Archived news and commentary: January 9 - 15, 2006

2006/01/09 - 2006/01/15
2006/01/02 - 2006/01/08
2005/12/26 - 2006/01/01
2005/12/19 - 2005/12/25
2005/12/12 - 2005/12/18
2005/12/05 - 2005/12/11

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, January 15, 2006

News and commentary:

"Zawahri missed dinner that prompted U.S. strike" (Zeeshan Haider, Reuters, 2006/01/15)
"A dinner invitation to al Qaeda's second-in-command triggered a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan's tribal region but Ayman al-Zawahri failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.
Pakistan condemned Friday's strike, which killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and summoned U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest. Thousands of local tribesmen also rallied near the scene, chanting anti-American slogans.
The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.
Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there.
"He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official told Reuters."

"Galloway can no longer count on the indulgence of polite society" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2006/01/15)
"George Galloway and his backers in the Socialist Workers Party are finished now. The alliance they organised between the Trotskyist far left and the Islamic far right, which produced the most disgraceful protest movement since the Thirties, can no longer count on the indulgence of polite society.
Was it Galloway's support for every anti-American tyrant on the planet that did for him? Not at all. He could salute the 'courage, strength and indefatigability' of Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz and Bashar al-Assad with impunity. How about his apologetics for the 'martyrs' of al-Qaeda and the Baath Party who represent everything the liberal-left has been against since the Enlightenment? No, not at all, that was fine, too. ...
The liberal media have turned on Galloway because of a far more heinous crime: his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother. ...
In every developed country, the story has been the same. At the beginning of the Iraq crisis, the far left moved to the far right and took control of the anti-war protests. Behind them came many decent people who were against war for good reasons. Unfortunately, their hatred of Bush was such they couldn't bring themselves to back democracy once it was over. They didn't go as far as Galloway and support the Baathists, but they didn't oppose them either. ...
The other day, I ran into Kanan Makiya, a writer who has done more than anyone to expose the horrors of the Saddam regime, and he was disgusted with the rich world's liberals. He is collecting millions of old files in Baghdad so Iraqis will be able to find out what happened to their families during the 35-year Baath dictatorship. 'All the time, I hear the insurgents crowing, "Even your friends in the West don't support you." And they're right. We have been betrayed.'" (See also: "Catty Galloway 'made me cringe'" (The Daily Mail, 2006/01/13))

"The origins of the Great War of 2007 - and how it could have been prevented" (Niall Ferguson, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/01/15)
"Are we living through the origins of the next world war? Certainly, it is easy to imagine how a future historian might deal with the next phase of events in the Middle East":
"As in the 1930s, too, the West fell back on wishful thinking. Perhaps, some said, Ahmadinejad was only sabre-rattling because his domestic position was so weak. Perhaps his political rivals in the Iranian clergy were on the point of getting rid of him. In that case, the last thing the West should do was to take a tough line; that would only bolster Ahmadinejad by inflaming Iranian popular feeling. So in Washington and in London people crossed their fingers, hoping for the deus ex machina of a home-grown regime change in Teheran.
This gave the Iranians all the time they needed to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium at Natanz. The dream of nuclear non-proliferation, already interrupted by Israel, Pakistan and India, was definitively shattered. Now Teheran had a nuclear missile pointed at Tel-Aviv. And the new Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu had a missile pointed right back at Teheran.
The optimists argued that the Cuban Missile Crisis would replay itself in the Middle East. Both sides would threaten war - and then both sides would blink. That was Secretary Rice's hope - indeed, her prayer - as she shuttled between the capitals. But it was not to be.
The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq's Shi'ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran.
Yet the historian is bound to ask whether or not the true significance of the 2007-2011 war was to vindicate the Bush administration's original principle of pre-emption. For, if that principle had been adhered to in 2006, Iran's nuclear bid might have been thwarted at minimal cost. And the Great Gulf War might never have happened."

"Now, Forward" (Yossi Klein Halevi, The Washington Post, 2006/01/15)
"By the time Sharon was elected in 2001, the Israeli majority had reached two conclusions about its conflict with the Palestinians. The first was that the left had been correct in warning against the illusion that Israel could occupy another people and still remain a worthy Jewish and democratic state. The second was that the right had been no less correct in warning against the illusion that Israel could make peace with an organization committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.
With the fading away of the two ideologies that had determined Israeli politics for several decades -- "greater Israel" on the right, and "peace now" on the left -- the public found itself with an ideological hangover. Out of the wreckage of Israel's dreams, Sharon fashioned a new political center: hard-line on security, flexible on territory. The emergence of this center marked the end of the era of our romantic politics, the politics of wishful thinking. ...
With Sharon's passing from the scene, there is no father to turn to for protection. We're on our own. Yet, because he has steered Israel away from the impassioned excesses he once embodied, his legacy is clear: on the military front, resolve against terrorism; on the political front, consensus in times of threat and a pragmatic approach that replaces the fantasy politics of the left and right."

