Archived news and commentary: December 23 - 29, 2002

2002/12/30 - 2003/01/05
2002/12/23 - 2002/12/29
2002/12/16 - 2002/12/22
2002/12/09 - 2002/12/15
2002/12/02 - 2002/12/08
2002/11/25 - 2002/12/01
2002/11/18 - 2002/11/24
2002/11/11 - 2002/11/17
2002/11/04 - 2002/11/10
2002/10/28 - 2002/11/03
2002/10/21 - 2002/10/27
2002/10/14 - 2002/10/20
2002/10/07 - 2002/10/13
2002/09/30 - 2002/10/06

Sunday, December 29, 2002

News and commentary:

"On Ignoring Anti-Semitism" (Ruth Wisse, Harvard Israel Review, from the Fall 2002 issue)
A must-read critique of Leon Wieseltier's "Hitler Is Dead": "Unlike the Germans who unleashed their war against the Jews under cover of a wider European conflict, the Arab nations, through the PLO, placed the destruction of Israel explicitly at the heart of their mission. The PLO's charter, a public document, defines the Jews as "not a people with an independent identity," branding them as colonial occupiers of land that belongs eternally to the Palestinian people, and their state as an illegitimate "entity" that needs to be eliminated. On these grounds, the PLO not only claimed the moral right to kill Jews but turned their murder into a sacred cause. ...
To hold the Jews responsible for the aggression against them, as Judt does; to affirm the peaceful intentions of Arab terrorists, as Fein does; to transform American Jews who recently pimped for the PLO into paranoid hysterics of the Right, as Wieseltier does, is to disfigure political reality beyond recognition. Even if the Jews were the most rotten and misguided people on earth, they do not number 280 million in nationality (let alone one billion in religious affiliation); they have not organized their politics around the destruction of 21 Arab countries, or trained a generation of suicide bombers to achieve that goal; they have not used the United Nations as a medium for spreading a genocidal ideology around the globe, or their synagogues to preach "death to the Arabs!" Jews did not bomb America in the name of the Torah, or foment anti-Muslim sentiment throughout Europe." (See also: "Hitler Is Dead" (Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic, 2002/05/16))

"FBI seeks 5 men in U.S. illegally" (CNN.com, 2002/12/29)
"The FBI said Sunday it wants the public's help in finding five men who may have entered the United States illegally within the past week. The FBI said the names were gathered in ongoing investigations, but said it had no specific information the men were connected to terrorist activities. A caption accompanying photos of the men on the FBI's Web site reads: "War on Terrorism." The FBI identified the five men as Abid Noraiz Ali, 25; Iftikhar Khozmai Ali, 21; Mustafa Khan Owasi, 33; Adil Pervez, 19; Akbar Jamal, 28. Sources said that if the men are in the United States, authorities want to know why and to question them for additional leads in the investigation of the al Qaeda terrorist network. ... The men may have entered the United States from Canada on or around December 24, the FBI said. Sources said a good chance exists the men had already entered the country by the time the information on them was developed in the past week." (See also: "FBI Seeking Information" (FBI, December 2002))

"Back to Iraq as a human shield" (Ken Nichols O'Keefe, The Observer, 2002/12/29)
O'Keefe is a Gulf War vet who's returning to Iraq as a human shield. As Tim Blair comments - "Good thinking, chief. You disagree with your taxes paying for US nuclear weapons, but think Iraq should be allowed to have them. That path surely will lead peace and love.":
"It is we who are privileged to live in so-called "democracies" and so we are collectively guilty for what we allow to be done in our name, to both to the civilian population of Iraq and to others around the world. Ignorance is no defence. The existence of other tyrants, worse or not, is no defence. ... In 1999 I renounced my US citizenship in shame and disgust having arrived at the logical, albeit belated, conclusion that my government was not worthy of my funding - through taxes - and certainly not my allegiance. Paying for roads and schools is one thing, paying for "Weapons of Mass Destruction" to the point of insanity and nurturing global oppression is another thing all together. No moral being can be compelled to fund war, death and murder. ... A leader of a nation with thousands of nuclear weapons – and who has declared his right to use them - is ready to pulverize one of the poorest nations on the planet on the grounds that they may be planning to develop similar weapons themselves."

"Report Says Africans Harbored Al Qaeda" (Douglas Farah, The Washington Post, 2002/12/29)
"An aggressive year-long European investigation into al Qaeda financing has found evidence that two West African governments hosted the senior terrorist operatives who oversaw a $20 million diamond-buying spree that effectively cornered the market on the region's precious stones. Investigators from several countries concluded that President Charles Taylor of Liberia received a $1 million payment for arranging to harbor the operatives, who were in the region for at least two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The terrorists moved between a protected area in Liberia and the presidential compound in neighboring Burkina Faso, investigators say."

Saturday, December 28, 2002

News and commentary:

"Mosque warns against saying Merry Christmas" (Catherine Porter, Toronto Star, 2002/12/28)
"A group of Toronto Muslims reacted with outrage yesterday after hearing that an Etobicoke mosque issued a warning to followers that wishing someone a Merry Christmas is like congratulating a murderer. The notice went out on the Khalid Bin Al-Walid mosque's Internet message service on Christmas day, stating that congratulating non-Muslims on their festivals "is like congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone or having illicit sexual relations and so on." Whoever wishes someone a Merry Christmas, it goes on to say, 'exposes himself to the wrath and anger of Allaah.'" (Note: Found via Little Green Footballs.)

