Archived news and commentary: December 4 - 10, 2006

2006/12/04 - 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13 - 2006/11/19
2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, December 10, 2006

News and commentary:

"ISG must stand for, uh, Inane Strategy Guesswork" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/12/10)
ISG III: "So there you have it: an Iraq "Support Group" that brings together the Arab League, the European Union, Iran, Russia, China and the U.N. And with support like that who needs lack of support? It worked in Darfur, where the international community reached unanimous agreement on the urgent need to rent a zeppelin to fly over the beleaguered region trailing a big banner emblazoned "YOU'RE SCREWED." For Dar4.1, they can just divert it to Baghdad.

Oh, but lest you think there are no minimum admission criteria to James Baker's "Support Group," relax, it's a very restricted membership: Arabs, Persians, Chinese commies, French obstructionists, Russian assassination squads. But no Jews. Even though Israel is the only country to be required to make specific concessions -- return the Golan Heights, etc. Indeed, insofar as this document has any novelty value, it's in the Frankenstein-meets-the-Wolfman sense of a boffo convergence of hit franchises: a Vietnam bug-out, but with the Jews as the designated fall guys. Wow. That's what Hollywood would call 'high concept.'"

"The Big Lie About the Middle East" (Lisa Beyer, TIME, 2006/12/10)
ISG II: "No sensible person is against peacemaking in the Holy Land. Applause and hopefulness would seem the reasonable reaction to the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the Bush Administration "act boldly" and "as soon as possible" to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. But as a front-row observer of similar efforts over the past 15 years, I could muster neither response. In lumping the Iraq mess in with the Palestinian problem--and suggesting the first could not be fixed unless the second was too--the Baker-Hamilton commission lent credibility to a corrosive myth: that the fundamental problem in the Arab world is the plight of the Palestinians. ...

In a decade of reporting in the region, I found it rarely took more than the arching of an eyebrow to get the most candid of Arab thinkers to acknowledge that the tears shed for the Palestinians today outside the West Bank and Gaza are of the crocodile variety. Palestinians know this best of all.

To promote the canard that the troubles of the Arab world are rooted in the Palestinians' misfortune does great harm. It encourages the Arabs to continue to avoid addressing their colossal societal and political ills by hiding behind their Great Excuse: it's all Israel's fault."

"An Unlikely Offensive" (The Washington Post, 2006/12/10)
ISG I: "But to embrace the group's proposed "New Diplomatic Offensive" would be to suppose a Middle East very different from what's on the ground.

Start with the supposition that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is somehow central to ending the chaos in Iraq. In fact, even if the two-state solution sought by the Bush administration were achieved, it's difficult to imagine how or why that would cause Sunnis and Shiites to cease their sectarian war in Baghdad or the Baathist-al Qaeda insurgency to stand down. It's no doubt true, as study group chairmen James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton have said, that every Arab leader they met told them that an Israeli-Arab settlement must be the first priority. But the princes and dictators of Riyadh, Cairo and Amman have been delivering that tired line to American envoys for decades: It is their favorite excuse for failing to support U.S. initiatives and for refusing to reform their own moribund autocracies. In fact, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Iraqi neighbors have vital interests in the ongoing Iraqi power struggle. They can and should be moved to help stop the slide toward anarchy on their borders whether or not peace breaks out in Jerusalem."

"Al Qaeda suspects arrested in Turkey: reports" (Reuters/ABC News, 2006/12/10)
"Turkey's state news agency says police have arrested 10 suspected Islamic militants believed to have links to Al Qaeda.

The Anatolian News Agency reports they include a lawyer who has admitted he is the leader of Al Qaeda in Turkey.

The 10 suspects were detained in simultaneous police raids in three cities - Ankara, Istanbul and Ismir - at the start of last month's visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict.

A report from Turkey's state-run news agency says the police had been watching the group for a year and acted on information they had bomb-making equipment.

The police are not commenting any further.

The report says police found maps of an oil refinery near Ismir, and seized what they called a CD bomb, thought to explode when played, for the first time.

CNN Turk says the leader is a 25-year-old lawyer and two of the suspects were also members of the Great Islamic Eastern Warriors Front (IBDA-C).

That group claimed joint responsibility with Al Qaeda for two bombings at Istanbul synagogues and attacks on a British consulate and the HSBC bank in November 2003, in which more than 60 people were killed.

IBDA-C is made up of Sunni Muslims seeking to create an Islamic state in Turkey. It is on the European Union's terrorist list."

Saturday, December 9, 2006

News and commentary:

"Al Jazeera Editor Whines: 'We Always Lose to Israel'" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/12/09)
"Here’s an interview with Al-Jazeera Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Sheikh, demonstrating why this mouthpiece for the global jihad should never be allowed to spread its propaganda in the United States. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the irrational, obsessive hatred of Jews that drives the Arab-Muslim victimhood mentality.

Who is responsible for the situation?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.

Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?

I think so.

Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?

The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.

In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this."

(See also: "An Interview With Al-Jazeera Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Sheikh" (Pierre Heumann, WorldPoliticsWatch, 2006/12/07))

"Iran's president says Holocaust now up for debate" (Reuters, 2006/12/09)
"The Holocaust is now a subject of serious debate, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.