"Hamas rallies to 'martyr' mother" (Jon Swain, The Sunday Times, 2006/01/15)
"Today, with the intifada in Gaza and the West Bank over and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip completed, Mariam Farhat, the mother of the three dead youths, insists that the struggle must go on. But this time she has chosen the ballot box over the bullet.
Across the Arab world the 56-year-old mother is an icon of the resistance as she campaigns in Gaza as a candidate for the Islamic militant group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25. ...
The mother regards her candidacy for the Palestinian Legislative Council as a logical extension of the armed struggle she encouraged her sons to die for. She denies that Hamas’s decision to join mainstream Palestinian political life contradicts its military goals.
“The jihadist project completes the political one and the political project cannot be completed without jihad,” she says. “The resistance needs the political project to support it through the legislative council.” ...
On Thursday, Ehud Olmert, who has been the acting Israeli prime minister since Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke on January 4, expressed fears that a strong Hamas showing in the election would give legitimacy to terrorists. “There can be no progress with an administration in which there are terrorist organisations as members,” said an aide.
But Alvaro de Soto, the United Nations peace envoy to the Middle East, welcomed an election with Hamas’s participation, calling it 'a step towards Palestinian democratic statehood.'" (See also: "Palestinian Legislative Council Candidate and Mother of Three Hamas Terrorists Umm Nidal Farhat: Israelis are Not Civilians and There are No Prohibitions on Killing Them; I Am Willing to Sacrifice My Ten Sons" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1063, 2006/01/04))

"Insurgents fight back against al-Qaeda's foreign zealots" (Philip Sherwell, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/01/15)
"Battles have erupted between local insurgents and al-Qaeda's mainly foreign fighters in several Iraqi towns in the clearest evidence yet of bitter divisions among anti-American forces in Iraq.
Local armed factions and tribal groups have sought to expel al-Qaeda from parts of the rebellious Sunni heartlands, as Iraqis have become increasingly disillusioned with the foreigners' extreme Islamic fundamentalism, murderous tactics and disregard for civilian casualties.
Iraqi guerrillas and tribesmen have recounted details of the clashes, while American and Iraqi intelligence officials said they had evidence of battles in rebel strongholds. Encouraged by the big number of Sunnis who voted in elections last month, US and Iraqi officials and military commanders have begun making political contacts with rebel factions in the hope of exploiting rifts between insurgents and al-Qaeda." (See also: "Local Insurgents Tell of Clashes With Al Qaeda's Forces in Iraq" (Sabrina Tavernese and Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2006/01/12))

"West battles to pull Iran's leader back from Judgment Day bomb" (Sarah Baxter and Uzi Mahnaimi, The Sunday Times, 2006/01/15)
"Yet as [Richard] Perle readily admits, much has changed in America in the past couple of years. “The (Bush) administration has become paralysed. It’s lost all clear sense of direction with regard to Iran and is all too content not to face difficult decisions,” he said. ...
It is more commonly said in Washington these days that America does not have to worry about Iran because, if push comes to shove, Israel will do the dirty work needed to stop the Iranians from acquiring an “Islamic” bomb. But will it? ...
At the Hatzerim air base on the edge of the Negev desert, the elite 69 strategic F-15 I squadron is ready to attack. Months of preparations have been completed and the young pilots have finished training for the long-haul flights that will be necessary to reach Iran and back without refuelling.
The planes, costing £60m each, are equipped with secret state-of-the-art weaponry and precision bombs that have yet to be tested in battle.
Two submarines capable of launching cruise missiles are on standby: one hidden in the depths of the Persian Gulf, the other stationed in the Israeli port of Haifa. In an attack they will be used to receive high quality signal intelligence.
Israel’s elite special forces are also prepared for their role — flying into Iran by helicopter to sabotage the underground targets that cannot be bombed from the air.
That Israel has a plan of action surprises nobody, but it is a long way from pressing the start key."

"U.S. Strike On Al Qaeda Top Deputy Said to Fail" (Griff Witte and Kamran Khan, The Washington Post, 2006/01/15)
"Pakistani officials said Saturday that a U.S. missile strike intended to kill al Qaeda deputy Ayman Zawahiri had missed its target but had killed 17 people, including six women and six children.
Tens of thousands of Pakistanis staged an angry anti-American protest near the remote village of Damadola, about 120 miles northwest of Islamabad, where Friday's attack took place. According to witnesses, the demonstrators shouted, "Death to America!" and "Death to Musharraf!" -- referring to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- and the offices of at least one U.S.-backed aid organization were ransacked and set ablaze.
In Washington, U.S. intelligence sources said it was too early to know whether the strike had killed Zawahiri, 54, an Egyptian physician who is al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's top aide. "The outcome of this doesn't seem decided," said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity."

Saturday, January 14, 2006

News and commentary:

"Scandinavian Update: Israeli Boycott, Muslim Cartoons" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/01/14)
More on the Danish cartoon "scandal": "Meanwhile, the Danish tabloid Extra Bladet got hold of a 43-page report that Danish Muslim leaders and imams, on a tour of the Islamic world are handing out to their contacts to “explain” how offensive the cartoons are. The report contains 15 pictures instead of 12. The first of the three additional pictures, which are of dismal quality, shows Muhammad as a pedophile deamon [see it here], the second shows the prophet with a pigsnout [here] and the third depicts a praying Muslim being raped by a dog [here]. Apparently, the 12 original pictures were not deemed bad enough to convince other Muslims that Muslims in Denmark are the victims of a campaign of religious hatred.
Akhmad Akkari, spokesman of the 21 Danish Muslim organizations which organized the tour, explained that the three drawings had been added to “give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims.” Akkari claimed he does not know the origin of the three pictures. He said they had been sent anonymously to Danish Muslims. However, when Ekstra Bladet asked if it could talk to these Muslims, Akkari refused to reveal their identity." (See also: "Danish Prime Minister Shocked at Lies" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/01/11))

