Musings Archive March 2004
Monday, March 29, 2004 GOOD WORK: A Pakistani military official said today that Pakistan's offensive against al-Qaida and other militants in Waziristan resulted in the death of an al-Qaida intelligence official named 'Abdullah' and scores of other bad guys.
The military declared the operation in South Waziristan over on Sunday, and claimed it was a success. But hundreds of other militants were still at large, officials said. Uzbek terrorist leader Tahir Yuldash was reportedly wounded in the assault but escaped.
Sultan said 63 militants, mostly unidentified, were killed in the operation, and 167 were arrested, including 73 foreigners. He did not identify the foreigners' nationalities, but security officials had said Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs were among them.
He said 46 troops were killed and 26 wounded.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:38 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND: For years feminists and other 'victims' have been using the concept of "hostile work environment" in order to pursue their goals of changing society. All well and good...until the weapon is used on you. David Bernstein reports that the days the weapon is used against the left are about to begin, and at one university already has.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:05 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ NEALENEWS RETURNS: The recent announcement that Nealenews.com is gone turned out to be temporary. After a public appeal by its readers the cats behind the site have brought it back! Resume reading here.
Posted by steve @ 03:00 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ THE SHINE IS OFF: It isn't just Geoge W. Bush's numbers that are down, so are Alan Greenspan's. Of course, Greenspan doesn't have to win any elections.
Once policymakers hung on his every pronouncement. Now, some have questioned the appropriateness of some comments, such as a recent remark that Social Security benefits may need to be cut.
In short, these are trying times for America's economic oracle. While managing the Fed in a seemingly fragile recovery, he also, analysts say, concerned with managing his own reputation in posterity, and perhaps with whether he wants to be reappointed when his term finishes in June.
"[Greenspan's] no longer so revered as he was in 1999," says Paul Kasriel, an economist at the Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:09 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Sunday, March 28, 2004 SCARED STRAIGHT: The Australian reports that Syria is asking Australia to help repair its relations with the United States and to convince it that it is not a terrorist friendly nation. I guess that Bush doctrine continues to pay dividends.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:10 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ I'LL BELIEVE WHAT EVERYONE ELSE BELIEVES: The Pennsylvania chief coroner says that no one will ever know what caused United Airlines Flight 93 to crash on September 11, 2001.
Read on.
What I believe is that men named Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Thomas Burnett Jr. and Jeremy Glick stopped another target from being attacked and I don't much care who else believes otherwise.
Posted by steve @ 05:19 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ NOW I REALLY HATE HIM: "US presidential hopeful John Kerry needs to stop acting so French if he wants to win the race for the White House, a French-born, US-based consultant and 'medical anthropologist' says."
Read on.
For God's sake America...
Posted by steve @ 05:01 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Saturday, March 27, 2004 COOL TOOL OF THE DAY: The City Maps is a graphical representation of how much and where money is coming from in the presidential donation race. Several major American cities are here and you can look to see how much by area is being donated to either candidate. The men and women at Goldman Sachs in New York really like George W. Bush while those at 770 Park Avenue (and their neighbours) generally favored various Democrats.
Check it out here.
Posted by steve @ 04:18 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ TRAINING YOUR OWN MURDERERS: Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, persuasively in my mind, that al-Qaida is becoming a European entity.
This phenomenon of highly Westernized Muslims and converted Christians becoming radicalized believers has happened throughout Western Europe. Relatively few Turks have joined radical Islamic organizations allied with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, even though Turkish fundamentalists are numerous and often hardcore. At home and abroad, they are perhaps more numerous and better organized than are fundamentalists of any other nationality. But the Turks who have been arrested for association with al Qaeda usually share one bond: They were either born or raised in Germany and are culturally more German than they are Turkish Muslim. These young men are part of what the Iranian-French scholar Farhad Khosrokhavar has called the néo-umma guerrière--"the new holy-war community of believers" that recognizes neither national nor ethnic identity nor traditional Islamic values. Their Islam is "a new type of Nietzscheanism" where suicide and murder become sacred acts of an elite, self-made race of believers who want to bring on a purifying Apocalypse.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:11 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT: Joshua Kurlantzick has an interesting two part essay at The New Republic exploring the hype from the early 1990s that the World Wide Web is a force for political liberation.
My experience in the Vientiane café was a sobering antidote to a pervasive myth: that the Internet is a powerful force for democracy. For years, a significant subset of the democratization industry--that network of political scientists, think tanks, and policymakers--has placed its bets (and, in many cases, its money) on the Web's potential to spread liberal ideas in illiberal parts of the world. Whereas once American politicians and democratization groups focused on older technologies, such as radio, today their plans to spread democracy rest in considerable part on programs for boosting Internet access. In early March, Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress that a crucial part of the Bush administration's democratization initiative will be establishing "American corners" in libraries overseas, complete with Internet kiosks where locals can surf the Web. In the Middle East, American diplomats have touted their recent online interactions with locals, such as Web dialogue between the American consul in Jeddah and Saudis.
But world leaders, journalists, and political scientists who tout the Internet as a powerful force for political change are just as wrong as the dot-com enthusiasts who not so long ago believed the Web would completely transform business. While it's true that the Internet has proved itself able to disseminate pop culture in authoritarian nations--not only Laos, but China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere--to date, its political impact has been decidedly limited. It has yet to topple--or even seriously undermine--its first tyrannical regime. In fact, in some repressive countries the spread of the Internet actually may be helping dictatorships remain in power.
I'm not quite ready to give up on the Web just yet but I've always thought it's potential was overstated.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:07 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ IN DEFENSE OF THE SOUTHERN STRATEGY: It is an oft-repeated indictment - the Republican Party, indeed the modern American conservative movement, is a product of racism. More specifically, the GOP gained power nationally by appealing to Southern white racists and the "Southern Strategy" pioneered by Kevin Phillips and used with great success by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan took advantage of a racist backlash against the civil rights movement. Conservatism thus is simply opposition to civil rights and an effort to employ racist code words to win lower-income white votes.
Gerard Alexander reviews several books making this assumption in the indispensable Claremont Review of Books. The result is a comprehensive, long overdue refutaton of this myth based on real demographic information about the South.
The only two things I would have added: (1) The poorest, weakest white voters who tended to be most supportive of George Wallace-style candidates remain the most Democratic white voters in the South, at least in statewide elections, to this day and (2) The rise of GOP voting strength below the Mason-Dixon line dovetailed nicely with the political mobilization of politiclaly conservative evangelicals.
An important article. Read on.
Posted by antle @ 01:35 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Friday, March 26, 2004 DAY OFF: That's about all you're going to get out of me today. For the last couple of days I've been feeling unwell and today I'm taking a break from blogging and most other ESR related duties in favor of resting up for this weekend's ESR related duties.
