Why not confront evil?

Mark Steyn:

According to The Sunday Telegraph, on this week's whirlwind tour of the Great Satan, the Prince of Wales "will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam…because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11". His Royal Highness apparently finds the Bush approach to Islam "too confrontational".

If the Prince wants to take a few examples of the non-confrontational approach with him to the White House, here's a couple pulled at random from the last week's news: the president of Iran called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Kofi Annan expressed his "dismay".

Excellent. Struck the perfect non-confrontational tone. Were the Iranian nuclear programme a little more advanced and they'd actually wiped Israel off the map, the secretary-general might have felt obliged to be more confrontational and express his "deep concern".

In Sulawesi, Indonesia, three Christian girls walking home from school were beheaded.

"It is unclear what was behind the attack," reported the BBC, scrupulously non-confrontationally.

In the Australian state of Victoria, reports the Herald Sun, "police are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits". Tough luck for us infidel wife-beaters, but admirably non-confrontational Islam-wise.

...

Just so. Bush is a polarising figure because these are polarising times. But, when the dust settles (metaphorically, I hope), his designation of Iran as part of an "axis of evil" will seem a shrewder judgment than that of the Euro-appeasers or the snob Islamophiles. Facing profound challenges, most political leaders in the western world have shirked confrontation on everything from Islamism to unaffordable social programmes - and their peoples will live with the consequences of that non-confrontation long after those leaders are gone.

Law professor says Alito is stronger candidate than Roberts

Ann Althouse:

I wanted President Bush to nominate someone like John Roberts, and I think Samuel Alito in fact deserves to be considered a stronger nominee than Roberts. He has the impressive educational background followed by a stellar career before becoming a judge, but he also has a much longer record as a judge -- 15 years to Roberts's 2. I am glad to see Bush not shy away from a person with a real judicial record. The fear of putting up a nominee with actual cases to peruse puts too many fine candidates off limits. To see Roberts as the ideal nominee is to prefer a judicial mystery, someone who is hard to know and hard to attack. With Alito, we can read his cases. It will be important to recognize that an inferior court judge is profoundly limited compared to a Supreme Court justice, but the judicial record is still highly valuable.

Here is an article summarizing a few of his hot-button cases....

She summarizes some interesting cases that will surprise many.

Al Qaeda loses another one of its Saudi connections

Multi-National Force-Iraq:

A Saudi-born member of al Qaeda involved in smuggling foreign fighters into Iraq was killed Oct. 29 as he attempted to flee Coalition Forces.

Multiple intelligence sources and tips from concerned citizens led Coalition Forces to a location near Ubaydi where a senior Saudi al Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator known as Sa’ud (aka Abu Sa’ud) would be located. Upon arrival at the location, Coalition Forces attempted to secure the vehicle containing Sa’ud and other terrorists when the driver tried to escape. Coalition Forces shot at the vehicle, killing Abu Sa’ud and three unknown terrorists.

Abu Sa’ud, a Saudi extremist, was a senior al Qaeda terrorist who funneled foreign fighters and suicide bombers into Iraq. Intelligence sources believe that Sa’ud recently arrived from Saudi Arabia to shore up the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq foreign fighter and terrorists cells whose previous leaders have been captured or killed in recent months.

Coalition Forces were informed that an alleged meeting was being arranged in the coming days in which Sa’ud was to take control of foreign fighter facilitation in the al Qaim and Husaybah region. It was also believed that Sa’ud would take on a more active role in the planning and execution of operations against Coalition Forces.

This is a real loss for al Qaeda. Their networks depends on the flow of jihadis into Iraq and this makes it more difficult for them to do so. The back was broken on their operation in Mosel when the US knocked out their Saudi connection in that city. Al Qaeda is already hampered by having to replace inexperienced people in Saudi Arabia.

Assualts against Border Patrol agents on the increase

LA Times:

Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled along the Mexican border over the last year as patrols cracking down on drug trafficking and migrant smuggling encountered increasing resistance — including the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire.

At least 687 assaults against agents were reported during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the previous year's total of 354 and the highest since the agency began tracking assaults across the Southwest border in the late 1990s, according to Border Patrol officials.

Most assaults occurred near urban smuggling havens such as Nogales, Ariz., and Tijuana, but cross-border skirmishes took place from remote California deserts to the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas.

In many attacks, smugglers hurled softball-size rocks or fired high-powered slingshot devices loaded with marbles and ball bearings. Some tried to run over agents with vehicles.

In some cases, smugglers and migrants fought with agents and tossed wooden pallets to block their pursuers. Dented and damaged vehicles, windshields shattered, sat in Border Patrol parking lots.

In Tucson and San Diego, the most violent sectors, agents reported being shot at 43 times — up from 18 the previous year. No agents were killed, but three were shot in the leg. At least 20 more were hospitalized, many with head injuries from rocks.

...

Agents and experts expect the hostile climate to intensify as the border becomes increasingly difficult to cross.

...

There is much more.

Muslim Brotherhood's limited objective--conquer the world

Oliver Guitta, Conterterrorism Blog:

According to Sylvain Besson, a Swiss investigative reporter, Swiss authorities found a fascinating document when they entered Yusuf Nada’s villa in November 2001. Nada is by the way viewed as one of the bankrollers of Al Qaeda; he is the head of the Al Taqwa Bank. The document seized entitled “The Project” is a fourteen page leaflet dated December 1982 calling for the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest of the world.

It is a detailed roadmap to attain this objective. The Muslim Brothers must infiltrate existing institutions rather than create their own. It calls for a guerilla war against Israel in the Palestinian territories and support to diverse armed Muslim groups from Bosnia to the Philippines. Swiss investigators confirm that the Project is the proof of the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in supporting and inspiring the worldwide jihad. Also a Western official who studied closely the Project assesses that it is the biggest threat for European democracies in the next ten years....

Rachers fight back against alien invasion

Washington Times:

For the 100 years that Robert Been's family has been grazing cattle and raising horses on this isolated, scrub-brush desert in New Mexico's southwestern corner, illegal aliens have been crossing into the United States.
Mr. Been, whose 2,500-acre ranch straddles a long-established immigration corridor, recalls his parents giving illegals food, water and clothing to guard against the cold desert nights. It was "just a way of life here."
"They were respectful of us, and we returned that respect."
But things have changed in this remote desert valley and the adjoining Animus Canyon.
"The alien smugglers and drug dealers we now face don't care about anything or anybody. They are ruthless" and the "aliens are much different," said Mr. Been, 48.
"They're tearing down our fences, destroying our water tanks, breaking into our homes, slaughtering our cattle, stealing our horses and threatening our families," he said as he prepared his horse for a daylong patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Outraged by the escalating violence and vandalism and puzzled by the government's inability to confront the problem, Mr. Been has organized the Rough Riders, a group of ranchers and locals who patrol the region on horseback searching for signs of aliens headed north.
"I don't know why our government can't do something to help us," said Mr. Been. "We have told our elected officials what's going on here, but they just turn their backs on us.

...

There is more.

A "red on red" attack at Baghdad hotel

Jack Kelly:

Al-Qaida has claimed credit for a large, sophisticated attack Monday on the two hotels in Baghdad where most foreign journalists and many defense contractors stay.

...

Mouwafak al Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, said the purpose of the attack was to take over the hotel and seize journalists as hostages.

If so, many American soldiers might have regarded this as an incidence of "red on red" violence.

The view of many that the news media are the insurgents' allies was reinforced by a Reuters story Tuesday that equated the suicide attack to the incident in April 2003, when a U.S. tank fired on the Palestine Hotel, killing two journalists. (The hotel had not yet been taken by U.S. forces, who were fighting Saddam's men in the streets. The journalists were on a balcony. One was pointing a camera at the tank. At a distance, a television camera looks a great deal like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.)

"Major E," an Army officer stationed in Baghdad, described the assault as a public relations success, but a military failure, in an e-mail to the Web log Power Line.

...

"Things are much better in Iraq than the media would like you to believe," Major E said.

Michelle Malkin has the Alito roundup

The case for a Libby pardon

NY Sun:

...

So Mr. Libby's indictment sent us scrambling back to our copy of Justice Ginsburg's concurring opinion in the 1996 Supreme Court case Brogan v. United States, in which she warned of "the sweeping generality" of Section 1001's language. She wrote, "The prospect remains that an overzealous prosecutor or investigator - aware that a person has committed some suspicious acts, but unable to make a criminal case - will create a crime by surprising the suspect, asking about those acts, and receiving a false denial." She wrote, "the Department of Justice has long noted its reluctance to approve S1001 indictments for simple false denials made to investigators."

...

Now, perjury is a serious crime, but we don't discount for a moment the possibility - we'd even say likelihood - that Mr. Libby was telling the truth. Or that he was misremembering, telling an inaccurate story that he didn't know was false. American jurisprudence requires us to presume him innocent. But it is also possible that Mr. Libby subordinated his own Fifth Amendment rights to his duty to obey the president's instructions "to totally cooperate." In any event, it takes a Washington Democrat to be hypocritical enough to be voting against Mr. Bush's judicial nominees for the sin of being insufficiently like Justice Ginsburg, while at the same time rushing to hail a federal prosecutor for bringing charges against a White House aide under a statute that Ms. Ginsburg criticized for its "sweeping generality."

This prosecution, in any event, is an assault on the presidency. If Ms. Plame didn't want her identity out, she shouldn't have gotten her husband a secret mission and then allowed him to wage a public campaign against the president's foreign policy. The leading prevaricator in this case is Mr. Wilson himself. He has accused Mr. Bush of falsely leading America to war. Mr. Bush had claimed "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Mr. Wilson drank tea in Niger for a week and said that Mr. Bush's claim was not true. But even after Mr. Wilson's objection, the July 2004 report by the British government's Butler Commission found that Mr. Bush's comment was "well-founded." In a July 2004 report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senators Roberts, Hatch, and Bond said of Mr. Wilson, "The former Ambassador, either by design or through ignorance, gave the American people and, for that matter, the world a version of events that was inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and misleading."

...

Mad logic in Iran

Melanie Phillips:

The full text of Ahmadinejad’s speech, translated by the invaluable MEMRI, is worth reading. Here we can see starkly laid out the demented inferiority complex and paranoia of the jihadi, the mad inversion of cause and effect and the centrality of Israel to this apocalyptic vision -- and the centrality of the Palestinians in bringing about the goals of the jihad:

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [i.e. the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years. In this historical war, the situation at the fronts has changed many times. During some periods, the Muslims were the victors and were very active, and looked forward, and the World of Arrogance was in retreat. Unfortunately, in the past 300 years, the Islamic world has been in retreat vis-à-vis the World of Arrogance...

During the period of the last 100 years, the [walls of the] world of Islam were destroyed and the World of Arrogance turned the regime occupying Jerusalem into a bridge for its dominance over the Islamic world...

This occupying country [i.e. Israel ] is in fact a front of the World of Arrogance in the heart of the Islamic world. They have in fact built a bastion [ Israel ] from which they can expand their rule to the entire Islamic world... This means that the current war in Palestine is the front line of the Islamic world against the World of Arrogance, and will determine the fate of Palestine for centuries to come.

Today the Palestinian nation stands against the hegemonic system as the representative of the Islamic Ummah [nation]. Thanks to God, since the Palestinian people adopted the Islamic war and the Islamic goals, and since their struggle has become Islamic in its attitude and orientation, we have been witnessing the progress and success of the Palestinian people.

The Iranian president sees his country as part of an epic fight between the world of Islam and the rest of us. Because the world of Islam has lost out to the west since the Enlightenment, this is portrayed as an assault by the west upon the Islamic world. The failure of that world is thus presented as a defeat by a west that set out to destroy it. The idea that Islam was actually the last thing on the west’s mind while it just got on with inventing capitalism, while the Islamic world lost out simply because of its own inherent weaknesses, is not even considered. The west is a priori an aggressor. So it follows that Israel, which is composed of Jews who

came to this country from far away to plunder it

is the west’s beachhead in its diabolical intention to destroy the Islamic world. Of course, the fact that the Jews did not come from ‘far away’ but were a nation in Israel long before Islam was even invented, and retained an unbroken link with and residency in that country through waves of successive invasions and colonisations — notably by the aggressive Islamic world — is utterly denied. The fact that Israel palpably has only ever wanted its own self to exist and has never had aggressive designs on any other country is also denied. Instead, the mad logic of fanatical victim complex means that Israel must be destroyed, and the jihadi tells himself that the destruction of the west in turn is likewise an act of self-defence.

...

Well, 300 years ago the US did not exist, so it could not have been our fault that the Islamic world blundered into defeat. As long as they keep blaming the "other" rather than taking responsibility for their own circumstances they will always wind up with the same result, defeat. Like Osama the "grieviances" are older than any current policy differences, so we should quit wasting our time and energy debating them and get about the business of defeating these enemies.

Austin Bay has a lengthy discussion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Wilson's African adventure.

Finally noticing Iran's intentions

Michael Ledeen:

Mirabile dictu, as they used to say before Dante — all of a sudden everyone has noticed that Iran really wants the destruction of Israel. "What took them so long?" you may well ask (as I certainly do). Just a month ago, on September 28, there was a monster parade in Tehran featuring the country's armed forces. One of the high points of the parade was a collection of the Shahab 3 missiles, the ones designed to carry nuclear warheads, and they were adorned with catchy slogans like "The Zionist regime must be destroyed," and "Death to America."

Four military attaches walked out in protest: the French, the Italian, the Greek and the Polish. But that was about it. The Western world had made its point by bravely abandoning the parade grounds. I didn't see any nasty condemnation of the warmongers in Tehran, I don't remember even the toothless jaws of the United Nations condemning the Islamic republic, and I certainly saw nothing vaguely resembling an effective policy to bring down the mullahs before they go for our exposed veins and arteries, even though Her Majesty's Government had long been aware that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were arming, training, funding, and guiding terrorists from Khuzestan across the Shatt-al-Arab into southern Iraq, and that Iranian-intelligence officers were openly advocating the creation of an Islamic republic in the Shiite south, along Khomeinist lines.

Indeed, on September 12 Al Sharq Al Awsat reported that "officials from the Revolutionary Guard have recently met with leaders of Ansar al Islam and the Jihad organizations...near the Iranian-Iraq borders. They discussed the acceleration of military operations against the British forces in the south of Iraq." It didn't take long to confirm this information. Richard Beeston of the London Times wrote on the 20th that the Brits had reason to believe that new attacks against British forces in southern Iraq "is being orchestrated with weapons and encouragement from Iran."

...

While you're at it, you might also point out that one of Iran's favorite terrorist organizations, Islamic Jihad, is having its moment in court in south Florida, and an interesting bit of information unexpectedly crept into the record. Mr. Kerry Myers, an FBI agent, was asked by the defense attorney whether Islamic Jihad had done any mean things outside Israel, Gaza, or the West Bank (as if terrorism against Israelis doesn't count, you know). Myers pointed out that IJ had threatened the United States. The attorney asked if there had ever been an actual action by IJ. And Myers burst out with "I can tell you there was a plot to commit terrorist acts in the United States. It was interdicted, I believe."

...

There is much more. Read it.

Excusing communist genocide

Ralph Reiland:

Question: How many innocent people does a communist tyrant have to kill before The New York Times gets really mad? Answer: More than 70 million.

Seventy million is a good estimate of the number of Chinese who perished under Mao's reign of terror and ineptitude, the victims of their own government's decades of torture, famine, forced labor, purges, assassinations, ethnic massacres and class genocide.

...

I bring up all this history because I was halfway through reading "Mao: The Unknown Story," the new book by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, when The New York Times published Nicholas Kristof's review of the book.

Now it's true that Kristof, an op-ed writer at The Times, judges the book to be a "magnificent biography," and he does at least whistle past the graveyard, pointing out that Mao had slaughtered a quarter of the entire Red Army, "often after they were tortured in such ways as having red-hot rods forced into their rectums."

Still, Mr. Kristof worries that Chang and Halliday might have painted too dark a picture. He wonders if the 70 million number is "accurate," and if the book unfairly excludes "exculpatory evidence" about the upside of Mao's rule.

Arguing that "Mao's legacy is not all bad," Kristof pays tribute to Mao's successes with land reform and women's rights. "Land reform in China," he writes, "like land reform in Japan and Taiwan, helped lay the groundwork for prosperity today."

What he doesn't say is that land reform in Japan and Taiwan was accomplished without the slaughter of millions of people.

Regarding women's rights, Kristof asserts that Mao "moved China from one of the worst places in the world to be a girl to one where women have more equality than in, say, Japan or Korea."

The perfect example of this enhanced equality, perhaps, is that the Chinese government has just banned this new book on Mao, for both men and women.

The ironic weighs heavy

Christopher Hitchens:

...

To judge by his verbose and self-regarding performance, containing as it did the most prolix and least relevant baseball analogy ever offered to a non-Chicago audience, Patrick Fitzgerald is not a man with whom the ironic weighs heavily. Nor does he seem discountenanced by his failure to find any breach in the IIPA or even the more broadly drawn Espionage Act. Mr. Libby stands accused of misstating his conversations with almost every journalist in Washington except for the only one--Robert Novak--who actually published the totemic name of Valerie Plame. "We have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby knowingly and intentionally outed a covert agent," Mr. Fitzgerald contentedly confirmed.

If--and one has to say "if"--the transmission of any classified information is a crime, then as Mr. Fitzgerald also confirmed, one would be in the deep waters of the Espionage Act, which is "a very difficult statute to interpret." Actually, it is a very easy act to interpret. It declares that even something very well-known is secret if the state defines it as secret: the same principle as the dreaded British Official Secrets Act. As to the critical question of whether Mr. Plame had any cover to blow, Mr. Fitzgerald was equally insouciant: "I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert."

In the absence of any such assertion or allegation, one must be forgiven for wondering what any of this gigantic fuss can possibly be about. I know some apparently sensible people who are prepared to believe, still, that a Machiavellian cabal in the White House wanted to punish Joseph Wilson by exposing his wife to embarrassment and even to danger. So strong is this belief that it envisages Karl Rove (say) deciding to accomplish the foul deed by tipping off Robert Novak, one of the most anti-Iraq-war and pro-CIA journalists in the capital, as if he were precisely the pliant tool one would select for the dastardly work. And then, presumably to thicken the plot, Mr. Novak calls the CIA to confirm, as it readily did, that Ms. Plame was in the agency's employ.

...

Iran's most immediate threat is by hosting our enemies

Peter Brooks:

THE most immediate threat Iran poses to American national security isn't its nuclear (weapons) program. It's the safe haven Tehran is giving al Qaeda terrorists, who are planning and directing jihad across the globe.

If the United States and its allies in the War on Terror don't take firm action against Iranian support to al Qaeda, the price in blood and treasure attributable to Osama bin Laden's killers — in Iraq and elsewhere — will continue to soar.

Shockingly, it's been long forgotten that Iran became home to some of al Qaeda's most wanted after the fall 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Tehran admitted as much, claiming that al Qaeda operatives were under "house arrest" and would be tried.

Of course, nothing of the sort happened . . .

So al Qaeda "refugees" from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, North Africa and Europe — including senior military commander Saif al Adel, three of Osama's sons and spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith — now operate freely from Iran.

In fact, just last week, the German monthly magazine Cicero, citing Western intelligence sources, claimed that as many as 25 al Qaeda thugs are living in Iran under the protection of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Cicero cites a "top-ranking" Western intelligence official saying, "This is not incarceration or house arrest. They [al Qaeda members] can move around as they please." The IRGC even provides logistics help and training to al Qaeda.

Iran and al Qaeda have been tight for some time. The 9/11 Commission said that al Qaeda passed freely though Iran before 9/11, including at least eight of the 14 "muscle" hijackers that commandeered the four ill-fated planes. After the USS Cole bombing in 2000, Iranian officials approached al Qaeda to propose a partnership for future anti-U.S. attacks. (Osama nixed the offer for fear of alienating Saudi supporters.)

Al Qaeda also collaborated with Iran in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. And U.S. intercepts caught al Qaeda operatives in Iran communicating with terrorists in Saudi Arabia before the 2003 attacks there.

...

Repeated calls for Iran to turn over al Qaeda members to their countries of origin have gone nowhere. It's time to stop giving Tehran a pass.

Tough, multilateral economic sanctions against Iran are long overdue. Iran's economy has been on the skids for a while; Tehran would feel the pain if the United Nations — or simply its major trading partners, such as Germany, France and Italy — put the squeeze on.

The sound of Tehran's high-pitched squeals whenever economic sanctions are even mentioned — usually over its nuclear (weapons) program — seems to indicate that these measures are something the mullahs would rather avoid.

There's no guarantee that sanctions will get Tehran to swear off its terrorist ways. But, because Iran's economy is so centralized, trade gives the mullahs pocket change to cause trouble at home and across the globe.

...

Iran is at war with the US. Al Qaeda is just one of its proxies. Iran is an enemy country and should be treated as such.

Not the media's finest hour after hour after hour etc.

