromises, and right after a powerful hard-line Sunni group, the Muslim Scholars Association, urged Iraqis to vote "no."
Across Iraq, people are expected to walk by the thousands on Saturday to polling stations. Approval is considered an essential step in building a democracy here.
The American military and Iraqi security forces prepared to provide protection at polling centers, while the Ministry of Interior announced travel restrictions, including a 10 p.m. curfew, the closing of international land borders and the Baghdad airport from Friday to Sunday, and a ban on virtually all vehicle traffic on Saturday.
Prisoners in the two largest American-run detention centers, Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, were allowed to vote Thursday, but there was no immediate estimate on how many cast ballots.
Even with some Sunni Arab leaders calling for a "no" vote, it is highly unlikely that the constitution will be defeated. The draft can pass with a majority vote, unless two-thirds of voters in three provinces vote against it.
Newfound backing of the constitution by two prominent Sunni Arab groups, the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Sunni Endowment, will probably split the Sunni vote."

Thursday, October 13, 2005

News and commentary:

"Rebels Launch Attacks in Southern Russia" (Fatima Tlisova, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/13)
"NALCHIK, Russia - Scores of Islamic militants launched simultaneous attacks on police and government buildings in this city in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region Thursday, sparking battles that killed at least 49 people.
Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks, which forced the evacuation of schools and left corpses littering the streets of Nalchik, the capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkariya.
The Chechen rebels' decade-long struggle against Russia, originally a separatist movement, has melded increasingly with Islamic extremism in the past decade and spread far beyond Chechnya's borders to encompass the whole turbulent Russian Caucasus region.
President Vladimir Putin ordered a total blockade of Nalchik, a city of 235,000, to prevent militants from slipping out, and he said armed resisters would be shot, according to Russian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin.
Estimates of the number of militants involved ranged from 60 to 300. The attacks began with heavy arms fire and explosions, and sporadic shooting continued for four hours afterward.
Officials gave conflicting casualty figures, ranging from 49 to as many as 63.
Fyodor Shcherbakov, a spokesman for presidential envoy Dmitry Kozak, said 49 were killed — 25 rebels were killed, 12 police officers and 12 civilians. He said the number was constantly rising as bodies were being discovered. ...
Chekalin said Thursday's fighting began after police launched an operation to capture about 10 militants in a Nalchik suburb, and that the attacks were aimed at diverting police. All 10 suspected militants were killed, he said."

"And the Winner Is..." (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2005/10/13)
The everlasting myth about high suicide rates in Sweden is a little bit tiresome as it is easily dispelled by checking actual statistics. John R Chang sums it up: "You'll see that Sweden is #29 for males and #23 for females among reporting countries (and Sweden takes statistics rather seriously). In other words, Sweden's suicide rate is comparable to that of the United States and well under that of Russia, Sri Lanka, Estonia, Japan, France, etc.":
"Sweden has a reputation for a high suicide rate. But a psychological crackup striking an ordinary Scandinavian, brooding in the long, dark winter, is merely a personal tragedy. By contrast, the moral suicide of a whole institution, like the Swedish Academy -- which has responsibility for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature -- is messier and more disturbing.
Yet like a pack of lemmings drunk on home-made aquavit, the Stockholm snobs have continued their rush to fully discredit the literature Nobels, by selecting Harold Pinter as their 2005 laureate. Pinter is an exhausted English playwright whose sole and obvious current qualification for the prize is his strident participation in the America-baiting, Israel-hating protests against the liberation of Iraq. ...
Some in the media described Pinter's Nobel as "surprising," but the Swedes were actually reprising the scandal they perpetrated last year when they presented the award to an obscure Austrian pornographer, Elfriede Jelinek, whose only claim to fame was her production of a work attacking the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
That disgrace caused a rift within the Stockholm academy itself. This week Knut Ahnlund, a member of the once-august body, angrily announced his resignation, denouncing the Austrian termagant with the piquant argument that his fellow-academicians had not read any of her work at all.
But why should they have? She, like Harold Pinter, owes her Nobel to her posturing against American foreign policy. Jelinek herself has been quick to praise the Swedes for choosing another leftist as a recipient of the award.
Perhaps it is time to simply ignore, and forget, the Nobels." (See also: "Academy man quits over Nobel winner" (The Local, 2005/10/11))

