Archived news and commentary: November 6 - 12, 2006

2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05
2006/10/23 - 2006/10/29
2006/10/16 - 2006/10/22
2006/10/09 - 2006/10/15
2006/10/02 - 2006/10/08

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, November 12, 2006

News and commentary:

"Democrats say will push for Iraq withdrawal" (Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, 2006/11/12)
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats, who won control of the U.S. Congress, said on Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months, but the White House cautioned against fixing timetables.

"First order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy," said Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is expected to be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the new Congress.

Democrats will press President George W. Bush's administration to tell the Iraqi government that U.S. presence was "not open-ended, and that, as a matter of fact, we need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months," Levin said on ABC's "This Week" program."

"U.S. must prove it's a staying power" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/11/12)
"What does it mean when the world's hyperpower, responsible for 40 percent of the planet's military spending, decides that it cannot withstand a guerrilla war with historically low casualties against a ragbag of local insurgents and imported terrorists? ...

As it is, we're in a very dark place right now. It has been a long time since America unambiguously won a war, and to choose to lose Iraq would be an act of such parochial self-indulgence that the American moment would not endure, and would not deserve to. Europe is becoming semi-Muslim, Third World basket-case states are going nuclear, and, for all that 40 percent of planetary military spending, America can't muster the will to take on pipsqueak enemies. We think we can just call off the game early, and go back home and watch TV.

It doesn't work like that. Whatever it started out as, Iraq is a test of American seriousness. And, if the Great Satan can't win in Vietnam or Iraq, where can it win? That's how China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Venezuela and a whole lot of others look at it. "These Colors Don't Run" is a fine T-shirt slogan, but in reality these colors have spent 40 years running from the jungles of Southeast Asia, the helicopters in the Persian desert, the streets of Mogadishu. ... To add the sands of Mesopotamia to the list will be an act of weakness from which America will never recover."

"A vicious monster rises in Iraq's sectarian war – 'the Shia Zarqawi'" (Colin Freeman and Aqeel Hussein, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/11/12)
"As the White House begins to rethink its policy on Iraq, savage new warlords are battling for power and the country is starting to splinter

As the self-appointed defender of his Shia kith and kin, his nom de guerre is "The Shield". But to his Sunni foes – and many of his own people – only one name does justice to the savagery with which Abu Deraa wages Iraq's sectarian war. He is, they say, the "Shia Zarqawi".

Less than six months after an American airstrike ended Abu Musab al Zarqawi's campaign of Sunni terror, an equally brutal fanatic has emerged on the other side of the religious divide. Abu Deraa's trademark method of killing is a drill through the skull rather than a sword to the neck, but his work rate is just as prolific as the former al-Qaeda leader's and shows the same diabolical artistry.

In the past year, he and his followers are thought to have murdered thousands of Sunnis, their victims' bodies symbolically dumped in road craters left by al-Qaeda car bombs. ...

"We are proud of leaders like Abu Deraa," said Hassan Allami, 25, a fighter with the Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr's Mehdi army, which Abu Deraa quit earlier this year to form his own faction. 'His drills destroy the crazy minds of the Sunnis.'"

"Hezbollah’s missiles back in Lebanon" (Uzi Mahnaimi, The Sunday Times, 2006/11/12)
Lebanon II: "FOUR months after Israel launched its onslaught against Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrillas are back in south Lebanon stronger than ever and armed with more rockets than they had before the conflict, according to Israeli intelligence.

During the month-long war, which began on July 12, Hezbollah fired 200 to 250 rockets a day into Israel, killing 43 civilians and terrorising much of the north of the country.

“Since the ceasefire, additional rockets, weapons and military equipment have reached Hezbollah,” said an Israeli intelligence officer. 'We assume they now have about 20,000 rockets of all ranges — a bit more than they had before July 12.'"

"Lebanon Talks Collapse as Shiites Vacate Cabinet" (Michael Slackman, The New York Times, 2006/11/12)
Lebanon I. Barry Rubin: "One would think that having Lebanon taken over by a combination of extreme Islamists and aggressive foreign states should be a matter of some concern.":
"Lebanon was thrown into a political crisis Saturday when talks broke down over giving the militant faction Hezbollah and its political allies greater control of the government. Almost immediately, cabinet ministers from the group and the other main Shiite party resigned.

Lebanon’s political leaders have held talks for four days, trying to defuse tensions among the various government factions after Hezbollah demanded a greater role in the cabinet and called for its alliance to have veto power over all government decisions. Hezbollah was politically emboldened after its 34-day war with Israel this summer, and it quickly pressed for more power.

Though for days it appeared the talks were headed toward a compromise, the negotiations collapsed when Hezbollah refused to relinquish its demand for a veto, people in the talks said. When the governing coalition refused, the talks collapsed, and within three hours the political brinksmanship began with all of the Shiite ministers resigning."

