Armies of Liberation

Check my new blog

2004-08-16T19:22:00.000-04:00

from Najaf

2004-08-16T09:35:00.000-04:00

Iraq

2004-08-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

National conference meets to choose assembly "Under tight security and a curfew in parts of Baghdad, 1,300 political and religious leaders gathered for a three-day conference in the fortified Green Zone compound to choose the 100-member assembly. The assembly, or national council, will oversee the interim government until elections are held in January.

"Your presence here today is the biggest challenge to the forces of darkness that want to tear this country apart. This is not the end of the road, it is the first step on the way to democracy," Allawi said in opening remarks."

and Gooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!
Iraq wins 2-0 and moves to quarter finals.

More mutterings about Kerry and Iraq

2004-08-15T13:33:00.000-04:00

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are a group of American veterans of the Vietnam War that are disputing John Kerry’s definition of himself as a “war hero.” They say they served alongside him and that his version of events does not match their recollections. The veracity of their stories has yet to be proved or disproven, yet the story of Kerry fleeing a comrade under fire does have resonance in light of Kerry’s recent statements regarding his strategy for Iraq.

In a remarkably short oped in USA Today, Kerry lays out his plan for Iraq. It relies heavily on NATO participation. This is a strategy currently employed by President Bush in both Iraq and Afghanistan.In June, NATO committed to sending 3500 troops to provide protection for Afghani voters in the upcoming October elections. To date, they are not in place to perform this vital task.

Like President Bush, Kerry calls on NATO to participate in Iraq. A majority of NATO members are already members of the international coalition. An advance team from NATO is on the ground in Iraq to prepare for the eventual deployment of NATO forces to train Iraqi security forces. Additional forces may be hard to come by. NATO forces are already stretched thin by various global deployments.

Likewise, the UN has been unable to obtain commitments from any nation to provide troops for protection of Iraqi election workers, even after the latest Security Council resolution and Prime Minister Allawi’s trip around the Middle East.

Thus, while reliance on NATO to bolster the Iraqi protection force is a reasonable option, it is not one likely to be realized anytime soon. The question looms: will candidate Kerry stand firm without additional international support? This is the question of utmost importance to US and coalition military members, the Iraqi people and fledgling government, the terrorists and the international community.

Candidate Kerry has stated that he will begin to draw down American forces within six months of assuming his presidency. He considers ‘bringing the troops home’ as an important aspect of his foreign policy. Tommy Franks’ assessment is a three to five year timeline for deployment.

Kerry pledges to meet “our sacred commitment to our brave troops in Iraq- to end their mission successfully and bring them home as soon as possible.” He maintains a commitment to US troops, but not to the Iraqi people or to the mission of enabling an Iraqi democracy.

In telegraphing his intentions to the anti-democratic forces in Iraq, Mr. Kerry gives them hope and a timeline. Whether the forces opposing Iraqi democracy make large gains of not, clearly they have all the motivation to hang on in Iraq until the US election. The Iraqis themselves, in the process of drawing together under the democratic protection of the US have every reason to be insecure about a Kerry victory, and not to place their bets on continued support. Further, if Kerry is going to abandon Iraq to them, terrorist have every motive to attempt to impact the American elections. The anti-American forces world over will be empowered by Kerry’s cowardice.

What Kerry is not saying is Thank You to those forces already in the coalition: no mention has been made of them yet. No tributes to the Brits for their determination, no words of praise for Poland or Mongolia. He is not naming the Saudi government or Yemen for floating the idea of a Muslim force to Iraq.

Kerry says he will bring back “America’s time honored tradition: The United States never goes to war because we want to. We only go to war because we have to.” When does the United States have to, according to John Kerry? Not often at all: Kerry voted against the international coalition in Gulf War 1, when a small nation was invaded and brutality reigned.

Shirking the “global policeman” role even in humanitarian situations in favor of UN sanctioned actions, Kerry opposed rescue missions in Kosovo. What then was a war of necessity for the US? World War Two- in the Pacific theater clearly, but was Europe a war of choice. Clearly backing off from America’s role as the purveyor of democracy, an impetus for reforms, Kerry assumes the isolationist role so favored by the anti-war movement. He does not mention redeploying any of those withdrawn troops to Afghanistan to beef up forces there. Kerry rejects global police man in favor of passive bystander.

Kerry does not acknowledge the overt hostility of France and Germany, not only to President Bush, but to the Iraqi mission itself- starting from the time France blocked Turkish deployment of defensive NATO Patriot missiles at the onset of the War and continuing at every turn. He is refusing as well to recognize Frances vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Some parting quotes:
"One thing we know for sure is that the troops are going to be in Iraq for a lot longer under George Bush than they will be with John Kerry as president," John Kerry’s spokesman Paul Singer said recently.

"We all want the mission to be completed as quickly as possible. But we want the mission completed," the president said. "The mission is not going to be completed as quickly as possible if the enemy thinks we will be removing a substantial number of troops in six months."

Boy are we lucky

2004-08-15T12:04:00.000-04:00

our friend Doug started his own blog. Go check out Loose Coins and keep an eye out in the future. Doug is a great writer and has a wicked wit. Big things are afoot.

Acceptence of Transgendered Individuals

2004-08-15T11:59:00.000-04:00

Asher has some fascinating analysis of how society relates to transgendered individuals (and visa versa) in Iran
andin the US. Its food for thought on these and wider issues.

Olympics

2004-08-15T11:25:00.000-04:00

1- Iraqi soccer today 1:30 EST live. Go Iraq Go! (now I just heard 8:30- its on today sometime.)

2- Its nice this year to know who to root for when the US isn't in the event: the coalition. I was quite please when the Italian guy won the bike race.

3- Why am I interested in a basketball game between Argentina and Serbia/Montenegro when the rest of the year basketball bores me silly?

4- If the countries of the world can agree on the rules of the Olympics, you would think they could agree on a few other things as well.

5- Greece doing a good job as host. I'm glad after all the trouble, expense and worries, they're pulling it off well.

6- Good job to the women and mens rowing teams, sho advance to the finals. The race agaisnt the Canadians was especially thrilling and fuflfilling when the US pulled away in the last 50 meters.

Don't Misunderestimate George

2004-08-15T01:30:00.000-04:00

Reports are President Bush will bring home 70,000 troops! From Europe.

President Bush has decided to bring home tens of thousands of U.S. troops from posts around the world - most of them in Europe and Asia - plus 100,000 of their family members and support personnel, U.S. officials said Saturday.

U.S. armed forces stationed aboard, other than Iraq and Afghanistan, now number about 200,000, of whom 100,000 are based in Europe. The Pentagon advised German officials earlier this year that it was considering removing two Army divisions from Germany and replacing them with smaller, more mobile units.

The decision is meant to "strengthen our ability to respond to threats overseas," one official said, declining to elaborate.

"It will improve our capability to protect America and our allies and ease some of the burden on our uniformed military members and their families," one official said.

The decision is sure to be a politically popular one at a time when Bush has refused to offer a timetable for bringing home the roughly 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq.

Democrat John Kerry has said he would try to begin withdrawing some troops from Iraq within his first six months in office.

Yes John, withdraw them from where they're not needed.

Another Member of the Armies of Liberation

2004-08-15T00:48:00.000-04:00

Welcome Dave at Cabarfeidh, an ally with 23 years in the Queen's Own Highlanders. I like him just because he's Scottish but he's got a sense of humor too.

New Jersey's Stolen Election

2004-08-14T17:44:00.000-04:00

Over 700 New Jersey residents were murdered on September 11th in the World Trade Center by Wahabbi zealots. The state was seared by a pain only New Yorkers could understand. Soon after, New Jersey was attacked by anthrax- one of the few states where anthrax was not a scare but a reality. Besieged and wounded, New Jersey was assaulted again four months later by her governor, when Jim McGreevy hired his lover Golan Cipel as homeland security chief. Mr. Cipel, a foreign national, was uniquely unqualified for the position.

Many have called Governors McGreevey’s resignation speech courageous as he transformed himself into a member of an oppressed minority before our eyes. Unfortunately, McGreevey did not have sufficient courage to admit to his constituents that his lover had spent months receiving a salary exceeding $100,000 compliments of Garden State taxpayers.

McGreevey’s arrogance perhaps is the greatest affront to the good people of New Jersey- his expectation that the state will open wide while another Democratic governor is rammed down our throats, his expectation that the New Jersey electorate will relinquish to him our fundamental right to choose our elected officials.

McGreevey has the audacity to expect to remain in office until November 15th, 2004, effectively disenfranchising all the voters in the state. With a resignation before September 2nd, New Jersey voters would choose McGreevey’s successor in November. With a resignation after September 2nd, State Senate President Richard Codey will step in to finish McGreevey’s term, which lasts until 2006.

As a result of this slight of hand- resignation speech now, resignation in three months- another outrageous Democratic stunt has been achieved on the level of the Toricelli maneuver. Florida may just have lost the crown for the largest number of disenfranchised voters if the New Jersey Democrats can steal this election by not holding one.

In his 2004 State of the State address, Governor McGreevy said “We are here to create a government that stands up for those whose spirit and energy drive this state forward, but whose voices are too rarely heard.” The Democratic Party now appears eager to silence those same voices and the voice of all New Jersey this November. Do they think we are too stupid to notice or too lazy to care?

From an administration plagued by improprieties and corruption-most recently involving hookers, videotape and a grand jury witness- we get the feeble excuse of “facilitating a responsible transition” as the reason for the resignation delay. Before McGreevey holds himself out as an authority on responsibility, he would do well to apologize for his egregious breech of his fiduciary responsibility- a duty which involves the placement of his constituents physical safety ahead of his personal pleasures. He would do well to accept that although New Jersey is a heavily blue state, it nonetheless is part of the United States, a nation founded on the principal of self-representation.

In his “courageous” resignation speech, McGreevy neglected to mention that he is the subject of a federal corruption probe. He did acknowledge he was blessed to live in a nation with “the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world.” The wellspring of those liberties is our representative government. In denying the New Jersey electorate the right to vote, Governor McGreevy is thwarting democracy itself.

Governor McGreevey may or may not owe his constituents an apology for his numerous derelictions of duty, but he does owe us the opportunity to vote for his successor. Endangering the residents, paying his boyfriend with public funds, appointing his successor, corruption and lies- this is Jim McGreevey’s legacy. New Jersey deserves better. And we deserve it now.

Resign McGreevey

2004-08-14T14:31:00.000-04:00

email address: New Jersey Republicans: info@njgop.org

New Jersey Democratic Party Contact page

Phone Democratic Party: (609) 392-DEMS (3367)

McGreevey
The State House
P. O. Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
(609) 292-6000
email contact page

News Alert

2004-08-14T11:49:00.000-04:00

Bill breaks the big taboo by considering the question.

Big Dick did not punch out the guy from Kellog, Brown and Root (August 13th, 2004- a date to rmemeber.)

Allah's got THE Olympic photo and its not even shopped.

Val's Blog Cuba is especially good this year.

Let New Jersey Vote

2004-08-13T00:00:00.000-04:00

New Jersey Governor James McGreevy’s announcement that he is gay, a philanderer and resigning came as a shockwave that rippled across the state. Unable to fulfill his constitutional duties because he could be “vulnerable to rumors, false allegations and threats of disclosure,” Governor McGreevy is stepping down effective November 15th.

McGreevy, a twice married father of two, said at a news conference: “Shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affairs with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony. It was wrong, it was foolish, it was inexcusable.” Governor McGreevey extended his thanks to the people of New Jersey for the “privilege to govern.” He directed his apology to his wife, asking for her “forgiveness and grace,” as well he should.

It is not necessary that McGreevey apologize to his constituents for being gay or for being in the closet. An apology to New Jersey residents may be in order for poor judgment, indiscretion, and lack of restraint, regrettable qualities in any elected official, especially those holding the highest positions of trust. More troubling though, McGreevey’s parting maneuver will force the appointment-not election- of his replacement. It will result in a statewide electoral disenfranchisement for more than two years, instead of two months.

McGreevy stated the reason for the three month delay between his announcement and the November 15 resignation date is to “facilitate a responsible transition.”
As a consequence of this date, Garden State voters will not have the opportunity to elect a new governor in the upcoming November election. If McGreevey resigns before September 15th, a special gubernatorial election will be held November 2nd. With the later resignation date, State Senate President Richard Codey will step in to finish McGreevey’s term, which lasts until 2006.

New Jersey voters cannot help but be skeptical of the governor’s motives. Most recall the Trenton political machine’s “Toricelli maneuver”- replacing scandal plagued Senatorial candidate Robert Toricelli with Frank Lautenburg 32 days before he was to face Republican Doug Forrester. Many find it quite possible that the party is now attempting to retain Democratic control of the governorship for as long as possible, undermining the fundamental rights of the citizenry.

In his 2004 State of the State address, Governor McGreevy said “We are here to create a government that stands up for those whose spirit and energy drive this state forward, but whose voices are too rarely heard.” The Democratic Party now appears eager to silence those same voices and the voice of all New Jersey this November.

In McGreevy’s two and a half years as governor, he has been surrounded by scandal. McGreevy’s top fund raiser Charles Kushner was recently charged with impeding a federal campaign-finance investigation by hiring prostitutes to videotape sexual activities with a grand jury witness. Commerce Secretary William Watley resigned in July in the face of allegations he funneled state money to his businesses and family. McGreevey’s nominees for police superintendent and anti-terrorism coordinator were both forced to step aside. The legacy of McGreevey’s term may be impacting his resignation timetable more than transition concerns.

McGreevy and the Democratic apparatus have a duty to enable voters to elect a new governor at the earliest possible date. The goal of a “responsible transition” does not supercede the fundamental right of the voters to vote for the highest position in the state.

McGreevy, in his resignation speech, acknowledged he was blessed to live in a nation with “the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world.” The wellspring of those liberties is our representative government. In denying the New Jersey electorate the right to vote promptly, Governor McGreevy is denying democracy in New Jersey. Governor McGreevey may or may not owe his constituents an apology, but he does owe us the opportunity to vote for his successor.

Works Cited:

McGreevey James. 2004 State of the State Speech.
http://www.state.nj.us/sos2004/speech.html

McGreevey James. Resignation Speech.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_081204_mcgreevey.

Who said it?

2004-08-12T01:35:00.000-04:00

"Which is to say - Sweet llamas of the Bahamas! We got one of em!"

"Dick Cheney dressed as a Satanic priest, presiding over a meeting with Darth Vader in attendance."

"He said that mobile cameras were powerful devices which could be used by sorcerers and magicians."

"When it's not about corporate interests, then it must have something to do with the timing. The timing, man."

"Damn that free market economy!"

"It's a mixed bag, as we should have predicted"

"You're To Kill a Mockingbird!"

"More frequently, however, they will come from beyond."

"I wish I could see this idiot dead."

"I have spent hours deleting links to pornography sites and feel that I have no alternative."

Sound Judgement

2004-08-12T01:27:00.000-04:00

George Bush agrees with me.

Blog Fodder

2004-08-12T00:54:00.000-04:00

Everybody wants Dick. Check post 8/11: Who Wants Dick?

Why the Silence on the Sudan?

2004-08-11T22:59:00.000-04:00

An Editorial in the Daily Star:

The Arab silence on this issue probably is not specific to Darfur or Sudan, but rather reflects a wider malaise that has long plagued our region: Arab governments tend to stay out of each other's way when any one of them is accused of wrongdoing, and most Arab citizens have been numbed into helplessness in the face of public atrocities or criminal activity in their societies.

The modern history of the Arab world over the past 50 years has been defined by two broad trajectories that are intimately related: the concentration of economic and military power in the hands of small numbers of people who form the governing power elites, and that governing elite's steady provision of basic services and job opportunities to the citizenry.

Read itall.

A Logical Alliance

2004-08-11T22:35:00.000-04:00

Muslims for Bush

The Enemy of My Eneny

2004-08-11T09:48:00.000-04:00

BloombergIran helping Zarqawi dispite the fact that al-Qaeda finds Shia to be infidels? Why that would be as unlikely as...as...Saddam helping al-Qaeda.

Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the head of the al-Quds corps in the revolutionary guard, confessed in a seminar to helping Zarqawi carry out suicide attacks to serve the interests of the Islamic Republic, the London-based Saudi newspaper reported, citing an Iranian official who was at the meeting.

