Two days ago I found that Ernesto Betancourt, an economist and former director of Radio Marti, wrote this paper about the Elian case (updated on March 1. 2004) that supports what I expose in "The Rats Below." This paper has never been published before. The "BACKGROUNDER" is a series of papers he writes about different topics. Ernesto gave me permission today to send it for publication. I'm offering exclusively to you to be the first one!
I think this would be another opportunity to expose what went on. It contains some very shocking information. This is also an opportunity to validate my work. I'm looking for Ernesto's resume; which is very good. He is the one who created for the Kennedy administration the slogan, "Alliance For Progress" and was a lobbyist for Castro's 26 of July organization in Washington, DC (prior to 1959) and was Castro's economic advisor for his 1959 trip to the U.S.
B A C K G R O U N D E R
Who Is Behind Efforts to Return Elian to Castro?
Little Elian has unwittingly become the most important target in Castro's propaganda campaign to prolong his stay in power. He has exploited very cleverly the widely supported principle that a child belongs with his father, a fact hard to question. At the same time, he has diverted attention from the equally valid fact that this is not so in Cuba, where the Constitution and other laws state very clearly that all parental and children rights are subordinated to the goal of making them good Communists.
In doing this, Castro has enjoyed the complicity of the President and the Attorney General of the US. But, why is Clinton doing this? Family values? Give me a break. Central to this complicity is the role of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and its Washington lawyers, Williams and Connolly, where Gregory Craig is a partner. Most attention has been focused on Gregory Craig as Clinton's attorney during the impeachment process; few have focused on the powerful financial interests behind him.
The real power manipulating and financing the puppets in the background is none other than Dwayne Andreas, of Archer Daniels Midland, the criminally indicted corporation that had to pay a hundred million dollars fine for its violations of the anti-trust laws. A review of press coverage of this angle of the case from its beginnings reveals the strange links between Andreas and the Elian case.
According to Charley Reese of the Orlando Sun Sentinel (4/23/00), Andreas got first involved with Castro in 1995, when he attended a dinner in New York with the Cuban dictator. In February 1996, Castro ordered the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes, in which four people died, an action for which five Cuban spies are about to be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder but, thanks to the gracious decisions of the Attorney General, not Fidel Castro. This incident led to the approval of the Helms-Burton legislation. Not deterred by this legislative statement of US national policy, shortly after, in July, 1996, Andreas visited Castro in Cuba and discussed plans to build a refinery in the island through a Spanish subsidiary.
While all this was going on, ADM was caught in the biggest anti-trust law scandal recorded in a long-time. Not only was the company that year forced to pay the above-mentioned penalty, but one of Andreas'
sons, Michael, who was ADM's Senior Executive Vice-President, was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. These shenanigans have resulted in Fortune (4/17/00) recently including ADM's Board as one America's Worst Boards and calling it "the Albania of corporate America."
Andreas' Cuban efforts are channeled through a point man called Anthony DeLio. The main purpose of ADM's efforts is to lobby for a lifting of the embargo. DeLio is quoted by Forbes (2/07/00) as stating that "it's our belief that in the next year or two trade will open up." In this effort, the Clinton Administration has been involved behind the scenes.
According to Forbes, among the events sponsored by Mr. Andreas was the visit to Cuba in the Fall of 1999 by a delegation headed by Illinois Republican Governor Ryan. ADM's headquarters is in Decatur, Illinois, and ADM was deeply involved in reciprocating a visit to its headquarters by a delegation of Cuban diplomats. The Governor visit ended in embarrassment when he did not have the courage to read some quotations from Abraham Lincoln in his prepared speech at Havana University when Castro unexpectedly came to the audience.
In January this year, Andreas was also behind the US Healthcare Exhibition opened in Havana with the attendance of Rep. Maxine Waters, one of several ADM kept politicians, who are financed by donations through various front organizations. For example, the National Council of Churches got a $100 000 donation from Dwayne Andreas. The National Council of Churches, a well known front for Communist causes during the Cold War years, is headed by Andy Young, who happens to be also a member of the ADM board, a position which nets him around a hundred thousand dollars a year. It was through Andy Young's good offices that the Council got involved in the visit by Elian's grannies. That visit ended in a fiasco.
Andreas is a financial supporter of Barry University and his wife is a graduate and past chairman of the Board of Trustees. Sister O'Laughlin, President of Barry University, who is a friend of both Mrs. Andreas and Janet Reno, hosted the meeting of the grannies with Elian at the request of INS Commissioner, Doris Meissner. Initially, she favored Elian's return to
Cuba. Unfortunately for Andreas and Castro, the nun is an honest person
and, after the meeting, changed her mind, concluding it was better for Elian to stay in the US.
In an affidavit filed before the Miami District Court, Sister O'Laughlin explains why she changed her mind. She realized the grannies were fearful of Castro's handlers, in particular Pablo Odon Marichal, a member of the Cuban Council of Churches who is also a member of the Legislative Assembly and a Castro henchman. Somehow, he had intimidated the grannies. She confirmed that perception in a conversation with Bob Edgar, who told her the National Council of Churches was withdrawing its sponsorship of the visit because the Cuban government was in charge and not them. According to Edgar, during the first trip, the grannies were willing to visit the Miami relatives and a Cuban official was the one who ordered the plane back to Washington, a flight he refused to join. (Affidavit filed at Miami District Court - 2/24/00)
Granma, the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, immediately launched their usual vicious attacks on Sister O'Laughlin, calling her "a sinning nun.' Such treatment of her friend did not go well with Mrs.
Andreas. NCC funds to finance the grannies visit were exhausted and not replenished and the Council unceremoniously dumped the grannies on the Cuban Special Interest Section. Having lost the Council's holy sponsorship, the grannies were forced to cut their tour and return to Cuba.
It is important to point out that in the initial phase of the Elian saga, the INS ruled that the child's case be referred to family court and granted custody to Lazaro Gonzalez (NuevoHerald 12/1/99) Also, it was Elian's father who called Lazaro to take care of the child. Only after Castro got into the act and issued a 72 hour ultimatum, threatening to cancel the regular immigration talks scheduled for early December, did the INS backtrack on its decision. (Nuevo Herald 12/6/99) If you go to the INS webpage on the Elian case you find that it starts in January, 2000.
Apparently, INS does not want to acknowledge their reversal of positions.
Shortly after, the Cuban Special Interest Section contacted a Chicago lawyer, Jeffery Leving, who told the Herald that he had accepted and was waiting for the official authorization from Havana. (Nuevo Herald 12/10/99) Therefore, in December, Havana was not counting on the support of Dwayne Andreas and ADM to deal with the Elian case. Castro's threats to Clinton on immigration matters and even the concession of accepting Cuban convicts who had rebelled in prison in Louisiana offered enough leverage.
But something was not going according to plan on the judicial
tract. The case was appealed to the Atlanta Courts and the Constitution
protected the rights of further appeals by the Miami family. It was during this period that the Administration tried to back off of the deal with Castro by creating the fake Faget spy incident. On February 11, the sting operation presenting Faget with a false Secret dossier was staged and, on February 18, Faget was arrested. Castro immediately smelled a rat. He reacted in his usual aggressive fashion and Granma denounced this arrest as a plot to justify removing INS from the Elian case. Castro offered to renounce diplomatic immunity for the two Cuban consuls involved, Molina and Imperatori, so they could testify in a US court. After the Imperatori showdown, Clinton abandoned the Faget ploy. This was a strange spy ring consisting of only one participant. Faget's FBI affidavit only documents he violated security rules by revealing secret information but does not provide one piece of evidence supporting the accusation of his being a Cuban spy.
After this fiasco, the Elian deal between Clinton and Castro had to proceed.