Added today:
"Islamic hip-hop artists are accused of indoctrinating young against the West" (Sean O’Neill, The Times, 2006/11/11)
"Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils" (Dan Bell, The Guardian, 2006/11/11)
"Bishop attacks 'victim' Muslims" (Christopher Morgan, The Sunday Times, 2006/11/05)

Saturday, November 11, 2006

News and commentary:

"This is the picture published by US News..."
(Bruno Stevens, Lightstalkers, 2006/11/11)
"This is the picture published by US News, and this is my original caption for it:
'Kfar Chima, near Beirut, July 17, 2006 An Israeli Air Force F16 has alledgedly been shot down while bombing a group of Hezbollah owned trucks, at least one of these trucks contained a medium range ground to ground missile launcher'"

"The Lebanon "garbage dump" story: complete explanation" (Bruno Stevens, Lightstalkers, 2006/11/11)
Via LGF: "[Bruno Stevens] photograph, published by both US News and World Report and Time Magazine, had a caption describing the scene as the wreckage of an Israeli jet shot down by Hizballah. In this post, Stevens reveals that the captions he sent in with his pictures described the scene accurately—but editors at the magazines changed the captions to completely alter the story."
"After being once more defamed and insulted by Guilad, I have decided to explain once and for all the so called “garbage dump” pictures, shot in the afternoon of July 17th in Kfar Chima, near Beirut. ...

This is the picture published by US News, and this is my original caption for it:

“Kfar Chima, near Beirut, July 17, 2006 An Israeli Air Force F16 has alledgedly been shot down while bombing a group of Hezbollah owned trucks, at least one of these trucks contained a medium range ground to ground missile launcher.”

This caption clearly says that there is no proof that an Israeli jet had been shot down and that the objective was indeed to destroy a legitimate military target. ...

They [TIME] choose to caption it this way (I had NO control in this matter), they HAD my original caption:

'The wreckage of a downed Israeli jet that was targeting Hizballah trucks billows smoke behind a Hizballah gunman in Kfar Chima, near Beirut. Jet fuel set the surrounding area ablaze.'"

"Christian population falls in Holy Land" (Brian Murphy, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/11)
"BETHLEHEM, West Bank - The death threat came on simple white fliers blowing down the streets at dawn. A group calling itself "Friends of Muhammad" accused a local Palestinian Christian of selling mobile phones carrying offensive sketches of the Muslim prophet.

The message went on to curse all Arab Christians and
Pope Benedict XVI, still struggling to calm Muslim outrage from his remarks on Islam.

While neighbors defended the merchant — saying the charges in the flier were bogus — the frightened phone dealer went into hiding, feeling less than satisfied with authorities' conclusion that the Oct. 19 note was probably a harmless rant.

Now the dealer is thinking of going abroad.

Call it part of a modern exodus, the steady flight of the tiny Palestinian Christian minority that could lead, some predict, to the faith being virtually extinct in its birthplace within several generations — a trend mirrored in many dwindling pockets of Christianity across the Islamic world. ...

"Most of the Christians here are either in the process of leaving, planning to leave or thinking of leaving," said Sami Awad, executive director of the Holy Land Trust, a Bethlehem-based peace group. 'Insecurity is deep and getting worse.'"

"Vive le Califat" (Jeremy Rabkin, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/11)
A review of "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It"
by Mark Steyn:
"Europeans scoff at the idea that Iraq could become a pluralist democracy, but then imagine that European social democracy can ensure happy harmony with people fired by some of the same zeal as Iraqi "insurgents."

You think Kurds and Arabs, Sunni and Shia are incompatible? What do you call a jurisdiction split between post-Christian secular gay potheads and anti-whoring anti-sodomite anti-everything-you-dig Islamists? If Kurdistan's an awkward fit in Iraq, how well does Pornostan fit in the Islamic Republic of Holland? ...

In some places, gradual but relentless accommodation to the new culture will steer societies along a path where "there's very little difference between living under Exquisitely Refined Multicultural Sensitivity and sharia." Elsewhere, there may be resistance, triggering street violence or political upheaval. Amidst worsening economic trends and increasing instability, more and more educated young people will seek their futures in more promising countries--hastening the dissolution of the old society. So Steyn foresees "societal collapse, fascist revivalism, and then the long Eurabian night, not over the entire Continent but over significant parts of it. And those countries that manage to escape the darkness will do so only after violent convulsions of their own.'"

"Compare bloodshed. Saddam is then the moral victor, not Bush" (Kevin Toolis, The Times, 2006/11/11)
While Michael Leunig sides with Sheik "Uncovered Meat" Hilali, Kevin Toolis praises Saddam Hussein [emphasis added]:

"We have needlessly replaced one ailing, flabby dictator with mankind’s worst enemy — chaos. ...

Saddam was survivable if you kept your mouth shut and were deemed no threat.

