HT Infidel Bloggers Alliance

This blog does not mince words on the NYT.

RBT

*****

Buried in this puff-piece about an Egyptian imam in Brooklyn is this classic NYT dhimmi sentence.

Like many of their faithful, most imams in the United States come from abroad. They are recruited primarily for their knowledge of the Koran and the language in which it was revealed, Arabic.

Written! Written! The Koran is a book and it was written, not revealed. The Koran didn't pre-exist Muhammad. It wasn't found whole and complete like some natural phenomena. Books are written by people.

What a cringing, spineless bunch of turds. The reporters and editors should just convert and get it over with.

You can write the New York Times' Public Editor at public@nytimes.com. You can write the newsroom directly at nytnews@nytimes.com.

HT Love American First

MARCH 8 IN IRAN

Iranian men and women are getting ready for a big demonstration against the inequality , discrimination and freedom in Iran according to a blog inside of Iran Parnian They are demonstrating in March 8 /17 of Esfand in the Persian calendar from 4-5 in the student park.

This is happening days after the soccer match between Iran and Costa Rica where many women where protesting out side of the Azadi (Pahlavi) stadium for the ban on women to entering the stadium by Iran’s regime

[...]

Read More

HT Strata-Sphere

Strata-Sphere has an extensive commentary of these "leaks" in time of war.

*****

Administration Is Cleaning House

The purge of partisan leakers who expose national security programs meant to provide us protection is going on in earnest it appears, from a Washington Post article:

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

[...]
It’s about damn time. These leaks are not about whistleblowers - there is a process for that which, surprisingly, doesn’t involve becoming rich off media stories, book deals with media conglomerates, and speaking fees that triple or quadruple the annual income of a mid your typical level beaurucrat. If you don’t think these people are selling us all out for money, then you don’t know DC. There are plenty of ways to deal with illegal acts which, unfortunately for the media, don’t pay a dime and don’t make the news.

[...]

. . . People want to believe the media and beaurucrats will be responsible and use the power of the First Amendment when it counts, when it is needed. Not as a knee-jerk way to spin every story against the Reps to win votes for the Dems. The NSA story has gone from the NSA bypassing FISA to FISA refusing to consider Al Qaeda suspects here in the US based on NSA leads. There never was a bypass of FISA - there was an attempt to engage FISA. So how is that a whistleblowing story? It isn’t - unless you lie about what is going on simply to create another fake-but-accurate story like Ratherg

[...]

It is about time people started being serious about our national security and letting the partisan chips fall where they may.

Read it All

HT Wizbang

The world needs more of this to win the War of Information

*****

A fearless Arab American

[The Washington Times]
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
March 4, 2006

To judge by her appearances on al Jazeera, Los Angeles psychologist Wafa Sultan is the very definition of fearlessness. Face-to-face with radical Islamists before millions of potentially hostile viewers around the Arab world, Ms. Sultan — a secular Arab American fluent in Arabic — does not flinch when called a heretic and a blasphemer. For all we know, she is endangering her life.

Her latest appearance took place Feb. 21, when Ms. Sultan engaged the Egyptian cleric Ibrahim Al-Khouli in a live debate about the "clash of civilizations" on the talk show "The Other Direction" on al Jazeera TV. The transcript and subtitled video are available in English (www.memri.org). "The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations," she said. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality ... [Emphasis Added] What we see today is not a clash of civilizations."

[...]

She then issues an even greater provocation. "We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church ... Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

This isn't the first time Ms. Sultan has engaged radical Islamists: In July MEMRI translated her al Jazeera face-off with the Algerian Islamist Ahmad Bin Muhammad on the subject of Palestinian suicide bombers. Ms. Sultan "absolutely puts herself at risk" by appearing on this program, a MEMRI staffer told The Washington Times. Which seems about right: Her remarks are as or more provocative as Salman Rushdie's.

Read it All

Update:

Infidel Bloggers Alliance is now linking to this brave sole and here stand against Islamofascism.

RBT

*****
Here's someone that you should know about--an Arab American psychologist, Dr. Wafa Sultan. And why? She had the intestinal fortitude to deliver one of the most remarkable statements on the "clash of civilizations" that I've ever heard, and she did it right on Al Qaeda's own network, al Jazeera. In this incredible piece that aired on February 21st, Dr. Sultan, with impeccable logic and reason, demolishes the jihad apologists (and worse) who normally dominate al Jazeera's airtime. If you have been looking for an Arab who has the guts to stand up to Islam, look no further than Dr. Sultan.

Dr. Sultan should be invited to the White House and given a medal. Better yet, she should immediately replace chief dhimmi Karen Hughes as the special US envoy to the Middle East.

[...]

[Translation of Dr. Sultan's remarks by MEMRI is on the Alliance's site]

Read More

Update:

Michelle Malkin is now linking to this story and includes a video from MEMRI.

HT Austin Bay via Instapundit

A great piece and a must read on how we can win the War of Information.

*****

SOCIAL STUDIES
In Arabic, 'Internet' Means 'Freedom'

By Jonathan Rauch, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, March 3, 2006

Odd though it may sound, somewhere in Baghdad a man is working in secrecy to edit new Arabic versions of Liberalism, by the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, and In Defense of Global Capitalism, by the Swedish economist Johan Norberg. He is doing this at some risk of kidnap, beating, and death, because he hopes that a new Arabic-language Web site, called LampofLiberty.org -- MisbahAlHurriyya.org in Arabic -- can change the world by publishing liberal classics.

Odder still, he may be right.

Intellectual isolation is a widespread Arab phenomenon, not just an Iraqi one. Some of the statistics are startling.

Interviewed by e-mail, he asks to be known by a pseudonym, H. Ali Kamil. A Shiite from Iraq's south, he is an accomplished scholar, but he asks that no other personal details be revealed. Two of his friends have been killed in the postwar insurgency and chaos, one shot and the other "slaughtered." Others of his acquaintance are in hiding, visiting their families in secret. He has been threatened for working with an international agency.

Now he is collaborating not with foreign agencies but with foreign ideas. He has made Arabic translations of all or parts of more than two dozen articles and nine books and booklets. "None," he says, "were previously translated, to my knowledge, for the simple reason that they are all on liberalism and democracy, which unfortunately have little audience and advocators in the Middle East, where almost all publishing houses and press outlets are governmental -- i.e., anti-liberal."

Kamil's work is anonymous out of fear, not modesty. Translating Frederic Bastiat's The Law, he says, took 20 days of intense labor. "I am proud of that, especially when I knew that the book has never been translated before. This is one of the works my heart is aching for not having my name in its front page."

[...]

Asked how he began this work, he recounts meeting an American who was lecturing in Baghdad on principles of constitutional government. The message struck home. "Yes, you could say I am libertarian," Kamil says. "I believe in liberty for all, equality and human rights, freedom and democracy, free-market ethics, and I hate extremism in everything. I believe in life more than death as being the way to happiness."

The American was Tom G. Palmer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington and a man who cares a lot about books. (So much so, that he always walks around with a satchel full of them.) When the Soviet Union fell, he worked on making key liberal texts available in Russian and the languages of the former Soviet Bloc. How can democracy and markets thrive, after all, without the owner's manual?

[...]

Intellectual isolation is a widespread Arab phenomenon, not just an Iraqi one. Some of the statistics are startling. According to the United Nations' 2003 "Arab Human Development Report," five times more books are translated annually into Greek, a language spoken by just 11 million people, than into Arabic. "No more than 10,000 books were translated into Arabic over the entire past millennium," says the U.N., "equivalent to the number translated into Spanish each year." Authors and publishers must cope with the whims of 22 Arab censors. "As a result," writes a contributor to the report, "books do not move easily through their natural markets." Newspapers are a fifth as common as in the non-Arab developed world; computers, a fourth as common. "Most media institutions in Arab countries remain state-owned," the report says.

No wonder the Arab world and Western-style modernity have collided with a shock. They are virtually strangers, 300 years after the Enlightenment and 200 years after the Industrial Revolution. Much as other regions may be cursed with disease or scarcity, in recent decades the Arab world has been singularly cursed with bad ideas. First came Marxism and its offshoots; then the fascistic nationalism of Nasserism and Baathism; now, radical Islamism. Diverse as those ideologies are, they have in common authoritarianism and the suppression of any true private sphere. Instead of withering as they have done in open competition with liberalism, they flourished in the Arab world's relative isolation.

[...]

n January, MisbahAlHurriyya.org made its Internet debut. Today it hosts about 40 texts; Palmer aims for more like 400, including a shelf of books. (It currently offers an abridged edition of Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Bastiat's The Law. The Norberg book is coming soon.) Sponsored by the Cato Institute, it joins a small but growing assortment of Arabic-language blogs and Web sites promulgating liberal ideas.

"The Internet is a historical opportunity for Arab liberalism," Pierre Akel, the Lebanese host of one such site, metransparent.com, said in a recent interview with Reason magazine. "In the Arab world, much more than in the West, we can genuinely talk of a blog revolution." The Internet provides Arab liberals with the platform and anonymity that they need; helpfully, Arabic-language blogware, developed by liberal bloggers, recently came online for free downloading. During the recent controversy over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, an Egyptian blog, EgyptianSandMonkey.blogspot.com, made a splash by pointing out that no one had protested when the same cartoons had previously been published on the front page of an Egyptian newspaper -- and by calling, sardonically, for a Muslim boycott of Egypt. (The site boasts a "Buy Danish" sticker.)

[...]

The Internet, in contrast, makes possible worldwide, instant distribution, at a nearly negligible cost. MisbahAlHurriyya.org relies heavily on volunteers and donated Web services; its budget, says Palmer, is in the five figures. Thanks to e-mail, conferring and passing manuscripts between Washington, Baghdad, and Amman -- a logistical nightmare in the days of mail and fax -- is a cinch. The site, entirely in Arabic, advertises on the popular Arabic Web sites Albawaba.com and Aljazeera.net. The whole enterprise was impossible a decade ago.

Firmly establishing liberal ideas took centuries in the West, and may yet take decades in the Arab world. Authoritarian and sectarian and tribalist notions are easier to explain than liberal ones, and it is inherently harder to build trust in mercurial markets and flowing democratic coalitions than in charismatic leaders, visionary clerics, and esteemed elders. The liberal world's intellectual underpinnings are as difficult to grasp as its cultural reach is difficult to escape. Thus the disjunction within which Baathism, Islamism, and Arab tribalism have festered.