These setbacks did not deter Andreas. After all, according to a January 27, 2000 report by a staff writer for the Decatur Herald and Review, Paul A. Brinkmann, "the Cuban government is moving towards consideration of a joint venture type relationship with Archer Daniels Midland." Brinkmann covered the US Health Exhibition in Havana, of which ADM was the main sponsor. Rep. Maxine Waters is reported to have "led efforts in Washington to allow the trade show." Tony Delio, ADM's point man on Cuban deals is quoted as stating: "Now maybe we have the political clout to accomplish something." Andreas is getting privileged access to Castro's Cuba in exchange for his political clout."
It is at this time that Gregory Craig entered the picture.
Craig's firm, Williams and Connolly, represented Andreas' ADM in its criminal trials. The link of Craig with Clinton presented ADM the opportunity of offering Castro a demonstration of having good political leverage. As Andreas Cuban point man says, according to Forbes (2/7/00), "The idea is to show them what we're capable of." At that point, the Atlanta Court had set a date to hear Elian's appeal for political asylum in an accelerated process. Again, some donor is providing the financial resources to allow the National Council of Churches to pay Craig's fees. We can guess the most likely source is good old Dwayne Andreas.
According to David Hoech of the Archer Daniels Midland Shareholders Committee, Andreas and his wife are reported to have donated at least $10,000 each to the fund set up by Andy Young's National Council of Churches to finance Craig's fees. Another version, fielded to cover up the real source of the Craig linkage, claims that it was Senator Leahy who got Craig into taking the case and that the United Methodist Church set up the fund to be administered by the National Council of Churches "as a humanitarian act." (Chicago Tribune 4/27/00) Where were all these humanitarians when Castro murdered 13 kids by ordering his fireboats to hose them off the deck of the tugboat in which their families were trying to escape Cuba on July 13, 1994?
As soon as Craig got into the picture, the Justice Department started backing off of what had been agreed before the Atlanta Court. A new approach emerged, the Attorney General threatened the family, time and again, with all kinds of punitive actions unless they renounced their constitutional rights of appeal and agreed to deliver the child in a location of their choice. This was damage control and public opinion spin.
Damage control, to cut the potential time frame of a dragging appeal process and to avoid the transfer of custody to take place under media coverage. On March 30, 2000 Vice-President Gore, defected from the Administration position, just in case.
And, the spin? To provoke the Cuban-American community rage so they would alienate mainstream America.
The Cuban-American community fell into the trap. The defiant positions taken by Mayors Carollo and Penelas on national TV, on March 29, provided the Administration the public opinion breakthrough they needed.
The Republican Party has not dared to react to the Administration's actions because polls show that Cuban-Americans are isolated from the rest of the country. Two masters at manipulating public opinion outsmarted the Miami community.
Craig flew to Havana to persuade Castro to let Elian´s dad come to the US. After several hours, a deal was struck and Juan Miguel arrived in Washington. Since Craig, as a private lawyer, could not make any commitments on behalf of the US Government, we have to assume he had some goodies to offer from his former client, President Clinton. We do not know what promises from the President Craig offered to persuade a reluctant and distrustful Castro to go along. Afterwards, Justice and INS were all over the place preparing to cave in to Castro´s demands, as expressed by Craig.
In doing that, Justice and INS ignored the commitments they had made to the Atlanta court. This was evidently not well received by the Appeals Court as reflected in their April 19, 2000 decision. The Court gave a severe rebuke to Justice and INS maneuvers to deny the child his day in court. According to the Court, it was Justice, not the Miami family, that had violated the rule of law.
Alarmed by the turn of events, on April 20, Granma launched a vicious attack on the Atlanta Court and released the intelligence information they had passed to the State Department about weapons and armed people around the González family home. This is the intelligence information which has been used to justify the heavily armed raid on the home, none of which was confirmed by the actual events. Mind you, the US Government relied on Castro provided intelligence to plan an armed raid on an American home.
According to the Drudge report, Reno informed her staff that, upon their return from Oklahoma City, the President had given the order to seize the child no matter what. This rush cannot be explained in terms of the dynamics of the case, which was moving through a promising mediation by prominent Miami business and civic leaders. Several of these leaders were caught in the house talking to Reno when the raid started. However, even Aaron Podhurst--one of the mediators and a close friend of Ms. Reno--raised serious questions as to how free the Attorney General was during their phone conversations. What threat did Castro make to Clinton that triggered this action that has added such an ugly legal and public image complication for the Administration? The photo of the US Marshall threatening Elian with an automatic weapon in a closet--while being held by the man who saved his
life-- will be part of Clinton´s legacy, no matter how effective the spin to confuse American public opinion is in the short run.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal (4/24/00), Peggy Noonan has raised the hypothesis that Castro may have been blackmailing Clinton over the release of tapes of his conversations with Monica Lewinski. Before that hypothesis is written off, it is advisable to take into account that the Russians have provided Castro with an electronic monitoring capability similar to the one Russia still maintains at Lourdes, South of Havana. So, technically, Cuba has the capability to monitor private telephone conversations anywhere in the US. Another hypothesis is that Castro had recordings of embarrassing conversations with Craig during his visit to Cuba, involving Clinton´s promises and Andreas role in the whole mess, and threatened to release them. He had done that before with notes exchanged with American diplomats during the visit of the grannies. It is also possible that Castro threatened with breaking the US/Cuba Immigration Agreement and unleashing another mass migration that could destroy Gore´s hopes in November.
Realizing he is dealing with a weakling, Castro is likely to raise the ante. Clinton will face additional demands from a Castro drunk with the euphoria of victory. Castro has already kicked out the Europeans by withdrawing his application for Lome Convention membership. And, of course, we will also have to be on the alert for Andreas payoff in exchange for supporting Elian´s betrayal. Stay tuned, it is going to be a hot Summer and a miserable Fall.
Ernesto F. Betancourt
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Castro's Big Business Connection
Agustin Blazquez just sent us this historical document, which he says supports the thesis of his new documentary film, "The Rats Below" that alleges the Archer Daniels Midland corporation was linked to the Clinton administration's actions in the Elian Gonzalez case through Washington attorney Greg Craig, revealing a previously unreported big-business connection to the Cuban-American story:
Christopher Hitchens: Stand Up For Denmark!
From Slate(ht Michelle Malkin)
The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark (and in some places, against the embassies and citizens of any Scandinavian or even European Union nation) is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' feelings.
Mora's US Navy Torture Memo
From Jane Mayer's New Yorker article, here's a link to a "smoking gun" in the Bush administration torture controversy enveloping Washington: Alberto J. Mora's official memo recording a US policy on torture. (ht Andrew Sullivan)
The American Thinker on Dubai Port "Storm"
I don't know how they do it, but The American Thinker has another interesting article, this one about the Dubai port sale controversy:
Some wonder how an idea such as this could even find a place at Uncle Sam’s table. After all, Dubai is an state that recognized the Taliban and, as pointed out by Congressman Mark Foley of Florida, seeks “to be Iran’s free trade partner and has been linked to the funding and planning of 9-11.” In other words, this is somewhat akin to having given a Japanese or German company control over our seaports in the late 1930s.
Of course, such an action would have been unthinkable to the World War II generation, as it would have offended their sense of patriotism, a quality that is now sorely lacking. Moreover, their main concern wasn’t offending others; they didn’t feel compelled to pepper every condemnation of their enemy with qualifiers such as “Fascism is an ideology of peace” and “The real menace is the radical fascists.”
What has changed? Well, political-correctness was absent in those days, meaning, people had a grasp of reality. Thus, they knew it was logical to assume that foreign peoples who shared an ethnic and/or religious identity with your sworn enemies will be more likely to be partial to them than to you. This may not be a pretty truth, but a fact doesn’t cease to be a fact simply because it’s out of fashion.