More on Harold Pinter and Elfriede Jelinek:
"Nobel Savage" (Ruth Franklin, The New Republic, 2004/10/20)
"Oops . . . They Did It Again" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2004/10/08)
"Anti-war march: what the speakers said" (The Guardian, 2003/02/15)
"The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal" (Harold Pinter, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/12/11)
"We are not risking world war so women can show their ankles" (Barbara Amiel, The Daily Telegraph, 2001/12/03)

"Dutch unveil the toughest face in Europe with a ban on the burka" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2005/10/13)
"The Netherlands is likely to become the first country in Europe to ban the burka, under government proposals that would bring in some of the toughest curbs on Muslim clothing in the world.
The country’s hardline Integration Minister, Rita Verdonk, known as the Iron Lady for her series of tough anti-immigration measures, told Parliament that she was going to investigate where and when the burka should be banned. The burka, traditional clothing in some Islamic societies, covers a woman’s face and body, leaving only a strip of gauze for the eyes.
Mrs Verdonk gave warning that the “time of cosy tea-drinking” with Muslim groups had passed and that natives and immigrants should have the courage to be critical of each other. She recently cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman. ...
The Netherlands would become the first European country to ban the wearing of the burka in public situations, although there are already some local bans. Last year several Belgian towns, including Antwerp and Ghent, banned the wearing of the burka in public, and recently started issuing £100 spot fines for breaking the municipal ordinance. Several towns in Italy, including Como, have invoked legislation introduced by Mussolini that bans hiding one’s face in public to impose fines on burka-wearers. France and several regions of Germany have followed Turkey and Tunisia in banning the wearing of the hijab, which leaves the face visible, in public buildings, most controversially in schools."

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

News and commentary:

"Syria Says Minister Committed Suicide" (Donna Abu-Nasr, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/12)
"DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria's interior minister, who effectively controlled Lebanon for two decades, was found dead in his office Wednesday, days before the release of a U.N. report that could implicate high-ranking officials in the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister.
The Syrian government called the death of Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan a suicide, but opponents claimed it could be a murder to cover up top-level involvement.
The news of Kenaan's death shocked Syrians, and the government felt compelled to stress it would not affect the country's political stability.
Kenaan, who was Syria's intelligence chief in Beirut for 20 years, was one of at least seven Syrians recently questioned by a U.N. team investigating the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. ...
Dennis Ross, a former U.S. Mideast mediator, said if the U.N. report does point to Syrian involvement, it likely would revolve around Kenaan because of his prominent position.
"I don't believe it was a suicide," Ross said. "The timing is extraordinarily coincidental. It certainly would look as if someone was trying to create the impression the person responsible for (the Hariri murder) is dead."
Kenaan, 63, committed suicide in his office, according to the official SANA news agency, the first to break the news — a sign that authorities in Damascus, who tightly control the media, wanted it out.
Hours before he died, Kenaan told a Lebanese radio station: 'I believe this is the last statement that I can make.'"

"Zarqawi's Losing Strategy" (Austin Bay, RealClearPolitics, 2005/10/12)
"When Al-Qaida's zealots blow up trains in Spain or subways in London, those are attacks of their choosing conducted on "infidel terrain." The genius of the war in Iraq is a brutal but necessary form of strategic judo: It brought the War on Terror into the heart of the Middle East and onto Arab Muslim turf. In Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's theo-fascists have been spilling Arab blood, and Al Jazeera has noticed that, too.
Arabs have also seen the Iraqi people's struggle and their emerging political alternative to despotism and feudal autocracy.
Zarqawi's murder spree has revealed fissures among Al-Qaida fanatics. Last week, the United States released a letter coalition intelligence believes Al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent to Zarqawi. Zawahiri describes Iraq as "the greatest battle for Islam in our era." But Iraq has become a political and information battle that Zawahiri realizes Al-Qaida may be losing. According to The New York Times, Zawahiri told Zarqawi to attack Americans rather than Iraqi civilians and to "refrain from the kind of gruesome beheadings and other executions that have been posted on Al-Qaida websites. Those executions have been condemned in parts of the Muslim world as violating tenets of the faith."
In February 2004, Zarqawi acknowledged a democratic Iraqi state would mean defeat for Al-Qaida in Iraq. To defeat democracy, he has pursued a strategy of relentless, nihilistic bloodbath. It's a brutal irony of war: In doing so, he is losing the war for the hearts and minds." (See also: "Terminal Debate" (Bernard Haykel, The New York Times, 2005/10/11))

