September 2003 Archives

A major soccer tournament glorifying arch terrorists is underway in the Palestinian Authority [PA]. While terrorist glorification is not unusual in the PA, this tournament is striking because it is sponsored very prominently by the heads of the PA, including Yasser Arafat; Saib Arikat; Gibril Rajoub; the Minister of Sport - Abdul Fatach Hamal; the Mufti of the PA Ikrama Sabri; and 10 other senior PA officials.

Each of the 24 soccer teams is named for a terrorist or other Shahid [the term of supreme honor designating "Martyrs" - those who died in the combat with Israel] including some of the most infamous murderers. Among those honored are Yechya Ayash, the first Hamas bomb-belt engineer, who initiated the suicide bombings; Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist woman who hijacked a bus killing 36 in 1978; Abu Ali Mustafa, the Head of the Terrorist Popular Front; Az Adin Al Kassam, the name of the suicide bombers' wing of the Hamas; Raid Carmi, Commander of the Suicide Bomber wing of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Brigades, in Tul Karem; Hassan Salame, Black September terror group, involved in the Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes; Abu Jihad, PLO leader; Thabit Thabit, Head of the Tanzim terror group in Tul Karem; Jamal Mansour of Hamas; Salah Khalif, PLO leader; Salah Drowza of Hamas; Kamal Adwan PLO leader. [Al Ayyam, Sept. 21, 2003]

Presenting terrorists as heroes and role models is common practice in the PA. In January PMW reported on the soccer tournament for 12- year- old boys named after Abd Al Baset Odeh, the suicide terrorist who killed 30 at the Passover Seder in April 2002.

As stated, this event is significant as Yasser Arafat and 13 PA leaders have prominently put their names behind this. In addition, it is at the very time the PA is actively courting world leaders to continue promoting the Road Map, based on the premise that the PA has reformed and now rejects terrorism.

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The attack occurred hours after the start of the Jewish New Year holiday, around 9:30 P.M.
The terrorist, who was armed with an M-16 rifle and two hand grenades, infiltrated the settlement from the northwest. The point of entry lacks any
sort of fence obstacle that might delay such an infiltration. Nobody spotted the terrorist as he slipped into the settlement under the cover of darkness, and attacked the first home he saw, a caravan which houses the Avraham family.

The terrorist rapped on the door several times, but did not answer the question "who's there?" One of the guests in the home, Eyal Yeverbaum, who was armed with a pistol, went to open the door. As soon as it swung open, the terrorist fired two bullets from point-blank range at the man. Though mortally wounded, Yeverbaum managed to slam the door shut.

A few guests were in the caravan, sitting at a table for the holiday celebration. One guest was an IDF reservist, and his rifle was propped up against a wall. The head of the Avraham household was the first to respond, and shot a bullet from the reservist's rifle through the closed door; the reserve soldier then took the rifle and fired more rounds at the terrorist.

While retreating from the caravan, the terrorist fired a few bullets through the door. These shots mortally wounded the baby girl, Shaked Avraham; her death was confirmed a short time later. An emergency medical team at the spot also tried, to no avail, to revive Eyal Yeverbaum. Two other guests were lightly injured by shrapnel; they were taken to Soroka Medical Center, Be'er Sheva, for treatment...

I recently visited our forces in Tikrit, Mosul, Baghdad and Babylon. Their spirits are good, because they know their mission is important and they know they are making progress. Many recently got access to satellite television from the U.S.--and their first glimpse of the news coverage back home. Some expressed amazement at how few of their accomplishments are reflected in the news on Iraq. As one solider we met in Baghdad put it, "We rebuild a lot of bridges and it's not news--but one bridge gets blown up and it's a front-page story."

Their successes deserve to be told. Consider just a few of their accomplishments:[...]

The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said.

Justice Department officials say they are simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals — terrorists or otherwise. But critics of the administration's antiterrorism tactics assert that such use of the law is evidence the administration is using terrorism as a guise to pursue a broader law enforcement agenda...

Iraqis frequently describe nepotism not as a civic problem but as a moral duty. The notion that Iraq's next leader would put public service ahead of family obligations drew a smile from Iqbal's uncle and father-in-law, Sheik Yousif Sayel, the patriarch in charge of the clan's farm on the Tigris River south of Baghdad.

"In this country, whoever is in power will bring his relatives in from the village and give them important positions," Sheik Yousif said, sitting in the garden surrounded by some of his 21 children and 83 grandchildren. "That is what Saddam did, and now those relatives are fulfilling their obligation to protect him from the Americans."

Saddam Hussein married a first cousin who grew up in the same house as he did, and he ordered most of his children to marry their cousins. Sheik Yousif said he never forced any of his children to marry anyone, but more than half of the ones to marry have wed cousins. The patriarch was often the one who first suggested the match, as he did with his son Muhammad nine years ago...

..."I told my children not to participate in any outside groups or clubs," Sheik Yousif said. "We don't want distractions. We have a dynasty to preserve." To make his point, he told his sons to unroll the family tree, a scroll 70 feet long with lots of cousins intertwined in the branches.

Cousin marriage was once the norm throughout the world, but it became taboo in Europe after a long campaign by the Roman Catholic Church. Theologians like St. Augustine and St. Thomas argued that the practice promoted family loyalties at the expense of universal love and social harmony. Eliminating it was seen as a way to reduce clan warfare and promote loyalty to larger social institutions — like the church.

The practice became rare in the West, especially after evidence emerged of genetic risks to offspring, but it has persisted in some places, notably the Middle East, which is exceptional because of both the high prevalence and the restrictive form it takes. In other societies, a woman typically weds a cousin outside her social group, like a maternal cousin living in a clan led by a different patriarch. But in Iraq the ideal is for the woman to remain within the clan by marrying the son of her father's brother, as Iqbal did.

The families resulting from these marriages have made nation-building a frustrating process in the Middle East, as King Faisal and T. E. Lawrence both complained after efforts to unite Arab tribes.

"The tribes were convinced that they had made a free and Arab Government, and that each of them was It," Lawrence wrote in "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" in 1926. "They were independent and would enjoy themselves a conviction and resolution which might have led to anarchy, if they had not made more stringent the family tie, and the bonds of kin-responsibility. But this entailed a negation of central power."...

Mr. Putin's statement this morning that he would not terminate Russia's $800 million commercial nuclear contract with Iran came as a brief, and almost cryptic, aside in response to a question at a news conference with Mr. Bush at the presidential retreat at Camp David.

Eager to portray themselves as close partners in a fight against terrorism and proliferation, neither leader dwelled on their differences over support for Iran's nuclear program. They said they had warm and detailed discussions on other topics, including Iraq, the Middle East, Afghanistan and the twin nuclear threats of Iran and North Korea.

But Russia's help to Iran in its main nuclear reactor project has been a continuing source of tension between the two countries. That is true even though Russia has joined in setting an Oct. 31 deadline for Iran to open itself completely to international inspectors, who have found worrisome traces of highly enriched uranium at two sites in the country...

This change, of a magnitude that social science rarely records, primarily benefited low-income minorities living in neighborhoods infested with predators -- mostly minority predators preying on minorities. The facts of crime refute the "progressive" myth of the equal susceptibility, at any time, of all social groups to antisocial behavior.

But successful policing, which led to "disparate" arrest patterns, produced complaints about police. Complainers cited the disparities as prima facie proof of racial profiling. But the racial profile of the beneficiaries of better policing is mostly minorities released from imprisonment in their homes, free to venture into the streets of revitalized neighborhoods...

(1)Iranian Militia seize 14,000 Satellite Dishes::::::::::
Iran's volunteer Bassij militia have seized 14,000 satellite dishes from four workshops near Tehran.

(2)Kazemi Murder Enquiry Farce Continues::::::::::
Reporters Without Borders today deplored the conclusion of a judge investigating the murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi that no state body was behind the killing and that it was simply the work of a single intelligence ministry agent who interrogated her. It repeated its call for an independent enquiry including international experts.
((NOTE, PLEASE CONTINUE TO PROMOTE THE VERY IMPORTANT PETITION at
http://www.activistchat.com/petition2.html

(3)Persian Countdown Begins
U.S., West left with no stomach for brinkmanship

The dagger dangling above the prime minister's head was the Bush administration's threat to deduct the hundreds of millions of dollars Israel wishes to spend on the fence from the $9 billion in loan guarantees. In exchange for a promise by Weissglass to change the route of the fence, Rice apparently agreed grudgingly not to deduct the construction outlays from the loan guarantees.
This would be fine news if the fence advanced Israel's national interests. It doesn't.

Here are three falsehoods told about the fence. First, we are told it will keep us safe. Second, we are told that it is not a harbinger of the abandonment of over 200,000 Israelis who live on its eastern side. Third, we are told that the fence is not a border...

U.S. forces unearthed the weapons during a raid on a farm outside the village of Uja (search), which is close to the volatile city of Fallujah. It was the second raid in as many days on the farm.

Soldiers dug through the soft earth near a riverbank to uncover the stash, which was protected by a covering of reeds and straw. The weapons included 23 Russian-made surface-to-air missiles; four rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 115 rockets; a mortar and 40 mortar rounds; 1,300 blasting caps and 423 grenades.

"This is a significant discovery because everything we take out of the enemy's hands can't be used against us," said Maj. Mike Rauhut (search), executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.

The SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles could have been fired at helicopters used by the U.S. military in and around Tikrit.

The raid was a follow-up on information gleaned following a Thursday assault on the farm, a 2-square-mile spread of lime, pear and pomegranate trees.

"It's tied to some former regime people. That's always good as it makes a small dent on their ability to resist," Rauhut said...

"The Security Council was right to demand that Iraq destroy its illegal weapons and prove it had done so. The Security Council was right to vow serious consequences if Iraq refused to comply. And because there were consequences--because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace, and the credibility of the United Nations--Iraq is free, and today we are joined by the representatives of a liberated country."