Zarqawi and as many as 20 members of his Ansar al-Islam group can enter Iran whenever they want through certain border points that stretch between Halabja in northern Iraq to Ilam in the south, Suleimani said, according to the paper. Zarqawi went to Iran a few months ago where he spent some time in an Iranian revolutionary guard training camp in the area of Mehran near the border with Iraq and later returned to Baqubah, north of Baghdad, the paper said.

Trafficking Hotline

2004-08-11T03:05:00.000-04:00

Release from US State Dept: Human trafficking takes on many forms in the 21st century with people becoming trapped into lives of servitude and misery through varied avenues and methods.

Foreigners who enter the United States legally or illegally may have to pay their "smugglers" or middle-men exorbitant fees. Some people arrive believing they'll have a legitimate job as a housekeeper or nanny and end up as domestic slaves unable to leave their traffickers homes. Others are completely tricked and end up in forced, commercial, sexual exploitation. Some men believe they ll earn money working on a farm, but find themselves working to pay off the inflated "debt" from "travel costs" -- working months and years on end while the traffickers pocket their earnings.

* We estimate that of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked across country
borders every year, almost 70% are forced into the commercial sex industry.
Half of all victims are children. Many are forced to work in brothels,
illegitimate massage parlors, as "escorts," or in pornography. When people
support such industries they are fueling the demand for commercial sexual
services that fuel the demand for trafficking victims.

REPORT SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASES

* If you believe someone you know may be a trafficking victim, contact the
Department of Health and Human Services' Human Trafficking Hotline at (888)
373-7888.

Mind Boggling

2004-08-11T02:55:00.000-04:00

MRCJohn Kerry's 40 minutes of inability to think versus George W. Bush's seven minutes of sitting still. Noting how "Senator John Kerry sharply criticized President Bush this week for remaining in a Florida classroom for about seven minutes on 9/11" after being informed of how a plane flew into the World Trade Center, on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume pointed out how in an interview with Larry King last month Kerry recalled how he "sat at a table in the Capitol quote, 'unable to think,' unquote, from the time the second plane hit the World Trade Center and another plane hit the Pentagon. Total 'unable to think' time? 40 minutes."

Pay But Don't Verify

2004-08-11T02:13:00.000-04:00

The regulations for new federal funds to reimburse hospitals providing care to illegal immigrants is creating quite a stir by requiring certification that the monies were actually spent on illegal immigrants.

NYTThe federal government is offering $1 billion to hospitals that provide emergency care to undocumented immigrants. But to get the money, hospitals would have to ask patients about their immigration status, a prospect that alarms hospitals and advocates for immigrants.

Note: the entire article calls the prospective patients "undocumented" as if the failure and responsibilty for their status rests entirely with the agency that has not issued proper documentation.

Sticking Together

2004-08-11T02:08:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Editorial Quote of the Week: Al Jazeera's professional, provocative and partisan news coverage has no exact parallel in the United States, in part because the journalistic context in which it operates fortunately has no parallel here.

Professional- if we overlook being a mouthpiece for terrorists, inciting violence, and propigating half-truths and falsehoods that is.

Getting as much play

2004-08-10T23:09:00.000-04:00

from one article as possible: NJ GOP. And they have a great slogan: Putting the Party back in The Grand Old Party.
I just have to find out how I get in that Republican Babe of the Week contest.

Workers Unite

2004-08-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

Comrade Rusty, having taken over the politburo while the Commissar is in the Gulag, attempts to ply the proletariat with social programs like free stamps. They are rather colorful though. I guess taking a few wouldn't hurt...

Jeremy's Reflections

2004-08-10T09:44:00.000-04:00

Take a look at American War Monger's recollections of 9/11:

Lets just say we weren't too friendly about people flying around at the time..."This is U.S. Navy WAR Ship. State your name, call sign, .........". We didn't even say what ship we were. The response I remember most was some brit pilot scared half out of his wits saying " this is such-and-such airlines flight xxx-xxxx...umm...please don't shoot."

The Anti-American French: Continued

2004-08-10T07:57:00.000-04:00

A reply from Doug to Professor M's reply to my France created the American leftpost:

Hmm. I think I agree with the direction that the professor is heading, but I'm not so sure I agree with the premises that take him there. Before I get into that though, Baudrillard is gasbag Jean Baudrillard, who has perfected the French art of making a lot of meaningless noise which leaves an impression people like to have.
Google kicks forth this page

If you read the first link there I think you will have pretty much read them all, but do continue reading if you're gripped by morbid fascination. Know your enemy.

Destructuralism, postmodernism, deconstructionism are... well, infinite grey. Nihilism under false pretenses. I'll resist the urge to write a novel and summarize - it's the notion that if you're making any sense at all, you're being far too simplistic.

When you look at an idea - say, "terrorists should not be appeased" -you can usually find that it's formed on a framework of premises that lead rationally to it (terrorists use force to coerce, if you cave in once, their success will encourage them to continue making you cave until their will has been fully imposed, ergo you are their bitch). The above isms (I will not defile the word "philosophy" by applying it to any of them) are sophistry that seeks to break that rational
framework, and even impose irrational frameworks (like moral relativism) in "support" of other ideas (bonus points for being utterly counterintuitive, and double points for successfully ignoring an entire reality full of contradiction). It's a complete absense of cogent, linear thinking; an attempt to eradicate such concepts as truth and science to replace them with whatever might be convenient
for the moment - if a tree falls in a forest, it can sound like a barber shop quartet if that's a desirable outcome.

Sorry, I guess I'm getting novelish already - I think you're getting the idea though. On the greased rails of these isms, France can come to believe whatever it wants. Most French today have separated Vichy France from "the real France" in their minds, as though it were purely and simply imposed from the outside and never belonged to France at all (although it was a constitutionally enacted government which enjoyed wide support). Contrast with the attitude with which most
Americans view something like the Dredd Scott decision - that was us, but we're different and better now.

Back to France (those words chill me). I'm pretty convinced that what we see from France is the cumulative effect of several forces at play, but I'm not sure sure that "conspiracy" is a word I would use, at least in the conventional sense. Virtually all of France did not get together in a huddle and decide to seek the destruction of the Great Bugaboo. They just can't get that many people together without 1/3 of them going on strike. If there is anything conspiratorial in motion,
I think it's of an unconscious variety.

Before detailing what channels that unconscious motive let me state that I do agree with Professor M's outcome; that that whether or not I'm right about this, the result is clearly a concerted will and effort at every level in France to see America broken. The French believed that "we are all Americans" only when Americans were shocked and wounded - when we left that state, they ceased "being Americans"
(this year's 9-11 commemorative headline at Le Monde was "We Are All Non-Americans". Oh, that nuance!). I think that the "absolutely vulgar, hideous and barbaric essence of the French thought" can be understood to some extent, not excused, through a better understanding of where France is and how it got there. It can only be excused through an ignorance of where France is and how it got there. The tragedy is that once French thought was lucid and relevant - our own
government and economic system have their foundations in it.

So, anyway - the forces at play in France. The first is an old one, as old as nations I'd imagine. Realpolitik, machtpolitik, whatever you want to call it - it's simply the dynamic relationships between nations. This manifests in French insistance on international organizations like the United Nations. Weak nations, so far as I can tell, have always sought some course of regulatory control over more
powerful ones (which has the irksome requirement of the powerful nation's consent). When our country was young - perhaps right up until the early 1900's - we did too. The European powers routinely said "tough noogies" whenever it suited their interests to do so (without even courting the UN for a year - can you imagine??). France was one of the preeminint European (and therefore world) powers for a
very long time, and was quite familiar with the strong nation role -today it is still sliding farther into the role of a weak nation.

Today, although we are in the strong nation role, we do seek international solutions - but if they fail, we say "tough noogies" andit really burns their short hairs. Firstly, because France has not forgotten its former power - in fact, seems to be in denial about having lost it. When you see France trying to excercise muscle it does not posess, it's like watching an amputee with a phantom limb; they think it's there, and they know it isn't. They try to move it anyway. But secondly, France's decline became rapid at the same time America's ascendance became rapid, post-WWI. Inasmuch as France's collective consciousness is compelled to pretend not to notice its own descent, it must also fail to see America's rise.

The French don't mind that America is powerful - they resent any reminder of the fact, because it fills the void they left. To them, it's like showing the amputee his lost arm in a jar. This is a source of not only unease, but conflict for the French. While our history taught us to rely on a strategy for ascendance whose main feature is elevating ourselves, centuries of European infighting and
bloodletting seems to have taught France that the correct strategy for ascendance stresses denigrating your rivals.

This "phantom limb" schism is one toehold for the isms I mentioned above. I don't think that one's mind can become so divorced from reality without a will that it be so, and the more closely you examine France, the more you see it truly is being cleaved from reality. These forms of gobbledygook non-thought isms can permit you to believe that power comes from nothing, or whatever else you might need to believe to maintain carefully constructed falsehoods (but yet they can't figure out why 3 out of 4 adults in France have some form of mood-altering prescription - not that this fact is examined too closely, mind you. All-you-can-eat soma! Good thing drugs aren't fattening). It is characteristicly French to say one thing and do
another, while never taking note of any discrepancy - perhaps this phantom limb denial is one reason why. Perhaps congitive dissonance can actually be said to have taken root in France's national character. At any rate, pay attention, and I think you'll note more ism toeholds as I go along.

This rise/decline theme plays out in another arena in a big way as well - the French for centuries have believed that French culture is sacrosanct, whatever it happened to be at the time or in the past. Today, it is a popular French notion that all cultures should mix, mingle, interact and tolerate one another, but French culture is
somehow different and must remain strictly French. For years, there has been a concerted effort on the part of France to promote French culture abroad (and in times past, there was considerable demand for it), but this "intolerance in tolerance's clothing" isn't proving to be a winning strategy. As more people take exception to the French "cultural exception", more people seek new culture from elsewhere. As we approach the point where French culture can't be given away while
others (particularly, but not exclusively, American) can't stay on the shelf, it gives adherents to the cultural exception barking fits. They have a government institution to protect the language from invasion by aggressive, imperialist English (or others, but mostly that one); it's ilegal for government communications in France to contain English words like "spam" and "e-mail". At one point, shop
owners could be fined for hanging a sign in English, though that may have been repealed. This energetic rejection of another culture is anathema to most Americans, but part and parcel of France.

This power dynamic though - American ascension in the wake of French decline - can't be lost on the French. It's still happening today; look at Africa. We kept our fingers pretty much off of Africa for a long time, preferring not to step on the toes of colonial powers there. Now Britain is all but gone from Africa, leaving only France which still owns quite a substantial portion of African commerce.
French eminence is waning though, and American influence is waxing(vis Darfur, AIDS assistance, etc.). French power in the Francophone was one of few comforts left to the bruised egos of France, and now it, too is being stripped away. I'm certain you've heard jeering references to French (or at least European) aid in Africa, as compared to American? Their denial still requires some sort of support in reality, and this chestnut was one of the few left. As African nations slip free of France (Senegal may be first in line to - a major gateway between Africa and Europe), French aid will dwindle along with French power. This aid (French, or European aid steered by France)only went to nations France had an economic stake in to begin with,
and much of that was funding for French "cultural centers" and the like. As France's aid begins to bring diminishing returns, it will dry up. Leaving who? Go ahead, guess.

Do you wonder what will happen when the last of the pillars supporting the notion that France is still somehow superior to America is gone? Already the notion is borne in part by wild and fanciful struts(Cheneyburton's control over the evil genius retard chimp Bushitler is a ploy to steal shoes from French school children!). I predict that the cognitive disonnance in Europe today is nothing compared to what will come. It is already such a state of affairs that the likes of Andre Glucksman must be admired for simply being able to think straight in that environment; lucid thinkers will become refugees (perhaps defectors from the neosoviet experiment?). Already in such as France and Germany, there is an undercurrent of voices that wish they were somewhere else, anywhere else in the western world(Jane may think of a woman named Rike). They lack only urgency, which
the complete disconnect of society from rationality would provide. If watching the last pillar slide away does not result in a complete reversal of thinking (thinking which I believe they are already too invested in to abandon), I think this complete disconnect is not avoidable. This disconnected social consciousness will need some sort of framework to reside in - and it's been being built for roughly a century* in the form of the aforementioned isms. How convenient,c'est ne pas?

I'm not done with forces though, because leftist ideology too leaves hefty footprints in the trail France travelled from past to present. This is the fault line that seems to move France's tectonic anti-American force through Europe. They all share the realpolitikforce at some level (though some, like Denmark, are independant enough to minimize its impact), other former colonial powers are not
analagous enough to share that root (at least to nowhere near the extent - Spain's power declined much longer ago, Britain's decline was much more graceful, etc.), but this one has legs in Europe. Marxism had its beginnings in Europe; while we were watching the megaliths of industry rising from the earth here, they were nattering about equitythere. While we were developing fidelity to the idea of equal
opportunity, they were giving allegiance to equal outcomes. While we were learning that wealth is generated here, they were being indoctrinated with the idea that wealth is static there. Communism was never as abhorrent to most of Europe as it is to most of America, thanks to this background - Lenin wasn't really that repugnant to them, he was a guy with good ideas who went about them in a bad way.

The Soviet propaganda machine worked in Europe in ways it never could here (scil, with Europe's blessing). This was especially true in France. "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" and all that very easily became socialism in the hands of the propagandists - and France had a reason to want it to. During the cold war, France was often the conduit for diplomacy - in lieu of it's own power, it held the USSR in
one hand and the west in the other. This role obliged France to be all things to all people, embracing leftist ideology to the extent that it could without completely alienating the rest of the west. Until recently, I had no idea just how deep an extent that was; my first inkling was when I saw a snippet of the Vincent Teacher's book(1980, quoted by Revel in "The Useless Knowledge", chap. XI "The
Treachery of Teachers"). Among the blessed knowledge teachers were instructed to bestow upon the youth of France was this piece of excreable drivel -

"We'll demonstrate that there are two camps in the world:
- One is imperialist and antidemocratic (USA)
- The other is anti-imperialist and democratic (USSR),

and we'll precise their goals:
- World domination by crushing the anti-imperialist camp (USA)
- Struggle against imperialism and fascism, reinforcement of democracy (USSR).

That's a direct translation, parenthesis included. France became a
nation of people who believe that a lion on the savannah is a slave to harshness of life, but a lion in a cage is free from it. This is a fundamental and important rift between the world view of French and Americans. It was demonstrated not long ago, when Chirac spoke in Tunisia saying that "The first human right is to eat, to be cared for, to receive an education and to have housing. From this point of view, we must remember that Tunisia is more advanced than many countries." As one of my most admired French dissidents stated at the time -

"To eat, to be cared for, to receive an education and to have housing", is not "the first of the human rights", but the UberStatist's dream. "Please, do shut up. All you need is a food voucher and see, I'm the one who delivers. Here you go, stop complaining."

And the French complain that Chirac is too right wing. Americans (i.e., republicans) will ideologically recognize the first human right as that of ownership, from which all other human rights derive naturally - in the context of France's obstruction/opposition this is very significant. It's the same ideological divide that separated the Soviet Union from the west -over the course of a few decades, France managed to travel clear across it.

With the soviet collapse, France's faux "power broker" stature disappeared as we began more and more to speak to Russia directly, often without France at all. You might remember that our national self-image was rooted in being the "un-soviets"; that opposition was part of who we were. When it disappeared, we were kind of confused abut who we were supposed to be for a while. France's self-image was that of the independant power broker, with "independant" meaning "not US or Soviet lapdog". When that role was gone, France didn't need a new self-image - it just modified the old one to "not US lapdog". Anti-Americanism? Tell me, what else could have come naturally?

Since France went this route, they assumed the mantle of running the propaganda machine. There's comfort in the fact that those countries who have been where France wants to go (former Soviet bloc) aren't having it. At that time, a truism, a key to the machine passed from the USSR to France like a torch: the USA must be wrong, at all costs. As France and the French people must avoid every evidence that its self-image is false, embracing Marxist doctrine requires that the US must be demonized. The whole foundation of Marx's premise was that capitalism equated to oppression, that the oppressed masses would have to rise up to cast off the capitalists, and that the transition would release the suffering of its victims; as long as this fails to be true (with other failed Marxist predictions),leftists have a dilemma.