Yet few who are genuinely intellectually curious can read J.S. Mill or Adam Smith and come away entirely unchanged. The suffocating Arab duopoly of state-controlled media and Islamist pulpits is cracking -- only a little bit so far, but keep watching. In the Arab world, the Enlightenment is going online.

-- Jonathan Rauch is a senior writer for National Journal magazine, where "Social Studies" appears. His e-mail address is jrauch@nationaljournal.com.

Read it All

HT Wizbang

So what else is new! Gee this guy sure has excellent access to the Enemy's media outlets. Go figure!

*****

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to attack the West in an audio tape posted on the Internet on Saturday, urging similar strikes as those against New York, London and Madrid in recent years.

He also called on Muslims to boycott countries where satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad had been published, including Denmark, Norway, France and Germany, and said that Muslims should prevent the West from "stealing Muslims' oil".

"(Muslims have to) inflict losses on the crusader West, especially to its economic infrastructure with strikes that would make it bleed for years," said the speaker on the tape, who sounded like Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor.

"The strikes on New York, Washington, Madrid and London are the best examples," he said.

"We have to prevent the crusader West from stealing the Muslims' oil which is being drained in the biggest robbery in history," he added.

The authenticity of the tape could not be independently verified, but it was posted on Web site that is frequently used by Islamist groups.

As well as physical attacks on the West, Zawahri, who is deputy to al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden, called for an economic boycott against several countries.

"It is our duty to take part in a mass economic boycott of Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, and all countries that take part in this crusader attack against Islam," he said, referring to the cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper last year.

The speaker described the cartoons as part of a U.S.-led "crusader" campaign, intimating at a religious war.

[...]

Read More

There is an excellent discussion underway at Winds of Change in a thread by Armed Liberal:

In essence do we retreat and continue to appease a growing evil in the world or do we confront it and defend the values that we hold dear and have faught and died for against other oppressors and tyrannical ideologies of totalitarianism and fascism that deny the universal truth of the FREE WILL OF MEN and WOMEN!

A similar thread is at Michelle Malkin, All Things Beautiful, and Tom Maguire over the latest furor of PM Tony Blair invoking the name of a diety in the Iraq War.

I posted two comments in the WOC thread. Scroll the whole thread as there are many good comments including Armed Liberal, Jim Rockford, Joe Katzman, and Tom Holsinger:

Winning the War of Information

Mary,

You get it!

The only way to fight the rise of darkness in the world, e.g. The Ring Trilogy (analogy), is to out Islamofascism for the Big Lie that it is.

In short to win the GWOT we must first win the War of Information. This a global war of ideologies as to which one best provides for the needs, desires, and wants of its followers.

Hint: The Islamic Empire that once stretched from Western Africa to the Eastern Pacific fell into darkness when it's leaders began to reject critical debate from its followers. It has been in decline ever since. This is contrary to what the neo-Islamofascists believe and wish to restore with the return on The Caliphate.

Dr. Phil has a probing question for his guests when they need to evaluate their personal circumstance and need to change, "Now how's that work'n for you?" We need to challege the followers of Islamofascism with the same question.

The key fundamental difference in our ideology as recognized in our Constitution is the universal truth of the FREE WILL OF MEN AND WOMEN!

This is the message that must be beamed via all manners of communication mediums into these evil regimes of darkness. The LIGHT of the freeworld will be their undoing.

Through the Net and the Blogos these tyranical totalarian rulers must be outed for the hypocrites and false prophets that they really are.

And for the true religious cultist leaders e.g, Iranian President MAD and his mentor Yazdi, their followers must be deprogramed from their spell. These cultist are no different than what we have firsthand knowledge e.g. David Koresh and the Branch Davidians (disavowed sect of the SDAs) and Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid bunch.

The only difference with the Islamofascist cultists is that they are funded with petrol dollars to spread this religion hate and evil.

and

My dear Mr. Watson there is a bigger game afoot!

There is a growing consensus in some corners of the Blogos that Saddam's WMD went to Syria with Russian assistance before GWII.

What we may be witnessing is a good ole game of Texas Hold'em. Pieces of this puzzle have been around for awhile but for obvious reasons and also a case of too blind to see, the LL and the MSM have not followed the leads to track down this story e.g. The Plame Affair, Bush Lied, People Died, Cheney Quailgate, the Iraqi "non" civil war a reverse case of Wag the Dog, The CIA Leaks (Gee the CIA is openly at war with the CNC), and now Katrinagate.

It may be expedient by the Bush Administration to allow the LL and the MSM to run with this rope while this trump card [Saddam's WMD with Russian and Chinese fingerprints] is in play in the back diplomatic channels to get the Russians and the Chinese to put pressure on the Iranian Mad Mullahs to play ball re nukes.

I think there is a little chance that President MAD and his religious mentor Yazdi will be likely detered by pressure from the Russians and/or Chinese in their quest to acquire nuke weapons.

After all from their warped sense of reality they truly believe in the return of the 12th Imman. And they won't hesitate to use nuclear weapons if they believe it will hasten the 12th Imman to emerge from the Iraqi water well sooner. This is completely logical to them unlike the MAD policy of the Cold War that detered the Russians.

For further and links to Kobayashi Maru's Part IV summary of the recent Intel Summit where the Saddam Tapes, WMD, papers, and the revelations in Iraqi Gen. Sada new book, Saddam's Secrets, see:

Intelligence Summit, Part IV - WMD to Syria With Russia's Help

Update:

Right Wing Nuthouse is coming to similar conclusion that Russia aided Saddam before and during the invasion of Iraq.

Update:

Gateway Pundit has photos!

Ouch! Photos Show Iraqi & Russian Defense Reps Days Before War!

Russia's UN mission spokesman blasted the Pentagon report released on Friday. The Pentagon report was based on documents taken from Iraq after the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime. One translated memo addressed to a Saddam secretary from the Russian Ambassador to Iraq details US military plans on the eve of the War in Iraq...

But, it will be difficult for the Russians to slam photos of Russian military officials receiving awards from Saddam's Defense Minister for assisting the regime days before the startup to the war.

Read it All

HT Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Is this an OOPHS? If so where did the tritium come from? See this link on tritium. It's somewhat benign but what are the Mullahs up to?

RBT

BTW While there check out the "Infidel Babe Of The Week" :-)

*****

From Italy's TG5: "Iran: Nuclear Contamination, government covers up."

It happened about two months ago in Teheran, in the country's main center of nuclear research, at the headquarters of the Iranian atomic energy organization; among other things under the control of the U.N.'s IAEA. From an ultra-secret nuclear laboratory of the Revolutionary Guards situated in an undisclosed location in Iran, there arrived--according to TG5 sources--a load of radioactive material. A small suitcase containing some tens of grams of tritium was forced open by inexperienced hands, and the surrounding area was contaminated as a result. It appears that some workers were exposed to a high level of contamination.

Safety measures were put into effect, the plant was decontaminated, and an investigation was launched. All of this took place under maximum security, according to TG5 sources. The inquest regarded not only the dangerous incident, but also the level of security of the entire operation presided over by the pasdaran of the Iranian revolution. Investigators sought to discover if word of the accident had been leaked, and from what level of the chain of command.

[...]

. . . Disturbing news coming from the shadowy and dangerous underground of the international trafficking of nuclear materials and the secret experiments that are in progress.

Read More

HT The Big Picture

RBT

*****

Blogstorm: Blogosphere Publishes a Letter from the Mayor of a City in Iraq

The following letter, from the Mayor of a city in Iraq, is being published by blogstorm, rather than by MSM. A Google news search indicates that as of 8:48am Pacific Time, of MSM, only the New York Post has published this so far. The letter appears to have been first published by The Mudville Gazette. It's now posted on such blogs as GayPatriot, Power Line, Right Wing Nation, Suitably Flip, TigerHawk, and many more.

In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall' Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi's followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.

I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven't the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.


NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Ninewa, Iraq

This letter, widely publicized, would show the American people how wrong the impression is that they have been getting for years about Iraq from MSM.

Link to the Big Picture

WSJ Online Journal's Featured Article

American spooks don't want to release Saddam's secrets.

Friday, March 3, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

When the 9/11 Commission bullied Congress into creating the Directorate of National Intelligence, we doubted that another layer of bureaucracy on top of the CIA would fix much of anything. Our skepticism has since been largely reinforced--most recently by the DNI's reluctance to release what's contained in the millions of "exploitable" documents and other items captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These items--collected and examined in Qatar as part of what's known as the Harmony program--appear to contain information highly relevant to the ongoing debate over the war on terror. But nearly three years after Baghdad fell, we see no evidence that much of what deserves to be public will be anytime soon.

For example, if it hadn't been for the initiative of one Bill Tierney, we wouldn't know that Saddam Hussein had a habit of tape-recording meetings with top aides. The former U.N. weapons inspector and experienced Arabic translator recently went public with 12 hours (out of a reported total of 3,000) of recordings in which we hear Saddam discuss with the likes of Tariq Aziz the process of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and his view that Iraq's conflict with the U.S. didn't end with the first Gulf War.

[...]

Read it All

Why would anyone ever buy a tower anymore unles you're an online gaming freak who needs the box space to tweak perpherial cards et al.

Comes with a 1.55GB ($599)Intel Core Solo CPU or a 1.66GB ($799) Intel Core Duo CPU, 2MB on-chip L2 cache, 667MHz frontside bus, 512 MB of DDR2 SDRAM ram and supports up to 2GB.

The 1.55 unit comes with combo drive. The 1.66 unit ships with SuperDrive. The two come with a 60 GB or 80 GB with optional 100/120 GB drive2.

No more need to buy aftermarket expansion units.

Comes with one fireware 400 port and four 2.0 USBs ports, DVI and S video outs (1920 x 1200p res - Intel GMA950 graphics chip with 64meg DDR ram shared), 10/100/1000 T-Gigibit RJ-45 connector. Has built in Airport Extreme wireless card.

Comes with builtin Bluetooth 2.0. Has built in speaker and combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack) connections and combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack).

Did anyone say that Mac may be entering the multimedia computer market in a slick way?