For all his faults Saddam Hussein’s Iraq imposed order. The water, the electricity, the oil wells faltered but largely kept going. The roads and streets were safe. The terror inspired by his henchmen suppressed the seething rivalries of clan and religion that now engulf Baghdad and Basra. ...

Sometimes we need to praise tyrants rather than depose them. No one deserves a dictator, but in the real world the vast majority of mankind will have to endure one. The very least the Western powers can do is not to replace the devil the oppressed know with the madness of the death squads that now rule Baghdad."

"Duckman sides with catmeat" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2006/11/11)
"The Age’s Michael Leunig is obsessed:

At some stage well into the journey you may notice a deluge of advertisements for drugs that help men to get erections, and you may find the city adorned with photographs of naked and semi-naked young women on billboards and magazines, and on the television you may see music clips featuring a continuous throbbing smorgasbord of models and dancing girls thrusting their oiled breasts and wet lips and glistening bottoms at you and groaning and clawing and stroking frantically between their legs - the place where babies are born from - and all around you will notice images of attractive, willing, hot, horny, pre-orgasmic, aching-for-penetration women gasping into the camera for you ...

That paragraph runs for another 237 throbbing words (although never again reaching the lyrical heights of “the place where babies are born from”) leading to Michael’s conclusion that, hey, maybe Sheik Hilali got it right after all:

Sometimes a religious figure, such as a mufti, makes a sermon about human nature, rape and the general sexual madness - a bit like parents do to their children in private: “Look after yourself, take responsibility - there are some dark forces and crazy people out there who will destroy you if you’re not careful.” But the mufti uses ripe, rustic language, earthy metaphors and unpleasant ideas. He is set up and set upon by a national newspaper and told to shut up and resign. The Prime Minister chimes in. The mufti is denounced.

But while we may not agree with everything he says, we sort of understand something of what he’s trying to get at. In the great tradition that Australians are meant to admire, he’s at least having a go in difficult terrain where all sorts of silver-tongue-tied experts are refusing to travel and are remaining silent about."

(See also: "The message of the mufti" (Michael Leunig, The Age, 2006/11/11). Also: "Backing a bigot" (Andrew Bolt, The Australian, 2006/11/03))

"Islamic hip-hop artists are accused of indoctrinating young against the West" (Sean O’Neill, The Times, 2006/11/11)
"HIP-HOP and rap artists are teaching young Muslims the ideology of radical Islamism through songs about the war in Iraq, the oppression of Muslims and the creation of an Islamic state governed by Sharia, or religious law.

Intelligence agencies have identified music as a “tool for indoctrination”. The phenomenon began with an American group called Soldiers of Allah. The group has since disbanded but its music and lyrics remain popular on the internet. Other groups in Britain, France and the US have been identified as giving cause for concern. Many use the derogatory term “kufur” to describe non-Muslims.

Madeleine Gruen, an American intelligence analyst, highlighted the lyrics of a British group called Blakstone as a possible gateway to extremist politics.

Ms Gruen has studied how music, internet forums, boardgames and fashion have been used to radicalise youths.

She said: 'The music is very persuasive because it is giving young people ideas, and those ideas are what might motivate someone to become a jihadi. The material is all in English. It’s spreading a radical message to domestic populations that don’t speak Arabic or Urdu.'" (Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)

"Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils" (Dan Bell, The Guardian, 2006/11/11)
"The Netherlands may become the first European country to ban Muslim face veils after its government pledged yesterday to outlaw the wearing in public spaces of the niqab, or veil, and the burka, or full-length cloak covering the head.

The right-leaning coalition said last night that it would look for a way to outlaw the wearing of all Muslim face veils. The grounds for a ban were laid last December when parliament voted in favour of a proposal to criminalise face coverings, as part of a security measure proposed by a far-right politician, Geert Wilders."

Added today:
"Al Qaeda May Be Plotting Holiday Attacks" (Farhan Bokhari and Sheila MacVicar, CBS News, 2006/11/10)
"Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse" (Adam Zagorin, TIME, 2006/11/10)
"Have we hit bottom yet?" (U*2, No Pasarán!, 2006/11/09)
"French troops almost fired at Israel jets: minister" (Francois Murphy, Reuters, 2006/11/09)

Friday, November 10, 2006

News and commentary:

"Al-Qaida in Iraq claims it's winning war" (Christopher Bodeen, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/10)
Everybody's Happy III. Al-Muhajir channels Simon Jenkins. Or vice versa:
"Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a new audio tape Friday to be winning the war faster than expected in Iraq and said it had mobilized 12,000 fighters who had "vowed to die for God's sake." ...

On the audio tape made available on militant Web sites, the al-Qaida in Iraq leader also welcomed the Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. He added that the group's fighters would not rest until they had blown up the White House.

"The al-Qaida army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq, and they have vowed to die for God's sake," a man who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir said.