"Yemeni Politician Killed After Speech" (Ahmed Al-Haj, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/28)
"A gunman shot and killed a senior Yemeni politician after he spoke as a guest at an Islamic party's congress Saturday, security officials said. Jarallah Omar, the deputy secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party, was shot minutes after he delivered a speech at the annual congress of the Islamic Reform Party in the capital, San'a. Omar died of his wounds on the way to hospital, said Seif Tayel, a Socialist party official. In a statement, the party condemned the shooting as a "politically-motivated assasination." A senior official in the Islamic Reform Party said the attacker apparently shot Omar because of the politician's secular ideology. An Interior Ministry official identified the assailant as Ali al-Jarallah and said he was a member of the Islamic Reform Party, the official Yemeni news agency Saba reported. The Islamic Reform Party denied he was a member. ... During the questioning, al-Jarallah said people like Omar belonged to "secular infidel parties and had to be killed," an official in the Islamic Reform Party said on condition of anonymity."

"Isn't She Cute?" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2002/12/28)
Johnson on an article in The New York Times about the author of "Dreaming of Palestine": "Why is it bizarre? Because in the entire article, there is not one mention of the appalling fact that the main character of this cute little Egyptian teenager's book is a jihad suicide bomber who eventually blows himself up to kill Israelis! Not one mention. Here's how the NYT's Frank Bruni describes Ghazi and her appalling terror manual for teens: ''It was very unexpected,' said Miss Ghazy, now 16, during a recent interview here, as she smiled sweetly and chewed a piece of gum. "I was a little star." But her success is not a simple tale of precocious achievement, and the fact of her book is perhaps less interesting than its content and fallout. The novel, "Dreaming of Palestine," mounts a fiery case against the Israelis' treatment of Palestinians, whom Miss Ghazy portrays as pitiable victims of unrelenting terror.'" (See also: "Dreaming of Palestine, Teenager Writes a Novel" (Frank Bruni, The New York Times, 2002/12/28) and "Suicide Bomber: Heroic Role Model for Young French Readers in New Book" (Simon Wiesenthal Center, 2002/12/06))

"'What would Muhammad drive?'" (Art Moore, WorldNetDaily, 2002/12/28)
"A Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist is under fire from Muslims for his depiction of a Middle Eastern-looking man behind the steering wheel of a nuclear-bomb laden truck under the headline, "What would Muhammad drive?" The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim World League are demanding an apology from Doug Marlette's syndicator, Tribune Media Services, and from his employer, the Tallahassee Democrat. The cartoon shows a Ryder rental truck like the one used by convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. In a phone interview, Marlette told WorldNetDaily he would not apologize, though he has received more than 4,500 e-mails from angry Muslims, with some threats of death and mutilation."

"U.S. Orders Thousands of Troops to Gulf" (John J. Lumpkin, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/28)
"The Pentagon has ordered a major military force to the Persian Gulf in preparation for a possible war with Iraq. Thousands of troops, two aircraft carrier battle groups and scores of combat aircraft have received orders since Christmas to ready themselves to head to the region in January and February, defense officials said Friday. Military personnel will go to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, among other locations. The Bush administration waited until after the holiday to issue the orders, which alert units across the United States and possibly overseas to prepare for deployment to the Persian Gulf, officials said. Officials said tens of thousands of military personnel will receive orders to go to the region, but a precise figure was unavailable."

"Moscow points to Grozny's Arab tie" (CNN.com, 2002/12/28)
"Terrorist acts targeting Grozny are being financed by unnamed Arab countries, Moscow's leading anti-espionage agent says. The head of the anti-terrorist branch for the northern Caucuses, Col. Ilya Shabalkin, said orders were coming from a well-known rebel, Shamil Basayev, and a representative of the "Muslim Brotherhood" - Abu Al Walid , CNN's Jill Dougherty reported. Military intelligence, he says, recently learned that Abu Al Walid was ordering a series of terrorists attacks on Grozny. The attacks are being financed by several Arab countries, which were not named."

Friday, December 27, 2002

News and commentary:

"Iraqi scientist gives 'key information'" (BBC News, 2002/12/27)
"UN weapons inspectors have said a key Iraqi scientist gave them details of a military programme that could be a "possible prelude to a clandestine nuclear programme". ... In his daily report on inspections, Mr Ueki said that the scientist "provided technical details of a military programme". "This programme has attracted considerable attention as a possible prelude to a clandestine nuclear programme," he said. "The answers will be of great use in completing the IAEA assessment." The scientist was not identified by the inspectors, but the Iraqi Foreign Ministry named him as Dr Kazem Jamil, who worked at the al-Raya plant that produced aluminium for use in the manufacture short-range rockets."

"Palestinian Attack Kills 4 in Settlement" (Moshe Edri, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/28)
"Two Palestinians burst into this West Bank settlement Friday and opened fire on Jewish seminary students gathered for a Sabbath dinner in a communal dining hall, killing four Israelis and wounding eight, the army said. The rampage, which left the two gunmen dead, ended a relative lull in Palestinian attacks. It came a day after Israeli troops killed eight Palestinians in arrest raids, and hours after the Islamic militant group Hamas announced it would carry out more bombings and shootings. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attack on Otniel, a small settlement near the Palestinian town of Hebron. A spokesman in Damascus, Syria, told the Qatar-based TV satellite station Al Jazeera that the group was avenging the killing of Hamza Abu Roub, a militia leader in the town of Jenin, on Thursday."

"46 dead in Grozny blasts" (CNN.com, 2002/12/27)
"Suicide bombers set off about a ton of explosives outside Chechnya's government building in central Grozny on Friday, killing 46 people and wounding 76 others, the Interior Ministry said. Russian officials said five people have been rescued and 38 bodies recovered from the building's rubble. The Kavkaz Center, which operates a Chechen Islamic Web site, said Chechen "shaheeds" (martyrs) were responsible for the explosions. ... Two blasts, 30 seconds apart, reduced part of the pro-Russian administration's headquarters to rubble, leaving a crater 30 feet wide and 12 feet deep in front of the building. The bombers had driven a truck and an all-terrain vehicle laden with explosives past at least three checkpoints, Russian officials said."