"There's method in the Mahdi madness of Iran's president" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/01/14)
"What is the West facing in the government of Iran? I read in yesterday's Times that President Ahmadinejad is a "naïve extremist". It is an assumption of Western foreign policy elites that extremists are, by definition, naïve, but is it so?
The point about Iran since 1979 is that it has been governed by revolutionaries; and the history of revolutionaries - successful ones, anyway - is that they are often mad and bad and incredibly skilful all at the same time. ...
The Bomb, blessed by God, will make Iran proud. It will force the West to let Iran dictate terms in the region, give Mr Ahmadinejad the prestige to crush dissent in his own country and help him grab world Muslim leadership, taking over Iraq. Mad, perhaps, terrifying, certainly, but perfectly sane as a way of staying on top.
What can we do? There may be sanctions and other forms of isolation that would work. For instance, although full of crude oil, Iran is short of petrol and has to import a great deal from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Without that, it would be in trouble.
But the bigger question concerns the West's extraordinary indulgence (Mr Straw calls it "patience") towards the regime. Why don't we distinguish government from people and reach out to the latter? In the contest of the West with revolutionaries, we win in the end when we help their victims rise up against them, when the people themselves, not our tanks, take down the Berlin Wall."

"Reunified Islam: Unlikely but Not Entirely Radical" (Karl Vick, The Washington Post, 2006/01/14)
"The goal of reuniting Muslims under a single flag stands at the heart of the radical Islamic ideology Bush has warned of repeatedly in recent major speeches on terrorism. In language evoking the Cold War, Bush has cast the conflict in Iraq as the pivotal battleground in a larger contest between advocates of freedom and those who seek to establish "a totalitarian Islamic empire reaching from Spain to Indonesia."
The enthusiasm of the extremists for that vision is not disputed. However unlikely its realization, the ambition may help explain terrorist acts that often appear beyond understanding. When Osama bin Laden called the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon "a very small thing compared to this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years," the reference was to the aftermath of World War I, when the last caliphate was suspended as European powers divided up the Middle East. Al Qaeda named its Internet newscast, which debuted in September, 'The Voice of the Caliphate.'"

"Chief judge in Saddam's trial poised to withdraw" (James Hider, The Times, 2006/01/14)
"The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial for mass murder, who has clashed with the defiant dictator in court, plans to quit the case that has been marred by the murder of two defence lawyers, the death of a key prosecution witness and international criticism of the procedures.
A source close to Rizgar Amin disclosed last night that the stress of the job was too much for the Kurdish judge, who has become well known in Iraq for his live television arguments with Saddam.
“He wants to withdraw,” the source told the Reuters news agency, adding that the judge would stay on for the next hearing, due on January 24. The source said that Mr Amin would clarify his reasons for quitting after the hearing but that the main reason was the hardship of the job. “It is too difficult,” the source added.
The departure of the chief judge would be a further setback to the trial after another of the five judges stepped down when he discovered that he was related to the victims of one of the defendants."

"Sources: Airstrike may have killed bin Laden's No. 2" (CNN.com, 2006/01/14)
"Ayman al-Zawahiri -- Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in the al Qaeda terrorist network -- was the target of a CIA airstrike Friday in a remote Pakistani village and may have been among those killed, knowledgeable U.S. sources told CNN.
There has been no confirmation that al-Zawahiri was killed in the attack, which took place in the village of Damadola, near the Afghan border.
However, the sources said there was intelligence suggesting he was in one of the buildings hit during the strike.
Pakistani officials were at the scene, trying to determine if al-Zawahiri was killed, the U.S. sources told CNN.
Contacted by CNN, Pakistan's information minister could not confirm that al-Zawahiri had been the target of a CIA strike. Both the Pentagon and the White House declined to comment on the reports."

Friday, January 13, 2006

News and commentary:

"Right honourable? Galloway eats out of Lenska's hands"
(The Daily Mail, 2006/01/13)

"Catty Galloway 'made me cringe'" (The Daily Mail, 2006/01/13)
"The Government Chief Whip has launched a petition calling on Celebrity Big Brother contestant George Galloway to get back to work saying his latest TV antics had made her "cringe".
In a cheap publicity stunt, Hilary Armstrong, the Labour MP for North-West Durham, began the petition urging Mr Galloway to "respect his constituents, not his ego" in his Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in East London.
Yesterday the Respect MP was pretending to be a cat, purring and licking imaginary milk from the hands of actress Rula Lenska as he missed the vote in the Commons on the Crossrail project which affects his voters.
Ms Armstrong said: "It made me cringe. "I'm absolutely bemused that he decided to do something where he is uncontactable by the people he represents or works for.
"Something serious could happen here today and no-one can contact him, he could not say or do anything - and that to me seems a bit strange for someone who is, and has wanted to be, a publicly-elected official." (Note: The Daily Ablution has more, including a video. See also: "George Galloway - the joke wears thin" (Johann Hari, The Independent/johannhari.com, 2006/01/08))

"Defiant Iran threatens to halt nuclear cooperation" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/13)
"TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran threatened to stop cooperating with the UN atomic watchdog over its controversial nuclear program as US
President George W. Bush said it would be "logical" to refer Tehran to the Security Council.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said "all voluntary means of cooperation" would end if Iran was referred, possibly indicating a halt to snap UN checks of its nuclear sites or even a resumption of uranium enrichment.
"It's logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic" efforts to end the crisis "be sent to the United Nations Security Council," Bush told reporters at the White House after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. ...
Ahmadinejad vowed not to give "one iota" on its nuclear program, especially efforts to master the fuel cycle.
"They (the Europeans) tell us to give up nuclear energy (development) and in return promise to give us the nuclear fuel... but they do not even give us vital medicines, how can we trust them," the student agency ISNA quoted him as saying.
"If the dossier is sent to the Security Council, the European countries will lose the means which are currently at their disposal," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
"The government will be obliged, in conformity with the law adopted by parliament, to end all its voluntary measures of cooperation," he warned."

