Archived
news and commentary: October 24 - 30, 2005
2005/10/24 - 2005/10/30
2005/10/17 - 2005/10/23
2005/10/10 - 2005/10/16
2005/10/03 - 2005/10/09
2005/09/26 - 2005/10/02
2005/09/19 - 2005/09/25
Sunday,
October 30, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Their Highbrow Hatred of Us" (James Traub, The New York Times Magazine, 2005/10/30)
"When the British playwright Harold Pinter was interviewed after learning earlier this month that he won the Nobel Prize for literature, he said that he might well use his acceptance speech in December to "address the state of the world." This could prove to be quite a revelation for Pinter's American admirers, who tend to know much less about his politics than Europeans do. Still, they need only go to Pinter's own Web site to learn that the author of "The Birthday Party" and "The Homecoming" views the United States as a moral monster bent on world domination. ...
But whatever the intention, the Swedes have given Pinter the most prestigious of platforms from which to broadcast his worldview - a view that has become common currency, albeit in somewhat less toxic form, in the highest reaches of European culture.
Pinter's politics are so extreme that they're almost impossible to parody. "Mr. Bush and his gang," he said in a speech as the war in Iraq approached, "are determined, quite simply, to control the world and the world's resources. And they don't give a damn how many people they murder on the way." ...
These views are hardly unfamiliar in the United States; you can hear them on any major university campus. Among public intellectuals or literary figures, however, it is hard to think of anyone save Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal who would not choke on Pinter's bile. But the situation is very different throughout Europe, where the anti-American left is far more intellectually respectable. In the Anglophone world of letters, John le Carré holds opinions similar to Pinter's, as do the essayist Tariq Ali and the novelist Arundhati Roy. These last two publicly root for the Iraqi "resistance" against the infernal machinery of American empire.""The Real Sunnis: Please Stand Up" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2005/10/30)
"In any case, it has never been easy to believe that Sunnis can be reconciled, in any numbers, to majority rule. That would turn history upside down, shifting power and wealth from the Sunni elite who have held sway here for centuries, representing about 20 percent of Iraq's current population, to the Shiites, who constitute about 60 percent. A common test is to ask Sunnis whether they will accept Shiite majority rule. Sunni politicians, like ordinary Sunnis, are generally evasive. Some say it will never come to that, because secular politics uniting Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds will prevail; most, employing an expedient arithmetic of their own devising, say that a Shiite majority is a demographic myth, so the issue doesn't arise.
More ominous is the common Sunni attitude toward Mr. Hussein, perhaps the surest bellwether of political attitudes. Outside the band of returned exiles like Mr. Pachachi, finding a Sunni in Iraq who will condemn him without equivocation, or acknowledge the mass killings committed under his rule, is rare. Like Serbs during Bosnia's ethnic cleansing, most Sunnis appear to have wiped their consciousness clean of all knowledge of the industrial-scale brutality, and to see the ousted dictator as a strongman who killed only rarely and reluctantly, to guard the nation from its enemies.
The 300 mass graves discovered since the 2003 invasion, many Sunnis say, are an American invention or the work of Shiite or Iranian bloodletters; the chemical weapons attacks that killed 150,000 Kurds, the work of the Iranian ayatollahs; the paralyzing fear among Iraqis under Mr. Hussein, a figment of Westerners' biased imaginations.""Iran’s zealot in chief does Bush a favour" (Tony Allen-Mills and Ramita Navai, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/30)
A rather remarkable example of moral equivalance . The whole central part of the article is dedicated to the "startling" and "remarkable parallels" between George W. Bush and Ahmadinejad. This is only half of it:
"The early conclusions are startling. Although there could scarcely be two more different political capitals than Washington and Tehran, regional experts have found remarkable parallels in the careers of the Iranian and American presidents. Were it not for their different languages and family backgrounds, Bush and Ahmadinejad might be political “soulmates”, according to Juan Cole, a Middle East historian at the University of Michigan.
Both men relied on right-wing religious forces for their recent election success. Both campaigned as comparative “outsiders”, denouncing their respective political establishments. Bush first ran for president as governor of Texas and frequently criticised Washington insiders; Ahmadinejad ran as mayor of Tehran denouncing central government corruption.
Both men have exploited their personal piety — Bush with evangelical Christians and Ahmadinejad with fundamentalist Muslims. And both see themselves not as intellectual policy makers but as down-to-earth problem solvers."
Saturday,
October 29, 2005
News and
commentary:
"An injured person sits in a hospital..."
(Manish Swarup, AP, 2005/10/29)
"An injured person sits in a hospital in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005."
"Bloodstains are seen at the site..."
(Manish Swarup, AP, 2005/10/29)
"Bloodstains are seen at the site of an explosion in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005. A series of explosions shook the city on Saturday evening, with blasts tearing through markets jammed with shoppers ahead of an upcoming Hindu festival, officials said.""3 New Delhi Explosions Kill at Least 49" (Matthew Rosenberg, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/29)
"NEW DELHI - Near-simultaneous explosions rocked the Indian capital Saturday evening, tearing through a bus and two markets crowded with people shopping for gifts for a Hindu festival. At least 49 people were killed and dozens wounded in the blasts, which the government blamed on terrorists. ...
The first explosion hit New Delhi's main Paharganj market, leaving behind bloodstained streets and mangled stalls of wood and twisted metal. Within minutes came an explosion at the popular Sarojini Nagar market and the bus blast in the Govindpuri neighborhood. Police said at least 60 people were wounded in the first blast and dozens in the other two.
The attacks targeted the many people shopping just days before the festival of Diwali, a major Hindu holiday during which families exchange gifts, light candles and celebrate with fireworks. The markets where the blasts occurred often sell fireworks that are elaborate and potentially dangerous.
"When I got up, there were people everywhere — they were bleeding and screaming," said Anil Gupta about 45 minutes after the blast as he sifted through the wreckage of his jewelry store. Scattered around his feet were bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil urged people to stay off the streets. "I appeal to you. Please disperse from the markets and go back to your families," he said in a televised address.
Patil said 39 people were killed in Sarojini Nagar, popular shopping district in southern part of the city filled with everything from knockoff designer clothing to kitchen crockery.""Christian girls beheaded in grisly Indonesian attack" (AP/The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005/10/29)
"Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack on Saturday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.
The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said.
The area is close to the provincial capital of Poso, about 1000 kilometres northeast of Jakarta.
Naldo said the heads of the three dead victims were found several kilometres from their bodies.
In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the police to begin a hunt for the killers.
"In the holy month of Ramadan, we are again shocked by a sadistic crime in Poso that claimed the lives of three school students," he told reporters at the airport as he prepared to fly to Sumatra island." (See also Dog Pundit, for gruesome images and more information.)
"French youth face riot police..."
(Reuters, 2005/10/29)
"French youth face riot police in the Paris suburb of Clichy, October 29, 2005. Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze on Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers were electrocuted while fleeing police."
"A van burns..."
(Reuters, 2005/10/29)
"A van burns after clashes between French youth and riot police in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Octrober 29, 2005.""Youths riot for second night in Paris suburb" (Laure Bretton, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/29)
PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a Paris suburb on Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers were electrocuted while fleeing police.
The teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they ran away from police investigating a break-in, media reported.
Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said. ...
Television pictures showed youths lobbing stones at police officers while cars burned on the streets of the suburb. Police in riot gear chased some youths down an alleyway.