"Hamas Calls for More Attacks on Israel" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/27)
"The leader of Hamas told 30,000 supporters Friday that the group will keep carrying out suicide bombings and shootings in Israel, despite talks between the Islamic militant group and Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction on suspending such attacks. A pledge by Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin that "the march of martyrs will move forward" drew cheers from the crowd packed into a soccer stadium in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighborhood, a Hamas stronghold. ... Yassin, spiritual leader of the group, did not send any conciliatory signals Friday. "The march of martyrs will move forward," Yassin told the rally. "Resistance will move forward. Jihad will continue, and martyrdom operations (suicide attacks) will continue until the full liberation of Palestine." ... Yet in a concession to the Palestinian Authority, Friday's rally did not feature white-robed would-be suicide bombers - a staple of previous Hamas gatherings. In entertaining the crowd, activists blew up a large model of an Israeli tank and burned U.S., British and Israeli flags."

"The Ginnosar File - The $300 Million Affair: How a Former Senior General Security Service Official Set Up Arafat's Secret Financial Empire – The Full Story" (Ben Caspit, MEMRI, 2002/12/27)
Translation of a report which originally was published in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv (2002/12/02): "Uzrad Lev – formerly a military intelligence officer, adjutant to two chiefs of staff, businessman, and formerly Yossi Ginnosar's co-manager of the Palestinian Authority's secret bank account in Switzerland – confesses: "I couldn't go on living with the feeling that I had been party – albeit completely passive – to illegal or unethical actions, including the payment of under-the-table bribes, conflict of interest, and problematical conduct." He decided to tell Maariv everything: Ginnosar's divided loyalties, the corruption, the hundreds of millions which suddenly disappeared, and his failure to warn the authorities that some of the money may have been used to fund terrorism. ARC was the name Ginnosar gave to the management company he set up with Uzrad Lev. In Hebrew, it is an acronym for "We Want Money." At the height of their activities, the prime minister's special envoy [Ginnosar] and the intelligence officer [Lev] made millions (of shekels), though this was only a tiny percentage of the PA funds which the two men managed to siphon off through the prestigious Lombard Odier & Cie bank in Switzerland into a complex network of holding companies and stock-market investments. Their partner in all this was Arafat's confidant and financial advisor Muhammad Rasheed. These peace speculators amassed millions as hunger intensified in the streets of Gaza, and they went on cutting their deals even after the Intifada had begun to spread alarm and dismay through the streets of Israel."

"Crazy Korea 'Cures'" (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 2002/12/27)
"For 20 years now, Great Leader and Dear Leader have been using the same system of blackmail to extract money and technology from the rest of the world. It's worked every time, even with Bush's father. So why, Kim must reason, wouldn't it work now? ... Now here we are. We know North Korea has at least one nuclear weapon - and that, unchecked, it will be able to make 50 nuclear bombs a year by 2009. Yet influential voices continue to insist that all we need to do is continue to give Dear Leader money - the very money he uses to subsidize his nation's efforts to become a major nuclear power. Hence, Tom Friedman in the New York Times: "When dealing with a heavily armed crazy state like North Korea. . . . All you can do is is shrink its nuclear programs in exchange for food, and expand trade and investment to alleviate some of its abject poverty - so when it does collapse, it does the least damage possible." North Korea is the perfect object lesson in the failure of appeasement: Without appeasement, it would not be a nuclear power today. And yet the Friedmans of the world keep insisting that appeasement is the only workable strategy. So who's really crazy here? Dear Leader - or the appeasers?" (See also: "Crazy in the 'Hood" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2002/11/20))

"Leftist Lies About the War" (Preston McConkie, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/12/27)
"Almost invariably, when protesters cry "peace" they mainly mean peace for their own minds – absolution from sacrifice or the need to make difficult choices. To that end, they are willing to wage total war against the truth. From accusations that America is starving Iraqi children, to accusations that Bush plan a silent genocide, to accusations that multibillion-dollar wars are fought over $1 billion construction projects, their version of reality requires reassigning motives and responsibility, downplaying or exaggerating facts, and fabricating fantastic lies. ...
The current war is generally a popular one with Americans galvanized by 9/11, so its opponents attack from three directions. The first employs exaggerations or fabrications about America's role in world tragedies, ranging from ad nauseam recitations of single incidents (Japanese internments, Mai Lai) to creative math depicting Americans as mass murderers surpassing Stalin. The second requires minimizing, dismissing or shifting blame for real atrocities committed by enemy regimes. The third requires twisting the motives for a war so the cause eclipses the outcome. The goal is a policy of abandonment. Renouncing U.S. interests is an article of faith among war protesters, and if that means abandoning the victims of tyranny as well, then it's a question of tough priorities – and accepting whatever collateral damage it takes to give them a warm feeling of moral superiority inside."

"Iraq's Thwarted Ambitions Litter an Old Nuclear Plant" (John F. Burns, The New York Times, 2002/12/27)
A report from Tuwaitha, Iraq: "This was Mr. Hussein's Los Alamos, the site where he hoped to build Iraq's, and the Arab world's, first nuclear weapon. Behind the berm, deep in underground bunkers, the Iraqis have now admitted, scientists came close, in the months before the Persian Gulf war in 1991, to building at least one atomic bomb the size of the one used on Nagasaki in 1945. ... At these sites - in their scale, in the impenetrable secrecy that enveloped them in the past, in their lethal sophistication - there is a story of Shakespearean proportions, for what it reveals of the scope of Mr. Hussein's goals. It was in places like Tuwaitha that he aimed to rewrite the political map of the Middle East, by equipping Iraq with weapons available to no other Arab state; by confronting American power; and ultimately - a goal avowed countless times in his 23-year rule - by leading Arab armies to obliterate the state of Israel."