It was, of course, no thanks to certain leaders in the U.N. audience that all of this has been achieved. These same people are now citing troubles in Iraq as evidence of the wisdom of their obstruction. But the underlying reality is that it is Mr. Bush who changed the world by toppling Saddam Hussein. He is now likely to get his way on a new Iraqi resolution as well, French grumbling notwithstanding.

Mr. Bush was properly generous and conciliatory. He praised the work of U.N. aid organizations in Iraq. He also opened the door for greater U.N. involvement in reconstruction, but without the panicked supplication his critics at home and abroad all seem to agree is in order. Our own view is that a Presidential visit to Iraq would also do a lot to highlight the many accomplishments that Mr. Bush justifiably cited...

The sources said the dead man, Ahmed Hassan, was an Islamic Jihad activist, and that the circumstances indicated the explosion may have been a "work accident," meaning he may have been preparing or handling an explosive device that detonated unplanned.

In a statement that appeared to put the onus on the Palestinians for the current impasse in peace efforts, the United States, Russia, the European Union (news - web sites) and the United Nations (news - web sites) recognized Israel's right to self-defense in the face of attacks on its citizens.

"The quartet members condemn the vicious terror attacks of August and September. They call on the Palestinians to take immediate and decisive steps against individuals and groups planning violent attacks," the statement said.

Nothing could be further from the truth, which is immune to spin from both ends of the political spectrum. The facts themselves will not go away, and thus it is more likely that critics (quietly and without fanfare) will soon come over to the U.S. position, rather than vice versa — albeit on the cheap and at the eleventh hour.

For all the harping, postbellum Iraq and Afghanistan offer hope; the Taliban and Saddam Hussein certainly did not. The world knows the United States is promoting liberal government and that gangsters — whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or on the West Bank — are opposing it. Choosing between the Dark Ages and the Enlightenment is not difficult even for the French, especially when someone else pays and dies...

Finally, even facts do matter. Before Mr. Arafat returned to the West Bank, life was far better for his people than during his kleptocracy. He may be adept at screaming from balconies and writing checks to terrorists, but he cannot govern. He was a creation of the Soviet Union and a mobster of the old school, and thus can only do what mobsters do — provide protection for money, order hits, extort from rivals, buy supporters, embezzle from friends, and purchase political legitimacy.

Reasoning with him would be no different than discussing democratic reform with Saddam Hussein, or brokering freedom of speech with the Iranian mullahs, or believing Mr. Castro will hold real elections. Such men cannot do such things, because they are precisely such men — to ask them to do otherwise or to be other than what they are is to ask them to die.

None of the threats from the Israelis, the praise from the Arabs, or the measured and calculated rhetoric from the Europeans can change the truth. It just sits there and won't go away. Palestinian puppets will come and they will go, but ultimately there will be no peace until Mr. Arafat finds his inferno or joins his family in France. It is simple as that...

The Democrats have long been unhinged by this president. They could bear his (Florida-induced) illegitimacy as long as he was weak and seemingly transitional. But when post-9/11 he became a consequential president -- reinventing American foreign policy and dominating the political scene -- they lost it.

Kennedy's statement marks a new stage in losing it: transition to derangement. As such, it merits careful parsing:

(1) Imminent threat? How many times does one have to repeat this: When Bush laid out the case for the war in his 2003 State of the Union address, he deliberately denied imminent threat. "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent," he explained, but this president disagreed. The entire assumption underlying the Bush Doctrine of preemption is that Sept. 11 taught us that we live in a world where the enemy is too stealthy, his capacity for destruction too great and the margin for error too small to permit the traditional luxury of waiting for imminence. Indeed, in the U.N. speech one year ago that launched us on the road to war, Bush spoke not of a "clear and present danger," the traditional formulation of imminence, but of a "grave and gathering danger," an obvious allusion to Churchill's two-decade-long "gathering storm."

(2) Texas? A lovely and telling geographic tic, betraying the Massachusetts liberal's regional prejudice. For a president to unleash an unnecessary, cynical war he needs to be as far removed as possible from sanity (Hyannisport?). You head south and west -- to redneck country -- to plan your killings.

(3) Good politically? There are a host of criticisms one might level at Bush's decision to go to war -- that it was arrogant, miscalculated, disdainful of allies, lacking in foresight, perhaps even contrary to just-war principles. I happen not to agree with these criticisms. But they can be reasonably and honorably made. What cannot be reasonably and honorably charged, however, is that Bush went to war for political advantage.

On the contrary, this war was an enormous -- and blindingly obvious -- political risk. It was clear that if America failed either in the conduct of the war itself (a bloody Battle of Baghdad, for example) or in the aftermath (a failure of reconstruction), Bush would be deeply wounded politically.

And indeed he has been...

Then coalition forces took Baghdad in 21 days. Today Gen. Tom Franks's innovative and flexible war plan, which so many dismissed as a failure, is being studied by military historians and taught in war colleges...

The MPs who disgrace themselves by their attendance at this event are admittedly hardly household names. Richard Allan is the party's spokesman on IT, and has his own blog. I count myself well-informed on the activities of the Liberal Democrats, yet I know nothing of Alistair Carmichael except that he sits for the northernmost constituency in the United Kingdom. His deepest thoughts on politics are currently confided on his web site. But these men represent a party that is already known - through its participation in the Stop the War Coalition, a front organisation for the Socialist Workers' Party - for its pragmatic alliances with totalitarian causes, and is hardly working assiduously to police the boundaries of democratic politics.

I am at least relieved to note that Allan is standing down as an MP at the next election. Whoever takes his place will have an easy act to follow.

That is why is important to remember why we fight in Iraq -- and who we fight. Indeed, many of those sniping at U.S. troops are al Qaeda terrorists operating inside Iraq. And many of bin Laden's men were in Iraq prior to the liberation. A wealth of evidence on the public record -- from government reports and congressional testimony to news accounts from major newspapers -- attests to longstanding ties between bin Laden and Saddam going back to 1994...

The Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria Sept. 25 — The U.N. atomic watchdog agency has found additional traces of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium in Iran, diplomats said Thursday.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the readings were registered by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency looking for evidence of a possible nuclear weapons program.

The diplomats said the minute quantities of the substance were found at the Kalaye Electric Co. Earlier this year, U.N. inspectors found enriched uranium particles at Iran's uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz.

The agency's board of governors earlier this month set an October deadline for Iran to disprove that it is trying to make nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear programs are peaceful.

If Iran is found to be violating the treaty banning the spread of nuclear weapons at the next board meeting in November, the Security Council could be asked to get involved. That could result in economic and political sanctions.

"That question makes me wish it were vodka," said Shelton. "I've known Wes for a long time. I will tell you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues, things that are very near and dear to my heart. I'm not going to say whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I'll just say Wes won't get my vote."

The FTC had signed up some 50 million phone numbers for the list, which was due to take effect on Oct. 1.

"It is very important, not just for Iraq, but for the whole of the region, for Germany and therefore for the whole of Europe," Schroeder said.

Receiving a renewed German offer to help train Iraqi police and security forces, Bush said, "I appreciate his efforts to help Iraq grow to be a peaceful and stable and democratic country."

Still, there was no indication Germany would contribute peacekeeping troops, as it has to Afghanistan (news - web sites), or that Schroeder would retract his support for France's call for a quick end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

And Schroeder said he did not feel "under time pressure" from a proposed U.S. resolution in the U.N. Security Council designed to draw in troops and financial support for reconstruction.

He described his conversation with Bush as "very open-minded" and "trustful."...

Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi worked as an Arabic-language translator at the prison camp, spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said.

Al-Halabi knew James Yee (search), the Muslim chaplain at the prison arrested earlier this month, but it was unclear if the two arrests were linked, Shavers said.

The enlisted airman has been charged with nine counts related to espionage, three counts of aiding the enemy, 11 counts of disobeying a lawful order, and nine counts of making a false official statement...

Article 51 of the Charter prescribes that all States, if attacked, retain the inherent right of self-defence. But until now it has been understood that when States go beyond that, and decide to use force to deal with broader threats to international peace and security, they need the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations.

Now, some say this understanding is no longer tenable, since an “armed attack” with weapons of mass destruction could be launched at any time, without warning, or by a clandestine group.

Rather than wait for that to happen, they argue, States have the right and obligation to use force pre-emptively, even on the territory of other States, and even while weapons systems that might be used to attack them are still being developed.

According to this argument, States are not obliged to wait until there is agreement in the Security Council. Instead, they reserve the right to act unilaterally, or in ad hoc coalitions.

This logic represents a fundamental challenge to the principles on which, however imperfectly, world peace and stability have rested for the last fifty-eight years.

My concern is that, if it were to be adopted, it could set precedents that resulted in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without justification.

But it is not enough to denounce unilateralism, unless we also face up squarely to the concerns that make some States feel uniquely vulnerable, since it is those concerns that drive them to take unilateral action. We must show that those concerns can, and will, be addressed effectively through collective action.

Excellencies, we have come to a fork in the road. This may be a moment no less decisive than 1945 itself, when the United Nations was founded...

And we must not shy away from questions about the adequacy, and effectiveness, of the rules and instruments at our disposal.

Among those instruments, none is more important than the Security Council itself.

In my recent report on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration, I drew attention to the urgent need for the Council to regain the confidence of States, and of world public opinion – both by demonstrating its ability to deal effectively with the most difficult issues, and by becoming more broadly representative of the international community as a whole, as well as the geopolitical realities of today.

The Council needs to consider how it will deal with the possibility that individual States may use force “pre-emptively” against perceived threats.

Its members may need to begin a discussion on the criteria for an early authorisation of coercive measures to address certain types of threats – for instance, terrorist groups armed with weapons of mass destruction.

And they still need to engage in serious discussions of the best way to respond to threats of genocide or other comparable massive violations of human rights – an issue which I raised myself from this podium in 1999. Once again this year, our collective response to events of this type – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Liberia – has been hesitant and tardy.

As for the composition of the Council, that has been on the agenda of this Assembly for over a decade. Virtually all Member States agree that the Council should be enlarged, but there is no agreement on the details.

