Murtha's Anti-War Stand Popular in Johnstown, PA

The LA Times reports that Congressman Murtha's plea to bring American troops home has struck a chord in Johnstown, PA.

What is the meaning of the defection by a conservative, pro-military Democrat to the anti-war camp?

Pretty significant. Chris Matthews called it the "beginning of the end" on TV today. I think he's right. The Bush administration simply lost its "mojo" with Hurricane Katrina. The old tricks won't work anymore, and the old dogs like Cheney and Rumsfeld can't seem to learn any new ones. Name-calling and accusations of treason won't wash.

When I was teaching in Uzbekistan, one of the staffers at the University's international office asked me what I thought of the war in Iraq. I told him that if it worked, I supported it, and if it didn't, I would be against it. "Very cunning," he said. "Not at all," I answered. "Americans are very pragmatic."

No American wants war for war's sake (except perhaps Halliburton executives and others who benefit from Pentagon no-bid contracts). Americans supported the Bush administration's war because they thought Bush knew what he was doing. The thousand plus dead from Hurricane Katrina, the "Heck of a job, Brownie!", and the sleaze oozing out from the White House have cast doubt on that premise. Therefore, if Bush doesn't know what he is doing, it follows that no more Americans should lose their lives following him. Murtha's move is in response to a shift in the mood of the American public. Perhaps more keenly felt in Johnstown, PA, which was the site of a major flood many years ago...

Understanding Ahmad Chalabi

Michael Rubin explains the Iraqi leader's ascent, in the face of American opposition led by Condoleeza Rice:

Both before and after Iraq's liberation, State Department officials criticized Chalabi as an exile with little connection to his own country. CIA analysts seconded such pronouncements. On September 6, 2004, for example, Judith Yaphe, a former CIA Iraq analyst now at the National Defense University, told the Associated Press that "over the years, [CIA favorite Ayad] Allawi's contacts were proven to be real while Chalabi's were never what Chalabi told us." Former Defense Intelligence Agency official W. Patrick Lang described Chalabi as "basically an émigré politician" and told an Australian radio station that the CIA and State Department "didn't trust what he said [and] didn't think he understood Iraq, really." General Anthony Zinni, head of U.S. Central Command, belittled Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress as "some silk-suited, Rolex-wearing guys in London."

But, in the months before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, Chalabi returned to Iraq. And after liberation, he became an irritant to Washington policymakers. While Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer sought to run Iraq by diktat, Chalabi agitated for direct elections and restoration of Iraqi sovereignty. He clashed with Meghan O'Sullivan, now deputy national security adviser for Iraq, when she worked to undermine and eventually reverse de-Baathification. He undercut White House attempts to internationalize responsibility for Iraq in the months prior to the 2004 U.S. elections when his Governing Council auditing commission began to investigate the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal.

In a West Wing meeting, then–national security adviser Condoleezza Rice called Chalabi's opposition to the ill-fated Fallujah Brigade "unhelpful." Soon afterward, she directed her staff to outline ways to "marginalize" Chalabi. There followed espionage and counterfeiting charges — the former never seriously pursued by the FBI and the latter thrown out of an Iraqi court. Following the June 28, 2004, transfer of sovereignty in Iraq, John Negroponte — then U.S. ambassador to Iraq and now the director of national intelligence — refused to meet Chalabi. Cut off from U.S. patronage and without any serious Iraqi base, the analysts said, Chalabi would fade away.

He did not. Nor has he simply reinvented himself, as a State Department official suggested following Chalabi's November 9 address at the American Enterprise Institute. Rather, his relevance has remained constant. Unlike those of other Iraqi figures embraced by various bureaucracies in Washington, Chalabi's fortunes have not depended on U.S. patronage. His survival — and, indeed, his recent ascent against the obstacles thrown in his path by Washington — underlines the failures of diplomats and intelligence analysts to put aside departmental agendas to provide the White House with an objective and accurate analysis of the sources of legitimacy inside Iraq.

So far, when it comes to Iraq, the score is Chalabi 1, Rice 0.

US to Sanction Uzbekistan?

Over on Registan, Nathan reports that the US government will announce sanctions on Uzbekistan for human rights violations sometime next week. I guess that means Iraq will be next to be sanctioned, given the news reports of torture there--oh, I forgot, we are in charge in Iraq...

Senator Brownback Condemns Uzbekistan

Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) with US troops in Iraq
A November 18th press release from the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, chaired by Sam Brownback (R-KS) announced:

Commissioners of the U.S. Helsinki Commission strongly condemned the outcome of the trial of 15 men in Uzbekistan for the outbreak of unrest in the city of Andijan. The verdicts, which were announced on November 14th, found the men guilty of trying to oust the Uzbek Government and set up an Islamic state.

“The Uzbek Government, after blocking international investigation of the bloody events in Andijan, set up a kangaroo court and expects the world to accept the verdict,” said Commission Chairman Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS). “It is especially telling that official Uzbek sources have accused the United States of involvement in terrorism. Regrettably, the Uzbek Government seems determined to isolate itself from the Western world.”

I don't like to get into an argument with a Senator from Kansas (I worked on the public broadcasting issue with Bob Dole), but Brownback is off base here. There is indeed some evidence that the US may have been involved with terrorists in Uzbekistan, directly or indirectly through NGOs.

For example: America facilitated the move of Andijan suspects out of the country, providing safe havens in Romania following the violence; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interviewed the Andijan guerrillas' leader Qobiljon Parpiev, who has called for continued violence in Uzbekistan; and at the CSCE Washington, DC hearing on June 29th, a representative from International Crisis Group said that the organization worked with Akriyama in Uzbekistan. Another witness, Marcus Bensmann, appears to have misled CSCE when he testified that he heard no chant of "Allahu Akbar" during the Andijan violence. Bensmann may have missed it, but the BBC captured it on tape--and such a cry from the crowd during violence is obvious evidence of an Islamist link, which unfortunately supports the Uzbek government's contention that the perpetrators of the Andijan violence had the goal of establishing an Islamic state.

Notably, Senator Brownback's CSCE panel did not hear testimony about her investigation of the Andijan events from Dr. Shirin Akiner on June 29th. Therefore, the CSCE's own record is partial and incomplete at this stage. More information is needed about Andijan before the US Congress can take any reasonable position vis-a-vis Uzbekistan.

Contrary to the CSCE press release, no international investigation is necessary for the US Government to issue its own report. The US doesn't need a "permission slip" to find out what happened. If they really want to know what happened, Senator Brownback as well as Congressmen Cardin and Smith might ask the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation to determine whether US taxpayer funds may have found their way into the hands of terrorists or terrorist supporters in Andijan. If the GAO finds that no US-supported individuals or organizations were involved in any way before, during, or after Andijan, it would disprove the Uzbek government's charges. If not, the GAO has an obligation to let the chips fall where they may--and Brownback, Smith, and Cardin will be better able to determine what steps need to be taken.

Such a GAO investigation, following the money going from the US to Uzbekistan, might answer remaining questions about what happened in Andijan in an objective and dispassionate fashion that could provide an alternative strategy to the escalating war of words between Washington and Tashkent--and provide a basis to reduce Uzbekistan's isolation from the Western world.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Calls for "International Investigation" of Guantanamo Prison

Acccording to the Pakistan Times the US government has rebuffed the request.