"al-Qaeda No. 2: U.S. 'ran' from Vietnam" (AP/USA Today, 2005/10/12)
"In a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader said the United States "ran and left their agents" in Vietnam and the jihadists must have a plan ready to fill the void if the Americans suddenly leave Iraq.
"Things may develop faster than we imagine," Ayman al-Zawahri wrote in a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam — and how they ran and left their agents — is noteworthy. ... We must be ready starting now." ...
The letter laid out his long-term plan: expel the Americans from Iraq, establish an Islamic authority and take the war to Iraq's secular neighbors, including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
The final stage, al-Zawahri wrote, would be a clash with Israel, which he said was established to challenge "any new Islamic entity."
The letter is dated July 9, and was acquired during U.S. operations in Iraq. It was written in Arabic and translated by the U.S. government. The Pentagon briefed reporters last week on portions of the document, but the full text was not available until Tuesday. ...
"More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media," he wrote. "We are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of our umma," or community of Muslims, he wrote.
The line is an apparent reference to a phrase — "hearts and minds" — often used by President Bush." (See also: "Letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi" (dni.gov, 2005/10/11))

"N.Y. Threat May Have Been a Hoax" (Dan Eggen and Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post, 2005/10/12)
"The alleged threat that led to heightened security on New York subways last week may have been a hoax on the part of an Iraqi informant attempting to get money in exchange for information, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials said yesterday.
The informant has since disappeared in Iraq, and the Defense Department has not been able to locate him, city and federal officials said.
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg described the informant's claims last week as the "most specific threat" ever received against the city's transit system, leading officials to issue a heightened terrorist alert and blanket the subways with police and National Guard troops.
U.S. troops in Iraq captured three suspects south of Baghdad who the informant said were involved in the alleged plot.
But none of the suspects, including two who were given polygraph examinations, corroborated the informant's allegations or appeared to have any connection to a terrorist plot, according to intelligence officials."

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

News and commentary:

"Ex-French U.N. Diplomat Taken Into Custody" (Pierre-Antoine Souchard, AP/The Guardian, 2005/10/11)
"PARIS (AP) - France's former U.N. ambassador has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program, judicial officials said Tuesday.
Jean-Bernard Merimee, 68, who also was ambassador to Italy from 1995-98 and to Australia in the 1980s, is suspected of having received kickbacks in the form of oil allocations from the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He was also a special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2002.
Merimee was taken into custody on Monday, and is expected to be presented Wednesday to the judge leading the probe, the officials said on condition of anonymity because French law does not allow disclosure of information from judicial investigations.
Merimee was France's permanent representative to the U.N. from 1991-95. He was one of the world body's most prominent diplomats, in part because France occupies one of five permanent seats on the powerful U.N. Security Council."

"Moore Award Nominee" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2005/10/11)
"'Gary Kamiya writes, 'In a just world, Bush, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Feith and their underlings would be standing before a Senate committee investigating their catastrophic failures, and Packer's book would be Exhibit A.' No. In a just world, these people would be taken out and shot.' - Jane Smiley, far-left author. What I find revealing about this remark is how it exposes what Orwell saw in the fanatical part of the left. Notice that, for Smiley, there is no concern for, say, Bush, Wolfowitz et al, being given a fair trial in a "just world." Her leftwing vision of justice is that they should "be taken out and shot." No wonder she wanted to keep Saddam in power. The two think uncannily alike." (See also: "Letters" (Salon.com, 2005/10/11). Also: "The Unteachable Ignorance of the Red States" (Jane Smiley, Slate, 2004/11/04))

"Iraqis Reach Breakthrough Deal on Charter" (Lee Keath, AP/My Way, 2005/10/11)
"Iraqi negotiators reached a breakthrough deal on the constitution Tuesday, and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would now urge its followers to approve the charter in this weekend's referendum. Suicide bombings and other attacks killed more than 50 people in the insurgent campaign aimed at intimidating voters.
Under the deal, the two sides agreed on a mechanism to consider amending the constitution after it is approved in Saturday's referendum. The next parliament, to be formed in December, will set up a commission to consider amendments, which would later have to be approved by parliament and submitted to a referendum.
The agreement boosts the chances that the draft constitution will be passed in Saturday's nationwide vote. Shiite and Kurdish leaders support the draft and the United States has been eager to see it approved to avert months more of political turmoil, delaying plans to start a withdrawal of U.S. forces. ...
Tuesday's deadliest attack came when a suicide bomber plowed his explosives-packed vehicle into a crowded outdoor market in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, killing 30 Iraqi civilians and wounding 45, said Brig. Najim Abdullah, Tal Afar's police chief."