I will, however, mull over a project that's been at the back of my mind the last couple of weeks. I'm going to be redesigning the front page of ESR to present our articles in a different manner. Currently you'll notice quite a few articles on the front page and you have to scroll a bit to get down to the bottom. I want to change that so you don't have to scroll very much at all. Obviously that hints at a multi-column design. At any rate, if you have any design suggestions or examples that you think I should consider, mail them to editor@enterstageright.com.
Posted by steve @ 03:46 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ IS HE LYING?: The GOP sure thinks that Richard Clarke is lying. They moved today to declassify his 2002 testimony to the House and Senate intelligence committees to prove that Clarke is telling a different story today.
Read on.
Meanwhile, back the ranch, Dan Drezner has a ton of links exploring different aspects of the Clarke-Condi Rice story.
Posted by steve @ 03:39 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ FINISHING THE WAR: Victor Davis Hanson has a great piece on the war against Islamists that you probably already read today but I offer just in case you haven't.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:31 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ WHY PEACE IS MORE COMPLICATED THEN WAR: Good article detailing the problems American authorities are having with Iraqi detainees. The Americans say that hundreds of men being detained indefinitely are legal but Iraqis are countering that it's little different from what Saddam Hussein did.
I doubt I'd go that far but I can understand the frustration of someone who just want to know what's going on with a family member.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:40 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Thursday, March 25, 2004 I FIND A NICE SPORT JACKET WORKS BETTER: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) Hussam Abdu, the 14-year old intercepted by Israeli soldiers on a suicide mission, said that he went on his mission so that he could have sex.
"I wanted to get to the Garden of Eden, to have sex there with 72 virgins," he said.
Hussam told Yediot Aharonot that when the terrorists strapped on the explosives belt, he was petrified. "I didn't tell anyone what I was going to do. When I reached the roadblock, I was scared less and less. But the soldiers stopped me and I didn't press the detonator. I changed my mind. I no longer wanted to die."
Hussam Abdu's volunteering to serve as a suicide bomber will change the perception that economic straits lead Palestinian youths to choose "martyrdom" operations as the only way out of their problems, Yediot Aharonot reported.
"We had no problems," Hussam said. "I had a computer, and I played computer games. I heard a lot of music on the Internet. I once wanted to work with electronics when I grew up. I wanted to open a television and radio repair shop in Nablus. Now they'll send me to jail for 25 years. I don't want to be in prison."
Hussam's family said that he was mentally retarded. "He doesn't know anything," his brother, Hosni, said. His mother said she was surprised. "Hussam left home this morning to school, and this was the first we hear of what happened," Tamam Abdu told Reuters. "This is shocking. To use a child like this is irresponsible, forbidden."
Judging by recent events Hosni, it isn't that forbidden.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:58 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ WILL WINNIE MANDELA BE HIS NEIGHBOUR?: Jean-Bertrand Aristide finally has a home! South Africa will become his permanent residence in about a month's time.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:45 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ COOL STORY OF THE DAY: Workers in Kabul today melted the last of Afghanistan's known stock of landmines and recast them into iron grills for wood burning stoves.
"The original idea was to make coins but when I came out here I saw that might require a bit too much finesse," said Maj. Steve Kelly, the Canadian project officer for the International Assistance Security Force.
"To be able to take landmines and do anything useful with them is a good symbol to show the Afghan people are tired of the implements of war."
Only Canadians could turn the weapons of war into barbecues!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:40 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ UMMM, THANKS: I know I keep editorializing about the worth of endorsements from losers but it's such an easy thing to do. Today, Howard Dean -- who set a new standard for blowing an all but certain thing -- endorsed John Kerry.
Dean said he would use his campaign organization -- now rechristened "Democracy for America" -- to boost Kerry's campaign.
"In the end, it is Generation Dean voting for John Kerry for president of the United States that is going to send George Bush back to Texas where he belongs," Dean said.
Ha ha, Generation Dean. That's funny. So does Dean think that America is suffering from a lack of democracy? Is dissent being crushed? Millions of Americans languishing in Iranian-style prisons? I guess so.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:20 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ HE FLIP FLOPS MORE THAN JOHN KERRY: (Via Instapundit) Richard Lowry says that Richard Clarke has completely lost all credibility in the past week thanks to being misleading.
For evidence of this, look no further than Clarke's August 2002 briefing for reporters while he was still at the National Security Council.
In that briefing, first reported by Fox News, Clarke portrayed Bush as an anti-terror stalwart.
Was he merely parroting talking points given to him by the Bush team? That's the explanation he offered at yesterday's hearing. But he can't get off the hook so easily.
At the very least, what he said in August 2002 must have been factual. Otherwise, Clarke has revealed himself to be an opportunist who will lie at the direction of his superiors.
Meanwhile, Jeff Jarvis -- who happens to be a survivor of the 9/11 attacks -- doesn't care much for the 'apology' that Clarke had yesterday for the families of the victims.
Posted by steve @ 03:01 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: Today at TechCentralStation I have a piece about Dr. Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution. You can find it here.
Posted by steve @ 12:58 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [2 comments]
~ AHNULD LIFTS ENTIRE GOP: Can Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity translate into a loss for Barbara Boxer and a state win for George W. Bush? That's the question that a lot of Republicans are asking these days.
By nearly all accounts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pumping up public enthusiasm in the Golden State. Voter approval is high as Republicans gush and one-time doubters concede that the Hollywood muscleman's gleaming teeth brightened the fiscal gloom, too.
Now, an important litmus test of California's new Republican possibilities is under way: the Senate race between former Secretary of State Bill Jones and Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.Praised by Republicans but largely unknown to Independents and Democrats, Jones is a leading Republican here and the overwhelming victor in the GOP's March primary. In a state that's cast off many moderates in primaries, Jones - conservative but not far right - was a vocal supporter and campaigner in Schwarzenegger's race. The Republicans that California Democrats find among the most palatable - Schwarzenegger and Sen. John McCain of Arizona - endorse Jones, too.
Jones may not be as conservative as some people like but I bet they'd prefer him over Boxer any day.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:14 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY NORMAN!: Today is Norman Borlaug's 90th birthday. If his name isn't familiar to you, that's a shame. Borlaug is the father of the 'Green Revolution'. In the words of the Sustainable Development Network:
In 1970, Borlaug's dedication to agricultural productivity won him the Nobel Peace Prize. During the 1940s, Dr. Borlaug bred new wheat varieties in Mexico, which more than doubled the country's yields. Later, he worked in India, Pakistan, China, the Middle East, South America and Africa and had similar successes. The crop varieties and the improved farming practices he helped develop have sparked what is known today as the "Green Revolution." These improvements are often credited with saving more than one billion lives.
Amazingly, Borlaug is still at work and maintains an office in Mexico as a consultant to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), an organization he created. The debt the world has to this man is beyond calculation.