Al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also urged the U.S. to stay in Iraq so his group would have more opportunities to kill American troops. "We haven't had enough of your blood yet," he told the U.S.

"We will not rest from our Jihad until we are under the olive trees of Rumieh and we have blown up the filthiest house — which is called the White House," al-Muhajir said. It was not clear what Rumieh was referring to.

Al-Muhajir became the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June. The tape could not be independently verified.

"The American people have put their feet on the right path by ... realizing their president's betrayal in supporting Israel," the terror leader said. "So they voted for something reasonable in the last elections."

Describing President Bush as "the most stupid president" in U.S. history, al-Masri reached out to the Muslim world and said his group was winning the war in Iraq faster than expected due to U.S. policies."

"Khamenei calls U.S. elections a victory for Iran" (Reuters, 2006/11/10)
Everybody's Happy II: "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush's defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran.

Bush has accused Iran of trying to make a nuclear bomb, being a state sponsor of terrorism and stoking sectarian conflict in Iraq, all charges Tehran denies.

"This issue (the elections) is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush's hawkish policies in the world," Khamenei said in remarks reported by Iran's student news agency ISNA on Friday.

'Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation.'"

"Everybody's Happy" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2006/11/10)
Everybody's Happy I: "Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins celebrates the insurgency’s victory:

The gun-toting, pre-Darwinian Bushite, the tomahawk-wielding, Halliburton-loving, Beltway neocon calling abortion murder and torturing Arabs as “Islamofascists” has been laid to rest, and by a decision of the American people. Another McCarthy raised its head over the western horizon and has been slapped down. It is a good day for level-headed Americans ...

At this point the insurgency knows it has won, however long it takes the occupying power to go. Retreat in good order is the best hope. An era of ill-conceived, belligerent interventionism has come to an end - by democratic decision, thank goodness."

"Al Qaeda May Be Plotting Holiday Attacks" (Farhan Bokhari and Sheila MacVicar, CBS News, 2006/11/10)
"Intelligence agencies have been warned that al Qaeda may be planning to attack air and rail travel in Europe in actions that may occur during the busy holiday travel season, CBS News has learned exclusively.

In separate interviews with Arab and other intelligence sources, CBS News has been told that the warnings come from interrogations of al Qaeda suspects who recently left Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"One suspect said plans for repeating the Heathrow attempt (a reference to the failed 'liquid bomb' plot interrupted in August) were all prepared. It is now a matter of taking action," said one Arab official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. 'Al Qaeda's strategy appears to be raising the pressure in Europe.'"

"Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse" (Adam Zagorin, TIME, 2006/11/10)
"Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings."

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)
"MI5 is fighting to contain a rapidly-growing terrorist threat, with at least 30 top-priority plots under investigation, the head of the security service said yesterday.

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said Islamic militants linked to al-Qa'eda were recruiting teenagers to carry out suicide attacks and will use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons if they get the chance.

In a rare public speech, she gave a frank and sobering insight into the challenge facing the counter-terrorist agency, which has seen an 80 per cent rise in its casework since January.

Dame Eliza told an invited audience at Queen Mary College, London, that MI5 was monitoring some 200 groupings or networks comprising more than 1,600 individuals ''who are actively engaged in plotting or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas".

The nature and gravity of the threat was deepening, fuelled by the rapid radicalisation of young British Muslims – some still at school, yet prepared to join the ranks of the suicide bombers. She said the country faced a sustained and growing threat that 'would last a generation.'" (See also: "Terrorist threat to UK - MI5 chief's full speech" (The Times, 2006/11/10))

Added today:
"No Retraction For Indie's False Uranium Libel" (HonestReporting, 2006/11/08)
"Indie's Uranium Charges" (HonestReporting, 2006/10/30)

Thursday, November 9, 2006

News and commentary:

"Have we hit bottom yet?" (U*2, No Pasarán!, 2006/11/09)
French police: "'No way', say the French. "And when we do, we'll start digging." Get this ... Instead of striking back at the brutal bastards that are running free in this country, French police are demonstrating (yeah, just like common union members or filthy French youth) to protest against violence directed against them. Pathetic."

"French troops almost fired at Israel jets: minister" (Francois Murphy, Reuters, 2006/11/09)
French troops: "PARIS (Reuters) - French peacekeeping troops in Lebanon recently came within two seconds of firing missiles at Israeli fighter jets that approached as if to attack them, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.

Speaking to the lower house of parliament on Wednesday night, she said it was the latest in a string of incidents in which Israeli warplanes had "adopted a hostile attitude" to French and German forces and added it was "not tolerable".

"A catastrophe was narrowly avoided by our troops," Alliot-Marie said, according to a transcript of her comments. A foreign ministry spokesman said the events occurred on October 31."

"Mubarak warns against hanging Saddam" (Nadia Abou El-Magd, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/09)
"Egypt's president came out strongly against hanging Saddam Hussein, saying in remarks published Thursday that it could make Iraq explode into more violence. But Iraq's prime minister said the execution could take place by the end of the year. ...