Some will say I’m painting everybody with the same brush, but perish the thought. I understand that we should judge everyone as an individual, but I also grasp something that people shackled by political-correctness cannot: yes, there is variation within groups, but there is also variation between groups. And, yes, you have to judge everyone as an individual, but, you also have to judge every group as an individual group. One of the ironies of modern man is that while he will adamantly stand against the painting of every person with the same brush, he just as adamantly stands for the painting of every group with the same brush. Thus, this isn’t about denying individual uniqueness; it’s about acknowledging collective uniqueness.
But blinded to this truth we are. In our ideological frenzy to embrace multiculturalism at all costs, a bizarre and tendentious “tolerance” at all costs, and internationalism at all costs, we have imbibed all the lies upon which these schemes rest, rendering ourselves a credulous lot and sheep among wolves. And that is the problem, for, generally speaking, it’s not that those who rubber-stamp these harebrained schemes have corrupt hearts. It’s that they have corrupted judgement.
Harvard President to Quit
So says The Harvard Crimson. Were allegations of Summers' connection to Russian corruption at the Harvard Institute for International Developemnt, in Institutional Investor magazine (see How Harvard Lost Russia) the 'tipping point'? Here's evidence from another article in the Crimson:
Harvard’s top lawyer wrote this week to Institutional Investor magazine protesting its portrayal of University President Lawrence H. Summers’ role in the fate of a close colleague implicated in a U.S. government lawsuit.
An article in the magazine’s January issue suggested that Summers’ friendship with Jones Professor of Economics Andrei Shleifer protected the professor—who led a controversial Harvard project to advise Russia in the 1990s—from consequences at Harvard.
Seized by some Faculty members to criticize Summers, the article, “How Harvard Lost Russia,” details the activities of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) in assisting the Russian government to privatize its economy.
The project, funded by the State Department, drew charges from the U.S. government that Shleifer violated conflict-of-interest policies by personally investing in Russia while running the program.
The article suggests that Summers shielded Shleifer from disciplinary action by the University, which paid $26.5 million to settle the lawsuit.
But in a brief letter dated Feb. 14, Vice President and General Counsel Robert W. Iuliano ’83 says the article does not make clear that Summers recused himself from the University’s decisions about the suit “from the outset of his presidency at Harvard.”
The letter also says Summers did not participate in “judgements regarding whether, when or how Harvard should review the conduct of employees involved in the HIID project.”
Shleifer, who was found liable by a federal court in 2004 for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, paid $2 million to settle his part in the suit.
The article’s author, investigative journalist David McClintick ’62, said yesterday that his article “speaks for itself.”
McClintick’s account has been circulated among some faculty and was mentioned at a Feb. 7 Faculty meeting where professors assailed Summers’ leadership.
The Dots Connect Bush Administration to Dubai Ports Company
According to the San Jose Mercury News, at least two Bush administration officials have ties to the Dubai ports company at the center of the controversy over the Arab nation's role in 9/11 and financial links to Al Qaeda.
During World War II, Harry Truman headed his committee's Senate investigations into defense industry and big business ties to the Nazis, taking on the administration where necessary--which meant fellow Democrat Franklin Roosevelt's administration. Truman's committee was controversial, and it helped win WWII--it also paved the way for Truman to become President.
American sorely needs the same sort of Congressional leadership right now, to insure that American businessmen are not aiding the enemy either deliberately or inadvertently. Congress apparently set up something, according to this listing in the Library of Congress--but where's the new Harry Truman?
During World War II, Harry Truman headed his committee's Senate investigations into defense industry and big business ties to the Nazis, taking on the administration where necessary--which meant fellow Democrat Franklin Roosevelt's administration. Truman's committee was controversial, and it helped win WWII--it also paved the way for Truman to become President.
American sorely needs the same sort of Congressional leadership right now, to insure that American businessmen are not aiding the enemy either deliberately or inadvertently. Congress apparently set up something, according to this listing in the Library of Congress--but where's the new Harry Truman?
Monday, February 20, 2006
The Dots Connect Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda
Another interesting artice from The American Thinker, by Ray Robison, who served in the Defense Intelligence Agency's Iraqi Survey Group and says he saw the documents with his own eyes:
So let ’s put this in context. Here’s what the documents tell us:
On February 26th, 1993 the first world trade center was attacked by al-Qaeda and the EIJ (really two organizations that cooperated in 1993 and eventually merged).
A month later an official from EIJ was meeting with Saddam in Baghdad.
We have a document showing Saddam authorizing the IIS to “provide technical support” to the EIJ, and by extension, al-Qaeda.
And then al-Qaeda and the EIJ attacked the U.S. on September 11th, 2001 led by an Egyptian Jihadist, Mohammed Atta.
Now you have proof Saddam provided support to the EIJ and by extension al-Qaeda, both of which attacked us on 9/11.
While Europe Slept
Carlin Romano reviews Bruce Bawer's new book about the Clash of Civilizations (ht Roger L. Simon):
Accept his analysis or not, Bawer and his details startle, since American tourists rarely visit the Muslim communities that now ring many European cities, and American journalists rarely cover them. Apart from the heinous killings by angry Muslims of prominent Europeans such as Dutch professor and politician Pim Fortuyn (after publication of his book Against the Islamicization of Our Culture) and Dutch artist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who dared to question Islamic brutalization of women, Bawer describes a landscape of dysfunction.
Seventy percent of the inmates in French prisons, Bawer reports, are Muslim. Four out of five residents at Oslo's main women's shelter are non-Norwegian women seeking protection from male family members. In Denmark, "Muslims make up 5 percent of the population but receive 40 percent of welfare outlays." Ninety-four percent of asylum seekers who come to Norway arrive with no identification, a well-known subterfuge around Europe that virtually ensures asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Bawer's book also highlights the ironies of current global politics and immigration. Radical Islamists, for instance, focus their fury on the United States even though it, unlike Europe, experienced little antagonism with Islam until the creation of Israel, and in fact most resembles the traditional Islamic "umma" (universal Muslim community), in the generosity with which it welcomes foreign residents (though it differs in offering equality rather than second-class dhimmi citizenship).
Similarly, while Islamists explode with fury at the very idea that non-Muslims should occupy or live in Islamic countries, Bawer observes and amply documents that many employ every legal and illegal stratagem imaginable under the doctrine of "family reunification" to bring more relatives into their European countries. They then insist they have a right to be there and apply for the seemingly endless forms of European welfare: "unemployment benefits, relief payments, child benefits, disability, cash support, and rent allowance."
Bawer apportions blame for the "mess" he sees. Muslim immigrants insist on Islam's traditionally imperialist principles, which presume that no Muslim properly lives under the sovereignty of a non-Muslim state. Europeans maintain a "romantic view of Muslim immigrants" as "colorful" unfortunates worthy of assistance, but steadfastly resist their entry into elite professions and neighborhoods. Bawer beautifully capsulizes this European mind-set as "millions in aid, but not a penny in salary."
Ultimately, his book, like the cartoon controversy, raises profound challenges to standard ideas of democracy, authority, and free expression.
To whom does any country's physical territory belong? Those who have been there longest? A simple majority? The best-educated?
Must the cultural rules of longtime societies last forever? Or might it make perfect democratic sense for officially secular France to change should its Muslim population reach 50 percent, just as the English-speaking United States might need to accept Spanish as an equal language if Spanish speakers reach that mark?
Bawer's must-read book, in tandem with others, opens our eyes to an inescapable truth: Christians and Muslims fought wars for more than 1,000 years, with each at times conquering the other's territory by force. Non-Muslims need to know far more about Islam if they're going to take positions they can justify, whether that leads to cooperating with various Islamic world views or ultimately confronting them.