I respectfully suggest to you, Excellencies, that in the eyes of your peoples the difficulty of reaching agreement does not excuse your failure to do so. If you want the Council's decisions to command greater respect, particularly in the developing world, you need to address the issue of its composition with greater urgency.

But the Security Council is not the only institution that needs strengthening. As you know, I am doing my best to make the Secretariat more effective – and I look to this Assembly to support my efforts.

Indeed, in my report I also suggested that this Assembly itself needs to be strengthened, and that the role of the Economic and Social Council – and the role of the United Nations as a whole in economic and social affairs, including its relationship to the Bretton Woods institutions –needs to be re-thought and reinvigorated.

I even suggested that the role of the Trusteeship Council could be reviewed, in light of new kinds of responsibility that you have given to the United Nations in recent years.

In short, Excellencies, I believe the time is ripe for a hard look at fundamental policy issues, and at the structural changes that may be needed in order to strengthen them.

History is a harsh judge: it will not forgive us if we let this moment pass...

Its propellant gauge reading near empty, the nuclear-powered spacecraft was put to rest in a 21st century form of techno-euthansia. The spacecraft fell silent at 12:40:51 p.m. Pacific Time.

It was a good run, as spacecraft go. Dispatched from a space shuttle in 1989, Galileo began its orbiting of Jupiter and its entourage of moons in late 1995. Over the years, the spacecraft relayed an astounding set of observations.

[...]

The Galileo has been labeled as "one of mankind's greatest voyages" by Robert Park, a scientist at the University of Maryland.

Writing in his web site column sponsored by The American Physical Society, Park underscored Galileo's string of robotic revelations.

"It's the sort of thing you can do with robots -- you don't have to bring them home," Park said.

"Galileo discovered liquid water under the frozen oceans of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Could this subsurface water, protected from radiation, harbor alien life? The search for life to which we are not related is the most exciting scientific quest of our time. To explore where no human can ever set foot is our greatest adventure," Park said.

There were only nine students in Rezahi’s tae kwon do class at the Afghan Youth Club this morning — a fraction of the 300 boys who attend its martial arts classes in the evenings. There were 13 girls participating until last week, when police came and locked the clubhouse doors twice, unnerving some of the teenage students and their parents.

Vigorous exercise, long an unquestioned staple of education for young people of both sexes in the West and in much of the developing world, is still highly controversial for girls in Afghanistan, a deeply traditional Muslim society where modesty of dress and manner, and provable virginity at marriage, are expected of all young women under penalty of intense social ostracism...

...Perhaps not surprisingly, the impetus for the club has come from Afghan refugees who recently returned from long exile in Iran, a Muslim country where girls and women have far more opportunities for self-development. Rezahi, the instructor, lived most of her life in Iran; so did the club’s male founder, Sayed Jawad Hussaini, 31, who returned from Iran last year...

The internationally sponsored road map peace plan, strongly endorsed by Washington, provides for a freeze on settlement construction and removal of illegal settlement outposts as well as a Palestinian campaign against terror.

In the Monday interview, Powell said, "They (the Israelis) will respond, in my judgment, when it can be demonstrated that the Palestinian side is doing something about the bombing, the terror.

"It is very difficult if not impossible for the prime minister of Israel or any other nation in the face of activity that seems to be tolerated by the governmental authorities on the other side ... to say to his people that he is yielding to pressure from the Americans or anyone else." ...

Throughout Iraq, American soldiers with their typical "can do" attitude and ingenuity are engaging in thousands upon thousands of small reconstruction projects, working with Iraqi contractors and citizens. Through decentralized decision-making by unit commanders, the 101st Airborne Division alone has spent nearly $23 million in just the past few months. This sum goes a very long way in Iraq. Hundreds upon hundreds of schools are being renovated, repainted, replumbed and reroofed. Imagine the effect that has on children and their parents.

Zogby International recently released the results of an August poll showing hope and progress. My own unscientific surveys told me the same thing. With virtually no exceptions, hundreds of Iraqis enthusiastically waved back at me as I sat in the open door of a helicopter traveling between Babylon and Baghdad. And I received a similar reception as I worked my way alone, shaking hands through a large crowd of refinery workers just to see their reaction.

We may need a few credible Baghdad Bobs to undo the harm done by our media. I'm afraid it is killing our troops.

That wasn't the big story last week of course. The big news was that Mr. Bush said he has "no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved" in the attacks of September 11, 2001. Predictably, this is being spun as a concession from the Administration, which has been accused of exaggerating the al Qaeda link.

In truth, Mr. Bush has never gone further than what he reiterated last week: "There's no question Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties." U.S. intelligence officials, meanwhile, have confirmed that fact once again. Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was being harbored in Iraq; documents recently found in Tikrit indicate that Saddam provided Yasin with monthly payments and a home. According to federal authorities, the Ramzi Yousef-led terror cell that carried out the 1993 bombing received funding from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 2001 attack.

Far from exaggeration, what struck us about the case the President and Colin Powell took to the U.N. last fall and winter was its restraint. It focused mainly on a then-obscure terrorist named Abu Mussab al Zarqawi with no alleged 9/11 link, and a small affiliated terror group called Ansar al Islam operating in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq. Left out entirely by Mr. Bush were the following stories:[...]

Their good will toward the American-led occupation authority -- despite the personal suffering wrought by the war -- might help explain why this sprawling Shi'ite Muslim slum has not risen up in revolt and in quiet ways has provided a bulwark of support for coalition forces.

"The Americans did us a great favor by getting rid of Saddam," Adnan Hamid said. "We owe them. And I don't think they will abandon us."

The military says it has already spent $600,000 in Sadr City rebuilding a town hall, a municipal office building, and three police stations. The results so far: Recently electricity ran uninterrupted for four days, unheard of during the Ba'ath Party regime. An independent municipal government now collects daily the garbage which perpetually choked the area's streets.

And in the Hamids' quarter, at least, the nightly gunshots and fear of crime have subsided. Adnan Hamid and his friends sit in white chairs on the roadside long after midnight, talking politics and work.

After the war, Hamid and his neighbors hesitated to discuss politics, the weekly visits from regime intelligence agents still fresh in their minds. Now, they break into laughter as talk turns to the hoped-for capture of Hussein.

Iraqis, Adnan believes, will show the same patience with national reconstruction that they have in painstakingly reclaiming their personal lives.

"You have to give the Americans time," Hamid said. "The infrastructure is old, pipes are rusty, power plants are broken. You can't fix it all in a day."...

"Why would we fight the Americans?" Adnan said, laughing and waving his hand to take in his wife, daughter, sisters, and home. "They did us the greatest favor of all."

This is proven quack medicine. But before we turn to analyzing the issue itself, we should first say a few words about the ideological background of those who bring up such notions...

Butler likened Saddam to Adolf Hitler and said the evil dictator used the weapons on live people.

"I want to be plain about this," Butler's voice heightened. "The overthrow of Sadaam Hussein was justified whether or not there was reluctance to authorize it. ... No one could say it is wrong to overthrow a homicidal maniac. The Security Council sat on its hands for 10 years."

As for not finding these weapons allegedly in Iraq, Butler said he is sure Saddam had them. He said Saddam was addicted to the deadly weapons, and whether they are still in Iraq but hidden, moved or destroyed, they did exist.

"Don't believe those who say they aren't there just because we haven't found them. Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Butler told the crowd. "Iraq certainly did have weapons of mass destruction. Trust me. I held some in my own hands."

Capt. James J. Yee, a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., was arrested earlier this month by the FBI in Jacksonville, Fla., as he arrived on a military charter flight from Guantanamo, according to a law-enforcement source.

Agents confiscated several classified documents in his possession and interrogated him. He was held for two days in Jacksonville and transferred to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., where two Army lawyers have been assigned to his defense.

The Army has charged Capt. Yee with five offenses: sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage and failure to obey a general order. The Army may also charge him later with the more serious charge of treason, which under the Uniform Code of Military Justice could be punished by a maximum sentence of life.

It could not be immediately learned what country or organization is suspected of receiving information from Capt. Yee. He had counseled suspected al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo for a lengthy period...

Western diplomats told Reuters a joint letter by the big three European foreign ministers, the content of which has not previously been disclosed, was delivered to Tehran in early August despite intense lobbying by Washington.

It highlighted a gulf between the administration of President Bush and even its closest European ally, Britain, on whether to engage or isolate the Islamic republic.

The Europeans urged Iran to sign, implement and ratify the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that provides for intrusive, short-notice inspections and to halt its uranium enrichment program, which the West fears could be at the heart of a clandestine nuclear arms program.

In return for compliance, the letter raised the prospect of cooperation on technology, without specifically pledging help with a civilian nuclear energy program, the sources said.

"Washington did not consider it very helpful at all. They were worried it ran the risk of splitting Europe and America on this issue, and they talked to their friends and colleagues in Europe about that and attempted to dissuade them from sending the letter," a diplomat familiar with the exchanges said.

European diplomats said they were disappointed there had not been a more specific reply from Tehran so far.[...]

The Iraq I saw was a society on the move, a vibrant land with a hardy people experiencing the first heady taste of freedom. Iraq has come a long way since the dawn of this year, when Saddam Hussein was holding his people in poverty, ignorance and fear while filling mass graves with his opponents. The Iraqi regime was still squandering Iraq's treasure on deadly weapons programs, in defiance of 12 years of United Nations Security Council resolutions. While children died, Saddam was lavishing money on palaces and perks, for himself and his cronies...

What so outrages these academic specialists on the Middle East? It's called Campus Watch (campus-watch.org), and it's a project I started a year ago today to "review and critique Middle East studies in North America, with an aim to improving them."

Campus Watch provides peer review of a vital topic - think how many problems come out of the Middle East. Given the centrality of this region to current world politics, how the scholars fare is not a recondite matter but an issue of importance for our security and welfare...