EU Protects Terrorists

Ozdemir Sabanci was killed by terrorists from the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front in 1996. Nine years later, Belgium refuses Turkey's demand to extradite accused killer Fehriye Erdal. The Journal of the Turkish Weekly is outraged, and the Sedat Laciner questions the EU's commitment to anti-terrorism:

Turkish Government, media and people perceive that Belgium acting as an umbrella for the terrorists. And they are not wrong. Combating terrorism needs international co-operation. And if two NATO members and two partners in the EU cannot co-operate in Fehriye Erdal case, they can make no co-operation in any area of fighting terrorism, because the proofs in the Erdal Case left no place to doubt about terrorism.

Sarkozy: France Faces Terror Threat

According to the Journal of the Turkish Weekly, the Paris riots have left France on edge:

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity increased after the events in France, said his country is face to face with a serious and real threat of terrorism. Sarkozy, who made a speech at the opening of a seminar, titled "The French Face to Face with Terrorism," said the government is planning also to prepare a "white book" about the domestic security organization and priorities. The minister noting there are suicide commandos among the French citizens used the words, "We do not only import the kamikazes but, we also export them." Sarkozy had previously termed the rebellious youths as "vagabonds".

Putin's Double?

Konstantin's Russian Blog calls this photo: Vladimir Vladimirovitch.

Hirsi Ali to Complete Van Gogh Film

Theo Van Gogh's collaborator plans to continue the late filmmaker's work, helming a film they had planned about Islam's attitude towards homosexuality, according to the BBC (ht LGF).

Cossacks Return to Russia

We noticed this when we lived in Moscow, and even mentioned it in a blog post. Today, the Washington Post has more on a revival of the Russian Cossacks, who just sent Meskhetian Turks from Krasnodar fleeing to the USA.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the chief rabbi has met with that nation's Cossack leader to strengthen tolerance and mutual understanding . . .

Ajami on Jordan's Terrorists

Something good from the Wall Street Journal:

In truth, the tranquility of Jordan was deceptive, secured by a monarchy that has always been more moderate in its temperament than the population it ruled. "Iraqi Insurgent Blamed for Bombings in Jordan" was a headline on the front page of the New York Times of Nov. 13: Not quite! For Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as his nom de guerre specifies, is a man from the town of Zarqa, a stone's throw from Amman. The four Iraqis who brought calamity to Jordan were in the nature of a return visit, blowback from a campaign of terror and incitement, and a traffic of jihadists that had sent deadly warriors of the faith from Jordan to Iraq. Even as they mourned their loss, the Jordanians could not see or acknowledge the darkness with which they viewed the world around them. "Zionist terror in Palestine = American terror in Iraq = Terror in Amman," read a banner held aloft by the leaders of the Engineers' Syndicate of Jordan who had come together to protest the hotel bombings.

In the drawn-out struggle over Iraq, Jordan is no innocent bystander. It was in Jordan, more than in any other Arab land, that Saddam Hussein was hailed as avenger and hero, a financial benefactor who practically starved the people in southern Iraq as he enriched sycophants and supporters in Amman. From the very beginning of his bid for regional primacy, Saddam had supporters aplenty in Jordan. He had rujula (manhood), he had money to throw around, and he held out the promise that the oil dynasties would be brought down and those borders that worked to Jordan's disadvantage would be erased in pursuit of a pan-Arab dream. A generation ago, it shall be recalled, the currents of Arab political revisionism--the envy of the poorer lands toward the oil states, the bitter sense that history had dealt the Arabs a terrible hand--converged in Jordan. It was that radicalism that forced King Hussein, in the course of the first American war against Saddam in 1990-91, to stay a step ahead of the crowd, breaking with the princes and the monarchs of the Peninsula and the Gulf, and with the United States, to side with Iraq.

Jordan never reconciled itself to the verdict of that war, and never took to the cause of the new Iraq. Sectarianism played its part--the animus against the Shiites of Iraq coming into their share of their country's power runs deep in Jordan's political class. So did pan-Arab nationalism, long ascendant in Jordan, the glue that bonded Jordan's native population with the Palestinians in the realm. From its inception as the unlikeliest of nation-states, Jordan has been the thing and its opposite--a realm ruled by a merciful dynasty and a population bristling under the controls, threatening to overrun the political limits and then pulling back from the brink out of a grudging recognition that the soft authoritarianism of the place was safer than the prospects of calamity. A stranger who encounters Jordan is always struck by that juxtaposition of stability and barely hidden rage. Waves of refugees have washed upon the kingdom: Palestinians who fled the wars of 1948 and 1967; hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost their cocoon in Kuwait in 1990-91, when their rage at the Kuwaitis and the immoderation of Palestinian leaders put them on the side of Saddam's project of conquest and plunder; and then, of late, a huge influx of Iraqis. It is a wonder the dynasty, and the military-intelligence apparatus that forms the regime's backbone, has maintained the stability of the realm.

Methinks the Wall Street Journal Doth Protest Too Much...

About their deal with the Corporation Public Broadcasting for a PBS show. They have a long and rambling "explanation" of their dealings with the disgraced and departed former CPB chairman, Ken Tomlinson, here. And they've posted their copies of the emails in question here.

The result:

Some weeks ago, we made a business decision not to seek a third season of our show on PBS. We informed PBS about this on November 1, before we knew what the Inspector General was doing or even when he'd file his report. When we called Ms. Mitchell to let her know, she expressed regret, and she acknowledged that PBS had failed to deliver the national carriage that she had thought she could obtain. She also repeated the truth that "it was my decision" to invite us to do a program.

Some of our friends think it was a mistake to attempt a show on PBS given our opposition to its funding over the years. And let's be clear: We haven't changed our minds. If there ever was a need for PBS, there isn't now in a world of hundreds of TV channels. But as long as PBS exists, we don't see any reason that its prime time public-affairs programming should be a satrapy of Bill Moyers and a single point of view. If Mr. Tomlinson made a mistake, it was in believing that "public broadcasting" is supposed to represent all of the public.

Of course I admit that my views of the Ken Tomlinson-Wall Street Journal scandal are colored by the fact that Journal editors used to solicit my articles and even chat with me on the phone--before the paper got its own PBS show....

Joe Wilson: Get Bob Woodward!

Will Bob Woodward go the way of Judith Miller?

Well, I guess he can start a blog, too...

Bruce Bawer on Islamism in Europe

Thanks to a tip from Andrew Sullivan, I found this interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor about the riots in France:

What they've reaped, alas, is a generation of Muslims, many of whom view their neighborhoods as colonies amid enemy territory - and who demand this autonomy be recognized. In Britain, imams have pressed the government to designate part of Bradford as being under Muslim law. In Belgium, Muslims in the Brussels neighborhood of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek consider it to be under Islamic jurisdiction. In Denmark, Muslim leaders have sought similar control over parts of Copenhagen. In France, an official met with an imam at the edge of Roubaix's Muslim district out of respect for his declaration that it was Islamic territory. In many cities, police have stopped patrolling certain enclaves, the authorities having effectively ceded control to local religious leaders.

No surprise, then, that a Muslim rioter in Århus, Denmark, the other day cried out: "This area belongs to us!" Amir Taheri, editor of Politique Internationale, noted that the main reason for the French riots is not that two youths died hiding from cops in a transformer station; it's that the state responded to the initial unrest by sending police into an area that many locals saw as their own inviolate domain. These riots, in short, are early battles in a continent-wide turf war.

It's a war authorities can't afford to lose. By accepting separatism, Europe is becoming a house divided against itself. Governments must take a firm, aggressive, integration- oriented line - must, among other things, end separate treatment in schools and turn welfare recipients into workers. Above all, they must stand alongside Muslims who wish to integrate - not those who seek to colonize. And they must hope - and pray - that it isn't already too late.

Roger L. Simon on Open Source Media

Fair play says Roger L. Simon deserves a chance, too...