Islam, we're often reminded these days, means "submission" in Arabic. Enlightenment, we should equally remember, means replacing half-baked notions and myths with facts.
Woody Allen v. Billy Wilder
Yesterday, we saw Woody Allen's latest film, Match Point. It had been highly recommended by friends and professional movie critics (the person we went to the theatre with was seeing it for the 2nd time). It's something completely different, we had been led to believe. It's London, not New York. A whole new Woody Allen...Well, it's not. And as someone I went to the screening with pointed out, the plot seems awfully similar to the plot of Woody Allen's earlier Crimes and Misdemeanors. Allen seems to have an obsession with getting away with murder, in addition to a love of social snobbery and hatred of America. This film is not a new Woody Allen, it's the same old Woody Allen--a dirty old man telling a dirty joke--you can almost hear him wheezing: "heh, heh, heh."
Allen thinks he's more profound than Dostoevsky, because Raskolnikov gets caught, and his tennis pro protagonist doesn't. Dostoevysky is making precisely the point that Allen misses. Which means there is no moral to Allen's story, other than Allen is a nasty old man.
The plot seems as well to be some sort of parody of Dreiser's An American Tragedy, made into the stunning Montgomery Clift-Elizabeth Taylor melodrama, A Place in the Sun. But these actors are not Montgomery Clifts or Elizabeth Taylors, either. Scarlett Johansen, who as our movie-going friend noted lookes "two steps from the trailer" is so wooden and lifeless that you don't understand why Allen's protagonist needs to knock her off. We believe she's a bad actress because, well, she is a bad actress. Cold, wooden, and nasty herself.
So, what Allen has done is put nasty people into a nasty situation with nasty results. His London looks just like his Manhattan.
Ick.
All the more icky in comparison to Billy Wilder's The Emperor Waltz which we had just seen on DVD. The contrast couldn't be more acute. Although the plot is similar--Americans in conflict with an aristocratic European environment--the perspectives are completely the opposite. Billy Wilder mocks the European obsession with pedigree and breeding, placing Bing Crosby's romance with the Countess Soltzenberg-Stolzenberg in parallel to the relationship between their pet dogs. Bing's mutt "Buttons" fancies the Countess's poodle, "Sherherazade." It's funny, moving, and wise, with a heartwarming moral about love conquering all.
When the aristocratic Baron orders the vet to "drown the puppies" resulting from the Buttons-Sherherazade love affair, becaue of their polluted bloodline, Bing Crosby rescues them. In Woody Allen's film, the protagonist kills the offspring from his illicit affair. In other words, in a similar situation, Woody Allen's protagonist drowns the puppies.
Blech.
Woody Allen might sneer at its humanity, but The Emperor Waltz is a brilliant film, manifesting the filmmaking genius of Billy Wilder--a genius based on a sense of humanity that Allen totally lacks. Wilder is warm, where Allen is cold.
Wilder made better noir thrillers, too. Not only is Match Point no Emperor Waltz, Match Point is no Double Indemnity, either.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Vasko Kohlmayer: Appeasement Unto Death
Another interesting article at The American Thinker:
...World War II claimed some fifty million lives. Most of them could have been saved had the western powers united to remove Hitler in 1935 or 1936 when they still could. They could have and should have seen what was coming. The signs were right there before their eyes. But they did not want to see and instead tried to convince themselves that the evil was actually not all that bad. A voice in the wilderness cried foul and urged them otherwise. But Churchill was ignored and the price was the greatest tragedy the world has seen.
During the course of its existence, The Soviet Union killed twenty million people. It sponsored world communism which claimed the lives of nearly sixty million more. It unleashed the Cold War which almost brought the world to an end. In 1918 the clear-minded understood that communism had the potential to bring about horrible things. Had the western democracies come together then, they could have cut down the struggling Bolsheviks before they had time to entrench themselves. But they did not, and the evil just grew and grew and in the end it almost swallowed everything.
A wise man once said that evil flourishes when the good remain idle. History is his witness.
The Old Continent has stubbornly refused to learn – or rather has foolishly forgotten – this lesson. So much so that one almost begins to suspect the existence of a civilizational death wish. Twice in the last century its vacillation brought it to the brink of annihilation. Western Europe did not confront the Bolsheviks and it did not stand up to Hitler. It had to be dragged into fighting the Cold War and even then it was only a lukewarm warrior at best. There was even a moment when Western Europe was all but dead. Overrun by fascism, the flame of its once great civilization flickered only weakly in the English Isles. And even there it was not due to the resilience of a culture rising in defense of that which it held precious, but to the fortitude of a single man [Winston Churchill]. That man understood that there can be no conceding to evil. He understood that appeasement is unto death. It was he who said that ‘an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.’
The Europeans stood by when Islamists called for their destruction. Perversely, they have even chastised those who try to do defend them. Now they are paying the price.
They should be neither shocked nor surprised at this. Such is the nature of things that if you ignore evil, it will come back to haunt you. That time has come for the Europeans. They are not victims – their troubles are largely of their own making. Will they finally stand up and fight to save themselves? Or will they continue on their suicidal course of appeasement?
The point of no return seems to be approaching fast. This, indeed, may be Europe’s last chance.
WSJ Poll: Danish Cartoons Must Be Published
In this online unscientific poll of Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal readers, the results speak for themselves:
OpinionJournal PollBTW, last time I checked The Wall Street Journal itself had not yet printed the Danish Cartoons...
Most U.S. media outlets have not published the Mohammed caricatures. Should they?
No, the drawings are disrespectful to Islam
4.5%
No, the drawings are not relevant to the story
7.1%
Yes, the drawings are critical to understanding the story
37.3%
Yes, they must because this is now a press-freedom issue
51.1%
Total votes: 7392.
Brussels Journal on the Danish Cartoon Crisis
Brussels Journal (Motto: "We Are All Danes Now") has this post citing a Telegraph article claiming victory for the Islamic clerics who started this clash:
The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that’s a clear victory. It’s confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call ‘adverse consequences’ – violence to the rest of us – then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent.”
DC Anti-Danish Protest Fizzles
Tom the Redhunter was there, and has photos that make one think of that 1960s line, "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came..." (ht Michelle Malkin)
Michelle Malkin is Angry at Karen Hughes
Malkin said this:
Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes ought to read Rose's entire piece before she opens her mouth again on foreign soil and knocks newspapers who have dared to publish the cartoons...About Hughes saying this, at the US-Islamic World Forum:
Of course, with freedom comes responsibility, maa-alhurria, mas’uliya. Governments have responsibilities to their people -- to establish the rule of law, protect human rights, including the rights of women and minorities, fight corruption and widen political participation. Elections are an important part of democracy, but they are only a part – a thriving democracy requires independent political parties, non-governmental organizations, a free press, and civic institutions that allow people to assemble freely and engage in discussion and debate without fear or government harassment. The challenge for leaders in this region is to listen to their people’s call for greater freedom: allow them to form political parties, let them gather and speak more freely, give them access to newsprint so they can run their own newspapers.
In a free society, individuals have community responsibilities as well. We have a responsibility to respect and appreciate, even celebrate, the views of others. In a genuine democracy, all have a right to express their views, share ideas and participate as equals. In a society built on freedom and justice, we have the right to offend one another but the responsibility to do our best not to. In my country certain racial and ethnic slurs are no longer used by civil people even though there is no law prohibiting it – and while newspapers would be free to publish them most would never do so – just as many American newspapers chose not to reprint the cartoons depicting the Prophet because they recognize they are deeply offensive, even blasphemous to the precious convictions of our Muslim friends and neighbors.