Mubarak, a regional heavyweight and a top U.S. ally, appeared to speak for many in the region who are uneasy about seeing a former Arab president tried and sentenced — no matter how much they disliked Saddam's regime. Analysts suggested Arab leaders are worried about the precedent an execution would set, and said Arab publics often identify with their leaders.

"Carrying out this verdict will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq," Mubarak was quoted as saying by state-run Egyptian newspapers. Hanging Saddam 'will transform (Iraq) into blood pools and lead to a deepening of the sectarian and ethnic conflicts.'"

"Iraq corruption 'costs billions'" (BBC News, 2006/11/09)
"Corruption within the Iraqi government is costing the country billions of dollars, the US official monitoring reconstruction in Iraq has said.

Stuart Bowen told the BBC that Iraq was facing a second insurgency of corruption and mismanagement.

He said Iraqi government corruption could amount to $4bn (£2.1bn) a year, over 10% of the national income, with some money going to the insurgency.

Many government workers also lack the skills to manage funds, Mr Bowen said.

"This money that's stolen doesn't merely enrich criminals," Mr Bowen said.

'(It) frequently goes out to fund criminal militias or insurgents. That means lost lives for US troops.'"

"Beheaded girls were Ramadan 'trophies'" (Stephen Fitzpatrick, The Australian, 2006/11/09)
"THREE Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy" by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines jihadists, a court heard yesterday.

The girls' severed heads were dumped in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia's strife-torn Central Sulawesi province, along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks.

The note read: "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head."

Javanese trader Hasanuddin appeared in Jakarta Central Court yesterday charged with planning and directing the murders in October last year. He faces a death sentence if found guilty under anti-terrorism legislation.

Hasanuddin allegedly returned from a visit to members of Philippines Islamist group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with tales of how that organisation regularly staged bombings to coincide with Lebaran, the festival that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He later spoke with a preacher in Poso, Central Sulawesi, about whether such a plan could work in Indonesia, but expressed doubt about whether it was appropriate.

However, after further discussion with friends, he decided that beheading Christians could qualify as an act of Muslim charity.

Conscripting several accomplices at a local pesantren, or Islamic school, he directed one of them, Lilik Purnomo, to seek out "the head of a Christian", prosecutors alleged.

"It would be a great Lebaran trophy if we got a Christian. Go search for the best place for us to find one," Hasanuddin allegedly ordered his companion.

Lilik returned to say he had found an "excellent" target - a group of schoolgirls who travelled to and from class by foot in the Central Sulawesi village of Gebong Rejo. The village is in the district of Poso, where hundreds of people have died in sectarian violence in recent years." (Hat tip: LGF.)

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

News and commentary:

"No Retraction For Indie's False Uranium Libel" (HonestReporting, 2006/11/08)
"HonestReporting UK recently challenged Robert Fisk's charge that Israel had deployed a "secret uranium bomb" in Southern Lebanon during this summer's conflict. In a fit of sensationalist reporting unbefitting a "quality" newspaper, the Independent published the story on the front page without waiting for the results of a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) investigation into the allegations.

HonestReporting UK awaited the Independent's response to the official findings if they contradicted Fisk's "uranium bomb". In fact, the UNEP has declared:

No depleted uranium shrapnel, or other radioactive residue was found. The analysis of all smear samples taken shows no depleted uranium, enriched uranium or higher than natural uranium content in the samples.

However, rather than retracting or even apologising for publishing Fisk's smear, the Independent attempts to muddy the water by concentrating its response on the evidence that phosphorous had been used by Israel, a fact to which the IDF had already admitted and was no longer in dispute. (Phosphorous weapons are legally used by a number of Western armies and were deployed against Hezbollah personnel operating in Southern Lebanon.)" (See also: "Indie's Uranium Charges" (HonestReporting, 2006/10/30))

"Rumsfeld, Webb—and Being careful about what you wish for" (Victor Davis Hanson, Work and Days, 2006/11/08)
"Here is the record of Donald Rumsfeld. (1) Tried to take a top-heavy Pentagon and prepare it for the wars of the postmodern world, in which on a minute’s notice thousands of American soldiers, with air and sea support, would have to be sent to some god-awful place to fight some savagery—and then be trashed live on CNN for doing it; (2) less than a month after 9/11 he organized the retaliation against al Qaeda in the heart of primordial Afghanistan that removed the Taliban in 7 weeks, when we were all warned that the U.S., like the British and Russians of old, would fail; (3) oversaw the removal of Saddam in 3 weeks—after the 1991 Gulf War and the 12-years of 350,000 sorties in the no-fly-zones, and various bombing strikes, had failed. (4) Ah, you say, then there is the disastrous 3-year insurgency—too few troops, Iraqi army let go, underestimated “dead-enders” etc.?