Another thing that she said is that ALL the Iraqis are done with the idea of Arab Unity. They hate all the other states except for Syria. They believe Saddam gave so much money to these other states, and none of them offered any support. They are particularly hateful now to the Palestinians; ordinary Iraqis were sometimes moved out of their own homes to house them, and they got jobs and pensions-- and she said that the new Arabic graffiti on the walls of Baghdad University is "Palestinians go home. The free ride is over."

In any case, this tour was a lovefest compared to the last one, so god only knows what the reporters are all going on about. Another thing I heard is that 90% of all the attacks have happened in the Sunni Triangle, which if you look on a map represents all of about 1/8 of Iraq maybe (Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdad-- I don't have a good map to do the math with), so you have a country 7/8 calm. This guy's Iraqi mom (from Mosul) also said that the power is now on regularly in Baghdad but no one is reporting that.

If CNN hasn't gotten it, it appears that Assad in Syria has. The cabinet change was a big thing even though many hoped/expected that Assad would choose a non-Baathist over Otri. Still, they think a few of the new guys will be non-Baathists which would have been unthinkable before.

They sure need it-- the country is a beautiful basket case full of intelligent, kind people who could do something good if given a chance. On a more superficial, but probably important level as well, the kids military uniforms we saw last year are all gone, and a lot of the militarization you used to see in posters and monuments, etc. seems to have been toned down. The Lebanese paper, The Star, attributes this directly albeit grudgingly to the US being right next door...

Yet the voices of free-thinking Cubans are growing louder, and that is precisely what Castro and his government must be worried about. Despite the omnipresent secret police and government propaganda, thousands of Cubans have demonstrated their courage by signing petitions backing Project Varela, which is based on provisions of the current Cuban constitution and calls for holding a referendum on freedom of speech and assembly, the release of political prisoners, freedom of enterprise and free elections. The Castro regime's response to Project Varela and to other initiatives has been at best disregard and at worst persecution...

Middle East News Line reported that the U.S. State Department issued a directive to Israel to suspend plans to capture Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah over the weekend, even though Israel provided hundreds of captured documents to the U.S. that prove that the Muqata'a is where the terror campaign against Israel is being planned and directed.

Despite that, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to suspend military plans against the Muqat'a.

An Israeli military force had captured a PA ministry about 300 meters from Arafat's headquarters and established a command post for the capture of the Muqata'a.

The significance of such a planned tactical move on the part of the IDF is that the Muqata'a is precisely where Arafat's terror campaign has been coordinated for the last three years...

Voter turnout plunged as low as 12 percent in Tehran during local council elections in February. The mass abstention dealt reformists their first poll defeat since reformist President Mohammad Khatami scored a resounding 1997 presidential vote win.

And with the announcement this weekend that parliamentary elections are scheduled for February 20, reformists are worried that turnout will again be light.

''Has the same fervour people used to have (for elections) remained? Hasn't their fervour diminished? If it is so, we need to identify the problem and cure it,'' the official IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as saying in a speech in southern Iran on Tuesday.

Political analysts say a low turnout in February could see reformists lose the parliamentary majority they wrested from conservatives in 2000 when public enthusiasm for Khatami's message of gradual change remained high.

That, in turn, would further weaken Khatami whose inability to overcome resistance from powerful conservatives to his agenda of improved democracy, justice and civil rights has been a major factor in dwindling public support for reformists.

''It's not just that people have become apathetic. They have taken a decision not to participate in elections because they want to register their disillusionment with the status quo,'' said one local analyst, who asked not to be named.

Reformist politicians acknowledge there has been little change in public sentiment since the February council elections.

''The attitude towards non-participation (in elections) prevails,'' parliamentarian Ali Shakourirad told Reuters.

Leading conservatives, such as former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, have also expressed growing concern that Iranians have lost their enthusiasm for politics.

But conservative commentator Amir Mohebian, a member of the editorial board of the hardline Resalat newspaper, said Iranians would flock to the polls to send a message to Washington which accuses Iran of building nuclear arms and sponsoring terrorism.

''The heightened U.S. pressure on Iran, contrary to some predictions, I believe will increase people's participation, because people think a low turnout would encourage America to continue its pressure and even attack the country,'' he said.

And he did that, not out of any psychopathic desire to see more dead Israelis on TV, but rather out of cold political calculation. He decided it was time to rid himself of Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen, the prime minister he appointed to be the "acceptable face" of Palestinian terror for the Israelis and Americans to negotiate with. It was time to remind both the foreigners, and his colleagues, who is boss.

The new "prime minister" is Ahmed Qureia, a.k.a. Abu Ala. His background is almost identical to that of Abu Mazen; another veteran of the Oslo process.

The idea that Arafat had been sidelined was one of the more ludicrous of the "pious frauds" circulated by all partners to the "peace process" recently. I 'm sorry to say President Bush invested some of his credibility in this.

Arafat was never sidelined, and the appointment of Abu Ala to replace Abu Mazen changes nothing. The men of Arafat's diplomatic wing are as interchangeable as the men of his military-terrorist wing, it's all one bird. The strategy remains, wear Israel down by both terror and diplomacy, as opportunities arise, and continue wearing her down, patiently, until eventually she collapses...

It is a fine irony that Mr. Powell spoke of the need to soldier on with Yasser Arafat while the Secretary himself was standing in Baghdad for the first time. Mr. Powell is in Baghdad because President Bush concluded after September 11, and after the political failure of the first Gulf War, that the years of Western self-delusion about the nature of global terror must be brought to an end. Similarly, the delusions about Arafat also must now end.

"Arafat" should enter history not merely as the name of one autocratic man, but as the name we assign to an entire Western phenomenon of false thinking. "Arafat," we now see, has come to represent the act of self-delusion on a massive, international scale. "Arafat" is about refusing to believe that an adversary is simply irredeemable. Most importantly at this particular moment, "Arafat" is about allowing barbarism, or its techniques, to challenge the political tenets of civilized life...

The only justification for involving the U.N. may have to do with domestic politics. Bush may want to be able to tell voters the U.N. is now on board.

This is precisely why France, Germany and a few others who don't wish Bush re-elected are determined to push the price so high as to make it impossible for Washington to accept without losing control of the situation in Iraq.

The message that Paris and Berlin wish to convey is this: Bush and his "neocons" created a mess, now we enter to save Iraq from destruction.

I called on the few hundred academicians, jurists, bankers, law-enforcement officials, and reporters who attended the conference — mostly French — to intensify their efforts to expose and to stop funds from reaching not only al Qaeda, but all terrorists.

The next speaker, a high-ranking French official, began by saying: "I identify with bin Laden and understand his agenda!" He went on to say that, "the U.S. deserve this attack." In fact, he declared: "the U.S. brought it upon herself with her unjust attitude towards the Palestinians." But at that time bin Laden had not mentioned the Palestinians; instead, he had called for the killing of all Americans, Jews, and other infidels — including Christians — and for destroying the U.S. economy. Yet, the French official, who might have been expected to be an ally, repeated his statement while the audience encouraged him to go on. When he finished his diatribe against "America and the Jews," they cheered him. The contempt towards my country only a few weeks after thousands of people lost their lives in terror attacks was so palpable that I left before the conclusion of the conference.

As I tried to understand this French enmity, it occurred to me that the speaker might have had a personal reason to be so openly venomous. It did not take long to discover that, indeed, this French official was seated on the board of a Saudi bank that the U.S. Treasury Department had listed as supporting terrorism. It was this discovery that cemented my decision to further explore the reasons for the West's complicity in the financing of terrorism...

September 16, 2003
BBC Monitoring Service
BBC Monitoring

Tehran -- Informed Iranian sources told Al-Hayat on Wednesday [10 September] that Tehran had bought nuclear equipment, installations and technology from British companies. The sources did not reveal the names of these companies but pointed out that the purchase took place with the knowledge of British government.

This is the first revelation of British-Iranian cooperation in the nuclear field since the accusations, and US pressure, have always alluded to Russian-Iranian cooperation in building the Bushehr Nuclear Plant. The United States has also hinted at Pakistan's cooperation with Iran.

According to the information received by Al-Hayat, the nuclear cooperation between Iran and British companies comprised of building the Natanz and Arak plants which specialize in enriching uranium after Iran recently acquired this technology.

This information comes at a time when the escalation between Iran and the United States has expanded to include Tehran's relations with members of the European Union. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi strongly criticized western countries and accused them of "extremism and impudence" and trying to wreck the course of cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Kharrazi threatened to rethink the cooperation with the agency after it specified a time limit for Iran to reveal all aspects of its nuclear programme and sign a protocol to allow stricter international inspection of Iranian [nuclear] plants. This accompanied Tehran's decision to suspend talks with Europe regarding human rights which were scheduled for the end of September.

Source: Muhammad Nun -- Al-Hayat, London, in Arabic 11 Sep 03

But “the world” jumped to Arafat’s defense anyway. Everyone—the Arabs, the Europeans, the U.S., the Israeli Labor Party—concurred that there is something necessary and desirable about having Arafat sitting and functioning in his compound a few miles north of Jerusalem, and that anything done to disrupt that state of affairs would be both unwise and reprehensible.

It’s nothing new. Someday historians will look back at our era and wonder how this baleful figure was able to pursue a career for four decades as an arch-terrorist, dictator, liar, and thief without ever being stopped or punished. The reason, they may discover, is that he meant too many things to too many people, that he fulfilled certain needs in the “civilized” world that made his presence too precious to dispense with...

Thousands of miles away in Hermosa Beach, California, a graduate student passes his hand through an image of a DNA strand produced -- apparently out of thin air -- by a modified video projector.

The two inventions represent the latest front in advanced computer displays -- eliminating the screen altogether.

While unlikely to replace the desktop computer monitor, so-called walk-through displays could eventually be put to use in product showrooms, museums, and military training facilities.

"This is something that people have been dreaming about for a long time," said Chad Dyner, 29, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and inventor of Heliodisplay, one of the prototype display systems. "Ever since the movie 'Star Wars' came out and there was a distress call from Princess Leia," -- generated in thin air by the robot R2D2 -- "people all over the world have been wanting one of these."[...]