Howard Kurtz:

The drumbeat of media speculation was so loud last week that at times it sounded as though Karl Rove was on the verge of being thrown in the slammer.

"Is the man some call Bush's brain about to be indicted?" CNN anchor Heidi Collins asked Thursday night. MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked whether Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby might receive a presidential pardon "if they get indicted."

ABC's Ted Koppel said the possibility of a Rove or Libby indictment "had risen to the level of expectation," while pundit Paul Begala said on CNN: "If, in fact, the news reports are true, Karl could be in a lot of trouble."

So when Rove was not indicted in the CIA leak case Friday, it almost seemed like a victory for the White House. But it was clearly not a victory for the reporters and commentators who climbed far out on the limb of handicapping what a special prosecutor operating in secret might do.

Now that an indictment has reached the highest level of the White House for the first time since Watergate, journalists face a minefield of potentially explosive questions: Are they enjoying a bit too much the spectacle of Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, having to resign over the perjury and obstruction of justice charges? What happened to the normal journalistic skepticism toward a single-minded special prosecutor, as was on display when Ken Starr was pursuing Bill Clinton?

The hostility directed at Patrick Fitzgerald when he was threatening reporters with jail seems to have faded now that his targets are senior aides to President Bush. Perhaps most important, are reporters, commentators, bloggers and partisans using the outing of Valerie Plame as a proxy war for rehashing the decision to invade Iraq? The vitriol directed at New York Times reporter Judith Miller, whether deserved or not, seems motivated as much by her role in touting the administration's erroneous WMD claims as in her decision to be jailed, at least for a time, to protect Libby.

In short, the leak prosecution is shaping up as a test of media fairness and responsibility in a polarizing age when many people on the left and right think the news business is hopelessly biased.

...

They are flunking the test, Howard.

Cyprus-Fairbanks schools flunking zero tolerance test

Houston Chronicle:

John Tverbakk, the father of a 13-year-old honor roll student at Cook Middle School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, thinks school officials ignored a new law intended to relax zero-tolerance policies when they sent his daughter to an alternative school for six weeks for holding a 1-ounce test tube of beer.

Tverbakk said he is angry because his daughter Veronica, who has perfect attendance, a junior black belt in taekwondo, and is on the school's track team, received the same punishment as her classmate who brought the beer to school.

"The student said it was Corona, and Veronica thought she was joking, so she held it and pretended to drink it and handed it back to the girl," Tverbakk said.

Veronica Tverbakk's case is not the only instance in which parents are challenging actions of administrators in interpreting the new law, said Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, who co-wrote House Bill 603 to curtail zero-tolerance discipline.

The legislation instructs administrators to consider a student's disciplinary history, intent or lack of intent, and whether a student has a disability that would impair judgment before deciding to remove, suspend or expel a student for misconduct.

...

Zero tolerance has been an excuse for avoiding judgement.

Democrats who blast Walmart shop there for campaign supplies

Cleveland Plain-Dealer via Houston Chronicle:

...

Records reviewed by the Plain Dealer of Cleveland show that political organizations headed by these politicians — as well as John Kerry, Wesley Clark, the liberal activist group America Coming Together and the feminist group Emily's List — have spent money at Wal-Mart over the last 2 1/2 years.

Leaders and advisers of these groups have criticized Wal-Mart or are lobbying to stop Wal-Mart's spread in several cities.

They say Wal-Mart symbolizes the human cost of relentlessly pursuing lower retail prices: low pay and insufficient benefits for the chain's employees, and the financial destruction of small merchants.

Why, then, have their aides been cruising Wal-Mart aisles with their bosses' money?

Robert McAdam, Wal-Mart's vice president of corporate affairs, suspects he knows.

"We serve so many people because we're the place that's convenient to go and at low prices," said McAdam, who disputes the criticisms leveled at his employer. "So if you're in charge of managing precious resources for a campaign, which traditionally always struggle to have the right amount of money they need, I can't imagine they'd make any other choice."

The politicians have a different take: Their staffs messed up.

...

The Plain Dealer tracked the purchases of office supplies, food and other items through a database of campaign finance records maintained by Political Money Line. The biggest Wal-Mart spender among its critics: John Kerry's failed presidential campaign, with $7,196. Kerry had said Wal-Mart offered inadequate health insurance, and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, said Wal-Mart was "destroying communities."

The campaign of Howard Dean, now Democratic Party chairman, spent $4,396 when he was running for president, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $4,262. Clark, who ran for the Democratic nomination, spent $1,875.

These expenditures are especially noteworthy because of the anti-Wal-Mart activism of former Dean and Clark advisers and staffers. Dean political operatives Buffy Wicks and Jeremy Bird in April helped launch Wake-Up Wal-Mart, a campaign financed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. A Clark adviser, Chris Kofinis, is Wake-Up Wal-Mart's communications director.

Kofinis said he could not speak to the Clark campaign's expenditures. But he said: "When I was with the Clark campaign, I was focused on electing Clark. The Wal-Mart issue was not on my radar. I'm not being a hypocrite about it."

The same goes, he said, for a number of others.

Wal-Mart is not buying it.

This is pretty funny. It is pretty clear that these guys are just posturing for their union base, but when the times comes to make a purchase, like everyone else in a capitalist system they look for the best product at the best price and in many cases wind up at Wal-Mart. It would be irrational to do otherwise.

Still fighting the Tonkin Gulf resolution

NY Times:

The National Security Agency has kept secret since 2001 a finding by an agency historian that during the Tonkin Gulf episode, which helped precipitate the Vietnam War, N.S.A. officers deliberately distorted critical intelligence to cover up their mistakes, two people familiar with the historian's work say.

The historian's conclusion is the first serious accusation that communications intercepted by the N.S.A., the secretive eavesdropping and code-breaking agency, were falsified so that they made it look as if North Vietnam had attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964, two days after a previous clash. President Lyndon B. Johnson cited the supposed attack to persuade Congress to authorize broad military action in Vietnam, but most historians have concluded in recent years that there was no second attack.

The N.S.A. historian, Robert J. Hanyok, found a pattern of translation mistakes that went uncorrected, altered intercept times and selective citation of intelligence that persuaded him that midlevel agency officers had deliberately skewed the evidence.

Mr. Hanyok concluded that they had done it not out of any political motive but to cover up earlier errors, and that top N.S.A. and defense officials and Johnson neither knew about nor condoned the deception.

...

Both men said Mr. Hanyok believed the initial misinterpretation of North Vietnamese intercepts was probably an honest mistake. But after months of detective work in N.S.A.'s archives, he concluded that midlevel agency officials discovered the error almost immediately but covered it up and doctored documents so that they appeared to provide evidence of an attack.

"Rather than come clean about their mistake, they helped launch the United States into a bloody war that would last for 10 years," Mr. Aid said.

Aid is just flat wrong. While the events in the Tonkin Gulf became a pretext for the war, it was going to happen regardless of whether the events in the Gulf happened. It was going to happen because the communist north was determined to conquer the south and the US was determined to stop them. If the events in the Gulf had been accurately reported that would not have stopped a war that was already underway, and some other event would have then been used to formalize it, such as the attacks on US forces at air bases in South Vietnam.

Liberals have this fantasy that certain events are of critical importance in the decision to go to war. Then then focus their efforts on trying to discredit the event. They are doing the same thing now in a very dishonest way by focusing on the debate over what to do about Saddam's inability to account for his WMD and turning it into a childish liar, liar pants on fire diatribe. There are ususally many events that lead to war and it is a mistake to overanalyze any of them.

Alito gets Bush nomination for Supremes

AP via Houston Chronicle:

President Bush, stung by the rejection of his first choice, will nominate Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, selecting a conservative federal judge to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate.

The choice, confirmed by two senior Republican official, was likely to spark a political brawl. Unlike the nomination of Harriet Miers, which was derailed by Bush's conservative allies, Alito will face opposition from liberal Democrats.

Bush planned to announce the nomination at 8 a.m. EST.

...

Freepers continue to battle the Code Pinkos

Washington Post:

Every Friday night, Gael Murphy and Kristinn Taylor meet in Northwest Washington, separated by a bustling four-lane road -- and a whole lot more.

Since spring, the two have stood firmly on opposite sides of Georgia Avenue NW in front of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Murphy leading a coalition of war protesters, Taylor marshaling supporters of the Iraq war.

Both sides say they are there to support the troops. Beyond that, there's little common ground.

"They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name," said Murphy, a co-founder of the women's antiwar group Code Pink. "It's aimed at disrupting our vigil."

To Taylor, a spokesman for the local chapter of FreeRepublic.com, a politically conservative Web site, disruption is an honorable goal.

"It's galling for us to see them across the street," he said. "They've endorsed the terrorists."

...

There is more.

This is pretty consistent with what I have said about the CIA's conduct in the Wilson affair

Instapundit:

THE BIG LOSER in the Libby affair, it would seem to me, is the CIA. At least it will be if anyone pays attention.

Consider: Assuming that Valerie Plame was some sort of genuinely covert operative -- something that's not actually quite clear from the indictment -- the chain of events looks pretty damning: Wilson was sent to Africa on an investigative mission regarding nuclear weapons, but never asked to sign any sort of secrecy agreement(!). Wilson returns, reports, then publishes an oped in the New York Times (!!) about his mission. This pretty much ensures that people will start asking why he was sent, which leads to the fact that his wife arranged it. Once Wilson's oped appeared, Plame's covert status was in serious danger. Yet nobody seemed to care.

This leaves two possibilities. One is that the mission was intended to result in the New York Times oped all along, meaning that the CIA didn't care much about Plame's status, and was trying to meddle in domestic politics. This reflects very badly on the CIA.

The other possibility is that they're so clueless that they did this without any nefarious plan, because they're so inept, and so prone to cronyism and nepotism, that this is just business as usual. If so, the popular theory that the CIA couldn't find its own weenie with both hands and a flashlight would appear to have found some pretty strong support.

Either way, it seems to me that everyone involved with planning the Wilson mission should be fired. And it's obvious that the CIA, one way or another, needs a lot of work.

Indeed. If Plame's supervisor approved sending Joe Wilson on a mission and did not require secrecy, then he is too incomeptent to hold that position. If Valerie Plame recommended Joe Wilson, which she did, then her judgement is too questionable to remainin a position of responsibility at the CIA. Has George Tenant ever explained why he permitted such egregious conduct? Rogue elements inthe CIA opposed the Bush administration policy. Perhaps the Wilsons were a part of that group. Leaking deceitful information to thwart a policy you disagree with is not acceptable. If the policy bothers you that much resign. It is not your decesign to make. If you want that job run for President.

Disengenious Dems want Rove to quit

Of course they do not care one wit about Valary Plame or the fact that it was not against the law to disclose her relationship with her deceitful husband. They want Rove to quit because he is very effective at campaigning against them and is good at pointing out their dishonesty. If the Dems were really serious, they might at least acknowledge that a man is innocent untile proven guilty, and to get there you have to have an indictment.

Small Alabama company makes device that locates snipers

AP via Wired News:

A sniper fires on American troops in Iraq. In the milliseconds before the bullet hits -- in fact, before the shot is even heard -- a computer screen reveals the gun's model and exact location. That's the kind of intelligence that can save soldiers' lives. The Army is currently testing the technology in combat.

The devices are made by Radiance Technologies, a small Alabama company, and differ in their approach to gunfire detection from systems already deployed in Iraq that rely on acoustics. Radiance's invention, WeaponWatch, is powered by infrared sensors that detect missiles or gunfire at the speed of light.

"Obviously when the first shot is fired, you can't do anything about it," said George Clark, president of the company founded in 1999. "But what it does do is it allows you to not have a second fired."

WeaponWatch is a major reason that Radiance, which had only three employees six years ago, now has 275. Over that period, it's been one of the 500 fastest-growing small businesses in the United States.

Nobody seems to dispute that WeaponWatch is the fastest such system on the market, but the challenge for company executives was persuading the Pentagon that those few extra nanoseconds provide any practical advantage over the existing sonar versions, which have a wider field of vision.

After all, human reflexes are far more sluggish than either light or sound.

...

The system was tested on top of a building where there was a high concentration of insurgent gunfire. Within a few days, American troops were able to use WeaponWatch to return fire more rapidly, Smith said, resulting in a noticeable drop in enemy attacks.

...

WeaponWatch picks up on the infrared signature of every weapon the moment it is fired, instantly identifying it from a database of thousands of weapons muzzle flashes.

Kimzey said that because the technology has become so mobile and keeps getting smaller, there's virtually no end to the possibilities. For example, the Marines recently tested a program that links the infrared detector to an automatic weapon. It would allow the combatant wielding that weapon to get a shot off almost immediately after the enemy fired.

...

Baquba shows the benefit of force to space

Christian Science Monitor:

Last January, Baquba was symbol of everything going wrong in Iraq - and its neighborhood of Buhritz was a symbol for everything going wrong in Baquba.

This city just 50 miles north of Baghdad was crawling with Sunni Arab mortar teams, snipers, and bombmakers. They had made parts of the city their own, killing police when they found them and driving the rest into hiding. Their grip was so strong that only 60 percent of the region's polling places opened for Iraq's first post-Saddam election. In Buhritz, not a vote was cast; some polling sites were torched.

...

...Baquba is a reminder that at least short-term security gains are being made in many Iraqi cities, particularly ones outside volatile Anbar Province.

Asked why, Lt. Col. Rob Risberg, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Army's 10th Field Artillery Regiment, scratches his head, then says it hasn't been rocket science. "The Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police have really come along - they can handle most of what comes their way now,'' says Colonel Risberg, from DeLeon Springs, Fla. "We're here to back them up, but I think we're seeing the benefits of getting cops on almost every street corner."

...

Each time an attack originated in the area, Risberg would have a nearby palm grove shelled, sometimes as often as every 15 minutes the whole night. He'd also further restrict residents' movement. "We were trying to show them that you're going to help us clean up this area or you're going to pay the price,'' he explains. "I didn't care which."

When local families complained that the shelling frightened their kids, he'd tell them to help hand over insurgents - only then would the shelling stop. They also replaced the local mayor and the town council, who seemed sympathetic to the insurgency. Eventually, he and others in his battalion say, the approach got results.

On election day this month, turnout topped 60 percent as Iraqi police maintained a heavy presence. US soldiers stayed in the background.

At the same time, more Iraqi police came onboard....

US troops bait the Taliban into a fight the Taliban cannot win

Greedy governments raking in excess profits from gasoline

This Rita report is from my sister who made a weekend trip from Lafayette, La.

A long day. The sugar cane harvest is underway and it will be meagre. Some are just cutting, burning off and replanting. The cane in the fields is yellow...from the salt water in the surge and in the rain of Rita. This was all the way from New Iberia to Franklin to Morgan City to Houma.

After lunch we drove down to Dulac which is 15 miles south of Houma. Dulac is about 200 miles to the east of where Rita made landfall. Rita 's storm surge was not kind to Dulac. There were shrimp boats and skiffs in every state of disrepair in the bayou...some bow deep in the water, some lying on their sides in the water, some sunk in the water and some lying on the bank... And at the end of almost every driveway there was a pile of debris including appliances, furniture, insulation, roofing, paneling, etc. Some houses looked like they must have been gutted...there was so much piled up outside of them. Others were just empty of people and debris...maybe they haven't come back to start the cleaning up yet. The yards were dry cracked mud...like an elephant's hide...this was on both sides of the road, not just bayou side. Several houses were built on pillars, high enough to park their cars underneath. Some of these raised houses had insulation and debris hanging from underneath where the floor is/was....so the water was very high in certain spots. There was a baseball field that had the metal backspot in the midst of a sea of dry cracked mud. Utility trucks from Florida, Georgia and Texas were working in Dulac to restore electricity and telephone lines...and it has been five(?) weeks since Rita. People were working on their homes and boats. I watched a man install a new front door as his wife stood by supervising. There was work being done to the exterior and interior of a school. Dulac and Grand Caillou and Bobbtown are busy repairing and rebuilding while the most of the country doesn't even know they exist.

One of the things that makes this country great is what is accomplished by people who ask nothing of the government. You see them in this report and the story below about people in small comunities in East Texas. It is the people who see something that needs to be done and do it rather than waiting for help who pull themselves up from despair.

East Texas recovers from Rita

Austin American-Statesman:

Not everyone has electricity, and school won't start again until Wednesday. But in this town of 1,200 on the Louisiana border that endured some of the worst of Hurricane Rita's winds, football season is in full swing.

On a crisp night last Tuesday, much of the town turned out to watch the red-suited Deweyville Pirates take on the East Chambers Buccaneers, a game that would have been played on a Friday if Rita hadn't forced a condensed football season.

The band director, who evacuated because of the hurricane, hadn't returned home, but one student organized about half the band to play "The Star-Spangled Banner" and other tunes at the game.

"It's Texas," explained the student, 15-year-old trumpet player Eric Brinson. "We do this."

More than a month after Rita roared through Southeast Texas, causing massive power outages and strewing tons of debris along highways, life is slowly returning to its usual autumn routines, from small towns like Deweyville to larger communities such as Beaumont and Port Arthur....

...

Some 1.5 million Texas households lost power after Rita, which damaged or destroyed nearly 100,000 homes and caused an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion in damage. Dozens of Texans died, many because of heat exhaustion, when about 2.7 million coastal residents sat in gridlocked traffic during mass evacuations. The damage and death toll would probably have been worse had Rita hit Houston head-on, as expected. Instead, the storm turned east, making landfall at Sabine Pass.

This heavily wooded part of the state still bears the scars of the recent hurricane — trees snapped in half, blue tarps on roofs, road signs bent at 45-degree angles — and throughout the region, workers from all over the country are busy removing debris, fixing power lines and traffic lights and repairing homes and businesses.

There is much more.

He needs one

Deborah Orin and Lukas Alpert:

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was shopping for a top-flight criminal-defense lawyer yesterday, even as experts were scratching their heads over how exactly he landed in a legal mess that could send him to prison for 30 years.

Libby, himself a lawyer, had relied on Joe Tate, an expert in intellectual-property law, for advice during the investigation that led to his being indicted Friday on five counts.

A source told The Post that Libby was seeking more formidable representation but that he was unlikely to jettison Tate.

Libby is charged with lying under oath, obstructing justice and making false statements to a grand jury about how he learned the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Veteran Washington defense attorney Joe diGenova said his No. 1 advice to any defendant is: "You're not going to lie. Either you're going to take the Fifth [Amendment, against self-incrimination] or you're going to tell the truth."

Joe diGenova would be a good choice. As I stated earlier, Libby's attorney did not do a good job of preparing him for testifying. A good lawyer would have his client go over all relevant documents and refresh his recollection about what he was thinking or doing when he said certain things in the past. It is hard to imagine that a good lawyer would not have prepared him to answer questions consistent with his previous written statements. You can cave a different recollection of a conversation. That happens all the time. It is hard to make a perjury case based on these differences of recollection. His own notes of conversations make that much more difficult.

LA Times continues Wilson's deceit about Bush's speech

Patterico's Pontifications:

The L.A. Times runs a story about the Scooter Libby indictment titled Libby Allegedly Told a Whopper. It contains this curious sentence:

On July 6, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times that cast doubt on President Bush’s statement that Iraq may have purchased yellowcake uranium from Niger.

(My emphasis.)

I am unaware of any such statement by President Bush. Perhaps you readers can enlighten me? I know the article is not referring to the phrase commonly known as the “sixteen words,” from Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech:

The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

See? That can’t be it. Saying Hussein “sought” uranium is not the same as saying he purchased it, or even that he “may have purchased” it. This fact has even been noted by factcheck.org, an outfit that The Times has seen fit to cite on occasion — when it suits the editors’ purposes. (Also, there are other African countries besides Niger that sell uranium — such as the Congo, for example.)

...

Cheney has a new job for Joe Wilson

They Wanted A Hog, But Got A Scooter

Don Surber on Libby's indictment:

They Wanted A Hog, But Got A Scooter

Roggio interviews the Marine commander in charge of US forces in Iraq's wild west

Late Friday I conducted an interview with Colonel Stephen W. Davis, the Commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team - 2, who is responsible for fighting in western Anbar province, also known as AO Denver....

...

Col Davis: There are three levels of enemy in our area of operations - AO Denver. First there are the independent tribal fighters operating in this barren region who are traditional smugglers and are wrapped up in an assortment of criminal enterprises. There are the Baathists hardliners, the former regime elements that are fighting to rid the area of an American presence and are looking to return to power. Then there are the al Qaeda jihadist who are not interested in the stability of the region, but only interested in killing Iraqis and Americans, establishing their Islamist Caliphate and terrorizing the local population.

These various groups will work together or fight each other on any given day. The jihadists are not predominant in numbers but are providing the bulk of the leadership, the financiers that fund the terror activities and the technical knowledge of the insurgency. This area of Iraq is complex. Generations have been conditioned by Saddam to be survivalists and will do what is needed to survive. When the people become convinced we will remain to provide security and services, they cooperate with us. They hate the foreign fighters; they despise them for what they have done to their families and their towns and cities.