Visit the Norman Borlaug Foundation.
Posted by steve @ 02:01 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 DREZNER ON CLARKE: I don't agree with all of his points but Daniel Drezner has some interesting thoughts on this whole Richard Clarke story. Read Daniel's blog entry and the resulting comments for a good look at all sides.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:04 PM EST [Link]
~ JE CONVIENS: The incomparable Paul Jané tears apart Quebec's language laws and the silly people who support them.
Fine, name ten normal, civilised, democractic countries (I know that that narrows things down mainly to Europe and North America, but those are the breaks) with laws that prevent people from putting up signs in whatever language they please. Furthermore, if you can come up with ten countries that have such laws on the books, I'll be fascinated to hear just how many of them can jail "offenders" or punish them with extremely steep fines.
I know for a fact - because I've seen it with my own two eyes - that I can go off tomorrow and open a shop in pretty much any large West European city with signs in English, French, Spanish, Swahili, or Urdu and not suffer any legal repercussions, yet I can't do that in La Belle Province. Hell, I can go to Toronto tomorrow, open up a store, and have all my signs in French. Sure, some of my customers may not have the slightest clue of what's written on them, but I won't suffer any unfortunate legal consequences because of it.
Montreal...greatest city in Canada. Quebec...silliest language laws anywhere.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:58 PM EST [Link]
~ DEFENDING YOURSELF: Outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar discusses in the Wall Street Journal today the March 11 terrorist attacks and defends his government's initial belief that ETA had carried them out.
ETA has committed more than 800 murders, among other crimes, over three decades, and has sought always to weaken and divide our democracy, which has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. A few days earlier, the group had tried to carry out an attack with 500 kilograms of explosives, one that failed only due to the intervention of the Guardia Civil, the national police. Those detained in this failed attack had a map that highlighted the zone of the Henares Pathway, through which run the trains that were targeted on March 11. And it was ETA that, on Christmas Eve, attempted another slaughter at Madrid's Chamartin station, also thwarted by our National Police. And to continue the ghoulish catalog, the same terrorist group brought two vans loaded with more than 1 1/2 tons of explosives to Madrid in December 1999. Once again, our security forces foiled what would have been mass murder.
My government was not alone in attributing the March 11 attacks to ETA. In the first few hours, the president of the Basque Autonomous Region, the secretary general of the Socialist Party, the general coordinator of the United Left and the secretary general of Catalonia's Esquerra Republicana, among others, did likewise.
To his credit, Aznar doesn't whine about the election that resulted in a Socialist victory.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:14 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT?: British PM Tony Blair says that he will offer British military training for Libyan troops when he meets Muammar Ghadaffi. I realize the old boy has renounced his WMDs, settled the Lockerbie mess and is playing nice with the West but isn't training Libyan troops a little much?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:01 PM EST [Link]
~ I DON'T KNOW IF I'D BE THAT OPTIMISTIC: Interesting article in today's Christian Science Monitor arguing that it's unlikely that Islamic extremism will take hold in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"If I were a terrorist group member I would think twice about coming to this country," says Senad Slatina, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, a conflict- resolution organization based in Brussels, noting the presence of 10,000 NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia. "On top of that, Bosnian Muslims are so European that the radical form of Islam has absolutely no chance of spreading here."
I have a personal stake in this because I have a lot of family in Bosnia -- my mother is from there and I lost a lot of people during the war -- but I'm not ready to declare that radical Islam won't spread there. As a recent report stated, Bosnian terror networks linked to al-Qaida and other groups continue their work.
That said, I am happy that Bosnia is well on its way to making a recovery. I visited there a couple of years before the civil wars. During the early 1990s I had the grim experience of watching on the news a hotel I had visited -- the Hotel Europa -- a few years before being blown to hell during the fighting. To this day I wonder what happened to the kind English speaking waiter that worked there the day I and my sister stopped in for ice cream on a hot day.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:58 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, March 23, 2004 IT'S ACTUALLY NOT THE WORST BUDGET ANNOUNCED: Canada's Liberal government handed down the final budget before an expected election call sometime this year and shockingly they didn't spend like a poet on payday. Okay, let me qualify that...they didn't go insane announcing a raft of new spending.
Total government spending will be held to $183.3 billion, an increase of 4.4 per cent. The surplus for the fiscal year that ends March 31 will be $1.9 billion, another chip against the $510 billion federal debt.
It marks the seventh consecutive balanced budget, the first such run since Confederation.
Surpluses of at least $4 billion are projected for the next two years, as well, as the Finance department restores the $3 billion rainy day fund and $1 billion prudence cushion abandoned last year in former prime minister Jean Chretien's big spending legacy budget.
Compared to last year's spend happy budget, which was an orgy the likes of which hadn't been seen since Plato's Retreat, this budget is fairly tame. Of course, when it comes to the Liberals, spending hikes are all relative. No matter how big, there is always a hike and a 4.4 per cent increase is nothing to sneeze at. As our friends over at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation argue:
The budget does not contain any tax relief for Canadians, despite continued multi-billion dollar surpluses and an 8.9 per cent spending increase over the next two years. Under Prime Minister Paul Martin, the Liberal government's program spending (this figure excludes public debt charges) will total $143.4-billion in 2003/04, it will increase to $147.9-billion in 2004/05, and jump to $156.1-billion in 2005-06. In addition, estimated gross surplus figures will be $5.5-billion this year, $4.2-billion in the coming fiscal year, and $6.6-billion in 2005/06.
Spending, they say, will have rised 31.5 per cent since 2000.
That said, this budget is pretty meh in the sense that it isn't a surprise. Canada's government continues to meddle in every aspect of out lives and we continue to pay for it with high taxes and it's easy to run a surplus when you rig the system to take in far more than you actually need. A lot of journalists are calling this budget "fiscally conservative", a distortion so hideous that Milton Freedman would be spinning in his grave if he were dead.
For the first time in my life, I actually agreed with something that Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said. For years he was my bete noir on the issue of the Canada Wheat Board but today he lashed out at NDP Leader Jack Layton.
The real meat of the budget was in its managerial accountability and fiscal conservatism.
An aggressive 10-year commitment to reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 25 per cent from its current 42 per cent was lauded by economists but panned by social activists.
"Canadians wanted positive action and they're not getting it here," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.
"It's like paying down the mortgage when you've got a leaky roof, a sick grandmother and your child is trying to go to university. I don't know a single family who would do what Paul Martin's doing with our economy."
Layton's suggestion that it would cost Ottawa $200 billion to reach its 25 per cent debt to GDP target outraged Goodale at his post-budget news conference. He accused the New Democrat of "stunning ignorance."
"It's nuts, it's absolutely, flipping nuts," shouted Goodale, waving his arms for emphasis.
"On that point, he's 100 per cent dead wrong. . sorry, but it works me up."