Iran has invited scholars from 30 countries to attend a conference starting on Monday about the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by the Nazis.

"For 60 years talking about the Holocaust was a crime in the West but now there is a serious debate about the Holocaust in the media and also in political and popular meetings," state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Ahmadinejad sparked an international outcry by referring to the Holocaust as a "myth" and saying Israel should be relocated to Europe or North America.

"Even some Western politicians have declared that the original foundation of the Zionist regime (Israel) was a mistake," he said on Saturday."

"'You must leave in 24 hours or your heads will be cut, your houses burnt'" (Ned Parker, The Times, 2006/12/09)
"One Shia family saw their neighbours flee, one by one. They stayed - until the al-Qaeda death threat finally landed on the doorstep":
"The three Azzawi brothers, Hussein, Qadam and Ali, loved their home. Their late father had picked the two-storey villa because it was big enough for his sons to marry and raise children in. He hoped that they would always live there.

That dream ended with a letter, dumped after dark on the Azzawis’ doorstep. The death threat was organised like a business memorandum, with the helpful heading “Subject: displacement”.

It read: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You should leave the Sunni areas, including Ghazaliyah, within 24 hours. Otherwise your heads will be cut, your houses and furniture will be burnt just as the militias have done to the Sunnis . . . Signed: al-Qaeda in the land of two rivers and the Mujahidin Shura Council.”

Two gunmen had walked down the street like postmen and dropped the letter off at every Shia home. Once they had covered the block, a car picked them up."

"Blair: Paying religious groups is a mistake" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/12/09)
"Tony Blair formally declared Britain's multiculturalist experiment over today as he told immigrants they had "a duty" to integrate with the mainstream of society.

In a speech that overturned more than three decades of Labour support for the idea, he set out a series of requirements that were now expected from ethnic minority groups if they wished to call themselves British.

These included "equality of respect" - especially better treatment of women by Muslim men - allegiance to the rule of law and a command of English. If outsiders wishing to settle in Britain were not prepared to conform to the virtues of tolerance then they should stay away.

He added: "Conform to it; or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed. ...

"The right to be in a multicultural society was always implicitly balanced by a duty to integrate, to be part of Britain, to be British and Asian, British and black, British and white," he said. ...

The speech was greeted with a mixture of anger from Muslim groups and scepticism from his political opponents. A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain called it "concerning and alarming". He added: 'Mr Blair should be investing in our society to help the deprived, rather than investing millions and billions in illegal occupations which had not helped to promote multiculturalism in this country.'" (See also the full text of the speech: "The Duty to Integrate: Shared British Values" (Tony Blair, 10 Downing Street, 2006/12/08))

Added today:
"Freedom of expression in Turkey" (Atilla Yayla, International Herald Tribune, 2006/12/06)

Friday, December 8, 2006

News and commentary:

"U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane J. Kirkpatrick..."
(Marty Lederhandler, AP, 1985/03/12)
"U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane J. Kirkpatrick raises her hand to veto a Security Council resolution condemning Israel's crackdown in souther Lebanon in the March 12, 1985 file photo. Kirkpatrick, an unabashed apostle of Reagan era conservatism and the first woman U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died."

"San Diego Convention - 1984 Jeane Kirkpatrick" (Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, CNN.com, 1984)
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, R.I.P. III. The "Blame America first" speech:
"They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do - they didn't blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians - they blamed the United States instead.

But then, somehow, they always blame America first.

When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the "blame America first crowd" didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.

But then, they always blame America first.

The American people know better.

They know that Ronald Reagan and the United States didn't cause Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, or the repression in Poland, or the brutal new offensives in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the Korean airliner, or the new attacks on religious and ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, or the jamming of western broadcasts, or the denial of Jewish emigration, or the brutal imprisonment of Anatoly Shcharansky and Ida Nudel, or the obscene treatment of Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, or the re-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.

The American people know that it's dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause."

"The Myth of Moral Equivalence" (Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Liberty Haven/Imprimis, January 1986)
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, R.I.P. II: "In this issue, Ambassador Kirkpatrick, who touched off the "moral equivalence" debate in London at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in April of 1984, discusses the assault on Western democracy which this doctrine represents.":
"Marxism incorporates, at the verbal level and the intellectual level, the values of liberal democracy in its assault on liberal democracy and this is precisely why it entraps so many Western intellectuals who are themselves serious liberal democrats. ...

An alliance among democracies is based on shared ideals. The process of de-legitimization is, therefore, an absolutely ideal instrument for undermining an alliance, as well as for undermining a government. The NATO alliance among democracies simply cannot survive a widespread conviction among its members that there is no difference between the superpowers. It is not necessary to demonstrate that the Soviet Union is flawed, or deplorable. To destroy the alliance, it is only necessary to deprive the citizens of democratic societies of a sense of shared moral purpose which underlies common identifications and common efforts. ...

It's perfectly clear that the tendency to self-debasement, self-denigration which has been so brilliantly commented upon by the French scholar Jean Francois Revel and others recently is rooted in this practice of measuring Western democratic societies by utopian standards. There is simply no way that such measurements can result in anything but chronic, continuous self-debasement, self-criticism, and finally, self-disgust. The problem of dealing with this is complicated by the fact that the values in question are our own values. The response, of course, must be that it is not appropriate to judge actual social practices by utopian standards of political values."