Around 19 people were detained and 15 police officers and one journalist injured, police said. They were unable to give figures for the number of protesters hurt.
An officer from police trade union Action Police CFTC called for help from the army to support police officers.
"There's a civil war under way in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris from Action Police CFTC, said. 'My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical nor theoretical training for street fighting.'""Iran Rejects Derision of Leader's Remarks" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/29)
"Iran hit back at the U.N. Security Council on Saturday after the world body condemned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be destroyed.
The Security Council issued a statement Friday reminding Iran that, according to the U.N. charter, member states must refrain from threatening to use force against each other.
"The statement by the president of the U.N. Security Council was proposed by the Zionist regime to close the eyes to its crimes and to change the facts, therefore it is not acceptable," Iran's Foreign Ministry said.
"Iran is loyal to its commitments based on the U.N. charter and it has never used or threatened to use force against any country," the ministry added.
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad demanded the Jewish state be "wiped off the map" and defended the call Friday during nationwide protests. His comments drew international criticism from Russia to Chile.""Return to hard rhetoric dashes hope of end to crisis" (Tim Butcher, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/29)
"Iran was on a collision course with the West yesterday as its president defied a diplomatic onslaught led by Washington and London to withdraw his calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supported by more than a million of his countrymen attending annual anti-Israel protest rallies in all major cities across Iran, said he stood by his remarks.
The president marched alongside a mob of noisy students in Teheran waving placards carrying the exact words he used at an anti-Zionism rally earlier this week, and mocked Israel's strongest supporter, the United States.
"They become upset when they hear any voice of truth-seeking, " he said. "They think they are the absolute rulers of the world."
By returning so bluntly to the old anti-Israel rhetoric common during Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979, the president has radically changed Iran's relations with the West.
After a decade when most observers believed that the Islamic Republic had become more modern, Mr Ahmadinejad has taken a more hardline position.
With Iran continuing work on its nuclear programme, it is a change of policy with potentially enormous implications. ...
So far Iran's belligerence appears to have wrong-footed the West, with no obvious international support for Tony Blair's veiled warning that force could be used against Iran.
While European and western nations have condemned the Iranian president's remarks, the Arab and Muslim world has been largely silent.""Terror cell 'smuggled missiles into Europe'" (Henry Samuel, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/29)
"An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports, it was claimed yesterday.
French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted in Le Figaro.
Both missiles and several of the extremists are reportedly still at large.
French anti-terrorism investigators learned of the missile terror plan while interrogating a Jordanian al-Qa'eda operative close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the Islamic terror group in Iraq. ...
According to Abu Atiya, one such group, the so-called "Chechen network", returned to France with the missiles and chemical and biological agents such as botulin, ricin and cyanide.
Some of its members had allegedly been involved in a plan to explode a bomb during a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000.
Others were linked to a conspiracy to blow up Los Angeles airport in 1999.
In 2002 the group wavered between attacking a symbolic target such as Russia's embassy in Paris, to punish its Chechen policies, or a higher profile location, such as the Eiffel Tower.
Before homing in on a preferred target, most of the group was arrested in a swoop by the French terrorist brigade, the DST, in two Paris suburbs late in 2002. But some escaped."
Friday,
October 28, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Down With Israel"
(Behrouz Mehri, AFP, 2005/10/28)
"An Iranian woman passes by an anti-Israel poster in Tehran. The UN Security Council condemned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comment that Israel should be 'wiped off the map,' a move immediately welcomed by the Israeli ambassador.""Iranian President at Tehran Conference: 'Very Soon, This Stain of Disgrace [i.e. Israel] Will Vanish from the Center of the Islamic World - and This is Attainable'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1013, 2005/10/28)
Iran V. "The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), published the full text of Ahmadinejad's speech. The following is a translation of excerpts from ISNA's report and from the speech.":
"Ahmadinejad articulated the real meaning of Zionism: '...We must see what the real story of Palestine is... The establishment of the regime that is occupying Jerusalem was a very grave move by the hegemonic and arrogant system [i.e. the West] against the Islamic world. We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [i.e. the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years. ...
This occupying country [i.e. Israel] is in fact a front of the World of Arrogance in the heart of the Islamic world. They have in fact built a bastion [Israel] from which they can expand their rule to the entire Islamic world... This means that the current war in Palestine is the front line of the Islamic world against the World of Arrogance, and will determine the fate of Palestine for centuries to come. ...
Imam [Khomeini] said: 'This regime that is occupying Qods [ Jerusalem ] must be eliminated from the pages of history.' This sentence is very wise. The issue of Palestine is not an issue on which we can compromise. ...
I do not doubt that the new wave which has begun in our dear Palestine and which today we are also witnessing in the Islamic world is a wave of morality which has spread all over the Islamic world. Very soon, this stain of disgrace [i.e. Israel] will vanish from the center of the Islamic world – and this is attainable. ...
Oh dear people, look at this global arena. By whom are we confronted? We must understand the depth of the disgrace imposed on us by the enemy, until our holy hatred expands continuously and strikes like a wave.'""U.N. Council condemns Iran over insults to Israel" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/28)
Iran IV: "UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned a call by Iran's president to "wipe Israel off the map" and said all U.N. members should refrain from threatening or using force against another country.
But the condemnation, endorsed by all 15 council members, was delivered in the form of a press statement -- rather than at a formal council meeting, which would give it more weight. Algeria, the only Arab council member, objected to the open meeting.
"The members of the Security Council condemn the remarks about Israel attributed to H.E. Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic republic of Iran," said Mihnea Motoc, Romania's ambassador and current council president.""Iranian president stands by 'just' Israel remark" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/28)
Iran III: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed international condemnation of his call for Israel to be "wiped off the map" as tens of thousands of Iranians massed to condemn the Jewish state.
"They are free to talk but their words do not have any validity. It is natural that if a word is right and just it will provoke a reaction," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA Thursday.
The hardline president went on to criticise "international Zionism and the expansionist policies of the world arrogance" -- terminology usually used to refer to the United States and Israel.
"They are cheeky humans, and they think that the entire world should obey them. They destroy Palestinian families and expect nobody to object to them," Ahmadinejad said, asserting his comments "are the exact words of the Iranian people." ...
But Iran, which insists its nuclear intentions are peaceful, remains unapologetic -- and banners saying "Israel must be wiped off the map" were also seen outside Tehran University.
Other slogans used included "Peaceful nuclear energy is our legitimate right" and "The only way to combat the Zionist enemy is resistance and Jihad". ...
One Shiite clergyman taking part, Mehdi Abu Talebi, told AFP that the real issue was that of "the genocide of the Palestinians" -- adding that he was also sure that the holocaust under Germany's Nazi regime never even happened.
Revolutionary Guards spokesman Seyed Massoud Jazihiri has also backed Ahmadinejad by describing Israel as a 'cancerous tumour.'""Top Cheney aide indicted in CIA leak probe" (Adam Entous and James Vicini, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/28)
"Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, was indicted on Friday for obstructing justice, perjury and lying after a two-year CIA leak investigation, dealing a damaging blow to the beleaguered White House.
Libby, who could face up to 30 years in prison, resigned minutes after the indictment was filed in a case that has put a spotlight on how the administration sold the nation on the war in Iraq and countered its critics. In a statement, Cheney said Libby would "fight the charges brought against him."