We generate roughly 1/4 of the world's wealth, but the vast majority of the world's misery is elsewhere. Anywhere capitalism goes standards of living improve, happiness increases, health increases. Lenin kicked in a little twist when he reformed Marx, saying that it wouldn't be the capitalist's people who were immiserated, because they'd be oppressing other people who would then have
to throw off the chains of the capitalists and then capitalism would collapse. I think he was the first anti-globalist, but then he had to be since things just weren't working out the way they the brochure said they were supposed to...

To this day, all this still keeps stubbornly refusing to happen though. Worse, things always seem to go to hell wherever the leftists are. The diligent French remain at the ready however, because like the good Leninists they are they have a dogmatic belief that it will happen, and when it does they will be there to claim vindication. In fact, the more enthusiastic socialists are hard at work inventing "evidence" that it's already happening. Take the insistance that France has the world's best health care system - by what metrics? None of the standards I ever see with the claim seem to have much to do with health care - they usually have to do with money.Taking care of finances isn't health care, taking care of health is,
but the US can't be evil if you measure by quality of care. Evidence is needed, so it's invented. US health care isn't good because you don't have to wait 6 months for routine diagnostics - it's the worst because it isn't given away free!

When viewed through all of the above (and I'll opt to follow Professor M's example of not getting into the axiomatic "Jewish conspiracy", France's growing anti-semitism, swelling muslim immigrant population, and any implications that has for Franco-American relations), an explicit conspiracy does not seem so likely to me. In France's foreign policy circles, I am certain that America is spoken of as a rival, as it is certainly treated as one, but this cannot transfer into such a plurality of French institutions and people by the explanation of conspiracy. What seems likely is that all these vectors point to one place - a place where being against America comfortably fills one or more needs in the French psyche.

Or, maybe I can summarize this entire discursive piece thusly: we drive them fucking nuts.

-Doug

* The isms seem to have enjoyed their first general acceptance right around the end of the 19th century, being propelled into the mainstream around the times of - and possibly by - the world wars. Here is a translation of a French song from 1936 which, as the translator states, is "quite representative of how the French deal with reality". It's the earliest evidence I've seen of this behavior embedded in French culture, and it's only become more so.

Ketchup Kerry

2004-08-10T07:49:00.000-04:00

Why do we call him "ketchup Kerry?"

He cuts-n-runs so fast,

No one else can ketchup.

A long sad story

2004-08-09T22:50:00.000-04:00

NAIROBI, Aug 6 (IPS)-

While the flurry of diplomatic activity around developments in the western Sudanese region of Darfur continues, heavy rains are complicating efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there.

"The poor roads coupled with heavy rains there have made it difficult for aid workers to reach the IDPs (internally displaced persons)," Ben Parker, a United Nations spokesman on Sudan, told IPS.

As a result, he added, the UN World Food Programme had resorted to air drops over inaccessible areas. The challenge of getting clean water supplies to displaced persons remained however, along with the risk of cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks amongst those without supplies.

Parker, who is based at the UN complex in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and who visited Darfur last month, says aid operations are also being undermined by the shortage of relief supplies.

Although the UN has appealed for 349 million dollars for humanitarian efforts in Darfur, only 161 million dollars have been pledged.

Parker further noted that killings and incidents of rape by the janjaweed Arab militias in Darfur continue to be recorded in the face of Sudanese pledges to comply with a UN resolution demanding that government crack down on these paramilitary forces. (The term "janjaweed" means "men on horseback".)

"We have new accounts of women being raped and others being beaten while collecting firewood. We hope though that the acts of torture will stop following imposition of the resolution…(and) we hope this will be taken seriously by the government," he said.

We hope, we hope...

Pay Them for What? Theft, Corruption?

2004-08-09T22:45:00.000-04:00

POLITICS: Iraq Avoids U.N. Dues by Crying Poverty
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Iraq's U.S.-installed interim government, which is planning to spend some two billion dollars on its military this year, has declared it is too poor to pay 14.6 million dollars it owes the United Nations. Link

Darfur: Us Oil Grab

2004-08-09T22:24:00.000-04:00

Or so says Egyptian Government Papers: The American Intervention in Darfur is a Plot to Control the Sudanese Oil

The Egyptian government weekly magazine Al-Ahram Al-Arabi published an investigative report by Dr. Amani Al-Tawil titled: "The Key to the American Voting Booths is in Darfur: The Plot which is Called 'Oil.'"(1)

"The fast locomotive of the Western intervention, led by the U.S., is about to pull into the Darfur station in Sudan ... where there is no separation between political and humanitarian issues. While the experts in Washington, London, and Khartoum are toying with the fate of more than a million Sudanese, displaced and scattered in the desert, the new amateur Sudanese politicians, the sons of Darfur, who visited the capitals of the world, have been intoxicated by the political and media glory and have lost their ability to present a coherent political agenda.

This is just too depressing for words: who has been toying with their lives? The US or the Sudanese government killing, looting, raping and starving. No, its got to be the evil USA.

"The question is why did Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State, grab the ball from the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's court in this race to Darfur and [why he] mobilized behind him the European Union in an attempt to score the 'goal' of imposing international sanctions on Sudan? Why didn't Washington give the agreement that was signed last April between the government of Khartoum and the U.N. a chance [that may have saved] more than a million Sudanese from the threats of death, hunger, drowning in the vast desert [sands] of Darfur or dying in the refugee camps in Chad?

Possibly because no progress was being made, no reforms taken and millions remain near death with no advocate from within the region.

"The answers are not far from the American voting booths, and as usual they are not far from the oil barrel. Bush is awaiting his fate in November, and the U.S. is planning to make Darfur an easy path towards its major plan to transport the [Persian] Gulf oil and the African oil to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, so that Washington can meet its needs in the next decade...

And Joe sixpack is gonna get that and vote for Bush? Somehow the concern and aid to Darfur is a plus for Bush because we Middle Americans demand an oil pipeline and will vote for whoever produces one for us.

"In the American election game the Democrats are trying to strip away from the American president the remaining 'fig leaf' that is covering [his policies] in the Middle East, and to expose him in front of the American electorate. The signing of a peace treaty in Southern Sudan [is meant to help Bush] after [his] drowning in the Iraqi swamps and failing with his Palestinian Road Map.

Couldn't just be good old humanitarian interest, that the impending genocide is a bit much to stand around and watch? No its a plot.

Egypt insisted during the talks between President Husni Mubarak and the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, that Darfur's problem should not be internationalized to a point that requires direct military intervention, as threatened by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair who said that he was ready to send 5000 troops to Darfur immediately.

Of course not, failed diplomacy requires...more failed diplomacy. Lets not set a precident where lethal regimes are deemed less legitimate, less sovereign than nurturing ones.

"In its political position, Cairo maintains that the direct intervention in Iraq did not lead to true security and stability. To the contrary, [it] opened the door wide for the outbreak of a civil war. Also, Iraq turned into an arena of clashes between the remnants of Al-Qa'ida's army and numerous other cells and the American military machine. Furthermore, Cairo maintains that the situation in Sudan is delicate and threatens the stability of its neighbors in the region and puts Cairo and Tripoli in danger not only from the Sudanese gangs, but also from Al-Qa'ida cells that exist there...

Oh well if the neighbors are worried about instability, if the staus quo is best for all concerned (except the starving million) then byu all means, lets just leave it alone

."The goals of the American oil companies are two-fold: First, removing the South-East Asian oil cartels from Sudan, since the Sudanese oil production will reach half a million barrels per day at the beginning of next year. This, following the signing last week of an agreement between the Sudanese Office of Energy and Mines and Petrodar, the company which heads another oil cartel that includes 15 companies, most of them Chinese, Malaysian and European.

But the fact that these Security Council members oppose any action could have nothing to do with their oil contracts, best to blame it on the US and the American dream of an oil pipeline through Africa.

"Second, the American oil companies plan, after stability in Iraq is obtained, to extend the oil pipeline from the Arabian Gulf through the Saudi port of Yanbu' to the port city of 'Arous in Sudan, and [from there] through Darfur to Chad where it [will link to] the existing pipeline that begins in Daba oil fields in Chad and goes to the Atlantic Ocean, therefore securing an oil flow for American needs.

They got us now.

"The needs of the American industrial sector are not limited to [securing] a safe passage for the oil through Africa, but aims also at limiting the French presence in Africa. This, following America's success in removing France from the area of Al-Buheirat Al-'Uzma [the Great Lakes], it is now hoping to eliminate the French presence in Chad and Sudan, since France did not act as politically expected of her in the Darfur problem..."

Well if thats the reason, I say go for it.

A second editorial in the Egyptian government English-language magazine Al-Ahram Weekly:

"No observer could possibly deny that conditions in Darfur in western Sudan are sharply deteriorating. The war-stricken region is undeniably experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe, facilitated by the absence of an effective central government.

There's no effective government but the world must respect its soveignty?"

Even more alarming, however, is the increasing discourse claiming that the Sudanese government is undertaking operations of ethnic cleansing against the inhabitants of Darfur, and especially against non-Arab tribes. Such claims are made despite the fact that there is no international investigative committee or an official United Nations report [claiming that such ethnic cleansing exists]...

This makes me so angry I could spit. The are an abundent number of reports from the UN itself going back months detailing both the crisis, the targeting of the Black population, and the involvement of Khartoum."

The decision of the United States Congress to impose sanctions will negatively impact the Sudanese people and can, therefore, only be seen as an act of collective punishment. The suspicion in the Arab world is that the U.S.' eagerness to intervene in Darfur is an American conspiracy to gain control of Sudanese oil."

If we weren't talking about women and kids, I would say screw you, let the blood be on your hands. But in Egypt, would they notice?

Another email

2004-08-09T02:42:00.000-04:00

"Yesterday, Zahdan was very tense, the regime had announced on radio and TV that they would be executing 5 young Baluchis, on Thursday, at 5pm at the intersection of Amirolmomenin and Imam Khomeini streets. But the awakened Baluchis who have taken every opportunity to fight the regime, could not remain calm anymore after the first youth, a 25 year old, was publicly hung, and they exploded and started to attack the reimge by throwing stones, turning Zahedan into a street scene of Palestinians fighting the Israeli occupiers.

As the anti riot police stepped in, the city became quite chaotic. As I write this, 2 hours have passed since the hanging of the first youth, and the regime who was scheduled to hang 4 more, has settled for just one hanging, because of the severity of the situation. Clashs between the youth and the regime's forces continue from Imam Khomeini street to Sa'adi street and also Shariati, Beheshti, Kamarbandi, and Mir Hosseyni streets as well. It is quite possible that tonight Zahedan will have a tense time, because the youth who are completely fedup with these executions and
recent harrassments have sworn vengence, and promised to steal away sleep from the butchors. During these clashes approximately 20 young and teenage Baluchis have been arrested, and several of the regime's forces have been injured from the stone throwing by the youth."Blog Iran

Time to e-bay

2004-08-09T02:13:00.000-04:00

The Hook-A-Thon has begun.

The French Master Plan to Take Down the US

2004-08-08T23:49:00.000-04:00

World Exclusive: Professor M responds to my post France created the American left. He confirms that this is no accident:

You are very right insaying that France repeatedly attempted to make of the young American rising power ....an intellectual, mental, cultural, educational, spiritual, ideological, philosophical, diplomatic and political...........EUNUCH.

Now that does seems to describe Kerry, Kennedy and Moore to a tee, now doesn't it? Moreover, it describes Kerry's intended foreign policy for the US. He has been infected with the mindset, generated in the French university system and spread around the world, that the US-not France- is the enemy of free peoples.

And this is the reason Baudrillard and so many destructuralists moved to the States to plunge your rising, powerful, and - mentally and intellectually - healthy country into their ideological pestilence that - precisely - leads to nowhere.

Can someone explain that one to me? Who is Baudrillard and what is a deconstructionalist?

The hand of the French is the destabilazation of American politics and the vilification of the US is no accident but rather a conspiracy. Yes conspiracies happen. But their existence is denied, their proponents ridiculed and their facts denied.

According to this (French) theory, that is the worst, and the most execrable lie of the World History, never in the World History did a conspiracy take place. So, it is demanded to ridicule anyone speaking about any sort of conspiracy occurred at any time anywhere.

This is the most perverted approach to History, and depicts the viciously dirty, virtually unfree, typically tyrannical, and absolutely vulgar, hideous and barbaric essence of the French thought. Practically speaking, it consists in a diachronical intellectual terrorism - much worse than that of Ossama Bin Laden and of Yasser Arafat -, since it does not permit you to state things as explicitly said, or correctly interpreted and represented. We have, you know, plenty of explicit references to conspiracies throughout History. Not that everything happening is due to conspiracy, but certainly many events are due to schemes set up by any country you may imagine. And, bear in mind that I reject the idiotic 'Arabic' and Islamic axion of a 'Jewish Conspiracy'.

The French actions post 9/11 have seemed like a plot to undermine the US, to foil its goals and to impune its integrity. (Don't worry Kerry will fix all this.) The Iraqis are now suffering from a world turned against them under the leadership of France. Professor M states it clearly:

France has repeatedly mounted all sorts of conspiracies and schemes, and does very much so against America now. They know their power, they know they cannot face the US frontally, so they have set up a vast conspiracy.

Anti-Americanism is French in all its aspects, Islamic Extremism and Terrorism is French, and one must be very perspicacious to understand what France intends to do to the US.

They do not truly want to set up definitely a scheme France, Germany, Russia and China against the US. They were obliged to do last year, since they did not have any other chance to show up as the leading counter-weight. There are various reasons they do not opt for this.

A little historical context here about how the French operate in a subtle way to destroy those it claims as its allies:

I will just draw your attention that, if you limit yourself into observing only Germany and Russia 1900 - 1940, you understand that, although Germany lost the WW I, Russia face more setbacks, worse situations, involving starvation, fratricide civil war, pestilence, unbelievable ideological and ethnic cleansing, economic difficulties. Either in 1910, or in 1920, or in 1930, or in 1940, you would have far more privileges of life being an average citizen of Dresden or of Munich than a citizen of Moscow and Kiev.

1914 France wanted to be the ally of Russia in a war that would bring destruction to Russia, not to their common enemy!

2004 France wants to be the ally of the US in a war that would bring destruction to US, not to their common enemy!

Now that makes sense. They can do more damage pretending to be an ally, and working against us from within, than they could with an overt antagonistic assault.

Elizabeth George: A Place of Hiding

2004-08-08T22:54:00.000-04:00

Its hard to find a well written, well constructed 800 page novel that becomes more intriguing as the pages turn. Elizabeth George is one of those writers. I've read most of her novels, only one is a bomb and the rest are gems.

As I have discussed, the integration of the new normal into fiction is interesting to me. The best and to date only accurate representation of the post 9/11 world that I've read is Dean Koontz's "The Face".

I am currently reading "A Place of Hiding" by Elizabeth George, published in 2003.
While the storyline is interesting, her handling of the new realities is abysmal. I am over 500 pages in and the only reference to the greater historical world is on page 89: "They had nothing to match it (World War ll) now. Not the Falklands or the Gulf-those abbreviated nasty little conflicts...-and certainly not Northern Ireland....There was no heroism in any of that because there was no single enemy who could be identified and against whose image one could fling himself and die. They weren't like World War ll."

Hardcover September 2003, mass market edition August 2004, and she couldn't find any heroism in Basra? Not even a mention of the brave Brits there. She couldn't see a worthy and scary enough adversary in bin Laden? No he doesn't exist in this book. She doesn't see the current US/UK assault against fascism as a parallel with WWll? It kind of diminishes the rest of the book.

Muslim Prayer Chain

2004-08-08T22:11:00.000-04:00

I recieved this as part of a mass email from an associate in the Middle East. It seems similiar to those e-novenas my cousin sends me regularly: you know the ones, sweet or mystical story, say two Hail Marys and email the story to your entire address book and your deepest wish will come true in seven days, and seven hours.

Tariq Al Swaidan discovered some verses in the Holy Qur'an that mention one thing is equal to another, i.e. men are equal to women. Although this makes sense grammatically, the astonishing fact is that the number of times the word man appears in the Qur'an is 24 and the number of times the word woman appears is also 24, therefore not only is this phrase correct in the grammatical sense but also true mathematically, i.e. 24 = 24.