"Bush Declares War on Radical Islam" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2005/10/11)
"But the third era [in the "war on terror"] truly began on October 6 with Mr. Bush's speech to the National Endowment for Democracy. He not only gave several names to the force behind terrorism ("Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism"), but he provided ample details. In particular, he:

• Presented this "murderous ideology" of Islamic radicals "the great challenge of our new century."
• Distinguished it from the religion of Islam.
• Drew parallels between radical Islam and communism (both are elitist, cold-blooded, totalitarian, disdainful of free peoples, and fatefully contradictory), then noted in how many ways the U.S. war on radical Islam "resembles the struggle against communism in the last century."
• Pointed out the three-step Islamist drive to power: ending Western influence in the Muslim world, gaining control of Muslim governments, and establishing "a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia."
• Explained the "violent, political vision" of radical Islam as comprising an agenda "to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation."
• Defined its ultimate goal: "to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world."
• Observed that Muslims themselves have the burden of doing the "most vital work" to fight Islamism.
• Called on "all responsible Islamic leaders to join in denouncing" this ideology and taking steps against it.

The detailed texture of Mr. Bush's speech transforms the official American understanding of who the enemy is, moving it from the superficial and inadequate notion of "terrorism" to the far deeper concept of "Islamic radicalism." This change has potentially enduring importance if finally, 26 years later, it convinces polite society to name the enemy." (See also: "President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy" (The White House, 2005/10/06))

"Why is Bush's Christianity so risible..." (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/11)
"Of all the total non-stories reported by the British media since 9/11 - the brutal Afghan winter, the non-existent Jenin massacre - has there ever been a bigger waste of space than the column inches devoted to "Bush: God Told Me to Invade Iraq"? That was the Independent's headline. The Guardian, like the Indy, led with a front-page picture of the President aglow in his own personal halo, but preferred the caption: "George Bush believes he is on a mission from God." And my old comrade Mark Lawson piled on with a full columnar sneer at the President's "Manichean convictions".
The source for this story was essentially a BBC press release for a forthcoming documentary. Nabil Shaath, the so-called Palestinian "foreign minister", told them (the BBC) that Bush told him (Shaath) that God told him (Bush) to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House said this was "absurd" and the only other Palestinian present at that meeting, Mahmoud Abbas, has denied Shaath's account of the conversation. As evidence of Bush's "Manichean convictions", the whole thing's a lot of Manichean piss, as the Belgians would say. ...
Why is George W. Bush's utterly unremarkable evangelical Christianity so self-evidently risible but complaints from British Muslims hung up over the 11th century are perfectly reasonable and something we should seek to accommodate? Where is the secular Left's "insensitivity" when you need it?" (See also: "True Believers" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/08))

"Not more radical than John Pilger" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/11)
"US-born Muslim leader Sheik Khalid Yasin, currently raising funds to open an Islamic television network in Australia, offers his intriguing views on:
MULTICULTURALISM: “How can you put a sacred trust in the hands of a non-Muslim? There’s no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend.”
FASHION: “If you prefer the clothing of the kafirs over the clothing of the Muslims, most of those names that’s on most of those clothings is faggots, homosexuals and lesbians.”
SEPTEMBER 11: “We now know that the way that the World Trade Center fell the way that those buildings fell — they fell from internal explosive charges, the same way it’s done in a construction site.”
AIDS: “An AIDS virus, that is a classic disease that was created in Fort McKinley, United States. Fort McKinley, the AIDS virus, 63,000 gallons ... Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus.”
HIMSELF: 'Some people characterise me as a radical cleric. I’m not more radical than Mahatma Gandhi or John Pilger or Jesus Christ.'" (See also: "Khalid Yasin: The new voice of Islam?" (ninemsn, 2005/10/09))