This is going to be an inchoate post from one exhausted blogger who found himself an accidental CEO of a media company that launched today. If you had told me two years ago I would be hosting such an incredible line-up of people at the Rainbow Room today, I would have thought you were the reincarnation of Timothy Leary.

But to begin with, let me say that Jeff Goldstein's keynote address was brillant. We decided to use Jeff as a last minute replacement for Judith Miller when so may advocates of "free speech" attacked us for offering her a platform. (BTW, OSM will be offering plenty of people platforms with all sorts of views. Get used to it.)

Seriously, I thought Judith did a terrific job and her speech will be posted over at OSM as soon as we can get it transcribed (but not by me, because martini-fueled transcriptions tend to be...er... erratic). The general subject matter of a possible Federal Shield Law and what that will mean to bloggers and journalists (and those who go both ways) will be the subject of an on-going series of Blogjams on OSM. Many people have expressed interest in participating, among them Jay Rosen and attorney Andrew Deutsch (a specialist in this area). I even asked the Daily Kos to participate (everybody who blogs should be concerned with this issue) but received no reply. So it goes.

I also thought Sen. Cornyn, who joined our lunch via satellite from Washington, was surprisingly blog-friendly in his remarks.

As they say at Fox: "We report, you decide."

Exit America, Enter Russia

Vladimir Socor's analysis of the post-Andijan situation in Central Asia for the Jamestown Foundation is surprisingly realistic. Socor describes how the Bush administration has evicted itself from Uzbekistan--a self-inflicted defeat in the Global War on Terror:

The relationship began unraveling in 2004 when political Washington allowed itself to be caught in a dilemma, strategic security versus democracy, regarding Uzbekistan, and began to single out that country for a one-sided resolution of that false dilemma. Tashkent's counterproductive reaction was the signing of a "strategic partnership" treaty with Moscow in June 2004, as well as changing its official discourse to characterize the United States and Russia equally as Uzbekistan's strategic partners.

Washington's mishandling of a "color-revolution" experiment in Kyrgyzstan earlier this year further damaged relations with Tashkent. Finally, the bloodshed in Andijan in May exacerbated the lack of balance in U.S. political assessments, which strongly emphasized the authorities' crackdown while downplaying the well-organized, surprise terrorist assault that triggered those brutal reprisals. Instead of offering professional intelligence assistance to elucidate this third major terrorist assault on Uzbekistan in the space of five years and help prevent recurrences, the State Department called for a purely political exercise in the form of an international investigation (over the Pentagon's objections), and made it a non-negotiable demand. Yet it was only in late July – early August that Tashkent asked the United States to vacate the K-2 base, after Washington had pressured a reluctant Kyrgyzstan to allow hundreds of Andijan refugees, including escaped convicts and suspect rebels, to be flown to third-country destinations.

A last possible chance to retrieve K-2 was missed when a U.S. delegation visited Tashkent in October, three months before the expiry of the base evacuation deadline. The base can be crucial to U.S. anti-terrorist, anti-WMD missions in a wide range of contingencies in Eurasia. Yet strategic security interests and democracy-promotion had fallen out of proper correlation in U.S. policy. The United States has forfeited an irreplaceable long-term military presence, and Russia gained the promise of one.

Washington Post Outs Bush's Anti-Terror Guru

He's Michael Doran, a former Princeton professor and author of Somebody Else's Civil War:

Extremist Salafis, therefore, regard modern Western civilisation as a font of evil, spreading idolatry around the globe in the form of secularism. Since the United States is the strongest Western nation, the main purveyor of pop culture, and the power most involved in the political and economic affairs of the Islamic world, it receives particularly harsh criticism. Only the apostate Middle Eastern regimes themselves fall under harsher condemnation.

It is worth remembering, in this regard, that the rise of Islam represents a miraculous case of the triumph of human will. With little more than their beliefs to gird them, the Prophet Muhammad and a small number of devoted followers started a movement that brought the most powerful empires of their day crashing to the ground. On September 11, the attackers undoubtedly imagined themselves to be retracing the Prophet's steps. As they boarded the planes with the intention of destroying the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, they recited battle prayers that contained the line "All of their equipment, and gates, and technology will not prevent [you from achieving your aim], nor harm [you] except by God's will." The hijackers' imaginations certainly needed nothing more than this sparse line to remind them that, as they attacked America, they rode right behind Muhammad, who in his day had unleashed forces that, shortly after his death, destroyed the Persian Empire and crippled Byzantium - the two superpowers of the age. . .

. . . Bin Laden's "Declaration of War" uses the logic of Ibn Taymiyya to persuade others in the Salafiyya to abandon old tactics for new ones. The first reference to him arises in connection with a discussion of the "Zionist-Crusader alliance," which according to bin Laden has been jailing and killing radical preachers - men such as Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, in prison for plotting a series of bombings in New York City following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Bin Laden argues that the "iniquitous Crusader movement under the leadership of the USA "fears these preachers because they will successfully rally the Islamic community against the West, just as Ibn Taymiyya did against the Mongols in his day. Having identified the United States as a threat to Islam equivalent to the Mongols, bin Laden then discusses what to do about it. Ibn Taymiyya provides the answer: "To fight in the defence of religion and belief is a collective duty; there is no other duty after belief than fighting the enemy who is corrupting the life and the religion." The next most important thing after accepting the word of God, in other words, is fighting for it.

By calling on the umma to fight the Americans as if they were the Mongols, bin Laden and his Egyptian lieutenants have taken the extremist Salafiyya down a radically new path. Militants have long identified the West as a pernicious evil on a par with the Mongols, but they have traditionally targeted the internal enemy, the Hypocrites and apostates, rather than Hubal itself. Aware that he is shifting the focus considerably, bin Laden quotes Ibn Taymiyya at length to establish the basic point that "people of Islam should join forces and support each other to get rid of the main infidel," even if that means that the true believers will be forced to fight alongside Muslims of dubious piety. In the grand scheme of things, he argues, God often uses the base motives of impious Muslims as a means of advancing the cause of religion. In effect, bin Laden calls upon his fellow Islamist radicals to postpone the Islamic revolution, to stop fighting Hypocrites and apostates: "An internal war is a great mistake, no matter what reasons there are for it," because discord among Muslims will only serve the United States and its goal of destroying Islam.

The shift of focus from the domestic enemy to the foreign power is all the more striking given the merger of al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. The latter's decision to kill Sadat in 1981 arose directly from the principle that the cause of Islam would be served by targeting lax Muslim leaders rather than by fighting foreigners, and here, too, Ibn Taymiyya provided the key doctrine. In his day Muslims often found themselves living under Mongol rulers who had absorbed Islam in one form or another. Ibn Taymiyya argued that such rulers - who outwardly pretended to be Muslims but who secretly followed non-Islamic, Mongol practices - must be considered infidels. Moreover, he claimed, by having accepted Islam but having also failed to observe key precepts of the religion, they had in effect committed apostasy and thereby written their own death sentences. In general, Islam prohibits fighting fellow Muslims and strongly restricts the right to rebel against the ruler; Ibn Taymiyya's doctrines, therefore, were crucial in the development of a modern Sunni Islamic revolutionary theory.

Althouse Doesn't Like Open Source Media, Either...