"'Munich,' the Travesty" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2006/01/13)
"Spielberg makes the Holocaust the engine of Zionism and its justification. Which, of course, is the Palestinian narrative. Indeed, it is the classic narrative for anti-Zionists, most recently the president of Iran, who says that Israel should be wiped off the map. And why not? If Israel is nothing more than Europe's guilt trip for the Holocaust, then why should Muslims have to suffer a Jewish state in their midst?
It takes a Hollywood ignoramus to give flesh to the argument of a radical anti-Semitic Iranian. Jewish history did not begin with Kristallnacht. The first Zionist Congress occurred in 1897. The Jews fought for and received recognition for the right to establish a "Jewish national home in Palestine" from Britain in 1917 and from the League of Nations in 1922, two decades before the Holocaust. ...
Munich, the massacre, had only modest success in launching the Palestinian cause with the blood of 11 Jews. "Munich," the movie, has now made that success complete 33 years later. No longer is it crude, grainy TV propaganda. "Munich" now enjoys high cinematic production values and the imprimatur of Steven Spielberg, no less, carrying the original terrorists' intended message to every theater in the world.
This is hardly surprising, considering that "Munich's" case for the moral bankruptcy of the Israeli cause -- not just the campaign to assassinate Munich's planners but the entire enterprise of Israel itself -- is so thorough that the movie concludes with the lead Mossad assassin, seared by his experience, abandoning Israel forever. Where does the hero resettle? In the only true home for the Jew of conscience, sensitivity and authenticity: Brooklyn."

"Cheers and petals for the Turk who shot the Pope" (Kate Connolly, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/01/13)
"Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish nationalist who shot Pope John Paul II, was showered with petals by supporters after being released from prison after 25 years.
The man responsible for one of the 20th century's most notorious assassination attempts shook hands with guards before being driven away from Kartal high-security jail in Istanbul yesterday.
Dressed in jeans, he said nothing to journalists but held aloft a magazine showing a photograph of his meeting with the late Pope in jail in Italy at which John Paul forgave him. The headline read: "Why forgive?"
Onlookers watched from nearby balconies and Right-wing well-wishers, including a convicted hijacker, cheered, waved flags and threw red and yellow carnations at the car which whisked him away.
Agca spent most of his jail term in Italy. He returned to Turkey in 2000 where he would have served sentences until at least 2016 for other crimes, including a journalist's murder in 1979.
But a recent change in the law ensured Agca, now 48, received an amnesty."

"Hamza 'backed non-Muslim killing'" (BBC News, 2006/01/13)
Abu Hamza II: "Controversial cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri preached that killing non-Muslims was justified even for no reason, the jury at the Old Bailey has heard.
The court was played a videotape of a sermon Mr Abu Hamza gave in 1999.
"Killing a Kafir [infidel] for any reason you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it," he was recorded as saying.
The 47-year-old, from west London, denies 15 charges, including soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.
A video of Mr Abu Hamza's talk given in September 1999 called "Adherence to Islam in the Western World" was played to jurors on the third day of his trial.
In it he says: 'Killing an adulterer, even if he is a Muslim is OK. Killing a Kafir who is fighting you is OK.'"

"Abu Hamza's video 'call to arms'" (Sean O’Neill, The Times, 2006/01/13)
Abu Hamza I: "The key evidence in the prosecution case against him is contained in video and audio tapes of sermons and lectures delivered by Abu Hamza between 1997 and 2000. The first of these to be aired was recorded seven years ago at a public meeting in Whitechapel, East London. ...
In one long passage, responding to a request from an audience member for a “clear instruction” on how to wage jihad, Abu Hamza was specific about the need for violence. He said: “The first thing to do, number one, to be trained of what you can do. There’s no real need to go and train for tanks and aeroplanes, where are you going to find these, you can’t buy these in a market, you can’t make them yourselves.
To be trained of what is available to you, this is number one. Number two, to monitor the targets which are the enemies of Islam . . . every court is a target and every brothel is a target. This is from the Shawkat al-Nekaya, the needle of bleeding the enemy. You have to bleed the enemy, whether you work alone, you work with a group or you work with your own family.”
The war against the unbeliever must be fought, Abu Hamza stated, 'until you see the Khilafa sitting in the White House ruling from there like the Prophet Muhammad said, that Allah showed him the Earth, that Allah told him that the whole Earth will be for Muslims, booty for Islam.'" (See also: "Muslim cleric 'told followers to kill Jews and non-believers'" (Simon Freeman, The Times, 2006/01/11))

Thursday, January 12, 2006

News and commentary:

"At Least 345 Dead in Latest Hajj Tragedy" (Salah Nasrawi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/12)
"MINA, Saudi Arabia - Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj tripped over luggage Thursday, causing a crush in which at least 345 people were killed despite Saudi attempts to prevent stampedes that have plagued the annual event.
The stampede occurred as tens of thousands of pilgrims headed toward al-Jamarat, a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said 345 people were killed. More than 1,000 people were injured, said Dr. Abbasi with the Saudi Red Crescent. ...
The site is a notorious bottleneck for the massive crowds that attend the annual hajj pilgrimage and has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244. Seven of the past 17 yearly pilgrimages have seen deadly incidents at al-Jamarat."