...

Col Davis: The greatest threat by far is the IEDs (improvised explosive devices), VBIEDs (vehicle borne IEDs), SVBIED (suicide VBIEDs). This is the insurgent's most deadly weapon. It has been rewarding to watch the proficiency develop in the Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen serving out here to detect and disable these weapons. During Operation River gate, we encountered an average of four dozen IEDS a day during the course of a ten day period and 90-95% of these weapons were disabled or destroyed before they could be detonated.

Bill: Do you think domestic elements of the insurgency would be willing to lay down their arms and enter the political process, or are they too indebted to al Qaeda?

Col Davis: al Qaeda in Iraq will not lay down their arms to enter the political process, and they must be eliminated. They are vermin. We focus our efforts on destroying their networks and hunting the leaders, financiers, technical experts, and facilitators.

There is a possibility that the Sunni moderates can reach out to the Former Regime Elements / Baathist and encourage them to join the political process. But many of these FREs may not be willing to cooperate in power sharing.

There is more. Roggio's interview gives a much better picture of what is going on than interviews of Davis by the media which is pushing its own "It is hopeless, we are in real trouble" agenda. Davis's assesment of al Qaeda is clearly correct and I would add to that the FRE's who are not willing to join the political process. I think many of the FRE's fear retribution for the terrorism they perpetrated under Saddam.

Oh, good grief. Who is trying to make Prince Charles look out of touch and foolish?

Telegraph:

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.

The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America's "confrontational" approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths.

Really? You would think that in the US we are chopping off the heads of people who are Muslims. Of all the problems the US has had since 9-11 religious bigotry against Muslims is waaaaaay down the list. There are more hate crimes against Jews than Muslims in this country. This has got to be one of the silliest ideas ever pushed by the Prince and I can only conclude he has been misinformed by the UK's liberal wacko press.

A deportation policy that is not working

LA Times:

On a sweltering afternoon, an unmarked white jetliner taxies to a remote terminal at the international airport here and disgorges dozens of criminal deportees from the United States. Marshals release the handcuffed prisoners, who shuffle into a processing room.

Of the 70 passengers, at least four are members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a gang formed two decades ago near MacArthur Park west of the Los Angeles skyline.

For one of them, Melvin "Joker" Cruz-Mendoza, the trip is nothing new. This is his fourth deportation — the second this year.

Wiry with a shaved head, the 24-year-old pleaded guilty in separate felony robbery and drug cases in Los Angeles. "MS" covers his right forearm. Other tattoos are carved into the skin above his eyebrows.

In the last 12 years, U.S. immigration authorities have logged more than 50,000 deportations of immigrants with criminal records to Central America, including untold numbers of gang members like Cruz-Mendoza.

But a deportation policy aimed in part at breaking up a Los Angeles street gang has backfired and helped spread it across Central America and back into other parts of the United States. Newly organized cells in El Salvador have returned to establish strongholds in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities. Prisons in El Salvador have become nerve centers, authorities say, where deported leaders from Los Angeles communicate with gang cliques across the United States.

A gang that once numbered a few thousand and was involved in street violence and turf battles has morphed into an international network with as many as 50,000 members, the most hard-core engaging in extortion, immigrant smuggling and racketeering. In the last year, the federal government has brought racketeering cases against MS-13 members in Long Island, N.Y., and southern Maryland.

Across the country, more than 700 MS-13 members have been arrested this year under a new enforcement campaign that U.S. immigration authorities say will lead to more serious cases and longer sentences for gang members before they are deported.

...

Deportations have helped create an "unending chain" of gang members moving between the U.S. and Central America, said Rodrigo Avila, El Salvador's vice minister of security.

"It's a merry-go-round."

...

There is much more and it is worth the read. What is clear is that the deportation needs to occur after they have served a lengthy sentence that makes them too old and out of touch to recruit and train. Trying to save money by not jailing criminals has never worked, whether they are aliens are not. They need long jail sentences. Their punishment has to be sufficiently uncomfortable to make them not want to come back and endure it again.

Iran helping to target Iraqi pilots

Telegraph:

Iran is backing a Shia insurgent campaign of systematically assassinating former elite Iraqi air force pilots as part of a covert sectarian war against Sunnis, according to senior politicians in Baghdad.

The spate of murders of pilots has prompted an intervention from Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, who has offered them safe haven in his native Kurdistan even though some of them were involved in dropping chemical weapons there.

...

The organised manner in which the murders have been carried out, each with multiple shots fired from an AK47, has fuelled suspicions that elements within Iraq's Iranian-linked government are behind them.

"Many of my father's friends have already left Iraq for Jordan because they received written death threats warning them to leave," said Mr Fares' son, Wisam, 21.

Victim's families suspect their names and addresses have been taken from old records at Iraq's ministry of defence. They claim that the killings are the work of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the two main Shi-ite parties that dominate Iraq's new government. Although the brigade has officially disarmed, it has recently been blamed for the killing of scores of Sunni clerics in revenge for massacres of Shias carried out by Sunni-backed insurgents.

In another sinister development in Iran, tens of thousands of ethnic Ahwazi Arabs, who populate the area bordering southern Iraq, are expected to be displaced to make way for an expanded military-industrial complex in an area known as the Arvand Free Zone. The zone will cover 60 square miles, including land around the border cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr.

From a militry standpoint these killings make no sense. Iraq no longer has an air force. These guys constitute no threat. Whatever the reasons for the killings they can not be blamed on any rational fear.

Iran's infiltration routes into Iraq

Con Coughlin:

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have set up a network of secret smuggling routes to ferry men and equipment into Iraq for attacks on coalition troops, according to an exiled opposition group.

The smuggling is said to be orchestrated by the guards' elite Quds Force, which has its HQ in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says commanders are sending a steady stream of agents and bomb-making equipment from a base codenamed "Fajr" into Iraq, where roadside attacks are carried out against coalition troops.

...

Western intelligence agencies have reported a sharp increase in Iran's involvement in insurgent operations since Mr Ahmadinejad was elected in June.

The agencies believe that the guards use a network of routes along Iran's 620-mile border with Iraq.

Documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph show three principal routes, two near the Iraqi cities of Basra and Amara, and a third via the Iranian town of Mehran.

A main route is thought to be through the marshland surrounding the Shatt al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq, which enables guard units to plan attacks against British forces in Basra.

Other routes lead to central Iraq, where United States military intelligence believes that Iranian agents are involved in attacks against US troops, 2,000 of whom have died since the invasion.

...

There is more.

Sunnis are seeing their worst nightmare

Strategy Page:

After two years of work, the Iraqi Sunni Arabs are seeing their worst nightmare come true. And that is an Iraqi army and police force that can do the job, and is not led by Sunni Arabs. For generations, Iraq was dominated by Sunni Arabs because Sunni Arabs held most of the leadership posts in the army and police. Kurds and Shia Arabs were often the majority of the troops and beat cops, but they nearly always took orders from a hierarchy of Sunni Arab supervisors and officers. The Sunni Arabs knew that the management and leadership skills necessary to run an army or police force were not easily acquired. It took years of training and experience. There was no way the Kurds and Shia Arabs could quickly replace those Sunni Arab officers and NCOs. Thus Sunni Arab terrorists would drive out the foreign troops, especially the deadly Americans, and, then the Sunni Arabs would take over again. But then something very, very bad (for the Sunni Arab takeover plan) happened. Battalions and brigades of Iraqi troops began to show up, commanded by Kurds, Shia Arabs, and some turncoat Sunni Arabs, that could do the job. Currently there are 207,000 Iraqi soldiers and police that are trained and equipped for operations. There are sufficient leadership to deploy 120 army and police battalions for combat operations. About three dozen of these battalions are well enough led to undertake security operations without American supervision.

There is much more.

Iran's helpful gaffe

Jim Hoagland:

Most Valuable Politician of the year? How about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has surged ahead for the 2005 MVP award in the few months he has been in office? He reminds a distracted world at crucial moments of the true nature of Iran's regime, of the abiding source of conflict in the Middle East and of the deeper meaning of global terrorism.

Racial and religious hatreds are at the core of these phenomena -- and at the heart of Ahmadinejad's pledges to see Israel "wiped off the map" and to ensure that Arabs who recognize the Jewish state "burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury." His statements were reported in laudatory terms by Iranian state-run television Wednesday.

Even though the Persian chauvinists who took power in Tehran in 1979 have been more discreet in public in recent years, it is not news that they hate both Jews and Arabs -- or that the sentiment is returned. If novelty there was, it lay in statements of condemnation that European governments issued as the inflammatory remarks spread around the globe.

Britain, France and Germany raced to distance themselves from Ahmadinejad's double-barreled anti-Semitic blast. They have been negotiating with his regime in hopes of rehabilitating it. A spiteful and belligerent speech the Iranian leader gave at the United Nations in mid-September had already signaled the enormousness of their task. But they persisted.

Now even Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, perhaps the coldest and most uncaring fish in international diplomacy, feels compelled to mutter that the Iranian firebrand's statements were "unacceptable."

...

All tactics and no strategy

Mark Steyn:

...

Just for the record, Scooter Libby is the highest-ranking Scooter in the Bush administration, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. All last week, lefty gloaters were eagerly anticipating "Fitzmas," their designation for that happy day when federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald hands down indictments against Libby, and Rove, and maybe Cheney, and -- boy oh boy, who knows? -- maybe Chimpy Bushitlerburton himself. Pat Fitzgerald has been making his list, checking it twice, found out who's naughty or nice, and he's ready to go on a Slay Ride leaving Bush the Little Drummed-Out Boy and the Dems having a blue blue blue blue blue-state Christmas in November 2006, if not before.

Well, I enjoy the politics of personal destruction as much as the next chap, and one appreciates that it's been a long time since the heady days when Dems managed to collect the scalps of both Newt Gingrich and his short-lived successor within a few short weeks. But, as I've said before, one reason the Democratic Party is such a bunch of losers is because they're all tactics and no strategy. Suppose they succeed in destroying Libby and a bunch of other non-household names. Then what? Several analysts are suggesting that the 2006 elections are shaping up like 1994, when Newt's revolution swept the Democratic old guard from power.

It's a bit early for my reckless election predictions, but I'd bet on the Republicans holding both the House and Senate. Though the electorate was disgusted by the sheer arrogance of Democrat corruption, 1994 wasn't just a throw-the-bums-out spasm -- despite Peter Jennings sniffing that "the voters had a temper tantrum." Au contraire, it was also a throw-the-bums-in election. Voters liked the alternative: a coherent conservative agenda. It's quite possible that the electorate will have a throw-the-bums-out attitude to the Republicans in 12 months' time, but I'd say it's almost completely unfeasible that they'll be in a mood to throw the Dems in. There are not a lot of competitive congressional districts, and those that are are mostly in Democrat blue states that, if not yet red, are turning distinctly purple. The Dems' big immoveable obstacle remains their inability to articulate a set of ideas that connects with the electorate. James Carville and Stanley Greenberg are said to be working on a Democrat version of Newt's Contract with America, but Greenberg's a pollster and Carville's an attack dog. Whatever their charms, these aren't the ideas guys.

The difficulty for the left is that if the problem is Iraq, Katrina or pretty much anything else, the solution is not obviously the Democratic Party. The future of Iraq is mostly a matter for Iraqis now, and it's not going badly, as you can sort of tell if you decode the headlines -- "Bitterly Divided Iraqis Take Time Out From Trembling On Brink Of Civil War To Overwhelmingly Ratify New Constitution," "Three Sunnis And Their Pet Camel Boycott Poll In Sign Iraq May Be Becoming Ungovernable," etc. In fact, it's Syria that's bitterly divided and becoming ungovernable, and Baby Assad's fall will not be long now.

...

Syria decides to investigate itself

Washington Post:

President Bashar Assad issued an order Saturday for a government committee to investigate any Syrian involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a car bombing in the Lebanese capital on Feb. 14, the Syrian news agency reported.

The move was the latest effort by the Syrian government to appear conciliatory before a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, expected to take place Monday. A resolution, backed by the United States, Britain and France, would threaten sanctions unless Syria fully cooperates with the U.N. investigation into the car bombing, which killed 22 others beside Hariri.

A Syrian investigation was among the recommendations issued last week by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor heading the U.N. inquiry.

The Syrian leadership was said to be caught off guard by the scope of the report, which concludes that senior officials here and in Lebanon almost certainly had a hand in Hariri's assassination. They expected the report to acknowledge what they thought was their cooperation in the investigation and have complained that they have almost no channels of communication with the United States to try to resolve the crisis.

"They don't want to talk to us, so what can we do?" one senior official said.

Assad ordered the establishment of a judicial committee "to question Syrian civilians and military personnel on all matters relating to the mission of the U.N. investigation commission," the official SANA news agency reported....

Charity far from home for these evacuees

The shoe business the Nazis and communist could not kill

AP via Washington Times:

From China through Africa to the outer reaches of the Americas, Bata has long been synonymous with shoes. But in the land where it was born, the company name was taboo for 40 years.
In the Czech town where the worldwide family shoe empire was founded, the oldest living Bata was all smiles and understatement as he looked back, at age 91, on a life buffeted by the worst horrors of the 20th century.
How did he feel when the rise of Nazism forced him to flee his homeland? "Annoyed." And when the communists took over after World War II, seized his factory and declared Bata a capitalist evil? Again, "annoyed."
"One could have been very angry, but one had to start life again."
The place to start again was Canada, where he exiled himself in 1938, the year Czechoslovakia was dismembered and the stage was set for Adolf Hitler's war. Seven years later, after he served with the Canadian army on the battlefields, he returned to his freshly liberated birthplace, but not for long.
"I found it very sad," said Tomas Bata, "because what we thought was liberation really became a dictatorship of the communists."
Anyone associated with the company faced persecution by the secret police, as did anyone named Bata, related or not, said Pavel Velev, who heads the Thomas Bata Foundation, based in the family's old villa in the east of the country.

...

Zlin is in a traditional shoemaking region, and Mr. Bata's family had been making shoes for generations. His father, also named Tomas (spelled the Czech way), founded a company in 1894 that would later swell into the giant Bata Shoe Organization.
"There were an awful lot of barefoot people," he said. "Every time we read about the growth of the population in India or elsewhere, we are very happy to see that another customer has been born."
Mr. Bata's face is tan and remarkably smooth for his age. He wore a well-pressed shirt and shiny leather shoes, which he bought -- and paid for, he stressed -- at a Bata store in Prague. He waved his arms enthusiastically above his white hair as he explained with Old World charm the magic of shoes.
"Young ladies always want to have something fashionable, something nice that fits well, makes them look good," he said, "and this is our prime customer."
Each day, a million customers try on shoes in 4,600 Bata shops in places ranging from Congo, Bosnia and Bangladesh to Punta Arenas in Chile's deep south and Yellowknife in northern Canada. Bata has 40 factories in 26 countries, and shops in 50 countries on five continents.

...

Democrats put the teachers union above helping schools that took inevacuees

Washington Times:

Rep. John A. Boehner, circumventing his own committee, is pushing ahead with a proposal to reimburse public and private schools that took in students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The panel defeated the proposal Thursday.
"It is an outrage that House Democrats and the education establishment would stand in the way of meaningful relief for the victims of hurricanes," said the Ohio Republican, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee. The panel defeated his proposal 26-21 after Democrats complained it was a thinly veiled attempt to create a voucher system for religious schools.
Mr. Boehner -- who said the measure is the fastest way to cut through red tape and get relief to the schools that need it -- is asking the House Budget Committee to include the proposal in a broad budget package expected for a House vote in coming weeks.
His school-reimbursement proposal would assign account numbers to displaced parents, and they could pass them along to any school they choose for their children, including private religious schools. The school then would apply directly to the government for reimbursement of up to $6,700 per student for the 2005-06 school year.
"Is providing these funds through the layers upon layers of education bureaucracy the best way to achieve this goal? Of course not," Mr. Boehner said.

...

Mike Franc, vice president of government relations for the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Boehner's proposal is still alive and is "probably the most ambitious school-choice proposal ever introduced in Congress," because it places control in the parents' hands.
He said Republicans should expect to feel some "natural turbulence" as they advance bold ideas after Hurricane Katrina, and he urged President Bush to "feel a little ownership" over the school proposal and "make a few phone calls" to build its support on Capitol Hill, just as he did when he pushed the Medicare prescription-drug program through Congress.

Katrina killed a lot of wine

Knight-Ridder via Houston Chronicle:

Searing heat and lack of electricity throughout New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ruined hundreds of thousands of bottles of rare wines by degrading corks and cooking the contents.

Owners fear that even those bottles that appear to have survived the hurricane may hold spoiled wine.

This city's once-vibrant culinary industry, already beaten back by disaster, has been further injured by damage to its wines. Losses are estimated to be as much as tens of millions of dollars. Private collectors, restaurants and distributors are preparing to destroy much of their stock. Insurance companies are just beginning to assess the damage and deal with the tricky job of determining the wines' value.

For wine lovers, it's an incalculable loss.

Dr. Chuck Mary, a Metairie-area resident, returned to his home weeks after the storm to find his 500-bottle private collection destroyed by flooding and heat.

Losing a bottle of 1946 Chateau Latour hit Mary the hardest, he said, but not just for its estimated $1,500 value.

"It was given to me when I got married in 2000, and I intended on drinking it on my fifth anniversary," which was Oct. 14, he said.

Many wine collections in this low-lying city were kept above ground in attics and storage rooms. When electricity and air-conditioning failed, the temperature rose and ruptured corks, which allowed in oxygen that degraded the wine. Some were ruined just from simmering in 98-degree temperatures.

"Like food, when you cook it, that changes it," said Gladys Horiuchi, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Wine Institute. About 1,000 restaurants in the greater New Orleans area have wine collections and nearly all were affected, said Tom Weatherly, spokesman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

"I know we are talking about millions of dollars in loss down here," Weatherly said. Collections will have to be rebuilt and allowed to increase in value.

...

New Orleans real estate still under water

AP via Houston Chronicle:

Shannon Sharpe, a real estate agent in New Orleans for the past five years, spends her days trying to deal with her flooded house and searching for customers.

Business has been brisk, but since she returned to the city after Hurricane Katrina, it's all been taking new listings, not selling houses.

"I had six pendings when the hurricane hit," Sharpe said. "They're all gone — roof gone, flooding, whatever. Not in any condition to sell."

With her commissions blown away by Katrina and new buyers hard to find, Sharpe is now spending her nights working as a hostess in a reopened restaurant.

A real estate boom was predicted after Katrina, especially for areas of the city that did not flood. With a smaller supply of structurally sound houses and houses that did not stand in floodwaters for weeks, some real estate agents predicted 20 percent to 30 percent increases.

"If anyone can show me data supporting that, I'll be very surprised," said Mary Ann Casey, who has operated a Re/Max agency in New Orleans for 24 years. "I think if that happens it will be a long time coming."

...

The Dutch Witches Project--write offs for learning to be a witch

Louisiana officals return to whining and dissing mode

Iran is paying its Islamic Jihad proxy warriors $10,000 for rocket attacks on Israel

Sunday Times:

IRAN has promised a reward of $10,000 (£5,600) to Islamic Jihad if the militant group launches rockets from the West Bank towards Tel Aviv, a senior Palestinian intelligence official said last week.

Speaking in his Ramallah office, the official produced a fat wad of $100 notes which he said had been confiscated from a pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad activist.

The money was said to have gone from Iran to Damascus, the Syrian capital, from where Ibrahim Shehadeh, Islamic Jihad’s head of overseas operations, transferred it to the West Bank.

According to the intelligence official, the Palestinian Authority has located workshops where “Al-Quds” (Jerusalem) rockets are being made and has given their co-ordinates to the Israelis. “We understand they destroyed some of them,” he said.

The Israeli media claimed last week that rocket attacks from the West Bank were widely expected: Ben Gurion airport’s eastern runway is just five miles away and the outskirts of Tel Aviv are within 10 miles.

Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s defence minister, and the army’s chief of staff held an emergency meeting to discuss requests from the mayors of towns bordering the West Bank for sirens to alert inhabitants to incoming rockets.

...

The UN should sanction Iran for its proxy war against Israel. Its President pretty much gave the game away this past week praising the IJ attacks at the same time he was calling for the destruction of Israel.

An interesting aspect of this story is that the intelligence came from the Palestinians who shared it with Israel. This is an important step for the Palestinians and they should be applauded for working with Israel to eliminate a mutual threat. The more they work with Israel on matters like this, the more likely they will be able to achieve statehood. Since the PA lacks the means to stop the attacks on Israel, cooperating with Israel is some evidence that they have the will to stop them. That is something they have not done since the 1990's.

Monotheist head choppers strike in Indonesia

Reuters:

Three teenage Christian women were beheaded on Saturday by two assailants wearing helmets in eastern Indonesia as they walked to school near the Muslim town of Poso, officials said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the killings, which he described as "sadist and inhuman crimes," and called an emergency security meeting with his vice-president, as well as military officials and police.