"Jeane Kirkpatrick, ex-ambassador, dies" (Barry Schweid, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/08)
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, R.I.P. I: "Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, a political science professor whose support for Ronald Reagan conservatism catapulted her into the post of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died at 80. She was the first woman to hold the post.

Initially a liberal Democrat, Kirkpatrick championed human rights, opposed Soviet Union communism and supported Israel.

"She defended the cause of freedom at a pivotal time in world history," President Bush said Friday. "Jeane's powerful intellect helped America win the Cold War."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called her a role model, "an academic who brought great intellectual power to her work."

Kirkpatrick's son, Stuart, said she died Thursday at her home in Bethesda, Md., where she was under hospice care. The cause of death was not immediately known. U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton asked for a moment of silence for her at a meeting of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. in New York."

"Insults Against Jews on the Rise" (Björn Hengst and Jan Friedmann, Der Spiegel, 2006/12/08)
"Right-wing adolescents and young Muslims are displaying levels of anti-Semitism that were long considered unthinkable in Germany. At many German schools, the word "Jew" is becoming an insult again. German politicians don't seem to know how to respond.

The Jewish High School in Berlin's central Mitte district resembles a high-security ward. Those who want to access the imposing old building on Grosse Hamburger Strasse have to pass through a meticulous security check. The building is surrounded by a fence several meters high and video cameras register every move. Policemen stand guard in front of the building.

"We're no ghetto," school director Barbara Wittig clarifies. "We offer those children protection who have to fear discrimination at other schools," she adds. And such cases have increased dramatically in the past two years. "I always though Jews were integrated into German society," says Wittig. "I would never have thought it possible for anti-Semitism to express itself as virulently as it has recently."

As of this week, Wittig's students have included two girls who previously attended the public, non-confessional Lina-Morgenstern High School in Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood. Their woes attracted considerable public attention. For months, one of the two girls, who is 14 years old, suffered anti-Semitic insults from adolescents with an Arab background. They also beat her and spat on her. Walking to school became like running the gauntlet for her. Her tormentors would hide in wait for her and chase her through the streets. In the end the girl had to be given police protection on her way to school."

"Jews Wake Up!" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/12/08)
"When the history of our times is written, this week will be remembered as the week that Washington decided to let the Islamic Republic of Iran go nuclear. Hopefully it will also be remembered as the moment the Jews arose and refused to allow Iran to go nuclear.

With the publication of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group chaired by former US secretary of state James Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton, the debate about the war in Iraq changed. From a war for victory against Islamofascism and for democracy and freedom, the war became reduced to a conflict to be managed by appeasing the US's sworn enemies in the interests of stability, and at the expense of America's allies. ...

Baker believes that Iran will agree to temporarily hold its fire in Iraq in exchange for US acceptance of Iran as a nuclear power and an American pledge not to topple the regime. Syria will assist the US in exchange for US pressure on Israel to hand over the Golan Heights to Syria and Judea and Samaria to Hamas.

Obviously, if implemented, the Baker-Hamilton group's recommendations will be disastrous for Israel. Just the fact that they now form the basis for the public debate on the war is a great blow. But it isn't only Israel that is harmed by their actions. The US too, will be imperiled if their views become administration policy."

"Feds: Man planned to blow up Ill. mall" (Mike Robinson, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/08)
"CHICAGO - A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall at the height of the Christmas rush, authorities said.

Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, an American citizen from Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades. He was arrested Wednesday when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a gun, authorities said.

"He fixed on a day of December 22nd on Friday ... because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure," said Robert Grant, the agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office.

Authorities said Shareef had been under investigation since September, when he told an acquaintance that "he wanted to commit acts of violent jihad against targets in the United States as well as commit other crimes."

The acquaintance immediately informed the FBI, officials said.

Federal officials said Shareef planned to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans at the CherryVale shopping mall in Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago.

Other potential targets that Shareef allegedly discussed included government facilities such as courthouses and city hall, authorities said.

An affidavit quoted him as saying: 'I just want to smoke a judge.'"

"UNHRC slams Israel for the 7th time" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/12/08)
[Emphasis added]: "The UN Human Rights Council passed a seventh resolution criticizing Israel on Friday, this time for it's failure to act on earlier recommendations that it end military operations in the Palestinian territories and allow a fact-finding mission to the region.

The rights body, which has only condemned the Israeli government in its seven-month existence, noted with regret its July resolution urging the release of all arrested Palestinian ministers had not yet been carried out.

"Violations of the fundamental rights of the Palestinians continue unabated," said Pakistani diplomat Tehmina Janjua on behalf of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, which proposed the resolution. ...

Only Canada voted against Friday's resolution. Cameroon and Japan joined the 10 European members of the council in abstaining. The rest of Africa and Asia, along with all of Latin America, voted in favor."

Thursday, December 7, 2006

News and commentary:

"Arabs say report shows Bush's failure" (Maggie Michael, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/07)
The Iraq Study Group II: "CAIRO, Egypt - Many Arabs on Thursday interpreted an American advisory panel's bleak assessment of President Bush's Iraq policies as proof of Washington's failure in the Middle East.

But others worried about the consequences if the U.S. follows the Iraq Study Group's suggestions, warning that the report could fuel insurgents and others vying to fill Iraq's security vacuum.