Software:

Ships with Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and includes the new ILife '06 and Frontrow.

See the The Apple Store

RBT

A Must Read!

Kobayashi Maru continues with his excellent series on the recently concluded Intelligence Summit. BTW the WSJ has a related feature article today that I will link to shortly.

In short there is clear and convincing evidence that Saddam's much sought WMD went to Syria with the help of the Russians. The next question is why this administration is not shouting this from every mtn top in America - the Iranian poker game of Texas Hold'em.

*****

This theory would be consistent with remarks Richard Perle offered at the conference that we blogged earlier this week:

Perle went on to talk about how the CIA has been openly "at war" with the Bush administration since the latter's election to office... The true nature of militant Islam he said, is very poorly understood at the CIA, an agency deeply flawed he opined, by "an appalling lack of knowledge" and that "doesn't understand the big picture": about the Koran, about Arabic language, about the goals of our enemies, about what's at stake and about what sources we should be relying upon in the region. [emphasis added]

This internal strife theory has merit (government divided against itself), but it doesn't take us all the way to what Ehrenfeld observes - a full-court-press to have no intelligence community presence there implicitly 'blessing' what was said. Which is where our second item comes in...

This interview in FrontPage Magazine with another IIS conference presenter, Ryan Mauro (H/T: Anchoress) is a must read. Mauro is a super-smart teenage geopolitical analyst for Tactical Defense Concepts, author of 'Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq', founder of WorldThreats.com and a host of other credentials. Yes, Mauro was born late in Reagan's second term. Oh that makes us feel old.

My book was the first to make the claim that Russia was involved in moving Iraq's WMDs to Syria. After all the nay saying and criticizing I received for it, testimony at the Summit confirmed that this was true.

The evidence Mauro lays out in the interview is detailed, compelling and integrated: go read it. He makes reference to former Iraqi General Georges Sada (who we blogged about earlier this week) as one of several sources adding depth to the picture of how weapons were removed. The 'testimony' Mauro refers to includes not only the so-called 'Saddam Tapes' that former UN weapons inspector Bill Tierney presented at the conference (really just the tip of a large iceberg of as yet untranslated material) but also a talk by John A. (Jack) Shaw that we attended. Shaw was the Pentagon's Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Security. A quick Google confirms that Shaw has been the target of a smear campaign - the substance of which (if there's any substance at all) would have no bearing whatsoever on what he said at the IIS.


[...] [RBT Called this a Game of Texas Hold'em]

Our sketchy notes are confirmed and improved by this direct quote from Shaw's conference presentation, as picked up by NewsMax:

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon. They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) units out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence."

The only scenario we can imagine under which the Bush administration itself would be wanting to take focus off of the Saddam tapes would be one in which they knew that deeper investigation would lead to a critical mass of credibility behind the theory of Russian involvement in moving them to Syria.

And since it's absolutely critical - in the short term at least - that the U.S. not embarrass the Russians (so the thinking may go... i.e., in order to preserve any last-ditch hope of a non-military solution on Iran) then desiring to brush years-old Iraqi WMD movements under the rug would make sense (and here's the kicker) even if it was politically disadvantageous domestically. That is, the Bush administration would be doing the right thing by trying to take all possible steps to avoid a potentially apocalyptic and unpredictable military confrontation with Iran and taking political heat from both left and right to do so. Leadership.

[...]

A Must Read

Update:

Selective intelligence: The politicization of the case for war in Iraq
by Michael Stickings

The Moderate Voice is linking to another article today in the National Journal re more screw-ups by the Bush Administration.

Here's an excerpt of a comment I posted at TMV and another blog linked there:

[Re Saddam's WMD going to Syria]

[...]

At least that's the story that is now developing in some corners of the Blogos.

I wouldn't be so fast to make any concrete conclusions about the credibility of the CIA, when in fact there is open organizational warfare between the CIA and the Office of the President.

The CIA may be just too "stick in the mud" to read the tea leaves and make any sense out of them.

See these other stories that are just now developing re Saddam's WMD actually may have gone to Syria with the help of the Russians. Go figure!

And see the reason the Bush administration may be willing to take the heat for not shouting this from the mountain tops.

I think this is a futile effort BTW.

[...]

RBT

OK I've been playing with Yahoo's Flickr Site. I wanted to get this up as quick as possible. I've tried two text posts below. Click in the box with the scanned page. This will take you to the Flickr site.

Once there you can click to get to the "Sada Excerpt" set. Click around a bit and you can get to all the pages I scanned. There is a button that will let you enlarge the photo to a size that can be read.

I will post an index/links of key topics shortly. But for now this will have to do. I was toying with using my scanner with OCR software but I don't have one worth beans for my IBook right now. You will have to make do with the JPEG scans.

If you want better resolution, by the book!

It's an excellent read. I'm only linking to the critical sections dealing with Saddam and his WMD and Gen Sada's advice for the American and Iraqi people.

RBT

www.flickr.com

www.flickr.com rocketsbrain's Sada Excerpts photoset

HT Townhall

Bush lied, people died?

Mar 2, 2006
by Larry Elder

I recently interviewed General Georges Sada, who served as the second-highest ranked general in the Iraqi Air Force. A two-star general, he wrote a recently published book called "Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein." Here are some sound bites from that interview:

Elder: General, as you know, the president has been accused of lying about the intelligence, fabricating it, cherry-picking it, that he wanted to go to war, he really didn't believe that Saddam had WMD. It was all a big smokescreen. When you hear people accuse the president of lying about WMD, of misleading the country and the world, your reaction, Gen. Georges Sada, is what?

Sada: Let me tell you. I am really surprised how people are speaking like this and their soldiers are still in the battle. You see, a soldier when he is in battle, he wants to feel that all his nation are backing him and they are with him. And now I tell you I feel very sorry when I see some people in this country, their soldiers are in the battle, and they are discussing political things making that soldier to feel that he is there in the wrong place. That's one. Second, if there was something right had been done in this country, it was the best decision taken in the proper time, to go and liberate Iraq from an evil dictatorship who only God knows what he was going to do in the region, and maybe even to America, because that man was possessing the weapons of mass destruction and then he was with very evil intentions towards all the West, especially America.

Elder: Fifteen months before we invaded Iraq, the president began talking about what our intentions would be if Saddam would not comply with the U.N. resolutions. During those 15 months . . . did Saddam have WMD, have stockpiles of WMD, and, if so, what type?

Sada: Iraq possessed WMD and they were there, and they were chemical and biological, and nuclear weapons. He have also deals with China to make it in China this time, not in Iraq, because F-16s of Israelis have destroyed the Iraqi nuclear project, therefore, he designed a new system to have the atom bomb to be done in China, and he would only pay the money, and he did for $100 million, and $5 million were paid for down payment. I know the bank, I know the branch, and I know the accountant who did it.

Elder: What happened to the chemical and biological weapons?

Sada: The chemical and biological weapons were available in Iraq before liberating the country, but Saddam Hussein took the advantage of a natural disaster that happened in Syria when a dam was collapsed and many villages were flooded. So Saddam Hussein took that cover and declared to the world that he is going to use the civilian aircraft for an air bridge to help Syria with blankets, food and fuel oil, and other humanitarian things, but that was not true. The truth is he converted two regular passenger civilian aircraft, 747 Jumbo and 727 . . . all the weapons of mass destruction were put there by the special Republican Guards in a very secret way, and they were transported to Syria, to Damascus, by flying 56 flights to Damascus. . . . In addition . . . also a truck convoy on the ground to take whatever has to do with WMD to Syria.

[...]

Read it All

A Must Read!

Rocketsbrain has been saying this for a number of years. Finally, information is begining to dribble out that tends to confirm these suspicions.

Time will tell if any of this is true. The answers will come from the Blogos as the LL and the MSM have no incentive to follow the leads in this developing story.

The importance here is that this will crush the meme, "Bush lied people died." This is key to winning the War of Information to garner the support of the American people to stay the course to win the GWOT.

RBT

*****

Iraqi WMD Mystery Solved
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 2, 2006

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Ryan Mauro, who spoke at the recent 2006 International Intelligence Summit on Iraq. He is the 19-year old author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq and founder of WorldThreats.com. He was originally hired at age 16 as a geopolitical analyst for Tactical Defense Concepts. He is also a volunteer analyst and researcher for the Northeast Intelligence Network and the Reform Party of Syria and believed to be the youngest hired geopolitical analyst in the country.

Glazov: Mr. Mauro, nice to have you here again.

Mauro: Thank you. It's always great working with you.

Glazov: The recent Intelligence Summit released 12 hours of audiotapes of Saddam Hussein and his key officials discussing their WMD programs from the mid-1990s onwards. What do you make of the significance of these tapes? How do they square with your claim in your book that Russia helped move Iraqi WMD into Syria?

Mauro: The tapes are extremely significant in that they prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that as of the year 2000, Saddam Hussein had a secret plasma program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, or "special bombs" as he calls them. The Duelfer Report previously concluded that this type of enrichment program ended in the 1980s, but here we have Saddam and his top advisors discussing using a power plant in the area of Basra for the program. The scientists involved in the program are not known to the UN, leaving Western intelligence clueless.

On the tapes, you hear Saddam discussing the assistance of Russia and Brazil in dealing with the United Nations. He laughs off inspections, as his son-in-law who later defects, Hussein Kamil, reports how as late as 1995 their chemical and biological programs were being hidden from the world. They also discuss keeping the ingredients for these weapons separate, so that should they be found, they will be looked at as innocent dual-use items. They were not destroyed in 1991 as the Duelfer Report concludes. There are even indications on the tapes that Iraq may have had a role in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

My book was the first to make the claim that Russia was involved in moving Iraq's WMDs to Syria. After all the nay saying and criticizing I received for it, testimony at the Summit confirmed that this was true.

Glazov: What exactly is the evidence that Iraq moved its WMD into Syria?

Mauro: It has been confirmed across the board that 18-wheelers were seen going into Syria before the war, crossing the border soon after Iraqi intelligence replaced the border guards and cleared nearby areas for their passage. There are also eyewitness reports of the trucks going into Syria, and eyewitness reports of their burial in Lebanon.