Two men on a motorcycle and armed with machetes attacked the 16-year-old students on the eastern island of Sulawese, a police official in Poso told Reuters.

"The men slashed and chopped off their heads. One of the students managed to escape and jumped into the bushes in a ravine and the assailants stopped chasing her," said the official who declined to be identified.

Poso, 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of Jakarta, is in an area where three years of Muslim-Christian clashes have killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in late 2001.

Although religious fighting has largely subsided, tension is still running high in the region following bombings in the neighboring Christian town of Tentena which killed 22 people in May.

The "Religion of Peace" has a bloody way of showing it.

Chechen's plotted terror on an even grander scale

Independent:

A foiled Chechen rebel assault on the Russian city of Nalchik this month was in fact a "grandiose" attempt to replicate the 11 September attacks and hijack five planes that could be flown into targets such as the Kremlin, a nuclear power station and other strategic facilities, it has been claimed.

That alarming hypothesis has been put forward by an authoritative American intelligence provider called Stratfor that boasts of close links to the Russian and American security services.

The information is being checked by Russia's Deputy Prosecutor Nikolai Shepel, who is investigating the attack on 13 October that left at least 120 people dead and took thousands of special forces to repel.

It was the most significant Chechen rebel attack since last September's Beslan school siege and its precise objective remains shrouded in mystery.

The Russian authorities have made no secret of the fact that the militants tried to seize Nalchik's airport and they arrested one of the attack's planners days before the assault with a detailed copy of the airport plans.

One of the airport's top security officials was later arrested after he confessed to being the "inside man" and to having drawn the map for a relative who told him it was to be used to prosecute a jihad (holy war).

...

"Russian military contacts and other sources have told us the events in Nalchik apparently were supposed to be only the first phase of a plan that ultimately was to include flying explosives-laden aircraft into high-profile targets elsewhere in Russia," the report said.

"Though the exact targets have not been confirmed, sources say possible targets included the Kremlin, a military district headquarters and railway hub in Rostov-on-Don, a nuclear plant in the vicinity of Saratov, and a hydroelectric plant or dam on the Volga."

It is not clear why they thought the planes would not be shot down if they had succeed in getting them.

3 hurricane evacuees charged in murder of Pasadena woman

Houston Chronicle:

Three hurricane evacuees suspected of killing a 77-year-old woman in Pasadena Friday are in custody today facing possible capital murder charges , according to a Pasadena police department official.

Investigators believe the two men and one woman attacked and strangled Pasadena resident Betty Blair in her home Friday and took off in her car with some of her belongings.

Police intercepted Blair's tan 2000 Buick at 8 p.m. last night at the intersection of Beltway and Richmond and arrested the three. An infant child was also with them. Police were able to track and follow the car via Onstar, its on-board electronic tracking system.

One of Blair's daughters found her body in her Parkview Estates home on the 2000 block of South Memorial at 6:30 p.m. Friday. She had been strangled with an electrical cord, a Pasadena police officer said, and her car was missing.

Neighbors said Betty Blair was very involved in the community and was known to have assisted hurricane evacuees through St.Pius Catholic Church.

...

Way to go Onstar.

The Bring New Orleans Back Commission is not working

NY Times:

...

At last Monday's meeting, Mr. Thomas asked his fellow commissioners to commit formally to rebuilding the Ninth Ward, an impoverished, largely black and heavily damaged area that some experts have said is too environmentally precarious to be rebuilt. Mr. Canizaro abstained, but Mr. Thomas's resolution otherwise passed unanimously without debate. That prompted commissioners both black and white to grumble about the wisdom of making commitments before they have had a chance to discuss an issue.

"I'm a little concerned that members of the commission are starting to use the meetings to cater to certain constituencies and stakeholder groups they know are watching," Scott S. Cowen, a member and the president of Tulane University, said.

Still other members complain that the panel's meetings are devolving into protracted gripe sessions that have nothing to do with devising a workable plan to rebuild the city. Last Monday, for instance, more than an hour of public comment was taken up by residents angry about recovery jobs being filled by outsiders, business owners wanting government contracts and complaints about the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At that meeting, Daniel F. Packer, the chief executive of the New Orleans subsidiary of the Entergy Corporation, tried to persuade his fellow commissioners that the task before them was daunting enough without the additional burden of "trying to solve all the problems that come along." Mr. Packer had only limited success, as several commissioners took up the residents' causes.

...

They seem to be playing to a nonexistent constituency. The Ninth Ward is empty with its former residents scatter across the 50 states, and many of which have already indicated they do not plan to return, whether it is rebuilt or not. They should let the market determine what is rebuilt as much as possible. To rebuild the Ninth Ward would probably cost more than the property would be worth after completion, with no assurance that significant numbers would want to live there. If Louisiana wants the rest of the country to pay for rebuilding, it is going to have to do better than this.

Behind the New Delhi bombing

NY Times:

An apparently coordinated succession of powerful explosions tore through two crowded markets and a public bus in the Indian capital early Saturday evening, killing dozens of people on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

Mansoor Ijaz on Fox News notes that both the London bombing and the New Delhi bombing followed both governments condemnation of the Iranian nuclear program.

Hugh Hewitt makes the case for Justice Luttig and Nat Hentoff discusses his opinon on a murder manual book

New Orleans loses it shade and its people

NY Times:

...

"It's like a Weed Whacker went through here," said Joshua Mann Pailet, a photographer and gallery owner in the French Quarter.

Once shady, Esplanade Avenue is now sun-dappled. And it suddenly has a night sky.

"I don't think I've ever seen the stars in front of my house before," said Robert Tannen, an artist and urban planner whose yard on Esplanade was buried in tree branches.

...

Indeed, so much of the city's outward face is currently altered, either temporarily or permanently, that its overall look is disorienting. Planners debating the best way to bring back lost neighborhoods and protect them are discussing how to sustain the city's visual integrity. Rebuilt levees, for example, will affect the sightlines and shadows on the waterfronts. For the time being, though, it is almost impossible to see past the aesthetic of cataclysm.

In flooded areas, all of civilization has been seemingly reduced to detritus. Lawns have been left lifelessly brown and unpleasantly cushiony to walk on. Marked by a grim, telltale waterline and the orange graffiti of health inspectors, houses sit uninhabitable. Cars that will not start line the streets. But most jarring and distressing is the absence of people. Of the dozens of people interviewed for this article, virtually everyone lamented the emptiness, the vast tracts of land without a heartbeat in them.

"The whole landscape of a shotgun houses has been affected citywide, the colors have been affected, everything's brownish and grayish," said Douglas Redd, a collagist and associate director of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in the Center City neighborhood. "It was tropical, and now it's a wasteland. But the thing that's really different is there's no people around, there's no music, there's no children playing. There's no one to say 'Hi' to."

...

There is more.

Iran said that it will wipe Israel off the map with unintended attacks?

BBC:

Iran says it has no intention to attack Israel despite a call by its president to have it "wiped off the map".

Iran's foreign ministry said Tehran respected the UN charter and had never used or threatened to use force.

But it also rejected a UN Security Council statement condemning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his remarks.

The comments were seen by the outside world as a threat and the reaction from Iran is an effort to calm the outcry, says the BBC's Tehran correspondent.

The BBC's Frances Harrison says this is the closest Iran has come to saying it will not attack Israel.

...

Iran's intentions since 1979 have been to attack Israel using proxy warriors like Hezballah and other terrorist organizations. Iran still has to use covert attacks because it is not strong enough to attack directly. Perhaps that is why Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

The Delhi quagmire

BBC:

At least 48 people have been killed and scores wounded in a series of suspected bomb blasts in India's capital, Delhi.

Two near-simultaneous blasts took place in markets in central and south Delhi, crowded with people shopping ahead of religious festivals next week.

The third blast occurred in the area of Govindpuri which is in the southern part of the city.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed "terrorists" for the blasts and said he would not tolerate militant violence.

...

India immediately agreed that it would pull all of its troops out of Iraq, but this was seen as a rather hollow promise since it had none there to begin with.

Take him at his word

Boston Globe:

BY TELLING a conference in Tehran Wednesday that ''Israel must be wiped off the map," Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was not only revealing the hate-twisted face of the Islamist hard-liners who took over key government posts following his suspect election last June. He was also throwing down a challenge to the governments of the world.

Ahmadinejad mocked every country that accepts the United Nations' principle of respect for the sovereignty of all other member states. For if Iran's president can openly call for the annihilation of Israel without censure or penalty, the bedrock purpose of the United Nations -- to create a world order rooted in collective security -- will be emptied of meaning.

Several governments have issued statements denouncing Ahmadinejad's outburst. It was called stupid, offensive, unacceptable. But it was not merely a rhetorical faux pas. The nations of the world need to take what he said at face value: as a threat. A murderous suicide bombing this week in the Israeli town of Hadera, perpetrated by the small, Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Islamic Jihad, underlined that threat.

What Ahmadinejad said expressed a fanatical mentality, the outlook of a political leader who served as a security boss in Iran's notorious Evin prison after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power and is said by former inmates to have personally finished off executed political prisoners with a bullet to the head. Iran specialists commonly report that Ahmadinejad represents only one current of thought in Iran's leadership and that other influential figures are more pragmatic. If so, that is even more reason to make it clear that there is a price to pay for a regime that not only assassinates its domestic dissidents but issues overt threats of eradication against another nation.

...

Syria told to close offices of Islamic Jihad

AP via Fox News:

Taking a strong stand against Palestinian extremists, the United States joined Friday with the United Nations (search), Russia and the European Union in demanding Syria immediately close the offices of Islamic Jihad in Damascus and prevent use of its territory for terror actions.

The so-called quartet (search), which has devised a road map to prod Israel and the Palestinians into a negotiated settlement, also condemned the bombing this week in the central Israeli town of Hadera in which five Israelis were killed.

Islamic Jihad (search), which is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, took responsibility for the attack and said it was in revenge for the slaying by Israeli troops of a leading Islamic Jihad militant.

...

Linking Islamic Jihad to other deadly bombings in Israel, as well, McCormack said "This is a terrorist group that is intent upon subverting progress that the Israelis and the Palestinians are attempting to make along the pathway to the shared goal of two states living side-by-side in peace and security."

Why are these guys still there? Their very existence in Syria demonstrates its unserious committment to stopping terrorism.

"Terrorism is terrorism"

John Moody, Fox News:

Iraq’s prime minister Friday asked Americans to be patient and, for the first time, acknowledged a clear connection between the Iraqi insurgency and the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"Terrorism is terrorism," said Ibrahim al-Jaafari (search) in an interview with FOX News.

"You cannot separate it by region, or divide it into different parts of the world. Defeating terrorism now will benefit all democracies. Failing to defeat it will put all democracies in peril. It will come back to America as it did on Sept. 11."

Al-Jafaari spoke in the Jordanian capital, Amman, after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II (search), less than a week after Iraqis approved the country’s new constitution. Nationwide elections are set for Dec. 15.

Al-Jaafari said he recognized there was growing unease in the United States about the war in Iraq, which has claimed 2,000 U.S. military dead since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (search) in 2003.

"It’s understandable that the American people want their children back home," the prime minister said. "But I think and I hope that they understand that the presence of American troops on Iraqi soil is not just for the benefit of Iraq (search). What the Americans faced on Sept. 11 in New York and Washington, they are now facing in Iraq. There is only one enemy – terrorism – whether it takes place here or America, or London or anywhere in the world."

...

Al-Jaafari undercut his argument by failing to condemn Iran's President who embraced the destruction of Israel through terrorism. The Shia who have been the victims of religious bigotry still embrace it when it comes to Israel.

The special counsel's code of the Samurai

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey:

...

It is clear that, at least by sometime in January 2004 -- and probably much earlier -- Fitzgerald knew this law had not been violated. Plame was not a "covert" agent but a bureaucrat working at CIA headquarters. Instead of closing shop, however, Fitzgerald sought an expansion of his mandate and has now charged offenses that grew entirely out of the investigation itself. In other words, there was no crime when the investigation started, only, allegedly, after it finished. Unfortunately, for special counsels, as under the code of the samurai, once the sword is drawn it must taste blood.

...

By being assigned to investigate one individual, or a small group, the prosecutor is deprived of normal constraints such as resource limitations and the perspective of having to choose from a range of cases to pursue. Another vital missing ingredient is supervision. Normally federal prosecutors have political superiors who review their decisions. This is supposed to be the case even with special counsels. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not entirely clear -- but that may have involved some buck-passing by Justice Department officials -- Fitzgerald was specifically excused from even this minimal check on his power and as a consequence was accountable only to himself.

Enough should be enough. The courts will now handle Fitzgerald's allegations against Libby. But in the future, the investigation of high-level misconduct should not be removed from the normal processes of the Justice Department. The U.S. attorneys, and the department's Criminal Division, are fully capable of investigating and prosecuting alleged wrongdoing by important government officials, and can do it with proper perspective. Almost all federal prosecutors are, in fact, career lawyers quite capable of balking if their political supervisors abuse their authority. They should be left alone to do their jobs.

Criminalizing politics

Opinion Journal:

...

Mr. Fitzgerald has been dogged in pursuing his investigation, and he gave every appearance of being a reasonable and tough prosecutor in laying out the charges yesterday. But he has thrust himself into what was, at bottom, a policy dispute between an elected Administration and critics of the President's approach to the war on terror, who included parts of the permanent bureaucracy of the State Department and CIA. Unless Mr. Fitzgerald can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Libby was lying, and doing so for some nefarious purpose, this indictment looks like a case of criminalizing politics.

Two year investigation for this?

John Podhoretz:

SO, after 28 months, what we are told is this: Scooter Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, lied about his conversations with two reporters. He lied about those conversations first to FBI investigators in the fall of 2003 and then to a grand jury in the spring of 2004.

And in telling those lies, says independent counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, Libby sought to impede the investigation into the public exposure of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.

That's all, folks. The grand jury in the most hotly watched Washington political-legal investigation since Whitewater concluded its business yesterday by returning charges against one man and one man alone — who, the grand jury alleges, didn't tell the truth about when and how he discovered a piece of classified information.

Scooter Libby was not charged with the misuse of that information, or with the unlawful exposure of an undercover agent, or with involvement in a conspiracy to reveal her identity. He is, it is worth repeating, charged only with lying about his knowledge of it.

Here's how it breaks down. Libby testified that he first heard about Valerie Wilson's identity in a phone call from NBC's Tim Russert when, the indictment flatly alleges, he never discussed her with Russert. In any case, according to the indictment, Libby had learned Wilson's identity at least a month earlier. That's the basis of two of the five charges.

The indictment further charges Libby with making a false statement and committing perjury in his account of another phone call from another reporter. What's strange about these two counts is that they derive from testimony in which Libby actually acknowledged having answered a question (from Time Magazine's Matthew Cooper) about Valerie Wilson's CIA status.

...

But there's little question that the breathless hopes of Bush critics for the past few weeks — their desperate belief that Fitzgerald would reveal an executive-branch conspiracy to discredit administration critic Joseph Wilson that led officials to commit a despicable crime — have been dashed.

Indeed Fitzgerald shot down the Democrats and the antiwar left by saying the case had nothing to do with Iraq or the reasons for going to war. That is an inconvient truth that they are sure to ingore.

Earle subpoenas MoveOn.org leader

R.G. Ratcliffe:

Travis County prosecutors issued a subpoena Friday for the head of a liberal political organization to testify in a hearing next week on whether state District Judge Bob Perkins should be removed from hearing the criminal case against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.

DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin has asked to have Perkins removed because of donations to Democratic organizations, including $200 Perkins gave to MoveOn.org in 2004.

Perkins said he made the donation because the group was supporting Democrat John Kerry's bid to unseat Republican President George W. Bush.

DeGuerin said the donation makes it impossible for Perkins to escape the perception of bias because MoveOn.org recently has been using attacks on DeLay, R-Sugar Land, to raise money. Last week, DeGuerin said in court that MoveOn was selling T-shirts with DeLay's mug shot on it. Perkins replied that he was unaware of the T-shirt and had not bought one.

MoveOn later accused DeGuerin of lying because it said the group was producing no such T-shirt. DeGuerin said he was mistaken because the T-shirt was being promoted by a group funded by MoveOn. But the other group canceled the T-shirt sale after seeing DeLay smiling broadly in his mug shot.

The subpoena by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is for Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org. The Democratic organization was founded for the 2004 elections as a means of getting around new federal campaign finance laws that were designed to limit the influence of money on national elections.

MoveOn shows it ignorance on the meaning of the word "lie." An inaccurate statement is not a lie unless the person saying it knows it to be inaccurate. In this case, MoveOn supplies no information to suggest that DeGuerin knew his statement was inaccurate at the time he made it. For five years, liberals and groups that represent them, but particularly MoveOn have tried to redefine the word "lie" for their political benefit. This attempt at redefinition of simple words is evidence of the fundamental dishonesty of their message. If they were really honest, they would debate issues without trying to redefine words.

Syria tries border diversion

NY Times:

The barbed wire was new, so new in fact it was still being rolled out Friday as Maj. Gen. Amin Soliman Charabeh pointed toward the swirling barrier as proof that his country was doing all it could to stop weapons smugglers and infiltrators from slipping across his country's border into Iraq, fueling the insurgency there.

Border policemen in military uniforms stood in front of the rolls of wire, each armed with an automatic weapon. They were young men, four in a row, and each said it was his first day at that post.

This was a trip organized by the Syrian government for a group of foreign reporters, and it quickly became clear that the official message Syria was trying to promote was not that it had sealed its borders. On the contrary, Syria was trying to make the point that the border remained porous, and that it was not Syria's fault.

As Syria braces for possible sanctions after a United Nations investigation implicated top Syrian officials in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, the government has searched for whatever leverage it can find to try to negotiate internationally. Syria has tried to pacify its critics, especially the United States, by offering to do what it can on other fronts, like securing the border.

But given the size of the border, which stretches for hundreds of miles, the country's limited financial resources and what they say is a lack of cooperation from the allied forces on the Iraqi side, Syrian officials said, there are limits to what can fairly be expected of them.

"In the daytime, it is very hard for anyone to go to the other side," General Charabeh, who oversees security across the length of the border, said as he pointed into Iraqi territory. "During the night, with the absence of night surveillance technology, it might be possible."

The trip, however, appeared to reveal more than just the Syrians' hard luck story. Some measures they claimed to have taken months ago looked as though they were just now being rolled out. On one berm there was a footpath, recently blocked by the new fencing, and there appeared to be footprints in the dirt.

...

The choke point is not at the border. It is at the airport in Damascus where the jihadis arrive. Get them at the airport with fewer resources rather than having to deal with a force to space issue on the border. If they do not catch them at the airport, catch them at the mosques in Damascus or the resturants and coffee houses where they meet. If they wait until they get to the borderm they are giving up the game.

The corporate dictatorship of Syria

Washington Post:

The brother is an impetuous officer, who wields control over the praetorian Republican Guard. The sister is nicknamed "the Iron Lady." Her husband is a burly general who rose methodically through the ranks of Syria's feared intelligence services. Presiding over them is Bashar Assad, the Syrian president who runs what some have called "a dictatorship without a dictator."

Diplomats and analysts say that together, the four represent the corporate leadership of Syria, a country facing its greatest crisis in decades following the release of a U.N. investigation that implicates senior officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. In this crisis, they say, the Assad family circle is a source of the president's strength. It may also be his weakness. If his relatives are directly linked to the killing, the scandal could bring down his government.

Both Assad's brother Maher and his brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat, were named in earlier versions of the report, although many diplomats here said the evidence was spotty. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied any role in the killing.

"It is about interests at the end of the day," said a Syrian intellectual familiar with members of the government but speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of harassment. "They say, 'We have to protect our own, otherwise we will all go down together.' "

As the U.N. Security Council debates a resolution demanding Syria's cooperation with the investigation, Assad's inner circle is the focus of attention in the country, where reading the Kremlin-like tea leaves is an intellectual pastime. Many here believe any change in the government would come from within. But as long as the circle remains unbroken, many also suspect the government can endure the short-term crisis, even if few can sketch out a scenario that would end Syria's isolation.

...

There is much more about how power is held and used in Syria.

Ilamic terrorist smuggle missiles into France

Telegraph:

An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports, it was claimed yesterday.

French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted in Le Figaro.

Both missiles and several of the extremists are reportedly still at large.

French anti-terrorism investigators learned of the missile terror plan while interrogating a Jordanian al-Qa'eda operative close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the Islamic terror group in Iraq.

...

Iran's president marches with mob in anti Israel rally

Telegraph:

Iran was on a collision course with the West yesterday as its president defied a diplomatic onslaught led by Washington and London to withdraw his calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supported by more than a million of his countrymen attending annual anti-Israel protest rallies in all major cities across Iran, said he stood by his remarks.

The president marched alongside a mob of noisy students in Teheran waving placards carrying the exact words he used at an anti-Zionism rally earlier this week, and mocked Israel's strongest supporter, the United States.