"Iran to Host Holocaust Deniers Conference" (Julie Stahl, CNS, 2006/01/12)
"Iran reportedly plans to host a conference of Holocaust deniers in the coming weeks, much to the concern of some Israelis.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked international anger when he said late last year that the Holocaust was a myth and suggested that if Europe were so upset about it, Europe should provide land for a Jewish State. Ahmadinejad's comments came just weeks after he said that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
The Association of Islamic Journalists in Iran has been tasked with putting together an international conference to offer a platform "to examine in-depth this myth" of the Holocaust, according to the Italian News Agency AKI.
Iranian affairs expert Menashe Amir said that he expected prominent Holocaust deniers, representatives from terrorist groups and Muslim extremists from around the world to attend the conference in Iran."

"We should be very worried about Iran" (John Keegan, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/01/12)
"Nevertheless, the West cannot simply let things drift. Military action by whatever agency cannot be written out, but will be a last resort. In the meantime, all means short of military action, including economic and political ostracism and economic sanctions, must be tried, together with the building of alternative oil pipelines to bypass the current routes of oil supply down the Gulf. And, of course, the intensification of anti-terrorist measures.
For if the West is considering military action, so are the ayatollahs. They are the sponsors of much of the insurgency in Iraq and suppliers of the insurgents' weapons. They also have intimate links with most of the world's worst terrorist organisations, including al-Qa'eda and Hezbollah. Iranians may well be the missing link for which MI5 is searching behind the July 7 bombings in London.
Moreover, while Iran has its own armoury of medium-range missiles suitable for nuclear delivery, the ayatollahs are also known to favour the placing of nuclear warheads in target cities by terrorists travelling by car or public transport. This is a bad and worrying time in world affairs."

"Local Insurgents Tell of Clashes With Al Qaeda's Forces in Iraq" (Sabrina Tavernese and Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, 2006/01/12)
"The story told by the two Iraqi guerrillas cut to the heart of the war that Iraqi and American officials now believe is raging inside the Iraqi insurgency.
In October, the two insurgents said in interviews, a group of local fighters from the Islamic Army gathered for an open-air meeting on a street corner in Taji, a city north of Baghdad.
Across from the Iraqis stood the men from Al Qaeda, mostly Arabs from outside Iraq. Some of them wore suicide belts. The men from the Islamic Army accused the Qaeda fighters of murdering their comrades.
"Al Qaeda killed two people from our group," said an Islamic Army fighter who uses the nom de guerre Abu Lil and who claimed that he attended the meeting. "They repeatedly kill our people."
The encounter ended angrily. A few days later, the insurgents said, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the Islamic Army fought a bloody battle on the outskirts of town.
The battle, which the insurgents said was fought on Oct. 23, was one of several clashes between Al Qaeda and local Iraqi guerrilla groups that have broken out in recent months across the Sunni Triangle."

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

News and commentary:

"Man knifes worshippers at Moscow synagogue" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/11)
"MOSCOW (Reuters) - A young man wielding a knife and shouting "Heil Hitler" ran amok in a synagogue in central Moscow on Wednesday,
A U.S., an Israeli and a Tajik citizen were among the eight wounded, Moscow Prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said.
"He stabbed a security guard and ran into the synagogue and started stabbing," said Joseph Kogan, 18, his shirt flecked with blood.
"I grabbed him by the neck and pushed him to the floor. Then I noticed he had a big knife ... People said he was shouting 'Heil Hitler' and 'I'll kill you, I'll kill you'."
Racist attacks have mushroomed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, mostly carried out by young men attracted to extreme right-wing views.
Zuyev said the man was under arrest and promised to bring him to trial as soon as possible.
"He accompanied his actions ... with cries that pointed to national and religious hatred," he told reporters at the scene."

"Danish Prime Minister Shocked at Lies" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/01/11)
An update on the Danish cartoon "scandal": "Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is shocked at the way in which some Muslims are misrepresenting Denmark in the Islamic world. “I am speechless that those people, whom we have given the right to live in Denmark and where they freely have chosen to stay, are now touring Arab countries and inciting antipathy towards Denmark and the Danish people,” Rasmussen told journalists yesterday.
Rasmussen was responding to the recent visits by certain imams, Muslim intellectuals and representatives of Danish Muslim organizations who toured a number of Muslim countries to “explain” the Danish cartoon affair to local political and religious leaders and media. The affair started last September when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of Muhammad.
Meanwhile, after last week’s rejection of their complaint by the public prosecutor, Danish Muslim organisations have announced that they will take the newspaper to the European Court of Human Rights over the controversial publication. ...
Meanwhile the 12 cartoons were published on Tuesday in the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet “in support of the freedom of expression.” Magazinet has received much feedback since publishing the cartoons and the overwhelming majority of it has been positive, thanking the newspaper for its initiative in defense of freedom of expression. Much of it has come from Denmark, but also from e.g. Sweden, Great Britain, Canada and the United States. Yesterday the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet also published the cartoons on its website." (See also: "Denmark Is Unlikely Front in Islam-West Culture War" (Dan Bilefsky, The New York Times, 2006/01/08))