Upon further analysis of various verses, he discovered that this is consistent throughout the whole Qur'an, where it says one thing is like another. See below for astonishing result of the words mentioned number of times in Arabic Qur'an:

Dunia (one name for life) 115. Aakhirat (one name for the life after this
world) 115

Malaika (Angels) 88 . Shayteen (Satan) 88

Life 145 .... Death 145

Benefit 50 . Corrupt 50

People 50 . Messengers 50

Eblees (king of devils) 11 . Seek refuge from Eblees 11

Museebah (calamity) 75 . Thanks 75

Spending (Sadaqah) 73 . Satisfaction 73

People who are mislead 17 . Dead people 17

Muslimeen 41 . Jihad 41

Gold 8 . Easy life 8

Magic 60 . Fitnah (dissuasion, misleading) 60

Zakat (Taxes Muslims pay to the poor) 32 . Barakah (Increasing or
blessings of wealth) 32

Mind 49 . Noor 49

Tongue 25 . Sermon 25

Desite 8 . Fear 8

Speaking publicly 18 . Publicising 18

Hardship 114 .... Patience 114

Muhammed 4 . Sharee'ah (Muhammed's teachings) 4

Man 24. Woman 24

And amazingly enough have a look how many times the following words appear:

Salat 5,

Month 12,

Day 365,

Sea 32, Land 13

Sea + land = 32+13= 45

Sea = 32/45*100=71.11111111%

Land = 13/45*100 = 28.88888889%

Sea + land =100.00%

Modern science has only recently proven that the water covers 71.111% of the earsth, while the land covers 28.889%. Is this a coincidence? Question is that Who taught Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) all this? Reply automatically comes in mind that ALMIGHTY ALLAH taught him this. As the Qur'an also tells us this. Please pass this on to all your friend and Muslims you know.Aayah 87 of Suraa (Chapter) Al-Anbia \
para 17: LA ILAHA ILA ANTA SUBHANAKA INI KUNTU MINA ZALIMEEN. During the next 60 seconds, stop whatever you are doing, and take this opportunity. (Literally, it is only 1 minute). All you have to do is the following: PLEASE SEND THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS

The numerology is an interesting angle. I had heard before of great scientic discoveries that were revealed by the Koran but not understood properly until modern times, laying groundwork for the belief by some that all one has to study is the Koran in order to fully understand the world.

Update: I also recieved a notice of this new Muslim website in a mass mailing from another source which I have not yet identified.

Free the Commissar!

2004-08-08T10:23:00.000-04:00

Commissar sentenced to two weeks in re-education camp: The lies include Comrades, other evidence has been found that Comrade Commissar has been subverted by decadent capitalist influences. Our recent secret raid of his personal belongings reveals tendencies towards bourgoise tastes and Trotskyite notions.

The plan was revealed and the Commissar is exiled to the Gulag.

SECRET LOCATION OF GULAG DISCOVERED! The commissar is enduring brutal re-education:A good ideology is more important than human life. Millions of Russian, Ukrainians, Chinese and Cambodians are not quite as important as the dream of the Worker's Paradise.

Freeing brutalized people from their oppressive leaders is important, but not if it is accomplished through U. S. Foreign policy.But other than that, all life is precious.

America Is Always Wrong
This point is so simple it shouldn't even warrant writing about. Socially, spiritually and physically, America is the disease. It is completely irrelevant that people from all over the world are trying to get here. Nor does it matter that at no other time in history have people lived so long and with so much. Just remember that America suppresses women worse than Fundamentalist Islam (Islam means peace) and commits genocide worse than Hutus or Serbs (see Terminology: genocide).

Assult this site and free the Commissar! Thanks to a cranky neo-con for the detective work.

Kerry's Foreign Policy

2004-08-07T13:12:00.000-04:00

The neo-libs have been screaming that we're fighting the wrong war, that the place to concentrate forces is Afghanistan. So why is Kerry talking about bringing our troops home, and not redeploying 50,000 to Afghanistan?

Could it be because a saturation of forces there would not actually be more effective? Or because he doesn't believe in the use of military force to battle terrorism?

Yes, a sensitive war on terror will be well recieved by our European enemies, the autocrats in the Middle East, and the Wahabbi Zealots. They will love us again, and respect us again, as the US and liberty goes down in flames.

Neo-Lib Vocabulary

2004-08-07T13:10:00.000-04:00

Descriptive Term-------------------------------Neo-Lib Term

Partial Birth Abortion-------------------------Late Term Abortion

Propaganda-------------------------------------Documentary

Illegal Immigrants-----------------------------Undocumented Workers

War protester----------------------------------Defender of Democracy

Got more?

Update: You want funny? You want brilliant? Check the comments.

Grading the War Presidents

2004-08-06T13:50:00.000-04:00

Tom takes a walk through history:

I've said it once and I'll say it again: There is no evidence that military service, let alone combat experience, affects one's performance as president.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have never served in the military.

Let's take a little walk through history and see what we find.

Barbary Coast Pirates 1801 - 1805 (1) Thomas Jefferson was president. No military experience. We were right to go to war against the north African pirates, although we did not achieve our goal of ending payments of tribute to them. It did at least weaken them, and it showed American resolve in a situation that required action. I'm going to give Jefferson an A for resolve, but only a C for his conduct of the war. A "B" grade overall.

Read the rest and see who gets a passing grade.

International Support for Iraq

2004-08-06T11:38:00.000-04:00

In additional to facing outright hostility from France, German, Spain and other European nations, Iraq has not been embraced by their Arab or Muslim brothers in this time of their great need. The world community screaming for multilateralism has not ponied up any troops for the UN protection force in Iraq: this force is designed to protect UN workers only during their work assisting Iraqis with election preparation. In the Middle East, the fear of the appearance of backing the evil US over-rides substantially any loyalty toward their Iraqi brothers.

Additionally, these leaders, unelected and mostly unloved, have much to fear from a successful Iraq in terms of their own political positions. The failure of world leaders to lead their populations in supporting the embryonic Iraqi democracy has resulted in appeasing gestures to the terrorists in terms of ransoms, statements and troop/economic withdrawal. The Iraqis have gained no new allies since the transition of power but the terrorists have. Most notably, John Kerry who has pledged to bring our troops home as soon as possible. The following is a synopsis from Memri of Allawi's trip around the Middle East:

In Jordan, his first stop, Allawi's reception was exceptionally warm because of a strong personal friendship that ties Allawi with Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Akef Al-Fa'iz. As a matter of fact, Allawi's National Accord was the only opposition group to Saddam that was allowed to operate from Jordan.(8) During the Saddam regime, Jordan imported oil from Iraq at a heavily discounted price as a gesture of generosity by Saddam toward his neighbor which had refused to join the coalition that ousted his army from Kuwait. Jordan has sought to renew this arrangement. Allawi agreed, but the concessionary terms will be less generous than before and the duration more limited. In return, Jordan promised to use its experience in its war against Islamists to help Iraq fight terrorism on its soil.(9)

In the case of Egypt, Allawi sought, with no apparent success, to obtain a commitment from President Mubarak to join the multinational force in Iraq. The Egyptians sought a commitment from Allawi to reimburse Egyptian workers for the $200 million of losses they incurred as a result of frozen salaries during the campaign in Kuwait. Allawi is not likely to offer something for nothing.

In Syria, Allawi met with President Bashar Al-Assad and agreed to renew diplomatic relations severed in 1981 and to open a new chapter in the relations between the two countries. The two parties signed a number of memoranda of understanding regarding transportation, the sale of Iraqi crude to Syria, and the buying of refined oil products by Iraq. However, the high expectations generated by this visit did not last long. Barely a week after the Allawi-Assad meeting, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara' questioned the legitimacy of the Iraqi government.(10) Allawi retorted: "By the standards of legitimacy in the Middle East, the Iraqi government is legitimate."(11) Earlier on, Allawi denied Syrian claims that Israelis are operating from northern Iraq. An Iraqi daily argued that there are enough Iranian spies in Kurdistan that if there are Israelis present, the Iranian spies would have spotted them, and that the Syrian allegations are intended merely to upset the relationships between the Kurds and the Arabs.(12)

In Lebanon, the main focus was the role of the Lebanese private sector in revitalizing the trade relations between the two countries and the payments due to Lebanese industrialists and traders for goods delivered under contracts to the previous regime.(13) Allawi has raised the question of the $500 million in deposits in Lebanese banks by the Saddam regime. It became evident from the joint press conference by Allawi and Lebanese Premier Hariri that the Lebanese are not keen to part with this money any more than the Syrians are with Iraqi deposits in their banks, which are also estimated at $500 million.

In Saudi Arabia he received a commitment of aid in the form of $1 billion, half of it in loans on concessionary terms and the other half for export guarantees.

In the United Arab Emirates, the visit appeared to be of a courtesy nature and the local press had little to report about it.

In Kuwait, the visit was primarily of historical significance because of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Allawi has gone to Kuwait to mend fences as well as perhaps to curb Kuwait's insatiable appetite for compensations from Iraq for the damage caused by Saddam's invasion.

In all of his official visits Dr. Allawi was received in accordance with the rules of the diplomatic protocol, giving further credence to the legitimacy of his government.

Fire the Vegans

2004-08-05T16:36:00.000-04:00

Its Legal

Racism: illegal; foodism: legal.

Thanks to John for the link.

Kerry's Sixteen Words

2004-08-05T16:21:00.000-04:00

Courtsey mASS BACKWARDS

Time to update

2004-08-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

Carbib Pundit has a new domain name: http://carib.us.

Boy Toy

2004-08-05T10:18:00.000-04:00

Get 'em young and they stay loyal forever.- Mary Kay Latourno

Halten Sie Die Pressen Auf!

2004-08-05T09:21:00.000-04:00

Or "Stop the presses", to those who haven't already succumbed to
leftist aggression. A guest post by my bud Doug. I'm in italics.
Dem lawmakers say Fox News is unbalanced

"Two-thirds of Fox viewers, for example, wrongly believed that a link
between Iraq and al-Qaida had been found, while only 16 percent of PBS/NPR viewers and listeners and 40 percent of print-media readers shared the same misperception."

"Wrongly"? "Misperception"? I'm not entirely sure these words mean what you think they mean... we do not yet have a Ministry of Truth to refashion the language.

I thought we were vindicated on that one. Didn't the 9/11 report document repeated ties and communications between al-Qaeda and Saddam? What they did not find was evidence of Saddam's involvement in 9/11. So it should be: Fox news viewers are better informed and ahead of the mainstream.

"In addition, 33 percent of Fox viewers believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, in contrast with 11 percent of PBS/NPR viewers and 19 percent of ABC News viewers."

In what alternate reality have illegal missiles, programs, weapons, and even chemical agents (complete with delivery mechanisms) NOT been found?

Seems NPR and ABC are doing a very poor job of educating their viewers.

But you know what, that crap can be shoved off to the side - THIS is what I'm writing about - THIS is what we need to have bloggers shouting about from the rooftops;

"A spokesman for Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said there were legislative avenues that the group could pursue as a secondary measure but declined to speculate on what those might be."

I'll be damned. They actually got up the brass to admit to us that they're willing to outlaw opposing points of view - I never thought I'd see the day they'd come right out and say it. They're threatening to assert federal muscle to reimpose the liberal monopoly on mainstream media.

OK, that's bad. The onslaught of attacks on the conservative agenda has been constant: a slew of books, F9/11, these idiot entertainers, the self-promoting biased media, move on .org and George
Soros advancing his socialist agenda for the US. Fox has been the only news
organization to counter the propaganda of the left with facts. And the left hates it. I recently saw a full page ad in the New York Times: The Soviet Union had the Politburo, America has Fox News.

To threaten legislative action to muzzle the dissent of the minority is beyond the
pale. The foundation of democracy rests on the presumption of an informed electorate,
and thus a free press. In the marketplace of ideas, the right can hold its own. The
threat of legislative action demonstrates a) the weakness of the ideology of the left b)its disregard for the principals of democracy and the American tradition itself c) the underhanded nature of the left and its belief that the ends justify the means. In addition the challenge of the terrorists who want to kill us to change our ideology, an additional enemy of American "liberal" traditions and American democracy is the left itself. The convergence of these forces, and the similarity of their ultimate goal of a fundamental change in the US body politic, weakens the US from within and demands ever more vigilance and determination from those defending the US from forces both internal and external for future generations.

Update: Rusty has more on the supposed bias of Fox.

Update: Laughing Wolf says:Why is it that almost every major effort to suppress free speech and the open exchange of opposing viewpoints on a governmental level is coming from the so-called liberals with DNC backing?

No Singing Chickens

2004-08-05T00:46:00.000-04:00

Crossroads Arabia has an interesting post on the priorities of advertising in Saudi Arabia.

ABOUT five years ago an advertising agency produced a commercial for Liza cooking oil that depicted singing animated chickens getting ready for the frying pan to be cooked in oil.

Much to the dismay of the producers the commercial was rejected by Saudi television. The chickens singing voices were female and chickens were not permitted to represent females.

John makes the point that the first requirement is not encouraging the sale of the product but rather not to undermine the social values. As a mother with young children, I oppose crass pandering to the bottom line without regard for social consequences. Beyond entertainment, TV has become a social institution that defines society and its outer limits of acceptable behavior, values and norms. It is a capital generating venture that shapes precepts and priorities. I for one am glad the FCC is finally taking its duties seriously here in the US.

Warlords Not Backing Karzai

2004-08-05T00:32:00.000-04:00

Hamid Karzai, having taken the step to distance himself from the power structure of the warlords, is taking a politcal risk. The fate of the country now rests with the voters. Isn't that a beautiful thing?

AN
KABUL, 5 August 2004 — Powerful Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim yesterday said that he won’t support Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai in the elections scheduled for Oct. 9. Fahim’s comments came almost a week after Karzai rebuffed Fahim by not naming him as one of two vice presidential candidates.Karzai instead chose Ahmed Zia Massoud, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Russia and brother of the slain commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

To ensure national unity, Fahim said he was supporting Karzai, but recently he discovered that Karzai want to continue his mission without Mujahedeen (holy fighters).“I told Karzai that it would be a mistake if he wants to continue to rebuff Mujahedeen. Finally, Karzai obliged us to support Mohammad Yunis Qanuni (former education minister and a prominent figure in the Northern Alliance which fought the Taleban),” Fahim said.He said that Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, another prominent figure from the Northern Alliance, is also supporting Qanuni.

Now there is one major presidential candidate from each important ethnic groups in Afghanistan — Karzai, a Pushtun; Qanuni, a Tajik; Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek and former Communist militia leader; and Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Shiite religious leader and commander from the Hazara ethnic group. In total there are 23 presidential candidates. The Joint Electoral Management Body has registered more than 8.5 million voters in Afghanistan so far.

Fallujah Residents Free Jordanians

2004-08-05T00:29:00.000-04:00

One of the Jordanian hostages said he had been released with three other Jordanian truck drivers after a group of Iraqis stormed a house in the city of Fallujah late on Tuesday and freed them without firing a shot.

“When the brave people of Fallujah knew that we were held hostage they raided the house and rescued us last night. We are all safe,” one of the hostages, Ahmad Hassan Abu Jafaar, said by telephone. “We’re expecting to go back to Jordan today.”
AN

France Created the American Left

2004-08-04T23:15:00.000-04:00

I have been following the writing of Professor Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin, aka Dr. Meglommatis who is a historian and Orientalist living in Egypt. I have posted some thoughts and excerpts here at AOL.

Dr. M puts forth an assertion that is quite easy for me to accept: It's all France's fault: "France was the main reason of this repellent situation, because France propagated the falsehood of Arab nationalism, misled Arabic-speaking elites that enrolled in its universities, and ultimately offered a blank check to all sorts of inept and besotted, tyrannical, pan-Arabist murderers, who easily ruled for decades. And yet France is not sorry!"

And
"Criminal France hides and censors Iraqi minorities in order to preserve its false myth of an Arabic Iraq inimical to the USA. These minorities wish the arrival of Western Crusaders in present day Iraq: 1)the Mandaeans. A religious minority that consists in the only survival of the Gnosticisms of the Late Antiquity. They exclusively live in Iraq, and speak Syriac, the latest form of Aramaic..." (exhaustive list of minorities continues)

The theory seems to be that since Napoleon, the French have propagated a false paradigm of history, pan-Arabism, that has enabled the suppression of pluralism and democracy in the Middle East, empowered tyrants, and perpetuated France's position as a world power.

In my recent e-class in world history, I was left quite confused with what happened to all the various middle eastern cultures and societies after the advent of Islam. According to my history book, they all became Arabs and Muslims and that was that. Prof. M states that the spread of the Arabic language and Islam did not mean a cultural assimilation but rather the beginning of the suppression of minority identities in cultures that remain vibrant to today.