STILL MORE: I'm told Jeff Goldstein wasn't even at the OSM launch, which surprises me, because I began reading it on the OSM home page under their heading "live-blogging." That's an awfully strange way to introduce people to their service. Aren't ordinary people being asked to trust the OSM portal?
Also, Charles Johnson linked to this post to note my bad taste -- the "fluids" wisecrack -- and this set off his commenters who just started wildly insulting me -- hilariously assuming I'm a big lefty and using lots of bad taste insults against me. How does that make sense? If they are outraged at my bad taste, as Charles suggests they be, then why aren't the comments primly proper? They must be insulting me because they assume I'm a lefty. Ha, ha. Somebody tell Armando! Anyway, Charles's fans end up hurting him on the day when he is trying to make an impression as an elder statesman of blogging, by making his site look all trashy. And the irony is priceless: he is complaining about my bad taste. Yet "semen" and "pus" are both perfectly sound English words, not slang at all, and pointing out literary images is quite high tone.
AND NOW THIS: Wonkette links, and it's not to the semen-pus thing.
THURSDAY MORNING: One day after the launch, Jeff Goldstein's fake-live-blogging is still the only blog post quoted on the home page, under the heading "BEST OF THE BLOGS." In all this time, that's all they've found? The highlighted post ends with this line: "Or as my friend Bill Bixby once said to a French prostitute (god rest his soul), 'bonjour, you plump little tart!'" How they can think it's a good idea to open the site with such writing? Who does that appeal to? And if it didn't appeal to you yesterday morning, but you kept going back to give them another chance, what would you think? The site is stupefyingly inactive and as yet devoid of sharp commentary. There is only this obscure insider humor about the founders of the site getting drunk and talking about a prostitute.

Unicorn-Lynx's Opinions

I found this blog by looking up Pelagiya for my Russian class. It's a treasure trove.

ADL Leader Vows to Fight Evangelicals

According to The Jewish Week, ADL chief Abe Foxman thinks that American Jews are in danger from American Christians who support Israel and struggle against Islamism. He wants to make a big fuss--like he did over Mel Gibson's "The Passion." That really worked (not!).

Earth to Mars! Maybe it's time to beam Foxman up? Surely there is someone else out there who might help ADL become relevant to the real issues of the 21st century?

I don't think Gary Bauer blew up the World Trade Center, for example.

The ADL might better focus its efforts on fighting Islamism until the Global War on Terrorism is over. Anything else is a distraction at best...

East-West

The only good anti-communist is a FRENCH anti-Communist...

That's something I've believed since first reading Raymond Aron. This Gallic tradition has continued through Bernard Henry-Levy and now I'm adding French director Regis Wagnier to my list, and my Netflix queue: "Indochine" comes next.

The film stars Sandrine Bonnaire and Catherine Deneuve. It's about idealistic Communists who return from Paris to the USSR in 1946 to help build up socialism in the wake of WWII. What they find, instead, is suffering they never imagined.

The film has a certain French quality, especially in the relationships; and yet, there is something Russian there, too. Filmed in Kiev, it really looks Russian, even when the faces seem French. The fear, paranoia, suspicion--even the dancing men of the Red Army Chorus--all very Russian. What's missing is a little bit of Russian warmth, which is somehow found in even the most shocking Russian films. The French are a bit more cerebral and rational, I guess. But the picture packs a wallop, all the same.

I won't spoil it by revealing the plot. At least it has a happy ending (in a really Russian movie, the hero would be shot, I would think).

It is really, really good. And I recommend it. Add it to your own Netflix queue.

Pajamas Media--Not!

Roger L. Simon and his comrades are in NYC to open their new business--which they call Open Source Media.

It started out as Pyjamas Media, which was irreverent, funny, and something I was interested in -- for a while. It became clear pretty quickly that some compromises were being made, I didn't know the reasons, and I decided not to participate. I'd been down that road before in an internet venture with someone I knew, and although it had a happy ending, there were too many problems in the middle. Never again.

Even so, I'd been following the venture with interest. And what I've seen so far doesn't look good. The personal and snappy sites belonging to people like Simon and Charles Johnson now have the dullest and most corporate looking portal since "Tech Central Station" and perhaps the second worst name.

Anonymous, technical, and impersonal. In other words--a good, gray, Republican site. The life has been wrung out of it, perhaps by their funders, who knows?

Will it succeed? I dunno. But remember, Google and Yahoo! pride themselves on quirky and creative interfaces. So far, Open Source Media looks like the web design may have been contracted out to someone from the Republican National Committee. Oh, I forgot, they actually have someone on their board who used to run the press operation for the RNC under Jim Nicholson...his name is Cliff May.

Go back to the drawing board guys: take off your suits and get back in those PJs!

B. Raman: Hizb-ut-Tahrir Involved in Paris Riots

Writing in OutlookIndia, the former Indian government official names Hizb-ut-Tahrir

The outbreak initially was spontaneous following the electrocution of two Muslim youth as they were fleeing away from a random identity papers check by the Police. The violence continued to be spontaneous, with no external instigation, for three days. In the meanwhile, it is reported by reliable sources, the headquarters of the HT in London saw the agitprop potential of the developments in Paris and sent some of their experts, who had participated in instigating the violence earlier this year in Afghanistan over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by the US guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, and in Uzbekistan over the allegedly autocratic ways of the local Government, to Paris to stoke the anger of the youth and exploit it for their purpose.

With the help of the sleeper cells, which the HT has already established in Paris and other parts of France for some months, they drew up plans for keeping the violence sustained in order to further radicalise and mobilise the youth against the French government. For this purpose, they exploited the already prevalent anger in the Muslim community of France over the ban on the wearing of head scarves by Muslim girls in public schools and over the ruthless action taken by the Police in the past against suspected radicals. The intemperate and insensitive language used by the French Interior Minister, which is perceived as an insult to Islam and the Muslim youth, facilitated the task of the HT.

Interesting that Raman mentions connections to Uzbekistan and the US in his article about Paris...

What Really Happened in Andijan?

According to the BBC, Andrea Berg of Human Rights Watch was among those who called the conviction and sentencing of 15 people involved in the Andijan violence a "show trial." But condemnation was not limited to NGOs and the European Union (which has now blacklisted Uzbek officials). The US State Department issued a condemnation as well:

"We believe that these convictions are based on evidence that isn't credible and a trial that isn't fair," Adam Ereli, the State Department's deputy spokesman, said.

Show trial it may have been, but I'm still interested to know what happened, and don't think we need an "international investigation" to find out (that's just another layer of bureaucracy and opportunity for buck-passing and coverup). There were plenty of US NGOs active in Uzbekistan, as well as RFE/RL "independent journalists" paid by the US taxpayers-- and some were in touch with the suspected attackers and their leaders. Parpiev was interviewed by RFE/RL shortly after the attack. The US government also aided the escape of some 400 refugees wanted by the Uzbeks in connection with Andijan, and no doubt has information from their debriefings and interviews. And on the other side, there were American organizations in touch with the police and security services as part of the Uzbek-American cooperation in the war on terror. So the US government has sources on both sides of the Andijan tragedy, and is perfectly capable of issuing its own report based on US-funded people, organizations, and information sources. As Fred Starr said, the CIA must have satellite photos, as well. Yet, the US has not released its own account of Andijan: Why not?

Curious about America's role, I recently emailed Dr. Andrea Berg of Human Righs Watch to remind her that when we met in Washington, she promised me she would look into Uzbekistan's allegations that the US Government and/or NGOs may have been supportive of the Akriyama guerrilla attacks in Andijan.

However, so far Dr. Berg has not answered my email. Likewise, no Western reporters in Tashkent--at least none that I know of--have explored the Uzbek government's allegations.

There is at least some evidence that the Uzbek government may not be lying about everything in their show trial. Specifically, the Islamist connection in the Andijan attacks. After the Paris riots, such connections would be even more important to explore. Is creating civil disorder a new tactic for Islamists in their war on "Crusaders and Jews?" It seems worth looking into. And Andijan is a good test case.