"This report is a recognition of the limitation of American power," said Abdel Moneim Said, head of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic studies in Cairo. "In the short term, America will highly suffer the loss of its reputation and credibility in the region." ...

Mustafa Bakri, an outspoken critic of the U.S. and editor of the Egyptian tabloid Al-Osboa, told a state-run television show that the report indicated "the end of America."

Bakri, who supports Syrian President Bashar Assad and the former regime of Saddam Hussein, urged Arab countries to "capture the moment as America now is in its weakest period."

The Iraq Study Group's report was the top headline in many Arab newspapers on Thursday, including the Egyptian opposition daily Al-Wafd, which declared: "Bush confesses defeat in Iraq."

The paper's editor-in-chief, Anwar el-Hawari, predicted that at the very least, the Middle East will not hear from Bush for the coming 24 months.

"Practically, this means that this is the real end of Bush rule, his policies and the neo-conservative groups. This also means that the coming two years left in his term will be a period of a political vacuum," he wrote."

"Comment: topsy-turvy strategy from the Iraq Study Group" (Gerard Baker, The Times, 2006/12/07)
The Iraq Study Group I: "It essentially challenges Mr Bush to repudiate not only his Iraq war strategy but his whole approach of dealing with the broader Middle East. And in both of its main proposals – for a US troop withdrawal and a renewed diplomatic effort in the region, it may run into opposition not just from Mr Bush, but from some prominent members of Congress and even the leaders of the nation’s military.

The group’s proposals envisage an almost complete withdrawal of US troops by March 2008 (cynics will note, conveniently in time for the next US presidential election). Though they provide no timetable, the groups’ members do endorse the idea of benchmarks as a measure of progress towards political stability. If the Iraqi Government fails to meet those benchmarks, the report says, the US should withdraw military and economic support.

As appealing as this may be for some US politicians, it does look like an oddly topsy-turvy approach. What it says in effect is, the more unstable Iraq becomes, the smaller should be the US commitment to the country." (See also:"Panel: Bush's Iraq policies have failed" (Anne Plummer Flaherty and David Espo, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/06))

Added today:
"Somalia Town Threatens to Behead People Who Don't Pray 5 Times Daily" (AP/FOX News, 2006/12/06)
"Hardliners turn on Ahmadinejad for watching women dancers" (Robert Tait, The Guardian, 2006/12/05)

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

News and commentary:

"THE state's most promising young Muslim leader..."
(The Daily Telegraph, 2006/12/06)
"THE state's most promising young Muslim leader has become the victim of a hate campaign because she celebrated with a glass of champagne after being named NSW Young Australian of the Year."

"Vilified over sip of bubbly" (Luke McIlveen, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/12/06)
Via LGF, who has more: "Why We Rarely Hear from Moderate Muslims":
"THE state's most promising young Muslim leader has become the victim of a hate campaign because she celebrated with a glass of champagne after being named NSW Young Australian of the Year.

Iktimal Hage-Ali, 22, has been targeted on Muslim websites for drinking alcohol and declining to wear the traditional hijab.

Her anonymous attackers condemned her after she drank the champagne to toast her award at the NSW Art Gallery last Thursday.

"It's true, I was celebrating. Bloody hell, I had a glass of champagne in my hand – so what?" Ms Hage-Ali told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

The Islamic youth website Muslim Village posted dozens of messages berating Ms Hage-Ali.

"A person who drinks champagne, especially unabashedly, cannot represent the Muslim community," one member wrote.

Another added: "She knows we don't appreciate her representing us – but it's the power that drives her. Drinking champagne, that is sick."

The cowardly accusers also berated Ms Hage-Ali for wearing "revealing" clothes, nail polish and make-up.

"Her matching nails, eye shadow and top . . . were not . . . how Islam would like to portray a Muslim female to the wider community," one said."

"Freedom of expression in Turkey" (Atilla Yayla, International Herald Tribune, 2006/12/06)
Via Cato@Liberty: "I blogged earlier about the unpleasant experiences of a Turkish friend, Professor Atilla Yayla, whose remarks got him in hot water in Turkey, including suspension from his post as a professor at Gazi University and public denunciations as a traitor. He has now written a vigorous defense of freedom of speech in Turkey for the International Herald Tribune, “Freedom of Expression in Turkey.” As Atilla explains,":

"After my fear and panic in the first few days, I think I now understand why this is happening.

I am a well-known classical liberal. I openly defend human rights for everybody. That naturally includes the rights of Kurds and conservative Muslims.

The Kemalists hate my attitude, but they are not able to challenge and refute my ideas. Their opportunity came with this event and they turned my criticism of Kemalism into an insult against Ataturk.

But Turkish journalists, cartoonists, writers and academics face more than just state ideology and trial by media. Law 5816 prohibits publicly “insulting Ataturk’s memory.” Just to be sure, Article 301 of the penal code stipulates prison for “public denigration of Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey” or 'the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or security structures.'"

"Somalia Town Threatens to Behead People Who Don't Pray 5 Times Daily" (AP/FOX News, 2006/12/06)
"MOGADISHU, Somalia — Residents of a southern Somalia town who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an official said Wednesday, adding the edict will be implemented in three days.