President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not indicted along with Libby, but special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has made clear to Rove he remains under investigation and in legal jeopardy, lawyers said.
"It's not over," Fitzgerald told a news conference.
Bush said the investigation and legal proceedings were "serious and now the process moves into a new phase."
"I am confident that at the end of this process I will be completely and totally exonerated," Libby said in a statement."
"Iranian school boys attend an anti-Israeli rally..."
(Vahid Salemi, AP, 2005/10/28)
"Iranian school boys attend an anti-Israeli rally marking 'Al-Quds Day' (Jerusalem Day), to support the Palestinian cause, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Oct. 28, 2005. Tens of thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country Friday and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president who repeated the words of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, by saying: 'Israel must be wiped off the map.'""Iranians Stage Anti-Israel Protests" (Ali Akbar Dareini, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/28)
Iran II: "TEHRAN, Iran - Tens of thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country on Friday, repeating calls by their ultraconservative president for the Jewish state's destruction.
World leaders have condemned Wednesday's remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who repeated the words of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, by saying: "Israel must be wiped off the map." ...
Iranians staged multiple demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, and other cities such as Mashad in Iran's east, holding banners carrying anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans. "Death to Israel, death to America," read many of the placards.
The demonstrations are part of the annual al-Quds — Jerusalem — Day protests, which were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.
The state-organized rallies are expected to grow ahead of midday mosque sermons across Iran. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have attended previous protests.
Late Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the massive demonstrations would illustrate the anger of the Islamic world over the Jewish state's existence.
"The comments expressed by the president is the declared and specific policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Mottaki told state-run television.""Arab States Mum on Iran's Israel Remarks" (Arthur Max, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/28)
Iran I: "Arab governments remained silent Thursday as international condemnation grew over a call by Iran's new president for Israel to be destroyed. ...
European governments condemned Ahmadinejad's comments, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair saying they increased concerns the clerical regime is a threat to global security and may even trigger pleas for pre-emptive action against Iran.
"I have never come across a situation (with) the president of a country saying they want to wipe out" another nation, Blair told reporters Thursday. ...
In contrast, newspapers across the Middle East reported Wednesday's speech by Ahmadinejad without comment, many of them on their front pages.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry and Cabinet officials said Cairo would have nothing to say on the address.
Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher also declined comment, apparently to avoid further aggravating relations with Iran, which the kingdom has accused of interfering in Iraq to strengthen the Shiite influence in the Middle East." (See also: "Iran Leader Calls for Israel's Destruction" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/26))"UN team links more oil cash to Galloway wife's bank account" (James Bone, The Times, 2005/10/28)
"George Galloway faced new questions last night after a UN inquiry tracked additional payments of Iraqi oil money into his wife’s bank account.
Days after a US Senate committee tracked a $150,000 (£84,000) payment to the MP’s now estranged Palestinian wife, the UN inquiry reported that Amina Naji Abu Zayyad had earlier received a series of transfers totalling $120,000. ...
The new details of Mr Galloway’s alleged involvement in the oil-for-food scandal were contained in a 620-page report issued at the end of an 18-month UN inquiry by a panel led by Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
The report also contained details of an unexplained payment of 20,000 Swiss francs (£8,800) to the son of Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary- General. And Jean-Bernard Merimée, France’s former UN Ambassador, admitted receiving $165,725 in commissions on an Iraqi oil sale in January 2002 while serving as a special adviser to Mr Annan. ...
The Volcker report cited Iraqi Oil Ministry records showing that Mr Galloway received allocations of million of barrels of oil to support the Mariam Appeal. Allocations of more than 18 million barrels went to Mr Galloway directly or indirectly through his Jordanian friend Fawaz Zureikat, the report says. Mr Zureikat paid $434,000 to the Mariam Appeal." (See also the report: "Report on the Manipulation of the Oil-for-Food Programme" (The Independent Inquiry Committee, 2005/10/27))Added in archive:
"The demons of Europe" (Josef Joffe, Commentary/likud.nl, from the January 2004 issue)
Thursday,
October 27, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Key Findings From U.N. Oil-For-Food Probe" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/27)
"The Independent Inquiry Committee issued a 623-page final report on corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program. Here is a look at its key findings.
• More than 2,200 of the 4,500 companies that participated in the program paid kickbacks or illegal fees to Saddam Hussein's regime, earning him $1.8 billion.
• Some 18 million barrels of oil were allocated for British lawmaker George Galloway, an outspoken opponent of U.N. sanctions against
Iraq, for later sale. A portion of the profits from those sales were put into a bank account belonging to his wife. ...
• Russian companies contracted for about $19.3 billion under oil-for-food, about 30 percent of its overall $64 billion worth. That made Russia by far the largest participant in the program. ...
• Jean-Bernard Merrimee, France's former U.N. ambassador, received $165,725 in commissions from oil allocations awarded to him by the Iraqi regime. The report said Merrimee ultimately received allocations that totaled approximately 6 million barrels." (See also the report: "Report on the Manipulation of the Oil-for-Food Programme" (The Independent Inquiry Committee, 2005/10/27))"Denmark arrests 4 terror suspects" (AP/CNN.com, 2005/10/27)
"COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Four men have been detained in Denmark on suspicion of belonging to a network planning a suicide terror attack in Europe, police said Friday.
The men, all Danish Muslims aged 16 to 20, were arrested Thursday morning.
At a court hearing late Thursday they were ordered to be held in jail until November 16 as police continue the investigation, police spokesman Joern Bro said.
He declined to give details, saying only the network had planned to carry out the suicide attack in Europe.
Danish media quoted Bro as saying that the arrests in Copenhagen were linked to an investigation in the Balkans in which arrests were made and large quantities of explosives were found on October 19. ...
According to Sarajevo's Dnevni Avaz daily newspaper, one of the three suspects was an 18-year-old who was preparing a suicide bomb attack on the Sarajevo embassy of an European Union country.""Israel Wants Iran Expelled From U.N." (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/27)
"Israel's vice prime minister said Iran should be expelled from the United Nations after its new president said Israel should be "wiped off the map," and Britain summoned an Iranian diplomat Thursday to protest the remarks.
Italy on Thursday also condemned the words of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, telling the Iranian ambassador the comments were "unacceptable" and that they confirm worries over the political positions — and nuclear intentions — of Iran's new leadership.
Shimon Peres, Israel's vice prime minister and a Nobel peace laureate, said it was "impossible to ignore" Ahmadinejad's comments.
"Since the United Nations was established in 1945, there has never been a head of state that is a U.N. member state that publicly called for the elimination of another U.N. member state," Shimon Peres told Israel Radio. ...
Britain's Foreign Office said Thursday it intended to summon Iran's charge d'affaires to protest Ahmadinejad's remarks, calling them "deeply disturbing and sickening."
Other world governments on Wednesday issued statements criticizing the Iranian's remarks, including Britain, Canada and Germany." (See also: "Iran Leader Calls for Israel's Destruction" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/26))"The New Sunni Jihad: 'A Time for Politics'" (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The Washington Post, 2005/10/27)
The Guardian has another version of this report, in which Abdul-Ahad notes that: "This is a profound shift in thinking for these insurgents, a shift that might just change the way things develop in Iraq.":
"NORTH OF BAGHDAD -- For weeks before Iraq's constitutional referendum this month, Iraqi guerrilla Abu Theeb traveled the countryside just north of Baghdad, stopping at as many Sunni Arab houses and villages as he could. Each time, his message to the farmers and tradesmen he met was the same: Members of the disgruntled Sunni minority should register to vote -- and vote against the constitution.