For example,
Monica Whitlock's recent BBC report on Andijan contained this possible evidence of a link between Islamism and Andijan:

There is a recording we made from Andijan so chilling that people cannot speak while it is playing.

It is an open line to the mobile phone of one of the demonstrators. You can
hear a wall of automatic gunfire, like siege fire, and among it people muttering their last prayers: "Allah-u Akbar, Allah-u Akbar - God is great."

As the shooting grows louder and louder, the voices become thinner until, after more than an hour there is a click, and silence.

The man with the phone was killed.

Why is Whitlock's report significant? Because I heard an eyewitness give testimony to the CSCE in a US Capitol hearing that he never heard anyone say "Allah Akbar." I don't know if it was sworn, or not, but it was supposed to have been true.

On June 29, 2005, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Marcus Bensmann, identified as a corrrespondent for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting claimed in officialtestimony:

Thousands of people were unarmed, and they were not forced by rebels to stay on the place. Everybody, whom we speak to, came to the
square by own will, either only to look or to protest. It wasn't an Islamic uprising. I didn't hear any "Allahu Akbar" outcries or any demands to build Islamic state. People demanded justice, human rights, economical, and social, and political reforms. [emphasis mine]

Yet at the time Bensmann was misleading Congressmen and Senators, Whitlock obviously had a BBC recording of just such a chant of "Allahu Akbar."

It calls into question not only the testimony of Bensmann, the honesty of IWPR and the BBC (both supported by the British government), but also the truthfulness of American denials of Uzbek allegations of support for the Andijan guerillas.

If the Uzbek allegations are false, the US government and NGOs have an obligation to refute them with solid evidence, rather than vague denials. And Dr. Andrea Berg has an oustanding promise to answer this question.

Because genuine support for human rights cannot be based on a foundation of lies--whether from the Uzbek government, Western governments, or NGOs.

UPDATE: Human Rights Watch official Allison Gill told Ferghana.ru that her organization may be the only Western human rights group permitted to operate in Uzbekistan, which is threatening to close Freedom House (IMHO, since they forced out Mjusa Sever, I don't think there has been much freedom in Freedom House).

The Human Stain

Nicole Kidman is wrong for her part (Debra Winger would have seemed tougher, even Julia Roberts), but Anthony Hopkins does a great job as Coleman Silk, a professor of Classics at a New England college who quits his job rather than go through a racial harrassment hearing. His secret: he's an African-American passing for Jewish. He confronts redneck America--and dies.

Philip Roth's novel was recommended to me many years ago, by my college roommate, a Roth fan--but it sounded a little grim. Then, the film came out in 2003, while we were in Uzbekistan. So I missed it. Yet, somehow, it crossed my Netfilx list, and arrived in my mailbox. And since in the meantime I had taught a course in Greek Mythology, and could finally understand the Achilles references as a result of my cramming to stay a week ahead of my students. And so I had also read Black Athena by Martin Bernal. And since I had read the story of New Yorker literary critic Anatole Broyard--the film was very interesting.

Of course, I have no idea how accurate it was about African-American life, or the phenomenon of "passing." But the human stain, the original sin, the secret that cannot be told, somehow it seemed rather Philip Roth, rather Portnoy-esque, rather more about being Jewish among Gentiles than about being secretly black. That's the "Maguffin"--the real story is about the psycho redneck who kills Kidman and Silk. Ed Harris does a great job playing him. He's the flip side of the University faculty, staff and administration that persecuted Silk and drove him from his job.

A thought-provoking, if not completely successful film...

Russian Prosecutors Confirm Ex-Guantanamo Prisoner Arrest - MOSNEWS.COM

Kudayev was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan and linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terror group with alleged ties to al-Qaida.

Apparently the US released Kudayev, rather than return him to Uzbekistan. He is accused of participation in the recent Nalchik attack on October 13th.

RIA Novosti : Tashkent makes its geopolitical choice

RIA Novosti - Opinion & analysis - Alliance with Moscow: Tashkent makes its geopolitical choice:

Such an 'advanced' treaty obviously has a special role to fulfill: it was adopted at a time when Tashkent has faced strong pressure from the West, which is increasingly stigmatizing the Karimov regime as another rogue state. A group of American Congressmen has demanded sanctions against Uzbekistan and for Islam Karimov to be brought to trial at the International Criminal Court. EU governments have prohibited arms supplies to Uzbekistan and clamped a one-year ban on visas to 12 members of the Uzbek authorities.

So the best option for Tashkent is to look for friendship with Moscow, which is vital for Karimov. Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, can veto any resolution imposing sanctions against Uzbekistan. As for the West's negative reaction, Russia does not consider it a big problem. First, the time when the country depended on Western credits is gone never to return. Second, more substantial reasons exist for 'a showdown' (for example, a presidential ballot in Belarus next year). Finally (and most importantly), the Western philosophy is nothing if not pragmatic, and gas cooperation means to many European politicians more than events in Central Asia so far removed from Berlin or Paris.

Report Says Ex-Chief of Public TV Violated Federal Law - New York Times

A good reason to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

If not now, when?

Omar Khayyam Does Dallas

A new film about the legendary Persian poet Omar Khayyam, directed by Kayvan Mashayek, has opened in Dallas. The Keeper was shot in Uzbekistan--one of our friends, Emelia Asadova, worked on the production, and seemed to like it. Here's an excerpt from the Denton Record-Chronicle's account:

Khayyam’s story is told through flashbacks as a contemporary 12-year-old Houston boy (Adam Echahly) becomes intrigued when researching his heritage, and specifically the Iranian tradition of passing along stories between generations. It tracks Khayyam through his early years, when his romance with a woman separates him from a childhood friend who later becomes a powerful sultan.

The idea was inspired in part by Mashayekh’s late father. When he was 11, Mashayekh emigrated from Iran to Houston with his family, where he eventually became a lawyer before turning to filmmaking. In the meantime, he said he lost touch with his cultural roots.

“I was trying to be as American as possible. I was trying to divorce myself from my ethnicity. My father was really troubled by that,” he said. “When my father passed away, I realized all the wisdom behind the things he told me.”

The ambitious production was no less challenging. The Keeper was shot in five cities and three continents during a total of 37 days spread out over almost an entire year.

        About 80 percent of the film, including all of the flashback sequences involving Khayyam, was shot in rural Uzbekistan, where Khayyam himself once studied. The director said much of the third-world architecture there still resembles that from 900 years ago.

        However, military conflict in neighboring Iraq during 2003 forced the production to shut down for eight months because of insurance concerns. The sets were only about 200 miles from the Afghanistan border. Yet Mashayekh persevered in a quest for authenticity.

        “You can still go in some areas and see the same brickwork that’s exactly from that time period. It’s very rustic,” Mashayekh said. “There was a staple of architecture that we were trying to maintain, and the closest thing that we could find to it was in Uzbekistan.”

        The Keeper is now playing at the Inwood in Dallas and Rave Motion Pictures 16 in Hickory Creek.

Khodorkovsky's Left Turn

Writing from prison, Khodorkovsky calls for an end to "parasitic" capitalism in Russia:

A new social elite should take over the country when Putin leaves (at the legal time, not a day sooner and not an hour later), one that comprehend power as long-term and maybe ignoble (at first) construction and not as wholesale division and redistribution. In that elite, the dominant question will not be “What do you need that for?” We don't need that, kind sirs, the country does. Otherwise it will ever become a modern developed and respected state, but more likely fall apart within our generation, and we, citizens of Russia, cannot reconcile ourselves to the ruin of our state, and we don't want to and we don't plan to.