Shops, tea houses and other public places in Bulo Burto, about 124 miles northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, should be closed during prayer time and no one should be on the streets, said Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, the chairman of the town's Islamic court. His court is part of a network backed by armed militiamen that has taken control of much of southern Somalia in recent months, bringing a strict interpretation of Islam that is alien to many Somalis.

Those who do not follow the prayer edict after three days have elapsed, "will definitely be beheaded according to Islamic law," Rage told The Associated Press by phone. "As Muslims we should practice Islam fully, not in part, and that is what our religion enjoins us to do."

He said the edict, which covered only Bulo Burto, was being announced over loudspeakers throughout the town." (Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)

"Panel: Bush's Iraq policies have failed" (Anne Plummer Flaherty and David Espo, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/06)
"President Bush's war policies have failed in almost every regard, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group concluded Wednesday, and it warned of dwindling chances to change course before crisis turns to chaos with dire implications for terrorism, war in the Middle East and higher oil prices around the world.

Nearly four years, $400 billion and more than 2,900 U.S. deaths into a deeply unpopular war, violence is bad and getting worse, there is no guarantee of success and the consequences of failure are great, the high-level panel of five Republicans and five Democrats said in a bleak accounting of U.S. and Iraqi shortcomings.

It said the United States should find ways to pull back most of its combat forces by early 2008 and focus U.S. troops on training and supporting Iraqi units. The U.S. should also begin a "diplomatic offensive" by the end of the month and engage adversaries Iran and Syria in an effort to quell sectarian violence and shore up the fragile Iraqi government, the report said." (See also the report [PDF]: "The Iraq Study Group Report" (usip.org, 2006/12/06))

"The danger of engaging with the enemy" (Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, 2006/12/06)
"SHOULD THE United States turn to Iran and Syria for help in reducing the violence bloodying Iraq? James Baker's Iraq Study Group, out this week with its well-leaked recommendations, thinks direct talks with Tehran and Damascus would be a fine idea. I think so too -- right after those governments switch sides in the global jihad.

As things stand now, however, negotiating with Iran and Syria over the future of Iraq is about as promising a strategy for preventing more bloodshed as negotiating with Adolf Hitler over the future of Czechoslovakia was in 1938. ...

The war against radical Islam, of which Iraq is but one front, cannot be won so long as regimes like those in Tehran and Damascus remain in power. They are as much our enemies today as the Nazi Reich was our enemy in an earlier era. Imploring Assad and Ahmadinejad for help in Iraq can only intensify the whiff of American retreat that is already in the air. The word for that isn't realism. It's surrender." (See also the first part: "Fighting to win in Iraq" (Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, 2006/12/03))

"Muslim boys urinated on Bible" (Cameron Stewart, The Australian, 2006/12/06)
Via Dhimmi Watch: "Authorities appealed for calm in Western countries, lest riots and effigy burnings break out.":
"TWO Muslim students have been expelled from an Islamic school in Melbourne for urinating and spitting on a Bible and setting it on fire.

The explosive incident has forced the East Preston Islamic College to call in a senior imam to tell its 650 Muslim students that the Bible and Christianity must be respected.

Anxious teachers at the school have also petitioned principal Shaheem Doutie, expressing "grave concern" about an "inculcation of hatred and radical attitudes towards non-Muslims" at the school, including towards non-Muslim teachers.

The Bible desecration took place last week at a school camp held near Bacchus Marsh, about 50km west of Melbourne, attended by 33 teenage Muslim boys ranging in age from Year7 to Year 10.

A school report of the incident, obtained by The Australian, says it happened late at night and involved three students and another two watching.

"The main perpetrator (a Year 7 student) urinated on the Holy Bible, tore some pages from the Holy Book and burnt them then finally spat on the Holy Book," the report says.

The second boy, from Year 9, "tore pages from the Holy Book and burnt them", while a third student, from Year 7, 'tore pages from the Holy Bible and then he rolled it up like a cigarette and pretended to smoke it.'"

"Probes dismiss imams' racism claim" (Audrey Hudson, The Washington Times, 2006/12/06)
"Three parallel investigations into the removal of six imams from a US Airways flight last month have so far concluded that the airline acted properly, that the imams' claims they were merely praying and their eviction was racially inspired are without foundation.

An internal investigation by the airline found that air and ground crews "acted correctly" when they requested that the Muslim men be removed from a Minneapolis-to-Phoenix flight on Nov. 20.

"We believe the ground crew and employees acted correctly and did what they are supposed to do," US Airways spokeswoman Andrea Rader said. ...

"We talked with crew members and passengers and those on the ground. We've done what we typically do in a situation where there is a removal or some kind of customer service at issue," Miss Rader said. 'We found out the facts are substantially the same, and the imams were detained because of the concerns crew members had based on the behavior they observed, and from reports by the customers.'" (See also: "The Faking Imams" (Richard Miniter, Pajamas Media, 2006/12/01) and "How the imams terrorized an airliner" (Audrey Hudson, The Washington Times, 2006/11/28))

Added today:
"Errors, omissions, inventions and falsehoods" (Power Line, 2006/12/05)
"Think tank: Hezbollah used human shields" (Amy Teibel, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/05)
"Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered" (Raymond Ibrahim, Los Angeles Times, 2006/12/05)
"Iraq: Kidnappers murder church elder in Mosul" (Compass Direct, 2006/12/04)

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

News and commentary:

"Iranian Sci-Fi TV Series Stars Mega-Evil Jewish/Zionist Queen in 'Black House'"
(MEMRI TV, December 2006)
Via LGF: "Here’s your moment of Islamic science fiction, from Iranian Channel 1. It’s a little like Star Trek, only with Jew-hatred."