"They become upset when they hear any voice of truth-seeking, " he said. "They think they are the absolute rulers of the world."

By returning so bluntly to the old anti-Israel rhetoric common during Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979, the president has radically changed Iran's relations with the West.

After a decade when most observers believed that the Islamic Republic had become more modern, Mr Ahmadinejad has taken a more hardline position.

...

Actually he is just not trying to hide their intentions anymore.

A progress report for the area around Tikrit

Arab leaders shot down Saddam exile plan prior to 2003 war

Reuters:

Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had secretly accepted a last-minute plan to go into exile to avert the 2003 Iraq war, but Arab leaders shot the proposal down, Al Arabiya television reported on Friday.

UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan made the proposal for Saddam to go into exile at an emergency Arab summit just weeks before the U.S.-led war began in March 2003.

But the 22-member Arab League, led by Secretary-General Amr Moussa, refused to consider the initiative.

"We had got the final agreement from the different parties, the main players in the world and the person concerned -- Saddam Hussein -- within 24 hours," Mohammed bin Zayed, deputy head of the UAE armed forces and crown prince of Abu Dhabi, told the UAE-based channel in a documentary.

"So we were coming to put facts on the table, and there would have been results had it been discussed," he said.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak says in the documentary that the United States had signaled its support for the proposal.

...

What happened outside the Palestine Hotel

Army New Service:

A coordinated terrorist attack was thwarted Oct. 25 by U.S. Soldiers at the Fidoros Square traffic circle in downtown Baghdad.

The attack, which occurred in three phases, began at 5:25 p.m., when under the cover of small arms fire, a vehicle packed with explosives tried to pierce the defensive barriers between the Sheraton and Palestine hotels.

Seconds later, a vehicle moving toward the traffic circle from the east was engaged by a private security firm and immediately detonated.

Spc. Darrell Green, a machine gunner from 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, was pulling security from an observation post at the Sheraton. Upon hearing the explosions of the first two vehicles, Green stood ready for what was to come.

As dust and debris from the explosions subsided, he noticed the defensive barriers had been breached and a cement truck was heading through the gap toward the Sheraton and Palestine hotel complex – a home for many international journalists in Iraq.

The vehicle was 50 feet past the breach when Green took aim and engaged the truck with his machine gun. As he shot and killed the driver, preventing the vehicle from going any faurther, the truck detonated.

“He was trying to kill people,” said Green, a Volusia County, Fla., native. “It was good we stopped him because he would have killed more people and destroyed the building.”

At the same time, the opposite side of the hotel was being bombarded with small arms fire and what Soldiers believed to be rocket propelled grenades.

“I don’t think capturing journalists was the goal,” said Capt. John Newman, commander of B Company, 3-15 Infantry, when asked if the terrorists were trying to capture journalists from the hotel. “If they were trying to capture the hotel or take someone hostage, they would have had a lot of dismounted (personnel) ready to pour through the breach. They were just trying to cause death and destruction, and get on the news.”

...

This story further highlights the weakness of the enemy when it comes to attacking defended positions. It was the active defense of the US forces that thwarted the enemy. I still believe that the US and the Iraqis need to get a handle on where every cement truck in the country is located and put GPS readers on them so that they can be traced at all times.

Desertion charges brought against 51 from New Orleans PD

UN raps Iran over Israel remarks

New Orleans' businesses may stay in Houston

2theadvocate:

Dozens of major firms that relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina are unlikely to return to Louisiana unless they get a positive message from state policymakers by January, business leaders told lawmakers on Thursday.

"Our hearts are in New Orleans but we have shareholders," said Richard Bachmann, chairman and chief executive officer of Energy Partners, a New Orleans oil and gas exploration firm that has moved key operations to Houston.

Bachmann spoke for the leaders of about 50 firms that represent oil, banking, manufacturing and hospitality interests who are trying to decide whether to stay in Houston or return their headquarters to hurricane-devastated New Orleans. Whether those firms come back will have a big impact on Louisiana's economy, not just New Orleans.

"I think the time is short," Bachmann told a legislative panel trying to find ways to respond to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"The companies I talk to say they are getting very comfortable," he said. "If we don't see a path forward by January, it is going to be very difficult." Bachmann said his firm has about 160 employees and a $20 million annual impact on the state.

The key items on the group's wish list are:

• Changes in state taxes to benefit businesses.

• Better levees around New Orleans.

• Improved state operations to boost the state's credibility in seeking massive federal hurricane aid.

It looks like the state is going to chase these guys off with even higher taxes. That does not count the even higher taxes imposed by corruption.

Fitzgerald's press briefing

He appears to be a bright lawyer. He rejects that the indictment has anything whatsoever to do with the war in Iraq and the reasons for going to war. People who try to read Iraq issues into the indictment will be frustrated.

Apparently Libby repeated the testimony he deems false on two occassions. The perjury charge came in his response to a question from a grand juror.

He tamps down the speculation on what additional charges if any might come. All agencies cooperated with the investigation. He experienced no political interference.

He is much more articulate than the reporters asking the questions.

He seemed to be arguing at one point that the disclosure of Plame's name would make it harder to recruit CIA agents. I find that contention dubious, but if true, she and her husband would be equally guilty. There is already evidence that her position had been compromised by CIA turncoats who had identifier her as an agent in the sale of information to the Soviets.

Blanco now considers Bush a "friend and ally"

AP via NOLA:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has invited President Bush to speak to lawmakers next month during a special legislative session that will focus on hurricane recovery and relief efforts.

...

"I can assure you that you will be welcomed by the leadership of Louisiana as a true friend and ally," the governor wrote in the letter, released by her office on Friday.

So is Sen Mary Landrieu withdrawing her threat to punch him in the nose?

Roger Simon gets the Plame case right, this is also interesting

My take:

The indictment suggest to me that Libby's lawyers did not do a good job of preparing him for his testimony, or that Libby failed to tell them information that was contained in notes that were provided to the prosecuters. Typical witness prep involves going over relevant documents with the witness and asking questions that you expect will be asked. Libby could argue that he forgot about the conversation with the Vice President that is the key to his indictment. He could also argue that he did hear information about Plame from people in the media, but he really needs to get those people to step forward, something that pretty clearly did not do before the grand jury.

Libby's notes of a conversation with the Vice President suggest that at a minimum he mislead the grand jury if he did not tell them about it. It will be interestin to see what his explanation is.

Reports suggest Karl Rove is still under investigation. Does that mean the grand jury term is going to be extended. Rove's apparent failure to recall his conversation with a reporter from Time, lacks substance at this point because the conversation did not go to the substance of the investigation in a meaningful way.

These are preliminary thoughts based on media reports so they are subject to change as more information becomes available.

A catalog of recent enemy failures around Baghdad plus this episode of enemy bumbling

The media battle space

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch:

...

I talk about the Zawahiri letter to the point where you might be tired of me talking about it. But there is something that I have not talked about in the last several press conferences that I want to emphasize. In the letter from Zawahiri, the second in command, if you will, of al Qaeda, he told Zarqawi - he says, "Remember, Zarqawi" - he says, "Half the battle is in the battlefield of the media." Half the battle is in the battlefield of the media. The terrorists will use the media as a combat multiplier to hide their limited capabilities. And let me use an example that you're all very familiar with to highlight that point.

You probably know more about this attack than I do, but it's the attack on the Palestine Hotel - carefully orchestrated, synchronized series of attacks with one purpose in mind: massive destructive and large number of civilian casualties - innocent Iraqis, innocent media journalists, innocent contracts (sic) that live at the Palestine. We have never argued that we weren't fighting a thinking enemy, and this complex attack shows, first, the thought that goes into it and, second, the fact that he's totally ruthless.

That afternoon, first, in a Suburban, a VBIED caused a breach in the outer wall, the one that protects that hotel complex, clearly designed to create a gap so a subsequent vehicle could come through. Second vehicle tried to come through, a Cherokee tried to come through, couldn't get through, diverted, and then blew up by the 14th Ramadan Mosque and killed a large number of civilians. And then the third vehicle, a cement truck loaded with explosives, found its way to the breach, made it through the breach, but before it could get to the hotel was stopped by coalition and contract personnel. The intent is clear. VBIED number one breached the barricade. VBIED number two and VBIED number three go through the barricade and blow up inside the hotel to kill as many civilians as possible.

Now why this hotel? Remember, half the battlefield is the battlefield of the media. Find the target where the majority of journalists are living and staying, find the target that already has security cameras all around it that are trained out there continuously so the event can be captured for the world. And as you all know, that's exactly what happened. First explosion, second explosion, cement truck all captured on video because he targeted the place where it would be captured by international media.

Thanks to the professionalism of coalition forces, the Iraqi security forces and the contract guards there at the complex, his intent of killing lots of innocent civilians didn't happen, but it could have easily happened. He was trying to use the media as a combat multiplier to get the world's attention, the focus on the attacks on Baghdad and away from all the progress that's being made across Iraq, take the focus away from the constitution, take the focus away from the fact that there are 207,000 trained and equipped Iraqi security force members, take the focus away of the fact that 120 battalions, army battalions and police battalions, are in the fight, take the focus away from the fact that 30 percent of those battalions are actually in the lead, take the focus away of the fact that 50 percent of the battalions that are in the lead now were not in existence back in July - major progress in the Iraqi security forces. And these kinds of things detract from the good news. So just be aware of that. He's using the media as a combat multiplier. The attack against the Palestine was for that reason.

...

...Now remember, those were all suicide VBIEDs. And we talk about this time and time again: 90 percent of the suicide bombers are foreign fighters solicited, recruited, trained and equipped by Zarqawi and the al Qaeda in Iraq network. And that particular mission was a mission to use the media as a combat multiplier.

If the media is a force multiplier, the US needs to do more to get its message out. Weekly 30 minute press briefings that do not get a lot of coverage just seems inadequate. During the first Gulf war, the daily press briefings not only help get the message out but also showed how ignorant much of the media was when it came to warfare. We should see more of that.

Is bin Laden doing an imitation of a dead man

AKI:

A Pakistani newspaper claims the founder of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, died in June in a village near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan. The Awsaf newspaper, based in the city of Multan, reports that the Saudi terror leader fell ill in Bamiyan, the region to the west of the capital Kabul where the Taliban blew up two huge 1,500-year-old Buddha statues in 2001. His protectors then took him back to the Kandahar region, where he died and was buried in a graveyard in the shadow of a mountain, the newspaper says.

Awsaf says the news of bin Laden's death is supported by the fact that it is a year since the last video of the al-Qaeda leader was released. The last audio message attributed to him was issued in December last year, after the attack on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah, and nothing more has been heard from him for some time.

...

It is not the first time there has been speculation that bin Laden may be dead. Last week an Indian newspaper claimed that the terror leader was among the victims of the earthquake.

...

The Bosnia quagmire

Captain's Quarters:

Denmark arrested four Muslims tonight in an investigation of planned suicide bombings in Europe -- a plot that has ties to Islamofascists in Bosnia. The Danes rounded up over two dozen people as part of the conspiracy, but only kept the four in custody....

The Danes linked this investigation to an unnamed Balkans ring of terrorists; the arrest of three other terrorists in Sarajevo appears more than just coincidence. Danish authorities believe that the four Muslims planned to conduct their suicide mission in the near future.

Remember how we in the West rescued the Muslims in Bosnia from a genocidal dictator? Does anyone also recall that outpouring of gratitude and respect the West receives for its efforts?

The rest of Cpl Starr's letter

Michelle Malkin:

On Wednesday, the NYTimes published a 4,625-word opus on the "2,000 dead" milestone--a "grim mark," read the headline--on page A2. Among those profiled were Marines from the First Battalion of the Fifth Marine Regiment, including Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr. Here's an excerpt from the Times' passage about Cpl. Starr:

Another member of the 1/5, Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, rejected a $24,000 bonus to re-enlist. Corporal Starr believed strongly in the war, his father said, but was tired of the harsh life and nearness of death in Iraq. So he enrolled at Everett Community College near his parents' home in Snohomish, Wash., planning to study psychology after his enlistment ended in August.

But he died in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour in Iraq. He was 22.

Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. ''I kind of predicted this,'' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. ''A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.''

Last night, I received a letter from Corporal Starr's uncle, Timothy Lickness. He wanted you to know the rest of the story--and the parts of Corporal Starr's letter that the Times failed to include:

Yesterday's New York Times on-line edition carried the story of the 2000 Iraq US military death[s]. It grabbed my attention as the picture they used with the headline was that of my nephew, Cpl Jeffrey B. Starr, USMC.

Unfortunately they did not tell Jeffrey's story. Jeffrey believed in what he was doing. He [was] willing put his life on the line for this cause. Just before he left for his third tour of duty in Iraq I asked him what he thought about going back the third time. He said: "If we (Americans) don't do this (free the Iraqi people from tyranny) who will? No one else can."

Several months after Jeffrey was killed his laptop computer was returned to his parents who found a letter in it that was addressed to his girlfriend and was intended to be found only if he did not return alive. It is a most poignant letter and filled with personal feelings he had for his girlfriend. But of importance to the rest of us was his expression of how he felt about putting his life at risk for this cause. He said it with grace and maturity.

He wrote: "Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

What Jeffrey said is important. Americans need to understand that most of those who are or have been there understand what's going on. It would honor Jeffrey's memory if you would publish the rest of his story.

Shame on the NY Times for misleading people about what Cpl. Starr had to say. One can only conclude that the Times omitted the rest of his statement because it did not fit the Times perspective on the war and the men fighting it.

The subdued reaction of the Muslim countries to calls for genocide against Israel

Melanie Phillips:

Needless to say, as the world foams with synthetic shock at Ahmadinejad’s declaration of intent to wipe Israel off the map, no Arab state has expressed its own outrage, revulsion etc. Most have remained silent. Well, there’s a surprise! According to the BBC News website, Egypt said:

We are way beyond this type of political rhetoric that shows the weakness of the Iranian government...

while Turkey called on the Iranian government

to display political moderation

which is not what one might call the most full-hearted repudiation of genocide. The silence or, at best, mealy-mouthedness of the Arab world furnishes an eloquent reminder that it overwhelmingly supports the Iranian aim of eradicating Israel, even though it may not support its current tactics. Indeed, with the exception of Egypt and Jordan, the Arab world has never renounced the war of extermination that it first waged against Israel when it came into existence.

The Palestinians, however, are far too street-wise to fall into the trap. Their support from European dupes depends, above all else, on the myth assiduously peddled that they do not want to destroy Israel. Thus Saeeb Erekat, their chief negotiator:

‘Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments’, he told the BBC News website. ‘What we need to be talking about is adding the state of Palestine to the map and not wiping Israel from the map,’ he said.

But the Palestinians have indeed wiped Israel off the map – in their own schoolbooks, where Israel does not appear at all on the maps of the Middle East, or on the map on their insignia which delineates the putative state of Palestine as the entire area presently composed of Israel and the disputed territories.

The Palestinians’ charter still calls for the destruction of Israel; its spokesmen have periodically repeated that the two-state solution is merely a Trojan horse for one Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel; they have rejected all offers and opportunities for a separate Palestinian state; they persist in their demand for the right of Palestinian settlement in Israel, which would destroy it as a Jewish state, even while they call for a state of their own.

In other words, Erekat’s words are opportunistic humbug. The Palestinians remain committed to the ethnic cleansing of the Jews and the destruction of the sovereign state of Israel – just as Ahmadinejad declared.

...

The Iranian president's fantasy was not limited to wiping out Israel, but also included "a world without the United States." Iran's leadership is at war with the US just as bin Laden is. Will we wait until an overt attack to engage while we continue to endure Iran's proxy war war against the US? His US fantasy has not been condemned by anyone. See the CNN story in yesterday's blog post.

Oil companies trying to revive communities in Plaquemines Parish, La.

Independent Weekly:

While Louisiana communities navigate the red tape of bureaucracy and await federal support for home repairs and business loans, certain sectors of private industry are taking it upon themselves to get the ball rolling. In places like Plaquemines Parish, the oil and gas industry is trying to take care of its own.

The Louisiana Independent Oil and Gas Association has created the “LIOGA Industry Relief Fund,” which is intended to be used for housing, schools, roads and other immediate needs. More than $500,000 has been raised, and Don Briggs, LIOGA president, says it will increase substantially when a master plan is announced.

LIOGA’s membership has a vested interest in getting locales like lower Plaquemines back up and running. “We have to get the area going again,” Briggs says. “These are all our employees. If this shuts down, we’re in big trouble… Buras and Venice and some of those places down there were originally started by the oil industry.”

And now it appears the industry may be the one to rebuild it as well. The companies that service oil activities along the eastern gulf shore of Louisiana in Plaquemines Parish, along with a group of gas gathering plants along the Mississippi River there, were either decimated or swamped by a storm surge when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in late August.

Where storage facilities once stood, nothing but concrete slabs remain. Storage tanks are completely submerged, save their domed tops. The levee system in southern Plaquemines is still lined for miles with debris — chunks of wood, overturned boats, trailers, oil tanks.

...

While LIOGA is determined to do something about the communities impacted by these temporary shutdowns, there is nothing they can do about the high energy prices on the way.

“Your biggest reason for increased energy cost will be the simple fact that natural gas is shut in,” Briggs says. “That’s going to be major.”

Briggs says several factors can also be pinpointed. He says a lack of alternative energy sources is not a problem in the face of increased heating bills, but rather a lack of alternative drilling sites. “We’re being held up by not being able to drill in other areas, such as off the coast of California,” he says. “If those bans were lifted, we could really make difference in this.”

Another problem has been finding the appropriate equipment and compressors — many of which have been in short supply — to replace damaged units. Until these facilities can get back online, many in these little communities will be without jobs, Briggs says. “Right now, with the damage shared between gas processing plants and offshore structures, we’re short about 100 compressors and it will take time to build all those compressors, and put them on,” he adds. “But I expect they will come on in the same fashion as normal repairs will.”

Repairs and damage are so widespread across coastal Louisiana that Briggs says it’s hard to place a timeline on when all infrastructure will return to full capacity — some segments may be fine in a matter of weeks, while other parts could take months or years.

There is more.

Bob Woodward calls the media on its persistant factual error about Wilson's trip

Stephen Spruiell:

...Bob Woodward demonstrated last night on CNN, it's an undeniable part of the story:

Woodward: There's some factual problems here. When Wilson went to Niger before all this blew up, in fact, before there was a war, he came back and reported, and Michael [Isikoff] and others who've read the Senate Intelligence Committee on this, know his report was very ambiguous. In fact, most of the analysts at the CIA said that Wilson's findings, when he went to Niger, supported the conclusion that there was some deal with Iraq. Now, no, that's [reacting to agitation across table from Senator Chris Dodd] — I mean, the Democrats, the Democrats and the Republicans all signed that report. That is a fact.

Woodward then pulled a copy of the relevant passages out of his pocket and slid them across the table toward Dodd and Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, who reacted as if Woodward had just pulled out a rubber chicken. Here's Isikoff's dismissive response:

We don't know exactly what Joe Wilson said when he came back because he didn't actually write a written report. It was an oral debriefing. So you have CIA analysts who might have interpreted it in different ways...

Oh, it was an oral debriefing, as opposed to a written report. BIG difference. If this is the best excuse the mainstream media can come up with for ignoring the fact that Wilson's op-ed was a lie from the word go, they're going to have to do better. We're not going to give up.

Actually, the op-ed was deceitful. Wilson never really challenged what Bush actually said, he just challenged whether a deal was consumated, something Bush never suggested. Bush was trying to show intentions, and Wilson was trying to undermine the evidence of those intentions through his deceit. Wilson was similarly deceitfull about the origons of his trip by suggesting it was done at the request of the Vice President. He ingaged in that deceit to add credibility to his trip and at the same time accuse the Vice President of ignoring his findings, which it turns out were never presented to him because they basically supported existing intelligence about Saddam's intentions. There is a difference between deceit and lies that sometimes goes unnoticed, because the result is usually the same. You can lie to deceive, and you can with hold relevant information to deceive. Wilson generally does the latter, however because it is his nature to deceive he will occassionally come pretty close to an outright lie such as his statement that his wife had nothing to do with his trip. Clearly she did, even if she was not the ultimate authority for the trip, but in the Wilson deceit mode he tripped up on that one.

The unreal realist

Charles Krauthammer:

...

This cold-bloodedness is a trademark of this nation's most doctrinaire foreign policy ``realist.'' Realism is the billiard ball theory of foreign policy. You care not a whit about who is running a foreign country. Whether it is Mother Teresa or the Assad family gangsters in Syria, you care only about their external actions, not how they treat their own people.

Realists prize stability above all, and there is nothing more stable than a ruthlessly efficient dictatorship. Which is why Scowcroft is the man who six months after Tiananmen Square toasted those who ordered the massacre; who, as the world celebrates the Beirut Spring that evicted the Syrian occupation from Lebanon, sees not liberation but possible instability; who can barely conceal a preference for Syria's stabilizing iron rule.