Actually Mr. Layton, I've known a few people who decided not to pay the mortgage in favor of a leaky roof, a sick grandmother and a child that is trying to go to university. They're all homeless.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:40 PM EST [Link]
~ ALL HE COULD DO?: I'd lie and say that I skipped the 9/11 hearings in favor of watching the delivering of the Canadian federal budget but I didn't watch either of them. At any rate, reading the coverage of the hearings I was struck by comments made by Madeleine Albright.
Earlier, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told the commission President Bill Clinton had done all he could to defeat al-Qaeda and Bin Laden.
Mrs Albright said Mr Clinton had authorised action to "neutralise" Bin Laden after the 1998 US embassy attacks in Africa - her worst day in office.
So...ummmm...did I miss something in 1998, 1999 or 2000?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:17 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S REALLY GOING TO HIT THE FAN SOON: Israeli Internal Security Minister Tsahi Hanegbi announced today that all militant Palestinian leaders were on its hit list.
Israel's army chief hinted that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah could also end up on the hit list, though security sources said there was no immediate plan to kill either.
"I think that judging by their hysterical responses (to Yassin's assassination) it appears they realize it is getting closer to them," General Moshe Yaalon told reporters.
Aides quoted Arafat as telling them after hearing that Yassin was dead: "I could be next."
Well, one could only hope.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:16 PM EST [Link]
~ WELL WELL: Ex terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who has been clucking quite a bit these past few days about the Bush administration's failure to stop al-Qaida apparently doesn't have clean hands.
Clinton administration diplomatic troubleshooter Mansoor Ijaz charged Monday that one-time White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke blocked efforts to gather intelligence on al Qaeda and torpedoed a deal to have Osama bin Laden extradited from Afghanistan in the years before the 9/11 attacks.
"I was personally asked to brief Condoleezza Rice's deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on exactly what had gone wrong in the previous efforts to get bin Laden out of the Sudan, to get the terrorism data out of the Sudan, which I negotiated the offer for," Ijaz told Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends."
I've been reading quite a bit about Mr. Clarke the past few days and it seems that his concern for traditional terrorist attacks took a back seat to his pet concern, the cyberterrorism attack.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:13 PM EST [Link]
~ I WAS JUST THINKING THIS LAST NIGHT: But Jay Reding actually wrote it down. He argues that George W. Bush couldn't have lied about Iraq's WMDs and that it's unlikely they were voluntarily destroyed by Saddam Hussein before the war.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:08 PM EST [Link]
~ TODAY'S WORD OF THE DAY: INSOLVENCY: According to analysts, Medicare is expected to go broke by 2019 thanks to the new prescription drug benefit while Social Security will be insolvent in 2042 (though it will start paying out more in benefits than it takes in by 2018). Not surprisingly, Democrats are considering all this talk to be Republicans trying to scare Americans.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:02 PM EST [Link]
Monday, March 22, 2004 WELL, IT IS THE HOME OF ALL THOSE FRAUDS: Nigeria has been offered temporary exile in Nigeria.
The statement issued by the Nigerian presidential office is brief and to the point.
The Caribbean economic community, it says, under the leadership of Mr Paterson, requested Nigeria to consider giving Mr Aristide a staging post until his movement to another destination.
Nigeria, the statement adds, undertook widespread consultations with African leaders, the African Union and the US government before agreeing to grant Caricom's request.
There is no indication when Mr Aristide will arrive in the country, how long he will stay or where he will be going next.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:08 PM EST [Link]
~ AND THE FREEDOM TO WRECK IT: James Lileks has the post to beat all other posts when it comes to discussing the anti-war protests that occurred this past weekend.
The other day a variety of people gathered in various cities to say, in essence, put it back. The Movement to Reinstall Saddam commemorated the first anniversary of the Iraq campaign by expressing their outrage at the loss of an ally in the war against America. These people are the fringe of the left; yes. They are the Klan with out the sheets. Worse: they don’t have the inbred moonshine-addled mah-pappy-hated-nigras-an-I-hate-‘em-too dense-as-a-neutron-star stupidity of your average Kluxer. They didn’t come to this level of stupidity naturally. They had to work at it. I’m sure you’ll find in these pictures people who have cool jobs in San Francisco, people who get grants, write code, run the coffee-frother at a funky bookstore, and have no problem marching alongside someone who spells Israel with swastika instead of an S.
It's the best thing you'll read all day.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:32 PM EST [Link]
~ I LIKE RICE: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice today defended herself from the charges contained in Richard Clarke's new book, heavily promoted during an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes -- a network that hasn't told anyone that they have a financial stake in the book.
"He has a different view of how to fight the war on terrorism," Rice told CNN's "American Morning."
"It is a narrow view that it has to do with killing bin Laden and dealing with Afghanistan. The president has a broader view which is that you have to take the fight to the terrorists."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:53 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I almost forgot. The Orange County Register ran a piece of mine on Sunday on the vindication of Bjorn Lomborg. You can read it here. (Free registration required)
If you had bought the newspaper you could have seen a truly horrible picture of yours truly...
Posted by steve @ 12:56 AM EST [Link]
~ OUTSOURCING ISN'T EVIL: Daniel Drezner argues in the May/June 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs that contrary to popular opinion -- and I suppose Democratic Party advertising -- outsourcing jobs to other countries is a long-term good for an economy.
Critics charge that the information revolution (especially the Internet) has accelerated the decimation of U.S. manufacturing and facilitated the outsourcing of service-sector jobs once considered safe, from backroom call centers to high-level software programming. (This concern feeds into the suspicion that U.S. corporations are exploiting globalization to fatten profits at the expense of workers.) They are right that offshore outsourcing deserves attention and that some measures to assist affected workers are called for. But if their exaggerated alarmism succeeds in provoking protectionist responses from lawmakers, it will do far more harm than good, to the U.S. economy and to American workers.
Should Americans be concerned about the economic effects of outsourcing? Not particularly. Most of the numbers thrown around are vague, overhyped estimates. What hard data exist suggest that gross job losses due to offshore outsourcing have been minimal when compared to the size of the entire U.S. economy. The outsourcing phenomenon has shown that globalization can affect white-collar professions, heretofore immune to foreign competition, in the same way that it has affected manufacturing jobs for years. But Mankiw's statements on outsourcing are absolutely correct; the law of comparative advantage does not stop working just because 401(k) plans are involved. The creation of new jobs overseas will eventually lead to more jobs and higher incomes in the United States. Because the economy -- and especially job growth -- is sluggish at the moment, commentators are attempting to draw a connection between offshore outsourcing and high unemployment. But believing that offshore outsourcing causes unemployment is the economic equivalent of believing that the sun revolves around the earth: intuitively compelling but clearly wrong.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:25 AM EST [Link]
~ GOOD NEWS IN EL SALVADOR: Conservative candidate Tony Saca appears to have won election in El Salvador against Communist candidate Schafik Handal.