"Errors, omissions, inventions and falsehoods" (Power Line, 2006/12/05)
"A reader writes that he received the email message below sent by Professor Kenneth Stein of Emory University and the Carter Center. Professor Stein's expertise lies in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. ... Professor Stein is apparently terminating his association with the Carter Center, solely as a result of Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. The reaction of Professor Stein -- a formerly close associate and collaborator of Carter -- to Carter's new book is, as our reader thought it would be, of great interest to us: ...

This note is to inform you that yesterday, I sent letters to President Jimmy Carter, Emory University President Jim Wagner, and Dr. John Hardman, Executive Director of the Carter Center resigning my position, effectively immediately, as Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center of Emory University. ...

President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analyses; it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments. Aside from the one-sided nature of the book, meant to provoke, there are recollections cited from meetings where I was the third person in the room, and my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book. Being a former President does not give one a unique privilege to invent information or to unpack it with cuts, deftly slanted to provide a particular outlook. Having little access to Arabic and Hebrew sources, I believe, clearly handicapped his understanding and analyses of how history has unfolded over the last decade. Falsehoods, if repeated often enough become meta-truths, and they then can become the erroneous baseline for shaping and reinforcing attitudes and for policy-making. The history and interpretation of the Arab-Israeli conflict is already drowning in half-truths, suppositions, and self-serving myths; more are not necessary."

(See also: "Carter's Calumny" (Mitchell Bard, Jewish Virtual Library, December 2006))

"Think tank: Hezbollah used human shields" (Amy Teibel, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/05)
"An Israeli think tank with strong links to the military released videos and testimony Tuesday it said proved Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as human shields during last summer's war in Lebanon. ...

The 300-page report, compiled by a military intelligence expert who has an office in the Defense Ministry, argues that Lebanese government and media reports of the number of civilians killed in Lebanon were exaggerated.

The report, first released to The New York Times, said Hezbollah operated from civilian areas to deter the Israeli military and gain a propaganda advantage if an Israeli counterattack caused civilian casualties. Guerrillas stashed weapons in hundreds of homes and mosques, had missile transports closely follow ambulances and fired rockets from positions near U.N. monitoring posts, the report said.

Much of the material was released earlier, but some was recently declassified, including interviews with Hezbollah prisoners and aerial photographs showing the Hezbollah buildup in civilian areas.

One video included in the report showed what it identified as a captive Hezbollah guerrilla telling interrogators how the militia rented houses in residential areas to secretly store missiles.

"Even the owner of the house, he knows he's giving (the building) to Hezbollah, they rent it for instance, but its not possible for him to know what's in it," said the man, identified as 30-year-old Maher Hassan Mahmoud Kourani."

"Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered" (Raymond Ibrahim, Los Angeles Times, 2006/12/05)
"IN THE DAYS before Pope Benedict XVI's visit last Thursday to the Hagia Sophia complex in Istanbul, Muslims and Turks expressed fear, apprehension and rage. "The risk," according to Turkey's independent newspaper Vatan, "is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims." Apparently making the sign of the cross or any other gesture of Christian worship in Hagia Sophia constitutes such a sacrilege. ...

All this illustrates the privileged status that many Muslims expect in the international arena. When Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories — such as Constantinople, not to mention all of North Africa, Spain and southwest Asia — those whom they have conquered as well as their descendants are not to expect any apologies, let alone political or territorial concessions.

Herein lies the conundrum. When Islamists wage jihad — past, present and future — conquering and consolidating non-Muslim territories and centers in the name of Islam, never once considering to cede them back to their previous owners, they ultimately demonstrate that they live by the age-old adage "might makes right." That's fine; many people agree with this Hobbesian view.

But if we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam's conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth?"

"How many deaths is the right to vote worth?" (David Aaronovitch, The Times, 2006/12/05)
"Invited, almost seduced, by the BBC reporter Lyse Doucet, Kofi Annan said what I least wanted to hear. Hadn’t things, as “some Iraqis” suggest, been better under Saddam Hussein? “If I were an average Iraqi,” replied Mr Annan, “obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying: ‘Am I going to see my child again?’”

Playing this discussion at the level of rhetoric would be easy, but stupid. I didn’t want to hear Mr Annan’s opinion because, of course, I worry it might be true. ...

Perhaps then, we should have left Saddam alone. Or, even, if we were to be more honest, co-operated with him as we did in the ’80s, knowing — as was argued then — that the present chaos was quite possible in the eventuality of him being toppled. This alternative was spelt out with great honesty by Kevin Toolis (and with more subtlety by Anatole Kaletsky last week) on these pages last month when he wrote: “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.” I hope some of my anti-war and instinctively anti-interventionist colleagues won’t mind me saying that Toolis represents the logic of their own views. And let’s agree that they could be right." (See also: "Saddam Nostalgia" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2006/12/04) and "Compare bloodshed. Saddam is then the moral victor, not Bush" (Kevin Toolis, The Times, 2006/11/11))

"Hardliners turn on Ahmadinejad for watching women dancers" (Robert Tait, The Guardian, 2006/12/05)
"President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who flaunts his ideological fervour, has been accused of undermining Iran's Islamic revolution after television footage appeared to show him watching a female song and dance show.