But Rumsfeld knew that in a counterinsurgency (cf. Vietnam 1965-71) massive deployments only ensure complacency, breed dependency, and create resentment, and that, in contrast, training indigenous forces, ensuring political autonomy, and providing air and commando support (e.g., Vietnam circa 1972-4) is the only answer—although that is a long process that can work only if political support at home allows the military to finish the job (cf. the turn-of-the-century Philippines, and the British in Malaysia). He was a good man, and we were lucky to have him in our hour of need."

"Rumsfeld resigns as secretary of defense" (Robert Burns and Katherine Shrader, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/08)
"After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush on Wednesday announced Donald H. Rumfeld's resignation within hours of the Democrats' triumph in congressional elections. Bush reached back to his father's administration to tap a former CIA director to run the Pentagon.

The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld's nearly six-year tenure, and unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday — and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers in Congress became critical of the war's management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.

Bush said Robert M. Gates, 63, a national security veteran, family friend and currently president of Texas A&M University, would be nominated to replace Rumsfeld.

"Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that sometimes it's necessary to have a fresh perspective," Bush said in the abrupt announcement during a postelection news conference."

"Will America save the world?" (Yuval Steinitz, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/11/08)
"If the West fails to prevent the nuclearization of Iran, such ineptitude will likely be analyzed by future historians in the context of Europe's failure to block the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. ...

Any comparison between Iran's nuclear program and those of India, Pakistan or North Korea, is misleading. Iran strives to become a global nuclear player, and thus invests billions of dollars in both nuclear and missile industries to achieve this aim. ...

AND THEN there is the worst-case scenario. Historically, who could have predicted that the massive arming of the Third Reich in the early 1930s would have resulted in the global catastrophe that played itself out in the 1940s? Optimists who nowadays trust the rational thinking of the ayatollahs seem more and more like the optimists of the 1930s who calmed themselves by appealing to the rationality of the Nazis. ...

With a nuclear world war no longer a far-fetched possibility, how would history judge America's current leadership if those who managed to get the US bogged down in Iraq to save the world from virtual chemical weapons wind up failing to save the world from a real nuclear threat in next-door Iran?"

"Hamas to Muslims: Attack US targets" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/11/08)
"Signaling a change in tactics, Hamas' military wing on Wednesday called on Muslims around the world to attack American targets after an apparent misfiring of an IDF artillery shell in the Gaza Strip.

"America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanoun massacre. Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons," Hamas said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

While critical of the US, Hamas has always focused its violent campaign of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli targets. Wednesday's threat signaled that the group is identifying with global Islamic extremist movements, such as al-Qaida."

"Israel kills 18 in Gaza, Palestinians vow revenge" (Nidal al-Mughrabi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/08)
"BEIT HANOUN, Gaza (Reuters) - Palestinian militants vowed revenge after an Israeli artillery barrage killed 18 civilians in the Gaza Strip in the deadliest military strike in four years, prompting the Jewish state to declare a high alert.

Wednesday's carnage in the town of Beit Hanoun rallied Palestinians after months of factional infighting. A wave of censure in Europe and the Middle East brought new scrutiny on
Israel's fighting tactics in a territory it quit last year.

Israeli leaders voiced remorse for the killings, which army officers said were probably caused by shells that overshot after being aimed at areas used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets. The dead included 13 members of one extended family."

"Suicide bomb at Pakistan army base kills 42" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/08)
"PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber killed at least 42 soldiers at an army base in northwest Pakistan, in what appears to be a revenge attack for a missile strike against an Al-Qaeda training camp, officials said. ...

Sultan said the investigations were ongoing, but the attack appeared to be an act by militants whose training school was destroyed by the military raid at in Bajaur last week.

"We strongly suspect the attack on the army center was done by the people trained in Bajaur in the madrassa run by Al-Qaeda facilitators Maulvi Liaqat and Maulvi Faqir," Sultan said.

Suspicion has fallen on Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), a group which has widespread presence in the area and is known for its links to
Afghanistan's Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Both Faqir and Liaqat, who was among 80 militants killed in the airstrike, were members of TNSM group President Pervez Musharraf banned in January 2002 for sending some 10,000 armed tribesmen into Afghanistan to fight the US-led invasion."

"Europe and the Ambiguities of Multiculturalism" (Bat Ye'or, Dhimmi Watch, 2006/11/08)
"Here is an address given by Bat Ye'or, the pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, at Paul Gerhardt Church in Munich, Germany, at Christian Solidarity International's 29th Annual Meeting, which was held from November 2 to November 4, 2006. ...