"Terminal Debate" (Bernard Haykel, The New York Times, 2005/10/11)
"When Iraq's most notorious terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared a "full-scale war" on Iraq's Shiites on Sept. 14, he appeared to be speaking for all or most jihadis. But Mr. Zarqawi's war on Shiites is deeply unpopular in some quarters of his own movement. In fact, growing splits among jihadis are beginning to undermine the theological and legal justifications for suicide bombing. And as that emerging schism takes its toll on the jihadi movement, it could well present an opportunity for Western governments to combat jihadism itself.
The simple fact is that many jihadis believe the war in Iraq is not going well. Too many Muslims are being killed. Images of that slaughter, conveyed by satellite television and the Internet throughout the Muslim world, are eroding global support for the jihadi cause. ...
By employing extreme tactics, the jihadis have laid bare the contradictions within their own movement. Their internal debates about suicide tactics are a sign of weakness - and of the fraying of the consensus Al Qaeda so carefully built over the last decade."

"Islamic law still applies in Sudan" (Tanalee Smith, AP/The Washington Times, 2005/10/11)
"JOBORONA, Sudan -- Having just ended a 21-year civil war that divided Muslims and Christians, Sudan has a new government and a new interim constitution guaranteeing religious freedom. But for Marko Mayoren, the new deal exists largely on paper.
"Forty-five lashes for being drunk," the man said bitterly, raising his shirt to show crisscrossed wounds on his stomach, some still red and tender.
Mr. Mayoren, 50, had been released a day earlier after a night in jail and a brief trial that convicted him of breaking Islamic law by drinking alcohol.
The new constitution took effect in July, promising less stringent application of the rules on alcohol and women's dress.
But Mr. Mayoren said he was taken to a veranda of the Muslim Court of Conduct and lashed front and back with a leather whip, then ordered to pay a fine of about $20.
Mr. Mayoren's comrades swapped nearly identical stories as they sat on low stools and dipped a wooden bowl into a bucket of a fermented orange drink called, for reasons unknown, 'Internet.'"

Monday, October 10, 2005

News and commentary:

"Arab League Delegation Attacked in Iraq" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/10)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen opened fire Monday on a convoy of cars carrying members of an Arab League delegation that is visiting Iraq, but no one was hurt, police said.
The gunmen, traveling in four vehicles, pulled alongside the convoy of the 10-member Arab League delegation on a highway in Baghdad and started shooting, said police Maj. Mousa Abdul-Karem. The convoy was driving toward a western neighborhood of Baghdad for a meeting with the Muslim Scholars Association, an Arab Sunni Muslim group.
The Arab League delegation arrived last weekend to lay the groundwork for an Iraqi "reconciliation conference" it hopes to hold after Saturday's constitutional referendum. It was the first time the pan-Arab organization has tried to take a direct role in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
It was not immediately clear who launched the attack, but Sunni-led insurgent groups have killed several hundred Iraqis in the last two weeks with drive-by shootings, suicide car bombs and roadside explosives aimed at wrecking the constitutional referendum."

"Homegrown Islamic Terrorists" (Lee Kuan Yew, Forbes, from the 2005/10/17 issue)
"If terrorists succeed in forcing the U.S. and its allies out of Iraq, the jihadists will be triumphant and terrorism will spread worldwide. Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's objective is not to get Americans out of Iraq but to control Saudi Arabia and its oil--and after that, the world.
The insurgency in Iraq can and will be defeated by Iraqis, not by Americans. After a government is installed following the second election, American forces will be able to progressively step back. It's in the Sunni population's best interest to participate in the next elections, whether or not they approve the constitution. If they reject participating in the government, a nasty civil war could well result, with Iraqi Sunnis killing Iraqi Shiites and Kurds. But however many Iraqis are killed, the Shiites and Kurds will never yield their hold on power. They have the will and the numbers, as well as the wherewithal that the U.S. can provide, to prevail. ...
In Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Iraq, Muslims will be forced to confront the Islamists or witness their governments being overthrown and their people dragged back into a feudal past, just as the Taliban did in Afghanistan.
This surge in Islamist terrorism will take years to tamp down. In the meantime the world is at risk of these terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Were that to happen, the slaughter would be horrendous. The nuclear programs of rogue states, therefore, must be stopped and their stockpiles of weapons and matériel confiscated."