Mr Saca's party has won the last three elections on a free market pro-US agenda.
But Mr Handal, a former guerrilla commander, has pledged to normalise foreign relations with Cuba, pull out Salvadorean troops from Iraq and renegotiate the Central American Free Trade Agreement if elected president.
Hey, why not also promise to unite the workers of the world? Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:22 AM EST [Link]
~ SPEAKING OF DEAD: The Australian reports that U.S. Special Forces may have killed Ayman Al-Zawahiri during the fighting near Wana, Pakistan.
According to the unnamed US official, Zawahiri was shot by US special forces while trying to flee. The official said the body was undergoing DNA tests, but an announcement was being delayed in deference to the Pakistanis.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:15 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, March 21, 2004 AND YET I'M NOT SAD: Hamas announced that their founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was killed this morning (Monday) by an Israeli airstrike.
Posted by steve @ 11:48 PM EST [Link]
~ EVEN THE FLORIDA RECOUNT WASN'T THIS BAD: Taiwan has been hit by protests over the narrow margin of victory that incumbent Chen Shui-bian enjoyed in Saturday's election. Some are even accusing Chen of faking the assassination attempt in a bid to ensure his victory.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:40 PM EST [Link]
~ "YOU HAVE TO SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD!": You know you are going to get a good zombie movie when Johnny Cash's 'The Man Comes Around' is the song playing over the credits. I went to see the remake of Dawn of the Dead tonight and while I have to say that it wasn't as good as the original, it was almost as good in its own way. And you know me, there's almost nothing I love more than a good zombie movie.
The 1978 version was very much a product of its time. George A. Romero intended his Dawn of the Dead to be part-zombie movie, part-social commentary. This new version, directed by Zack Snyder, pretty well dispenses with the social commentary and goes in for pure action. The difference this time is that the zombies don't shamble mindlessly, they move quick and seem to use some mental faculties when it comes to hunting their prey: us. As with the original, the survivors make it to a mall and take refuge there while deciding what their next move will be.
A lot of people are comparing this to 28 Days Later (which I reviewed last year) -- probably because both movies feature quick moving predators -- but I have to say that this movie is a little scarier. It isn't as gory as the original but it does make up for it with some great action sequences and some outright funny moments. One fault I found with it is that they had far too many characters. The original -- with only four people in the mall -- allowed you to care for each person but with the 2004 version you don't really invest in any of the characters because there are so many of them. If there is one exception it's Andy, a gun store owner trapped on top of his building, who Ving Rhames' character becomes close to despite never being able to meet him.
What I particularly enjoyed was the first few minutes. Sarah Polley's character Anna goes to bed in our world and wakes up in nothing short of hell. James Gunn did a good job writing a sequence which shows you just how fast the world can change on you.
You can tell that the new version was filmed in Canada. Outside of some of the major players, most of the cast are either Canadians or have worked extensively in Canada's film and television industry.
Oh, and don't leave before the credits start rolling! The story continues to play out in flashes during the credits. Also, watch for some cameos from people who appeared in the first Dawn of the Dead, people who have appeared in other zombie movies and other little tributes to the genre.
Kenneth: Is everyone there dead?
Steve: Dead-ish.
C.J.: What the #@$! does that mean?
Steve: Well, dead in the sense that they fell down. Then they got back up. Then they started eating each other.
Posted by steve @ 08:34 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, March 20, 2004 CANADA TO CONTINUE VOTING LIBERAL: Canadian conservatives have an official voice: Former Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper has won the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada with 56 per cent of the vote on the first ballot. Belinda Stronach earned 35 per cent while Tony Clement won 9 per cent.
For the record, I voted for Stronach on the first ballot and penned in Harper for the second ballot.
So what does all this mean? Not a damned thing I'm afraid. Regardless of who had won the leadership, the federal Liberals will win the next election. What Canadian conservatives need is a new dynamic voice that could inspire Canadians to vote conservative. I like Harper, heck I supported his candidacy for the Canadian Alliance leadership, but it remains to be seen whether he can rally Canadian conservatives -- and those open to voting conservative -- to the new party's banner.
The pessimist in me, and it's based on long experience in Canadian politics, says that the new party will do better than either the Alliance or the Progressive Conservatives could have alone but not well enough to knock the Liberals out of power.
What worries me is a minority Liberal government. Can you imagine a Liberal-NDP government?
Is it wrong to still dream of a Preston Manning comeback?
Posted by steve @ 05:56 PM EST [Link]
~ TAIWAN REFERENDUMS FAIL: President Chen Shui-bian was reelcted today but two referendums went down to defeat in Taiwan's election.
Taiwan's first ever referendum has failed, with only 45 percent turnout for both questions. The first question, which asks voters whether Taiwan should beef up its missile defense in the face of Chinese ballistic missile deployments, received 7.45 million votes, or 45.17 percent of all eligible voters. The second question, which asks whether Taiwan should start negotiations with China, received 7.44 million votes, or 45.12 percent of all eligible voters.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:19 PM EST [Link]
~ WHERE ARE THOSE DRUGS AGAINST WAR?: David Janes calls bull on the CBC for predicting that "millions" around the world will be marching against last year's war in Iraq and then does some quick math to prove it.
Posted by steve @ 03:13 PM EST [Link]
~ I DON'T THINK ANN NEEDS ANY HELP: But that isn't stopping Gary Larson from doing the honourable task. Coulter has been taking a lot of fire for critizing ex-Senator Max Cleland's record with many arguing she was questioning his patriotism. Larson says she did no such thing.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:36 AM EST [Link]
~ AN ANTITODE TO THE MEN: Samizdata's David Carr reports that Trafalgar Square is about to undergo a transformation.
Trafalgar Square is located at the geographical centre of London and, next to 'Big Ben' and the Houses of Parliament, it is probably this country's most famous landmark.
Named after the 1805 battle, the Square is dominated by a 200 foot column on top of which is perched a bust of the Horatio Nelson, the Admiral who let the Royal Navy to victory over the French and thereby saved Britain from Napoleonic invasion. The column that bears his name and image was built from donations offered up in tribute by a grateful nation.
In the four corners of the Square there are four plinths. Three of them are occupied by statues of King George IV, General Charles Napier and Major General Sir Henry Havelock. The fourth plinth is empty and has been since around the middle of the 19th Century.
A few years ago I became vaguely aware that there was something of a campaign to find an appropriate monument to place on the fourth plinth. I say 'vaguely' because I paid little attention to this campaign, partly because I have better things to do with my time and partly because I learned that the process was to be decided by means of a competition under the auspices of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. I anticipated that I would most likely disapprove of the outcome.
My instincts proved trustworthy yet again for, this last week, the winner was unveiled.