"It is a new jihad," said Abu Theeb, a nom de guerre that means "Father of the Wolf," addressing a young nephew one night before the vote. "There is a time for fighting, and a time for politics." ...
It was not possible to confirm directly how many Sunnis share his views on the political process. But Iraqi and U.S. analysts in Baghdad express hope that such a shift in outlook will eventually lead large numbers of radical Sunnis to abandon their weapons permanently and take part in the political process.
For men such as Abu Theeb -- who said he shaved his bushy beard, a sign of an Islamic holy fighter, to pass more easily into and out of Baghdad -- taking part in politics is a step taken only reluctantly.
"Politics for us is like filthy, dead meat," he said, referring to pork, which is eschewed by observant Muslims. 'We are not allowed to eat it, but if you are crossing through a desert and your life depends on it, God says it's okay.'" (See also: "'We don't need al-Qaida'" (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The Guardian, 2005/10/27))"A new Sunni strategy in Iraq" (Jill Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor, 2005/10/27)
"BAGHDAD - The engine that drives Iraq's insurgency, this country's politically marginalized Sunni Arab minority, is getting ready for a fight - but this time it's at the ballot box.
Energized by the adoption of a new constitution, which passed over Sunni objections, key Sunni political parties said this week that they are forming a coalition to ensure they have a voice in Iraq's new parliament, to be elected in December.
This vigorous new effort to participate is a complete reversal from the Sunni position last year that voters should boycott polls to select the transitional national assembly. But if the coalition has decided to join in a process it once rejected, it is also beginning to articulate a Sunni political agenda that is Islamist, vehemently anti-American, opposed to foreign troops, and discreetly pro-insurgency. ...
The political platform of this evolving Sunni coalition, named the Iraqi Accord, still lacks focus beyond ensuring Sunnis aren't persecuted by a Shiite government. Nonetheless, the groups in the coalition so far are drawing up a list of candidates and have begun calling for Sunnis to vote in December elections. ...
Getting average Sunnis to vote in December's polls may not be as difficult as it once seemed. The high turnout in Sunni Arab regions of Iraq in the constitutional referendum showed that average Sunnis are now more engaged in the political process. But spreading a sense that Sunnis are better off supporting the political process rather than the insurgency still remains a challenge.""London bomb link to Bali mastermind" (Ian Munro, The Age, 2005/10/27)
Via James Paterson, who notes: "It makes an absolute mockery of those on the left who continue to assert Iraq was to blame for the Underground bombings. Newsflash - the guy who planned and led the attacks was training to be a terrorist 5 years before it occurred, before even the Afghanistan invasion - let alone the Iraq one.
Either this bloke has a bloody good clairvoyant, or he imports his hatred from elsewhere."
"The man who led the July 7 attack on London trained with Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah and has been directly linked with the mastermind of the first Bali bombing.
Mohammad Sadique Khan, the oldest of the four London suicide bombers, trained in a Jemaah Islamiah camp in the Southern Philippines during 2001 and was hosted on a visit to South-East Asia by the mastermind of the October 2002 Bali attack, Hambali
Terrorism researcher Rohan Gunaratna said the link highlighted the global and regional connections that sustained terrorist organisations. ...
A BBC report on the Bali-London links yesterday suggested that the British-born Khan, who worked as a primary school teacher's aide with the children of immigrant families, was in contact with al-Qaeda figures for five years before the London bombings.
"Mohammad Sadique Khan arrived in Malaysia in 2001 and he was the guest of Hambali," Mr Gunaratna said.""U.N. to Detail Kickbacks Paid for Iraq's Oil" (Warren Hoge, The New York Times, 2005/10/27)
"UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 - More than 4,500 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, according to the independent committee investigating the program.
The country with the most companies involved in the program was Russia, followed by France, the committee says in a report to be released Thursday. The inquiry was led by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
The findings are in the committee's fifth and final report, a document of more than 500 pages that will detail how outside companies from more than 60 countries were able to evade United Nations controls and make money for themselves as well as for the Hussein government."Added in archive:
"Anti-Semitic poem in children’s school book" (Jeremy Last, European Jewish Press, 2005/10/16)
Wednesday,
October 26, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Bombing at Israeli Food Stand Kills Five" (Mohammed Daraghmeh, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/26)
"HADERA, Israel - A Palestinian suicide bomber standing in line at a crowded falafel stand blew himself up Wednesday in this central Israeli town, killing five people, wounding 21 and eroding hopes that
Israel's Gaza pullout would revive peace talks.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack in Israel in more than three months, with the Iranian-backed group saying it was in retaliation for the killing of a top militant leader by Israeli troops earlier this week. ...
The dead were sprawled on the ground amid scattered fruit and wrecked cars. Shards of glass and blood covered the sidewalk as rescuers moved back bystanders to begin collecting remains of the dead.
"Body parts reached all the way until my apartment building. The damage is really great," witness Eidan Akiva told Channel Ten TV, saying he lived 100 yards from the blast. ...
Israeli police said five people were killed in addition to the suicide bomber. The Magen David Adom rescue service said six people suffered serious wounds and another 15 were injured lightly.
The bomber was identified as Hassan Abu Zeid, 20, of the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh, according to residents who heard his name announced on a bullhorn.""Iran Leader Calls for Israel's Destruction" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/26)
"TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.
"There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called "The World without Zionism."
"Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, (while) any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.
"As the imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August and replaced
Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who advocated international dialogue and tried to improve Iran's relations with the West.""Jonathan Steele's Horror" (Harry, Harry's Place, 2005/10/26)
"The Guardian reports on the historic first democratic constitution adopted by an Arab country in a referendum. Jonathan Steele's piece, which appears to be a news story and not an opinion column, drips with the bitterness of defeat:Iraqi voters adopted the country's new constitution in spite of heavy opposition in Sunni Arab areas, Iraqi and United Nations officials announced yesterday. The result was delayed by more than a week after officials said preliminary results showed an "unusually high" number of yes votes but, after checking, the election commission said it was satisfied the constitution had passed. ...
Sunni Arab members of the constitution's drafting committee denounced the result as rigged. "I have just prayed to God that he will expose the truth about what is happening in Iraq. We all know that this referendum was fraud conducted by an electoral commission that is not independent," said Hussein al-Falluji. ...And here is a line from the final doom-laden paragraph which reveals a lot about Steele's thinking:
The result gives President Bush a political boost by paving the way for national elections on December 15, the next milestone in his effort to show progress towards democracy in Iraq.
Got that? The adoption of Iraq's democratic constitution is a political boost not for Iraq and it's long suffering people but for George Bush. And the elections will be a milestone not in progress towards democracy in Iraq but in 'his effort to show progress.'" (See also: "Iraqi constitution yes vote approved by UN" (Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, 2005/10/26). Also: "Mock The Vote" (Investor's Business Daily, 2005/10/25) and "Dateline Spandau, October 1946. Herr Hitler climbs into the dock..." (David Aaronovitch, The Times, 2005/10/25))
"'Where are the good Jews today'" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/26)
"Henry di Suvero usually spends his afternoons writing “all sorts of things, including letters to the ABC protesting against its pro-Israeli news coverage.” That’s about what you’d expect from someone who, as a lawyer in the US, defended the Weathermen. Late in life, Henry has become a playwright. His latest work, pre-emptively hyped by the Sydney Morning Herald, is The Ballad of Rachel Corrie:... Di Suvero has never been to Israel, but saw it all reported in the media ... The Ballad of Rachel Corrie is the second of a trilogy he is writing on the issue.