"Pyongyang may have A-bomb in 30 days" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2002/12/27)
"Restarting its nuclear reactor could enable North Korea to produce nuclear weapons in as little as 30 days, according to one of Britain’s leading nuclear experts. John Large, who has worked with the Royal Navy, advised Russia on the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk, and is on the UK Nuclear Co-ordinating Group, said that North Korea’s only motive for restarting the reactor was to produce nuclear weapons. The North Koreans moved 1,000 fresh fuel rods containing uranium to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor yesterday, saying that they wanted to restart it to produce electricity."

"N Korea 'to expel UN nuclear inspectors'" (The Guardian, 2002/12/27)
"North Korea said today it would expel UN inspectors who have been monitoring its frozen nuclear facilities, according to the South Korean news agency. North Korea will remove two inspectors dispatched by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, the national news agency Yonhap said, quoting a statement carried by the communist state's official news agency, KCNA. Yonhap, which monitors the North Korean news agency, did not provide further details."

Thursday, December 26, 2002

News and commentary:

"Pakistanis Bury Girls From Church Attack" (Asif Shahzad, AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/26)
"Three girls killed in a grenade explosion inside a Pakistani church were buried Thursday, while Christians and Muslims alike denounced the Christmas Day attack that also wounded 13. Police detained six people, including an Islamic cleric who allegedly told his followers to kill Christians, after the attack on the tiny, one-room church that was filled mainly with women and girls. Two assailants covered in burqas - the all-encompassing garment worn by women in some Islamic countries - tossed the explosives at about 40 Pakistani worshippers, turning a Christmas service into blood-soaked chaos. ... The detained cleric - who uses only the one name, Afzar - allegedly made anti-Christian remarks three days before the attack in a sermon at a mosque not far from where the blast took place. There was no evidence yet that he was linked to the blast. "It is the duty of every good Muslim to kill Christians," Nazir Yaqub, a local police officer, quoted Afzar as telling his congregation. 'Afzar told people, 'You should attack Christians and not even have food until you have seen their dead bodies.''"

"Conversation on the Beach" (Solly Ganor, IMRA, 2002/12/26 [2002/12/06])
A must-read article about a conversation with a young Arab outside a mosque in Herzliya, Israel: "'Our "Shihads," are the answer to your atomic bombs. If necessary, one "Shihad" can be an atomic bomb, here in Israel, in America, in Europe, or anywhere the Jews and the Crusaders live. ... Eighteen determined men with carton cutters who were not afraid to die, defied the big American might, causing them thousands of dead and trillions of dollars worth of losses. We found out that we can bring the Western capitalist system to its knees, and we shall do so!' ...
"Communism, Nazism, Fascism, they all were defeated by the Western Democracies, what system do you propose to replace it with?" I asked. I was beginning to get irritated with this young Arab.
"Islam!" He said fiercely.
"Islam?" I asked. "Islam? What did Islam ever do for the countries under its rule? It brought nothing but poverty and misery to the masses, while bestowing fabulous riches to the rulers. ... From a once vibrant Arab civilization, that gave us Algebra and the concept of the zero, Islam has plunged you into a pit of fanaticism, illiteracy, poverty and corruption, and you would like to force the world into the same abyss?"
For a while he looked at me perturbed. "We all make mistakes. But Islam with all its faults is a thousand times more preferable to the abomination that is the West." He finally said quietly. Then he gave me a fierce look and said: "If you had said in any Arab country about Islam, what you have just said to me, you would be a dead man!"
"I am sure I would. And if you had said in any Arab country denouncing their corrupt regimes the way you are denouncing Israel, you would be a dead man too. Yet, here you are, studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, allowing yourself openly to speak of subversion and treason against the State of Israel, without any fear of being arrested, let alone being killed for it. Doesn't it say something to you?"
"Yes, it says that you are weak, and that weakness will be your undoing." he said seriously."

"Iraq and the Arabs' Future" (Fouad Ajami, Foreign Affairs, from the January/February 2003 issue)
"For American power, there are two ways in the Arab world. One is restraint, pessimistic about the possibility of changing that stubborn world, reticent about the uses of American power. In this vision of things, the United States would either spare the Iraqi dictator or wage a war with limited political goals for Iraq and for the region as a whole. The other choice, more ambitious, would envisage a more profound American role in Arab political life: the spearheading of a reformist project that seeks to modernize and transform the Arab landscape. Iraq would be the starting point, and beyond Iraq lies an Arab political and economic tradition and a culture whose agonies and failures have been on cruel display. ...
The Arab world could whittle down, even devour, an American victory. This is a difficult, perhaps impossible, political landscape. It may reject the message of reform by dwelling on the sins of the American messenger. There are endless escapes available to that Arab world. It can call up the fury of the Israeli-Palestinian violence and use it as an alibi for yet more self-pity and rage. It can shout down its own would-be reformers, write them off as accomplices of a foreign assault. It can throw up its defenses and wait for the United States to weary of its expedition. It is with sobering caution, then, that a war will have to be waged. But it should be recognized that the Rubicon has been crossed."

"While America Slept: Understanding Terrorism and Counterterrorism" (Ellen Laipson, Foreign Affairs, from the January/February 2003 issue)
A review of "The Age of Sacred Terror" by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon: "In its public rhetoric about terrorism before both American and international audiences, the Bush administration, like the Clinton administration before it, correctly distinguishes between violent extremists who profess to act in the name of Islam and the millions of peaceful, honorable Muslims around the world. The United States is not declaring war on Islam, U.S. leaders assure the world; it opposes only those deviants who abuse the religion in the name of their twisted messianic visions. Benjamin and Simon usefully point out that the virtues of this public position notwithstanding, it should not be confused with the truth. Their book's most important and lasting contribution is its exploration of the relationship between al Qaeda's toxic message and the Muslim mainstream. ...
What the authors find is disturbing. According to them, al Qaeda's belief system cannot be separated neatly from Islamic teachings, because it has - selectively and perniciously - built on fundamental Islamic ideas and principles. This link applies to contemporary issues as well: al Qaeda's views on Islamic law, Israel, or Iraq would not differ significantly from the positions of moderate Islamists, even if they disagree on the use of violence to further their goals."