The insistence in European universities of the Pan-Arab identity that continues apparently through today and in the US sets up a situation where "Arabs" are thought to be a monolithic group, uniformly opposed to the US. In reality, a vast number of minorities comprise this group. The blame for the Arabs hostility to the US rests, in this abbreviated version of history, with the US itself. Somehow in the popular culture, the positions of France and the US have been transposed with the US as imperialist colonial power and France as friend of the Arabs, when the reverse is true. The left has sucked up this paradigm and spit out a self-loathing in response.

In this model, the advent of a pluralistic Iraq- recognizing, valuing and empowering its numerous minority groups- would not only undermine the Salafist ideology of bin Laden and his ilk, but would also seriously threaten France's position as a great power- a position that depends on the continuing repression of minority rights and the continuing reign of tyrants and dictators.

Send Lawyers, Toys and Money

2004-08-04T22:14:00.000-04:00

Dean and Wiggles still having a problem. Working to help Iraqi children with toys, medical resources and other essentials, they have been ripped off for $30,000

A message from Wiggles: All of us at Operation Give appreciate what you have done for us to resolve this issue. All we would ask is that you continue to put the pressure on Atlas and turn up the heat as much as you can.

Operation Give

Betrayed by Rock N Roll

2004-08-04T16:04:00.000-04:00

I never though I'd be on the other side of the cultural divide, opposing the rockers.
Who do we have? Ricky Martin?

NEW YORK (Aug. 4) - In an unprecedented series of concerts in nine swing states, more than 20 musical acts - including Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks - will perform fund-raising concerts one month before the Nov. 2 election in an effort to unseat President Bush.

The shows, which will begin Oct. 1 in Pennsylvania, will take an unusual approach: as many as six concerts on a single day in cities across the states expected to decide the November presidential race. Other stops on the tour are North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and the key state in 2000, Florida.

"We're trying to put forward a group of progressive ideals and change the administration in the White House,'' Springsteen told The Associated Press in the most overtly political statements of his 30-year career. "That's the success or failure, very clear cut and very simple.''

The shows will be presented by MoveOn Pac, the electoral arm of the liberal interest group MoveOn.org, with an official announcement expected Wednesday.There will be 34 shows in 28 cities.

Other artists participating in the shows include hip-hoppers Jurassic 5, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Babyface, Bright Eyes and the Dave Matthews Band. Most have a history of social activism, from Browne's anti-nuclear concerts to Mellencamp's Farm Aid shows. Pearl Jam front man Vedder was a Ralph Nader backer in 2000. AOL News

Crazy Janie signing out.

Kevin weighs in: Hear that sound, Bruce? It's your CDs being crunched under the rear wheels of my American-made, gas-guzzling SUV and scattered next to Ms. Maines' remains. "Born In The USA," my ass!

The premise is all wrong

2004-08-04T10:41:00.000-04:00

MSNBC ad shown with pics of soldiers, the voice over: (Watch MSNBC) "When our sons and daughters find themselves in harms way,"

like they took a wrong turn instead of volunteering to defend our nation from its enemies.

I would prefer "when our couragous sons and daughters fight the battle for liberty."

Sharia in Canada

2004-08-04T10:29:00.000-04:00

What a quandry for lefties: Muslim rights vs. womans rights. NYT:
Canada- the Canadian Soceity of Muslims has established the Islamic Institute of Civli Justice under a 1991 law that gives religious groups the power to arbitrate civil matters. The law has been employed by both Christian and Jewish groups to settle disputes in accordance with their religious doctrines.

The questions raised by many opponents of Sharia include fundamental issues of gender equality, compulsion, and civil rights under Canada's constitution.

"I don't see how it can be voluntary," said Shahira Hafez, 53, an Egyptian-born anesthesiologist and treasurer of the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, "when all these women from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are kept isolated in their own communities, do not learn English and only deal with the outer society through their husband and their husband's family."

Ali Syed Mumtaz Ali, 77, an India-born Islamic lawyer and scholar who is the driving intellectual force behind the institute disagrees:

"Basically, Muslims live a different kind of life from the Western life, which is secular," he noted in an interview. "Everything we do is governed by religious law." For Mr. Ali, it is perfectly acceptable that a son receive twice the inheritance of a daughter and that a man have the automatic right to divorce while a woman does not.

Another civil rights worker points out:

"Here in Canada, girls are segregated from boys at private Islamic elementary schools, then forced into arranged marriages through Shariah at the age of 13, 14 or 15 to men over twice their age," said Homa Arjomand, 52, an Iranian-born counselor for battered women. "How much choice do these women have?"

Civil jihad or equal application of Canadian law?

Check in with Publius for more on this subject:"No dominant national identity? Is this not a recipe for balkanization?"

OT/ Another oped in the the NYT shows how far behind the mainstream media is in relation to the web: the translation of the word "hur" thought by early commentators to mean virgins, as in 72 virgins, actually means raisin in Aramaic. But we all laughed about that months ago. Get with it Nicholas.

George Shultz Plagerizes Rusty Shackleford

2004-08-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

Check This chart from Rusty 8/2/04
and this chart from George Shultz in today's Times in theoped section.

Or perhaps "great minds think alike."

The point remains, the Democrats claim of a "Jobless Recovery" is thus proven a myth.

Banned in Iran

2004-08-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

The site Stop Censoring Us posts thefollowing list that relates to internet usage in Iran. By these standards Michael Moore would be in jail, and so would many of us.

Publishing any material that denies or is against Islam
Disrespect towards Islamic religion or its respected legendaries
Publishing materials that are against country’s constitution or anything that threatens national unity and independence
Disrespecting supreme leader or any of the established high-ranking clerics
Humiliation of respected religious facts and established orders, treasures of Islamic revolution and bases of political ideologies of founder of the Islamic revolution (late ayatollah Khomeini)
Disrupting national unity
To make negative allegation and to cause doubts and disappointment among people on eligibility and effectiveness of the government
Advertising and distributing ideas of forbidden social and political groups
Publishing classified documents
Publishing content against moral beliefs of the society (such as pornography)
Encouraging the use of drugs
Publishing content that comprise baseless attack to government individuals or any other fellow countrymen
Revealing private relations of people and dishonoring their personal information
Distributing passwords or secrete codes of databases, software packages, e-mail accounts or introducing ways or cracking them
Illegal commercial and financial activities via internet including faking, gamble, etc.
Trading items via Internet that are illegal by law
Any activity towards hacking private networks in order to shutdown or decrease their level of service
Spying over the web and trying to illegally trace information passing through
Making any radio and/or TV station without authorization and control of Islamic Republic Broadcasting (IRIB)

Syria: Cyber-dissidents

2004-08-03T22:31:00.000-04:00

IFEX: Reporters Without Borders has urged the
Syrian government to release five detained cyber-dissidents, three of whom
were sentenced last week to jail terms of up to four years for e-mailing
information to an online newspaper in the United Arab Emirates.

On 25 July 2004, the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) in Damascus
sentenced Haytham Quteish to four years in jail. His brother, Mohammed
Quteish, was sentenced to three years, and journalist Yahia Al-Aws was
handed a two-year jail term, reports RSF. According to Amnesty
International, the individuals were convicted on charges including
"disseminating false news abroad."

In June 2004, the SSSC sentenced Abdel Rahman Shagouri to two-and-a-half
years in prison for "publishing lies [that] harm the image and national
security" of Syria, says RSF. Shaguri had been caught e-mailing information
from the banned website www.thisissyria.net. Detained since February, he has
reportedly been tortured.

Meanwhile, Massud Hamid, a Kurdish journalism student, faces imprisonment on
charges of "belonging to an illegal organisation," says RSF. Hamid was arrested in July 2003 for posting photos of a peaceful Kurdish demonstration in Damascus on the website www.amude.com. The Kurdish-language website is routinely blocked by Syria's Internet service providers, all of whom are state-controlled. Hamid is being detained at Adra prison.

Mexico: Murdered Journalist

2004-08-03T22:24:00.000-04:00

Mexico- our neighbor, just because it is close doesn't mean its not corrupt. IFEX:The Organization of American States' Special Rapporteur on Free Expression,
Eduardo Bertoni, has requested a report from the Mexican government
concerning the murder of journalist Roberto Mora García, citing
inconsistencies in the official investigation into the case.

Mora García, the editor of the daily
newspaper "El Mañana" in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo, was stabbed to
death on 19 March 2004. Mora García had written several articles about the
Gulf Cartel, a regional drug trafficking network, and accused police and
government workers of being involved.

The coalition (Comisión en Memoría de Roberto Mora García) conducted its own
inquiry into the murder and found that two suspects detained in the
investigation had been tortured while under interrogation. One of them was
later murdered in prison. The commission also revealed that a weapon found
at the home of one of the suspects was different from the one described in
the autopsy.

Kerry's Negative Impact on National Security

2004-08-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

More concerned with winning the elction than governing afterwards, John Kerry has made another short sighted choice to the detriment of national security.

A prior one was his choice of John Edwards has his running mate because he was pretty, overlooking a slew of more experienced and qualified candidates. The priority here for Kerry is winning, not governing afterwards.

Kerry's recent announcement that he would draw down troops from Iraq during his first term clearly panders to the anti-war crowd. This announcement was made, not at the national convention, but days after. The effect of this statement are clear:
1) al-queda and Baathists in Iraq will hold on until the election in the hopes of a Kerry victory and continue to terrorize Iraqis
2) al-Qaeda world over will contemeplate ways to impact the US election in hopes of a Kerry victory
3) demoralization of US troops
4) insecurity for Iraqis who currently are or who may contemplate cooperating with the interum government
5) affirmation of al-Qaeda'a contention that the US cannot stay for the long haul because its people are too soft
6) empowerment of hostile European allies and their anti-US and anti-Iraq foreign polices, conversely undercutting America's true allies and their committment

Thanks Dag

2004-08-03T11:32:00.000-04:00

Dagney gives us this link:Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been formed to counter the false "war crimes" charges John Kerry repeatedly made against Vietnam veterans who served in our units and elsewhere, and to accurately portray Kerry's brief tour in Vietnam as a junior grade Lieutenant. We speak from personal experience -- our group includes men who served beside Kerry in combat as well as his commanders.

Press Freedom in Haiti

2004-08-03T11:17:00.000-04:00

The International Freedom Exchange reports press freedom-an essential compnent of reform and democracy- has increased since the fall of Aristide. No surprise there.

Journalists, it seems, are able to breathe again. Press freedom has returned to the country and a "new wind of freedom" is blowing for radio stations in the capital, Port-au-Prince, says Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).

In a report released on the heels of a fact-finding mission to Haiti from 7 to 11 June, RSF says Haiti's new leaders have shown a willingness to solve the cases of murdered journalists...The leaders acknowledged the importance of solving the
cases and had given orders for them to be dealt with urgently.

While sounding a note of optimism about press freedom in Haiti, RSF says the country is in a fragile state. With rebel forces controlling half the country, including rural areas, journalists outside the capital work under riskier situations. Supporters of Aristide also pose a threat to journalists and if the government fails to disarm them before next year's elections, the media may become the
target of new violence, warns RSF.

Read RSF's report here: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10889

Lets Invade Israel Next

2004-08-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

Less reconstruction, already democratic, it would be a snap. We already get blamed for everything they do.

Sharone recently approved 600 next settlements in the West Bank. This is not a defensive measure. It is not in keeping with the Road Map. There's no reason for new housing unless he is planning on keeping large portions of the West Bank. Even if this is an accommodation to the Lakud members to insure support of the Gaza pull-out, it demonstrates a hollow commitment to the two state solution.

Just as some Palestinians want all the land, so do some in Israel. Both extremist sides in their respective countries are setting policy while other elements are able to enact contradictory policies. One step forward and one step back.

Overt and strong criticism of Israel or withdrawal of aid would compromise the security (?) of our good allies. Thus America must invade in order to effect any changes in Israeli policy while retaining a strong and defensible position against her many many enemies.Thus for the sake of the Israelis, Americans, Palestinians and world peace, send in the Marines.

In our new American colony, an American administration would grant a definition of civilian-ness to a larger segment of the occupied population. Apparently, the Israelis consider nearly all of the Palestinians as non-civilians and have taken actions beyond what is necessary for security to demoralize the population. An American administration of the refugee camps would be less torturous on the children, and attention would be paid to the necessity of the civilian portion (however large it is determined to be) of the occupied population to have access to medical and educational institutions.

An American invasion of Israel would have many positive benefits: it would demonstrate our commitment to a resolution of this long ranging conflict, it would ensure our great allies the Israelis long term security, and it would provide some relief and hope for the Palestinians.

A defining moment

2004-08-03T00:14:00.000-04:00

Finally, Kerry has stopped trying to be all things to all people. Now that the convention is over, he's back to pandering to his base. Kerry stated his exit strategy for Iraq includes withdrawing "significant numbers" of troops within his theoretical term of office. He wouldn't send more troops, he said. And the plan is based on...an expectation of a European flip-flop, as Adam of L!vefrom DC pointed out months ago. Kerry seems to still not have noticed the French, Germans and Spanards saying that they will in so circumstances send their troops in. Or perhaps, he is counting on his overwhelming charm to change the course of history. How short sighted do you have to be to miss that it would be an unmitigated disaster for the US to pull out early?

Now that the Democrats have telegraphed their intention to withdraw to the terrorists, they have a reason to hold on in Iraq until the election. The bastards by now have figured out that chaos, meyhem and murder in Iraq effects Bush's poll numbers as well as Iraqi morale. Thanks John.

I can't wait to see what Zarqawi's new intercepted note to bin Laden says: OK to kill the Shiites, use chemical weapons, bug out to Yemen?

Yemen in Conflict

2004-08-02T21:44:00.000-04:00

Two opeds in the Yemen Times this week:

ONE:
The only international movement that sees Islam as its antithesis is international Zionism. Furthermore, with the reliance on terror to bring about and sustain the Zionist state amidst the Moslem World, it goes without saying that the Zionist movement is keen on reflecting itself as an angelic state amidst a sea of Moslem demons...It rekindles an international war of cultures, in which it places itself with the West, while Moslems represent the threat to all western values and civilization...Yet, the west, especially the United States remains oblivious to trying to tie these new demonic movements falsely portraying themselves as “Jihadists” with the Zionist Movement.

The other is that countering Islam becomes a new basis for support to Israel after the “Communist Threat” ended with the end of the Cold War. To most sensible Moslems, these fly by night “Jihadists” are closer to the Irgun and Stern terrorist gangs that wreaked havoc throughout Palestine, during the early days of Israel’s “struggle for independence”, than to any genuine Islamic liberation movement...On the other hand, true Jihadists really know that it is senseless to advocate for the liberation of, say Iraq, while their members carry out senseless bomb attacks against literally hundreds of Iraqis, while not even bringing injury to any elements of the occupying forces. Whose side are they really on? Yet, they carry on freely, with the occupying force in Iraq not finding any clue whatsoever as to who these “insurgents” are. So as not to make the allusion that these groups might have ties to the international Zionist Movement and its right wing friends, especially in the US, seem ridiculous, one might want to look at this web site www.wsws.org

TWO:Muslim communities should not contradict with the concept of democracy since in Islam, as we know, stipulates the adoption of the principle of “shoura” (democracy) the in governance practice and the fact that God creates people liberal and free.
We could accept a connection between reforms and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the departure of the foreign troops from Iraq, if we were told that that this connection was a pressuring tool on America for example to resolve the conflict, but we can not accept the notion that our society is unable and refuses to react towards change and democracy as long as the Israeli occupation remains. This is illogical and unacceptable.The current state of weakness in Yemen and in the Arab countries was the result of decades of intentionally skillful scheming and planning. It does not permit our societies to convey their voice to the rulers in a civilized way.

There are other less-civilized societies then ours which are miraculously able to conduct peaceful marches, demonstrations and work strikes in order express their desire for change, but we, because of our current ethics, behaviors and traditions, do not know how to demonstrate without destroying public and personal properties that originally belong to us.

The solution remains in the hand of each Arab government to assist the people to come out from the crisis they are gradually engraining a new culture, the culture of working, participation, equality, accountability, all kinds of freedoms and civil liberties, the principle of the peaceful transition of power, political pluralism and true partisanship.