"My first play really asks the question: why do the Palestinians have to keep on paying for the Holocaust? This play moves on and asks: what is the utility of non-violence? The third play, which is about refuseniks, asks the question: where are the good Jews today?"Calculate the odds of ever seeing this line appear, without condemnation, in the SMH: “Where are the good Muslims today?” Ballad is the second Corrie play; the gal’s becoming a franchise." (See also: "Rachel's fate stoked the embers" (Sunanda Creagh, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005/10/26). Also: "Dead Jews aren’t news" (Tom Gross, The Spectator, from the 2005/10/22 issue))
"Britain's unseen race riots" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/10/26)
"The appearance of a muted handful of opinion pieces today about the rioting in Birmingham last weekend merely serves to highlight the fact — as Alice Miles in the Times actually says —that so few people have said anything about it at all. Indeed, there has been a striking near-silence about these events. ...
If this had been white on black violence, there would have been a media feeding frenzy and the newspapers would have been full of reconstructions, analysis and instant opinions and recriminations. Instead, there has been near silence. The reason is obvious. The cult of multiculturalism holds that all minorities are victims of the majority, and therefore minorities must always be blameless. When two minorities start beating each other up, therefore, politically correct Britain is paralysed. By definition, it cannot divide up the actors in the drama into good guys and bad guys. There can be no minority bad guys. It dare not investigate what actually happened, who started it and who was to blame because no minority can ever be blamed without incurring the dreaded labels of ‘racism’ and ‘prejudice’. Furthermore, the fact that Pakistanis were involved adds a further radioactive dimension. For Pakistani, read ‘Muslim’ —and that’s a road down which the media’s finest refuse to travel, for fear of what they might be forced to discover and the consequences for them that might follow.
The result is that a serious and dangerous breakdown in community relations has not been investigated or analysed, the murder of two innocent people has been treated with near-indifference and the implications for multiculturalism all but ignored." (See also: "Poverty, race, murder, politics, Lozells. We know the words, not the meaning" (Alice Miles, The Times, 2005/10/26) and "Tell the truth about the Lozells riots" (Theodore Dalrymple, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/10/26))"Is this headline really illegal?" (Daniel Finkelstein, The Times, 2005/10/26)
"Since the Government first proposed its invidious religious hatred legislation there has been a great deal of coverage about the circumstances in which people will be prosecuted. Ministers argue that the threat posed to free speech is very small, since any prosecution will have to be sanctioned by the Attorney General. It will be impossible for religious fanatics to use the law to persecute their critics.
Let me break the news gently to the Government, as I once so tactfully did to my science-fiction-loving friend. Prosecutions are irrelevant. That’s not how laws work. ...
The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill may not produce many court cases. Even on the rare occasions when the police and crown prosecution services decide to act, the Attorney General may intervene to avoid a political controversy. But this doesn’t mean that the legislation will have no impact on free speech.
Of course it will. It will have an impact every time the the local arts centre decides that perhaps it had better not book a certain act, or a cinema chain decides not to show a certain film, or a school decides not to hire out its hall to certain speakers. It will have an impact every time the wording of a council leaflet is changed or the local church changes its mind about the topic of its study evening.
In myriad ways, little by little, our freedom will be eroded. And most of the time we won’t even notice.
Pretty soon we’ll come to think that it was our idea, that we like it this way." (See also: Blasphemy - News and commentary on free speech cases and blasphemy law apologetics.)"For Devout Pakistani Muslims, Aid Muddles Loyalties" (David Rohde, The New York Times, 2005/10/26)
"BASSIAN, Pakistan, Oct. 24 - Asmat Ali Janbaz's explanation for the American military helicopters flying over this isolated mountain valley last Thursday afternoon was familiar.
Mr. Janbaz, who lives in the area and who describes himself as an Islamic hard-liner, contended that the Americans were not ferrying injured earthquake victims to safety; instead, they were secretly establishing an American military base in northern Pakistan to encircle China.
"This is the mission!" he declared triumphantly. "Not to help the people of Pakistan."
Yet after Mr. Janbaz departed, something extraordinary happened. Here in a mountainous corner of northern Pakistan long thought to be a center for militant training camps and religious conservatism, three men dismissed his theory and heartily praised the United States for aiding victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake, which killed more than 53,000 Pakistanis.
"People don't believe such things; people only believe in what they are seeing," said Manzur Hussain, a 36-year-old hospital worker whose brother, sister and two sons died in the earthquake. 'People who give them aid, they respect them.'" (See also: "The Earthquakes Changed Kashmiri Politics" (Strategypage, 2005/10/25))"Detain Hariri suspects or face sanctions, Syria told" (James Bone, The Times, 2005/10/26)
"Britain, France and the United States challenged Syria last night to detain officials suspected of plotting the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, or face sanctions. In their draft Security Council resolution, the three nations demand that “Syria must detain those Syrian official or individuals” implicated in the plot.
The draft threatens “further measures” — a reference to economic sanctions — if Syria fails to co-operate with the UN inquiry led by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor.
It also calls for their assets to be frozen and a travel ban imposed on all individuals designated as suspects by Herr Mehlis’s investigation.
Herr Mehlis has found “converging evidence” of Syrian involvement in the St Valentine’s Day bomb blast that killed Mr Hariri, and implicated the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Maher, and his brother in-law, Assef Shawkat, in the plot.
If approved, the resolution could lead to travel and financial sanctions being imposed on members of President al- Assad’s family and inner circle."
Tuesday,
October 25, 2005
News and
commentary:
"Police told to respect traditions" (Liam Houlihan, Herald Sun, 2005/10/25)
"Police are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits.
Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together.
Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence.
The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background.
Some police officers have claimed the directives hinder enforcing the law equally.
Police are told: "In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims."
They are told it would be appreciated in cases of domestic violence if police consult the local Muslim religious leader who will work against "fragmenting the family unit".
Islamic Women's Welfare Council head Joumanah El Matrah called the guidelines appalling and dangerous.
"The implication is one needs to be more tolerant of violence against Muslim women but they should be entitled to the same protection," Ms El Matrah said." (See also, for example: "Are Multiculturalists Legalizing Rape?" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/01/22))"Mock The Vote" (Investor's Business Daily, 2005/10/25)
"Did anyone notice that voters overwhelmingly approved the country's draft constitution? Probably not anyone who was reading the AP's account of history.
But it was there, 25 paragraphs into a 34-paragraph report:
"The vote on the constitution was 78.59% in favor of ratification and 21.41% against, the commission said."
Almost 80%. Isn't that significant enough to be found at the top of the story? A near 4-to-1 margin would be considered a landslide in any election in this country. It's a loud message that demands attention.
But somehow that message was allowed to be drowned out by the voice of a "prominent Sunni politician" who, in the story's lead paragraph, was quoted as calling the balloting "a farce."