Mark Steyn on the Danish Cartoon Crisis
Mark Steyn has some thoughts on the way the Danish Cartoon Crisis seems to be playing out:
Meanwhile, from Malaysia to Jordan to Scandinavia, it was a bad week for journalists increasingly constrained -- not to mention fired and otherwise humiliated -- in their ability to cover the big story of our time. If I had to pick a single moment to contrast with the hilariously parochial narcissist buffoons of the Washington press, it would be another press conference in another government building, this time in Oslo, called by Norway's minister of labor. Surrounded by cabinet ministers and a phalanx of imams, Velbjorn Selbekk, the editor of an obscure Christian publication called Magazinet, issued an abject public apology for reprinting the Danish Muhammed cartoons. He had initially stood firm in the face of Muslim death threats and the usual lack of support from Europe's political class, but in the end Mr. Selbekk was prevailed upon to recant and the head of Norway's Islamic Council, Mohammed Hamdan, graciously accepted the apology and assured the prostrate editor that he was now under his personal protection. As the American author Bruce Bawer commented, "It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom."
In Canada, by contrast, the Western Standard (for which I also write) stood firm in its decision to publish the cartoons, and as a result is suffering legal harassment from Muslim lobby groups and has been banned from both Air Canada and two of the country's leading bookstore chains, Indigo-Chapters and McNally Robinson. Paul McNally of the latter defended his action this way: "We feel there is nothing to gain on the side of freedom of expression and much to lose on the side of hurting feelings." Not exactly Voltaire, is it? "I disagree strongly with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it as long as it doesn't hurt anybody's feelings." Maybe it could be Canada's new national motto.
It's easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions "the public's right to know" about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they've no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world. On CNN, out of "sensitivity" to Islam, they show the cartoons but with the Prophet's face pixilated so that he looks as if Cheney's ventilated him with birdshot and it turned puffy and gangrenous. C'mon, guys, these are interesting times. Anyone can unload the umpteenth round of blanks into the bulletproof Chimpy Hallibushitler, but why not take a shot at something that matters?
Or perhaps it would just be easier to change the term ''free press'' to the ''Roses of the Prophet Muhammed press.''
Saturday, February 18, 2006
This Photo Says All That Needs To Be Said...
About what the protesters are calling for, in the Danish Cartoon Crisis. 
(Source: Little Green Footballs from German TV coverage of an anti-Danish Cartoon demonstration in Pakistan)
(Source: Little Green Footballs from German TV coverage of an anti-Danish Cartoon demonstration in Pakistan)
First Sarkozy, Now Calderoli...
One thing about a crisis, as the Chinese proverb points out, is that it presents both danger and opportunity. In France, the riots brough Nicholas Sarkozy to the fore. In Italy, the Danish Cartoon Crisis has propelled Roberto Calderoli into the limelight, as this BBC story details:Mr Calderoli was widely criticised by his cabinet colleagues for announcing earlier this week that he would distribute T-shirts emblazoned with the controversial cartoons.He has resigned from Prime Minister Berlusconi's cabinet as a result of his actions. Unfortunately for the USA, so far no major political leader has yet stepped forward to defend free speech . . .
He even undid his shirt live on television to reveal he was wearing one of the offending t-shirts.
Despite growing calls for his resignation - and facing blame for the riot in Libya on Friday that led to at least 10 deaths - Mr Calderoli was defiant, calling it a "battle for freedom".
"I can be sorry for the victims, but what happened in Libya has nothing to do with my T-shirt. The question is different. What's at stake is Western civilisation," he was quoted by the daily La Repubblica as saying.
Flemming Rose: Why I Published Mohammed Cartoons
The editor of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten explains what's at stake in the Danish Cartoon Crisis, in Sunday's Washington Post:
Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn't intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.
This is exactly why Karl Popper, in his seminal work "The Open Society and Its Enemies," insisted that one should not be tolerant with the intolerant. Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations.
I acknowledge that some people have been offended by the publication of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that. But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed by worries about every possible insult.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Rumsfeld Says Al Qaeda Winning Propaganda War
Like the technocrat he is, according to this report on Yahoo! News, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appears to blame processes, bureaucratic and technical problems like 8-hour days, satellite TV, and the internet rather than objective factors such as mixed American messages, bad American strategy, conflicting American aims, "contracting out" to 2nd rate political cronies (e.g., the Lincoln Group in Iraq); failure to convince the American people; use of the war for partisan purposes rather than national unity, and so on.
The fact is that the US government does not have a consistent message, cannot name or describe the enemy, and that even the Secretary of Defense was asking for "metrics" on what victory would look like. Not to mention the obvious horrors of American torture chambers, secret prisons and inability or unwillingness to defeat the enemy decisively in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Cheney's hunting accident--which has made him and American "leadership" in general appear as blundering laughingstocks--doesn't help either.
Rumsfeld's whining is simply embarrassing. The SecDef needs to realize right now that the fault is not in the internet, work schedules, or satellites, Dear Horatio. The fault is in himself. Rumsfeld's immediate resignation might actually help make American victory possible. He has become an obstacle to victory.
After all, although General McLellan couldn't figure out how to win the Civil War despite years of inconclusive skirmishing, Generals Grant and Sherman could--and did.
The fact is that the US government does not have a consistent message, cannot name or describe the enemy, and that even the Secretary of Defense was asking for "metrics" on what victory would look like. Not to mention the obvious horrors of American torture chambers, secret prisons and inability or unwillingness to defeat the enemy decisively in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Cheney's hunting accident--which has made him and American "leadership" in general appear as blundering laughingstocks--doesn't help either.
Rumsfeld's whining is simply embarrassing. The SecDef needs to realize right now that the fault is not in the internet, work schedules, or satellites, Dear Horatio. The fault is in himself. Rumsfeld's immediate resignation might actually help make American victory possible. He has become an obstacle to victory.
After all, although General McLellan couldn't figure out how to win the Civil War despite years of inconclusive skirmishing, Generals Grant and Sherman could--and did.
Ann Coulter: Declare War on Syria Now
Ann Coulter, herself a lawyer, says the US government is now legally obligated to declare war on Syria:
In addition, I believe we are legally required to be bombing Syria right now. And unlike the Quran's alleged prohibition on depictions of Muhammad, I've got documentation to back that up!
Muslims in Syria torched the Danish Embassy a few weeks ago, burning it to the ground. According to everyone, the Syrian government was behind the attack — the prime minister of Denmark, Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Scott McClellan. I think even the gals on "The View" have acknowledged that Damascus was behind this one.
McClellan said: "We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support."
We are signatories to a treaty that requires us to do more than "hold Syria responsible" for this attack. Syria has staged a state-sponsored attack on our NATO partner on Danish soil, the Danish embassy. According to the terms of the NATO treaty, the United States and most of Europe have an obligation to go to war with Syria.
Or is NATO — like the conventions of civilized behavior, personal hygiene and grooming — inapplicable when Muslims are involved? Liberals complain about "unilateral action," but under the terms of a treaty created by Dean Acheson and the Democrats, France, Germany, Spain and Greece are all obliged to go to war with us against Syria. Why, it's almost like a coalition!
Michael Maren on NGOs
I'm doing research for a scholarly article on the role of NGOs in international relations, and found this interesting interview author Michael Maren gave to Might Magazine. He says NGOs hurt the very people they intend to help:
Q: Doesn't it seem to you that these charitable organizations come into a country like Somalia or into poor areas of the U.S. offering the promise of new schools or better health care or food or whatever, and in so doing, they sort of exonerate us from having to worry about the fact that our government doesn't care for the needs of a certain percentage of its population?
A: Or our government is supporting a dictator of a country who's ripping off the national treasury for billions of dollars. The president of Kenya is a billionaire. He's stolen more money than all of these organizations are ever going to bring in. He gets to play with these NGOs.