The trucks with the weapons were tracked to three locations in Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, currently controlled by the Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah. Sources I've spoken with that have seen satellite photos of the movements confirm that the WMD in Syria are at military bases, while the ones in Lebanon are buried. A fourth site in Syria, the al-Safir WMD and missile site, should also be looked at. From spring to summer 2002, there was a lot of construction here involving the expansion of underground complexes.

We have tremendous testimony as well, by General Georges Sada, the former second-in-command of Saddam's Air Force that 56 flights took place on converted Iraqi Airways planes in the summer of 2002 to transport weapons, along with a ground shipment. He claims to know the pilots involved. A second Iraqi general, Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, in an interview I published, confirmed in detail the movement of WMD into Syria saying that discussion on such a move went back to the 1980s. He claims his sources for this include Iraqi scientists and others in the regime that were very close to him even after he defected. He confirmed to me that Russian vehicles, including ones equipped to handle hazardous materials, were used. Reports of WMD being moved out of Iraq to Syria go back to 1997, and it is believed by many that weapons were moved in and out of Iraq using Syria routinely since the mid-1990s.

The Italian media also reported that their intelligence services had information indicating that in January and February of 2003, Iraqi CDs full of formulas and research work along with tubes of anthrax and botulinum toxin were sent off to Syria. By the end of February, Iraqi WMD expertise was already in Syria including a top nuclear physicist.

An Iraqi scientist also led Coalition forces to hidden stockpiles of precursor chemicals that could be used to make chemical and biological weapons. The scientist said some facilities and weapons were destroyed, and the rest were sent to Syria. Syrian defectors are also claiming that Syria is where the weapons are, along with Representative Curt Weldon's source in his new book. The Prime Minister of Albania even stated that based on information he has which is not available to the media, he cannot rule out such a transfer.

There is also a report that an Iraqi medium-range al-Hussein missile on a truck moved into Syria, and in the early stages of the war, was spotted briefly coming into Iraq, operating its radar overnight, and returning to Syria. Most reports about the transfer indicate missiles were included in the transfers.

[...]

Read it All

Homeland Transparency
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 2, 2006

The Bush administration played catch-up this week as it belatedly presented some of the facts behind its assessment that the Dubai Ports World takeover of six U.S. container terminals does not present a threat to U.S. national security.

It sent top officials to the airwaves and to Congress to explain exactly how security in American ports is handled – something the bright lights among our elected representatives should have known had they paid attention to the scores of hearings over the past four years where this has been discussed.

Senator James Inhofe (R, Ok), joked at the attention now showered on the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States, the obscure inter-agency group that approved the deal, known by its acronym, CFIUS (pronounced Sif-ee-us). “Up until a month ago, if you’d mentioned CFIUS to any member of the U.S. Senate, they’d have thought you were talking about a communicable disease,” he told me.

There has been so much hyperventilation over Dubai Ports World that the first thing we all need to do is stand back and take a deep breath.

No, this deal is not going to allow bearded Islamist fanatics to swarm over our ports with AK-47s or to bring in a nuclear bomb. U.S. government agencies do and will continue to handle security checks of all port personnel. “We are not about to waver on something as fundamental as port security,” Chief Kevin McCabe, the top U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in charge of the Port of Newark told me.

[...]

Read it All

HT @Large via Kobayashi Maru

Jim of blog "@Large" interviewed General Sada. A must read! He too believes what General Sada is saying.

RBT

*****

I spent the past few days with General Georges Sada, author of Saddam's Secrets, which rose to number 17 on the NY Times bestseller list a couple of weeks ago. Sada is best known, of course, as the man who said "no" to Saddam, and helped to prevent the erstwhile Iraqi dictator from attacking Israel.

Georges is a man's man, clearly unafraid to fulfill his current mission of bringing out the truth about Saddam, even though he in is grave personal danger for it. (Yes, I thought twice about spending too much time with him.) If you've kept up with Sada's name since I blogged about him last November (I scooped the world!), you'll know he's been on various network news shows, Sean Hannity's radio show, The 700 Club, and has also given various newspaper interviews, including this one with The New York Sun.

[...]

Sada also confirms that Saddam, who was constantly on guard against coup attempts, was known to murder people in plain sight if their deaths would keep onlookers in line. He might pull out a pistol from under the conference table and shoot them during a cabinet meeting, or nudge them into a swimming pool full of acid at one of his palaces, and then stand there watching them burn to death and dissolve.

[...]

One little scoop to go: Watch the news over the next few months for more on the "Saddam tapes" that ABC so lightly covered two weeks back. Both ABC and CNN have in fact spiked the truth, that Saddam spoke with Tariq Aziz at length about the use of chemical weapons against the USA, and referred to both the French and Germans as willing partners in covering up his past shenanigans. Now it's time for both networks to either come clean or be exposed.

I think a good blogswarm would help, so here's a call to Kobayashi Maru, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Hootsbuddy's Place, GrannyTiger's Reality Check, and others: (1) Start poking around about those Saddam tapes; (2) ask ABC why they spiked General Sada's interview regarding the tapes; (3) ask CNN why they didn't treat them seriously when UN weapons inspectors gave them to them a couple of years back. That should get you started. Oh, and one more thing: The General will not be the only one talking about the tapes.

Read it All

HT Kobayashi Maru

NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE! Not vetted by LL and MSM :--)

Great post over at Kobyashi Maru re Saddam's Trial and Gen Sada's new book.

RBT

*****

While the MSM has been busy covering Saddam's trial ("Where is the crime? Where is the crime?," he asked), and attempting to create the impression of a civil war in Iraq, blogger friend Jim Gilbert has been spending time with Georges Sada, former Iraqi General, Saddam sidekick and "follower of Jesus". In a continuation today of his November scoop before Sada's book ('Saddam's Secrets') was published in January, Gilbert writes:

Sada also confirms that Saddam, who was constantly on guard against coup attempts, was known to murder people in plain sight if their deaths would keep onlookers in line. He might pull out a pistol from under the conference table and shoot them during a cabinet meeting, or nudge them into a swimming pool full of acid at one of his palaces, and then stand there watching them burn to death and dissolve.

Nice. Gilbert admits to thinking twice "about spending too much time with" Sada - the target of multiple assassination attempts, including one just last year:

His [Sada's] assailants were caught setting up the bomb, and brought to him before being taken to jail. They were young men, unemployed, and should have been in college by now. They were terrified of course, and assumed their lives were over. But Sada spent time telling his young captives about his faith, and wound up releasing them with the promise that they would indeed enroll in school. Later all three sets of parents came to him, thanking him profusely... all three of them, are indeed in college.

[...]

Any criticism of the Iraq war, its timing and/or its justification must address the atrocities of the man who was taken out as a result of it: Saddam. None do. They either brush it away (e.g., "he wasn't all that bad; not as bad as Hitler"), take the isolationist route ("he wasn't hurting us") lash out and place the blame on the one solving the problem ("Bush is worse!") or more often, simply ignore the whole issue and turn on American Idol or the Olympics.

It's nasty to even contemplate. Our comfort-driven society simply does not want to believe that this stuff is possible in the 21st century. But human nature never changes. I don't recall anyone being dissolved live in a pool of acid in Iraq in the past three years.

Gilbert's material is a must read. [Will post an excerpt in a few]

Read it All

HT Athena - Terrorism Unveiled

Breaking news from Reuters:

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan foiled on Wednesday an attempt by militants to attack vital facilities in Amman, a Jordanian official told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.

Al Arabiya said the militants, who included Saudi nationals, were arrested. Qatar-based Al Jazeera television said the group included a Libyan and Iraqis.

A Jordanian government spokesman confirmed in remarks aired by Arabiya that an attempt to attack "vital and other facilities in Amman" was foiled

Other news agencies are reporting a "key civilian target." Without any more information it's hard to assess the situation. A "key" target to one person could be irrelevant to another. My view of "key" would be a major tourist site in Amman, maybe the Citadel (al-Qalaa) or the Old Theatre. It could be a major hotel or any major malls (Mecca Mall is the largest and most modern, but also included could be Abdoun mall, Ctown, or various shopping areas in Sweifiyeh.) Though the vigilance has probably stepped up in and around the Western hotels, they're still opportune targets.

[...]

Read it All

HT Austin Bay Blog

A combat engineer looks at the bomb attack on the Shia mosque in Samarra

[...]

“Sapper” is a long time friend. He is a Vietnam vet (combat engineers). He also served in the US Army Reserves for over thirty years. He is a civil engineer, by trade.

The following is his analysis of the terror bomb attack on the Askariya Shrine in Samarra. Understand that his analysis is informed speculation, but speculation by a man who knows how to build buildings as well as destroy them.

Sapper sends:

I have been asked if I think this attack in Iraq was an “a quick in and out raid,” (a target of opportunity attack) or did the operation (placing the explosives) take some time to carry out?

Caveats for all who read this. Caveats abound. Here are the important ones. I have only seen to press photographs of the Askariya Shrine.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0223/p01s02-woiq.html

-&-

http://smh.com.au/news/world/shrine-bombing-sunnis-give-a-lesson-in-how-to-s
tart-a-civil-war/2006/02/23/1140670212254.html

-&-

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/23/iraq.main/index.html

I have been out of the active combat engineer business for a couple of years and am relying on my memory and a dogged ear copy of my Junior Woodchuck Manual (FM 5-34) which addresses only the simplest of battle field demolition operations.

The construction of the shrine (as determined by an excellent reference librarian) is as follows:

Construction material was “baked brick” covered with gold-plated masonry tiles. The shrine was first built in the 9th century and had major renovations in the 11th and 12 centuries, but seems to have little to no significant modifications since then. This would make the bricks a baked red clay with nominal dimensions of 10×35x35 cm (typical size from archaeological reports of similar area and time). Mortar (if any) is unknown, but is most likely alabaster based plaster (same sources). The domes at Najaf and Karbala are described as being of similar construction.

[...]

Read it All

Popular Mechanics

A must read for anyone interested in disaster response whether natural or manmade.

Note the "bolding" of section headings are ours.

RBT

*****

Now What?
The Lessons of Katrina

Published in the March, 2006 issue.

NO ONE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SURPRISED.