Even today Scowcroft says, ``I didn't think that calling the Soviet Union the `evil empire' got anybody anywhere.'' Tell that to Natan Sharansky and other Soviet dissidents for whom that declaration of moral -- beyond geopolitical -- purpose was electrifying, and helped galvanize the dissident movements that ultimately brought down the Soviet empire.

It was not brought down by diplomacy and arms control, the preferred realist means for dealing with the Soviet Union. It was brought down by indigenous revolutionaries, encouraged and supported by Ronald Reagan, a president unabashedly dedicated not to detente with evil, but its destruction -- i.e., regime change.

For realists such as Scowcroft, regime change is the ultimate taboo. Too risky, too dangerous, too unpredictable. ``I'm a realist in the sense that I'm a cynic about human nature,'' he admits. Hence, writes Jeffrey Goldberg, his New Yorker chronicler, Scowcroft remains ``unmoved by the stirrings of democracy movements in the Middle East.''

...

These others -- the overwhelming majority of Iraq's people -- have repeatedly given every indication of valuing their newfound freedom: voting in two elections at the risk of their lives, preparing for a third, writing and ratifying a constitution granting more freedoms than exist in any country in the entire Arab Middle East. ``The secret is out,'' says Fouad Ajami. ``There is something decent unfolding in Iraq. It's unfolding in the shadow of a terrible insurgency, but a society is finding its way to constitutional politics.''

...

It is not surprising that Scowcroft, who helped give indecency a 12-year life extension, should disdain decency's return. But we should not.

The Democrats who want to lose in Iraq

David Gelernter:

A FEW DAYS AGO, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) made a speech urging the U.S., in effect, to get out of Iraq the way we got out of Vietnam.

Leahy told the Senate that we cannot win in Iraq. "It has become increasingly apparent that the most powerful army in the world cannot stop a determined insurgency." (U.S. troops, Iraqi troops, long-suffering Iraqi civilians to Leahy: Thanks, senator, we needed that.) And Leahy announced that the president must lay out a public formula to tell the world just when U.S. troops will leave Iraq. Otherwise, Leahy said, he will urge the Senate to choke off the war by refusing to fund it. That's how the U.S. finally lost Vietnam: Congress snuffed out the money.

Be warned, senator: If Democrats become the "let's treat Iraq as we treated Vietnam" party, the public will turn away in revulsion, and the Democratic Party will die. It's not in such great shape anyhow.

Leahy's words lighted up a deep, dark secret that this nation would rather forget. Defeat in Vietnam was a catastrophe for the U.S., a body-slam to the nation's self-confidence. It was far worse for Southeast Asians, who were exiled, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by their vicious communist conquerors. But for left-wing Democrats it was a triumph. Forcing the mighty U.S. military to run away was the greatest victory they have ever known. That triumph broke a levee that sent a flood of left-wing ideas pounding across the U.S. landscape.

MANY OBSERVERS have noticed that Democrats of the left speak of Iraq as another Vietnam. Few have explained why: Because Democrats of the left want Iraq to be another Vietnam. Not that they took pleasure in Vietnamese suffering, but they rejoiced in the left-wing power surge that transformed the United States in the aftermath. Naturally, they hope to repeat that experience: to humiliate Republicans, moderate Democrats and the military by pinning the label "bloody failure" on another foreign war.

It's not going to happen.

Iraq is nothing like Vietnam, and the public knows it. In the recent referendum, 63% of Iraqi voters cast ballots. Each vote screamed defiance at terrorism and defeatism. Each vote told the world that terrorism will lose and democracy will win, that Iraqis trust the United States to help protect them against vengeful insurgents bent on murdering whoever dares to hope and care and vote.

An impressive 78% voted "yes" on the new constitution. Sunni Muslims said no, but many said it at the ballot box. The referendum made clear that ordinary people everywhere do want to govern themselves. Democracy could have worked in Vietnam too.

This nation will abandon the Democratic Party before it abandons Iraq.

I hope he is right on that last point. He is clearly right that the antiwar left in the Democrat party wants to lose this war. There should be a poll that ask the question of the American people, "Do you want to lose the war in Iraq?"

Iran shows the bankruptcy of appeasement

Washington Times Editorial:

If anyone had any doubts about the danger posed by a potential nuclear-armed Islamist regime in Iran -- and the need for the West to develop a more realistic approach to the ruling mullahs -- the Iranian president's call for Israel's destruction should dispel them.

...

Mr. Ahmadinejad's brazen call for the destruction of another country drives home once again the utter bankruptcy of the European Union's diplomacy-only approach to dealing with the current Iranian regime and its bid to acquire nuclear weapons. It should also spur the United States to revisit the decision made in March to defer to the Europeans and adopt a softer approach to Iran.

...

The effort to work with the Europeans was worth trying. But the Europeans' unwillingness to consider stronger steps against Iran, combined with the likelihood of Russian and Chinese vetoes at the Security Council, made the European plan unworkable. These developments should be sobering for those who have relied on diplomacy that is not backed up by a credible coercive threat.

There is also this from Ralph Peters:

...

Meeting with a lively group of American businessmen on Tuesday, I was asked how we'd know when Tehran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear capability. "You'll see Israeli planes in the sky over Iran," I said with a smile masking my seriousness.

...

Amir Taheri adds:

...

For the next week or so, special registers will remain open in thousands of schools across Iran to enable "volunteers for martyrdom" to put down their names for the coming "Holy War." The Iranian branch of Hezbollah claims it has enrolled 11,300 would-be suicide-martyrs for operations against the United States and its allies, especially Israel and Britain.

Hostility to Israel has been a key ingredient of the Islamic Republic's foreign policy since its inception in 1979. But the late Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini was always careful not to promise anything on Israel that he couldn't deliver. And while his regime could make life difficult for the Jewish state (largely by recruiting, training, arming and financing Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas), total destruction required the full participation of Israel's Arab neighbors, especially Egypt and Syria.

Khomeini's anti-Israeli stance was largely opportunistic — a means of wooing the Arabs who, being mostly Sunnis, regarded the ayatollah's Shiite revolution with suspicion.

He also knew that Israel's presence represented a kind of insurance for Iran's own security. For, had Israel not been there to become the focus of Arab rage, Iran might have gotten that role. After all, many Arab dictators, including Iraq's Saddam Hussein, often spoke of dismembering Iran and "liberating" the Iranian province of Khuzestan (which they dubbed "Arabistan").

...

...

the real reason for Ahmadinejad's Jihadist outburst may well be his deep conviction that it is the historic mission of the Islamic Republic to lead the Muslim world in a "war of civilization" against the West led by the United States. One of the first battlegrounds of such a war would be Israel.

Since his election in June, Ahmadinejad and his "strategic advisers" have used a bellicose terminology as part of their program to put Iran on a war footing. In the past few weeks, the regime has been massively militarized with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ahmadinejad's main power-base, seizing control of almost all levers of power.

According to Gen. Salehi, one of Ahmadinejad's military advisers, a clash between the Islamic Republic and the United States has become inevitable. "We must be prepared," Salehi says. "The Americans will run away, leaving their illegitimate child [i.e., Israel] behind. And then Muslims would know what to do."

...

Budget woes hit state of Louisiana

Washington Times:

Financial officials in Louisiana say a budget shortfall this year is a certainty, given a loss of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in state revenue because of two major hurricanes.
"There's no way we're not going to have a shortfall. About a third of our state's economy is in the tank," Jim Baronet, spokesman for the Louisiana Division of Administration, told The Washington Times yesterday.
"The tax base is gone," Mr. Baronet said. "The devastation was so complete that there is no business, there are no utilities, no infrastructure in place, no customers. No economic infrastructure exists."
He said Louisiana's annual budget is about $12 billion and that the size of the budget hole should be known as early as today.
Asked whether steep spending cuts are likely, Mr. Baronet said: "Laws here may be different than in other states, but we have constitutional and statutory requirements against draconian budget cuts."
He said tax increases have not been proposed, but he doesn't rule them out.
"Taxes could be the only solution we have. If so, we'll have to bite the bullet and do it," Mr. Baronet said.

That would certainly give many who left an incentive not to return. I just do not see that as a way to attract people back to New Orleans.

Syria scrambles to build support at home and brining out their own protest babes

NY Times:

With the threat of economic sanctions looming over Syria, officials of the governing Baath Party announced Thursday that they would formally reconsider a decision made 43 years ago that stripped hundreds of thousands of Kurds of their citizenship, and would also discuss the prospect of allowing multiple political parties in future elections.

Officials here have for years been promising to resolve the citizenship issue with the Kurds, and to open up Syria's one-party system. But the timing of the announcement on the official SANA News Service Thursday - no matter how vague and noncommittal - may provide an indication of how officials are hoping to manage a political crisis incited by the investigation into the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"They are trying to create a united front at home in the face of the pressures Syria is facing," said Sami Moubayed, a political analyst and writer based here.

The government had been trying to rally the public by dismissing as political a report by the United Nations prosecutor Detlev Mehlis that named two of Syria's most powerful security officials as suspects in Mr. Hariri's assassination. But all the name-calling did little to calm a jittery public and an increasingly nervous inner circle, which has come to view economic sanctions as virtually inevitable, analysts and people who work with the government said.

...

"Syria can last for about 29 months with its foreign currency reserves," said Abdul Kader I. Husrieh, an economist based in Damascus, though he said it would be devastating to the economy if oil exports were restricted.

Criminalising conservative politics

R.G. Ratcliffe:

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay sent constituents a letter Thursday calling the prosecution against him the "politics of personal destruction," and said he has come under attack because he's been a strong advocate of conservative causes.

...

"Because of their decade of defeat, Democrats have now dropped to the least common denominator — the politics of personal destruction," DeLay said, using the same defense mounted by former President Clinton during his impeachment.

DeLay said the prosecution against him is part of a larger pattern of "liberals" using the criminal justice system against conservatives.

"What we're fighting is so much larger than a single court case or a single district attorney in Travis County," DeLay said. "We are witnessing the criminalization of conservative politics."

DeLay also called controversies involving presidential adviser Karl Rove and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist "attacks" on both men.

...

Low functioning look for home

NY Times:

The first complex Robert Evans saw had no four-bedroom apartments, and the next had a four-week waiting list. Though he had a voucher good for a year's free rent, the Boardwalk Apartment Homes - where "quiet elegance awaits you," according to a sign - would not accept it.

"I don't even know where I go from here," said Mr. Evans, 29, as he pulled out of another "Future Resident Parking" spot in this unfamiliar city that is to become home for him, his fiancée and five children. "I guess I can just ride until I see apartment complexes on the street."

Nearly two months after Hurricane Katrina's mass migration, hundreds of thousands of people seeking long-term housing are learning the hard way that resettlement is not as simple as rental assistance. The Federal Management Emergency Agency provides families $2,358 intended to cover three months' rent, but has done virtually nothing to help them actually find permanent housing amid a dwindling supply of low-rent apartments in adopted hometowns across the South.

As a result, many of those struggling to escape emergency shelters and hotel rooms face a patchwork of disparate local programs. Depending on where they landed after the storm, evacuees may encounter useful city agencies readily handing out vouchers and advice, private aid groups of volunteers scrambling to keep up with demand, or little organized assistance whatsoever.

Houston has the most ambitious and generous program. It has already handed out nearly 30,000 yearlong vouchers and expects the housing tab to top $175 million, which it is counting on FEMA to cover. Atlanta, the second capital of the hurricane diaspora, is at the other end of the spectrum. The city simply gave $400,000 to a local homeless-services group, asking it to find housing for 50 families for six months.

James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman, said the agency had no role in this crucial next step in resettlement, except reviewing local expenses for eventual reimbursement. "We present the cities with emergency declarations and let them manage things their way," he said.

In Jackson, Miss., the city has hired two caseworkers to connect evacuees with housing, and the state has a Web site for landlords to post vacancies, but there is no financial help beyond FEMA's subsidy. In Birmingham, Ala., 150 churches calling themselves the "army of compassion" have acted as real estate agents. In Pensacola, Fla., Hurricane Katrina evacuees have to wait in line behind hundreds of survivors of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 who are still living in trailers.

At some point people have to take responsibility for finding themselves a place to live. While looking for an apartment can be time consuming and frustrating, it is not something that should require hand holding, particulary when you have a voucher covering your first years rent. Those people are way ahead of the typical renter who is trying to come up with a deposit and his first months rent. When you see stories like this, it is easy to understand why many of these people were poor. If you can't find an apartment by your self you lack basic coping skills for ordinary life.

More evidence of Blanco's failure to act after Katrina

AP via USA Today:

Bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina went uncollected for more than a week in the New Orleans area as the federal government waited for Louisiana's governor to decide what to do with them, according to memos released Thursday by a Republican-led House committee.

The 38 pages of e-mail between FEMA representatives and Pentagon officials contradict the contention by Louisiana's Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, two weeks after Katrina hit on Aug. 29, that the federal government was moving too slowly to recover the bodies.

They also underscore ongoing political tensions between the Republican Bush administration and Democratic state and local officials over the botched response to Katrina, which killed more than 1,000 people in Louisiana. They were released by a House panel that many Democrats have shunned, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., that is investigating the government's sluggish preparations and reaction to the storm.

The memos indicate that morgues were not ready to receive bodies until Sept. 7 — two days after the first memo complaining about Blanco's inaction, and nine days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

...

"Believe organized collection must begin today once morgue is operational or it will become evident to media that plan for collection is not in place," Jordan wrote in the e-mail, which was sent to Brown and Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, the military coordinator for the disaster.

But the morgue did not open until two days later, according to the Sept. 7 e-mail from Jordan.

"First morgue site is fully operational," Jordan wrote to the Pentagon officials. "...Believe media and family member interest will continue to cause security concerns."

Nearly a week later, on Sept. 13, Blanco lashed out at the federal government, accusing it of moving too slowly in recovering the bodies and saying it was disrespectful to wait so long.

You can usually tell when a Democrat has really screwed up. They start blaming others rather than taking responsibilities. On thing has been consistent throughout the Katrina mess, Blanco had difficulty making decisions in a crisis, which tended to make matters worse. As the mess she made grew, she and other Louisiana politicians blamed the adminsitration and the biased media did not challege them, because they wanted to hurt the President politically.

Islamic Jihad loses more leadership targets to Israel

BBC:

Israel has carried out a missile attack on the Gaza Strip, killing seven Palestinians, a day after a suicide bombing in northern Israel.

A leading member of Islamic Jihad and three other members of the militant group were among those killed.

Hours later, Israel fired missiles into an area which the army said was used by militants to launch rockets.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had pledged action in response to the bomb in Hadera which killed five Israelis.

Islamic Jihad said the bomb was carried out to avenge the death of one of its leaders.

Witnesses said the missiles struck a white Subaru car that was travelling between the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya and the town of Beit Lahiya.

Shadi Mohanna, Islamic Jihad's field commander in northern Gaza, died along with his assistant, Mohammed Ghazaineh.

...

When are these guys going to figure out that god is not on their side? Religious bigots like Islamic Jihad and Hamas are the soul brothers of the genocidal president of Iran. Israel should continue to target the leadership of these organizations including the ones hiding in Damascus.

Earle still scrambling for evidence in DeLay case

AP via Houston Chronicle:

A Texas prosecutor asked today for all e-mail sent and received in 2002 by three indicted associates of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay as part of an investigation into an alleged campaign finance scheme.

The latest subpoenas issued by District Attorney Ronnie Earle request correspondence to and from e-mail addresses belonging to John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold. He did not ask DeLay to provide e-mails.

...

The prosecutor also repeated a request for telephone records from DeLay's daughter, Danielle DeLay Ferro, a political consultant who did work for DeLay's Texas committee.

"It's interesting that they're trying to find evidence at this late date," said Ellis' attorney J.D. Pauerstein, who on Thursday filed motions to get the charges against Ellis dismissed.

Earle, who conducts the grand jury, did not comment on the latest subpoenas.

DeLay's legal team, meanwhile, sought subpoenas for three Texas officials — state Democratic party chair Charles Soechting; David Reisman, executive director of the Texas Ethics Commission; and Chris Elliott, chairman of the Travis County Democratic Party in Austin.

The officials may be asked to testify at a hearing Tuesday to decide whether state District Judge Bob Perkins should continue to preside over DeLay's case. DeLay wants the judge removed because of contributions Perkins has made to the Democratic candidates and causes.

DeLay's request for a speedy trial is apparently catching Earle unprepared. His actions suggest that he thought he could get a plea deal with one of the defendents and not have to do the hard work of putting together a case before bringing an indictment. The subpoenas are so scatter shot they look like a fishing expedition at this point instead of an attempt to tie down evidence already in their files.

73 Subpoenas issued for New Orleans hospital staff

Reuters:

Louisiana prosecutors, probing allegations of patient neglect and mercy killing after Hurricane Katrina, have issued subpoenas for 73 employees of one New Orleans hospital, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office said on Thursday.

Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, said the subpoenas were issued on Tuesday to compel doctors, nurses and others at Memorial Medical Center, where 34 patients died during Katrina, to speak to investigators.

Tenet Healthcare, which owns the now-shuttered Memorial hospital, said it was cooperating with the investigation.

Prosecutors had previously delivered a search warrant and removed files from the hospital.

Dallas-based Tenet has said the company believes as many 11 patients on the Memorial campus had died before the hurricane but could not be removed before the storm hit.

Witnesses have said conditions at Memorial quickly deteriorated as temperatures soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degree Celsius) inside the building and the sanitation system broke down.

...

UN releases more Galoway allegations

Times:

GEORGE GALLOWAY faced new questions last night after a UN inquiry tracked additional payments of Iraqi oil money into his wife’s bank account.

Days after a US Senate committee tracked a $150,000 (£84,000) payment to the MP’s now estranged Palestinian wife, the UN inquiry reported that Amina Naji Abu Zayyad had earlier received a series of transfers totalling $120,000.

The revelation increases the pressure on the vocal anti-war politician, whom the report says was nicknamed “Abu Mariam” by the Iraqis, a reference to his anti-sanctions campaign, the Mariam Appeal.

The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow already faces a parliamentary ethics inquiry and possible criminal charges for making “false or misleading” statements during his celebrated confrontation with US Senators in May.

The new details of Mr Galloway’s alleged involvement in the oil-for-food scandal were contained in a 620-page report issued at the end of an 18-month UN inquiry by a panel led by Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.

There is more including payments of Kojo Annan.

Dems still searching for coherence on war

David Limbaugh:

...

When you review Kerry's latest statements on the war you can't escape the impression that he is still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

He so desperately wants to recapture the loyalty of the antiwar Democrat base, but every time he tries to fashion a coherent policy toward that end, he finds himself running head-on into the brick wall of reality. Every time he tries to articulate an Iraq policy sufficiently distinct from President Bush, he finds himself hamstrung by his own previous inconsistent positions and by his mortal enemy: common sense.

Kerry called on President Bush to withdraw 20,000 troops from Iraq over the Christmas holidays, assuming the parliamentary elections in December are successful. Never mind his earlier harangues about President Bush's irresponsibility in having too few troops in theater.

Why not 25,000 troops, Sen. Kerry? Why not January? February? Now? The answer is: He has no clue, but he feels the need to say something -- anything -- just bold enough to retain a shred of the relevance he has long since lost.

Notice that Kerry conspicuously fails to tie his recommendation to our overall goal in Iraq, which is to secure the long-term stability of Iraq and the self-determination of the Iraqi people. His goal, in keeping with his lifetime naivete and pacifism, is to withdraw our troops -- period. It doesn't matter how noble the cause -- whether in Vietnam, Iraq, or elsewhere. It doesn't matter how many will have died in vain if we follow his prescription. It doesn't matter what condition we leave Iraq in upon our precipitous withdrawal. If it did, he would dispense with the artificial withdrawal dates and realize that the timing of our withdrawal must be determined by our completion of the mission.

One of the Dems biggest problem is that a significant portion of their base is desperate for the SU to lose in Iraq and they will oppose candidates who are not equally desperate to lose. This is the same problem Kerry had in the last campaign--looking tough while losing. His position actually puts him in conflict with that portion of the base that wants to see the US humiliated. There is a reason why they are so desperate for defeat. If the US wins, their entire theory on the use of force is discredited and they may never have another chance to stop the use of force. There goals are the same as our enemy and their political fate is probably the same as our enemy.

The Dems plan to keep counting votes of those who have left Louisiana

AP via NOLA:

Elections go on through rain or shine, so several Democrats figure a hurricane shouldn't stop people from voting either.

Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., touted their bill Thursday that would allow evacuees of Hurricane Katrina to vote absentee in their home districts through the 2008 elections, regardless of where they move temporarily. They must first sign an affidavit indicating an intent to move back after the area is reconstructed.

"Counting all the votes in this case is simply not enough," Feingold said. "We must do everything we can to ensure that those votes are cast."

Election laws vary from state to state, but in most places, getting a job or buying a home somewhere else is legal proof that a voter has moved and that his registration should too.