England, what's wrong with you?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:05 AM EST [Link]
~ WORDS FAIL ME: Little Green Footballs has a picture which essentially tells you everything you need to know about anti-war protesters.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:19 AM EST [Link]
Friday, March 19, 2004 I MUST BE AN ACROBAT/TO TALK LIKE THIS/AND ACT LIKE THAT: Ah, the irony of using U2 lyrics to slam John Kerry considering Bono must support his bid for president.
Jake Tapper over at ABC.com went into the vaults at the network and dug up a 2003 tape that shows Kerry backing the $87 billion package for Iraq that he later voted against.
On the Sept. 14, 2003, edition of CBS's Face the Nation, Kerry spoke at length about an amendment he and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., were offering which would have paid for the $87 billion by delaying some of the recent tax cuts.
Asked if he would vote against the $87 billion if his amendment did not pass, Kerry said, "I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running. That's irresponsible."
Ah, another flip flop.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:35 PM EST [Link]
~ POLICING TERRORISM: So much for that vaunted EU cohesiveness and strength. EU ministers today agreed to appoint a single person to act as a terrorism 'tsar' but nations aren't expected to share all their intelligence and nor will there be a continent wide intelligence agency.
The anti-terrorism "tsar" will work under the EU's security chief, Javier Solana, pulling together all the measures being taken in the security field by ministers of transport, justice, foreign affairs and finance.
Notice which ministry wasn't included?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:20 PM EST [Link]
~ NO NEUTRAL GROUND: U.S. President George W. Bush gave a good speech this morning arguing that the entire world is at war with terrorism.
There is no dividing line--there is a dividing line in our world, not between nations, and not between religions or cultures, but a dividing line separating two visions of justice and the value of life. On a tape claiming responsibility for the atrocities in Madrid, a man is heard to say, "We choose death, while you choose life." We don't know if this is the voice of the actual killers, but we do know it expresses the creed of the enemy. It is a mindset that rejoices in suicide, incites murder and celebrates every death we mourn. And we who stand on the other side of the line must be equally clear and certain of our convictions. We do love live, the life given to us and to all. We believe in the values that uphold the dignity of life, tolerance and freedom, and the right of conscience. And we know that this way of life is worth defending. There is no neutral ground--no neutral ground--in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:56 PM EST [Link]
~ HITTING CUBA WITH BOOKS: Tacitus argues that the U.S. should amend travel restrictions to Cuba to allow the widespread importation of books. Why? Cubans want to read what the government won't let them.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:19 PM EST [Link]
~ SHUT UP MR. DE VILLEPIN: Dominique de Villepin may think that Iraq is a wasteland of terrorism but the reality is far from it. Paul Wolfowitz has a piece in today's New York Post that argues Iraq is making up remarkable ground.
LAST March, Iraqis were suffering under the thumb of one of the most brutal dictatorships of the last hundred years - a regime that industrialized brutality, tortured children to coerce their parents and raped women to punish their relatives. A U.S. Army commander in Iraq told me last July about the excavation of one mass grave where they discovered remains of 80 women and children - with little dresses and toys.
Today, Iraq's era of systematic savagery is over. Thanks to the dedication and courage of American and Coalition military and civilians, the support of the U.S. Congress and the American people, life in Iraq is improving steadily:
* Electricity reached pre-war levels last October, and is on track to reach 150 percent of pre-war levels, despite an infrastructure devastated by Saddam.
* Oil production has reached 2.5 million barrels per day, well ahead of projections.
* Funding for public health care is up 26 times the level under Saddam.
* All 22 universities, 43 technical institutes and colleges opened on time last fall.
* Some 72 million new textbooks will go to primary and secondary schools by the end of this school year, so children will no longer learn arithmetic from books that say "2 Saddams plus 2 Saddams equals 4 Saddams."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:15 PM EST [Link]
~ GLOBAL KIND OF WARMING: I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that this didn't receive major play in the media. A new study by NASA says that "some climate models might be overestimating the amount of water vapor entering the atmosphere as the Earth warms. Since water vapor is the most important heat-trapping greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, some climate forecasts may be overestimating future temperature increases."
Read on. Also check out Hit & Run's blog about this story.
Posted by steve @ 03:11 PM EST [Link]
~ BY WHAT STANDARD IS IT STRONG?: During appearances on TV yesterday, Arizona Senator and nominal Republican John McCain defended John Kerry's record on military issues.
Asked on two morning television shows yesterday whether he thought Kerry was weak on defense, the Arizona senator was quick to bat down the suggestion. Furthermore, he chided both parties for waging such a "bitter and partisan" campaign.
"This kind of rhetoric, I think, is not helpful in educating and helping the American people make a choice," he said on "The Early Show" on CBS.
McCain said Kerry would have to explain his voting record, but also told NBC's "Today" show: "No, I do not believe that he is necessarily weak on defense. I don't agree with him on some issues clearly. But I decry this negativism that's going on on both sides."
I guess he's angling for the Democrats' VP slot after all...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:08 PM EST [Link]
~ LIFE IN NORTH KOREA: The Gweilo Diaries has a round up of recent articles that explore life in North Korea. It's all rape, deprivation and murder.
Next to the nuclear-weapons program, there is probably nothing more secret in North Korea than the "joy brigades," sometimes known as the "pleasure team." These are exceptionally pretty young women from the countryside who are brought to Pyongyang in their mid-teens. They are taught to sing and dance for the Dear Leader's private parties. Their principal purpose, of course, is to become sex objects for the Great Leader and his closest aides. When he is in a rare magnanimous mood, he is known to pass them out to his subordinates as party favors.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:05 PM EST [Link]
~ NOW WE KNOW HOW YOU THINK: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin today stated that the world is less safe because of the American-led war in Iraq, something that Iraqis might disagree with. More interestingly, he stated that "Terrorism didn't exist in Iraq before" the war.
So Saddam Hussein's mass murder of Iraqis doesn't count as terrorism?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:58 PM EST [Link]
~ GOT BLOG READER?: I can't believe I didn't see this until now. Earlier this month David Janes of Ranting and Roaring fame released BlogMatrix Jäger, a fantastic tool for reading weblogs and news web sites.
Find out more here.
Posted by steve @ 04:45 AM EST [Link]
~ MORE THAN JUST AN ELECTION: The people of Taiwan aren't just electing a president on Saturday, they are also voting on a two question referendum that may have a profound effect on China-Taiwan relations.
Heightening the stakes, and greatly angering China, is a controversial two-question referendum put to Taiwan's voters. The questions ask if China should "withdraw the missiles it has targeted at Taiwan," and whether Taiwan should "engage in negotiations with ... China ... for the welfare of the peoples." President Chen engineered the first-ever referendum last year over initial objections from Washington. Beijing views the referendum as an underhanded way of achieving independent status.