Not the federal agencies tasked with preparing for catastrophes. Not the local officials responsible for aging levees and vulnerable populations. Least of all the residents themselves, who had been warned for decades that they lived on vulnerable terrain. But when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, it seemed as though the whole country was caught unawares. Accusations began to fly even before floodwaters receded. But facts take longer to surface. In the months since the storm, many of the first impressions conveyed by the media have turned out to be mistaken. And many of the most important lessons of Katrina have yet to be absorbed. But one thing is certain: More hurricanes will come. To cope with them we need to understand what really happened during modern America's worst natural disaster. POPULAR MECHANICS editors and reporters spent more than four months interviewing officials, scientists, first responders and victims. Here is our report.--THE EDITORS

PM's COMPLETE COLLECTION OF KATRINA COVERAGE IN ONE PLACE

GOVERNMENT RESPONDED RAPIDLY

MYTH:"The aftermath of Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history."--Aaron Broussard, president, Jefferson Parish, La., Meet the Press, NBC, Sept. 4, 2005

REALITY: Bumbling by top disaster-management officials fueled a perception of general inaction, one that was compounded by impassioned news anchors. In fact, the response to Hurricane Katrina was by far the largest--and fastest-rescue effort in U.S. history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm's landfall.

Dozens of National Guard and Coast Guard helicopters flew rescue operations that first day--some just 2 hours after Katrina hit the coast. Hoistless Army helicopters improvised rescues, carefully hovering on rooftops to pick up survivors. On the ground, "guardsmen had to chop their way through, moving trees and recreating roadways," says Jack Harrison of the National Guard. By the end of the week, 50,000 National Guard troops in the Gulf Coast region had saved 17,000 people; 4000 Coast Guard personnel saved more than 33,000.

These units had help from local, state and national responders, including five helicopters from the Navy ship Bataan and choppers from the Air Force and police. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries dispatched 250 agents in boats. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), state police and sheriffs' departments launched rescue flotillas. By Wednesday morning, volunteers and national teams joined the effort, including eight units from California's Swift Water Rescue. By Sept. 8, the waterborne operation had rescued 20,000.

While the press focused on FEMA's shortcomings, this broad array of local, state and national responders pulled off an extraordinary success--especially given the huge area devastated by the storm. Computer simulations of a Katrina-strength hurricane had estimated a worst-case-scenario death toll of more than 60,000 people in Louisiana. The actual number was 1077 in that state.

NEXT TIME: Any fatalities are too many. Improvements hinge on building more robust communications networks and stepping up predisaster planning to better coordinate local and national resources.


PM PRESCRIPTION
Improving Response

ONE OF THE BIGGEST reminders from Katrina is that FEMA is not a first responder. It was local and state agencies that got there first and saved lives. Where the feds can contribute is in planning and helping to pay for a coordinated response. Here are a few concrete steps.

Think Locally: "Every disaster starts and ends as a local event," says Ed Jacoby, who managed New York state's emergency response to 9/11. All municipalities must assess their own risk of disasters--both natural and man-made.

Include Business Help: "Companies realize that if a city shuts down, they shut down," says Barry Scanlon, former FEMA director of corporate affairs. During Katrina, many companies coordinated their own mini relief efforts. That organizational power can augment public disaster management. "If 10 Fortune 100 members made a commitment to the Department of Homeland Security," says Scanlon, "the country would take a huge leap forward."

Prearrange Contracts: Recovery costs skyrocket with high demand during a crisis. Contracts with local firms must be signed before disaster strikes. "You know beforehand that everyone is ready to move," says Kate Hale, emergency management director of Florida's Miami-Dade County during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. "The government blows the whistle and the contractors go to work."

[...]

Read it All

Update:

WIZBANG has related Katrina Story

Rewriting Katrina History - AP Style

Over at Crooks & Liars they have the AP video to go with this AP story, Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina, mirrored at YouTube.

Is it a slow news day? In what parallel universe does video of a disaster planning video teleconferences constitute the AP equivalent of the Drudge siren? The parallel universe is the "Bush Controls Nature" section of the Bush Derangement Syndrome universe.

[...]

Read More

Popular Mechanics Science Blog

As if those CSI guys weren’t already good enough, they’re now getting help from another cutting-edge profession—engineers at NASA. Developed to better diagnose damages to the space shuttle, the Laser Scaling and Measurement Device for Photographic Imaging (LSMDPI), is a high-tech addition to the typically low-tech tools of the crime scene investigating trade.

The LSMDPI is a half-pound box that attaches directly to a camera’s tripod. It shoots two lasers from its front, producing a pattern of dots that allows objects in the photograph to be precisely scaled and measured. When applied to the shuttle, engineers can measure dents without taking a ruler to the hull. For crime scene investigators, the uses for the device seem nearly unlimited. Photographs of a crime scene may be revisited following its clean-up, with the retained ability to make accurate measurements of evidence such as blood splatters. The software that runs LSMDPI also allows full views from several angles.

[...]

Read More

HT The American Thinker

What civil war? Life imitating art?

Is this a case of the media wagging the dog e.g. as in the movie Wag the Dog?

RBT

*****

Ralph Peters nails it

Ralph Peters demolishes the fraudulent application of the term “civil war” to the stepped up terror bombings in Iraq. With vivid detail and economical prose, he lays out the case against the antique media propaganda campaign to convince the public that Bush’s War is a disaster for America.

THE reporting out of Baghdad continues to be hysterical and dishonest. There is no civil war in the streets. None. Period.

Terrorism, yes. Civil war, no. Clear enough?

There is nothing like being on-the-spot:

it’s more like a city suffering a minor, but deadly epidemic. As in an epidemic, no one knows who will be stricken. Rich or poor, soldier or civilian, Iraqi or foreigner. But life goes on. No one’s fleeing the Black Death — or the plague of terror.

And the people here have been impressed that their government reacted effectively to last week’s strife, that their soldiers and police brought order to the streets. The transition is working.

Most Iraqis want better government, better lives — and democracy. It is contagious, after all

Read it All

This just in from The Free Republic from a Google search I just ran:

Iraqi General, Georges Sada, "Saddam's Secrets", THU MAR 2nd @10am (noon ET), Mike Rosen, 850am KOA
Mike Rosen's page at 850am KOA ^ | Friday February 17th, 2006 | 850am KOA website

Posted on 02/18/2006 1:53:55 AM PST by ajolympian2004
Edited on 02/20/2006 7:17:50 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

Thursday March 2nd - Guest: Iraqi General, Georges Sada. General Sada's book, "Saddam's Secrets" will be the topic of discussion. Scheduled for 10:00am mountain (noon ET) on the Mike Rosen show at 850am KOA from here in Denver. This will be a rare opportunity to call in and ask a question of this particular guest.

Listen live here - http://www.850koa.com/pages/listen.html
(no registration required)

LA Times via Newsday

President Bush has strong words for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar during surprise visit to Afganistan

RBT

*****

Bush's surprise visit prompts strong words

By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer

March 1, 2006, 1:54 PM EST

NEW DELHI -- Paying a surprise visit today to Afghanistan, President Bush vowed that the world's most-wanted terrorists — Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden and Taliban ruler Mullah Mohammad Omar — would not elude authorities forever.

"It's not a matter of if they're captured or brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said during a five-hour visit en route to a long-planned trip to nearby India and Pakistan.

Wednesday's stop was the first opportunity for Bush to see firsthand how Afghanistan has changed since the U.S. overthrew the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, sending Bin Laden and Omar into hiding.

The president's words were unusually strong — reminiscent of the early days after the attacks when he said the U.S. would catch Bin Laden "dead or alive."

Bush has generally avoided making such predictions since Bin Laden and Omar disappeared, hiding out, officials believe, in the rugged mountains near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

But today, Bush did not shy away from mentioning the terrorists by name and promising their capture. His comments seemed intended to affirm U.S. commitments to maintaining a security presence in Afghanistan, even as administration officials talk about reducing the nation's 19,000-troop contingent.

Bush made his remarks in Kabul during a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai outside the presidential palace.

[...]

"I am confident (Bin Laden) will be brought to justice," Bush said. "What's happening is, is we got U.S. forces on the hunt for not only for Bin Laden, but those who plot and plan with him."

[...]

Karzai gushed with enthusiasm for the U.S. president, crediting Bush with pushing Afghanistan toward peace and democracy and thanking Bush for "the way you have given your hand to the Afghan people."

Bush said it was the United States' "pleasure and honor to be involved with the future of this country."

"We like stories of young girls going to school for the first time so they can realize their potential," he said. "We appreciate a free press. We are enthralled when we see an entrepreneurial class grow up where people are able to work and realize their dreams."

[...]

Read More

A unintended surprising result of a Google news alert search bot. This "find" was from a news alert on "Gen. Sada."

Anyway it's worth noting that others in the Middle East are indeed watching the political outcome in Iraq.

RBT

*****

Reform finds first various works in Yemen
By Prof.Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb For the Yemen Times
[Yemen Times - March 1, 2006]

It is not strange for who someone who observes Yemeni affairs, that the events in Sada'a took place. Although fighting was for the sake of power, it took place in the name of change, reform, and replacing the corrupted elements in leading positions, especially in the fields of economics, development and in the security system.

As economists and politicians, we say that the Arabic world, including Yemen, is in need of complete political, social, and economic reform. Without doing so, there will be an unknown fate; rejecting reform may lead to undesirable confusion or total destruction. The intellects and politicians of some Arabic countries stoop through the humble phases of democracy, but the real authority is in the hand of the rulers themselves. They appoint governments and supervise or divide the public property; they refuse public supervision. However the administration of public property is considered the core of actual democracy.

Giving nation the chance to participate in making decisions, such as the local councils, parliament and such nominal authorities. The local councils are of no real essence; all their tangible dimensions are under centralized authority, under specific pretexts, what remains is just a few. If we believe in giving the nation the right to rule itself, that wouldn't be enough. There are so many essential factors pertaining to political, economic and social stability; it is also concerned with mankind, as human rights. The call for the entire or real reform leading to real development, decreases the crisis of destitution, unemployment and corruption.

[...]

It is commonly mentioned that what we say about the present situation of the Arab world, as we undoubtedly believe, requires change to get out of this state, that is relevant to the qualitative development for systems and nations. The new Iraqi model, for example, is trying a parliamentary republican system, based on pluralism which a condition of making the Iraqi decision making mechanism a real one, assuming the departure of the foreign presence, leaving the Iraqi issue for its owners. That day may not be far off, especially after the handing over of power, though namely. At least constitutional kingships and the presidential republics will be equal if they achieve the goal of wise rule, and present real democracy, and secure public freedoms.