"Liar, liar" (Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/12/26)
Stephens fiskes an op-ed by the chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat: "Begin with Line One: "Palestinians are committed to two equal states for two equal peoples." Already, one must discount the sizable body of Palestinian opinion - between 40 and 50%, according to Palestinian polls - that rejects the claim outright. But grant Erekat a declarative statement: Still, how does it square with Arafat's absolute refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state? Or his call to Israeli Arab leaders to join his intifada: "Yes, we will still write in blood the map of the one homeland and one nation." This doesn't sound like two equal states for two equal peoples. ...
Erekat urges Israelis to elect "a leadership committed to evacuating settlements" in order to "undermine Palestinian extremists and help bring an end to the horrors of the past two years." Yet that's precisely what Israelis did in 1999, which helped bring on the horrors of the past two years. Hitler - or was it Stalin? - said something to the effect that people will sooner believe one big lie than many small ones. Saeb Erekat proves him wrong. Lie habitually, lie shamelessly, lie unnecessarily, lie about small things and big things, lie about the past, lie about the future, lie about lies, lie with every "and," "but" and "if," and some of your lies are bound to be believed. Of course, it helps if they are printed in The New York Times." (See also: "Saving the Two-State SolutionSaving the Two-State Solution" (Saeb Erekat, The New York Times, 2002/12/20))

"2002 in Review - From the best (Bush) to the worst (the Baghdad Boys) to the silliest (the EU)" (Pete Du Pont, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/12/26)
"My personal most mystifying moment of the year followed a speech to high school seniors in which I disagreed with students at Princeton who marched just after Sept. 11 demanding "mediation" with the Taliban. "Must the rape victim counsel with the rapist to better understand his reasons for his criminal assault?" I asked. One girl replied, "Why yes, she should meet with her attacker, to understand his culture and the reasons for his acts." Two other kids agreed with her."

"U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations" (Dana Priest and Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, 2002/12/26)
"Deep inside the forbidden zone at the U.S.-occupied Bagram air base in Afghanistan, around the corner from the detention center and beyond the segregated clandestine military units, sits a cluster of metal shipping containers protected by a triple layer of concertina wire. The containers hold the most valuable prizes in the war on terrorism - captured al Qaeda operatives and Taliban commanders. Those who refuse to cooperate inside this secret CIA interrogation center are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, according to intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogation methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights - subject to what are known as "stress and duress" techniques. ... While the U.S. government publicly denounces the use of torture, each of the current national security officials interviewed for this article defended the use of violence against captives as just and necessary."

"U.S. ready to unleash weapons" (Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times, 2002/12/26)
"The Army plans to quickly deploy its new Shadow 200 spy plane if the United States goes to war against Iraq. In the Persian Gulf, the Navy has America's newest attack jet - the F-18 Super Hornet - ready for its first extended wartime action. The Air Force is planning a swarming air campaign against Saddam Hussein that would utilize new ways to use precision-guided munitions. In all, the military would bring a new array of weapons, infrared sensors and communications gear to any conflict to change the regime in Baghdad. The new gadgets promise to make the war quicker and less bloody than Desert Storm a decade ago, military analysts say."

"'Human bomb' call to men of N Korea" (Richard Lloyd, The Times, 2002/12/26)
"In a bloodcurdling escalation of its rhetoric against the US, North Korea has urged its people to become "human bombs" in the event of war over the country’s nuclear programme. The sabre-rattling statement from the Defence Minister, Kim Il Chol, came as the last UN monitoring equipment was removed from the country’s frozen nuclear facilities in defiance of strong American warnings. ... "All the officers and men of the KPA (Korean People's Army) should . . . prepare themselves to be human bombs and fighters ready to blow up themselves in order to defend the headquarters of the revolution," the minister said in a statement marking President Kim Jong Il's eleventh anniversary as the country’s top military commander."

"Day when battle for Bethlehem is fought with words" (Stephen Farrell, The Times, 2002/12/26)
A report from Bethlehem, where the highest-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land shamefully solely blamed Israel for the conflict:
"The Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, who was earlier escorted into the town in an extraordinary 91-vehicle convoy of Israeli police, monks, nuns, diplomats, journalists and Israeli peace protesters, led midnight Mass. Pointedly addressing the empty seat that was reserved for the Palestinian President, Yassir Arafat - banned from attending by Israel for the second year running - the Pope's most senior representative in the Holy Land called upon Israelis to "find leaders with a vision of peace or help your leadership to find new heads capable of bringing peace". He continued: 'Blood has been flowing in your cities and streets, but the key to solving this conflict is in your hands. By your actions so far you have crushed the Palestinian people but you still have not achieved peace.'"

Added Year in Review - 2002 in archive:
Selected news and commentary
Columnists of the Year
Sites of the Year

Added in archive:
"Schoolbooks are flubbing facts" (Alison Gendar and Douglas Feiden, Daily News, 2002/12/21)

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

News and commentary:

"Three Killed in Church Attack in Pakistan" (Reuters, 2002/12/25)
"Three girls were killed and 13 people wounded in a grenade attack on worshippers at a Christmas Day church service in central Pakistan on Wednesday, police said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but police said they suspected Islamic militants angered by Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" were to blame. "Two masked men threw a hand grenade into the church during the service," a police official in Daska town in the Punjab province said."