"Muslim cleric 'told followers to kill Jews and non-believers'" (Simon Freeman, The Times, 2006/01/11)
"Abu Hamza, the Muslim cleric, preached "murder and hatred" to his followers, telling them that it was their "religious duty to kill" Jews and other non-Muslims, a court heard today.
The 47-year-old cleric faces an array of charges including incitement to murder, stirring up racial hatred and possession of a document likely to be of use to a terrorist. He denies all the offences.
"The prosecution’s case in a sentence is that the defendant, Sheikh Abu Hamza, was preaching murder and hatred in these talks," David Perry, prosecuting, told an Old Bailey jury as the trial opened. ...
Abu Hamza, also known as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa and Abu Hamza al-Masri, faces nine charges under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 that he solicited others at public meetings to murder Jews and other non-Muslims.
He also faces four charges under the Public Order Act 1986 of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with the intention of stirring up racial hatred".
A further charge alleges that Abu Hamza was in possession of video and audio recordings, which he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred.
The final charge under section 58 of the Terrorism Act accuses him of possession of a document, the ten-volume Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad, which contained information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". All the offences were allegedly committed before May 2004."

"The Real Oppression of Our Time" (Stephen Malone, New York Press, 2006/01/11)
An interview with Paul Berman: "Can anti-totalitarianism ever be a real force on the left again, or will these ideas be confined to clusters of freethinkers and iconoclasts?
I regard myself as of the left, and my complaint about a great many other people on the left is that they are stuck in the past. They are seeing events now through lenses that were ground in the 1960s, and lenses that were ground in the 1960s were partly derived from lenses that were ground in the 1930s that were partly derived from lenses ground in the 19th century.
There’s a way today in which there’s nobody more conservative than a standard leftist. My argument is that a standard leftist is someone to be avoided at all costs. I’m in favor of unstandard leftism, or anti-standard leftism. That ought to mean asking oneself these very fundamental questions, which the people I write about in Power and the Idealists are asking themselves, that have to do with this question of resistance—“What is the real oppression of our time?” Not what some ism tells us is the oppression of our time, but what is actually happening, who are the people that are actually suffering, and can something actually be done to help them? ...
I get accused all the time on the left of not being any different than Bush and the neocons, but that’s not true because I think I’ve laid out some alternative principles that are very different. In Terror and Liberalism I called for a third force or a new radicalism, and that’s asking people to step forward and offer an alternative to Bush and the neocons on the right wing on the one hand, and the antique or conservative left on the other hand. I have to admit I haven’t gotten very far with that." (Hat tip: Harry's Place.)

"'Respected' press still vilifying Sharon" (Tom Gross, Jewish World Review, 2006/01/11)
"'He is the King Kong of massacres' ran the headline of a news report on Sharon on January 8 in The Observer, the Sunday affiliate of Britain's Guardian newspaper, referring to the recently released remake of the 1933 movie classic. "Ariel Sharon, agent of perpetual war," was the headline of an article in the relatively moderate Lebanese paper, the Daily Star, on January 7, 2006, by its editor-at-large and frequent guest on America's NPR, Rami Khouri.
"Sharon's legacy does not include peace," is how a January 5 feature on the BBC News website by Paul Reynolds, the BBC's World Affairs correspondent, was introduced, while Richard Stott's January 8 column on Sharon for the mass circulation (British) Sunday Mirror was titled "Middle Beast." ...
Yet overall, the international coverage of Sharon since his stroke has been relatively kind. Who could have imagined, for example, that the New York Times — which for decades has blackened Sharon's reputation — would run a comparatively complimentary editorial on him by Benny Morris? Who could have imagined that the home page of aljazeera.net would this week show Sharon sitting in a grandfatherly pose looking on as Chanukah candles were lit?
I use the term "relatively kind" because it is important to recall what the coverage of Sharon was like until just a few weeks ago. He was not only reviled in the international media, but frequently portrayed in viciously anti-Semitic terms."

"Iran rips up nuclear deal with West" (Anton La Guardia, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/01/11)
"Iran tore up an international nuclear deal yesterday when it restarted its uranium enrichment programme, setting the stage for a clash with the West.
Teheran's move will intensify fears that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons, a prospect that has become even more alarming after calls by the radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Brushing aside a Russian attempt to resolve the crisis, Iranian officials broke international inspectors' seals on equipment at three sites, including a plant to enrich uranium buried underground at Natanz.
The uranium enrichment process can be used to make material for nuclear reactors or atomic bombs. ...
Mr Straw said Iran's move was tantamount to enrichment. America and Europe will mount a diplomatic campaign to convince Russia, China and key non-aligned countries to agree, or at least abstain, in a vote to report Iran to the Security Council."

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

News and commentary:

"When even the pope has to whisper" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2006/01/10)
"Islam was founded as a theocracy, such that the Western innovation of church-state separation remains alien to its culture. Is it possible for Islam to reform? ... A very few writers, including this one, have rejected the possibility of Islamic reformation, to the stony contempt of universally accepted opinion.
Now Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform. This we learn from the transcript of a January 5 US radio interview with one of Benedict's students and friends, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, posted on the Asia Times Online forum by a sharp-eyed reader. For the pope to refute the fundamental premise of US policy is news of inestimable strategic importance, yet a Google News scan reveals that not a single media outlet has taken notice of what Fessio told interviewer Hugh Hewitt last week. No matter: still and small as Benedict's voice might be, it carries further than earthquake and whirlwind.
Fessio described a private seminar on the subject of Islam last year at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence: ...