Therefore this matter requires change and reform, in order to let nations enjoy life and profit from their human and materialistic sources.

There's still further to come.

Read it All

Prof Glenn Reynold's (Instapundit Blog) new book, An Army of Davids - How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, is scheduled for a March 7th release.

Rocketsbrain has two on pre-order from Amazon.

My two cents worth re Internet/Blogos - is an evolving, organic, non pyramidal, dendritic, self-correcting, sentient, distributive computer network not unlike SETI. The Blogos has parallel processing power far exceeding any Crays now online.

Each node of the network is a "smart terminal" powered by a human mind with limitless cognitive abilities to make correlations/connections between diverse human thought and knowledge e.g. Connections by James Burke

Here's some blurbs from reviews:

Book Description

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when large companies and powerful governments reigned supreme over the little guy. But new technologies are empowering individuals like never before, and the Davids of the world-the amateur journalists, musicians, and small businessmen and women-are suddenly making a huge economic and social impact.

In Army of Davids, author Glenn Reynolds, the man behind the immensely popular Instapundit.com, provides an in-depth, big-picture point-of-view for a world where the small guys matter more and more. Reynolds explores the birth and growth of the individual's surprisingly strong influence in: arts and entertainment, anti-terrorism, nanotech and space research, and much more.

The balance of power between the individual and the organization is finally evening out. And it's high time the Goliaths of the world pay attention, because, as this book proves, an army of Davids is on the rise.

**

"George Orwell feared that technology would enable dictators to enslave the masses. Glenn Reynolds shows that technology can empower individuals to determine their own futures and to defeat those who would enslave us. This is a book of profound importance-and also a darn good read.-MICHAEL BARONE, senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and author of Hard America, Soft America

**

[This guy is a heavy thinker - "Kurzweil Voice" - is one of his inventions.)

A student in her dorm room now commands the resources of a multi-million dollar music recording or movie editing studio of not so many years ago. The tools of creativity have been democratized and the tools of production are not far behind (Karl Marx take note). Glenn Reynolds's beguiling new book tells the insightful story of how an 'army of Davids' is inheriting the Earth, leaving a trail of obsolete business models not to mention cultural, economic, and political institutions in its wake.-RAY KURZWEIL, scientist, inventor, and author of several books including The Singularity is Near

**

(Author of Blog)

'Must-read,' 'gotta have,' 'culture-changing' . . . I am suspicious of blurbs with such overused plugs. But Glenn Reynolds's An Army of Davids is in fact a must-read new book that you gotta have if you are going to understand the culture-changing forces that are unleashed and at work across the globe.-HUGH HEWITT, syndicated talk radio host and author of Blog and Painting the Map Red

**

Glenn Reynolds has written an essential book for understanding how technology and markets are creating a bottom-up shift in power to ordinary people that is changing business, government, and our world. Packed with fresh ideas and adorned with graceful prose, An Army of Davids is a masterpiece.-JOE TRIPPI, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

HT Max Boot/LA Times via Instapundit

Somes signs of life from the MSM. What no civil war yet? How come? See this column in the LA Times.

Up close, Iraq gets blurry

There are no pat answers where setbacks and successes exist side by side.

March 1, 2006

ARE WE WINNING or losing in Iraq? Liberals and conservatives safe at home have no trouble formulating glib answers to that fundamental question. The former can always point to setbacks, the latter to successes. The picture becomes blurrier, the future murkier when you spend time in Iraq, as I did last week.

After traveling from Qatar to Baghdad on a C-17 transport aircraft, I jumped off a Blackhawk helicopter on Feb. 22 at Forward Operating Base Warhorse near the city of Baqubah, 30 miles north of the capital. Here, Col. Brian Jones, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, gave me a mostly upbeat briefing on his area of operations, which includes all of Diyala province (population 1.4 million) as well as part of a neighboring province.

[...]

[Mosque bombing[

Trying to calm things, Fisher sought to dispel bizarre rumors that a U.S. bomb, not explosives planted by terrorists, had blown up the Samarra mosque. He told his soldiers not to get in the way of demonstrations but to stand by in case they turned violent. (They didn't.) Then he drove to the heavily barricaded government center to confer with the mayor about what he could do as a "good neighbor" to assist the Iraqis. The answer was that the locals had everything under control.

Given the growing competence of Iraqi security forces, this may not have been sheer bravado. As we drove through town, I saw Iraqi army and police checkpoints everywhere. Not only are more security personnel in the field, but they are also not running away from a fight, as they did in 2004. Fisher told me that when insurgents recently attacked a police checkpoint, the cops chased them down and arrested them. This combination of toughness (withstanding attack) and restraint (bringing back the attackers alive) augurs well for the future of Iraq.

Nor is this an isolated example. A few days later, while visiting the Green Zone in Baghdad, I was briefed on the progress being made in standing up Iraqi forces. A year ago, only three Iraqi battalions controlled their own "battle- space." Today, the total is up to 40 battalions and counting. Those units have achieved impressive results in some rough neighborhoods. As I discovered firsthand, it is now safe to travel down Route Irish between the Green Zone and Baghdad airport — once the most dangerous road in the world. Yet there are well-justified concerns about sectarian divisions and human rights abuses within the security forces.

[...]

. . . As Jones noted ruefully during a 30-minute ride between his base and the giant U.S. logistics hub near Balad, "You can go days without anything bad happening, and then you find 47 dead bodies." Which is more important — the signs of progress that mostly pass unheralded, or the continuing woes splashed across newspaper front pages? I left Iraq more uncertain than when I arrived.

Read it All

HT Accuracy in the Media

Where are the WMD?

By Roger Aronoff | February 28, 2006

Several new sources have come to light to indicate that Saddam probably did have WMD, at least chemical and biological weapons, and that a nuclear program had not been entirely discontinued.

The question of "Where are the WMD?" has been offered by critics of the Bush Administration in order to mock the rationale for the invasion of Iraq. The question is presented because of the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was said to possess or was pursuing. But it's still a legitimate question. And some new answers are beginning to emerge�although generally not in the major media.

Several new sources have come to light to indicate that Saddam probably did have WMD, at least chemical and biological weapons, and that a nuclear program had not been entirely discontinued. And they also suggest a substantial relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda.

The Weekly Standard has had a series of articles by Stephen Hayes, examining the mystery surrounding some of the previously classified documents that have been discovered in Iraq. Amazingly, nearly three years after the fall of Saddam's brutal regime, the U.S. has only translated about 2.5 percent of all the documents they have discovered. But Hayes says the documents reveal, among other things, extensive training of al Qaeda by Iraqi intelligence.

The New York Sun has been leading the way in reporting on a former Iraqi Air Force general, Georges Sada, who is out with a new book, Saddam's Secrets, asserting that Saddam sent his WMD to Syria in converted passenger planes, shortly before the war began. He appeared on the Fox News show Hannity & Colmes to talk about it, and Sherrie Gossett of CNS News also did a good story about his disclosures.

[...]

If verified," Investors Business Day says about Sada's revelations, "his story would be a smoking gun that blows away the claims of a 'Bush lied, people died' crowd that insists Saddam never had WMDs and that his regime was not linked to al-Qaida. You'd think this would be a matter of great interest to all who seek the truth. But all we get is tedious replay of theories blaming Bush for doing nothing other than protecting his country, as he's sworn to do."

We understand why the major media want to ignore these new revelations. They have already found Bush guilty of lying about the WMD.

The mystery is why the Bush administration has not worked harder to get out the information that could neutralize these reckless accusations. We hope it's not because they are afraid of picking a fight with the liberal press.


Read it All

HT Mohammed- Iraq the Model

Mohammed says things are returning to normal. He also has a very insightful analysis of why the uprising occurred. Definitely a must read for those interested in the inner workings of Iraq and the religious factions of Islam.

*****

Monday, February 27, 2006

The shrine crisis…words that need to be said.
Life is coming back to normal in Baghdad and marketplaces and offices are open again after being shut for 4 days. Although there were a few security incidents today people are mostly looking at these as part of the usual daily situation and not related to the latest shrine crisis.

But, what can we learn from this lesson and how can we make benefit from it in avoiding similar problems in the future.

It's not a secret who was behind the attack on the shrine and I am sure that who did it were the Salafi/Wahabis whether Iraqi or foreigners and with external support from parties planning to disrupt the political process in Iraq.
The reason I believe it's the Salafis who did it comes from their own ideology which considers all mosques built upon tombs as places of polytheism and infidelity and thus must be destroyed. This also applies to Sunni shrines like Abu Haneefa and al-Gailani; Salafis consider the Shia and the Sufis their worst enemies and they commonly refer to them in their speech with the term "tomb worshippers" or Mushrikoon Quborioon in Arabic.

[...]

Read it All

HT ET - View from Iran

Monday, February 27, 2006
Request to news organizations covering the Iran nuclear issue!!!

“Why do Iranians mistrust everything the government tells them, but trust their spin when it comes to the nuclear issue?” We were wondering last night. If you have followed the nuclear issue at all, then you know that it is reported that Iranians support their government in this issue. Yet, when you hear Iranians on the street respond to reporters (and to me and to K…) they always say “We support nuclear ENERGY.” You would be hard-pressed to find an Iranian who would say “We need nukes. We are willing to be isolated for nukes.”

The standard line in Iran is that the West wants to prevent it from having nuclear knowledge and nuclear POWER. Not arms…

Iranians watch CNN, BBC World, VOA, Euronews… I do too. I have yet to hear a reporter say that the West does not want to limit Iran’s access to nuclear energy, just to nuclear arms. It may seem obvious to you, but it is not obvious here. It’s such a simple thing to do. Please let Iranians know the difference between the West’s position and their own government’s spin.

Link

HT Gateway Pundit

Not all Iraqis are on verge of civil war. Gee when will the MSM report these stories. Read this translation and other updates at Gateway Pundit.

*****

The following is a translation by Iraqi-American Haider Ajina of a headline and news published by the Iraqi Arabic newspaper Al-Raa’I on February 26th:

Iraqis demonstrate calling for Shiite & Sunni unity

Many Iraqi cities witnessed large demonstrations after Friday prayers (yesterday). These demonstrations were calling for national unity, not being pulled into civil war after attacks on Sunni mosques as retaliation to the bombing of the samara Shiite shrine.