Doings round Blogistan

2004-08-02T16:40:00.000-04:00

For the mathematically impaired, like me, Rusty's got graphs outlining the Bush 'Jobless Recovery' vs. Clinton 'Miracle Economy'.Quite an eye-opener. Check it out. Impress your friends.

The Commissar bloggin live from Citigroup center: I keep looking on TV for a guy in a red cape. Maybe he's busy with Laura, George and Michael.

Asher is keepin an eye on Sistani in the Morning Report.

Fausta reports Mrs. Kerry doesn't recognize chili.

Accused Yemenis Loyal to Bin Laden

2004-08-02T09:38:00.000-04:00

The Yemen Times reports the lawyers for 15 al-Qaueda auapects quit in protest of lack of access to investigative reports. They are charged with blowing up the French Oil Tanker in Mukalla in October 2002, carrying out several explosions in Sana’a, killing one soldier and plotting to blow up the US, UK, French, German and Cuban embassies in Sana’a as well as plotting to kill the US ambassador to Yemen Edmund Hull.

The prosecution brought into the courtroom (as exhibits) 310,5 kg, 114 out of them are sticks made of C3 explosives, 238 sticks of T.N.T., 506 sticks of T.N.T explosives, 2 rockets, launcher and other stuff which were seized in a flat at al-Qadiysiah zone after an explosion in April 2002....

The defendants at this moment made a big fuss, hailing for Osama Bin Laden and shouting anti-US slogans. They accused the judge of turning the tribunal into a farce. “hey Jermozi bring out the verdict paper from your pocket; the sentences are already decided. I do feel for you,” defendant Kasem al-Raimi told the judge in reckless manner. The alleged ring leader Fawaz al-Rabee shouted loudly anti-US slogans and said “we do acknowledge Bin Laden our leader; we pledge to obey his orders in fighting the Americans.” “I shall never go back to infidelity,” he shouted while the prosecution was showing the judge its evidence.

His friends were indifferent to the conversation between the court and prosecution and shouting Islamic songs in an indifferent way. They even expressed support to Hussein al-Howthi and said he is their leader.

The full article demonstrates the fascinating workings of the Yemeni legal system and the difficulties it faces.

Rangers in Iran

2004-08-02T02:07:00.000-04:00

From Iranian Truth:...not only had the number of police and soldiers on the street increased, but that it had been marked with the arrival of a new type of enforcement, what Iranians call the Ranger. Rangers in Iran are characterized by camefelouge clothing, fairly tall and bulky, carrying a baton on their sides. The street rumor is that most of the Rangers are Arabs, possibly Lebanese or Syrian (it was also rumored back in the day that Rafsanjani's hoods were Iraqis; much of when Iranians don't want to think that they themselves could commit brutalities they usually think its an Arab). Rangers began appearing about a month ago, right around when social crackdowns were also started. From what I can tell, the Ranger units seem to be more as backup. There has been considerable trouble in Tehran with policing efforts, particularly traffic cops, and most of the Rangers seem to be located in areas riddled with traffic problems and regular police forces.

Reconstruction in Iraq

2004-08-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

The Daily Star in Lebanon notes:

Sajid is one of some 2,000 Iraqis working on a landfill project on the southwestern outskirts of Baghdad, bankrolled by a small part of the $18.4 billion Iraq reconstruction package approved by the United States last year.

Every Saturday, these Iraqis queue up in the scorching sun to get their weekly dream pay of $40 for building what is reported to be one of the largest landfills in the country. "I am very happy as this is the best day, when we get paid," said Sajid.

"It is the highest pay a labourer can get in Baghdad. I am sure my family can now relax for the next two weeks." Sajid is paid a daily wage of 10,000 Iraqi dinars for six days a week to work from 7.00 am to 2.00 pm.

"Believe me, this is dream pay for someone like me who was virtually jobless until this project started in June," he said, collecting his 60,000 dinars for a six day working week.Sajid, a father of four, lives with his wife, parents and uncle's family. Before he landed a job on the project, he made around 50,000 dinars a month...

Harvel said it had been a tough battle to convince the Iraqis about the project initially, as they viewed Americans with suspicion. "When we came here, they were not warm to us," he said.

"But with the start of the project and so many people getting jobs, they are now more open and treat us like friends as they have realised it is for their good that the project is being built." Observers say mass unemployment and appalling poverty fuels the deadly violence in Iraq and on Friday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell promised while on a visit to Baghdad to speed up US-financed reconstruction efforts.

"I am getting a job and who gives it to me is not an issue. The project is for Iraqis and that is important." Initially planned to employ about 1,000 people, engineers redesigned the project to cope with the number of unemployed labourers wanting jobs. "We are not using heavy machinery at all and going for manual labour so that more people can be employed," said Sheikh Malik al-Sayeed Hussain, a supervisor on the project. PCO director Admiral David Nash said 30,000 to 60,000 Iraqis are working on various reconstruction projects across the country.

Cotton: Export Farm Subsidies Ending

2004-08-02T01:53:00.000-04:00

Key WTO members accepted proposals to cut the subsidies wealthy countries give their farmers for exports.

The deal should reduce barriers to international trade and so, it is hoped, lift millions out of poverty. Brazil's Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, said the WTO agreement was good for trade and good for social justice.

"This is the beginning of the end for [farm] subsidies. Export subsidies will be eliminated first," he said. The agreement, agreed late on Saturday in Geneva, puts the so-called Doha round of trade talks back on track, after similar talks in Cancun last September ended in deadlock.

Good.

But even with the latest agreement, the details will still have to be hammered out, and that could take at least another couple of years, says the BBC's John Moylan in Geneva.

A small group of African countries claimed a major breakthrough on their key agricultural product of cotton, our correspondent says...France, the biggest beneficiary of EU agricultural subsidies, has been highly critical of moves to cut support for farmers.But EU Agricultural Commissioner Franz Fischler said the EU could "broadly accept" the deal.

Churches Bombed in Iraq

2004-08-02T01:17:00.000-04:00

In a sick reminder of the al-Shura massacre, five churches were bombed in Iraq today.

The unprecedented attacks against Iraq's 750,000-member Christian minority seemed to confirm community members' fears they might be targeted as suspected collaborators with American forces amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism....Iraqi police discovered a sixth bomb, consisting of 15 mortar rounds, outside a Baghdad church, and authorities disarmed it, the U.S. military said in a statement. The attacks did not appear to be suicide bombings, U.S. military and Iraqi officials said.

"This (attack) isn't against Muslims or Christians, this is against Iraq," Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi told The Associated Press. Muslim clerics condemned the violence and offered condolences to the Christian community. "This is a cowardly act and targets all Iraqis," Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, spokesman for radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told Al-Jazeera television. Mohammed Fadil al-Samara'i, an official with the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, blamed terrorist groups and others "who profit from creating civil disturbances in Iraq."

The attacks on the churches signaled a vast change in tactics for insurgents, who have focused many previous attacks on U.S. forces, Iraqi officials and police in a drive to push coalition forces from the country, weaken the interim government and hamper reconstruction efforts... Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut down their businesses and have turned their sights on fashion stores and beauty salons. But the church attacks Sunday went far beyond those threats.

The more Zarqawi tries to turn the Iraqis against each other, the more they turn against him.

Diversity vs. Atomization

2004-08-02T00:56:00.000-04:00

Professor M argues that for true pluralism and stablity to exist in Iraq, each group must be accepted, respected and understood in its true form. This implies that perhaps the strength of American social cohesion is not the "melting pot" but the acceptence of differences. And the strength of Iraq is its acceptence of each social group with all its history, culture and identity.Professor Megalommatis Egyptian Orientalist, writes:

...Turkey, rejecting the Caliphate and the false version of Islam France wishes so passionately that other countries of colonial past are permanently engulfed in, ensuring therefore permanent dependence, underdevelopment, analphabetism, ignorance, and the ensuing poverty and misery. It would be very wrong to interpret the colossal work of Mustafa Kemal Pasha Ataturk as an imitation of French policies and as an application of French prescriptions. One could however admit that this great work – undertaken mostly in the 20s and the 30s – looks like that! In this regard one should consider how similar France and America look and how different they truly are, and have always been....

One cannot find the country where the French colonial model was applied, from Morocco to Egypt and from Syria to Madagascar, from Greece to Vietnam and from Lebanon to Abyssinia, in which the past of the country itself is better studied locally than abroad (in Turkey it is!), and in which the past of other peoples and civilizations be studied in large scale (Turkey is different in this as well).

Iraq can be the second country to be disentangled from the colonial curse of France in a clear-cut and total way. All the options are open, and all people, who are conscious of the change needed, must contribute in taking French colonial involvement out of Iraq once forever.

If we fall into the trap of colonialism, the forged historiography fabricated by the French bogus academic school of the Annales, and the proportional re-presentation of each community according to terms of population, then everything will be lost and the best dreams of the Iraqis and all the world will soon turn into the nightmare of the apparent, unholy, alliance between Ossama bin Laden and the French political and ‘academic’ establishment.

From Rant me a River, an opposing view: Francis Fukuyama repeatedly argues (and persuades) in his books that the concepts of cultural diversity and moral relativism have weakened the bonds of community that unite us, and have forced us into smaller and less cohesive groups, whose ties are weaker, not stronger. In Western societies, the focus on the individual as the arbiter of his or her “unique” (rather than shared) values is “atomizing” us, rather than providing the “social capital” (i.e., shared values) we need to build and maintain strong, cohesive liberal democratic societies capable of withstanding attacks from the outside, such as the attack we face today from fundamental Islamism.

Quoting Fukyama:“Relativism---the doctrine that maintains that all values are merely relative and which attacks all ‘privileged perspectives’---must ultimately end up undermining democratic and tolerant values as well."

Everyone is going to work

2004-08-01T20:58:00.000-04:00

tomorrow: The Commissar, my husband, and millions of other New Yorkers. Mine Commissar as per usual nails it:

And I have a specific daily plan of action in response to this threat of terrorism:
1. With my wife, ride Metro North 7:33 out of Hartsdale, sitting in the sixth car.
2. Exit Grand Central via the North exit, and walk several blocks to 53rd Street.
3. En route, walk through the Waldorf Astoria's mid-block walkway, unless they close it, in which case, I'll go around...This is my strategy for the war on terror. I will not be terrorized. I will go about my daily life. No one will frighten me away from it. I refuse to over-react or be terrorized. As a citizen, that's my duty. Because I know "there's a war on."

When I heard the alert, I re-checked my husbands trunk which contains water, granola bars, baby wipes, and a change of clothes. My husband is a big Irish Ironworker and he humors me and pretends to listen while I tick off the inventory. Being the one who waves goodby (well he leaves at 5:00 so that a figure of speech), it is fustrating that this is all I can do. But now its done, and its time to move on to the kids story.

As these alerts have become more routine, and the threat more constant, we have all become citizens in war. Here in the North East we (have to)deal with it and the juxtapostition of "credable and specific threats" and planning my sons fifth birthday just makes it all the more important to have fun and a pinata.

It was oddly funny to me that during the anthrax attacks, it was my mailman (postal carrier)on the frontline and bumping up against the threat. This week, like the past three years, its New Yorkers again, still. Having spent the first thirty years of my life in Brooklyn, I can tell you, there no people more fit to stand against al-Qaeda and flip the bird.

Update: Rusty agrees with me

It seems to me that the Commissar has learned from the Israelis. That is, in the face of incredible fears and dangers--celebrate life. Live.

Oh yeah, rock on.

Tommy Franks New Book Approaching

2004-08-01T02:57:00.000-04:00

Tom the Redhunter has the money quote from Tommy Franks interview in Parade: He says multiple Middle Eastern leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, told Franks that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In January 2003, Mubarak said point blank to Franks, "Saddam has WMD-biologicals, actually-and he will use them on your troops."

Putin said there was an attack on the US in the works, Mubarak and Abdullah warned about the certainty of WMD, and the international intelligence community was in agreement. A failure of immagination before 9/11 and reciminations for it after.

New Find

2004-08-01T01:45:00.000-04:00

Crossroads Arabia a blog about Saudi Arabia, written by "a former US foreign service officer who has had two tours in Saudi Arabia." The blog is "not about Saudi-bashing, nor is it an apologia for the country. Rather, it’s an effort to put that country into context." And a fine job it does. Well worth a regular cruise.

My Op-ed in the Arab News

2004-07-31T21:19:00.000-04:00

"Kerry and the Middle East" is in today's Arab News in Saudi Arabia.

Very similar to the original, only the reference to the Saudi Royal Family was edited out. Happily it retained the phrases: ...the militarily weak and overtly hostile French and Germans,...establish a global caliphate,...the hope of democracy,...radical Islamists,...prior liberals.

There's a lovely little comment button at the link, if you'd like to leave some feedback for the editor.

The oped should be coming out in the weekly "Yemen Times" soon.

The Moral Arguement

2004-07-30T23:40:00.000-04:00

Michael at Whine and Jeeze has found what he describes as "The most brilliant summation of the national political discussion we're currently having that I've read." Excerpt: As easy as it is to say that we can't abide the president because of the gulf between what he espouses and what he actually does, what haunts me is the possibility that we can't abide him because of us—because of the gulf between his will and our willingness. What haunts me is the possibility that we have become so accustomed to ambiguity and inaction in the face of evil that we find his call for decisive action an insult to our sense of nuance and proportion.

The people who dislike George W. Bush have convinced themselves that opposition to his presidency is the most compelling moral issue of the day. Well, it's not. The most compelling moral issue of the day is exactly what he says it is, when he's not saying it's gay marriage. The reason he will be difficult to unseat in November—no matter what his approval ratings are in the summer—is that his opponents operate out of the moral certainty that he is the bad guy and needs to be replaced, while he operates out of the moral certainty that terrorists are the bad guys and need to be defeated. The first will always sound merely convenient when compared with the second. Worse, the gulf between the two kinds of certainty lends credence to the conservative notion that liberals have settled for the conviction that Bush is distasteful as a substitute for conviction—because it's easier than conviction.

I have to agree with old Mikey-the rest is worth reading, all three pages.

Who do you like better?

2004-07-30T22:35:00.000-04:00

Brilliant Rusty
Funny Rusty
or Sardonic Rusty?

Lot's of you youngins

2004-07-30T22:15:00.000-04:00

are still growing your broods bigger, but for those without a baby in the house:
SEND YOUR KIDS SHOES TO SGT. HOOK'S
OPERATION SHOEFLY
I sent mine care of Wiggles and it came to about $1.00/lb from the East Coast.

From Hook's regular blog: ...then noticed that leading the truck by a click and a half or so were two men dressed in what looked like ghillie suits running at a full sprint towards the hill. Responding to instructions from the pilot-in-command, Jaf briefly turned his attention inside the cabin to the text messaging machine that his crew chief called a ‘mutant laptop’, sending an urgent message to the tactical operation center outlining the situation that was unfolding before them, along with the grid coordinates of the strangely dressed men being chased, one of them, he could now see, carrying a longer than normal rifle, a sniper maybe? In the meantime, the PIC radioed back to their escort AH64 Apache helicopter to do a sweep of the pursuit truck in an attempt to get a better feel for what the hell was going on.
You have to read the rest to find out what happened.

New Sudan Blog

2004-07-30T21:58:00.000-04:00

The Jack of Clubs pointed out this Blog on the Sudan Atrocities that it quite informativa and upto date.

Now that the UN passed the resolution (with Pakistan and China abstaining), the Sudanese governemnt has rejected it already. So once thirty days pass, and they have not ceased slaughtering their residents, a new UN resolution can be hammered out, perhaps, imposing sanctions on Khartoum. About 1000 people die weekly in Darfur.

From Tommy Calvert at iAbolish:
"This is the first time in U.S. history that the Congress has asked the president to utilize international law to stop genocide, and it stands in stark contrast to the tragic mishandling of the Rwanda crisis. It only happened because people like you demanded action--thank you!

However, we must continue to watch, protest, expose, and write to Russia, Pakistan, and China, who have declared their opposition to holding the criminals accountable. While the EU seems to be onboard, France must be watched like a fox in the hen-house because of their previous statements downplaying the strife in Sudan. They also have the tremendous potential to be bought off by French oil company Total, which owns the largest oil concessions in Sudan.

The Sudanese government, one of seven countries the U.S. State Department notes is a sponsor of terrorism, is now encouraging terrorists to defend Sudan from international intervention. Sudan and its terrorist allies would rather fight forces helping to free, feed, and assist the suffering Muslims in Darfur rather than trying to aid them."