In what was the last of about a dozen legal challenges trying to delay or thwart the recall to unseat Gov. Gray Davis, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday it is unacceptable that six counties would be using outdated punch-card ballots, the type that sparked the "hanging chads" litigation in Florida during the 2000 presidential election...

Journalists covering the Mideast conflict have to answer a hard question each day: "Given the range of newsworthy items that constantly emerge, what should I run with, what's my story?" Whatever they deem "in" will be zapped to tens of thousands of newspapers, radio stations and TV screens worldwide; what's ruled "out" will disappear from world consciousness. This, in a nutshell, is how the media's content decisions shape public opinion.

In the past week, such decisions on three major topics fell into a curious pattern ― when the news item challenged Israeli policy, it made it "in," but when the item bolstered Israeli policy, it was deemed "out":

1) Israeli Restrictions on Palestinians

IN: Both Reuters and the Associated Press released articles on September 8 trumpeting a new Amnesty International report that condemned, among other IDF practices, Israel's use of administrative detention against Palestinians active in terror organizations.

OUT: The Israeli government's startling announcement that the Palestinian perpetrators of the (Sept. 9) dual terror attacks in Tsrifin (7 murdered, 30 wounded) and Jerusalem's Café Hillel (8 murdered, 50 wounded) were both, just six months ago, released from administrative detention in an Israeli prison.

Israeli policy is to continue administrative detention when necessary. The media's method of selective reporting, however, leaves Israeli policy woefully unexplained.

2) Arafat and Peace

IN: Both Reuters and AP (Sept. 13) painted Yassir Arafat as a peace-lover under siege. AP's headline was "Arafat Urges Israel to Return to Peace Talks," while Reuters quotes Arafat saying, "I appeal to you the Israeli people, together we can make peace."

OUT: That very day (Sept. 13), masked gunmen from Arafat's own Fatah movement stormed the TV station Al Aribiya in Ramallah, held the employees at gunpoint, then systematically destroyed their equipment as "a warning" for unflattering reports on the PA. Acknowledging his involvement, Arafat later apologized to Al Aribiya in the middle of the night.

[The media frequently quote voices of dissent within Israeli politics, but almost never bring equivalent Palestinian dissent. For example, also deemed "out" this week was a remarkable voice of protest from a prominent Palestinian journalist, who wrote an article in a Palestinian daily critical of the Arafat-led PA's "all or nothing" policy. Said Tawfiq Abu Bakr, "It is difficult to find a greater and more deeply rooted culture of self-deception than that in our Arab and Palestinian arena; a culture of daydreams in the height of a burning summer. People cling stubbornly to rosy dreams and delude themselves that these are the facts."]

Israeli policy is to remove Arafat, as an obstacle to peace, enemy of Palestinian moderation, and undemocratic strongman. The media's method of selective reporting, however, leaves Israeli policy woefully unexplained.

3) Palestinian Schoolchildren

IN: Both Reuters and AP reported large gatherings of Ramallah schoolchildren rallying in support of Yassir Arafat (Sept. 13). AP adds the detail that the children shouted "With our souls and our blood we defend Abu Ammar [Arafat's nom de guerre]," while Arafat "waved and blew kisses from a window."

OUT: The Jerusalem Post reported that the children had some other things to say (which apparently didn't interest AP and Reuters): "I'm prepared to go to the Jews myself and to kill them wherever they are," and "At school they tell us, go to liberate Palestine...We have to carry out suicide attacks because the Jews are killing us."

And outside Arafat's compound, one group of supporters shouted, "We will sacrifice millions of martyrs on the road to Jerusalem."

Israeli policy is to remove Arafat's grip on Palestinian culture, in order to eliminate the ongoing incitement in textbooks and classrooms calling for the murder of Israeli citizens. The media's method of selective reporting, however, leaves Israeli policy woefully unexplained.

Comments to Associated Press: feedback@ap.org
Comments to Reuters: editor@reuters.com

Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.

HonestReporting.com

Whatever else is said about Israel, it quite obviously is not a nation like all others, or these very controversies would not be taking place… they come close to confirming that old foreboding that a Jewish state would compromise the position of western Jews in their own countries...

An intemperate and vulgar press is always better than a licensed or self-censored press. The American journalist Michael Kinsley, a Jewish liberal, has said how much he admires the London papers (even Ingrams's Private Eye, with what Kosmin and Iganski call its long history 'of sarcasm and vitriol vis-a-vis the Jews') by comparison with journalism in the US, 'paralysed by gentility'...

Abu Mazen gave a strong, resolute speech at a closed meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) eight days ago, parts of which are
released for the first time here. [...]

Bill Clinton, who could cry out of one eye, was dry-eyed about the plight of D.C.'s poor: He vetoed a school-choice bill for them in 1998. He felt the pain of the strong, the teachers' unions who were feeling menaced by the weak -- by poor parents trying to emancipate their children from the public education plantation.

Boehner, who understands the patience of politics, began championing school choice as a state legislator two decades ago. Last Tuesday the House passed a small ($10 million) experimental school choice voucher program for at least 1,300 of the District's 68,000 students. This bill, skillfully managed by Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) passed, 209-208, only because two Democratic members, presidential candidates Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich, were in Baltimore at a debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, proclaiming their compassion for poor people...

...School choice for poor children is, Boehner says, today's principal civil rights fight. The lottery of life, not choice, determines a child's parents and family situation. There should be choice about schools for children placed by life's lottery in difficult conditions. Otherwise, Boehner says, "It's like saying you can only buy bread in the grocery store closest to your house -- and the government will run the grocery store."...

As an observer of Pakistan for more than 30 years -- I first went to the region in 1971 as a war correspondent covering the conflict between India and Pakistan over Bangladesh -- I have seen the government become ever more degraded as it fell from the hands of the Bhuttos to military leaders such as Pervez Musharraf and then to the point where now -- as the Daniel Pearl affair showed -- it is doubtful that the executive branch of the country's government is fully in charge. Is it known in the West that President Musharraf himself had to cancel several trips to Karachi, the economic capital of his own country, for safety reasons?

My last few visits, including one on a diplomatic mission for France following the Afghan war and several more as part of my investigation into the death of journalist Daniel Pearl, brought this point home and gave me a full sense of who really runs things there. What has become obvious is the tremendous power of the ISI, Pakistan's secret service -- so dreaded by average citizens that they rarely speak its name but refer to it instead as the "three letters" -- and the deep infiltration of this powerful organization by militant fundamentalists and jihadists.[...]

As the foreign ministers of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent powers gather here today for a wide-ranging discussion on the U.N.'s role in Iraq, Mr. Powell issued a blunt condemnation of a plan floated by his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin.

The de Villepin plan, outlined yesterday in the French newspaper Le Monde, calls for a new constitution for Iraq by this fall and the restoration of full sovereignty to an Iraqi government in six months.

The program, which is in response to a U.S. draft resolution on Iraq now before the Security Council, would relegate the U.S.-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority to a subordinate role in the political and economic reconstruction of the country.

The French plan is "totally unrealistic," Mr. Powell told reporters in a briefing aboard his plane last night before landing in this Swiss city.

"You would like it if one could do it, but one can't do it."...

So do I. And so did they, the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Whenever a cloud interrupted the sunshine that made their silver robes flutter chromatically, the drop in temperature caused the steel skeletons to contract a little; when it passed, they expanded again.

You and I groan in anger at times. So did they, when gales forced them to sway, although they had been designed to win that sort of tug-of-war.

All this I know for a fact; because I rigged a cable between the two towers, from crown to crown--the appellation for the inclined setback of the top floors that supported the roof, coined by Leslie Robertson, the buildings' structural engineer...

Abbas's fall is only the latest chapter in this tragic story of the Palestinians' repeated decision to refuse the dignity of independence if it meant accepting Israel. Every peace plan, every road map, every truce is bound to fail until the Palestinians make a historic collective decision to accept half a loaf and build their state within it.

What should the United States do now? The editorialists are issuing the usual knee-jerk call for the Bush administration to intensify its efforts in the peace process.

What peace process? Intensify efforts with whom? With Arafat — who is behind the terror, who destroyed Abbas, who will never sign a peace treaty and whose commitment to war-until-victory is as enduring as was Ho Chi Minh's and Mao Zedong's?

The United States went a very long way toward the Palestinians by issuing the road map and the guarantee of statehood if they dismantled the terror apparatus, stopped the murderous incitement and began the process of reconciliation. Abbas appeared ready to take that road. Which is why Arafat brought him down.

The fundamental principle of U.S. policy now must be to prove that Abbas was right. That means no negotiations with Arafat or with any new prime minister beholden to him. That means supporting Israel in its war on terror. And that means not only supporting military responses to atrocities such as the double suicide bombings on Tuesday — responses such as the expulsion of Arafat — it also means reconsidering the administration's puzzling opposition to the Israeli security fence...

The building, located just south of Yasser Arafat's Muqata compound, gives the soldiers a vantage point of the Muqata and sends a direct and clear message to Arafat that the IDF is present in the West Bank city.

Palestinian officials expressed concern over the takeover, saying that they expected the IDF to impose a total siege on Arafat.

The action came just hours before the security cabinet was set to meet to discuss the possibility of expelling Arafat.

Military sources confirmed that troops had taken positions in the city, saying that the move was made to send a signal and message to the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat...

..."It is possible to establish security on the ground...we can control the situation....but we need cooperation ( from the international community and Israel)," he said.

Qurei blamed Israel for its policy of targeted killings of Palestinian militants, and said the attempt on Hamas Spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was triggering more terror attacks.

Blogress Karol Sheinin reports that an Iranian democracy activist named Banafsheh contacted the most prominent "antiwar" group asking them to take a stand against Tehran's thuggish theocracy. In an e-mail (quoted verbatim), Banafsheh describes the answer she got:

Recently I contacted a group called A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION which organizes marches. After having introduced myself and explained to them the situation in Iran (after 4 phone calls and messages) I was told that they won't help the Iranian activists and their friends in organizing marches against the Islamic Republic as they're afraid the Iranian student movement might be run by IMPERIALIST!!!!!