In Mousul 500 people demonstrated in Bartila (north west of the city). The demonstrations were lead by Sunni & Shiite leaders to condemn all bombings and call for a unified line and not be pulled into a sectarian war. Another demonstration started from the offices of the high council for Islamic revolution (Shiite). The demonstration was lead by Sunni and Shiite religious leaders. Banners condemned attacks on mosques, shrines and churches the banners also condemned terror also no to Saddam yes to Islam.

In Hillah over 3000 demonstrated after Friday’s united prayers (Shiite & Muslim together) at the Haytaween mosque. The united prayers were lead by Sheik Mohamed Alfateh (Sunni) and Sheik Jasim Alkalebi (Shiite). The two speakers called for Muslim unity and denounced all terror activity as unIslamic and asked for keeping unity.

In Al-Koot hundreds demonstrated after Friday prayers protesting the bombing of the samara shrine and the attacks on the Sunni mosques. Unified Friday prayers in Al-Koot were held at the large central mosque in the city. Speakers at the prayers call for rejecting sectarianism.

In Amarah over 15,000 demonstrated after Friday prayers condemning the samara bombing and attacks on Sunni mosques. Banners read, Sunnis & Shiites are like Hassan & Hussein (referring to two grand children of the profit Mohamed), banners also read that Muslim references (Shiite religious leaders) condemn terrorism in all its forms.

In Karbala Sheik Abdulmehdi Alkarblaa’i (representative of Sustain) in his Friday after prayers speech at the Hussein Shrine called for peaceful and brotherly coexistence, condemned violence and called for national unity. He added; "We know the nature of this crime and the ones before it, we also know these crimes are not of Sunni doings, but they are the deeds of the enemies of Sunnis & Shiites".

In Basra over 10,000 demonstrated with banners asking to form the new government as quickly as possible.

Read it All

HT Powerline re editorial in Ivestors Business Daily

"Saddam Had WMD"

That's the title of this editorial in Investors Business Daily, which reprises some of the recently discovered evidence. There are Saddam's audio tapes:

On them, Saddam talks openly of programs involving biological, chemical and, yes, nuclear weapons.

[A]s late as 2000, Saddam can be heard in his office talking with Iraqi scientists about his ongoing plans to build a nuclear device. At one point, he discusses Iraq's plasma uranium program — something that was missed entirely by U.N. weapons inspectors combing Iraq for WMD. This is particularly troubling, since it indicates an active, ongoing attempt by Saddam to build an Iraqi nuclear bomb.

"What was most disturbing," said John Tierney, the ex- FBI agent who translated the tapes, "was the fact that the individuals briefing Saddam were totally unknown to the U.N. Special Commission (or UNSCOM, the group set up to look into Iraq's WMD programs)."

Then there's the account given by Georges Sada, second in command in Iraq's air force:

He has written a book, "Saddam's Secrets," that details how the Iraqi dictator used trucks, commercial jets and ships to remove his WMD from the country. At the time, the move went largely undetected, because Iraq pretended the massive movement of materiel was to help Syrian flood victims.

Nor is Sada alone. Ali Ibrahim, another of Saddam's former commanders, has largely corroborated Sada's story.

So how was Saddam able to use his "cheat and retreat" tactics without being found out? He had help, according to a former U.S. Defense Department official.

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," said John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense, in comments made at an intelligence summit Feb. 17-20 in Arlington, Va.

"They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special ops) units out of uniform that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence," he said.

[...]

When the Iraq Survey Group reported that it was unable to find Saddam's WMDs, it was treated, understandably, as a huge news story. The news media interpreted the ISG's failure as undermining, to a great degree, the administration's case for the war. Fair enough. But now it appears that the administration, along with the CIA and the intelligence services of all other countries who assessed the issue, likely was right after all. Why isn't this equally big news?

Read it All

Omar of Iraq the Model is posting regular updates. Here's one that corrects exaggerated media reports.

*****

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Curfew extended in Baghdad and three other provinces.
The defense minister in a press conference currently on Iraqi TV gave statistics to correct what he described as "exaggerated media reports" about civilian casualties and attacks on mosques since the attack on the Samarra shrine:


Mosques attacked/shot at without damage: 21 not 51
Moderately damaged: 6 not 23
Mosques destroyed totally: 1 not 3
Mosques occupied by militias: 1 not 2 (evacuated later).
Civilians killed: 119 not 183

It was also announced that day-time curfew in Baghdad and three other provinces (Salahiddin, Diyala and Babil) will continue for another two days.

More from the press conference:

In the same press conference, the interior minister said "we are not going to show tolerance towards those who cause violence anymore, those who felt like doing something have done what they done but we will accept no more of this" obviously referring to those who let their anger push them to violence.

The defense minister added that they are working in the government on activating the counter-terrorism laws which includes "arresting anyone who's found guilty of provoking violence". And added "We have put the armored units of the Iraqi army on high alert and these units (one division+) will be deployed to the streets one we see a real need for that".

Read it All

HT Instapundit

HERE'S AN INTERESTING BIT from the transcript I just got in the mail from CNN. It's the Iraqi National Security Adviser, on "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

On who is responsible for the recent bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra
MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE: The blueprint of that unfortunate event, the blueprints of al Qaeda in Iraq is that. It’s the same design, the same methods, the same objectives they want to achieve, which is a civil war. They wanted to drive a wedge between the two communities in Iraq, between the Shia and Sunnis. And they've been trying this for the last two and a half years. And they failed miserably in this.

And I think also this is one of the most horrible, really terrible attacks on the doctrine, on the belief of the largest community in Iraq. And still, Iraqi people have proven that they've gone through this difficulty, yet again, and they have shown the al Qaeda and the outside world that they will never be driven to the civil war.

BLITZER: So when you saw al Qaeda in Iraq, you mean Abu Musab al- Zarqawi? Is that right?

AL-RUBAIE: That's absolutely right. It's the same organization of al Qaeda, this international terrorist organization, and one -- the branch office in Iraq is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi leading this -- this terrible attack, terrorist attack against our people.

[...]

Read it All

HT View from Iran

This blog is fast becoming a must read for me.

*****

Saturday, November 19, 2005
Isolating Iran is what the Fundamentalists Want

First the comment:

Anonymous said...
Ah, if only Americans could finance microbanks in Iran the evil regime would be less secure.

Sorry, the NY Times editorial is the usual Times pap about how the world be great if only we were all nice to each other and that it is always America's fault if we are not.

The Iranian regime is serious about the systematic destruction of the West. It even says so itself. Isn't that what Death to America means? Helping the Iranian people unfortunately means helping the regime. We are better off withholding our help.

My response:
Now you are thinking like the fundamentalists in Iran! You guys agree. They don’t want out help, and you don’t think we should give it.

Fundamentalists strive for isolation. Their goal is to isolate Iranians from the rest of the world: economically, culturally, and intellectually. They are itching for a fight. Sanctions and strikes would help build their power base.

Believe it or not, the Iranian regime is not 100% fundamentalist. There are dissenting voices that want to keep Iran and Iranians engaged in the world. Iranians themselves are far from 100% fundamentalist. And, guess what, they are overwhelmingly pro-American.

Sometimes I think Iran is like a tube of toothpaste. The regime just keeps squeezing people so that they leave or lose the will to fight.

Link

HT View from Iran

Got into a car that smelled like cat pee… I imagined that the windows were left open one night and Tehran’s cats made use of the car.

We passed a fancy hair salon for men with wall length headshots of long haired men. “I’ve never lived anywhere else where men were as fussy about their hair,” I commented.

“Hey,” said K, “it’s all we’ve got.”

“If you go to South Tehran with that kind of hair, you get arrested,” our driver told us. “Too much gel and they get you. We have no freedom.”

That got him started…
“I don’t understand why we are making all this fuss about nuclear energy. We have bombs with anti-Israel slogans painted on them and we want to know why Israel is afraid of us having nuclear capabilities. I cannot understand why our two countries are not friendly in the first place. We were friends. We Iranians have nothing against Israel. Why do we have to pretend that we do?”

I am thinking that my Persian is failing me. I just sit and let the driver do all of the talking. When we get out of the car, I ask K if I understood him correctly. “You did,” he tells me. “A lot of Iranians feel the way he does.”

The day before an accountant told me that Israelis were crazy. “Don’t you agree?”

“Well, given the fact that so many of them were born in Iran, I would say that if they are crazy you are crazy.”

“You got me,” he admitted.

Iranians are so baffled by the world’s response to AN’s anti-semetic comments. I have said this over and over: they have no idea of the true history of World War II. They never heard of the holocaust. They cannot understand the emotional/historical impact of AN’s rhetoric. Frankly, most Iranians cannot understand why the rest of the world pays attention to AN when they themselves do not.

Link

HT View from Iran

“Did you know that a German paper has published a cartoon of the Iranian national team as suicide bombers?”

I laugh. K doesn’t think it’s funny. “It’s an insult to the Iranian people, not to our government.”

“I am sure that they did not caricature the individual players.”

“It is still our team.”

[...]

Don’t joke about football in Iran… the riots will really start!

“Iran deserves it. They advertise for suicide bombers, train them, reward them. What do they expect?”


“Now an Iranian paper is sponsoring a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust.”

“That’s sick.”

“That’s where free speech gets you…”

“No one is making fun of the Iranians who were gassed during the war with Iraq. They are not the subject of cartoons. Surely you see the difference.”

“Of course I see the difference. But when I go to Europe people see me as a terrorist. That’s what bothers me.”

Iranians know that the rest of the world sees them as terrorists. It really, really disturbs them. But they are out of control of their image abroad. It’s been hijacked.

“Why can’t we be a normal country?”

“What’s normal?”

“You know, modern. A place where people are not scared.”

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: the biggest lesson I have learned in Iran is that free speech is more important than democracy. Iranians all have opinions. They know how to talk, and they speak their minds. What they cannot do is organize. I can tell you what I think as long as I don’t tell three strangers what I think. I can disagree with government actions as long as I don’t try to get anyone else to act on my ideas. Talk is okay. Action is not. Free speech is action.