It is my opinion that we are now living in a period of reactivated jihad and dhimmitude. ... Today, as in the past, jihadist terror is waged not only against Israel, Judaism, but also against the West, that is Christianity. Beheading the enemies of Islam, like the prophet did when he set a sacred model by beheading the Jews who refused to convert – was repeatedly done by jihadists during all the jihad conquests of Christian lands. Abducting infidels for ransom fills up countless historical accounts. Suppressing by terror all criticism by infidels of the Muslim religion or policy is mandated in the land of dhimmitude. Jihad and dhimmitude are the two forces that have eliminated the indigenous non-Muslim populations from their Islamized homeland. Jihad today is displayed in all its traditional manifestations: military and economic warfare, terror, abductions, corruption for the control of the Western media, the universities and public opinion. ...

Europeans behave like dhimmis who have to pay tribute money for their security and the development of Muslim economies without even being thanked. Massive Muslim immigration, linked with the 56 Muslim countries weighs heavily on European policy. We have seen it during the Danish Cartoons Affair. According to Islamic law, dhimmis cannot criticise the Prophet or say that Islamic law has a defect without risking death. Hence, the Islamic blasphemy laws – even at the United Nations – have been imposed on us, and particularly on the Western media. The Islamists control the foreign, domestic and security policy of Europe through terror, the ongoing intifadas in France and the policy of chaos in the suburbs, jihadist-martyrdom bombings in Spain and England and persistent threats everywhere. It is such threats that keep the level of anti-Americanism and the hate against Israel so high in Europe."

"Congress Gets Muslim" (Corruption Chronicles, 2006/11/08)
"The first Muslim elected to the United States Congress is a Democrat from Minneapolis with ties to an Islamic group that supports terrorism and a radical cult whose leader says God will destroy the entire white race and establish a paradise nation ruled by blacks.

Minnesota’s new Representative in the House, Keith Ellison, was endorsed and partly financed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a massive U.S.-based organization that avidly defends Osama bin Laden and other militant Islamic terrorists and considers U.S. action against terrorists anti-Islamic. In fact, the group demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing bin Laden as “the sworn enemy” because it was “offensive to Muslims.”

Ellison, who converted to Islam as a 19-year-old college student, also has strong ties to the Nation of Islam, the black cult led by renowned anti-Christian and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan." (Hat tip: LGF.)

"Democrats Reclaim House; Control of Senate Pending" (Dan Balz and Debbi Wilgoren, The Washington Post, 2006/11/08)
"Democrats easily recaptured the House last night, but control of the Senate hung in the balance today, after a bitter midterm election campaign dominated by war, scandal and questions about President Bush's leadership. ...

The upheaval in the House and the changing balance in the Senate signaled a dramatic power shift in Washington that will alter the final two years of Bush's presidency, with resurgent Democrats expected to challenge the administration on its domestic priorities and the Iraq war.

Bush -- who recently equated a vote for Democrats as a vote for terrorists -- telephoned Pelosi and other victorious Democrats early this morning to offer congratulations, invite them to lunch and offer a message that press secretary Tony Snow characterized as 'we look forward to working with you.'"

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

News and commentary:

"A Question of Security: Violence against Palestinian Women and Girls" (HRW, November 2006)
A Question of Security II: "In another study, close to 80 percent of Palestinian girls aged five to 17 reported that they were exposed to violence in the home. ...

Hanan Sharif (pseudonym), 20, was 17 when her father first tried to rape her. “My mother was cooking downstairs. No one could do anything to help me. My mother tried to stop it, but he hit her too, she couldn’t do anything.” Hanan’s father molested her several times over three years. “When I got older, I realized he was using me… I thought this was tenderness before.” Hanan eventually ran away from home. She went to live with her older brother, but that did not end the abuse.

I went to my brother. He helped me a bit, but then he also tried to rape me. It happened so many times. He’d hit me and then sleep with me. He wouldn’t let me see anyone. He would take off my clothes. He said, “you’re not worth anything. None of your [other] brothers can help you. Where will you go? If you go back home, our father will beat you even more because you left the house without his permission.”

Hanan spent a year and a half with her brother before she reported the abuse to the police. The police officers she approached did not believe her at first. 'They said ‘it’s impossible that a father would do that to his daughter.’ They didn’t believe me. The social worker [at the police station] didn’t even believe me.'"

"HRW Report: Palestinian women victims of violence" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/11/07)
A Question of Security I: "A new report paints an alarming picture of the abuse of women in the Palestinian territories, with police, courts and government agencies failing to treat violence such as rape and beatings as a crime.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch cited practices such as rape victims being forced to marry assailants and light sentences for men who kill female relatives suspected of adultery. It said families, tribal leaders and authorities, backed by tradition and discriminatory laws, often sacrifice victims' interests for "family honor."

The problem is only getting worse with growing poverty and lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza, the report said.

According to a survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics of more than 4,000 households in December 2005 and January 2006, 23 percent of the women said they had experienced domestic violence, but just over 1 percent filed a complaint. Two-thirds said they were subjected to psychological abuse at home."