The famously austere Mr Ahmadinejad has been criticised by his own allies after attending the lavish opening ceremony of the Asian games in Qatar, a sporting competition involving 13,000 athletes from 39 countries. The ceremony featured Indian and Egyptian dancers and female vocalists. Many were not wearing veils.

Women are forbidden to sing and dance before a male audience under Iran's Islamic legal code. Officials are expected to excuse themselves from such engagements when abroad but TV pictures showed Mr Ahmadinejad sitting with President Bashar Assad of Syria and Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, during last Friday's ceremony in Doha."

"A Precarious Shelter in Afghanistan" (Pamela Constable, The Washington Post, 2006/12/04)
"KABUL -- The room was carpeted and cozy, warm from the wood stove and filled with the chatter of children. But the tales their mothers and older sisters told recently, speaking hesitantly even in the safety of a guarded private shelter, were bone-chilling.

Sahara, an angelic-looking young woman, said she was forcibly married at 11, widowed at 12 and kept as a virtual slave by her in-laws for the next eight years. Unable to endure more beatings, she slipped away early one morning, walked for two days and nights and finally ventured into a police station to ask for help.

Gulshan, a mother of three with a permanently worried look, said she was falsely accused of murdering her husband after he had an affair with her sister. She was sentenced to five years in jail, and her husband's brothers vowed to kill her upon her release. Under the law, they may also take custody of her small children, who are hidden with her at the shelter.

"They said I killed my husband, but I am very sad he died, even though he had a bad friendship with my sister," Gulshan said. 'I need him, because of the children. Now I am alone in life, and in this society a woman alone is less than nothing.'"

Monday, December 4, 2006

News and commentary:

"Iraq: Kidnappers murder church elder in Mosul" (Compass Direct, 2006/12/04)
Anyone keeping a check on the indispensible Compass Direct will note that there is an alarming increase of persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. Much more so than the other way around.

Meanwhile, Islamophobia generates no less than 1,130,000 hits on Google, while Christianophobia only gets 15,200.

And in the recently published "Alliance of Civilisations - Final Report" (BBC News, 2006/11/13), which "seeks to address widening rifts between societies by reaffirming a paradigm of mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious traditions and by helping to mobilize concerted action toward this end", persecution of Christians isn't even mentioned. Instead it focuses on an "alarming increase in Islamophobia":

"In the context of relations between Muslim and Western societies, the perception of double standards in the application of international law and the protection of human rights is particularly acute. Reports of collective punishment, targeted killings, torture, arbitrary detention, renditions, and the support of autocratic regimes contribute to an increased sense of vulnerability around the globe, particularly in Muslim countries, and to a perception of Western double standards. Assertions that Islam is inherently violent and related statements by some political and religious leaders in the West – including the use of terms such as “Islamic terrorism” and “Islamic fascism” - have contributed to an alarming increase in Islamophobia which further exacerbates Muslim fears of the West.":

A perception of double standards, indeed:

"Grieving Christians in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul completed three days of mourning for a murdered Presbyterian Church elder yesterday, only hours before another Iraqi clergyman was grabbed off the streets of Baghdad this morning.

The martyred churchman, identified only as 69-year-old Elder Munthir, had been kidnapped after leading worship services at the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Mosul on November 26. His body was found four days later.

He is the second Iraqi Christian clergyman to be murdered in Mosul within the past two months.

Under mounting terrorist threats targeting all of Mosul’s Christian community, local sources only spoke to Compass under conditions of strict anonymity.

According to eyewitnesses in Mosul, the Protestant church elder was cornered by two cars in front of his home at 11 a.m. as he returned from Sunday worship.

“One of the passengers had a pistol, and we saw them taking him and putting him into the trunk of the car,” an observer told Compass.

The captors contacted Elder Munthir’s family later that day, using his mobile telephone to confirm that they had kidnapped him. Initially demanding US$1 million in ransom, the kidnappers negotiated over the next three days with their captive’s relatives and friends.

According to one Mosul source who described the kidnappers’ conversations, “They said, ‘We have him, and we will kill him. We will cut his throat. We will take revenge for the Pope’s words. We will take revenge on all of you. We will kill all the Christians, and we will start with him.’” ...

On Thursday morning (November 30), the elder’s body was discovered thrown on a street in Mosul, killed by a single bullet to his head. Local forensic experts estimated the time of his death at 7 p.m. Wednesday evening (November 29)."

(Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch. See also: "Iraq: Kidnappers Behead Priest In Mosul" (Compass Direct, 2006/10/12))

"Saddam Nostalgia" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2006/12/04)
"The Associated Press reports on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's latest utterance:

In the BBC interview, Annan agreed when it was suggested that some Iraqis believe life is worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein's regime.

"I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life," Annan said. "If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, 'Am I going to see my child again?' . . ."