Gene (in the comments section) asks about the bus drivers in Iran. Do people know what is going on? I don’t know. We have heard sympathy for them. But it’s very quiet. Think of these drivers… They are AN’s natural constituents: poor, hardworking, most likely observant. And they are arrested and put in prison for demanding living wages! AN would probably call them “imaginary,” just as he did when Christianne Amanpour asked him about the plight of people similar to these drivers.

This is a regime that punishes its supporters more than its detractors. There is absolutely no news of the plight of the bus drivers in Iran. There is very, very little discussion of it.

Well, I'll make sure to look for the union label and remember the depth of gratitude I owe to the unions and guilds who spent centuries creating dialog, free speech, and democracy. (Do you think that might actually be the case? I am not a historian of democracy or of unions/guilds... just wondering.)

Read it all

HT The American Spectator Blog via Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran

Iran Attacks - Friday, February 24, 2006
[Posted by John Batchelor]

Best signals source points to the Samarra mosque bombing in Iraq as the launch operation of the Iranian counteroffensive.

[...]

Rather than wait to be attacked by the US fleet and air, Iran has attacked -- using all available surrogates to damage and intimidate the US-led coalition that is driving the IAEA referral recommendation to the UN Security Council.

The first, second and third things you should ask when there is an attack or collapse or discord in an oil-based state (Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia, usw.) is, how does this benefit Iran? Iran knows that the oil weapon works. Destablizing energy markets by hiring surrogates to scare the price of oil upward serves the empire-building plans of Iran and threatens the strength and unity of the US and its allies.

Reports indicate that the Samarra bombing was done by a demolitions team that was inside the mosque up to 48 hours before the detonation. The explosives were arranged to collapse the dome while leaving the critical tombs of the Eleventh and Tenth Imams unharmed -- since damage to the grandfather and father of the invisible Twelfth Imam (who will return on Judgment Day) does not advance the Shia apocalypticism preached in Tehran. Instead, the damage is arranged to show a frightening image of sacrilege on the videos and stills, aiding the provocateurs throughout the Shia regions of the ummah.

The coordinated Shia-based assaults on hundreds of Sunni mosques that followed was directed by Iranian agents or fellow travelers. Signals source suspects the Iranians are using captured Salafists from Pakistan, men who are devoted to murdering Shia. These surrogates are captured by Iranian forces while en route to Iran and given a stark choice: conduct this murder campaign or we will just kill you where you hang.

The Shia attack on the Sunnis is the continuation of a thousand-year-old sectarian war. Saddam Hussein's regime interrupted the fight in Iraq. Now the Shia dogs of war are loose.

[...]

Tehran commands the civil war. Tehran commands the Shia agents who will now seek to murder all Sunni elements who resist a Shia-dominated Islamic Republic in Baghdad.

My first summary of this offensive is that Iran is committed to the domination of the ummah, and that means destruction of the US in Iraq first, followed by the destruction of Israel in total. This is not the same as saying that Iran can achieve its war aims. But until the US national security apparatus assembles the fleet for joint operations against Tehran, these are threatening, doom-filled days.

Read it All

HT Private papers of Victor Davis Hanson

VDH recently returned from Iraq and gives his assessment of where we stand. Not surprisingly his assessment differs from what the MSM is reporting.

*****

February 24, 2006

Standoff in Iraq
The IED vs. Democracy.

by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

The insurgency in Iraq has no military capability either to drive the United States military from Iraq or to stop the American training of Iraqi police and security forces — or, for that matter, to derail the formation of a new government. The United States air base at Balad is one of the busiest airports in the world. Camp Victory near Baghdad is impenetrable to serious attack. And even forward smaller bases at Kirkuk, Mosul, and Ramadi are entirely secure. Instead, the terrorists count on three alternate strategies:

First, through the use of improvised explosive devices (IED), assassinations, and suicide bombings, they hope to make the Iraqi hinterlands and suburbs appear so unstable and violent that the weary American public says “enough of these people” and calls home its troops before the country is stabilized. In such a quest, the terrorists have an invaluable ally in the global media, whose “if it bleeds, it leads” brand of journalism always favors the severed head in the street over the completion of yet another Iraqi school.

Second, the al Qaedists think they can attack enough Shiites and government forces to prompt a civil war. And indeed, in the world that we see on television, there is no such thing as a secular Iraq, an Iraqi who defines himself as an Iraqi, or a child born to a Shiite and Sunni. No, the country, we are told, is simply three factions that will be torn apart by targeted violence. Sunnis blow up holy places; Shiites retaliate; and both sides can then blame the Americans.

Third, barring options one and two, the enemy wishes to pay off criminals and thugs to create enough daily mayhem, theft, and crime to stop contractors from restoring infrastructure and thus delude the Iraqi public into believing that the peace would return if only the Americans just left.

[...]

Who will win? The Americans I talked to this week in Iraq — in Baghdad, Balad, Kirkuk, and Taji — believe that a government will emerge that is seen as legitimate and will appear as authentic to the people. Soon, ten divisions of Iraqi soldiers, and over 100,000 police, should be able to crush the insurgency, with the help of a public tired of violence and assured that the future of Iraq is their own — not the Husseins’, the Americans’, or the terrorists’. The military has learned enough about the tactics of the enemy that it can lessen casualties, and nevertheless, through the use of Iraqi forces, secure more of the country with far less troops.

[...]

The terrorists, whom I did not talk to, but whose bombs I heard, answer back that while they fear the Iraqization of their enemy and the progress of democracy, they can still kill enough Shiites, bomb enough mosques, and stop enough rebuilding to sink the country into sectarian war — or at least something like Lebanon of the 1980s or an Afghanistan under the Taliban.

It is an odd war, because the side that I think is losing garners all the press, whether by blowing up the great golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, or by blowing up an American each day. Yet we hear nothing of the other side that is ever so slowly, shrewdly undermining the enemy.

[...]

Most would agree that the Americans now know exactly what they are doing. They have a brilliant and savvy ambassador and a top diplomatic team. Their bases are expertly run and secured, where food, accommodations, and troop morale are excellent. Insufficient body armor and unarmored humvees are yesterday’s hysteria. Our generals — Casey, Chiarelli, Dempsey — are astute and understand the fine line between using too much force and not employing enough, and that the war cannot be won by force alone. American colonels are the best this county has produced, and they are proving it in Iraq under the most trying of conditions. Iraqi soldiers are treated with respect and given as much autonomy as their training allows.

[...]

Can-do Americans courageously go about their duty in Iraq — mostly unafraid that a culture of 2,000 years, the reality of geography, the sheer forces of language and religion, the propaganda of the state-run Arab media, and the cynicism of the liberal West are all stacked against them. Iraq may not have started out as the pivotal front in the war between democracy and fascism, but it has surely evolved into that. After visiting the country, I think we can and will win, but just as importantly, unlike in 2003-04, there does not seem to be much of anything we should be doing there that in fact we are not.

©2006 Victor Davis Hanson

Read it All

HT Private papers of Victor Davis Hanson

February 26, 2006

Absolute Certainty
Think Islamic fanaticism arises from material want? Think again.

by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers

Coming hard upon the heels of the cartoon riots and the election of the Hamas terrorists, the destruction of the Shi’ite mosque of the Golden Dome in Samarra by Sunni jihadists, and the subsequent Shi’ite bloody retaliation, should put to rest Western delusions about the true nature of Islam. But don’t hold your breath. Such displays of Islam’s violent intolerance have been coming thick and fast the last few decades, and can be found on every page of history going back to the 7th century, when Islam began its expansion with the blood of several hundred decapitated Jews.

Yet still some Westerners, enthralled to their own materialist assumptions and multicultural “we are the world” sentimentalism, wave away this evidence and reduce this destructive behavior to any and every cause except the one that counts: spiritual belief. So we hear that the violence is caused by a lack of jobs, or a lack of liberal-democratic institutions, or “frustration” and insecurity about the dismal backwardness of most Muslim states, or wounded pride in the face of Western success, or resentment of Western imperialist and colonialist sins, or oppressive autocrats, or . . . take your pick. The same therapeutic mentality that thinks destructive behavior in teens results from a “lack of self-esteem” reduces the religious values of Muslims to mere “epiphenomena,” as the Marxists see it, symptoms of some underlying condition rooted in material deprivation, political impotence, or psychological trauma.

The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. This is a faith fanatically certain of its truth and righteousness, the culminating vision of God’s relations with humanity, the ultimate meaning of human existence on every level, including the social and political. As such, its destiny is to spread over the whole world until the benefits, both in this life and the next, of submission to God are bestowed on all humans, and the dysfunctional man-made values–– including democracy, materialism, “equal rights,” and freedom–– are swept away. For however alluring, these do not deliver true happiness or true freedom, but mere hedonism and license that create misery and degradation in this world, and put the soul at risk in the next.

If, then, you are in possession of this truth that you are absolutely certain holds the key to universal happiness in this world and the next, why would you be tolerant of alternatives? Why should you tolerate a dangerous lie? Why should you “live and let live,” the credo of the spiritually moribund who stand for everything because they stand for nothing? And why wouldn’t you kill in the name of this vision, when the infidel nations work against God’s will and his beneficent intentions for the human race?

[...]

Perhaps the best example of this contempt for our spiritual foundations came when the President apologized for using the word “Crusade.” The demonization of the Crusades is a historical distortion that acquiesces in the jihadist rewriting of history in order to exploit Western self-loathing and spiritual emptiness. Whatever the sordid or brutal motives and actions of the Crusaders, they were still for the most part driven by a spiritual imperative to restore the Holy Land to the Christian civilization that had defined the Middle East for six centuries before being violently transformed by the armies of Allah. For the most aggressively imperialistic culture in the history of the world to whine now about Western imperialism — and be taken seriously by Westerners — testifies to the intellectual corruption endemic in the West.

If we continue down this road of appeasement, apology, and blackmail, then our outlook is indeed grim. A culturally weaker and ruder Europe turned back the Islamic tide because it was united by its Christian faith, the spiritual strength of all those before us who died and killed so that this prosperous, free world we enjoy could exist. But what unites the West now, when our credo seems to be that juvenile sentiment from John Lennon’s “Imagine”: “Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too”? Is this the belief that can resist an enemy who knows with absolute certainty what is worth killing and dying for?

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