They claimed to be "intelligent" and very well informed though essentially they had NO IDEA what on earth I was talking about. They were not only unaware of the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic, they had never even heard that an organized group of hoodlums, called the BADR Brigade, trained by the KGB and Palestinians, armed and bankrolled by the Islamic Republic's ruling theocrats, were infiltrating Iraq to run a muck in killing American soldiers and destroy the future of Iraq! When I explained that the people of Iran are acting on their own but that encouragement from the PEOPLE of the west was crucial in holding anti-Islamic Republic demonstrations etc. (that's all I had asked them for: help in organizing demonstrations) the woman basically said that they won't help because their cause was to eradicate Imperialism! I explained that Iranian oil was being pilfered by member nations of the EU and other countries such as Japan, at which she replied: since we don't live in Europe or Japan, I cannot help! I guess imperialism is concentrated only in the U.S.!!!!! AND that Mullahs can't be "Imperialists!"

I then explained that Hossein Khomeini (Khomeini's grandson) is now one of the biggest opponents of the Mullacracy in Iran...She told me that he was probably being bought by Americans!!! In other words, she was convinced that there could be no dissent among the Mullahs themselves!!!!!

I told her about my father and other political prisoners in Iran (not to mention the number of people stoned to death, hung, assassinated, raped...), she thought for a moment and said that my father is probably a dissident and that the Islamic Republic was possibly justified in putting him in prison!!!!! I don't know, but doesn't that seem oxymoronic coming from someone working at an "activist/protestor" organization?????

Well, not really. International Answer is the brainchild of America-hating ex-attorney general Ramsey Clark. As we've noted before, this group makes common cause with every one of America's enemies, from Fidel Castro to Saddam Hussein to Kim Jong Il.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cut short a visit to India and was being asked to consider far-reaching options, such as forcing Yasser Arafat into exile or ordering a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The spiral of violence drew calls for retaliation from Israelis and Palestinians alike. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for Tuesday's twin suicide attacks and said it would now begin targeting Israeli homes and high-rises in response to Wednesday's airstrike on the home of senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.

A half-ton bomb flattened the house, wounding Zahar and killing his eldest son and a bodyguard. It marked the first time a Hamas leader has been attacked in his home, an escalation of Israel's campaign against the group. Twenty-five people were wounded, including Zahar's wife and a daughter....

Preliminary findings were released last October then abruptly retracted after the agency overseeing the project, United Jewish Communities, discovered that an outside firm which conducted fieldwork had lost some data used to determine who would be interviewed. [...]

“To label any group in the Middle East as terrorist is to take sides, or at least appear to, and that is not acceptable... One person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter; it's not for journalists to judge.”

This sounds almost as radical as the policy set by Steven Jukes, Reuters' global head of news:

"We all know that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist... To be frank, it adds little to call the attack on the World Trade Center a terrorist attack."

Well, at least Reuters is consistent. The Boston Globe seems to have a vaguely defined double standard. Al Qaeda, Chinlund writes, “has proven itself an allowable exception.”

Tim Blair directs us (via Instapundit) to another amazing column in the Guardian. This one is by Andrew Gumbel, who's apparently a Brit expatriate forced to live among the colonials in Santa Monica, CA.

Now Santa Monica is one the places where I spend a lot of time and have many friends; I used to live just south of there is the somewhat more colorful neighborhood of Venice, and now live about thirteen miles away in the bucolic South Bay.

I know Santa Monica, and Santa Monica is just slightly to the right of Berkeley, Madison, and Cambridge. Their city council meetings are one the great sources of entertainment to the politically minded among us, as the council wrestles with weighty issues of international moral import while gradually approving the developments gentrifying the city - much like Berkeley, which has become the playground of the Peets-drinking, Sierra-Designs-wearing thoughtful class.

It's the opposite of jingoistic.

But, according to friend Andrew, it's waaay over the top. When the children sing a Barneyfied song that's a 'feel good' version of America the Beautiful...

Joshua Davey graduated from high school in 1999. He was in the top 10% of his class and came from a low-income family. These two facts won him a Washington State "Promise Scholarship" of $2,600 to be used toward his expenses in attending an accredited in-state college. In a congratulatory letter sent to Davey, Washington's Governor Gary Locke commended him on his achievement and noted that the purpose of the Promise Scholarship program was the state's interest in ensuring that "education…the great equalizer in our society" was more available Washington's students "regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or income…" But when Davey notified the state's Higher Education authority that he intended to pursue a double major in religious studies and business administration at Northwest College - a Christian college duly accredited by the state, his scholarship award was revoked...

After the defeat of Germany in 1945, Ms. Riefenstahl was pronounced a Nazi sympathizer by the Allies and never again found work as a movie director. But such was the influence of her revolutionary film techniques on subsequent generations of documentary makers that the debate over whether her talent could be separated from her prewar political views continued unabated until her death...

About 200 people, some waving black flags and shouting anti-Israeli slogans, gathered in a Muslim-dominated area of India's commercial capital, Bombay, to denounce Sharon's treatment of Palestinians.

''He has massacred thousands of innocent Palestinians. He is still killing Muslims,'' Muslim scholar Maulana Mansoor Ali Khan told the crowd. ''He is a terrorist, a war criminal.''

More protests were planned in other cities.

Sharon arrived on Monday for a four-day visit to build closer ties with India, a move that has worried some Indian Muslims and neighbouring Pakistan. He travels to Bombay on Thursday. Police said those detained would not be charged.

The vaccine, called Omr-IgG-am, is effective for six weeks. It is based on a protein group found in the blood's liquid component called immunoglobulin, which is taken from blood donors found to contain active antibodies against the virus, for which there is no available cure.

"This group contains all the antibodies that a human develops in his lifetime once he is exposed to bacteria, viruses and the like," said team leader Professor Bracha Rager. Until recently she was chief scientist of the Health Ministry, and is also a veteran researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's microbiology and immunology department. Her collaborator in the research was Dr. David Ben-Nathan of the Biological Institute in Ness Ziona.

The researchers succeeded in isolating the "defensive antibodies" produced from a group of proteins taken from Israeli blood donors who had come in contact with the virus. The antibodies were injected into mice who had been infected with the West Nile virus.

The disease was eliminated in the intentionally infected lab mice, and it has already promoted the recovery of a woman at Netanya's Laniado Hospital...

[[HOT ARTICLE:]]
The Mullahs' Shock
by Amir Taheri [NY POST]
This article discusses the recent and also historic moves between Islamic Government and the EU. Article can be found at:
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=175

That's it for now ladies and gentleman.. Lets hope for positive change in the future and also look for any possible support Bush may give to the Iranian people tonight in his address!!!!

The Chomsky defenders--and there seem to be a surprisingly large number of them--seem to form a kind of cult. Arguing with them seems to be a lot like trying to teach Plato's Republic to a pig: it wastes your time, and it annoys the pig. But I've spent more than enough time on this over the past three months: time to let it out of the cage...

This post will be updated throughout the day with links to contributors, and there may be some late arrivals over the next few days, so please check back frequently...

Nor is the US response after 9/11 any better. No serious attempt has ever been made to catch Bin Laden. In late September and early October 2001, leaders of Pakistan's two Islamist parties negotiated Bin Laden's extradition to Pakistan to stand trial for 9/11. However, a US official said, significantly, that "casting our objectives too narrowly" risked "a premature collapse of the international effort if by some lucky chance Mr Bin Laden was captured". The US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Myers, went so far as to say that "the goal has never been to get Bin Laden" (AP, April 5 2002). The whistleblowing FBI agent Robert Wright told ABC News (December 19 2002) that FBI headquarters wanted no arrests. And in November 2001 the US airforce complained it had had al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in its sights as many as 10 times over the previous six weeks, but had been unable to attack because they did not receive permission quickly enough (Time Magazine, May 13 2002). None of this assembled evidence, all of which comes from sources already in the public domain, is compatible with the idea of a real, determined war on terrorism...

It was not clear whether Yassin - who had a hand injury - was in a car or a building when the missiles hit. He is the highest-ranking Hamas official to be targeted by Israel, which has killed 12 members of the group in six missile strikes in the past three weeks. Five bystanders have also been killed in the attacks.

Yassin's car was traveling on the street where the missiles hit, said Abdel Nasser Ramadan, a Palestinian medic.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday called on the European Union to put Hamas and all its branches on the list of terror groups. Sharon made the request during a phone conversation with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Sharon also called for stopping the flow of money to Hamas from Europe...

Abbas, who was backed by Israel and the United States, told a closed-door session of the Palestinian parliament that his decision was final. In a statement issued later, Abbas listed a number of reasons for his resignation, including what he said was Israel's unwillingness to implement its obligations in the "road map" peace plan, and "harsh and dangerous domestic incitement against the government."

Israel immediately warned that it will not accept a new government controlled by Arafat or one of his loyalists, but did not make clear what action it would take, if any.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Saturday said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was a threat to the stability of the Middle East and ruled out any talks with him. "The Palestinian people need to choose between the way of negotiations and peace, and that of terror and violence."

"The Israeli government will not conduct negotiations with Arafat. The man is part of the problem and not part of the solution. He is a direct cause that threatens stability in the area," the statement said...

This is an important petition that has been signed by Iranians and non-Iranians from around the world. If you agree with it please sign it and make your readers aware of it and the importance of online petitioning. A petition with tens of thousands of signatures can and will make a difference.