Not even that Sunni with the less-than-sunny outlook can change the facts, though. Yet getting to that 80% figure first required a waist-deep wading through yet another journalistic exercise in despair over the deaths of U.S. servicemen in Iraq, up Tuesday to 2,000 — the magic number that the anti-war groups have ghoulishly awaited to mark.""Calling Galloway's Bluff" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2005/10/25)
Galloway III: "But what has been established is breathtaking enough. A member of the British Parliament was in receipt of serious money originating from a homicidal dictatorship. That money was supposed to have been used to ameliorate the suffering of Iraqis living under sanctions. It was instead diverted to the purposes of enriching Saddam's toadies and of helping them propagandize in favor of the regime whose crimes and aggressions had necessitated the sanctions and created the suffering in the first place. This is something more than mere "corruption." It is the cynical theft of food and medicine from the desperate to pay for the palaces of a psychopath. ...
The evidence presented suggests that he lied in court when he sued the Daily Telegraph in London over similar allegations (and collected money for that, too). It suggests that he lied to the Senate under oath. And it suggests that he made a deceptive statement in the register of interests held by members of the British House of Commons. ...
Yet this is the man who received wall-to-wall good press for insulting the Senate subcommittee in May, and who was later the subject of a fawning puff piece in the New York Times, and who was lionized by the anti-war movement when he came on a mendacious and demagogic tour of the country last month. I wonder if any of those who furnished him a platform will now have the grace to admit that they were hosting a man who is not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well."
Banned
(nccbi.org)"Politically correct swines" (Oscar Rose, MegaStar, 2005/10/25)
"Another day, another headline-grabbing example of politically correct nonsense.
"Bank bosses ban our piggybanks cos they MIGHT upset Muslims," squeals the Daily Star. ...
"Britain's top High Street banks have ruled the money-boxes are politically incorrect… And one of Britain's four Muslim MPs, Khalid Mahmoud, said: "A piggybank is just an ornament. Muslims would never be seriously offended."
The Koran forbids the eating of "the flesh of swine", and as a result, NatWest and Halifax have taken down promotional posters which feature piggy banks.
The Star helpfully explains: 'Children will be encouraged to save their cash in bank-shaped money boxes instead.'" (Hat tip: Instapundit. See also: "Ungulates Unwelcome" (Marcus, Harry's Place, 2005/10/03) and "Pigs tale banned to 'placate Muslims'" (Yorkshire Post, 2003/03/05))"US military death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000" (Claudia Parsons and Andrew Quinn, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/25)
"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The death of an army sergeant pushed the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to the landmark figure of 2,000 on Tuesday, but President George W. Bush warned more sacrifices were needed before U.S. troops could come home. ...
The Pentagon said Staff Sergeant George Alexander, 34, died on Saturday of injuries sustained eight days ago when a roadside bomb blew up near his vehicle in the town of Samarra.
The new death toll was a grim reminder that although some progress has been made on Iraq's political front, much work lies ahead in halting insurgent attacks. Increasingly sophisticated roadside bombs are responsible for many of the U.S. deaths in Iraq. ...
In Washington, the U.S. Senate paused for a moment of silence after news that the death toll had reached 2,000.
In more than 300 events set for Wednesday, anti-war activists in the United States plan to gather at war memorials, federal buildings and in New York on a city street corner.""Iraqis vote for new constitution" (BBC News, 2005/10/25)
"Iraqis have passed their country's new constitution according to official results from the referendum which opposition leaders have dismissed.
Sunni "No" campaigners had hoped to block it by winning two-thirds of the vote in at least three provinces, in line with electoral rules.
But they won in only two with the swing province of Nineveh returning 44% "Yes" votes, the official count shows. ...
In all, 78% of voters backed the charter and 21% opposed it in the vote on 15 October, electoral commission officials said.
Approval of the constitution clears the way for elections to a new Iraqi parliament in December.VOTE OVERVIEW
78% back charter, 21% reject
63% turnout
Majorities in 15 out of 18 provinces vote "Yes"
"No" vote majorities in two provinces - 96% reject constitution in Anbar, 81% in Salahuddin
No third province achieves required two-thirds majority to reject charter, though 55% vote "No" in NinevehElection official Farid Ayar described the vote as "100% correct" with "no cases of fraud that could affect the results of the vote".
The majority Shia community and Kurds strongly supported the constitution while the provinces where the poll was rejected by more than two-thirds of voters, Anbar and Salahuddin, are both strongly Sunni.
Sunni figures talked of widespread fraud after hearing the final results.""The Earthquakes Changed Kashmiri Politics" (Strategypage, 2005/10/25)
"Some 1,400 people died in Indian Kashmir because of the recent quakes, and over 140,000 were made homeless. Across the border in Pakistani Kashmir, over 50,000 died, over 70,000 were seriously injured and over three million are homeless. The American relief effort has involved thousands of troops, several dozen helicopters and navy ships carrying relief aid and military equipment for rescue and reconstruction work. The U.S. noted the large amount of good will generated in Moslem Indonesia because of vigorous American relief efforts last year after the Indonesian earthquake and tidal wave, and is apparently out to repeat that process in Pakistan. The scope of the disaster has caused the Pakistanis to toss aside most political considerations and accept aid from anyone (including India and Israel). The quakes have had more impact on the military and political situation in Kashmir than any diplomacy or military efforts in the last several decades." (Hat tip: Instapundit.)"Islamophobia?" (Daniel Pipes, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/10/25)
"An Islamist group named Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to bring the world under Islamic law and advocates suicide attacks against Israelis. Facing proscription in Great Britain, it opened a clandestine front operation at British universities called “Stop Islamophobia,” the Sunday Times has revealed.
Stop what, you ask?
Coined in Great Britain a decade ago, the neologism Islamophobia was launched in 1996 by a self-proclaimed “Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.” The word literally means “undue fear of Islam” but it is used to mean “prejudice against Muslims” and joins over 500 other phobias spanning virtually every aspect of life.
The term has achieved a degree of linguistic and political acceptance, to the point that the secretary-general of the United Nations presided over a December 2004 conference titled “Confronting Islamophobia,” and in May a Council of Europe summit condemned “Islamophobia.”
The term presents several problems, however. First, what exactly constitutes an “undue fear of Islam” when Muslims acting in the name of Islam today make up the premier source of worldwide aggression, both verbal and physical, versus non-Muslims and Muslims alike? What, one wonders, is the proper amount of fear?" (See also: "'Stealth' Islamists recruit students" (Ali Hussain, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/16))"Insulting Islam in Egypt" (Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/10/25)
"The Muslim Brotherhood has threatened to kill the Coptic Pope Shenouda III. A nun was stabbed by a Muslim who burst into a Coptic church shouting “Allah akbar.” Three people were killed as thousands of Muslim protestors rioted outside a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt. Relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt have not been this tense in recent memory.
By all accounts, it’s all because of a DVD that was shown in a Coptic church which Muslims think insults Islam. How exactly does it insult Islam? According to CNN, “The riot was sparked by the distribution of a DVD of a play that was performed at the church two years ago. The play, ‘I Was Blind But Now I Can See,’ tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.”
So a film depiction of someone converting to Islam and then becoming disillusioned is enough to bring more than 5,000 protestors to the church and get a nun stabbed and three people killed? ...