A Response to Kerry

2004-07-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

from Jack of Clubs: But my real concern here is with the false biblicism of this canard. We do not honor our fathers and mothers by foisting their care off on the federal government. The Commandment speaks to a personal responsibility, not an excuse to redistribute wealth.

Since we are quoting the Bible, how about this one Senator: "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly"? (Lev 19:15)

I'm in Yemen

2004-07-30T11:22:00.000-04:00

I'm in Yemen (sung to the tune of "I'm in Heaven.") Well, the article is in the queue. I'll give the link when its published.

John Kerry and the Middle East

During John Kerry’s speech accepting his party’s nomination as candidate for the American presidency at the Democrat’s National Convention in Boston, he spent a great deal of time defining himself by the four months he spent in Vietnam thirty years ago. Old comrades were trotted out, old war stories were told, old pictures shown as evidence of his fitness to be Commander in Chief of the US military. Mr. Kerry spoke only three sentences regarding the twenty years he spent in the US Senate and did not mention his consistent pattern of voting to remain unengaged internationally.

The majority of John Kerry’s speech dealt with domestic issues. His stated foreign policy objective consists of rebuilding America’s relationships with her traditional Western allies. This he believes will provide greater security for Americans from al-Qaeda and like minded jihadiis.

Mr. Kerry did not mention the Middle East at all, except to disparage US reliance on the Saudi royal family to meet American energy needs. Mr. Kerry stated he prefers to rely on American “ingenuity and innovation.” During the hour long speech, neither “Israel” nor “Palestine” escaped from his lips while words were plentiful about domestic environmental concerns, tax issues, healthcare and educational opportunities.

On some issues America is a firmly divided nation. As Bill Clinton noted at the Convention, “Democrats and Republicans have very different and deeply held ideas about what choices we should make. They’re rooted in fundamentally different views….” There is no issue that demonstrates this fissure more clearly than Iraq- a national Rorschach test.

Many of the convention delegates sported green stickers saying “End the Occupation of Iraq.” The American anti-war movement and many Kerry supporters see the invasion of Iraq as a fiasco, a personal financial burden, and a national embarrassment. They believe it has created terrorists. Kerry’s seeming opposition to President Bush’s Iraq policy has drawn many supporters to his camp, although Kerry voted for the Senate resolution authorizing unilateral military force. Kerry later voted against the 87 billion funding that military force. Now he supports a continued military presence.

It is difficult to discern his thinking on the validity of the war, and more importantly, his plans and goals going forward. The New York Times notes in an editorial: “Kerry’s history on the critical Iraq issue has been impossibly opaque.” Kerry has alternately said he would “do whatever it takes” and he would withdraw US forces as soon as Iraq was stable. “I don’t think we should be opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them here,” Mr. Kerry states in one of his most frequently run TV advertisements.

In his speech in Boston, Mr. Kerry said he knows what to do in Iraq- share the military and financial burden internationally. This will be possible he believes once he restores Western alliances and respect for the US. Opening the convention, former President Jimmy Carter stated, “The dominant international challenge is to restore the greatness of America.”

Republicans see the greatest challenge elsewhere. Vice President Cheney articulates their vision that “the enemy America faces today is every bit as intent on defeating us as were the Axis powers in World War II or as the Soviet Union in the Cold War.” This view holds that the goal of the jihad is not to change US foreign policy but to destroy the US itself in a quest to establish a global caliphate. The 3/11 massacre in Spain they see as part of a larger effort to reclaim al-Andalus. Republicans believe al-Qaeda terrorists understand better than Democrats the historic stakes in Iraq and the major blow that self-governing Iraq would be to their ideology.

Republicans, contrary to the prevailing international view, are not comprised of a cabal of neo-cons, Evangelicals, Zionists, oil barons and war mongers. Rather a portion of Bush’s base consists of ex-Democrat voters, prior liberals and other Middle Americans disgusted with the Democrats reaction to the threat America faces from radical Islamists.

Many Bush supporters disagree strongly with President Bush’s domestic policies and are extremely disheartened by the chaotic reconstruction of Iraq. Cringing at the President’s handling of the Greater Middle East Initiative, they agree on its goals of reform, economic development, greater literacy and individual rights in the Middle East.

John Kerry offers these voters little global vision beyond restoring alliances in Europe.
The emphasis on the participation of the militarily weak and overtly hostile French and Germans in Iraq has little logic to the Republicans who see in the Democrats a Eurocentric view that dismisses the sacrifice of the Poles, El Salvadorans, Mongolians, thirty other nations and, most importantly, the valiant Iraqis.

Today’s Republicans see an Islamic democracy in the heart of the Middle East as the linchpin of American security that may forestall generations of terrorists. They believe in the domino theory- a strategy that relies on the hope of democracy, presented in a region of autocrats, to spread over borders and from heart to heart. This pattern of human behavior, they say, has demonstrated its strength and consistency over time in Latin America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia. For these Republicans, to paraphrase James Carville, “It’s the war, stupid.” Many Americans, hopeful and committed to success in both Afghanistan and Iraq, are unsure if Kerry shares their determination.

Those around the world who were hoping for a coherent Middle East policy from John Kerry have had their hopes dashed. Many in America are disappointed that the Democrats have not learned the lesson of 9/11- that the Middle East does affect American children mightily. As Americans, Muslims and innocents everywhere are endangered by radical Islamists, as nations globally are threatened, John Kerry’s mantra of “Stronger at Home, Respected in the World” offers little substance. And the question remains, is “Anybody But Bush” the best choice for the American electorate?

Crunch Time at the UN

2004-07-29T13:58:00.000-04:00

As the developing genocide in Sudan continues, the UN security council resolution is stuck in negotiations. The goal of the resolution is to force the Sudanese government to stop killing its people under penalty of sanctions. Several nations are opposed to the US effects, insisting instead that Khartoum be given more time to come around. In the case of the French, they argue that it is an "African matter". Our new man Danforth is on the job.

NYT reports: "There is a universal recognition that Darfur is a disaster, that the government of Sudan is culpable and that action on a very tight time frame is essential," John C. Danforth, the American ambassador to the United Nations and formerly President Bush's special envoy to Sudan, said in arguing for swift passage of the resolution.

Marie Okabe, a United Nations spokeswoman, said the United Nations had received only $158 million in response to its appeals for $349 million for the victims in the Darfur region in western Sudan and for refugees in neighboring Chad....The Netherlands, the United States, Britain and the European Commission have contributed 70 percent of the current total, Ms. Okabe said.

Ms. Okabe said that in spite of the Sudanese government's pledge to Mr. Annan ...United Nations staff members had interviewed 38 women and girls who said they had been raped in the past week, sometimes repeatedly, by Janjaweed fighters.

A report by the African Union on Wednesday said Arab militiamen had recently burned villagers who had been shackled in chains.

The draft resolution has been revised to include more support for an African Union relief and police action under way in Sudan. But the United States has not backed off its insistence that the measure include the explicit threat of sanctions against Sudan if the government does not live up to pledges to rein in the marauding militias. The measure demands that the government show tangible progress in 30 days in disarming the fighters and bringing them to justice.

"It would have to be clear to the government of Sudan that what we mean is sanctions," Mr. Danforth said. "The prime responsibility of the government of Sudan is not to brutalize its own people, not to bomb people, not to arm militias to attack people, not to support people who engage in the burning of villages and rape.

"That's what's going on in Darfur right now. Human beings are being killed, hundreds of them every day, as a direct result of the actions of the government in Khartoum."

Differences over what action to take exist even within the European Union. France's foreign minister, Michel Barnier, has said the African Union should solve the problem without outside involvement; Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, on the other end of the spectrum, has gone so far as to suggest sending troops.

More Election News

2004-07-27T15:09:00.000-04:00

In Baghdad, caucus' are taking place for seats on the 1000 member national conference that will select the 100 member council to advise the interium government. The biggest problem so far is the overwhelming number of candidates,
reports say.

In Kut, a Shiite city south of Baghdad, 1,248 people competed for 22 seats. In Najaf, a city considered sacred by Shiites because of its shrines, there were 920 candidates for 20 seats, prompting complaints from Mr. Sadr's group and other leaders that the process was not inclusive or democratic enough.

At the caucus in Baghdad, one of four for this city of five million people, 436 people competed for 40 seats, 10 of which were set aside for women. Women are to hold 25 percent of the seats on the council.

It would appear that many Iraqis are moving forward with the political process undaunted by terrorist slaughter or by the indifference and often outright hostility of the international community toward a self governing Iraq.

No Bump in the Polls

2004-07-27T14:58:00.000-04:00

Kharzi selects Masoud as Running Mate

Mr. Karzai's new vice-presidential nominee,Ahmed Zia Massoud, is a younger brother of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the commander of the Northern Alliance who was killed by Al Qaeda suicide bombers on Sept. 9, 2001.

Mr. Karzai's decision to drop the defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, showed the growing divide within the government over the persistence of armed private militias, which the president has called the greatest threat to the country's nascent democracy.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the FM and Mr. Masoud's number two man until his murder, is supporting the education minister, Yunus Qanooni, in his bid for election.

Another Ally Torturing Children

2004-07-27T03:36:00.000-04:00

The following article was censored from the Middle East Times in Cairo last week. No panties here as the reciepient of billions in US aid continues to operate under emergency law for decades with impunity, cruelty and in silence:

Egypt’s leading human rights organization released its 2004 annual report last week indicating that torture in prisons across the country was common and widespread despite government denials.
STORY WAS CENSORED FROM THIS WEEK'S PRINTED EDITION

The 2004 annual report released by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) last week documents hundreds of cases of abuses of human rights and dozens of deaths from torture.The 323-page report entitled, “The Conditions of Human Rights in Egypt,” said that 412 cases of torture and 120 torture deaths have been documented between 1993 and 2004.

It said that between April 2003 and April 2004, no less than 41 cases of torture had been recorded, of which 15 likely led to death.But, the numbers are the tip of the iceberg. Many more cases of torture go unreported.

”Torture in Egypt is committed on a daily basis and is widespread in police stations, state security headquarters, and prisons,” said the report. “Torture is regularly used by police to extract confessions from suspects or their relatives leading to many deaths.”

Twelve-year-old Abdullah Rizq Abdallah was one of those cases. His small body finally gave out after seven days of torture by police using electrical shocks to make him confess to theft.In another case, a widow told EOHR that the last time she saw her husband alive in a police cell he told her that he was going through “torture that no human being can imagine.”

The report said threats to the life of citizens in Egypt used to come primarily from armed Islamic groups, but now they come from the security authorities. The report put the finger on state security officers in Cairo as committing the majority of documented cases of torture last year. It said they were encouraged to do so because there was very little chance of being prosecuted.

Freedom of expression in Egypt fared no better last year. Newspapers and books were frequently confiscated, said the report, and journalists had been arrested despite President Hosni Mubarak’s ban on the imprisonment of journalists for writing ‘offensive’ articles.

The EOHR also highlighted electoral violations of cronyism and intimidation in the 2003 parliamentary elections.”Security forces interfered in favor of the ruling National Democratic Party candidates by preventing supporters of opposition candidates from casting their votes,” said the report.

Many of these violations are consequences of the Emergency Law, implemented by Mubarak after the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat in 1981. The law gives the government sweeping powers to arrest and hold people without trial and to ban public gatherings.

The EOHR insisted in its report that the need for the Emergency Law had long expired.
”The government has exhausted all its excuses to prolong the state of emergency by claiming they are fighting terrorism… No militant operations have taken place in Egypt since the Luxor massacre of 1997,” said the report.

Bangladesh: Floods Worsen

2004-07-27T02:55:00.000-04:00

The floods are very bad this year. Nearly 200 have died and millions are displaced throughout the region. A predictable natural disaster that may have been mitigated with enhanced flood embankments is causing untold suffering in human costs and enormous damage to property and agriculture.

With the surrounding rivers remaining in spate, feeding on waters rolling down from upstream, the situation in and around capital Dhaka already remained grave. About 40% of the city is under water and in places the sewage system has failed, with brown and stinking water flowing through the streets. Already thousands of people are complaining of diarrhoea. As monsoon rains continue, millions of people in the city get their drinking water from tube wells and the fear is that many are becoming contaminated.

The floods have made life especially difficult for the very poorest in the city. Slums are built on low-lying ground and most have been under water for days.

Some people have moved out to find dry land, building makeshift shelters from plastic sheeting and bamboo on the pavements in areas that are on higher ground.

Flood forecasters say there is no relief in sight. The rivers in the central area of Bangladesh that includes the capital are likely to rise further in the coming days.
More

Convention Notes: Day One

2004-07-26T23:14:00.000-04:00

Initially I thought the convention would be too obnoxious to watch, that it would leave me annoyed and fuming at the Democrats' incompetence, arrogance and confusion. But no, its funny.

Gore was not only sedate, but compared to his last rants, he seemed sedated. Boy its still itching his butt that he lost the election. Not yet man enough to accept the intricate constitutional process that resolved the dispute, he's still whining about winning the popular vote, as if the electoral college is another VRWC. He attacked President Bush for burning bridges to our "allies" as if none of the Democrats noticed our "allies" lobbying grenades from their side of the bank.

Which brainiac decided Carter should tackle foreign policy? Arguably the weakest and most lilly livered girlie man in the White House that century, Carter's pathetic bleating about the "unbroken series of mistakes and miscalculations" seemed to ignore the beginning of Islamist empowerment was his decision to leave American hostages in Iran for 441 days. The money quote: "The dominant international challenge is to restore the greatness of America." No Mr. President, you buffoon, the dominant international challenge is to secure the continued existence of America. What you may see as "public panic" is perhaps a realistic assessment of the threats to democracy and what you see as "extremism" is an appropriate response.

Hillary continued on the theme that our first goal as Americans is to be liked and respected, that we should "Lead the world not alienate it." Big news lady, I don't want to be liked by the French or the Germans, Hugo Chavez or the Mad Mullahs. That would be a sign we were doing something wrong.

Bill, Bill, Bill, a silver tongued shaman, actually told America that John Kerry is going to raise the hell out of taxes in order to fund entitlement programs. He twisted and distorted reality and was so believable again. His we Democrats (are so great) against you Republicans (should be ashamed of yourselves) was outright insulting to half the nation. The ogres, the villains, them: they took money from children to give it to the rich. So let's raise taxes, stunt the economy, create a bigger bureaucracy, and when we're all poor and out of work, America will be united again.

Bill restated the entire Kerry foreign policy with "Be not afraid" and "Rally the world to our side." Close the doors, lock the shutters and sing Kumbia. It will be fine. They all state that the first move is to grovel to those who have already demonstrated an antipathy toward America, not Bush, and a plan- yes a plot- to weaken the US. Assuming the French are flip-floppers like Kerry and shockingly decide to send 400 troops to Iraq, would the jihadiis lay down their arms, burn all their blueprints, and join in the song?

Amusing indeed.

The Face: An authentic post 9/11novel

2004-07-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

that I've read, and I normally chew through novels. Since 9/11, I have to check the publish dates of novels because anything pre-9/11 has a disturbing sense of unreality to me and is both unsatisfying and grating. What I've read of pulp fiction since then hasn't captured the new normal. One vague sentence about terrorists is the most many novelists can handle.

I just finished "The Face" by Dean Koontz. The story line is well constructed, and builds suspense.I have read many of his novels before and he is a changed man since 9/11. The work has nothing to do with politics or terrorism but it is set in the new normal. Only once the protagonists briefly wonders if a clap of thunder is a bomb.

The engrossing story is filled with lovely descriptions and denigrations of the left. For example Koontz describes a minor character:"He believed that a secret cabal ran the nation, that it intended soon to dispense with democracy and impose brutal dictaatorial control. He was ever alert for early signs of the coming crackdown." Koontz gets in digs at cop-haters, ecoterrorists, shallow acedemics who disrespect their field, politicians, the media, anarchists, hollywood transcentalists, animal rights activists, envious professors, and conspiracy theorists. "The Face" is the first of the many novels that I have read that reflects today's America.

Do the Saudi's get it?

2004-07-23T22:50:00.000-04:00

An Arab News Editorial blames the US for the attacks of 9/11, and legitimizes the view of America as the source of muslin suffering.