But, to solve the terrible problems listed and one not listed here, a traditional mobilization of the people is needed. And not penal mobilization but creative mobilization, using the intellectual resources of the tens of millions of our fellow countrymen based on a single national idea. The people are used to the authorities being endless far from them, that they are not answerable for anything, that the so-called elites needn't give a damn about them but they should again feel that Russia is our common country that thinks about and cares for everyone who lives in it and for which they are answerable. That leads first of all to qualitative changes in state and social policy, a rebirth of democratic methods of ruling the country, including state paternalism as an instrument for the unification of the state and people, as an acknowledgment of the fact that the state and economy exist for the people.

Yes, democracy prohibits the implementation of the ideal liberal model of everyone for himself. Yes, the voter will demand a concession of part of the oil riches falling from heaven for the use of those who, because of their health, education, age or other reasons cannot attain personal success by themselves in modern society without its (society's) help.

That is why a left turn is also necessary. To breach the pathological, existential alienation between the elites and the people, the authorities and those they rule. And not, as some theoreticians of “Putin's stability” suggest, so that the opposition, winning the parliamentary elections, would let Khodorkovsky out of prison. Without a breach of that alienation, no single national idea is possible, and without a national idea, there will be no salvation and rebirth of the country. If someone doesn't like the word “left,” let him find another word. The essence of the turn does not change because of it.

In addition, a left turn is unavoidable because a new “left” cycle in Russian national politics started long ago.

You can read the full text of Khodorkovsky's manifesto in this Kommersant article.

French Rioters Target Jews

Especially Interior Minister Sarkozy, according to EURSOC:

Censorship even extends to selective hearing. Rantburg reports that Canal Plus showed "youths" chanting insults about interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy. According to Canal Plus' handy subtitles, the youths were chanting "Sarkozy, fascist."

Viewers, however, have keener hearing than Canal Plus' reporters: Contributors to many French web forums claim that the rioters were actually chanting "Sarkozy, sale juif" ("Sarkozy, dirty jew!").

More from IsraPundit:

"Walter H," who lives in France, stated that the violence against Jews has been country-wide. "In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed [as] were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles [and] a Jewish school in Creteil," he wrote in an e-mail...

The Australian on the French Riots

The so-called Paris intifada is not an invention of a gloating foreign press corps, thrilled that France with its deep sense of cultural superiority is getting its comeuppance.

The images of the nightly violence speak for themselves -- and the weekend's attack in central Lyon shows the country's worst case of civil unrest since World War II, or at least May 1968, is not over yet.

Hillary is Running...

Traditionally, New York politicians visit the three "I's"--Ireland, Italy, and Israel--when running for office. Senator Hillary Clinton is obviously no exception. While Bush fiddles as Paris burns, hijacks Veteran's Day commemoration ceremonies for partisan political purposes, and attempts to justify secret prisons while fighting against torture bans like some Saudi prince--Hillary and Bill Clinton have been in Israel, paying tribute to Yitzhak Rabin and meeting with Ariel Sharon. Here's the Haaretz coverage. BTW: When's the last time Bush visited Jerusalem?(AP photo on Haaretz website)

Mark Steyn on Veteran's Day Remembrance

Washington Post: Dutch Confront Islamist Assassins

Kirk H. Sowell on the French Riots

Tim Blair's Message to Australian Islamists

RIA Novosti: Jordan Blasts Mark End of Bush's "New Middle East"

Corbu on the French Rioters (via RogerLSimon.com)

Susan Sachs: The OTHER New York Times Scandal

Bush Slides In Polls

Judy Miller's New Blog

Judy Miller's Farewell Note

David Horowitz on the French Riots

The American Spectator on the French Riots

The American Thinker on the French Riots

BBC: France to Deport Rioters

Radio France International English News

BBC Map: Riots in France

Interfax Interviews Russia's Chief Rabbi

Yahoo! News on French State of Emergency

US State Department v. US Senate at Saudi Terror Hearings

Die Welt's Leon de Winter on the French Riots

Der Spiegel on What to Do About France

Herb London on the French Riots

Anthony David Marks on French Riots

Tony Blankley on French Riot Islamism

Robert Tracinski on the French Riots

Tim Blair on Australian Mosque Shootout

More Mark Steyn on the French Riots

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the French Riots

Belgravia Dispatch on the French Riots

Bruce Thornton on the NY Times' French Riot Ideology

Daniel Pipes on the French Riots

CBS, Dan Rather and the Blogosphere: Anatomy of a Corporate Crisis

The paper analyzing the effects of weblogs on CBS and Dan Rather's 60 Minutes II story, that I delivered with Dr. Terry A. Hinch at the Copenhagen Business School earlier this year, has just been published in the proceedings of the European Association for Business Communication. You can download a PDF copy here.

Watch : French Riot Photos

Watch - "View of the Clichy-sous-Bois market..."(via RogerLSimon.com)

Le Monde Spends the Night with 'Les Emeuitiers'

(in French)

French Embassy on the Paris Riots

From the official government website:

INCIDENTS IN PARIS


Q - About the urban violence. Several states are reportedly telling their nationals not to travel to Paris. Portugal is offering consular protection, and the foreign press is full of similar reports. What do you think?


It’s more a question for the Ministry of the Interior than the Foreign Ministry. You’ve all been following, as we have, the incidents in the Paris suburbs. Quite obviously we take them very seriously. You’ll have noted the very strong mobilization by the French government--the prime minister, the interior minister and the entire government--to find a response to the incidents that have occurred. At the same time, I would like to say for the foreign public that we have at times been a bit surprised by the international press coverage of these events. I believe that one must keep this in proportion.


These are indeed very serious incidents, which must be taken as such, but we are very far from a situation as grave as certain press commentaries and television reports that can be read or seen abroad would lead one to believe.


So there you have what I can say about this. I don’t have the feeling, as far as I’m concerned personally but you may perhaps disagree, that foreign tourists in Paris are placed in any danger from these events.


Q - About the consequences for tourism, are you worried about the medium-term effects? For people already here, I imagine there’s no problem but for others with plans to travel to France, what can you say? Also I’d like to know whether you were told about special recommendations--Portugal was mentioned and I believe I also heard China mentioned. So were you told about particular recommendations that the authorities in certain countries were issuing for their nationals in France or for tourists who might be coming to France?


I don’t believe we were informed of such recommendations in an official way. But like you I’ve read about statements by one or another foreign authority. We note them with considerable interest and are quite ready to give all our partners any clarifications they might wish.


As to the first aspect of your question about tourism, we’re not particular worried about the repercussions of these events. Unfortunately, I would have to say that such events have happened elsewhere, in other European countries, we don’t have a monopoly on them.


But I do want to emphasize that the answer is not primarily a matter for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but for the prime minister and government as a whole. As you know, we’re working on answers that can be provided to these incidents.


Q - Clearly, the problematic targets national problems, but it seems there are now international ramifications. The Senegalese president the day before yesterday urged the French authorities to give everyone work. Other Arab countries want to be involved indirectly. I confess I was out there and I can say the scenes were intolerable, you could have said a real war. It’s not nothing, it’s not insignificant. Will France seek help from other partners so as to have a better understanding of this community which has been left to itself for too long with the harmful consequences we can see today?


First, one point, I didn’t say that these events were insignificant. I said these are very serious incidents and that they have to be taken as such, which is what the government is doing. I also said that you have to see these events in proportion and that in reading commentaries about them you get the feeling sometimes that they go a bit beyond the reality you see on the ground.