Currently there are a few important articles you may want to read and pass on:

(1) "Double Standards and Deception: How the Left Treats Iran and the Middle East" - this is an EXCELLENT article by Elio Bonazzi which talks about the history of the left's position in relation to war, dictators, and the current situation in Iran.--article can be found here:
http://www.activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=163

(2) The Latest Horrors by Michael Ledeen: Definitely important --article can be found here:
http://www.activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=160

(3) "We Are Coming" - This is a brief article/poetic message to the Iranian people that we here their cries and we are coming to defend them! Very inspirational....--article can be found here:
http://www.activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=128

(4) US sponsors Anonymizer - if you live in IRAN - brief article by Kevin Poulsen of SecurityFocus that discusses the recent deal made between US and Anonymizer Inc. to allow Iranians to access any websites without threat of brutal consequences. find it here:
http://www.activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=153

That's all folks.. Feel free to peruse the news at your own convenience and post whatever you feel is most relevant and important for the movement and your readers! There are many additional articles we would love to recommend - however, we've done some filtering so you don't have to! - Enjoy, and stay tuned for next weeks updates. Also, in the meantime if you wish to stay up to date with Iranian news and views be
sure to visit - http://www.activistchat.com

Until Next Time -
KEEP UP THE FIGHT -
CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE -
STAY UNITED -

let the Iranian people know that freedom is coming.. WE ARE COMING!

In Unity & Struggle,
ActivistChat.com

What's more, it is surely not the tradition in this country to try to amend the Constitution in ways that constrict liberty. All of our amendments have been designed to expand the sphere of freedom, with one notorious exception: prohibition. We all know how that absurd federal power grab turned out...

[...]

When the man who once said he would defend Osama bin Laden is defending a former AMC and CAIR employee; when an AMC board member is under federal investigation for his company’s illicit ties to terrorists; when founding members of American Muslim organizations become designated terrorists, we must ask ourselves how much longer we can continue to believe the claim that such groups represent the interests of America’s moderate Muslims, and whether the Bush administration should continue to give them a political avenue to further their dangerous agenda.

The only positive reaction McKinney got was the moderately positive response to her appointment by the Sun's editorial board. In one Sun editorial by the Sun staff, the paper declared that the University "will benefit from McKinney, despite controversy." Later in the week in the Sun's weekly Heroes and Villains segment, the Sun staff waffled on what to label Ms. McKinney (either heroic or villainous), so they settled on "VILL-OIC"-a blend of villainous and heroic. All and all, I don't think one could consider this such a stellar defense.

On the other side there were many anti-McKinney letters to the editor. The paper printed at least four, but one must assume that more letters came in than could be printed due to space...

In 1940, the French government accepted defeat and signed a separate peace with the Third Reich. The French colonies in Syria and Lebanon remained under Vichy control, and were therefore open to the Nazis to do what they wished. They became major bases for Nazi propaganda and activity in the Middle East. The Nazis extended their operations from Syria and Lebanon, with some success, to Iraq and other places. That was the time when the Baath Party was founded, as a kind of clone of the Nazi and Fascist parties, using very similar methods and adapting a very similar ideology, and operating in the same way -- as part of an apparatus of surveillance that exists under a one-party state, where a party is not a party in the Western democratic sense, but part of the apparatus of a government. That was the origin of the Baath Party...

This form of "unbelief" persuades the people that they are in charge of their destiny and that, using their collective reasoning, they can shape policies and pass laws as they see fit. That leads them into ignoring the "unalterable laws" promulgated by God for the whole of mankind, and codified in the Islamic shariah (jurisprudence) until the end of time.

The goal of democracy, according to Al-Ayyeri, is to "make Muslims love this world, forget the next world and abandon jihad." If established in any Muslim country for a reasonably long time, democracy could lead to economic prosperity, which, in turn, would make Muslims "reluctant to die in martyrdom" in defense of their faith.

He says that it is vital to prevent any normalization and stabilization in Iraq. Muslim militants should make sure that the United States does not succeed in holding elections in Iraq and creating a democratic government. "If democracy comes to Iraq, the next target [for democratization] would be the whole of the Muslim world," Al-Ayyeri writes.

The al Qaeda ideologist claims that the only Muslim country already affected by "the beginning of democratization" and thus in "mortal danger" is Turkey.

"Do we want what happened in Turkey to happen to all Muslim countries?" he asks. "Do we want Muslims to refuse taking part in jihad and submit to secularism, which is a Zionist-Crusader concoction?"...

The main Coalition mistake has been to put sensitivity before common sense. The initial wave of looting was tolerated to allow Iraqis to let off steam. In retrospect, stringent curfews and the clear imposition of order would have been preferable. There would have been many complaints and fewer scenes of cheering Iraqis, but newfound freedom of expression would not have been confused with the right to steal...

Europe, on the other hand, has had diplomatic relations with the leadership in Tehran for over two decades, and there is a growing trade relationship of importance to both sides, but especially to Iran. For some European countries, especially Germany, ties with Iran and, earlier, Persia go back centuries, especially in the area of academic exchange.

To the surprise of many of its detractors in the United States, Europe's policy of "critical dialogue" with Iran has recently become more keenly focused on the dangers posed by Iran's nuclear activities and aspirations. This sharpening of approach has been hastened by Europe's growing concern about the parallel acceleration of Iran's missile development program.

Led by Germany, and on its own initiative rather than in response to U.S. pressure, Europe should publicly announce a policy under which it will not allow its companies to trade with a nuclear Iran, will not provide other than humanitarian financial support to a nuclear Iran and, in the World Bank and other international financial institutions, will vote against all but basic-needs projects for a nuclear Iran...

I first realized that public opinion had turned nasty in December 2001, when I appeared on a flagship BBC television current-affairs show. An Israeli in the audience asked why Israel was being condemned for taking action against terrorists similar to the moves America was making in its own war on terror.

My fellow panelists, including a Labor and a Conservative member of Parliament, deplored Israel’s brutality and the “terrorism on both sides.” The audience was even more hostile. When it was my turn, I said there was a double standard; I wondered why people were sympathetic when Israelis died, but not sympathetic when they tried to prevent themselves from dying; and said that the Palestinian Authority was a sponsor of terror and incited violence daily against Israelis and Jews across the world.

The audience responded by hissing at me. Even worse, when I said that Israel was a democracy, they laughed derisively. A fellow panelist then accused me of having “double loyalties” because I was a Jew...

The report awarded three grades. The worst was "capabilities that fell short of expectations or needs, and need to be redressed through new initiatives." Getting this low grade were the postwar planning and the search for weapons of mass destruction, as well as the mix of active and reserve forces, and the troop deployment to the region.

The next grade was "capabilities that demonstrated effectiveness, but need enhancement." Public affairs, special-operations forces, finding bombing targets and tracking the whereabouts of friendly troops received the grade.

The highest marks came under the category of "capabilities that reached new levels of performance and need to be sustained and improved." Joint service warfare, a key war-fighting requirement of Mr. Rumsfeld, got this high grade, as did global war-gaming.

The report also gave high marks to bombing "time-sensitive" targets. In the 2001 Afghanistan war, the report says, Gen. Franks and Mr. Rumsfeld had to approve the target list. But in Iraq, the command improved guidance and procedures so that commanders could launch strikes when targets emerged.

Introduction
The Palestinian Authority [PA] NGOs have defied the US, by refusing to sign a declaration that they will not use USAID grant money for terrorist purposes. This is a major challenge to the US administration, which sees the elimination of Palestinian terror and terrorist organizations as an integral component of US policy. The US has conditioned new funding agreements with PA NGOs, upon their signing an Appendix declaring the funding will not be passed on to terrorists. The PA NGOs are refusing to sign.

The Palestinian NGO opposition is universal, following a meeting of representatives of many NGOs who unanimously agreed they would not sign, and called for disciplinary measures to be taken against any Palestinian organization that signs. The Palestinians called the US anti terror Appendix “provocative” and called on the NGOs to refuse USAID, as was done during the Jenin battle, rather than sign.

In spite of the significant sums of money given to the Palestinian through USAID, the organization was maligned at the event, one speaker calling USAID a “destructive” organization, whose purpose it to “damage” or “corrupt” Palestinian organizations.

The following is the declaration that the Palestinian NGOs refuse to sign:
“The beneficiary institution has not supplied, and will not supply in the future, any material or other form of aid to any individual or other body that is known or has any reason to be considered as a person or a body that incites, plans, supports, or is involved in any terrorist activities of any kind.” [Trans from Arabic, Al Ayyam Aug. 25, 2003.]
“Another appendix … includes the names of Palestinian individuals and bodies that the United States considers to be terrorists, and therefore prohibits any cooperation with them such as the Hamas, the [Islamic] Jihad, the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, etc.” [Al Ayyam Aug. 25, 2003.]

Organizations refusing to sign include the “Mizan” Center for Human Rights, “The Red Crescent” and the “Federation of Sanitation Activities”. The refusal is based on the PA policy that refuses to see murder of Israelis including suicide bombings as terrorism. The current opposition to suicide bombings, as it is often stressed within the PA, is because of the negative political conditions that make suicide bombings politically detrimental, and not because suicide bombings are terror. Suicide bombings are defined as “legitimate resistance” [See article below].

The organizations say they do not want to be “captive to the funding conditions” set by the US.

PMW Background Info
As background it should be noted that USAID policy in the past has had confusing components when in came to demanding PA compliance to US anti terror policy. PMW reported in August 2002 that a PA school receiving USAID funding was named after the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who had participated in the murder of 36, including an American. USAID response at the time was to cut off aid. However, the very next day the aid was reinstated, following a PA promise to change the name. [Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2002] However a week later PMW reported that the PA was still using the terrorist’s name, referring to a ceremony in the Dalal Mughrabi school. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 16, 2002]

The following are texts from articles that have appeared in recent days showing the uniform rejection by PA NGO’s of the American terms.