If anyone needs the criticism that is apparently contained in the Copts’ DVD, it is the very Muslims who have rioted because of it. If they noted and began to work against the intimidation of Copts and the threats against those who leave Islam, life would be better in Egypt for both Christians and Muslims. Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide, meanwhile, need to realize that the riots in Egypt are but one manifestation of a much deeper problem: the collision of Western notions of freedom of speech and Islamic sensibilities. But few as yet have woken up to that." (See also: "Muslim radicals threaten to kill Pope Shenouda III" (The Free Copts, 2005/01/23), "15000 Muslims Surround a Coptic Church in Alexandria" (The Free Copts, 2005/10/21), "Egyptians protest, say church play against Islam" (Reuters, 2005/10/21) and "Man stabs nun in Egyptian church" (Reuters, 2005/10/19))"It Wasn't Just Miller's Story" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2005/10/25)
"Many critics outside the Times suggest that Miller's eagerness to publish the Bush administration's line was the primary reason Americans went to war. The Times itself is edging closer to this version of events.
There is a big problem with this simple narrative. It is that the Times, along with The Post and other news organizations, ran many alarming stories about Iraq's weapons programs before the election of George W. Bush. A quick search through the Times archives before 2001 produces such headlines as "Iraq Has Network of Outside Help on Arms, Experts Say" (November 1998), "U.S. Says Iraq Aided Production of Chemical Weapons in Sudan" (August 1998), "Iraq Suspected of Secret Germ War Effort" (February 2000), "Signs of Iraqi Arms Buildup Bedevil U.S. Administration" (February 2000), "Flight Tests Show Iraq Has Resumed a Missile Program" (July 2000). (A somewhat shorter list can be compiled from The Post's archives, including a September 1998 headline: "Iraqi Work Toward A-Bomb Reported.") The Times stories were written by Barbara Crossette, Tim Weiner and Steven Lee Myers; Miller shared a byline on one. ...
This was the consensus before Bush took office, before Scooter Libby assumed his post and before Judith Miller did most of the reporting for which she is now, uniquely, criticized. It was based on reporting by a large of number of journalists who in turn based their stories on the judgments of international intelligence analysts, Clinton officials and weapons inspectors. As we wage what the Times now calls "the continuing battle over the Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq," we will have to grapple with the stubborn fact that the underlying rationale for the war was already in place when this administration arrived.""Dateline Spandau, October 1946. Herr Hitler climbs into the dock..." (David Aaronovitch, The Times, 2005/10/25)
"1946. The trial of Adolf Hitler begins in a courtroom inside the grounds of Spandau Prison. These fragments show how the event was covered by sections of the British media and opinion-formers, teletransported from the year 2005. ...Comment, Jonathan Steele, The Guardian October 21, 1946
“Along comes a second big German event: the trial of Adolf Hitler. Important though it is as a catharsis for the former dictator’s hundreds of thousands of surviving victims, it has little political significance since only a small minority of Germans still support him.
“Of course, it could backfire on the Allies if Hitler is humiliated in court by unfair or high-handed treatment. To a wider circle of Germans and other Central Europeans, he might then become a symbol of wounded nationalist pride.
“But manipulating the trial’s timing is the real story. Why is the trial being started suddenly this week? The date was fixed, conveniently diverting reporters’ attention from the problems of occupied Germany and the hotly disputed local elections. Was the trial a Special Action to get vote-rigging out of the headlines?” ...Peter Hitchens column in The Mail on Sunday, October 23, 1946
'Such trials only make war criminals hang on to power: they should be allowed to slink off to South America quietly. In any case, who decides who is to be tried? How about trying Churchill and Roosevelt (posthumously) for the bombings of Dresden and Hamburg? If I am still alive I might one day go along and watch the limbless and bereaved witnesses in the box recall the day they experienced Mr Roosevelt’s righteousness or Mr Churchill’s democratic fervour in the form of a high-explosive warhead.'"
(See also: "Saddam's trial is merely a political sideshow" (Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, 2005/10/25))
"Saddam's henchmen say they rewarded a 'friend'" (David Charter, The Times, 2005/10/25)
Galloway II: "Some of the most senior members of Saddam Hussein’s regime contradicted George Galloway’s denials that he ever sought benefit from Iraqi oil, US investigators said yesterday.
The most damning fresh testimony came from Tariq Aziz, the former Deputy Prime Minister, who told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Iraq granted Mr Galloway oil allocations to help to fund his Mariam Appeal. The investigators said Mr Aziz also told them that a letter allegedly recording a request by Mr Galloway for an increased “share of oil” is authentic. The letter, found in a government building, purports to be from the Iraqi Intelligence Service, dated January 2000.
Mr Galloway’s challenge to the letter’s authenticity was at the heart of a successful libel action he took against Telegraph Newspapers. The case is under appeal. Mr Galloway said his accusers from Saddam’s regime were all under sentence of death and Mr Aziz had been offered a deal to testify.
Taha Yasin Ramadan, the former Vice-President of Iraq, told the subcommittee that Mr Galloway had been granted oil allocations “because of his opinions about Iraq” and because he “wanted to lift the embargo against Iraq”. He added that Mr Galloway was “a friend of Iraq” and 'needed to be compensated for his support.'""US Senate 'finds Iraq oil cash in Galloway's wife's bank account'" (James Bone and David Charter, The Times, 2005/10/25)
Galloway I: "George Galloway faces possible criminal charges after a US Senate investigation tracked $150,000 (£85,000) in Iraqi oil money to his wife’s bank account in Jordan.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will refer the Respect Party MP for possible prosecution after concluding that he gave “false and misleading” testimony at his appearance before the panel in May.
The sub-committee claimed that, through intermediaries, Mr Galloway and the Mariam Appeal were granted eight allocations of Iraqi crude oil totalling 23 million barrels from 1999 to 2003.
It will also forward the new information to British authorities, saying it raised questions about Mr Galloway’s financial disclosure and the payment of illegal kickbacks to Iraq. “We have what we would call the smoking gun,” said Senator Norm Coleman, the sub-committee’s Republican chairman. ...
A Senate aide said that Mr Galloway would be referred to the Justice Department for investigation of possible perjury, false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding — all “Class A” felonies carrying a sentence of up to five years and a $250,000 fine.
The report says the Jordanian middleman Fawaz Zureikat, a close friend of Mr Galloway and his representative in Baghdad, funnelled $150,000 from Iraqi oil sales to Mr Galloway’s wife and at least $446,000 to the Mariam Appeal. On the same day Mr Zureikat also paid $15,666 to Ron McKay, Mr Galloway’s spokesman. Mr McKay could not be contacted for comment last night." (See also the report [PDF]: "Report concerning the testimony of George Galloway before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations" (hsgac.senate.gov, 2005/10/25))Added in archive:
"'Stealth' Islamists recruit students" (Ali Hussain, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/16)
Monday,
October 24, 2005
News and
commentary:
"A video grab of an explosion..."
(Reuters, 2005/10/24)
"A video grab of an explosion after three suicide bombers staged a coordinated attack on a hotel complex used by foreign journalists in Baghdad October 24, 2005. The bombings, at dusk in front of rolling television cameras and guaranteed global media coverage, broke a relative lull in insurgent violence over the past two weeks. The bombings killed at least 15 people, police said.""Journalists' Hotel in Baghdad Attacked" (Robert H. Reid, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/24)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three enormous bombs, including a cement-mixing truck packed with explosives, blew up near an Iraqi police post and the Palestine Hotel — home to many Western journalists. At least 17 people were killed.