"Exit Hussein" (Michael Kelly, The Washington Post, 2002/12/25)
"We have come from a position of nearly absolute failure. Over the course of a deleterious decade, the structure of containment erected by the United States and the United Nations at the end of the war against Iraq in 1991 had collapsed, utterly. ... And where are we now? We are in a position of triumph, and potentially much greater triumph. A few months ago, all was still in tatters. Hussein still defied with impunity, still ruled unchallenged over his torture state, still schemed to advance his dreams of himself as the atomic Saladin. The United Nations still went to work every day, conspicuously (not to mention purposely) failing at its charter mission. Everything was still a disaster and still in train for greater disaster. The will of one man, George W. Bush, changed all this. ...
Now, for the first time since 1998, the inspectors are back in Iraq - and they are back in with a determination and a power they never had before. Now, Hussein backs down, and down, and plays for whatever time he can get. Now, he is so desperate that he is forced to empty his prisons and to begin to free his captive people. Now, the United States is backed in its actions by a United Nations that is beginning to see, as in a sort of miracle, that it actually can be a force for peace and law in the world." (Note: Compare Kelly's moral clarity with Rushdie's latest relapse to moral equivalence in "Getting Into Gang War" (Salman Rushdie, The Washington Post, 2002/12/25): "The truth looks more confused, more amorally Scorsesean. Saddam Hussein is a murderous despot, but the present U.S. administration's assaults on fundamental freedoms call into question its right to be called freedom lovers.")

"U.S. Gets Warning From North Korea" (Howard W. French, The New York Times, 2002/12/25)
"North Korea warned today of an "uncontrollable catastrophe" unless the United States agrees to a negotiated solution to a tense standoff over its nuclear energy and weapons programs. ... The North Korean defense minister, Kim Il Chol, went further, warning of "merciless punishment" to the United States if it pursued a confrontational approach to the emerging nuclear crisis. "The U.S. hawks are arrogant enough to groundlessly claim that North Korea has pushed ahead with a 'nuclear program,' bringing its hostile policy toward the DPRK to an extremely dangerous phase," the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying. Some analysts here saw the defense minister's statement as a defiant response to comments by his American counterpart, Donald H. Rumsfeld, who said on Monday that the United States had enough military power to prevail over North Korea even if such a conflict occurred during a war with Iraq."

Tuesday, December 24, 2002

News and commentary:

"Philippines Bomb Kills 13, Wounds 1" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/24)
"A Christmas Eve bomb attack on the home of the mayor of a southern Philippine town killed at least 13 people and wounded 12 others, the military said. The military said Tuesday's bombing appeared to be the work of the Moro Islamic Liberation rebels, but a spokesman for the Muslim separatist group denied involvement in the attack. The bomb went off near the home of Mayor Saudie Ampatuan in Datu Piang in Maguindanao province, said army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando. Ampatuan died of injuries to his head and chest. Among those killed were a town councilor, the treasurer and a bodyguard, Ando said. The others were not immediately identified, Ando said. He said the death toll rose after authorities counted all the dead from hospitals in different towns."

"U.S. Fears N.Korea Could Get 50 Bombs a Year" (Jim Wolf, Reuters, 2002/12/24)
"North Korea could churn out enough plutonium to build up to 50 to 55 nuclear weapons a year if all three of its frozen nuclear reactors entered operation in coming years, a U.S. government official said on Tuesday. The issue could be critical to world security, partly because North Korea has been developing long-range missiles possibly capable of delivering nuclear warheads."

"New Islamic Ruling Calls for Nuclear Weapon Armament" (IMRA, 2002/12/24)
"The Islamic Ruling Committee in Al-Azhar is considered to be the highest religious ruling authority for Sunni Muslims. On 23 Dec. 2002, the committee determined that the Islamic nation must acquire nuclear weaponry. "The acquirement of modern nuclear weaponry is a religious obligation." ... Sheikh Ala A-Shanawi emphasized, "All Islamic nations are required to seize nuclear weaponry, giving the nation the utmost respect. We see how far behind our nation is as a result of not being prepared as well as it should be, while the enemy has equipped itself with the best weaponry there is, which it will use to harm and destroy Muslims." wrote A-Shanawi."

"Sharon Says Iraq May Be Hiding Weapons in Syria" (Reuters/The Washington Post, 2002/12/24)
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Tuesday that Israel suspected that Iraq has been transferring chemical and biological weapons to Israel's arch-foe Syria to hide them from U.N. inspectors. ... "What we believe, and I say that we have not yet confirmed it conclusively, is that weapons he wants to hide - chemical and biological weapons - have indeed been sent to Syria," Sharon said. He said Israel was trying to verify the information."

"Love it or leave it - Pakistan's Nuclear Dream"
(Piers Benatar, panos pictures, Winter 2002):
"Petrol tanker with portrait of Dr. Ijaz Ghauri,
Pakistan's foremost nuclear scientist. Sindh, Pakistan."

"Love it or leave it - Pakistan's Nuclear Dream" (Piers Benatar, panos pictures, Winter 2002)
Interesting photo essay on the iconography surrounding Pakistan's nuclear arms: "Pakistan is very proud of its status as the Muslim world's only nuclear power, a pride which manifests itself in sculptures, paintings and paraphernalia depicting its Ghauri and Shaheen nuclear missiles. ... Nuclear scientists have become national celebrities akin to film stars. Models of the mountain where the first nuclear test was held in 1998 have been built in cities all across the country." (See also: "Missile Worship" (Piers Benatar, foto8, Winter 2002), "A Modest Proposal From the Brigadier" (Peter Landesman, The Atlantic, from the March 2002 issue) and "Eyeball to Eyeball, and Blinking in Denial" (Celia W. Dugger, The New York Times, 2002/06/02))