"Confessed al-Qaida operative gets life" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/07)
Dhiren Barot III: "An al-Qaida operative who planned to blow up landmark London hotels using limos packed with gas tanks, napalm and nails, and plotted to attack the New York Stock Exchange and the World Bank was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison. ...

After his sentencing, he will be transferred to the United States to face a four-count indictment, which includes a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, according to a spokesman for the Home Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Under the alias Issa al-Britani, Barot was named in the report of the U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as an associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 planner."

"Plans to wreak havoc buried deep in deleted computer files" (Adam Fresco and Sean O’Neill, The Times, 2006/11/07)
Dhiren Barot II: "There were other files hidden within that with names such as “Radioactive Children”. In that file police discovered a document entitled “Final Presentation” which again talked about dirty bombs. Mr Lawson said that the document was an explanation about RDD — radiation dispersal device. ...

The dangers of constructing an RDD are discussed. The files read: “To cause a large amount of radioactive contamination, we would be drawn toward very high activity sources.

“However, in order to prepare the source for effective dispersal by removing the shielding we would risk exposing ourselves to lethal doses. Even in suicidal missions we might not live long enough to deliver a highly radioactive RDD that uses gamma-emitting sources and is not shielded . . .

The author concludes: ' . . . a few grams of cobalt 60 with several pounds of explosives are enough to close an area the size of Manhattan. Unfortunately the carrier will be one of the many victims once the device has been emitted.'"

"The video made five months before 9/11 attacks" (Sean O’Neill and Adam Fresco, The Times, 2006/11/07)
Dhiren Barot I: "A reconnaissance video shot by Dhiren Barot in New York in April 2001 contained “a macabre prophecy” of the atrocities that would occur five months later on 9/11, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

The key piece of evidence was found hidden on a videotape of the Bruce Willis film Die Hard: With A Vengeance — about a series of explosions in New York. Added to the end of the film was 80 minutes of footage recorded by the terrorist planner and two accomplices.

Barot had enrolled to study communications skills at Mohawk Valley College, New York, and although he never attended classes he was free to travel in and out of the United States. He is known to have made trips in 2000 and 2001.

Posing as tourists, he and two accomplices walked the streets of the city’s financial district and filmed side entrances, security guards and cameras outside the New York Stock Exchange and other buildings.

The video also contained footage of the World Trade Centre. Whoever was holding the camcorder turned it on its side as he filmed the Twin Towers, then mimicked the sound of an explosion."

Monday, November 6, 2006

News and commentary:

"A police handout photograph..."
(Reuters, 2006/11/06)
"A police handout photograph released on November 6, 2006 shows Britain's Dhiren Barot, 34, who appeared for sentencing before Woolwich Crown Court, east London on Monday. Barot pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up financial targets in the United States and carry out 'dirty bomb' attacks in Britain."

"Man to be sentenced in British bomb plot" (David Stringer, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/06)
LONDON - One of the top al-Qaida operatives known to have been captured in Britain appeared in court amid heavy security Monday for sentencing in a plot to bomb the
New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington and to use a dirty bomb in London.

Dhiren Barot, 34, started plotting six years ago for a "memorable black day for the enemies of Islam," prosecutor Edmund Lawson said at the hearing, which was punctuated by a dramatic moment when prosecutors showed a March 2001 video shot while Barot was in New York. The camera zooms into the World Trade Center and a man is then heard mimicking the sound of an explosion.

"This, we have to bear in mind, was five months before 9/11," Lawson said.

Flanked by two guards, Barot sat expressionless behind a glass wall as the proceedings began. He pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to commit mass murder in terrorist plots on both sides of the Atlantic. He faces a life sentence."

"The Press at War" (James Q. Wilson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/06)
"People who oppose the entire war on terror run much of the national press, and they go to great lengths to make waging it difficult. Thus the New York Times ran a front-page story about President Bush's allowing, without court warrants, electronic monitoring of phone calls between overseas terrorists and people inside the U.S. On the heels of this, the Times reported that the FBI had been conducting a top-secret program to monitor radiation levels around U.S. Muslim sites, including mosques. And then both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times ran stories about America's effort to monitor foreign banking transactions in order to frustrate terrorist plans. The revelation of this secret effort followed five years after the New York Times urged, in an editorial, that precisely such a program be started. ...

This change in the media is not a transitory one that will give way to a return to the support of our military when it fights. Journalism, like so much scholarship, now dwells in a postmodern age in which truth is hard to find and statements merely serve someone's interests.

The mainstream media's adversarial stance, both here and abroad, means that whenever a foreign enemy challenges us, he will know that his objective will be to win the battle not on some faraway bit of land but among the people who determine what we read and watch. We won the Second World War in Europe and Japan, but we lost in Vietnam and are in danger of losing in Iraq and Lebanon in the newspapers, magazines and television programs we enjoy." (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

 

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.

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

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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