Iraq today certainly has its problems, here, from the U.S. State Department, is a reminder of what is not going on in Iraq today:

Saddam Hussein is the first world leader in modern times to have brutally used chemical weapons against his own people. His goals were to systematically terrorize and exterminate the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, to silence his critics, and to test the effectiveness of his chemical and biological weapons. Hussein launched chemical attacks against 40 Kurdish villages and thousands of innocent civilians in 1987-88, using them as testing grounds. The worst of these attacks devastated the city of Halabja on March 16, 1988.

5,000 civilians, many of them women, children, and the elderly, died within hours of the attack. 10,000 more were blinded, maimed, disfigured, or otherwise severely and irreversibly debilitated.

And here's a report from PBS of how Saddam responded to the Shiite uprising in 1991:

Saddam's Republican Guard fought the resistance in Karbala. Civilians and rebels fled the city. On the roads leading out, Iraqi army helicopter crews poured kerosene on the refugees, then set them on fire. . . . There were mass executions of civilians, some of whom were tied to tanks and used as human shields. In Karbala, some of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines were destroyed. Others were used as centers for murder, torture and rape. In Najaf, residential areas were bombed, and hospital staff and patients were murdered.

Let's just repeat Annan's description of Iraq under Saddam:

They had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, "Am I going to see my child again?"

Annan isn't just claiming that Saddam, though brutal, made the trains run on time. He is saying that Saddam actually looked out for the safety of the Iraqi people, the very people his regime was gassing, setting ablaze, tying to tanks, torturing and raping. Is Annan just ignorant, or is he depraved? We suppose it could be a little of both." (See also: "Annan: Average Iraqi's life is worse now" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/04). Also: "Bring back Saddam Hussein" (Jonathan Chait, Los Angeles Times, 2006/11/27) and "Compare bloodshed. Saddam is then the moral victor, not Bush" (Kevin Toolis, The Times, 2006/11/11))

"Foreigners arrested for plotting attacks" (Nadia Abou El-Magd, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/12/04)
"CAIRO, Egypt - Police have arrested an American, 11 Europeans and several others from Arab countries for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in Middle Eastern countries including Iraq, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

The group was part of an Islamic militant terror cell that had adopted extremist ideas and were living in Egypt under the guise of studying Arabic and Islamic studies, the ministry said in a statement.

Along with the American, police arrested two Belgians, nine French and several others from Egypt and other Arab countries including Tunisia and Syria, the statement said.

The ministry did not provide names or say how many Egyptians and Arabs were arrested. ...

They were arrested about a week ago, and some had been studying at Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's most important seat of learning, police officials said. They spoke on condition on anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. It was not immediately clear if all the arrests took place in Cairo."

"NYT Notices AP Corruption" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/12/04)
"This piece by Tom Zeller at the New York Times about the nonexistent Iraqi police captain and his imaginary war crimes is a little more fair than I expected. He actually seems to realize there may be a problem at the Associated Press, although he does get in the obligatory dark hints that bloggers are driven by some kind of agenda (the Lincoln Group? are they serious?): Separating Hyperbole From Horror in Iraq.

Imagine, if you will, the suffocating arrogance level at this AP damage control meeting reported by Zeller:

The executive editor of The Associated Press, Kathleen Carroll, in a meeting in her office Friday afternoon, explained that the agency had already done all it could to respond to the uncertainties by vigorously re-reporting the article, and suggested that to engage these questions — to continue to write about them — merely fueled a mad blog rabble that would never be satisfied.

These people really do seem to think they’re a priestly class, immune to criticism, existing on some rarefied plane from which they hand down truth to the ungrateful masses."

See also:
"Rumors and reporting in Iraq" (Michelle Malkin, michellemalkin.com, 2006/11/30)
"AP Editor: Military's Claims 'Ludicrous'" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/11/29)
"Getting The News From The Enemy" (Curt, Flopping Aces, 2006/11/25)
"New savage twist to violence in Baghdad" (Steven R. Hurst, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/11/24))

"How the West Was Lost" (Fjordman, The Brussels Journal, 2006/12/04)
"In a functioning democratic state, the state passes laws in accordance with the wishes of the people, and also strives to uphold these laws. In Western Europe in particular, the state does neither, as most laws are passed by unelected EU bureaucrats and not elected national parliaments, and as the streets are increasingly ruled by gangs and criminals.

When Arne Hjemaas from Fauske in Norway discovered who was behind a series of burglaries in August and September, he gave the information to the police. “We knew where the burglar was and where the stolen goods were. He had stolen so much from us and from other firms that he had hired a garage to store everything,” Hjemaas said, but the police did nothing.

Finally, Hjemaas and his brother decided to pick up the goods and hand the burglar over to the police. “Unfortunately, it ended in a fight. The man was armed and aggressive. This is not stated in the police documents. The police have documented the burglar’s bruises, but not mine. Our actions led to recovering stolen goods for us and others.” Later, Hjemaas was told that the man was supposed to be apprehended the day before, but the officer who had been assigned the mission had to attend a funeral. Now, Hjemaas is about to be prosecuted for violence and risks four months in jail. ...

The democratic states of the West are losing the ability to protect their citizenry, and are in some cases turning into enemies of their own people. That is a situation that cannot and will not last forever. If left unchecked, these developments could have more serious consequences than most of us would like to contemplate."

 

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

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

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

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

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

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

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

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