As for relations with partner countries, we are of course open to dialogue with the countries that are the source of immigration. We believe it’s rather important to have dialogue on these immigration questions, and it’s not for nothing that immigration issues will be discussed at the Barcelona summit. It’s not for nothing we support the Spanish proposal for a Euro-African conference on these questions. As you know, this very evening in Toulouse immigration will be one of the main subjects discussed by EU ministers from southern Europe who are meeting there.


We are perfectly well aware of the need for dialogue on immigration. Secondly there’s one question which is slightly different to immigration and that’s integration. Naturally it’s a matter first for the authorities of the Republic since our French model of integration is at issue in this matter. So it’s a matter first for the authorities of the Republic, but there too, obviously, there can be a dialogue with any country that would like it.


Q - What about?


We’re not necessarily talking about foreign communities, it’s usually about French nationals, and that’s the reason it concerns first and foremost the authorities of the Republic. But in the case of communities from one or another country that is a source of immigration, we do engage in dialogue with these countries. We are open to it even though we consider that it’s our responsibility first to resolve these matters.


So we’ve no intention of requesting assistance from one or another country in particular. It’s our responsibility to ensure that integration takes place under optimum conditions and that there’s no repetition of incidents like those in the past few days. But of course, it’s “yes” to dialogue on these issues.


Q - Do you think there may be political connections to events in the Middle East?


No, we’ve no element to suggest that the explanation is the one you’ve given. We’ve no leads in that sense. It’s a problem of integration and also very largely a social problem as you should remember. I don’t believe these events of the past few days have their origin in politics or religion. It’s more, I think, a matter of integration and the operating of the French model of integration.

(November 4th, 2005)

New York Times on the French Riots

The New York Times is giving more coverage to the French intifada, though sticking to Craig Smith's denial:

Though a majority of the youths committing the acts are Muslim, and of African or North African origin, the mayhem has yet to take on any ideological or religious overtones.

Debka.com: Paris Now Baghdad-on-the Seine

More on France's Ramadan Uprising, here:

There are plenty of indications that the riots are not simply spontaneous outbursts of frustration by disadvantaged youths of North and black African descent, but centrally organized mayhem, an “intifada” activated by Muslim networking.

The Chirac-de Villepan government, trying to live down interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s provocative pledge to deal with what he called “scum,” is not acknowledging this. Because they refuse to recognize the rampage for what it is, they are withholding the forces required to restore order and so letting the danger get out of hand. Police, firemen and paramedics are no match for a fast developing civil war. The army will have to be brought in at some point, preferably sooner rather than later. For a start, marksmen need to be posted to pinpoint the ringleaders and the bottle-bomb wielders targeting cars, schools, shops, warehouses and public buildings.

France’s leaders, like the British and Dutch, are clinging to the hope that sympathetic dialogue with moderate Muslims will calm the street, despite all the evidence that radical, activist Muslims do not heed established Islamic authorities. On Nov. 6, the Union of Islamic Organizations in France, UOIF, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims to seek “divine grace” by blindly attacking private and public property and urging meditation and calm.

The following night, bands of marauding Muslim youths extended their areas of attack from outlying city districts to urban centers and started shooting at police officers.

The controlling hand, far from being legitimate Muslim authority, is beginning to emerge as the very organization that has for several years been recruiting young fighters in French Muslim ghettos fight al Qaeda’s wars against the West in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq and other sectors.

On February 20, 2004, DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile were first to reveal the extent of al Qaeda’s penetration of West Europe. They turned up French intelligence statistics which estimated that "al Qaeda had recruited in France between 35,000 and 45,000 fighters and was organizing them in military-style units. They meet regularly for training in the use of weapons and explosives, combat tactics and indoctrination and are controlled from local and district command centers under the organization’s national French command."

Roger L. Simon on the French Jihad

Russia Puts Down Kosovo Marker

Paul Prins on Riots in Tolouse

Der Spiegel on the Paris Intifada

Yahoo! French News Full Coverage

First Death in French Riots

Mark Steyn on Paris Riots (via LGF)

Uzbek Art Premieres at Venice Biennale Central Asia Pavilion

Indiana Tornado Strikes Evansville Area

Paris Rioters Hit Russian Tourists

The Weekly Standard on the Paris Riots

The Tocqueville Connection French News Aggregator

Expatica French News Blog

Little Green Footballs on Paris Intifada

Michelle Malkin on Paris Riots

Paris Riot Update (via UrbanBarbara)

Paul Cruce's Email from Paris (via RogerLSimon.com)

French Police Raid Bomb Factory

Moxie & Charm

 
Catblogging is so much fun... 

Bull Moose: Bush Really Might Face Impeachment

The logical extension of this argument is that its advocates should call for impeachment of the President. If there was ever a "high crime and misdemeanor" it is deliberate deceit to lead the country to war. Some of the outer reaches of the left have already reached this conclusion. Is this where the leaders of the party are headed? It sure seems so by the argument that they are now employing.

Paris Riots & Denial at The New York Times

Craig Smith's article shows that the editors of The New York Times can't recognize reality because of their ideological blinders. Evidence can be found in their own reporter's notes.

For example: Smith's quote from a source in the French Algerian community, stating the obviously political agenda behind the Paris riots and arson:

"It's a game that has been started between the youth and Sarkozy," said a French-Algerian man wearing Chanel sunglasses outside Aulnay's mosque, in a converted warehouse. He would give his name only as Nabil. "Until he quits," he said, "it's not going to get better."

Yet, two paragraphs later, Smith declares:

For now, the violence seems to have been the work of unfocused teenagers and young adults without a clear political agenda.

I don't believe Smith or his editors are consciously lying to New York Times readers. Rather, I think they are in denial--they cannot admit the truth, that the riots are organized by Islamist extremists--because it would shake their entire worldview. This type of denial of reality is nothing new for Times editors.

Most strikingly, during WWII, New York Times editors put reports of Hitler's extermination campaign against the Jews of Europe on the back pages, in tiny print. American Jewish groups were forced to buy full-page advertisements to alert Times readers to the Holocaust that the Times refused to acknowledge while it was taking place. You can read about it in Laurel Leff's story on the History News Network: How the NYT Missed the Story of the Holocaust While It Was Happening.

As George Santayana noted, those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it--even at the Times.

UPDATE: More on this at RogerLSimon.com

Al Qaeda Leader Escapes From US Jail

One more sign of trouble for the Bush administration's Global War on Terror:

Omar al-Farouq, born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, was considered one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in 2002 and turned him over to the United States. He was one of four suspected Arab terrorists to escape in July from the detention facility at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan. It was not clear how long he had been held in Afghanistan.

Although the escape was widely reported at the time, al-Farouq was identified by an alias and the U.S. military only confirmed Tuesday that he was among those who fled.
A video the four men made of themselves after they escaped from Bagram was broadcast on Dubai-based television station Al-Arabiya on Oct. 18, the broadcaster said.
In the video, the four men said they escaped on a Sunday when many of the Americans on the base were off duty, and one of the four � Muhammad Hassan, said to be Libyan � said he picked the locks of their cell, according to Al-Arabiya. ">SignOnSanDiego.com > In Iraq -- Security heightened at U.S. base where suspected top al-Qaeda operative escaped: "Omar al-Farouq, born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, was considered one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in 2002 and turned him over to the United States.

He was one of four suspected Arab terrorists to escape in July from the detention facility at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan. It was not clear how long he had been held in Afghanistan.

Although the escape was widely reported at the time, al-Farouq was identified by an alias and the U.S. military only confirmed Tuesday that he was among those who fled.
A video the four men made of themselves after they escaped from Bagram was broadcast on Dubai-based television station Al-Arabiya on Oct. 18, the broadcaster said.
In the video, the four men said they escaped on a Sunday when many of the Americans on the base were off duty, and one of the four--Muhammad Hassan, said to be Libyan--said he picked the locks of their cell, according to Al-Arabiya.