"War And the Fickle Left" (Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, 2002/12/24)
Kagan points out Michael Walzer's "illogical about-face" on Iraq, comparing his present "No Strikes"-stance with his views in an article from 1998: "'When a state like Iraq is known to possess weapons of mass destruction, and is known to have used them in the past, the refusal of a U.N. majority to act forcefully isn't a good reason for ruling out the use of force by any member state that can use it effectively.' In fact, Walzer concluded, "if we are not ready, sometimes, to act unilaterally, we are not ready for real life in international society." ...
Because no international authority holds a monopoly of power, Walzer argued, nations cannot entrust their fate to international institutions or to international law. No nation can allow questions affecting its vital interests to be decided by a majority vote in the U.N. Security Council, because the U.N. Security Council cannot protect that nation in the event the majority makes a mistake and something "absolutely awful" happens. According to Walzer, American unilateral action was justified in some cases because "absolutely awful things happen all the time in international society, and anyone who can stop them or prevent them surely has a right, perhaps a duty, to do so." ...
Walzer's illogical about-face is embarrassing but, sadly, not unique. Yesterday's liberal interventionists, in Bosnia, Kosovo and Haiti, are today's liberal abstentionists. What changed? Just the man in the White House. Intellectual consistency, even for great thinkers, is no match for partisan passions." (See also: "The Hard Questions: Lone Ranger" (Michael Walzer, The New Republic, 1998/04/27) and "No Strikes" (Michael Walzer, The New Republic, 2002/09/22))

"In U.S., Terrorism's Peril Undiminished" (Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, 2002/12/24)
"Thirteen of 20 men that The Post could identify on the government's classified roster of "high value targets" remain unaccounted for. Bush's overriding objective, a high-ranking official at the heart of the effort said Friday, is to capture or kill the small cadre of leaders he sees as uniquely responsible for al Qaeda's potent threat. "We want to get that inner core more than anything," the official said, describing their number as roughly 30. ... Some of those involved in the hunt said the government lost many and perhaps most of its best chances to kill the top targets in the critical first month of the war in Afghanistan. ... Struggles within the CIA and U.S. Central Command, and between them, prevented operators of the armed Predator drones from opening fire on terrorist targets with Hellfire missiles at least 15 times, according to sources directly involved. ... Under its first rules of engagement, the CIA pulled the trigger "in support of" Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks at U.S. Central Command, which led the military's effort in Afghanistan. Far too often, Downing thought, the Central Command became mired in "covering its ass," as two colleagues described his remarks. Its legal adviser applied the laws of war, not the broader authority Bush had granted for lethal force in his September intelligence finding. Approval to fire came late, or not at all."

"Hezbollah Becomes Potent Anti-U.S. Force" (Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 2002/12/24)
A report from Lebanon: "Meanwhile, Hezbollah, growing richer through donations from Shiite charities worldwide and business interests like gas stations, has transformed southern Lebanon into a kind of showpiece for fighting Israel. ... One weekend a group of middle-class Christians, Beirutis on a tour of important archaeological sites, emerged from their small bus to clamber up the battlements. The view stretches over the Israeli border to the distinctive red-roofed houses of the Israeli town of Metulla. A portly man dressed in a Tommy Hilfiger red and white striped shirt pointed out the sites. "To the left is Lebanon, but to the right is Azrael," he said, making a pun in Arabic by using the name for the Angel of Death. ... Huge billboards along the roads celebrate Hezbollah attacks in gruesomely vivid detail. "Haitham's eyes are monitoring the convoy meticulously as his car is getting closer and closer," starts the description in English and Arabic of a suicide bombing. 'A moment later the scene changed dramatically when Haitham stormed into the convoy - that had 30 occupation troops in it ranks - blowing up his car amid the vehicles that turned into fireballs and scattered bodies on the ground.'"

"N Korea threatens to 'destroy world'" (John Gittings and Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 2002/12/24)
"Desperate efforts began yesterday to head off the growing Korean crisis as Pyongyang and Washington continued to talk up the tension. The UN has confirmed that North Korea has carried out its threat to remove UN seals and dismantle monitoring cameras at a laboratory used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Senator Joseph Biden, the outgoing chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that North Korea's plan to restart a programme for plutonium extraction could allow it to produce bombs "within months". ... The communist party's newspaper Workers' Daily declared that "the army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to mercilessly strike the bulwark of US imperialist aggressors" - implying that they could hit targets in the US. "There can be no earth without Korea," it said. 'The army and people of the DPRK will destroy the earth if the enemies dare make a nuclear strike at it. This is their do-or-die spirit.'"

Monday, December 23, 2002

News and commentary:

"Interview with an Apologist" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2002/12/23)
Johnson on a PBS interview with Karen Armstrong: "Luckily for us unwashed western Neanderthals, Islam is "profoundly in tune with the whole American and western ethos.":

"The heart of Islam beats with the heart of the American people. The passion that Islam has for equality - Islam is one of the most egalitarian religions I know and has always lived out its egalitarianism. It's at its best historically when it has had egalitarian forms of government, and [it is] unhappy with authoritarian forms of government, as it has now. That's one of the reasons Islam is unhappy, because it has a lot of despots and bad government and tyrannical government, some of which are supported by the United States and the West generally."