Davis said that's fine for people who intend to move permanently, but he believes hundreds of thousands of evacuees intend to return to Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama once they can. In that case, they should have the right to vote for the officials who will preside over the reconstruction, Davis said.

It would be "de facto redistricting" to have a political upheaval in the Gulf states just because the hurricane caused an exodus of voters, Davis said.

"When I pick up newspapers and read about political operatives and candidates salivating about being able to win elections in New Orleans that they otherwise could not have won because of a hurricane, that is absolutely wrong," Davis said.

Why? Isn't voting suppose to be by people who live in a district? It would only be "defacto redistricting" if Louisiana lost one of its congressional seats now as opposed to 2010 after the next census. Right now those who stayed in Louisiana have a more powerful voice than people in the rest of the country. It is hard to call that redistricting. The districts have not changed, just the voters who reside there. Would this proposal disenfranchise all the hispanics that have moved to New Orleans to help the city rebuild? Would they be required to vote in their former community also? This is a bad idea being pushed by Democrats desperate to hold on to power they are not entitiled to.

The UN kickbacks could lead to SEC action against the companies involved

NY Times:

More than 4,700 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, the independent committee investigating the program reported today.

The country with the most companies involved in the program was Russia, followed by France, according to the committee led by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

...

Among the major industrial companies the report indicated had paid kickbacks to Iraq for contracts as suppliers were DaimlerChrysler and Siemens. Also listed were Atlas Copco Airpower, Volvo Construction Equipment and Weir Group.

If any of the companies are reporting companies under US securities laws, they could be found in violation of those laws if they did pay kickbacks and bribes. Several companies were prosecuted for doing so in the 1970's when Stanley Sporkin was head of enforcement for the SEC. Sporkin was later appointed to the federal bench by Reagan.

I would not be surprised if the SEC enforcement division is looking at Volkers list right now and checking it against disclosures made in reports filed with the commission. It will be interesting to see how many reported the bribes and kickbacks and how they did it.

A matter of privacy?

Austin American-Statesman:

Hundreds of convicted sex offenders and other violent-crime parolees from Louisiana who fled to Texas as hurricane refugees have remained unsupervised for more than a month because federal officials have yet to release information on their whereabouts, state officials complained Monday.

They blame Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, who cite privacy laws in withholding the data.

"When the storm hit, Texas opened its arms to help our neighbors in Louisiana any way we could," said Robert Black, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry. "Now, we're trying to do the same thing regarding public safety . . . And the problem is FEMA will not release the information on the people who came into Texas."

FEMA officials' response: We're waiting on Texas. That's because Louisiana officials have just begun giving Texas the names of registered sex offenders and violent crime parolees. FEMA says it's waiting for Texas to then turn over those names to the federal government to be cross-checked with the names of evacuees who are registered with FEMA.

"We've said we'd do what we need to to provide that information," said Nicol Andrews, a FEMA spokeswoman in Washington. "It won't be an exchange (of information), though. They will turn over their lists to FEMA, and we will check those names against our lists."

...

Several weeks ago, frustrated San Antonio law enforcement authorities created a task force to try to track down Louisiana sex offenders. Vice Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commander who heads the FEMA team responding to Katrina, quickly promised to clear any red tape. Still, Texas officials said, little happened.

That might be because Louisiana officials provided the list of sex offenders only a few days ago. And information on the violent-crime parolees is still incomplete, though Louisiana officials have promised it within a few days, Texas officials said. Louisiana officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

FEMA officials would not predict how long it will take for them to check the lists once they are provided by Texas.

Here is the answer. By law the sex offenders are required to register their current address. If they are no longer at their address in Louisiana, then they are in violation of the law and should have no expectation of privacy. The same goes for parolees who are suppose to notify the parole board of their location. The explanation from FEMA officials as reported does not make sense from a legal point of view much less a common sense point of view. Is the ACLU in charge of this aspect of FEMA?

Modern communications come to Iraq

Thomas P.M. Barnett:

...

But despite the dangers, there is no doubt that media connectivity in Iraq has emerged as the untold success story of Saddam's fall:

As the Western media focus on the uncertain results of last week's national elections, there's one story that has flown below the radar: The success of the Iraqi TV business.

Since the April 2003 ouster of Sadam Hussein, the area has seen the birth of 30 TV stations, the same number of radio stations and an estimated 180 newspapers.

The quality of the programming may be uneven, but Iraq's new media moguls have one thing in their favor; When your audience is afraid to go outside, it's good for ratings.

The immediate goals are prestige and entertainment. Entrepreneurs want to reach the people without government interference or propaganda. It's a boom town and folks are moving in.

The best bit on this: one station backed by the U.S. is repurposing Uday Hussein's vast collection of Western movies and soap operas for domestic consumption (soaps are loved the world over).

Each of Iraq's 18 provinces has its own TV station, as does "each ethnic community from the Kurds to the Assyrians to every political party." Then there's the extra dozen or so satellite providers.

As one government spokesman (Iraqi) puts it, "There is hardly a house without a satellite dish and there is hardly a neighborhood without some kind of local broadcasting."

What changes? Everything. As the article notes, "While heavily controlled state media and cultural institutions previously pushed pro-Hussein propaganda, the order of the day now is unprecendented freedom of expression."

There is more. It will be difficult to put this Genie back in the bottle for those who fear freedom.

The unsafe safe houses of Hit

Multi-National Force-Iraq:

...

Acting on multiple intelligence sources, Coalition forces raided two terrorist safe houses to capture or kill terrorists operating near Hit, in western Iraq. The safe houses were suspected of being terrorist operational bases used to conduct attacks against local Iraqi citizens, Iraqi Security and Coalition forces.

Upon arriving, Coalition forces secured the safe house and detained one terrorist. Information from that location led Coalition forces to another safe house suspected of facilitating terrorist activities.

Prior to arriving at the second safe house, Coalition forces observed two vehicles departing with several males and attempted to stop the vehicles, but the terrorists refused to stop.

Coalition forces fired on the lead vehicle in an attempt to disable it, but it exploded with multiple secondary explosions observed by Coalition soldiers, indicating explosives and ammunition of some type were being transported. The trail vehicle stopped and terrorists attempted to flee the area, but Coalition forces engaged and killed them.

A search of the second vehicle revealed multiple small arms, ammunition, mortar rounds, numerous rocket propelled grenades and RPG launchers. The vehicle and weapons were destroyed by Coalition forces prior to leaving the area.

Coalition forces then returned to the second terrorist safe house. They secured and searched the building discovering a large weapons cache, ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds and explosives.

Coalition forces used close air support assets to destroy the terrorist safe house and weapons cache. Large secondary explosions were seen by Coalition forces as they departed the area.

One of the interesting aspects of these operations is the terrorist's lack of a safe zone of operation. There is no place in Iraq where they can feel secure. Another aspect is the terrorist inability to operate as a cohesive unit. To survive they have to disburse and operate independently with limited communications. It is too bad there was not a helicopter or predator sky cam to follow the action of the chase scene.

Politicians see the wisdom of opening up eastern gulf for drilling

NOLA:

Lawmakers urged the Bush administration on Thursday to open an area of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to natural gas development, although the Interior Department has told Florida it considers the area off limits for the time being.

Under an agreement with Gov. Jeb Bush, the Interior Department has said it would not consider a lease sale in the area until at least 2007. Florida opposes development of the area because some of it is within 100 miles of the state's Panhandle region.

At a Senate hearing, Democratic and Republican senators alike urged Interior Secretary Gale Norton to put the area, known as Lease 181, up for sale as soon as possible, arguing that just an announcement of this new supply of gas might help stabilize or reduce natural gas prices.

Prices have soared since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted much of the Gulf region's gas production. Prices have more than doubled compared to a year ago and are expected to produce huge heating bills this winter across much of the country.

It is ridiculous not to be drilling in this site. The phobic reaction to offshore drilling by some on the left is hurting the country.

Man that Clinton pardoned was paying kickbacks to Saddam

Buried in the CNN story on the latest Volker report is this:

...

The report also said Marc Rich & Co. financed 4 million barrels of oil under a 9.5-million-barrel contract awarded to the European Oil and Trading Co. (EOTC), a French-based shell company.

"Surcharges were imposed on the oil," the report said, and "Marc Rich & Co. directed BNP Paris not to disclose its identity to BNP NY in connection with its financing of the U.N. contract."

It added, "According to an individual familiar with the companies, EOTC and Marc Rich & Co. agreed that the premium paid to EOTC would cover a commission and a surcharge.

"The premium paid by Marc Rich & Co. of 30-40 cents per barrel was sufficiently high to cover both."

The company responded that it "continues to dispute vigorously" the report's conclusion.

...

Does it also dispute the factual allegations? Not that I can tell.

Russians build and launch satelite for Iran

BBC:

Iran launched its first satellite into space from Plesetsk in northern Russia on Thursday, joining a select club of countries.

A joint project between Iran and Russia, the Sina-1 satellite will be used to take pictures of Iran and to monitor natural disasters.

It blasted off aboard a Russian Kosmos 3M rocket early on Thursday morning.

The satellite was built for Iran by Polyot, a Russian company based in the Siberian city of Omsk.

Director General of Iran Electronic Industries Ebrahim Mahmoudzadeh said Sina-1 was the result of years of research and 32 months of construction.

Mr Mahmoudzadeh said the $15m research satellite would contain a telecommunications system and cameras that would be used for monitoring Iran's agriculture and natural resources.

It probably will also be used to monitor troop movements if the US finds it necessary to invade.

Blaze kills detainees waiting for deportation from Holland

BBC:

At least 11 people have died, and 15 are in hospital, after a three-hour blaze in a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

The blaze broke out soon after midnight in the centre, which houses illegal immigrants and drug smugglers awaiting deportation from the Netherlands.

Some of the 350 prisoners at the centre said guards were slow to respond to their cries for help.

Police said they were looking for some detainees who may have escaped.

...

Speaking on Dutch television, a detainee described the growing panic.

"First they said there was no problem, and they just kept us locked up," he said.

"Our throats started hurting. We kicked, we screamed, we rang the bell of course. And then panic broke out."

A spokesman for the prosecutors' office, Martin Bruinsma, told AFP news agency the emergency services had acted "very quickly", but that cell doors could only be opened manually, one at a time.

Dutch immigration is handled by the military and has a reputation of being tough and efficient. Many deportees from the US also pass through the airport in Amsterdam on their way to their country of origin.

False memories account for tales on the mothership

Reuters:

Do you have memories of being abducted by aliens and whisked away in a spaceship?

You wouldn't be alone.

Several thousand people worldwide claim to have had such close encounters, researchers say. But in a new study, a psychology expert at London's Goldsmiths College says these experiences are proof of the frailty of the human memory, rather than evidence of life in other galaxies.

"Maybe what we're dealing with here is false memories, and not that people are actually being abducted and taken aboard spaceships," says Professor Chris French, who surveyed 19 self-proclaimed alien abductees.

Several of the abductees reported being snatched from their beds or cars by alien creatures around four feet high, with spindly arms and legs and oversized heads, French said.

Some men said they were subjected to painful medical examinations by the aliens, during which their sperm was extracted.

Many of the alien experiences could be explained by sleep paralysis, a condition in which a person is awake and aware of the surroundings but is unable to move.

Sleep paralysis often leads to hallucinations and 40 percent of people experience the state at least once in their lives, French said.

This propbably accounts for Louis Farakaham's account of how he was selected to go up to the mothership to meet with Elijah Mohammad. This has become an important part of his cult narative and could also explain why he believes the New Orleans levees were blown up.

I blame Texas A&M

AP via CBS News:

These pumpkins look like something scared THEM.

Eerie-looking white pumpkins — naturally white, not painted — are finding their way into more and more homes this Halloween season.

The albinos are called Ghost pumpkins, Snowballs, Luminas or Caspers — presumably a reference to the friendly ghost. And the ones about the size of a baseball? Baby Boos.

White pumpkins are a little bit more expensive than their orange cousins. But parents and party planners say they are more ghoulish and offer a better canvas for drawing or painting a jack-o'-lantern face.

...

Texas A&M has such an aversion to orange, the color of the rival Texas Longhorns, that they once tried to paint their radio antenna maroon instead of orange, until the FAA made them change it back. There is also the story about the attempt to make carrots maroon. Since the white pumpkins are still orange on the inside, it appears that whoever created them managed to turn them into the Longhorn road uniform.

Louisiana bogged down levee politics

New Orleans Times-Picuyene:

Embattled Orleans Levee Board President Jim Huey resigned Wednesday amid cries of foul by colleagues that he might have overstepped his authority with unilateral decisions to hand no-bid contracts to relatives in the days after Hurricane Katrina and to collect nearly $100,000 in back pay several weeks before the storm.

Huey, whose nine-year-plus tenure at the agency's helm is the longest on record, made no apologies for steering work to members of his wife's family, saying those steps were taken under emergency conditions. As for the back pay, Huey said he was legally entitled to the money.

"Every single decision made during this crisis situation was made in the best interest of the levee district, and that will be proven in time," Huey said minutes after he faxed a letter of resignation to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who controls six of the eight seats on the Levee Board.

While Huey maintains that his resignation was voluntary, sources close to Blanco said Wednesday that she demanded that he step down, citing the negative publicity he has attracted in recent weeks.

Huey, 55, said he resigned because the furor over his post-Katrina maneuvers had become "a sideshow" for the board as it struggles to recover from a disaster that destroyed levees and laid to waste much of the agency's real estate holdings, from Lakefront Airport in eastern New Orleans to a commercial strip at West End.

And, these people wonder how they got the reputation they have?

Miers withdraws

CNN:

President Bush on Thursday accepted the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, according to a statement from the White House.

In her letter to the president, Miers said she was "concerned that the confirmation process presents a burden for the White House and its staff and it is not in the best interest of the country."

"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said.

I think she withdrew because her nomination was not politically viable. I regret that she was treated so shabbily, but now both sides will get to have the fight they wanted and it will probably make the President stronger and give the Republicans a better shot at increasing their majority in the Senate. Democrat opposition to judicial appointments has been the driving force in close senate races in the last two elections. This withdrawel, and the subsequent Democrat opposition to a conservative appointment should do the same for 2006.

Iran wants to wipe out US as well as Israel

CNN:

Several world capitals have condemned Iran's leader for saying Israel should be "wiped off the map," and Israel's vice premier has called for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations.

During a meeting with protesting students at Iran's Interior Ministry, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

The president then said: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism," according to a quote published by Iran's state news outlet, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). (Emphasis added.)

The remarks by Ahmadinejad on Wednesday coincided with a month-long protest against Israel called "World Without Zionism" and with the approach of Jerusalem Day.

Israel reacted to the remarks strongly by calling for U.N. action against Tehran.

He slipped up and told us what he really thinks. It has been Iran's intention to maintain a covert war against the US and Israel, using proxies like Hesballah and Palestinian terrorist groups. However, like al Qaeda's declaration of war against the US, we continue to ignore what our enemies hare saying. Iran is also helped by the antiwar left who do not want to engage the enemy, under the false assumption that failing to engage will deter them.

Norks put on a show

Photo and story from Washington Post:

The lights dimmed at the May Day stadium and a rapt crowd of 150,000 fell silent at the start of a spectacle considered so important to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that it has merited a rare, if limited, opening to the outside world.

North Korea has creaked open its doors for Arirang, a festival that celebrates national pride and, this year, commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Stalinist state's ruling Workers' Party. Performers, who numbered almost as many as the spectators, won furious applause for their coordinated displays of rhythmic gymnastics, flying acrobatics, traditional dancing and military taekwondo routines -- all synchronized to a massive video and laser light show.

...

Some Katrina families still looking for relatives

Washington Post:

Eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina separated mothers from children and brothers from sisters, there are still more than 1,500 cases of "fractured families" that have not been reunited, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Although every child found alone in a shelter has been reunited with family members, 1,549 children, out of the 4,775 hurricane-related child separations reported to the center, are still being sought by one or both parents or other relatives, center officials said.

And the painstaking work of tracing families spread across 48 states is not getting any easier.

"We've resolved almost 66 percent of those cases," said Ben Ermine, executive director for case management operations at the center. He said that number includes 100 Hurricane Rita-related cases, 73 of which have been resolved. "But the reason for all these remaining cases," he added, "is that children have been scattered all over the country, and to track them down is a very difficult process."

...

Enviros still fighting energy

Washington Post:

A coalition of environmental groups is targeting about 30 members of the House and a handful of senators in a final push to win swing votes to defeat proposed drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In a vigorous lobbying campaign, the environmentalists are trying to rally opposition in the districts of lawmakers whose votes they say are uncertain. As proposed drilling moves closer to becoming law, the environmentalists are scrambling to find enough votes to derail legislation that has seemed headed for passage. Supporters maintain they will have the votes to open the refuge.

...

The legislation to open the refuge to drilling is expected to be included in budget measures that soon will go before the full House and Senate. By including the measure in the budget reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered, supporters of drilling hope to overcome tactics used in the past by opponents to kill drilling legislation.

This opposition is idiotic in the extreme. These guys have no case. Their argument is based on the false premise that the environment is fragile, when it is anything but. Even when there is a mess, which is rare, it can be cleaned up. I have watched drilling for years around here and never seen an enviromental problem assicated with it. In fact, if the drillers did not maintain their facilities, their biggest problem would be to have them overgrown by the vegatation and trees in this area. While the artic may lack trees and vegetation, tht just makes the drillers job easier. It is one less problem he has to deal with.

Some Sunni Signs of democracy winning over war

Washington Post:

For weeks before Iraq's constitutional referendum this month, Iraqi guerrilla Abu Theeb traveled the countryside just north of Baghdad, stopping at as many Sunni Arab houses and villages as he could. Each time, his message to the farmers and tradesmen he met was the same: Members of the disgruntled Sunni minority should register to vote -- and vote against the constitution.

"It is a new jihad," said Abu Theeb, a nom de guerre that means "Father of the Wolf," addressing a young nephew one night before the vote. "There is a time for fighting, and a time for politics."

For Abu Theeb and many other Iraqi insurgents, this canvassing marked a fundamental shift in strategy, and one that would separate them from foreign-born fighters such as Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian who leads the group al Qaeda in Iraq.

Two years of boycotting the process had only marginalized Sunnis while Iraqi's Shiite majority gained power. And Abu Theeb's entry into politics was born partly of necessity; attacks by Shiite militias, operating inside and outside the government security apparatus, were taking an increasing toll on Sunni lives.

So at 6:30 a.m. on the day of the referendum, Oct. 15, Theeb was already at the polling center in his village, which he had scouted out days in advance. Two of his fighters took up positions. Abu Theeb and the rest of the fighters, more relaxed, propped their Kalashnikov rifles against walls or placed them on tables.

"No one will attack," Abu Theeb assured a reporter. "I made sure some wrongdoers are protecting the school," he said, jokingly referring to al Qaeda loyalists. To head off any violence, he had co-opted the group by enlisting two of its supporters as his polling site guards.

There is more.

DeLay judge is the only Travis County judge who routinely makes donations to groups opposed to DeLay

R.G. Ratcliffe:

A lawyer for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said Wednesday the judge overseeing the criminal case against DeLay is the only Travis County judge who routinely makes financial donations to national political committees.

Dick DeGuerin, of Houston, said state District Judge Bob Perkins' donations to Democrats alone would not disqualify him. DeGuerin said Perkins should be taken off the case because he gave money to groups that have opposed DeLay, the former U.S. House majority leader.

"This case is about intentionally giving money to political candidates and organizations that strongly and directly oppose Congressman DeLay," DeGuerin said in a court filing.

DeGuerin also noted that Perkins gave money to the Democratic National Committee in October 2004 after DeLay associates Jim Ellis and John Colyandro appeared in his court on charges of illegally funneling money through the Republican National Committee.

"Judge Perkins' political activities probably did not run afoul of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct until he was assigned John Colyandro's and Jim Ellis' cases in September 2004," DeGuerin said.

Syria still acting badly in Lebanon

NY Times:

Lebanon is facing an "increasing influx of weaponry and personnel from Syria" to Palestinian militia groups, a United Nations report said yesterday.

The report, the second of two United Nations investigations into Syria's interference in Lebanon, said there had been a remarkable turnabout from Syria's long domination there. Damascus removed its troops last spring after 30 years of occupation following mass demonstrations and international pressure over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Still, the report says, Lebanon has not achieved "tangible results" in disarming the Palestinians and the Shiite Hezbollah militia or in exerting full control over its territory.

The situation remains "volatile," the report warned, citing "a number of worrying developments affecting the stability of Lebanon, particularly in the form of terrorist acts and the illegal transfer of arms and people across the borders into Lebanon."

While couched in diplomatic language, the report's clear implication that the Palestinian groups were acting at the behest of Syria appeared certain to increase pressure building against Damascus in the Security Council. The Council's special investigator issued a report last week saying the slaying of Mr. Hariri had been plotted by top-ranking Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers, including the powerful brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad.

It is passed time for regime change in Damascus.