A car bomb exploded near the police position on the northeast side of Firdous Square and more than 100 yards east of the hotel. Security officials said a third bomb struck the area around the same time. All three were believed to be suicide attacks.
Associated Press Television Network footage showed that one of three vehicle bombers had penetrated the concrete blast walls surrounding the hotel compound before exploding.
The cement mixer exploded in a huge ball of flame and a cloud of smoke billowing into the central Baghdad sky near Firdous Square — the site of a statue of Saddam Hussein that was toppled in April 2003 as Baghdad fell to the U.S.-led coalition. ...
The exploding cement truck — caught in APTN footage — blew a hole in a 12-foot concrete wall that separates the hotel from the square. U.S. soldiers maintain a presence inside the five-acre hotel compound, which also includes the Sheraton Hotel.
Inside the Palestine, light fixtures were blown out, pictures were blasted off the walls and windows were shattered.
The 17 dead included Iraqi police and civilians, said Assistant Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal.""Syria Brings Out Protest of U.N. Report" (Albert Aji, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/24)
"DAMASCUS, Syria - Civil servants and students massed in the streets Monday to protest a U.N. report implicating Syria in the killing of a Lebanese leader, joining in a government-orchestrated campaign to drum up support before a U.N. Security Council meeting.
The United States and Britain were pushing for the council to take a tough stand against Syria at a meeting Tuesday, but France said sanctions shouldn't be voted on until investigators finish looking into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. ...
Syria's official SANA news agency said "hundreds of thousands" of people gathered in Damascus and Aleppo to demonstrate against the "unjust accusations" made by the report, released last week by chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis. ...
"Mr. Mehlis: we are not murderers," read one banner. "Syria will never be another Iraq," said another in central Damascus' Sabe Bahrat Square, where the crowd chanted: "With our soul and our blood, we redeem you, Bashar!"
Many demonstrators waved large posters of the Syrian president and his father, the late President Hafez Assad.""An Academic Opinion" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2005/10/24)
Perhaps Ghali Hassan could get a job at The New York Times?:
"Western Australia’s Ghali Hassan has his say on Saddam’s trial:Saddam trial is a theatre. It is a Hollywood show to divert attention from the destruction of Iraq and the massive war crimes committed against the Iraqi people. Like the invasion, the “tribunal” is illegal and has no legitimacy in occupied Iraq. There is overwhelming prima facie evidence to convict George W. Bush and Tony Blair of crimes against humanity than to convict Saddam Hussein. Under the U.N Convention, Bush and Blair are guilty of crimes against humanity, torture, and guilty of wanton destruction of the Iraqi state.
The reality is; the U.S. and its allies are not interested in a trial per se; they are interested in the humiliation of all Arabs.And so on, including condemnation of “Zionism and imperialism”, praise for Saddam’s “best education system and the best health care services in the Middle East”, and declarations of Saddam’s innocence (with this comical qualifier: “even if Saddam committed crimes, the crimes were committed with the full complicity and support of Western leaders, and Western media”). You’ll find Hassan at all the usual progressive online fever pods, despite his screaming anti-Semitism and frantic conspiracy theories:
Instead of saying; it is too early to say who is responsible for the 7/7 London bombing, Tony Blair immediately accused Muslims and Islam of the crimes. No evidence, no names and no documentation were provided to support his accusations. ...
Speaking of “no evidence, no names and no documentation being provided to support his accusations”, check Hassan’s theory about the London attacks:
The 7/7 London bombing was next to impossible to conduct in the middle of high security without the intelligence and coordination of important people in Britain. Like the 9/11 attacks, the 7/7 London bombing remains a mystery..."
(See also: "The Show Trial of the Century" (Ghali Hassan, GlobalResearch.ca, 2005/10/20) and "London 7/7 Attack: Creating the Enemy" (Ghali Hassan, GlobalResearch.ca, 2005/07/14))
"Not a Sunni Day for the Left" (Bruce Kesler, The American Enterprise, 2005/10/24)
"Even the New York Times’ defeatist in Baghdad, Dexter Filkins, was forced to recognize the significance of last Saturday’s turnout in Iraq’s constitutional referendum, which was heavier than last January’s turnout and higher than most U.S. elections. It “represents the first evidence that Iraqi’s Sunni Muslims, whose community forms the heart of the guerrilla insurgency, have decided to join the budding Iraqi political process.” Another New York Times report tells us that, for the first time, “Syria’s Opposition Unites Behind a Call for Democratic Changes.”
As Hanson predicts, we may yet see the New York Times’ rabid editorialists recognize the success of the U.S. in transforming the Middle East to a more benign, democratic region. But, it’ll surely be a good while for their eyes to open to the news on their own pages.
The Arab League, dominated by corrupt Sunni Arab despots who opposed the U.S. action in Iraq, has woken up. Its Secretary-General, Amr Moussa, has finally declared that the Arab League “condemns Iraq’s insurgents.” ...
Even some Sunnis are deserting the American Left’s arsenal of criticism. Not a Sunni day for the Left." (See also: "Head of Arab League Condemns Attacks" (Lee Kaeth, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/10/20) and "Syria's Opposition Unites Behind a Call for Democratic Changes" (Katherine Zoepf, The New York Times, 2005/10/20))"Ripe for ridicule" (The Times, 2005/10/24)
"The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill must be amended":
"But the drafting of the Bill has produced not just a mess, but a proposed law that would severely threaten free speech. No one can choose their race, but they can, and do, choose their religious or political beliefs. Criticism of these beliefs is the very essence of a healthy democracy. ...
First, the effects will be far wider than intended. In ascending order of seriousness, Moonies and Scientologists could waste valuable police time getting officers to stop or investigate concerned Christians leafleting against these sects; comedians, newspaper columnists or members of the public could find themselves facing criminal charges for poking fun at the leaders or beliefs of any religion; Salman Rushdie could find himself prosecuted for The Satanic Verses; and the Bill could actually drive a wedge between Muslim communities and the rest of the country. Religious groups may seek to silence critics by demanding criminal investigations rather than winning their case in the court of public opinion with reasoned argument. ...
As the comedian Rowan Atkinson has put it, the Government is proposing a law that would allow people to ridicule ideas as long as they were not religious ideas. That cannot be right. If allowed to stand, a Government that often offers the impression of being indifferent towards civil liberties will have strengthened that perception." (See also: "God save the heretic" (Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times, 2005/10/23))Note: Hat tips on all the articles added below: "Not a Sunni Day for the Left" (Bruce Kesler, The American Enterprise, 2005/10/24)
Added in archive:
"Make war no more?" (Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly, 2005/10/21)
"A history lesson" (David Gelernter, Los Angeles Times, 2005/10/21)
"The Incompetence Dodge" (Sam Rosenfeld and Matthew Yglesias, The American Prospect, 2005/10/20)
"Syria's Opposition Unites Behind a Call for Democratic Changes" (Katherine Zoepf, The New York Times, 2005/10/20)
See the archive for earlier news and commentary.
Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.
"When
people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent.
The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."
Articles
of the week
"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)
"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)
"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)
"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)
"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)
›
AOTW Archive
From the archives
Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.
"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)
"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)
"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)
"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)
Weekly archive