NYT: Ken Tomlinson Under Investigation

Here's the money quote:

People involved in the inquiry said that investigators had already interviewed a significant number of officials at the agency and that, if the accusations were substantiated, they could involve criminal violations.

Last July, the inspector general at the State Department opened an inquiry into Mr. Tomlinson's work at the board of governors after Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, forwarded accusations of misuse of money.

The lawmakers requested the inquiry after Mr. Berman received complaints about Mr. Tomlinson from at least one employee at the board, officials said. People involved in the inquiry said it involved accusations that Mr. Tomlinson was spending federal money for personal purposes, using board money for corporation activities, using board employees to do corporation work and hiring ghost employees or improperly qualified employees.

Through an aide at the broadcasting board, Mr. Tomlinson declined to comment Friday about the State Department inquiry.

Why Russian Students Cheat

Konstantin's Russian Blog explains the Russian system of higher education, responding to American ESL teacher Jane Keeler. What he says matches what I experienced teaching in Tashkent and Moscow. So, you can memorize Konstantin's blog entry, or print it out and copy it onto a tiny piece of paper folded up like an accordion, which you'll hide up your sleeve...

The Squid and The Whale

I saw The Squid and the Whale over the weekend. There were only three other people in the theatre for the 5:30 p.m. show, so it may not be the biggest film of the year. But it certainly is one of the best. Depressing, yet enjoyable. Like listening to someone else's psychoanalytic session. It is told from the point of view of a 16-year old boy in the midst of his parents divorce and struggle with joint custody. Best line, from a friend of the protagonist: "Joint custody sucks..." But on another level, it is about the idiocy of urban life, the shallow and empty dead-end of pretentious literati in NYC, repeating their mantras about "filet" and Kafka and New Yorker short stories while neglecting their children and families. The zipless coupling and uncoupling, Sex in the City without the nice clothes, the Lolita-like professor's relationships, the Holden Caufield youthful attitude, the Portnoy's Complaint masturbation, make the film a nice literary detective novel. Cinematically, Baumbach pays homage to Woody Allen and the Museum of Natural History, as well as a number of French films that I probably haven't seen -- there is a poster for The Mother and the Whore, so that's a clue. Anna Paquin is the minx, so New Zealand cinema is represented as well.

The acting is good. Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Billy Baldwin and the rest of the ensemble seemed to be having fun making each other miserable. Oh, did I mention Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

If Baumbach's parents are really still talking to him after this, then they are either more shallow and star-struck than it is possible to believe, or the real-life situation was even worse. Totally realistic, compelling, and an indictment of New York's pretentious poseurs. Two Ph.D.'s in literature--one a published novelist, the other a New Yorker writer--can't recognize their son has plaigarized a Pink Floyd song. Priceless...

The Saundra Messinger Collection

The other day we met a fellow Fulbrighter from Tashkent, who is helping her relative in the jewelery business. She was wearing a number of bracelets, all of them original and attractive. We asked her, where did you get this stuff? She answered that it is made right in New York City, on 47th street. It was so nice, that I thought it might be nice to put a link on my blog to the Saundra Messinger website. I hope my colleage is able to make a go of it in the bling trade with her relation, and that maybe a sale or two might come of this plug ...

Paris Still Burning . . .

According to AFP, the rioting has spread. How long before the French finally crackdown hard and issue "shoot-to-kill" orders? This report from Paris sounds like what was coming out of Andijan not so long ago:

Those responsible are groups of young Muslim men, the sons of families from France's former Arab and African colonial territories, who have said in interviews that they are protesting economic misery, racial discrimination and provocative policing.

The leader of one police union, Bruno Beschizza, described the riots as "urban terrorism", led by a radicalized minority of criminals and "Islamic radicals".

Sarkozy, who harbours ambitions of becoming president in 2007 elections, has claimed that they are being orchestrated by unknown organizers.

Shrinkwrapped calls this the "French Intifada." (ht Roger L. Simon) He quotes Amir Taheri:

Some are even calling for the areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be reorganized on the basis of the "millet" system of the Ottoman Empire: Each religious community (millet) would enjoy the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs.

In parts of France, a de facto millet system is already in place. In these areas, all women are obliged to wear the standardized Islamist "hijab" while most men grow their beards to the length prescribed by the sheiks.

The radicals have managed to chase away French shopkeepers selling alcohol and pork products, forced "places of sin," such as dancing halls, cinemas and theaters, to close down, and seized control of much of the local administration.

A reporter who spent last weekend in Clichy and its neighboring towns of Bondy, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bobigny heard a single overarching message: The French authorities should keep out.

"All we demand is to be left alone," said Mouloud Dahmani, one of the local "emirs" engaged in negotiations to persuade the French to withdraw the police and allow a committee of sheiks, mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood, to negotiate an end to the hostilities.

Here's a link to the Al Jazeera coverage.

Mark Steyn's take here:

And essentially, you're dealing with communities that are totally isolated from the mainstream of French life. Where all kinds of practices that wouldn't be tolerated, that are not officially tolerated by French law, such as polygamy, for example. Polygamy is openly practiced in these...in les Banlieux, as they call these suburbs, these Muslim quarters of Paris. I mean, we're talking about five miles from the Elysee Palace. Five miles from where Jacques Chirac sits. And you finally got...you know, we kept hearing all this stuff ever since September 11th, you know, the Muslim street is going to explode in anger. Well, it finally did, and it was in Paris, not in the Middle East.

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Putin Blasts Dutch Chechen Stance

On a state visit, the Russian president took on the EU's pro-Chechen foreign policy:

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had raised concerns about respect for human rights in Chechnya in talks with Putin.

But Putin likened Russia's problems in the region to attacks by Islamic militants in Europe, such as the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh exactly a year ago by a Dutch-Moroccan.

"It was a terrible event that is, of course, a sign of a much broader problem called international terrorism," Putin said at a televised joint news conference with Balkenende in The Hague.

"We are fighting very cruel people -- beasts in the guise of human beings who do not and do not want to understand in what time and world they live. Our response must be equal to the threat they present to modern civilization," Putin said. . . .

. . . Putin said terrorists would seize upon any sign of weakness and chastised Western Europe for what he said were overblown concerns about abuses against Muslims in Russia.

"Sometimes it seems to me that certain European leaders want to be more Muslim than the Prophet Mohammed," Putin said.

"My opinion is that in the Caucasus and in Chechnya, we are protecting both our and your interests. If we allow terrorism to raise its head in one region, the same will happen in other regions of the world," he said.

Countries need to work together to combat terrorism effectively, Putin said, adding that cooperation with the Netherlands and the European Union on this issue was one topic that he and Balkenende had discussed.

Secret CIA Torture Prisons in Poland, Romania?

According to reports from Human Rights Watch, Poland and Romania are likely sites for the mysterious secret CIA torture prisons called "black sites." The Washington Post reported the allegations the other day, and it looks like this may drip, drip, drip, in the media until it erupts into a full-fledged scandal.

My suspicion is that the unfolding CIA torture scandal may lead to the impeachment and conviction of Vice-President Cheney and perhaps even President Bush...

Public Broadcasting Chair Ousted

Ken Tomlinson, chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has been ousted by his own board after completion of an Inspector General's report (scheduled to be made public on November 15th). The controversy raises a question as to how long Tomlinson will be able to contiue to serve on the International Broadcasting Board which oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Marti, and Radio Free Asia.