Q: But the presence of Western NGOs means that governments don't have to carry out the obligations that governments should have to carry out.
A: Yeah, it lets us off the hook. "We're doing something. We're building schools over there. That's our obligation to this country"-when we're pursuing macroeconomic policies that are causing these problems to begin with, such as massive structural adjustments and debt burdens. That's really the problem, and that amount of money dwarfs the money coming in through these charities. You have to think about development in terms of larger economic issues. That's where the problems are.
Q: What would happen if these aid organizations pulled out of these countries?
A: I think if all of them went out of business today, there would be very few people who would be any worse for it, and a great number of people would be better off. People know what's best for themselves. They can do what they need to do. In most of these countries-I'm thinking of Africa-people are not developing economically because they're not being allowed to. They're being oppressed politically If you look at the development that's taken place in Asia in the past 15 or 20 years, none of that can be attributed to foreign aid. It's all investment, it all came about through change in government policies that allowed people to invest their money. I had a friend who had a business in Nairobi a number of years ago who said he wanted to keep the business small because if you stuck your head up too high they'd chop it off. The president of Kenya basically stole most of the successful businesses in The country, and now owns them. That's not the kind of policy that's going to foster large economic growth. And if the Asian model is going to apply to Africa, it's got to start slowly, and it has to start with good government. And to a certain extent, NGOs and aid organizations in these countries now help fortify a lot of bad governments.
Q: In the end, is there any role for NGOs or charitable organizations in the developing world at all?
A: No.
Music in My Heart
Last night saw Rita Hayworth, Tony Martin, Alan Mowbray and Eric Blore in Music in My Heart, a charming musical featuring conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Martin is a Broadway understudy about to be deported by the Immigration Service. He misses his boat when his taxi crashes into Rita Hayworth's cab. She's on her way to marry a millionaire, whom she misses because of the accident. So Martin goes home with Hayworth to hide out from Uncle Sam in New York's colorful Lower East Side. There, working in an Italian restaurant alongside a colorful Russian cook, he romances Hayworth. A few twists later, the millionaire turns out to have a heart of gold--and Hayworth gets hitched to Martin. This 1940 film is somehow relevant to today's immigration issues, as well as funny. Eric Blore as the millionaire's valet really steals the show. I didn't get it from Netflix, rather on VHS from my corner video rental place, but I just checked, and Netflix has it listed here. It's really worth seeing.Interestingly Rita Hayworth really did marry a millionaire--the Aga Khan. And Tony Martin married the fabulously long-stemmed dancer Cyd Charisse in 1948. They lived happily ever after, too.
Konstantin on Russian NGOs
Citing a report in the Moscow Times, today Konstantin accuses the US and EU of double standards regarding NGOs in Russia:
The idea is very simple but absurd and irrational. Good countries can have very restrictive laws on NGO’s because they are democratic and nice. Bad countries – like Russia – are not supposed to put any restrictions on NGO’s because these countries are very repressive and not democratic. But wait a minute! Just six months ago NGO’s activities in Russia were not restricted by Kremlin in any way. Still I don’t remember if any "freedom fighting" NGO said, “Thank you, Mr. Putin for your very liberal attitude towards us”. On the contrary, US-financed NGO’s were picturing themselves as being the most repressed in the whole world, suffering beyond imagination from Putin's political terror. Go figure.
Another Interesting Press Release . . .
Muslims to Rally at Denmark Embassy to Defend Against Attack on Prophet Muhammad
2/13/2006 10:26:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: New Black Panther Party, 202-397-4577 or 267-259-6420
News Advisory:
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally at the Denmark Embassy
WHERE: Denmark Embassy, 3200 Whitehaven St., NW, Washington, D.C.
(off of Massachusetts Ave, 2 Blocks From the Islamic Center)
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 18, 1 to 4 p.m.
(meet in front in front of Islamic Center at 12 noon. Press Conference will begin at 1 p.m. and Rally which will follow, will be held after Salaatul Zuhr)
WHO:
Speakers Include: Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, Imam Akbar Bilal, Imam Abdul Alim Musa, Imam Mohammed Asi, Hodari Abdul Ali, and other community and Muslim leaders who will speak in solidarity with the worldwide Muslim Ummah (Community) that is fighting against the intentional debased attack by the Danish and western peoples against Islam. The participants recognize this as an escalation in the American-European War against Islam and the Muslims.
Sponsored by a coalition of Muslim groups and the New Black Panther Party.
-0-(ht free republic)
UPDATE: More here, from Michelle Malkin.
Armenians Protest PBS Massacre Panel
Just got this press release about a protest against PBS from the Armenian National Committee of America:
LOS ANGELES, CA - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to cancel its plans this April to provide Armenian Genocide deniers a national television audience.
In a February 14th letter to Jacoba Atlas, PBS's Co-Chief Program Executive, ANCA Board Member and Western U.S. Chairman Steve Dadaian voiced the profound opposition of the Armenian American community to PBS's intention to televise a panel discussion featuring two known Armenian Genocide deniers following the April 2005 broadcast of 'The Armenian Genocide' by Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions. The two Genocide deniers are Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan.
In the letter, Dadaian, noted that 'the mere existence of Armenian Genocide deniers or, for that matter, Holocaust revisionists does not entitle these individuals to a place on our national stage alongside those who responsibly research and document these and other crimes against humanity.' He added, �Consider, for example, the absurdity of following a broadcast of Schindler�s List with a roundtable that includes Holocaust deniers.'
Commenting on the form letters that PBS has sent to concerned Armenian Americans over the past week, Dadaian welcomed the network's recognition that 'the majority of historians, nations and news organizations recognize the Armenian Genocide,' and pointed out that, 'save for the Turkish government and its surrogates (Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan included), this crime is universally acknowledged and unanimously condemned by the international community.'
Thursday, February 16, 2006
"Heck of a job, Cheney!"
Well, those aren't Bush's exact words about Dick Cheney's hunting accident, but it seems to mean the same thing. Here's President Bush's precise quote from the Associated Press
"I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine," the president said in his first public comments on Saturday's accident. "I thought his explanation yesterday was a powerful explanation."It took 10 days from the time President Bush praised Michael Brown until he accepted the FEMA director's resignation. Let's see how long Dick Cheney can hold on--in a nation of hunters and NRA members who know something about hunting accidents and how ordinary people handle them.
White House May Dump Cheney
Republican speechwriter and Wall Street Journalist Peggy Noonan says that the White House may try to hit the "refresh" button and dump Dick Cheney because the Vice President has become a "hate magnet". Noonan says White House insiders are wondering who might replace him:
It would have to be a man wildly popular in the party and the press. And it would have to be a decision made by Dick Cheney. If he didn't want to do it he wouldn't have to. If he were pressed--Dick, we gotta put the next guy in here or we're going to lose in '08 and see all our efforts undone--he might make the decision himself. He'd have to step down on his own. He's just been through a trauma, and he can't be liking his job as much now as he did three years ago. No one on the downside of a second term does, hate magnet or not.My candidate for Vice President of the United States to replace Dick Cheney is well-known to readers of this blog: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Of course, all this is exactly like the sort of thing people blue-skied about in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was in trouble and a lot of people urged him to hit refresh by dumping Dan Quayle. He didn't. George W. Bush loves to do what his father didn't.
Who would it be? Someone who's a strong supporter of Iraq, and, presumably, the Bush doctrine.
Who would that be? That's what I suspect the president's men are asking themselves. But silently. (ht Ann Althouse)
Where Are Iran's Nukes?
You can find some of them on this interesting map of Iran's nuclear facilities from the Intelligence Summit Blog (ht Roger L. Simon).