Unfortunately the fact that they(Americans) have now shared in the terror that has long afflicted the rest of the world has not yet helped them understand the basic injustices on which terrorism feeds and thrives such as the atrocity of Palestine. No committee is needed to tell us who is behind the terrorism Palestinians are suffering every day.

So there you go, we deserved it because of the injustices America has wrought on the Palestinians, an item only recently added to bin-Laden's agenda. Furthermore we have not learned our lesson (Michael Moore has though) that we are the perpetrators of injustice. What a load of trash coming from the official english language newspaper of Saudi Arabia. I wonder what the Princes thought of the 9/11 commission's recommendation that the US must foster equitable political systems in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia? Somehow, their politcal commentary skipped over that part, as did the Saudi Embassy's analysis:

In that report, the Commission confirms that it has found no evidence that the government of Saudi Arabia funded Al-Qaeda. The Commission also confirmed accounts of Saudi Arabia's attempts to capture Osama bin Laden prior to 9-11 and efforts to foil Al-Qaeda terror attacks inside the Kingdom as early as 1998. Later, the 9-11 Commission's Chairman, Mr. Thomas H. Kean, told reporters: "We have got to work with the Saudi government, [who] shares a very common interest with us now, because the terrorists would be very, very -- just as happy, I think, to destroy the government in Saudi Arabia right now as they would our own government. And they have a very common interest in working with us against the terrorists at this point, who have attacked them as much as well as attacked us."

Do they understand that the way to conter-terrorism is through the enfranchisemnt of their population, through the empowerment of civil institutions including a free press, and through the relinquishing of power by elites? Maybe they do and that's why they're blaming us.

Like Night Follows Day

2004-07-23T22:47:00.000-04:00

Does this have anything to do with this?

No failure of imagination here

2004-07-23T16:54:00.000-04:00

From History's End: "Al Qaeda's smartest move...is relatively easy: Kill John Kerry and John Edwards. It wouldnt' take many people, and wouldn't require the level of planning and resources of 9/11. And the effect would be just as great, if not greater. Think of it. Who will be blamed for this? Bush."

And then Hillary would run.

It is Genocide

2004-07-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

Now that its made it through Congress. it just has to get past the President, and the Security Council. It is progress though that Congress did not wait for the bodies. A genocidal policy is clear in the Sudan, which will result in hundreds of thousands of deaths within months. Suddenly US unilateralism is desirable.

WASHINGTON, July 23 (AFP) -- The US Congress unanimously passed a resolution declaring the atrocities being committed in Darfur, Sudan, a genocide, and calling on the White House to intervene multilaterally or even unilaterally to stop the violence.
By a vote of 422 to zero, the House of Representatives and "the Senate concurring" passed the resolution introduced a month ago by New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne stressing that in Darfur 30,000 people have been "brutally murdered", 130,000 have fled to neighboring Chad and more than one million have been internally displaced by the violence.

The resolution, adopted late on Thursday, further calls on the Bush administration "to seriously consider multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent genocide should the United Nations Security Council fail to act."

It also demands "targeted sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of the National Congress and affiliated business and individuals directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur," and urges USAID to help the refugees resettle and rebuild their communities.

The United States on Thursday put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution that could slap sanctions on Sudan if it does not prosecute Arab militia leaders behind atrocities in Darfur.

Under the proposed UN resolution, Khartoum must bring Janjaweed leaders to justice or face unspecified sanctions within 30 days, a move Khartoum has said would not help end the crisis.

Thanks to Asher at "Dreams Into Lightning" for the article.

Spartucus has a great analysis of a WaPo editorial on the subject: "Hmm... sounds a lot like the argument President Bush made to the UN General Assembly in September 2002 when he asked (in the context of Iraq under Saddam) "will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?")

Another interesting point that the editorial raises is the lack of committment to funding (and staffing) international humanitarian efforts shown by our erstwhile allies in Europe."

First Mongolia, Now El Salvador

2004-07-23T16:27:00.000-04:00

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 22, 2004 – El Salvador has "reupped" and will continue its
deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, DoD officials said today.
El Salvador has had infantry and special forces personnel in Iraq since August
2003. The unit is part of the Multinational Division Central/South.

El Salvador is actually increasing its commitment. The country is sending 380
soldiers to Iraq, up from 360. "Given the size of the country and the size of
the armed forces, this is a significant commitment," said Roger Pardo-Maurer,
the deputy assistant defense secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs.

It was there that they distinguished themselves. In early April, the illegal
militia of Muqtada al Sadr attacked a 16-member El Salvadoran squad. The
Salvadoran troops fought until they ran out of ammunition and then fought with
knives, said Pardo-Maurer. They held on until coalition forces broke through.One soldier was killed and several wounded in the hand-to-hand fighting. "They are very high-quality soldiers," he said.

Twenty years ago, El Salvador was going through its own version of hell. The
country was wrecked by a civil war. El Salvador is now a democracy and has
adopted a free trade policy. The military is under civilian control. "Now the
country is an exporter of security," Pardo-Maurer said.

Our Friend, Pakistan

2004-07-21T22:32:00.000-04:00

Todays NYT has an article on Pakistan that highlights the problem of being an idealist in a realpolitic world, and the issue of the difficulties of maintaining an allience with countries that are not fully democratic nor respectful of human rights. The US recently decertified Uzbeckistan, an important ally in the WOT, because of brutal HR violations. The balancing between national security and the advance of HR never clear cut, and in Pakistan, a vitally important country in the WOT, the US walks a difficult path.

Researchers for the group, Human Rights Watch, interviewed 30 children of (Pakistani)farmers who said paramilitary fighters, known as rangers, arrested and tortured them as a way to pressure their parents to yield to the army's demands, the report said. The group, which is based in New York, also said that paramilitary forces pressured three couples into divorcing, fired the relatives of some farmers whom they deemed uncooperative and at one point blocked the news media from having access to the victims.

The accusations of violations of Pakistani and international human rights law arose during a two-year conflict between tenant farmers in Punjab Province in eastern Pakistan and the army, which has long administered government-owned farmland in the area. In 2002, army administrators issued a new contract requiring tenant farmers to pay rent in cash, instead of in produce as they had in the past. Farmers mounted a rebellion, centered in the Okara district, and demanded full ownership of the land.

From May to August 2003, dozens of children were arrested, beaten and whipped as a way to pressure their parents into signing new tenancy agreements, according to the report. While the children were detained, paramilitary fighters pressured them to send messages to their families urging them to sign the new tenancy agreement as a way to win their release, the children told investigators.

Hundreds of farmers have also been arrested during the campaign; some have not been charged and others have been accused of fabricated crimes, including murder, the report said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister on Iran

2004-07-21T22:21:00.000-04:00

Iran gets the "Worst Neighbor Award" from Iraq's Foreign Minister. I'm sensing a lot of anger and fustration.

In an interview published in the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Sha'lan warned Iran that Iraq is capable of responding to Iranian-supported terrorism in Iraq, within Iran itself.

Question: "Which neighboring country, in your view, presents a direct threat?"

Sha'lan: "The country that penetrates the borders the most and encroaches the most on Iraq is Iran."

Question: "How serious is Iranian penetration into Iraq?"

Sha'lan: "Iranian penetration is extensive and unprecedented since the establishment of the Iraqi state. The Iranians have entered the crucial junction points of the country as a whole and established many intelligence and military positions in Iraq. We have begun dealing with this matter in a way both subtle and exacting. The prime minister, the foreign minister, and I all make our voices clear against Iran's blatant intervention in Iraqi affairs, which is a dangerous precedent. They admit to having spies in Iraq, whose task is to undermine the social and political situation. The Iraqi people, however, are immune to this."

Question: "What is your view on proposals by the president of the [pro-Iranian] Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Hakim, that Iraq bear the blame for the Iran-Iraq war, with the implication that Iraq pay compensation to Iran?"

Sha'lan: "I believe that the demand that Iran be compensated for the war losses is an unpatriotic proposal, because everyone knows that the Iraqis were [at that time] the prisoners of Saddam's regime... No Iraqi should propose such a thing..."

Question: "Have you obtained important intelligence from interrogating some of the terrorists you have apprehended?"

Sha'lan: "Yes. In their confessions they pointed to important leaders inside Iraq, who were [subsequently] captured. They also confessed to funding from countries that are steeped in terrorism."

Question: "Do they get funding from governments, or from organizations within those countries?"

Sha'lan: "They are called organizations, but they come from this given country or that given country, and we know that whatever comes from the neighboring countries has first passed through the security services of those countries."

Question: "Haven't you spoken with these countries on this matter?"

Sha'lan: "Yes, we have spoken with them, and we confronted them with the facts and the evidence, but they have not taken any measures to stop their support of the terrorists and their operations on Iraqi soil. When we reached a dead end, we started to issue statements and we said, and I reiterate it here, that we have the capability to move [the response] to assaults on Iraqi dignity and rights into those countries. We have the capability to move the assault into their countries."
Question: "Do the [Iraqi] Ba'thists play a significant part in the terrorist operations?"

Sha'lan: "Absolutely not. They started contacting us and cooperating with us particularly in the area erroneously called 'the Sunni triangle.' We have neither a Sunni nor a Shiite triangle."(2)

"The Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Hassan Al-Naqib attacked Iran and accused it of being behind the terrorist actions to which Iraq is subjected. Following discussions yesterday with his Jordanian counterpart Samir Al-Habashna, Al-Naqib told reporters, 'It must be acknowledged that Iran plays an important part, whether official or popular, in the terrorist and sabotage operations being carried out in Iraq.' He emphasized that Iraq is now being targeted.

"Al-Naqib added, 'The sabotage and criminal operations now going on in Iraq, regardless of their political or religious garb - it is the same element that plans it, the same mind that organizes it, and it is using one and the same strategy for targeting Iraq and Iraqi unity.'

"As for the fate of the former Ba'thists who are now in other Arab countries including Jordan, Al-Naqib said: 'There are former Ba'thists living in Iraq normally like other citizens, provided they were not involved in security, criminal, or other legal matters during the previous regime.' He focused on the Ba'thists' strong-arm style, as opposed to the style of the new regime, based as it is on rule of law.

48 Hours Only: Congress voting on Sudan: Email letter link

2004-07-21T22:03:00.000-04:00

This auto-letter is to Hastert, Delay, Frist and your representitives urging the classification of the atrocities in Sudan as genocide. A resolution is now pending in Congress.It is clear, if there is not immediate action, it will be a genocide: to diminish the impending genocide, it has to be labeled genocide now. If we wait untill the evidence is clear and indisputable, then all the people will be dead.

If a joint resolution is passed, and the adminstration backs it, it has to go to the Security Council where both France and China have large oil interests in the Sudan.

Clicking the email letter link may be more significant than you expect, even if it is not, but it's better than hand-wringing alone. Other methods of support have been suggested by iAbolish. Other ways to donate listed at MuslimWakeUp:

CARE -Online at: http://www.careusa.org

Doctors Without Borders- http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

International Committee of the Red Cross -Online at: http://www.icrc.org

International Rescue Committee -Online at: http://www.theirc.org

Save the Children-US -Online at: http://www.savethechildren.org

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)- Online at: http://www.unicefusa.org

Visit Rusty's New Diggs

2004-07-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

And don't forget to update your blogroll. Check out Mypetjawa.mu.nu

Scroll down to see the latest addition to the VRWC, and he's the only one of us allowed to literally drool over Sandy Berger's sloppiness.

The Commissar is a Bloggin' Genius

2004-07-21T10:42:00.000-04:00

It's my bloggin' opinion that the Commissar is a bloggin' genius. And if you need some bloggin' proof, just click the links, unless you're too bloggin' scared to face the mini-truth.

The Commissar does it again and again

Syria and Iran: Coordinating

2004-07-21T02:07:00.000-04:00

Syrian Information Minister Ahmad Al-Hassan was interviewed by the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat and the Saudi daily 'Okaz.(1) The following are excerpts from both interviews:

"But on the matter of Iraq, [Syria and Iran] agree that full sovereignty must be restored to Iraq, the removal of the occupation must be speeded up, the easing of the suffering of the Iraqi people must be hastened, and positive conditions that will make possible the election of a government representing all the ethnic groups of the Iraqi people must be found...But because Syria and Iran are the leading countries among Iraq's neighbors, there is no avoiding their acting in coordination with each other.
"The accusations by Iraqi Foreign Minister Husheir Zibari, that Syria and Iran support those who are infiltrating into Iraq, are false and baseless. The media sometimes give Zibari's statements a meaning that perhaps he does not intend. No one has proof that Syria is encouraging people to go to Iraq, as the official borders are hermitically sealed.
"There must be a distinction between two things: As long as there are occupation forces, the Iraqi people have the right to resist.

"Some research institutes claim there are Israelis [in northern Iraq who are either using] the pretext that their forefathers were in Iraq and now their children have returned, or posing as businessmen and investors..."American officers have related that they met Israeli officers [in Iraq]. The continued Israeli presence in Iraq constitutes a long-term danger, since [the Israelis] play a part in deepening the civil war, the conflicts, and everything that prevents the attaining of national unity and harms the preservation of the unity of Iraq's land, people, and sovereignty.

"But our people and our national unity are impervious to such matters. What happened (in Qamishli and in other places in Syria) is not the result of foreign intervention. (The Israelis) are trying to influence, but the [Syrian] people, with all its factions, is too determined to be influenced by attempts to harm national unity."

"If Syria wanted to possess weapons of mass destruction, why has it demanded, and is still demanding, that the U.N. decide to clear the Middle East of all types of WMDs, including nuclear weapons, of which Israel possesses an large arsenal?"

"When [Israel] sends invitations to meetings, such as the one from [Israeli President Moshe] Katsav, this is more propagandistic misleading than an expression of serious intent. In proof of this, [Israel] wants the negotiations to begin from the drawing board, without preconditions - which means negotiations outside the framework of the legitimate resolutions."

"Syria has options for self-defense, and it will employ any measure [possible] to preserve its national interests. [Syrian] MPs are expressing the opinion of the popular classes that have an opinion regarding what the American constitutional institutions have done and are trying to continue to do against Syria or the Arab people."

Sudan Update

2004-07-21T01:48:00.000-04:00

Caribpundit reports Khartoum is arming the militias that kill their own people:

A New York-based human rights group says it has evidence that the Sudanese Government has been arming the militia accused of killing thousands of people in the Darfur region. Human Rights Watch says it has secret documents which implicate high-ranking Government officials in a policy of supporting the militia.

Oh like we couldn't figure that out when government planes bombed these villagers.

And they were singing about it

While Janjaweed militiamen were doing the dirty deed, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy, stirring up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur. Many women were taken as sexual slaves and prevented from escaping by having their limbs broken.

To Donate

News Article by BBC posted on Sudan.net Rains a curse for Sudan's refugees (We saw this coming, actually we've been counting down. Too bad the UN didn't.)

The Sahara's ferocious winds swirl through the camps for a million displaced Sudanese, and the people scatter. Then the heavens open and the rains begin their torrential pounding. Most nights now across Darfur the displaced huddle in makeshift shelters, bracing themselves against the elements.

Whole families sit upright all night, as the rain pours through the reed roofs of their shacks.

The rains here are a curse in more ways than one. Roads have become mired in mud, making it difficult for aid to get through. And the rains have brought disease to the camps, by flushing sewage and filth into the drinking water.

Now the World Health Organisation's concern is that epidemics like cholera may break out too. Already many children in the camps have diarrhoea, vomiting and measles.

Because of insecurity and difficulties of the terrain the food has not reached all the people in Murnei camp. Most families say they ran out of food completely more than a week ago, and many families have been surviving since by sharing out rations intended to save just the weakest infants.

In a tented hospital for about the worst cases the children are emaciated, and tormented with the pain of starvation. Margaret Bell a nurse said: "Out in the community (one camp) there are 40 deaths a week that we know of." On a bed in one of the makeshift hospitals a one-year-old girl, Asha, lies covered in sores and lesions, her skin peeling. She does not have the strength to hold her head up.
Whilst watching her daughter starve Asha's mother has been slowly losing her mind.

"Our village was burnt to the ground," her grandmother said. "We can't go back. Nine people in our family were killed. The attackers took everything we had. There's not enough food here for us, and I'm worried Asha will die but we can't go home we'll be killed".

International organisations have called the situation in Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. They have also warned that thousands more may die if more help does not arrive quickly.

Thousands may die? How about tens of thousands may die or hundreds of thousands of mostly women and children because the men are already dead.