"Iraq's message to Mr Blair: we still need the troops that saved us from tyranny" (Jalal Talabani, The Times, 2005/10/10)
"The stone throwers of Basra do not speak for the 8.5 million Iraqis who defied terrorist violence to vote on January 30, 2005. Nor do they speak for the vast majority of Iraqis whose democratically chosen representatives negotiated a final constitution in record time. That constitution reflects the realities of today’s Iraq and is, like the March 2004 interim charter, a remarkably progressive document. No constitution elsewhere in the Islamic Middle East is as democratic.
Similarly, those who attack mosques and churches, who murder schoolchildren and labourers, who behead foreigners and who kidnap humanitarian workers are not engaged in “resistance”. Those sabotaging Iraq’s first democracy bear no resemblance to the resistors of foreign occupation in wartime Europe. Rather, they are, in their ideology and record, contemporary representatives of the fascism that wreaked such havoc 60 years ago in Europe. They are supremacists and racists, as worthy of our contempt as those who practised apartheid in South Africa. ...
Building democracy in Iraq is not a fanciful quest, but a recognition that all other approaches have failed. True stability comes from consent, not from the illusory “stability” of dictatorships. It is therefore in our mutual interest that we pursue the cause of democracy. We may falter, we may tire, but if we persevere, we shall not be defeated."

"Iraqis' Broken Dreams" (Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, 2005/10/10)
"Three years ago Kanan Makiya and Rend Rahim were among the most persuasive advocates of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Both liberal Iraqi intellectuals and eloquent English speakers, they made the case that Saddam Hussein's removal was a cause to be embraced on moral and human rights grounds, and that its result could be the replacement of the Arab world's most brutal dictatorship by its first genuine democracy. ...
That's why it was so sobering to encounter Makiya and Rahim again last week -- and to hear them speak with brutal honesty about their "dashed hopes and broken dreams," as Makiya put it. The occasion was a conference on Iraq sponsored by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, which did so much to lay the intellectual groundwork for the war. A similar AEI conference three years ago this month resounded with upbeat predictions about the democratic, federal and liberal Iraq that could follow Saddam Hussein. This one, led off by Makiya and Rahim, sounded a lot like its funeral.
Makiya began with a stark conclusion: "Instead of the fledgling democracy that back then we said was possible, instead of that dream, we have the reality of a virulent insurgency whose efficiency is only rivaled by the barbarous tactics it uses." The violence, he said, 'is destroying the very idea or the very possibility of Iraq.'"

"Belgium Is Trying to Unravel the Threads of a Terror Web" (Elaine Sciolino and Hélène Fouquet, The New York Times, 2005/10/10)
"Despite a well-integrated Moroccan immigrant population that has lived and worked in Belgium for more than half a century, the country has become the destination of choice for many French-speaking immigrants who are put off by France's intrusive security and intelligence services and tougher laws. ...
Particularly distressing for Belgian investigators is that four of those standing trial were born and reared in Maaseik, a 13th-century Flemish town of 24,000 on Belgium's eastern border with the Netherlands, where they were also arrested.
A small Moroccan population has lived here since the 1950's, when the region needed low-cost workers for the coal mines, now defunct.
Maaseik has no slums. Even the poorest part of town, branded "Little Chicago" by some of the Flemish inhabitants, has clean streets and flower boxes in the windows.
The first visible sign of Islamic radicalization came in the past few years, when a handful of Muslim women began appearing in public with their faces veiled in black.
"I started receiving phone calls from the people of the city," recalled Maaseik's mayor, Jan Creemers. ''There is something bizarre happening here, we see strange veiled women,' they said. Mainly old ladies calling me, terrified, saying they were sitting on a bench, and when they turned around they all of a sudden saw these strange figures appearing all in black. They almost had heart attacks.'"

"Ten arrested in raids against groups linked to al-Zarqawi" (Daniel McGrory and Stewart Tendler, The Times, 2005/10/10)
"Islamic terrorist suspects arrested in a series of raids at the weekend are believed to be members of a group recruiting young Muslims in Britain to fight coalition troops in Iraq.
The men, most of whom are thought to be Iraqi refugees living in the UK, are suspected of having ties to a group linked to alQaeda. The group is reported to have been plotting a wave of car bomb attacks across Britain and Europe.
The arrests follow concern at the increasing numbers of “jihadis” who are being sent from Britain to join insurgent groups abroad. ...
More than 50 UK based extremists are estimated to have been killed in eight countries, which experts say is more than from the rest of the countries of western Europe put together. This number does not include the four British-born suicide bombers who died in the July 7 attacks in London. At least another ten men from here were ready to die in terror operations but have been either arrested or their attacks failed."

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

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

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

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

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

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