And immediately the holy father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said, well, there's a fundamental problem with that because, he said, in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Mohammed, but it's an eternal word. It's not Mohammed's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it, whereas in Christianity, and Judaism, the dynamism's completely different, that God has worked through his creatures [emphasis added]. ...

Strange as it may seem, the pope must whisper when he wants to state agreement with conventional Muslim opinion, namely that the Koranic prophecy is fixed for all time such that Islam cannot reform itself. If Islam cannot change, then a likely outcome will be civilizational war, something too horrific for US leaders to contemplate." (See also: "Father Joseph Fessio, a student and friend of Pope Benedict XVI, on the problems Christianity, especially in Europe, faces with the spread of Islam" (Radio Blogger, 2006/01/05))

"The Mystical Menace of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2006/01/10)
"Mahdaviat derives from mahdi, Arabic for "rightly-guided one," a major figure in Islamic eschatology. He is, explains the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world." The concept originated in the earliest years of Islam and, over time, became particularly identified with the Shi‘ite branch. Whereas "it never became an essential part of Sunni religious doctrine," continues the encyclopedia, "Belief in the coming of the Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet became a central aspect of the faith in radical Shi‘ism," where it is also known as the return of the Twelfth Imam.
Mahdaviat means "belief in and efforts to prepare for the Mahdi."
In a fine piece of reporting, Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor shows the centrality of mahdaviat in Mr. Ahmadinejad's outlook and explores its implications for his policies. ...
Mahdaviat has direct and ominous implications for the U.S.-Iran confrontation, says an Ahmadinejad supporter, Hamidreza Taraghi of Iran's hard-line Islamic Coalition Society. It implies seeing Washington as the rival to Tehran and even as a false Mahdi. For Mr. Ahmadinejad, the top priority is to challenge America, and specifically to create a powerful model state based on "Islamic democracy" by which to oppose it. Mr. Taraghi predicts trouble ahead unless Americans fundamentally change their ways.
I'd reverse that formulation. The most dangerous leaders in modern history are those (such as Hitler) equipped with a totalitarian ideology and a mystical belief in their own mission. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fulfills both these criteria, as revealed by his U.N. comments. That combined with his expected nuclear arsenal make him an adversary who must be stopped, and urgently." (See also: "Waiting for the rapture in Iran" (Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 2005/12/21))

"Lessons learned (and not learned) from the French riots" (Cal Thomas, Town Hall, 2006/01/10)
The great irony is that a couple of decades of liberal, anti-racist mass immigration policies in Western Europe have made Le Pen & Co. look like prophets rather than the racist bigots that they truly are:
"PARIS - The French have had two months to sort out the lessons of last fall's riots in predominately Muslim neighborhoods. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin says the rioting was caused by racial bias, lack of business opportunity and insufficient education for immigrant children. He vows tax breaks for business, better education for immigrant children and tougher enforcement of anti-bias laws. For this conclusion, the French media, which is more left wing than the American press, praised him.
The founder and leader of France's Front National (FN) party, 77-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, has reached the opposite conclusion, as might be expected of a man who has warned for decades about the dangers of unrestrained immigration.
Le Pen claims that the French media marginalized him, even during the riots, though FN has made immigration the center of its platform. During a recent interview with me at his home, Le Pen said, "The politically correct forbids any link be established between immigration and the riots. Everybody knows it, but you can't say it."
To Le Pen, the facts are indisputable. The migration of Muslims to France since the 1950s from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal is larger than any other influx in France's history. New immigrants are young and have a higher birth rate than the French. There are about 200,000 abortions a year in France and the government has begun offering to pay French women to have more babies. At current rates, the Muslim population in France will grow from its current 8 percent - that's about 5 million of France's 60 million people - to a majority in 25 years. French culture, possibly French secularism and liberty, cannot be sustained in the face of such demographic facts."

"'Hearts and Minds' in Iraq" (Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Washington Post, 2006/01/10)
"Once again we are confronted with stories about how the Pentagon and its ubiquitous private contractors are undermining free inquiry in Iraq. "Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda," reports the New York Times. Journalists, intellectuals or clerics taking money from Uncle Sam or, in this case, a Washington-based public relations company, is seen as morally troubling and counterproductive. ...
Surely democracy in Iraq is at least as shaky as it was in Western Europe after the defeat of Hitler. The real complaint that ought to be made against the Bush administration is that it has allowed such important work to be contracted to a public relations firm (in the case cited above, the Lincoln Group) that has done a poor job of protecting anonymity. Nevertheless, one has to give the Pentagon credit: It seems to be the only government agency that is at least trying to develop Iraqi cadres to wage the "hearts and minds" campaign. The CIA seems to have all but abandoned its historical mission in this area.
The Bush administration shouldn't flinch from increasing its covert "propaganda" efforts in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The history in the last great war of ideas is firmly on its side."

Added in archive:
"The crisis facing the Middle East" (The Business, 2006/01/08)
"Waiting for the rapture in Iran" (Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 2005/12/21)

Monday, January 9, 2006

News and commentary:

"Iranian Pilgrims in Mecca Shout "Death to America, the Great Satan" in an Anti-American Rally" (MEMRI TV, 2006/01/09)
"Following are excerpts from a rally of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca, aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, and on Al-'Alam TV, on January 9, 2006.
Crowd: Israel is the enemy of Allah.
Man: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.
Crowd: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.
Man: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.
Crowd: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.
Man: (Chopped off) from the land of the believers.
Crowd: From the land of the believers.
Man: The Audience will now split into two groups: One group will settle the score with America, and the other will settle the score with Israel. This group now: Death to America!
Crowd: Death to America!
Man: Death to Israel!
Crowd: Death to Israel! Death to America!
Man: Death to America!
Crowd: Death to America!
Man: Death to America!
Crowd: Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel!
Man: All together now: Death to America! Death to Israel!
Crowd: Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel!"