Read on.
[Update - 3:41pm] Nice timing on my post. It turns out that Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu were shot just after midnight EST while campaigning.
Posted by steve @ 03:36 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, March 18, 2004 BUT I THOUGHT YOU LIKED FOREIGN ENDORSEMENTS?: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad today endorsed Sen. John Kerry, telling the AP that he believes the world would be safer under Kerry.
The Kerry camp quickly rejected the endorsement by the anti-Semite.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:06 PM EST [Link]
~ AT LEAST THEY'RE STICKING BY AMERICA: Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski announced today that he doesn't believe there were WMDs in Iraq but Polish soldiers aren't going to be leaving before next year.
The remarks on Thursday by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a key U.S. ally in Europe, were the first by a Polish leader to raise doubts about the reasons for going to war.
But he defended the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam, saying it "made sense."
Poland has contributed troops to the U.S.-led coalition and has offered to expand its responsibilities if Spain carries out a threat to withdraw its troops.
The man has a right to his doubts but it's gratifying to see that the Poles -- long one of my favourite peoples -- are sticking around until the job is done.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:54 PM EST [Link]
~ PERHAPS SOMEONE ELSE NEEDS TO QUESTION HIM: Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said today that Saddam Hussein is "enjoying" his interrogation at the hands of U.S. officials.
"He's turned out a pretty wily guy who seems to be enjoying the give and take with his interlocutors," Armitage said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Cooperation. "He sure thinks he's smarter than everyone else, that's for sure."
In a separate interview earlier this week, Armitage said Saddam is "not giving much information that I've seen, but he seems to be enjoying the debate."
Then move him to other interrogators. It's no secret but there are certain countries in Asia and one in the Middle East that are friendly to the U.S. and are already questioning some members of al-Qaida captured in Afghanistan. The laws in these countries are somewhat looser when it comes to methods of interrogation -- with all that implies. In fact, some Taliban in Guantanamo Bay have been threated with a trip to Jordan for questioning. Perhaps Hussein needs to be sent to the tender mercies of the Jordanians as well.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:48 PM EST [Link]
~ KILL BILL: An effort is underway in Canadato kill a piece of legislation that critics say is an attack on free speech.
Opponents of Bill C-250, which would include sexual orientation in Canada's existing hate propaganda law, fear it will muzzle free speech and even outlaw the Bible.
Calling it a "prosecutorial tool," Liberal Senator Anne Cools slammed the bill because it will lead to "criminal witchhunts." She said it's flawed and based on the false premise people are committing hate crimes against gays with impunity.
"This bill in a ... way is attempting to censor -- to cleanse Canadians of their moral opinions about many homosexual practices," she said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:43 PM EST [Link]
~ HELLO MR. AL-ZAWAHRI: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told CNN today that his forces have surrounded a "high value" target believed to be Ayman al-Zawahri.
Musharraf said the ferociousness of the surrounded fighters indicates that they are protecting someone particularly significant.
The military asked locals to leave and is flying helicopters overhead, "pounding" the area with artillery, he said.
I wonder if he'll allow himself to be taken alive.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:00 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT IRAQ IS TEACHING THE PENTAGON: The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting piece about what the U.S. experience in Iraq has taught Pentagon planners. Donald Rumsfeld was right, you don't need a huge force to achieve victory but the real challenge doesn't begin until after victory...something that America's enemies may learn for future wars.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
~ MOVEON.ORG OPPOSES MOVING ON: Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't MoveOn.org start as an anti-impeachment group? You know, the sort of group that opposed proposals to either remove Bill Clinton from office or censure him?
Now this same group has decided (along with organizations bearing such goofy front-group names as Businessmen for Sensible Priorities) to call for the censure of President Bush.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 12:21 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, March 17, 2004 SURE YOU DID: Spy Susan Lindauer said today she wasn't spying on behalf of Iraq but merely trying to convince Saddam Hussein's regime to allow weapons inspectors.
The indictment alleges that Lindauer met with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Libyan to discuss helping resistance groups in Iraq. It also claims she met several times with members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, which has been linked to an assassination attempt on former President George Bush.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:12 PM EST [Link]
~ TRUCE: A letter allegedly from al-Qaida says it will call a truce on further Spanish terrorist attacks to see if the new Socialist government was serious about withdrawing its soldiers from Iraq.
"Because of this decision, the leadership has decided to stop all operations within the Spanish territories... until we know the intentions of the new government that has promised to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq," the statement said.
"And we repeat this to all the brigades present in European lands: Stop all operations."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:14 PM EST [Link]
~ IF THEY AREN'T BAD, WHO IS?: Andrew Sullivan had a great piece on The New Republic's web site yesterday demolishing a Guardian editorial that all but blames the victims of the Madrid terrorist attacks.
The Guardian long passed into irrelevancy.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:23 PM EST [Link]
~ THE REAL EXTENT OF EUROPE'S PROBLEM: Gregory R. Copley argues that the Madrid bombings are the work of an al-Qaida related group and that the attacks show the extent and capabilities of European based terrorist cells.
There is now evidence to indicate a pattern of terrorist attacks during 2004 designed to help remove the governments of Spain, the US and Australia. In this context, in the US and Spanish operations, the Bosnian Islamist terror support network plays a key rôle, and GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs has continued to gain information which highlights this fact. [GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs readers are familiar with the extensive volume of intelligence material on this matter produced over the past decade; much of that is available in the Special Reports and Archival sections of the Global Information System.]
Operations of the magnitude of the March 11, 2004, “Operation Death Trains” (as it was described in the al-Masri communiqué which followed the bombings) require massive support infrastructures. The earlier and most recent al-Masri actions demonstrated a seamless and comprehensive capability which spans Western Europe, and involves networks which have embedded themselves into Western society over the past 15 or more years. In the case of the Iranian aspects of the support network — which not only has supported nominally Shi’i terrorists, but also nominally Sunni (Wahabbi) terrorists — the process of embedding support structures in Western Europe and North America has been underway since 1979, when extremist clerics seized power when the Shah left Iran.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:37 AM EST [Link]
~ THE U.N.'S MULTIBILLION DOLLAR SHAME: Bill Safire reports that the cover-up in Kofi Annan's office of massive fraud concerning the Iraqi oil for food program is about to break into the open.
The scandal has been brewing for years. The first I learned of it was in a New York Times Op-Ed article last April by the journalist Claudia Rosett charging that the U.N.'s secretive oversight of more than $100 billion in Iraqi oil exports and supposed humanitarian imports was "an invitation to kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling done under cover of relief operations."
After checking with Kurdish sources in Iraq, I reported that half the money allocated to their people had been blocked by Saddam "conspiring with bureaucrats in the U.N. Plaza."