US Condemns New Images of Abu Gharib Torture
Al Jazeera seems to be reporting the US State Department's response to Australian television broadcasts of new pictures of Abu Gharib torture as a tactical defeat for the United States:Bryan Whitman, a senior spokesman for the defence department, responded to the broadcast by Australian television network SBS of previously unpublished images of prisoner abuse.If only the US spokesman could have said: "As Justice Brandeis said, 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'The public has a right to know, and we took strong measures to end these reported abuses when they were first reported. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took full responsibility at that time and he will announce his resignation this afternoon."
"The department believes that a further release of images could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world and would endanger our military men and women that are serving around the world," he said.
Whitman said he did not know whether US officials had reviewed the photos and video clips or whether they were among a group of images the department had been withholding from public release since 2004.
Here's a link to the Australian TV news report with the photos.
Where on earth is Rudy Giuliani?
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The Devil's Game
I saw this book by Robert Dreyfuss listed in a podcast on the History News Network while checking out a link about Abu Gharib photos from Michelle Malkin. It seems intriguing, because Dreyfuss's claims about US policy favoring Islamic fundamentalists appear to explain a lot of things that are going wrong right now around the world from Denmark to Dagestan. Here's the blurb from Amazon.com:
The first complete account of America’s mostHere's a link to his personal website.
dangerous foreign policy miscalculation: sixty years of support for Islamic fundamentalism.
Devil’s Game is the gripping story of America’s misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Among all the books about Islam, this is the first comprehensive inquiry into the touchiest issue: How and why did the United States encourage and finance the spread of radical political Islam?
Backed by extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy makers and CIA, Pentagon, and foreign service officials, Robert Dreyfuss argues that this largely hidden relationship is greatly to blame for the global explosion of terrorism. He follows the trail of American collusion from support for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt to links with Khomeini and Afghani jihadists to cooperation with Hamas and Saudi Wahhabism. Dreyfuss also uncovers long-standing ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West. The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to foil nationalism and communism, extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate the region, thundering against freedom of thought, science, women’s rights, secularism—and their former patron.
Wide-ranging and deeply informed, Devil’s Game reveals a history of double-dealing, cynical exploitation, and humiliating embarrassment. What emerges is a pattern that, far from furthering democracy or security, ensures a future of blunders and blowback.
About the Author
Based in Washington, D.C., Robert Dreyfuss has written extensively on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and national security for The Nation, The American Prospect, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC.
If Dreyfuss is right, we are in trouble with a capital T...
Where's Rudy Giuliani when we need him?
Army Study: Pay Attention to What Al Qaeda Says
Apologies to Homer Simpson and Team America, World Police--The Combatting Terrorism Center says the US should read those captured Al Qaeda documents that lay out the internal workings of Bin Laden's network:
To achieve long-term success in degrading the broader movement driving terrorist violence, however, the CTC believes the United States must begin aggressively digesting the body of work that comprises jihadi macro-strategy. We therefore also seek to apply our model to the ideological dimension of al-Qa’ida revealed in numerous instances in these documents, the goal being to identify ways to facilitate the ideational collapse of this body of thought. The included documents provide insights into the points of strategic dissonance and intersection among senior leaders that must be better understood in order to be exploited.Well, better late than never, I guess. Hope it is not now too late...Apparently it is intended as a rebuttal to Martin van Crevald's theories in The Transformation of War.(ht Guns and Butter Blog)
Agustin Blazquez Presents COVERING CUBA 4 to Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Our friend sent us this news release, hot on the heels of the successful premiere of his newest documentary about Cuba:
Filmmaker Agustin Blazquez with Florida's Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in her office on Capitol Hill. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen is holding Blazquez's recently released documentary COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below. The premiere of this documentary at the Tower Theaters in Miami was a great public and critical success. Both Tower Theaters were filled to capacity and many people were not able to get in. The premiere was sponsored by the Miami Dade College. This documentary reveals the story of secret corporate manipulation of the U.S. government, the media and the American people creating support for their corporate greed, all while staying hidden just under the surface. The corporation featured is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). It is a fascinating story of intrigue and deceptions that the U.S. media censored because of the economic and political leverage of ADM that sponsors many of the leading political programs on the major TV and Radio networks. Blazquez's documentary kept the audience captive at the Tower Theaters for the 105 minutes duration. This documentary is for all Americans to see and is available in English and with Spanish subtitles. It can be obtained at: http://www.cubacollectibles.com/cuba.mv?p=108-CC4
Ann Althouse on Dick Cheney's Hunting Accident
Ann Althouse: The suggestion is only that there's a political need to go on TV and emote so that people see you're not a machine. TV demands emotion. Tell us how you feel, reporters demand of people in pain, who often enough snap back "How do you think I feel?" Cheney accidentally shot an old man. How do you think he feels? Why do you need him to go on television and say what you already know? Because it would be so weird and awkward for gruff old Dick to do that?
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Happy Valentine's Day!
Here's a link to the history of Valentine's Day, from The History Channel:
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Why Cheney's Hunting Accident Story Has Legs
(White House photo by David Bohrer)It's not just liberal media bias, and all the "I'd rather be hunting with Dick Cheney than driving with Ted Kennedy" bumper stickers in the world won't make this accident go away.
The reason is the icongraphic and symbolic resonance of Dick Cheney's accident. Yes, it was an accident, he didn't shoot his hunting buddy on purpose, it could have happened to anyone, and so forth.
Yet:
1. Dick Cheney appears to be careless.
A careful hunter simply wouldn't shoot his buddy. Maybe he got carried away, maybe he wasn't paying attention, maybe he just didn't see, but still--he was aiming at some quail and hit his buddy. That's careless, and it goes to the general impression of the Bush administration's handling of Katrina, Iraq, and the search for Bin Laden, among other things. They are careless. This impression is reinforced by Cheney's hunting accident.
2. Dick Cheney appears to be trigger-happy.
Again, the claim against the US in Iraq is reinforced by the accident. Shoot first, ask questions later, it seems, whether hunting or making foreign policy.
3. Dick Cheney appears to have missed his target.
Like the US going after Bin Laden, Dick Cheney created "collateral damage" but didn't bag his quail.
4. Dick Cheney appears to be secretive.
That the story leaked out through Kate Armstrong's phone call to a friendly reporter, rather than an announcement from the Vice-President's office parallels complaints about news management related to the Iraq war. Again, a simple hunting accident resonates with larger problems for the administration.
5. Dick Cheney appears to be incompetent.
The whole accident story raises the question--doesn't he have better things to do? How come the Vice President has time to go quail hunting while the US is involved in a showdown with Iran, a crisis in Palestine, a botched Saddam trial in Iraq, and the Danish Cartoon crisis.
The story won't go away, not because it isn't trivial in itself, but because this little accident reflects in microcosm the very big problems with the administration--including the wounding and injury of friends like Denmark and Israel by botched American foreign policy; and the wounding and injury of American citizens in New Orleans and the South Coast by botched handling of Hurricane Katrina.
It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Mark Steyn: "A Falling Camel Attracts Many Knives"
Thanks to Ann Althouse for pointing out this Mark Steyn column:
And the good news is that that body's already on its way. The European Union's Justice and Security Commissioner, Franco Frattini, said on Thursday that the EU would set up a "media code" to encourage "prudence" in the way they cover, ah, certain sensitive subjects. As Signor Frattini explained it to the Daily Telegraph, "The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression. . . . We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."
"Prudence"? "Self-regulate our free expression"? No, I'm afraid that's just giving the Muslim world the message: You've won, I surrender, please stop kicking me.
But they never do. Because, to use the Arabic proverb with which Robert Ferrigno opens his new novel, Prayers for the Assassin, set in an Islamic Republic of America, "A falling camel attracts many knives." In Denmark and France and the Netherlands and Britain, Islam senses the camel is falling and this is no time to stop knifing him.