“Relations between the American Agency for International Development [USAID] and the Palestinian civic organizations are undergoing a true crisis. The American Agency has announced that its signature [granting aid] is conditioned on agreements with Palestinian organizations receiving grants [from USAID], and from [other] [American] non-governmental Private Voluntary Organizations, upon the inclusion of the following Appendix:

“The beneficiary institution has not supplied, and will not supply in the future, any material or other form of aid to any individual or other body that is known or has any reason to be considered as a person or a body that incites, plans, supports, or is involved in any terrorist activities of any kind.” [**Translated from the Arabic]

“Additionally, this appendix is connected to another appendix … that includes the names of Palestinian individuals and bodies that the United States considers to be terrorists, and therefore prohibits any cooperation with them such as the Hamas, the [Islamic] Jihad, the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, etc. [Al-Ayyam supplement, “Local Activities,” August 25, 2003]

“Many experts and representatives of private institutions are warning against signing the document, which includes the conditions imposed by the American Development Agency, USAID, on funding Palestinian institutions. They explained that the civic organizations are not political institutions, and therefore the United States’ demand lacks any legal validity, because it is of a political nature. They also emphasized that it is important to stand with the Network of Private Organizations which reject this document and to prepare a memo that will be signed by the private institutions and published in the press, and to take disciplinary steps against members of the Network of Private Organizations who violate the accepted policy [by signing]...

"Senior officials and representatives of many institutions were present at the conference that was held at the hall of the Red Crescent Organization in Gaza. The director of the Red Crescent Organization, Dr. Chaider Abd Al-Shaffi, stated: “The objective behind the message that was received from this American institution regarding financing and aid is well known. The basis of the rejection of the United States’ request, is that our institutions are not political...”

“[Abdul Aziz Abu Qaraya, said] the position against this document that is emerging in the [West] Bank and in the [Gaza] Strip should be solidified, because it relates to all of the civic institutions, including [political] parties. The goal is to contend with this US provocation and its provocative conditions. This provocation indicates a pro-Israel political position.”

“The representative of the Federation of Sanitation Activities, Dr. Rabah Mohana, stated: “From the experience with the [US] Agency for Development, it emerges that we are talking about a destructive institution, because it creates a link with salary and administration in order to turn the organization captive to the funding conditions. The Agency for Development is subordinated to the U.S. State Department, and it executes its policies. In addition, it has no connection with private institutions, but in actual fact the agency executes American policy in order to damage civic institutions...”

"The director of the “Mizan” Center for Human Rights, attorney Issam Yunes, stated:
“There is no legal basis for this document. This document should be boycotted, including the local authorities, political parties and universities. These institutions should reject this document completely, as it puts them in great danger. We should publicize a list of any institutions that agree to the conditions in the document.”

"Amar Sheban, the economist, called for the adoption of the position that was taken while the events took place in the Jenin refugee camp, when American aid was rejected.” [Al-Hayat Al Jadida, August 28, 2003]

“Yesterday the network of local Palestinian organizations conducted a meeting of civic institutions. The subject was the problem of the conditions imposed by the American Agency for Development USAID... following the rejection by Palestinian civic organizations of this step, since it imposes conditions upon funding of the Palestinian developmental institutions.

“The network and the committee emphasized the refusal of the institutions [to accept] this appendix. They considered its content to be a clear violation of the Law of Charitable Organizations and Palestinian Local Staffs, section 1 of the year 2000, in which the institutions declared their absolute obligation to implement all of its clauses. They stated that the appendix in the joint agreement [with USAID] is a breach of the sovereignty of the local Palestinian activities, which could diminish the ability of this important sector to continue and participate in the development and growth of Palestinian society.

“The committee and the network have made clear that the Palestinians have declared, on several occasions, their sweeping opposition to terror - and therefore the linkage between legitimate resistance and terror is considered non-suitable to the Palestinian reality.” [Al-Quds, 28th August 2003]
[Ed. note - All Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombings, are included under the umbrella of “legitimate resistance”.]

“Needless to say, the signature of the Palestinian civic organizations on this appendix will place them in a great principal and practical dilemma...
It is clear that the Palestinian civic organizations and the United States disagree fundamentally in their definition of terror and terrorist activities. The civic organizations distinguish between actions and activities for national liberation and terrorist acts as the latter are expressed through actions carried out by the forces of the Israeli occupation, which are definitely a type of state terror against an unarmed people…

“We believe that the American Agency for International Development needs to reassess its decision regarding the signing of the appendix mentioned above, especially while the appendix and its content create a precedent to perpetuate the principle of conditional funding which contradicts the principle of independent local action…” [Al-Ayyam supplement, “Local Activities,” August 25, 2003]

The decision marks a major shift for Bush after months in which the administration had strongly resisted granting any significant military or political authority to the United Nations. It reflects a recognition within the administration that a stronger U.N. mandate is essential to winning greater foreign military and economic help in stabilizing Iraq.

Central to that effort is winning more pledges from other governments to send troops to Iraq to ease the burden on U.S. forces, who have come under daily attacks for weeks and are struggling to contain a recent outbreak of bombings against institutions supporting the U.S. effort. "We need the forces," a senior administration official said.

Turkey, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are among the countries that could supply substantial peacekeeping forces, but have held back because of the absence of a resolution conferring greater U.N. legitimacy on the U.S.-led occupation...

The idea of seeking a U.N. mandate was first broached publicly last week by Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, who told reporters the United States would consider supporting a multinational military force under U.N. mandate, but still subordinate to U.S. commanders. One official said the idea was "a multinational force under a unified command," with a role for the United Nations in Iraq's political, economic and security operations.

"What remains key is that the U.S. remain in charge of the operation," a senior defense official said.

Security Council members reacted coolly to Armitage's proposal last week, saying it did not grant the United Nations a big enough say...

"The terrorists had arrived at the checkpoint in a taxi. As Golani troops ordered them out of the taxi, one of them pulled out a handgun and was immediately shot dead," the source said.

The IDF said that the other man was placed under arrest. Both men were members of the Islamic Jihad.

Upon further inspection of the taxi, the IDF discovered a Kalashnikov automatic rifle with several magazines.

"Today's incident illustrates why the IDF has established checkpoints throughout the West Bank," the source said. "These security points may be inconvenient for many Palestinians but at the end of the day, these check posts save the lives of both innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians."

A few hours earlier, an IDF patrol came under automatic gunfire in Jenin. There were no reports of Israeli causalities, but the IDF believes that when they returned fire, they did manage to hit the Palestinian gunmen.

After the service, people were shaking hands and hugging. They were smiling and greeting each other by saying, "Shabbes," which starts at sundown on Friday and ends some 25 hours later.

Dozens of men — mostly with long beards and either skull caps or strange-looking hats (the likes of which I had never seen before) — approached me. This was understandable since not only had they never seen me before, but I was dressed in long khaki pants and a casual blue button-down shirt — a far cry from the black slacks and pressed white dress shirts almost everyone else was wearing. But rather than scorning me as an outsider, they embraced me and welcomed me to their house of worship.

Less than 48 hours later, at a funeral for a Hamas terrorist responsible for repeatedly plotting mass murders of innocent Israelis, this was the scene as described by the New York Times:

"'We want martyrs, more sacrifice,' blared a voice amplified through loudspeakers as more than 1,000 Palestinians marched through Gaza City today during the funeral procession."

But those victims weren't the only targets. Terrorists were aiming a blow at something they hate even more--the prospect of a country freed from their control and moving to become an Iraq of, by, and for the Iraqi people. Terrorists recognize that Iraq is on a course towards self-government that is irreversible and, once achieved, will be an example to all in the Muslim world who desire freedom, pointing a way out of the hopelessness that the extremists feed on. And so, they test our will, the will of the Iraqi people, and the will of the civilized world...

Not that Biafra lacked cause. Nigeria’s so-called “civil war” actually constituted a Muslim jihad genocide that felled one million victims. Biafran Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu explained in his June 1969 Ahiara Declaration, the Ibo were threatened with “total destruction,” and their secession resisted “the Arab-Muslim expansionism which has menaced and ravaged the African continent for twelve centuries.” Nigerian troops in 1966 slaughtered 50,000 “like cattle.” In one village, in 1968 they murdered the entire adult male population. Nigerian Lieut. Col. Murtala Mohammed declared in September 1967, “My destination is Onitsha, brothers and sisters. Let nobody stand on my way, for anything that stands on my way would be crushed.” Indeed, the Ibo people were crushed. As Karl Maier expertly describes in This House Has Fallen (2000), Nigeria’s Islamization continues today and the Ibos have become its second class citizens.

Now “peace activism” ironically sides with jihad, at least as embodied by the International Solidarity Movement, which claims a Palestinian Arab “right to resist …via legitimate armed struggle,” including murder by suicide...

Shalom arrived for a two day visit, the first by an Israeli foreign minister since just before the outbreak of violence in September 2003 [sic?]. He is slated to meet Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Tuesday.

Shalom, who hopes that the visit will lead to a re-establishment of diplomatic ties with Morocco, severed in October 2000, said he hopes this visit will also lead other Arab countries to renew their ties with Israel...

The Moroccan government, Shalom said, "now understands the step they took in October 2000 was too hasty, and at the end of the day was not to its benefit."

In addition to discussing the issue of re-establishing ties and the situation with the Palestinians, Morocco is expected to ask Israel to lift its travel warning issued earlier this year after the terror attack in Casablanca advising Israelis not to visit the country.

According to one diplomatic official, Morocco is keen on getting back Israeli and Jewish tourists who during the late 1990's traveled to Morocco by the "tens of thousands."

Both sides were proud of the peace that prevailed as a result.

No U.S. Marine has been killed in Iraq since April 12, despite the force having taken control of a huge area in the south-central part of the country. By comparison, there have been 68 combat deaths among American soldiers in the rest of the country, primarily in Baghdad.[...]

''Our soldiers understand the sensitivities,'' U.S. military spokesman Lt. Guy Shields said Saturday. ''Throughout the conduct of the war, we were avoiding going near the shrines and mosques.''

''I don't hold the American forces responsible for the al-Hakim assassination,'' he told Al-Jazeera television shortly after the bombing. ''But I hold the coalition forces responsible for security in Iraq. The Americans have taken responsibility for security in Iraq, and I appeal to them to keep the peace.''

On Sunday, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said Najaf Gov. Haider Mehadi asked the FBI to join Iraqi police in the investigation.