"Rockets against Israel "ordered by Bin Laden": Iraqi Al-Qaeda chief" (AFP/Breitbart.com, 2006/01/09)
"Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in an audio tape put onto the Internet that rockets had been fired at Israel from Lebanon last month "on the instructions" of the network's overall chief Osama bin Laden.
"The rocket firing at the ancestors of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon was only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy (...). All that was on the instructions of the sheikh of the mujahedeen, Osama bin laden, may God preserve him," said the voice attributed to the Jordanian extremist.
The tape was placed on the site normally used by his group, the Organization of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which had claimed responsibility for the rockets in an on-line statement on December 29. ...
The Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader then laid down two conditions for giving up the jihad.
"First, chase out the invaders from our territory in Palestine, in Iraq and everywhere in Islamic land.
"Second, instal sharia (Islamic law) on the entire Earth and spread Islamic justice there (...). The attacks will not cease until after the victory of Islam and the setting up of sharia," he swore.
Zarqawi concluded: 'O young Muslims everywhere in the world, and in particular in the neighbouring countries (of Iraq) and in Yemen, I recommend jihad to you (...). O nation of Islam, America is today drawing its last breath.'"

"Hamas launches TV station in Gaza" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/09)
"The Hamas terror group has launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip, a first step toward setting up a satellite station like the one Hizbullah runs in Lebanon, Hamas officials said Monday.
The Al-Aksa Television station is being set up just weeks before the Palestinians' Jan. 25 parliamentary election, and if up and running in time, could help Hamas in its campaign, analysts said. Hamas presents a serious challenge to the ruling Fatah party, which has led the Palestinian Authority since its establishment in 1994.
The station broadcast a half-hour of readings from the Islamic holy book, the Quran, on Sunday, but nothing else due to technical difficulties, said a Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue.
During down times, a picture of the Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, one of Islam's holiest shrines, fills the screen.
Once officially launched, Al-Aksa Television will be the first private station in Gaza. Hamas says it wants the station to be high-tech and modern, not like the stodgy, state-run Arab stations."

"In nuclear challenge, Iran bets world will blink first" (USA Today, 2006/01/09)
Iran III: "Iran's extremist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man hellbent on making his country even more fundamentalist and intolerant, is forcing the world to confront an uncomfortable, 21st century nuclear reality.
Iran said it will resume nuclear fuel research Monday, despite Western warnings. Iran said it will resume nuclear fuel research Monday, despite Western warnings.
On Monday, largely under his direction, Iran resumed suspect nuclear activities that it had put on hold, as various countries tried diplomacy and creative compromises.
Ahmadinejad is essentially playing a game of chicken, daring the United States and others to act with one or all of their three available brakes: diplomacy, sanctions and military action. He is gambling, with good odds, that they will fail. ...
An all-out international effort is needed to stop Iran's nuclear program. If that failed and Iraq acquired nuclear weapons, the likeliest outcome would be a Middle East living with the Cold War concept known as mutually assured destruction (MAD). If one nuclear power were to use a weapon, it would bring retaliatory nuclear destruction.
Not a pleasant thought. MAD assumes rational leadership, not rule by fanatics. What if a leader such as Ahmadinejad, who calls for the destruction of Israel and contends the Holocaust is a myth, were to turn a whole country into a suicide bomber? Sobering fuel for thought — and action."

"Five nuclear powers send messages to Iran: US" (Sue Pleming, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/09)
Iran II: "The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have sent strong messages telling Iran to halt plans for nuclear fuel research and resume talks with European powers, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the so-called P5 -- Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China -- had sent separate notes to Tehran in recent days over its plans to resume research on nuclear fuel. ...
Iran confirmed on Monday it would resume research on nuclear fuel, which diplomats have said would prompt a report to the
International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board, which would then call an emergency meeting.
The diplomatic source said the emergency session could be held as soon as a week from now. That meeting could determine whether Iran would be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
"There is some momentum now for action," said the Western diplomat, adding that European nations in particular were growing increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear plans."

"Target Iran" (Arnaud de Borchgrave, The Washington Times, 2006/01/09)
Iran I: "If anyone has any doubt about the kind of nuclear work Iran has been doing for the past 18 years, it must be a case of naivete compounded by gullibility.
Nor should there be any uncertainty about what Iran's mullahocracy would do with a nuclear weapon. All of Iran's leaders since the Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini replaced the shah in February 1979 have made it clear the objective is Israel's destruction.
In Iran's last presidential race, Western governments and media favored Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was a "known" quantity and a "moderate." Michael Rubin, editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, burst that soap bubble.
Four years ago, when he took the podium at Tehran University to deliver the Friday sermon, Mr. Rafsanjani predicted the Islamic world one day would be equipped with nuclear weapons only Israel possesses in the Middle East. At that point, he explained, "the strategy of the imperialists will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything." And, added the "moderate" former president of Iran, 'It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality.'"

Added in archive:
"Norwegian minister apologises for boycott call" (EJP, 2006/01/08)
"Norwegian minister: boycott Israel" (EJP, 2006/01/06)
"Norwegian finance minister causes stir, supports boycott of Israel" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/05)

 

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

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

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

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

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

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

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