Israel goes on offensive against Islamic Jihad

AP via NY Times:

The Israeli army launched an offensive against Islamic Jihad militants Thursday, carrying out a series of airstrikes in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said would be a ''broad and nonstop'' response to a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis.

The offensive will include airstrikes and artillery attacks in Gaza and arrest raids in the northern West Bank, where Wednesday's bomber came from, a military official said on condition of anonymity under military regulations. As a last resort, Israel could re-enter Gaza, which it evacuated last month. Israeli media reported that troops would also retake Palestinian towns, and conduct house-to-house searches.

The threatened Israeli response to the bombing in the central town of Hadera ratcheted up pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to confront militant groups. Abbas has refused to crack down on armed groups such as Islamic Jihad, fearing civil war.

Sharon said the military operation was necessary because of Abbas' refusal to take action and said it would be impossible to resume peace talks until the Palestinians rein in the militants.

''Unfortunately the Palestinian Authority has not taken any serious action to battle terrorism,'' Sharon said before meeting the visiting Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. ''We will not accept under any circumstances a continuation of terrorism. Therefore our activities will be broad and nonstop until they halt terrorism.''

Until the PA can stop terrorism it has nothing of value to offer Israel. There is no reason for Israel to make a deal with them. The PA has to destroy the religious bigots if it wants a state. If it does not it want have a state and Isreal will destroy the bigots.

More than half of companies in oil for food paid bribes to Iraq

NY Times:

More than 4,500 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, according to investigators from the committee.

The country with the most companies involved in the program was Russia, followed by France, the committee investigating the program is to report Thursday. The inquiry was led by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve board.

The findings are in the committee's fifth and final report, a document of more than 500 pages that will detail how outside companies from more than 60 countries were able to evade United Nations controls and make money for themselves as well as for the Hussein government.

Three investigators who described their findings in interviews declined to name the companies, though they said the companies would be identified in the document on Thursday. They refused to speak on the record about the report until it is released.

The new report studies the people outside Iraq who profited illicitly and how they did it. It will identify companies and individuals who took part, both deliberately and inadvertently, and will chronicle in detail the experience of 30 to 40 of them, the investigators said.

...

More breathless speculation on Fitzgerald's day at the office

AP:

The prosecutor in the CIA leak probe had a confidential lunchtime meeting with a federal judge Wednesday after a grand jury listened to three hours of testimony in the case that has ensnared top White House aides.

The grand jury's term expires on Friday, and the panel adjourned for the day without announcing any charges or other action. The administrative assistant to Thomas Hogan, the chief judge of U.S. District Court in the nation's capital, confirmed Hogan's meeting with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. The assistant, Sheldon Snook, declined to comment on what was discussed.

No witnesses were seen going into the grand jury area, only Fitzgerald and his deputies.

Unless there is some evidence that has not been made public, it is unlikely that the grand jury will indict anyone for blowing Valerie Plame Wilson's "cover" with the CIA. For a myriad of reasons, there was just no violation of the law in revealing her role in sending her husband to drink sweet tea in Niger. The World War I statute occassionally mentioned is even more of a stretch.

Also, on the public record available there does not appear to be a case for obstruction of justice or perjury. In fact the two people most mentioned Rove and Libby, have cooperated with the prosecuter and grand jury and they haved voluntarily waived confidentiality agreements with reporters. To the extent that documents may have contradicted prior testimony, they have taken the opportunity to clarify their remarkds and amend previous statements.

It should be noted that the reporters who testified would not have been known to the prosecuter without the cooperation of the administration and the testimony of Rove and Libby. That is hardly a record on which to build an obstruction of justice case. A prosecuter cannot make a case for perjury based on faulty recollections that are subsequently corrected.

Much of the excitement surrounding this case comes from the angry left's failure to comprehend the meaning of the word "lie." To the angry left a lie is anything said by someone that they disagree with. When put to the test they can never articulate, for example, how George Bush or Bill Clinton knew there were no WMDs in Iraq. The fact that we are still not able to account for Saddam's WMD is not proof that he never had it much less that the two presidents knew he did not have it. In fact, it was Saddam's failure to account for the WMD as required by his cease fire agreement and several UN resolutions that suggested strongly that he did have it. If he destroyed it without accounting for it he left beople who already did not trust him in the position of having to take his word for their destruction, something that most rational leaders would not be willing to do.

Even the angry left was not willing to take Saddam's word on the destruction of his WMD. They wanted have have weapons inspecters account for the WMD, something that Saddam made impossible by either destroying it without accounting for it or hiding it. This "solution" even if it had resulted in some accounting they deemed acceptable, would have left Saddam in place to continue his genocide against the Kurds and Shia, as well as reconstitute his weapons programs, which the US has proved he intended to do.

The dishonesty of the argument by the angry left, may have something to do with their failure to persuade voters.

Rig damage caused by human error

Telegraph:

BP yesterday admitted that the collapse of its $1billion (£560m) Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico had nothing to do with Hurricane Dennis, and was instead caused by a technical mistake.

Thunder Horse, 150 miles south of New Orleans, fell to a 20 degree tilt in July, and almost sank. Fixing it will cost $250m (£140m).

"After a thorough investigation, we have concluded that it was not storm-related, but was caused by a design weakness in the ballast system," Lord Browne of Madingley, BP's chief executive, said.

Thunder Horse, which is now expected to begin production in the second half of next year, was just one of several problems BP experienced in the Gulf, as "severe and destructive weather" hit third-quarter profits.

...

CIA malpractice

Stephen Sprueill:

...the Senate Select Intelligence Committee report reveals that: "DO officials told Committee staff that they promised the former ambassador that they would keep his relationship with CIA confidential, but did not ask the former ambassador to do the same and did not ask him to sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement" (p. 41). So Wilson was never obligated to keep his trip a secret, although if leaking his wife's name is a crime he should be indicted for ensuring it would happen when he wrote his op-ed. Oh, and if lying to reporters was a crime he'd be sharing a cell with Bubba already.

If the CIA did not require Wilson to keep his trip and his findings secret, it seems clear that the agency did not think anything of value would come from the trip. Or, it could have been their intent all along to undermine the case the for war. This revelation at a minimum makes it look more like a boodogle than a serious inquiry

More changes at CBS

Zarqawi cell in Germany convicted

Reuters:

Four Arab men accused of planning to bomb Jewish targets in Germany on the orders of militant Islamist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were found guilty on Wednesday at the end of a marathon trial.

"In this case, Abu Musad al-Zarqawi should also be sitting on the defendants' bench," Judge Ottmar Breidling told the court in his explanation of the verdict.

Jordanians Mohammed Abu Dhess and Ismail Shalabi and Palestinian Ashraf Mohammad al-Dagma were found guilty of belonging to an Islamist militant group that planned attacks on two Jewish-owned Duesseldorf discos and a Berlin community center.

Algerian Djamel Moustfa had been charged with supporting the group and breaking Germany's weapons laws.

...

Evidence in the trial, which started in February 2004, included wiretapped conversations in which Jordanian militant Zarqawi discussed with group members the state of preparations for the attacks, using codewords such as "honey" and "medicine" to refer to explosives.

...

"I swear to you, Sheikh, I swear that if you ordered me to die, I would do it," Dhess allegedly told Zarqawi in one of the intercepted conversations in October 2001.

Dhess, the alleged ringleader, told the court on October 18 there had been no plan to attack Jewish targets. "I hate the Israeli system. But I don't hate the Jews as Jews," he said.

I do not believe him. What do Dusseldorf discos have to do with the Israeli "system"?

Iran hosting al Qaeda exiles

Reuters:

Iran is permitting around 25 high-ranking al Qaeda members to roam free in the country's capital, including three sons of Osama bin Laden, a German monthly magazine reported on Wednesday.

Citing information from unnamed Western intelligence sources, the magazine Cicero said in a preview of an article appearing in its November edition that the individuals in question are from Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

They are living in houses belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the report said.

"This is not incarceration or house arrest," a Western intelligence agent was quoted as saying. "They can move around as they please."

The three sons of Osama bin Laden in Iran are Saeed, Mohammad and Othman, Cicero reported. Another person enjoying the support of the Revolutionary Guards is al Qaeda spokesman Abu Ghaib, the report said.

Iran is at war with the US and is supporting others who are at war witht he US. Iran should be told what the Taliban were told. Turn them over are share their fate.

Syria based group behind rocket attack on Israel

Ynetnews:

The order to fire Qassam rockets at Israeli communities in recent days came from the Islamic Jihad’s headquarters in Syria, security officials say.

Following the killing of the group’s West Bank terror leader Louie Sa’adi earlier this week, Jihad leaders in Syria exerted heavy pressure on terrorists to respond by directing mortar and rocket fire at Israel, at any cost.

This time around, Syrian officials cannot pretend they had no idea what was happening right under their noses, because Israel relayed messages to Damascus, through various sources, informing the Syrians about the rocket attacks about to follow.

Some officials in Israel thought Syria, which is already facing intense international scrutiny, might push the Islamic Jihad to curb its attacks, but Syrian officials did not act.

Meanwhile, Israel also informed the Palestinian Authority hours before the Qassam strikes that terrorists are planning to launch rocket attacks. PA officials were asked to take steps in a bid to prevent the fire, but Palestinian security officials did not even pretend to be acting on the information.

Israel appears to be tapped into the communications of Islamic Jihad. Syria should be told that because of its failure to act to prevent the attacks, that Israel will act preemptively next time without notice.

Roggio "joining" the Marines in Iraq

...

A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to visit and tour the operations environment I've been covering here for the last year. That invitation, from senior Marine officers with the Regimental Combat Team - 2, 2nd Marine Division, presents an opportunity for me to provide first hand reporting from Iraq, as well as to continue to provide context to the reports coming from other sources as I've done here at the Fourth Rail.

...

Further details on the trip, financial and otherwise, are available on request. Offers of assistance should be emailed to:

billroggio@gmail.com

And for those seeking to make a financial contribution, you may do so via PayPal or if you prefer another means, please contact me at the above email address.

Roggio has had the most rational analysis of events in Iraq and is deserving of what ever support you can give him. I look forward to his reporting from Iraq.

Iran's new leader states his intentions and they are not peaceful

Captain's Quarters:

Iran's new president and nominal head of state has wasted no time in publicly supporting terror. He made an explicit call for attacks on Israel as part of his address to an Islamic forum in Teheran today, calling into question whether the time may have come for stronger measures to eliminate the threat coming from the Islamic Republic's mullahcracy:

Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”

Ahmadinejad wants to touch off yet another intifada, which shows how idiotic Iranian Islamist thinking has become. The previous intifadas have done nothing for the Palestinians; in fact, they lost most of what they could have gotten without firing a shot in the 1990s from Ehud Barak. They haven't exactly done wonders for Iran, either. Israel has emerged diplomatically stronger, with developing ties to a number of nations through the Arabic world, while Iran finds itself more and more isolated by its pursuit of nuclear technology.

Iran is at war with Israel and the US. Right now they use proxies like Hezballah and other terrorist, because they are too weak to make direct attacks, but they think their nukes will solve that problem. Iran's genocidal hatred of Israel is a self destructive policy driven by religious bigotry and real estate worship. Because the driving force for this hatred is not based on logic, there is little chance that negotiations will achieve anything with this crowd.

Just what we need in the middle east, another anti American satelite TV service

France was behind bogus Niger documents

Telegraph:

The Italian businessman at the centre of a furious row between France and Italy over whose intelligence service was to blame for bogus documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy material for nuclear bombs has admitted that he was in the pay of France.

The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, "Giacomo".

His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning "Giacomo" to procure and circulate documents - France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq.

Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.

These are the documents that Joe Wilson falsely claimed to have seen. Hat Tip--Austin Bay and Powerline.

The antiwar left's numerology worship

Michelle Malkin:

The anti-war Left couldn't wait for the death of the 2,000th soldier in Iraq. Peace activists have been gearing up for protests, vigils, and other events this week to mark the completely bogus milestone. Why 2,000? Was the 2nd or 555th or 1,678th death not as worth mourning as any other death with nice round numbers?

Cindy Sheehan barely contained her macabre lust for the spotlight in preparation for the artificially constructed, media-hyped occasion. "I'm going to go to Washington, D.C., and I'm going to give a speech at the White House, and after I do, I'm going to tie myself to the fence and refuse to leave until they agree to bring our troops home," Sheehan told a reporter last week as the death count neared her lottery number pick.

"And I'll probably get arrested, and when I get out, I'll go back and do the same thing," she vowed.

This time, Sheehan's public relations team would be wise to make sure she tries not to look like she's having so much fun. The carnival-like atmosphere that surrounded her arrest at the White House last month did little to convince military families that Sheehan and her pink lingerie-clad Bush-bashing brigade have the troops' best interest at heart.

Those "911 was an inside job" and "Castrate Cheney" signs didn't help much either.

...

There is more.

Who is killing New Orleans?

Nicole Gelinas:

...

...New Orleans’s immutable civic shame, before and after Katrina, is not racism, poverty, or inequality, but murder—a culture of murder so vicious and so pervasive that it terrorizes and numbs the whole city.

In 2003, New Orleans’s murder rate was nearly eight times the national average—and since then, murder has increased. In 2002 and 2003, New Orleans had the highest per capita city homicide rate in the United States, with 59 people killed per year per 100,000 citizens—compared to New York City’s seven. New Orleans is a New York with nearly 5,000 murders a year—an unlivable place. The city’s economy has sputtered over the past generation partly because local and state officials have failed to do the most elementary job of government: to secure the personal safety of citizens.

The president wasn’t alone in his misperception of what ails New Orleans. In the aftermath of the storm, hand-wringers wondered why they hadn’t noticed before that so many American blacks live in Third World conditions—supposedly only because they’re black. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer voiced white America’s knee-jerk best: “You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals. . . . So many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor, and they are so black,” he mused on the air.

But Americans didn’t notice this before because it’s not true. Despite the president’s rhetoric, and despite those indelible images from the Superdome and the Convention Center, New Orleans is just as much a black success story as a black failure story.

Yes, New Orleans has a 28 percent poverty rate, and yes, New Orleans is 67 percent black. But nearly two-thirds of New Orleans’s blacks aren’t poor.

...

Despite the images of collective helplessness broadcast after Katrina, New Orleans does not have a stratospherically high government-dependency rate. In 2002, it had 6,696 families on cash welfare, or 3.6 percent, compared with New York City’s 98,000 families, or 3.2 percent. In 2000, 7.8 percent of New Orleans households received Supplemental Security Income, compared with 7.5 percent in New York.

Anyone familiar with New Orleans knows that the city is filled with hard-working people—most of them black. Welfare reform, in New Orleans as in the rest of the country, worked; between 1996 and 2002, Louisiana cut its welfare rolls by 66 percent. The only virtue of New Orleans’s tourism-dependent economy is that those with few skills who want to work can work; the city’s unemployment rate was 5.2 percent during 2004, lower than New York’s 7.1 percent.

But not all black New Orleanians are consigned to working as busboys or hotel maids. The city long has had a substantial black middle class, and indeed a black affluent class.

...

During slavery, New Orleans had the largest urban population of free blacks after Baltimore. As Haas relates, the children who were the product of “mixed sexual unions” were often sent to Europe for education by their white fathers—and often returned better educated than many of their white local counterparts. With the help of substantial inheritances, they formed a black elite that persists in New Orleans to this day.

Likewise, less wealthy New Orleans blacks, “with their commitment to education, industry and self-reliance, defied all stereotypes of black inferiority” and formed New Orleans’s vibrant black middle class, Deberry wrote in his Times-Picayune piece. “[O]ther southern cities would develop black middle classes that would dwarf New Orleans’s. But that doesn’t mean the one in New Orleans ever went away.” The city’s historically black colleges—Dillard University, Southern University at New Orleans, and Xavier University—have never stopped churning out educated, middle-class black graduates.

There is much more.

The Galloway prison diaries

Christopher Hitchens:

Just before my last exchange with George Galloway, which occurred on the set of Bill Maher's show in Los Angeles in mid-September, I was approached by a representative of the program and asked if I planned to repeat my challenge to Galloway on air. That challenge—would he sign an affidavit saying that he had never discussed Oil-for-Food monies with Tariq Aziz?—I had already made on a public stage in New York. Maher's producers had been asked, obviously by a nervous Galloway, to find out whether I had brought such an affidavit along with me. I replied that this was not necessary, since his public denial to me was on the record and had been broadcast, and since it further confirmed the apparent perjury that he had committed in front of the U.S. Senate on May 17, 2005. I added that I wanted no further contact with Galloway until I could have the opportunity of reviewing his prison diaries.

That day has now been brought measurably closer by the publication of the report of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This report, which comes with a vast archive of supporting material, was embargoed until 10 p.m. Monday and contains the "smoking gun" evidence that Galloway, along with his wife and his chief business associate, were consistent profiteers from Saddam Hussein's regime and its criminal exploitation of the "Oil for Food" program....

...

The critical person in Galloway's fetid relationship with Saddam's regime was a Jordanian "businessman" named Fawaz Zureikat, who was involved in a vast range of middleman activities in Baghdad and is the chairman of Middle East Advanced Semiconductor Inc. It was never believable, as Galloway used to claim, that he could have been so uninformed about Zureikat's activities in breaching the U.N. oil embargo. This most probably means that what we now know is a fraction of what there is to be known. But what has been established is breathtaking enough. A member of the British Parliament was in receipt of serious money originating from a homicidal dictatorship. That money was supposed to have been used to ameliorate the suffering of Iraqis living under sanctions. It was instead diverted to the purposes of enriching Saddam's toadies and of helping them propagandize in favor of the regime whose crimes and aggressions had necessitated the sanctions and created the suffering in the first place. This is something more than mere "corruption." It is the cynical theft of food and medicine from the desperate to pay for the palaces of a psychopath.

Taken together with the scandal surrounding Benon Sevan, the U.N. official responsible for "running" the program, and with the recent arrest of Ambassador Jean-Bernard Mérimée (France's former U.N. envoy) in Paris, and with other evidence about pointing to big bribes paid to French and Russian politicians like Charles Pasqua and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, what we are looking at is a well-organized Baathist attempt to buy or influence the member states of the U.N. Security Council. One wonders how high this investigation will reach and how much it will eventually explain.

...

...I wonder if any of those who furnished him a platform will now have the grace to admit that they were hosting a man who is not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well.

What to do with Syria

Claude Salhani:

...

The very fact Hariri was assassinated is proof of the regime's weakness. What was accomplished by the killing of Hariri was exactly the opposite of what was wished for by Damascus -- greater control over Lebanon.
At this point, both the European Union and the United States hope to avoid reaching the point where sanctions have to be imposed upon Syria to get it to cooperate. There is still hope among Western powers they can maintain unity in the U.N. Security Council when it comes to putting pressure on Damascus, and count on all votes, including Algeria, Russia and China. They also hope to garner support of Arab states, such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
As to exactly what is going on in Damascus, "nobody knows" Western diplomats say. The great fear among not only European diplomats, but also the Turks and the Israelis is if Bashar were to be pushed out of power, no one knows who would be his likely replacement. Bashar, said a Turkish journalist, is a known entity. "At least we know what we are dealing with."

...

Hanging around in Syria

Amir Taheri:

...

...

Hariri's murder was the inevitable consequence of a political model that has dominated Syria, and much of the Middle East, for half a century. The Syrians may or may not have been responsible for Hariri's assassination — and the Mehlis report does not provide conclusive evidence. But one thing is certain: Political murder has been routinely practiced under the Ba'ath regime since its inception in the 1960s.

Thus the trouble with Syria is not this single case of political assassination, but a whole edifice built on violence, terror and repression. As long as that edifice is unchanged, we cannot be sure that there will be no more political killings of this kind. (In fact, since Hariri's murder other prominent Lebanese have been killed under similar circumstances.)

Paradoxically, the custodians of the Syrian system may exploit the Hariri case as to get some brownie points and buy time for their regime. They could offer to "cooperate" with Mehlis, and even do a Moammar Khadafy by handing over a couple of security operatives as scapegoats. What matters to them, as it does to Khadafy, is hanging onto power, at any cost.

Even if Hariri's killers are brought to justice, the basic facts of the situation that led to his murder wouldn't change. The man appointed president of Lebanon by Damascus will remain in place for another 30 months. The thousands of Syrian secret agents in Lebanon, along with dozens of Lebanese politicians who have worked for Syria, sometimes for generations, would stick around until things cool down.

Syria would continue ferrying guns to Hezbollah and (as the Mehlis report ominously hints) keep its borders open for terrorists to go to Iraq as they please.

Inside Syria, hundreds of dissidents would continue to languish in prison while normal political and cultural activity remains severely restricted. An economic system in which the nation's trade is dominated by Mafia-style groups would remain intact, with virtually no popular participation at significant levels of decision-making.

...

A scorpion does not sting because it wishes to misbehave; it is programmed to do so. Like all living organisms, a political system has its DNA.

The Mehlis mission is a side-show that could help fudge the real issue — which is the urgent need for changes in the nature of the Syrian regime.

Such change may not be welcome to some.

...