Kofi Annan's right-hand man, Benon Sevan, had been named by the secretary general to head the oil-for-food program and report directly to him. Though he could not deny a favored French banking connection, Sevan branded as "inaccuracies" charges by Ms. Rosett and me of secrecy, citing a hundred audits in five years. But he refused to make public what companies in what countries got Saddam's largess.
Now, thanks to evidence of systematic thievery on a huge scale, discovered by free Iraqis in Baghdad, the whole rotten mess of 10 percent kickbacks on billions in contracts is coming to light. In detailed accounts, Susan Sachs in The Times, Therese Raphael in The Wall Street Journal, and Charles Laurence and Inigo Gilmore of London's Daily Telegraph have flipped over the flat rock of corruption.
The 'funny' thing about all of this is that no one is really surprised. It's like we expect corruption in U.N. programs.
Read on. (NYT, Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:28 AM EST [Link]
~ NOT THAT POPULAR: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) The Hill reports that some House Democrats who are vulnerable this November will not endorse Sen. John Kerry.
The holdouts are a minority of the 17 “frontliners” selected by the party leadership for member-to-member cash infusions, but their attitude reflects varying levels of comfort with how the New England senator will play in their districts.
A majority of frontliners, including those who are from conservative districts carried by President Bush in 2000, and have slim majorities, plan to campaign with and for Kerry.
But, regardless of their formal position on Kerry, most vow to run “independent campaigns.”
Several lawmakers, including Reps. Rodney Alexander (D-La.), Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) have told The Hill they do not currently plan to endorse Kerry.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:08 AM EST [Link]
~ SHARE THE WEALTH: U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan aren't just fighting a battle with the Taliban, they're also trying to help the people of that country.
If you have some extra money this month, they would appreciate it if you could donate to their fund to help buy people in remote Afghan villages some shoes, clothes and tools. Says Sgt. Jay Smith:
"We're going back over to Afghanistan and am currently working on a project for early spring time we are going to be doing a major humanitarian aid push into some very remote areas. I'm not able to give a lot of details. I wish I could give you more info but all I can tell you is that this will be done in very remote parts of Afghanistan and no pictures are able to be released until after the operation. These are areas were there has been little or no contact with U.S. to date. The people in these areas are extremely poor and mostly agricultural farmers. The majority of the people to include the children have no shoes at all."
Every penny donated goes to helping these people out. Donate here. Do you really need that Big Mac today?
Posted by steve @ 01:14 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!: Reuters has long been pilloried for its blatantly biased reporting but an article running on CNN's web site today goes beyond even the usual garbage we've seen. Reporting on an ancient festival in Iran called Chaharshanbeh Suri, Reuters states:
Iranians danced in the street, threw firecrackers and jumped over bonfires Tuesday night as authorities openly tolerated an ancient fire festival for the first time in 25 years.
Halted each year since the 1979 Islamic revolution because hardliners considered it un-Islamic, the Chaharshanbeh Suri, or Red Wednesday, festival was officially recognized in Tehran where the city council set aside dozens of parks for people to enjoy the boisterous celebrations.
If you go on to read the whole article, outside of some cranky mullahs who were "appalled" by the decision to let the festival go ahead, you hear nothing of the other fireworks going on in Iran. You know, the ones with the violent street clashes across the country, the battles between Iranian freedom seekers and the state security apparatus...the kind of stuff that's been going on for weeks on an almost daily basis.
When you want reality, don't bother looking to the media.
Posted by steve @ 07:34 PM EST [Link]
~ SPEAK UP FOR IRAN: Project: Free Iran! wants you to add your voice to those millions around the world demanding freedom in Iran.
Read and then spread to your friends.
Posted by steve @ 06:36 PM EST [Link]
~ WHO DO YOU LOVE?: Petrelis Files posts an open letter to Catherine Mathis, the New York Times' Vice President of Corporate Communications. He wants to know why NYT staffers have been contributing money to political candidates, something that the newspaper has a policy forbidding.
The letter details who gave and who received and not surprisingly there are so many Democrats on it you'd think the DNC owned the newspaper. He has another blog entry that details contributions by the Sulzberger family.
Mathis responds that most of the contributions came before the guidelines.
Perhaps, but the donations and who they went to certainly illustrates quite handily why the NYT is so liberal.
Posted by steve @ 06:33 PM EST [Link]
~ DISRESPECTING THE DEAD: Mark Steyn argues over at Jewish World Review that the Madrid terrorist attacks and the resulting Spanish election victory for the Socialists show that Europe just plain isn't serious about fighting terrorism.
Posted by steve @ 02:55 PM EST [Link]
~ SERIOUS STUFF IS GOING ON IN IRAN: SMCCDI News Services reports that Iran is rapidly approaching a tipping point. Today the theocratic regime's anti-riot forces engaged Iranians in several cities, badly wounding many civilians. Forces later pulled back in several cities over fears that a general uprising could occur.
Posted by steve @ 02:23 PM EST [Link]
~ UMMM, THEY SUPPORT ME TOO: Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of articles concerning the "foreign leaders" that John Kerry say are supporting him. Boston Globe reporter Patrick Healy says that Kerry said "more leaders" not "foreign leaders" and yet Kerry himself says that he said "foreign leaders." He only refuses to name them.
"I'm not going to betray a private conversation with anybody," he said Sunday. "I have heard from people, foreign leaders elsewhere in the world who don't appreciate the Bush administration and would love to see a change in the leadership of the United States."
Sounds to me like it's "foreign leaders", eh Patrick?
Well, someone on eBay has solved Kerry's problem. There's currently an auction for "Imaginary Foreign Leader Endorsement" and the bidding is already up to $14 999, though that's peanuts for Kerry.
Have you ever been caught in a lie while running for President of the United States? If you want to make a current president jealous, look better in front of your political buddies who have real foreign relations experience, or if you are just a liar who got called out on your bogus campaign lies, this is the auction for you!!! I’ll pretend that I am the leader of a foreign nation that supports your candidacy for President of the United States until the elections in November.
As the imaginary leader of a foreign nation who supports your candidacy, I’ll play along with you with whatever you want me to say. If you want to tell some pesky Republican who calls you out at a campaign stop that I support you, I’ll back you up. If you want me to claim that Bush has ruined the reputation of the United States, I’m up to it. Just like you, I’m willing to say anything it takes to get you elected, I won’t mean a bit of it, and I'll change my stand on the situation when it is politically convenient.
Shipping/Handing charge for this item is $15.00, we only ship to Massachusetts. Payment must be received within 3 days of auction close. We accept Paypal (Mastercard, Visa, E-Checks), Money Orders, Certified Checks, or fraudulent donations from Moveon.org in US Funds and Cash. As soon as I receive your payment I’ll mail off the press release to CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS stating the fact that we have a relationship going back to the start of the Bush presidency. I am the ultimate online fake leader of a foreign nation!!!!</