Let's attempt to parse out her point. Islam is an egalitarian religion, profoundly in tune with American ideals of justice and freedom, but at the same time Islam is "unhappy" because America has been supporting bad governments. ... The most revealing statement in this air-headed, self-contradictory idiotarian wallow: "If we encourage the smallest degree of bigoted attitude towards Islam, we are creating further problems for ourselves, further acts of terror." Does she even realize what she's saying? If we have even the slightest doubt that Islam is a tolerant, egalitarian, peaceful religion, we're asking for terrorism?" (See also: "Interview with Karen Armstrong" (PBS, 2002/09/13[?]) and "The feel of religion" (Al-Ahram Weekly, 2002/07/04))

"Two-thirds of British Muslims say war on terror targets Islam, poll shows" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2002/12/23)
"More than two-thirds of British Muslims consider the war on terrorism to be a war against Islam, a poll conducted for the British Broadcasting Corp. showed Monday. The ICM survey of 500 people also showed that over half of British Muslims believe Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network should not have been blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. However, 11 percent said they believed further attacks against the United States by al-Qaida or similar groups would be justified, and eight percent said such attacks would be justified against Britain." (See also the poll results: "Muslims Poll" (ICM, December 2002))

"Iraqi jets shoot down US drone" (BBC News, 2002/12/23)
"Iraqi fighter planes have shot down a US unmanned surveillance drone over southern Iraq. A senior official with US Central Command, quoted by the Associated Press, said the Predator drone was on a reconnaissance mission when the Iraqi jets infiltrated the southern no-fly zone and shot it down. The drone's controllers then lost contact with it, the official said. The Iraqi military confirmed the plane was shot down at 1535 (1235GMT) on Monday, saying the drone had breached Iraqi airspace. "With God's help, and with the will of the men of our heroic air defence forces and brave sky eagles, it was shot down in a delicate and planned operation," the Iraqi statement said."

"UPI's 2002 Year In Photos"
(Ismael Mohamad, UPI, December 2002):
"A Palestinian child holds a gun and hand grenade during a rally commemorating the death of fellow Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on April 23, 2002."

"A PC Christmas" (David Montgomery, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/12/23)
Season's Greetings!: "The following story was related to me by J.S. Lykins, an email correspondent in Scottsdale, Arizona. The other day, he was singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with his five year-old daughter when she interrupted to say that he had to sing "We wish you a happy holiday" instead, because one of her teachers doesn't celebrate Christmas. This was what she had learned while rehearsing for their "Winter Concert." Sure enough, when he attended the concert, the children's songs contained no references to Christmas or Christ or any other actual reason for the celebration to exist. ...
Elsewhere in New York the public schools went even farther, adopting a policy that encourages the display of the Hanukah Menorah and the Muslim star and crescent, but not the Christian nativity. (Strange that no one ever insists on renaming the menorah a "Holiday Candelabra.") Teachers were urged to "bring in Muslim, Kwanzaa and Jewish secular symbols" and to "display these religious symbols equally." No mention, however, was made of equal time for symbols of Christmas. On the contrary, one school in the district that had erected a Christmas tree was forced to take it down." (See also: "Christmas Symbols Don't Make the Grade in U.S. Schools" (Zenit.org/EWTN, 2002/12/16) and "NYC schools ban Nativity scenes but allow Jewish, Islamic symbols" (AP/freedomforum.org, 2002/12/11): "Meanwhile, in the nearby suburb of Yonkers, N.Y., decorations specific to one holiday - even nonreligious ones like Christmas trees - have been banned from public schools. Interim Superintendent Angelo Petrone directed officials last week to remove all decorations that go beyond a generic "Happy Holidays" or 'Season's Greetings.'")

"PBS Shame On You" (Nonie Darwish, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/12/23)
Darwish on the PBS documentary "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet": "I am a former Moslem, born and raised in the Middle East. I am very disappointed and almost scared after watching your presentation about Islam. One of the reasons I fled to the United States of America was to escape the oppressive regime of Islam in the Middle East. ...
How could you sympathize with a religion that kills adulterers, homosexuals and people who convert out of Islam? How could you present Islam with such affection? I am sorry that PBS failed to represent the oppression, fear and the straight jacket I had to endure when I lived under that crazy regime. ...
Of course not all Moslems are terrorists, but unfortunately, the majority of 'moderate' Moslems respect the fundamentalists as 'true' Moslems and even feel guilty toward them. If this were not true we should be seeing massive displays of support for the US, strong denouncements of radical Islam by the moderates. This has not happened. Instead, the most vocal Islamic groups in the West are taking a confrontational stance, complaining of discriminatory treatment, taking their cue from liberal civil-rights groups. The liberal media is only too eager to egg them on. I now write articles critical of Islam and speak to many groups about the Middle East but have to use a pseudonym so I do not get killed by some of your Moslem friends in the US mosques you were interviewing!" (See also: "PBS, Recruiting for Islam" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post/danielpipes.org, 2002/12/17))

"Report: Saddam planned to use biological weapons
against Israel" (Haim Shadmi and Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz, 2002/12/23)
"Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had a secret plan to use biological weapons against Israel in the first stage of the 1991 Gulf War, but was unable to carry the plan out, according to a secret CIA document released for publication, Israel Radio reported Monday. The 1992 CIA dispatch was made public over the weekend by the National Security Archive, a local research organization. The document says that Iraq sent three MiG-21 planes to bomb Israeli targets with regular bombs to check whether they were able to penetrate the Israeli air defense system. At the second stage, three more MiGs armed with conventional weaponry were to be sent to Israel as a diversion, together with a Sukhoi airplane armed with biological weapons. But the operation failed during the first stage when the three MiGs were downed over the Persian Gulf a short time after takeoff."

"North Korea Says It Regains Access to Its Plutonium" (David E. Sanger and James Dao, The New York Times, 2002/12/23)
"North Korea said today that it had removed the equipment that international inspectors installed more than eight years ago to make sure that it would not make use of its large stockpile of plutonium to produce nuclear weapons. Bush administration officials said they feared that North Korea could use that plutonium to manufacture five or six nuclear weapons within months. The action, coming one day after North Korea took similar monitoring equipment off a nuclear reactor, intensifies the crisis over North Korea's nuclear capability, at a moment when President Bush has tried to focus the world's attention on the threat posed by Iraq. It also poses a challenge to the newly elected government in South Korea."

Added in archive:
"Lessons in hate, on a campus near you" (Leonard Stern, Ottawa Citizen/Campus Watch, 2002/12/14)

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

"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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