The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. British Muslims march through the streets waving placards reading "BEHEAD THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM." If they mean that, bring it on. As my columnar confrere John O'Sullivan argued, we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last.
Uzbek Film Director Goes Hollywood
Nathan at Registan has the story of Timur Bekmambetov's Hollywood period. His Russian hit, Night Patrol, was the talk of Moscow when we lived there. Now the ethnic Uzbek, Russian director has a sequel, Day Patrol. And he's been picked by an American studio to do some English-language films. There's a link to the Night Patrol website, here. As they say in Tashkent, "Juda yaxshi!"
Don't Piss On Denmark!
Thanks to LGF, I found this very interesting article by Danish journalist Per Nyholm on Brussels Journal:I feel that currently my beloved country is being pissed upon rather too much. Denmark has not been neglecting its duties on the international stage. We have supported poor people with acts and advice, we have worked for peace, we have sent soldiers, policemen and experts to all the far flung corners of the world. We have democracy, a rule of law and a welfare state. Not all is perfect, but we harbor no malice towards our fellow men.Read the whole thing here
And yet Denmark is being pissed upon. The spokesman of the US State Department is pissing on Denmark, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs is pissing on Denmark, the President of Afghanistan is pissing on Denmark, the Government of Iraq is pissing on Denmark, other Muslim regimes are pissing on Denmark. In Gaza, where Danes for years have provided humanitarian aid, crazed Imams encourage people to cut off the hands and heads of the cartoonists who made the drawings of Mohammed for the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
Excuse my choice of words, but all this pissing is pissing me off.
What is going on? I am not referring so much to the threats against Danish citizens and Danish commerce. Nor to the burnt down Embassies. I am thinking of a word that keeps popping up whenever the Mohammed cartoons are mentioned.
That word is BUT. A sneaky word. It is used to deny or qualify what one has just said.
How many times lately have we not heard people of power, the Opinion Makers and others say that of course we have freedom of speech, BUT.
They have said it, all of them, from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, to our own Bendt Bendtsen [a Danish Politician]. Once we had to be sensitive to the easily hurt feelings of the Nazis, then came the Communists, now it is the Islamists. The reason I say ‘Islamists’ is that I do not for a moment believe all the world’s Muslims are pissing on us. I think we are dealing with thugs, fools and misled people. Those are the ones we have to deal with, and then the chickenshit politicians.
The cartoons are no longer something Jyllands-Posten can control. They have already been manipulated and misrepresented to the point that few know what is going on and fewer know how to stop it. This affair is artifically being kept buoyant in a sea of lies, suppressions of the truth, misconceptions, lunacy and hypocrisy, for which this newspaper bears no blame. The only thing Jyllands-Posten did was provide a pin-prick which has made a boil of nastiness erupt. This would have happened sooner or later. That it happened more than four months after the publication of the cartoons, raises a question of its own. Are we dealing with random events or with a staged clash of civilizations? One might hope for the former yet be prepared to expect the latter.
That is why I say: Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech. There is no but.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Norman Shumway, Transplant Pioneer, 83
The San Jose Mercury News has a nice obituary of Dr. Norman Shumway, who died aged 83 from lung cancer. He operated on my father a long time ago to replace a bad valve. Shumway was such a good surgeon that his patient has now outlived him. According to this obituary, Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist studied cardiac surgery under Shumway at Stanford.
Torino's Mole Antonelliana
Wikipedia has the story behind the symbol of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, Torino's Mole Antonelliana. Don't tell the President of Iran, the King of Saudi Arabia, or any of the Danish Cartoon protesters, for they might turn against the Olympic movement next--construction of the Mole, intended as a synagogue, began in 1863, in celebration of the establishment of religious freedom in Turin. The tower is over 500 feet high, the tallest masonry building in the world at the time of construction. The project grew too expensive, and the Jewish community turned it over to the city of Turin. Today it is the Museum of Cinema. I went to the top almost a quarter of a century ago, when my film was shown at the Turin film festival, and it was the Museum of Italian Independence. Turin had been the center of the movement for Italian unification led by the Count de Cavour--the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed there in the Cariganano Palace on May 14, 1861.
A History of the Olympics
Ancient Greece was the model for today's games in Torino, Italy--the history of the original Olympics can be found on Perseue.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Time to Sell Google Stock?
I just saw the Google Video segment linked on Michelle Malkin's blog (someone at Google doesn't like me), and was surprised that the VJ personally attacked her in a malicious and unfair way. Hyscience has a response, here.
I think this may be a symptom of something wrong. If Google's business franchise is based on honest, objective information resulting from computer search formulas--what is this guy doing spouting nasty personal opinions based on nothing but ugly prejudice?
That's not objective, scientific, or empirical--it's political.
And if Google's results are seen as political rather than scientific and objective, the search engine's franchise will no doubt suffer. The China censorship issue is bad enough--but IMHO Google Current host Conor Knight's gratuitous insults were beyond offensive--they were evil.
And if Google's motto is "do no evil," then either he is violating company policy, or his shtick is a symptom of something gone very wrong in Google's management. Either one might be a "sell" signal...
If Google becomes known as a "PC" search engine, its value will sink in the same way network news ratings have.
My suggestion to Google: To save your business, stick with objective facts and drop the personal opinions on Google Video.
I think this may be a symptom of something wrong. If Google's business franchise is based on honest, objective information resulting from computer search formulas--what is this guy doing spouting nasty personal opinions based on nothing but ugly prejudice?
That's not objective, scientific, or empirical--it's political.
And if Google's results are seen as political rather than scientific and objective, the search engine's franchise will no doubt suffer. The China censorship issue is bad enough--but IMHO Google Current host Conor Knight's gratuitous insults were beyond offensive--they were evil.
And if Google's motto is "do no evil," then either he is violating company policy, or his shtick is a symptom of something gone very wrong in Google's management. Either one might be a "sell" signal...
If Google becomes known as a "PC" search engine, its value will sink in the same way network news ratings have.
My suggestion to Google: To save your business, stick with objective facts and drop the personal opinions on Google Video.
Victor Davis Hanson on the Danish Cartoon Crisis
From National Review Online:
Like the appeasement of the 1930s, we are in the great age now of ethical retrenchment. So much has been lost even since 1960; then the very idea that a Dutch cartoonist whose work had offended radical Muslims would be in hiding for fear of his life would have been dismissed as fanciful.
Insidiously, the censorship only accelerates. It is dressed up in multicultural gobbledygook about hurtfulness and insensitivity, when the real issue is whether we in the West are going to be blown up or beheaded if we dare come out and support the right of an artist or newspaper to be occasionally crass.
In the post-Osama bin Laden and suicide-belt world of our own, we shudder at these fanatical riots, convincing ourselves that perhaps the Salman Rushdies, Theo Van Goghs, and Danish cartoonists of the world had it coming. All the while, we think to ourselves about the fact that we do not threaten to kill Muslims when they promulgate daily streams of hate and racism in sermons and papers, and much less would we go about promising death to the creator of "Piss Christ" or the Da Vinci Code. How ironic that we now find politically-correct Westerners — those who formerly claimed they would defend to the last the right of an Andres Serrano or Dan Brown to offend Christians — turning on the far milder artists who rile Muslims.
The radical Islamists are our generation's book burners who search for secular Galileos and Newtons. They are the new Nazi censors who sniff out anything favorable to the Jews. These fundamentalists are akin to the Soviet commissars who once decreed all art must serve political struggle — or else.
If we give in to these 8th-century clerics, shortly we will be living in an 8th century ourselves, where we may say, hear, and do nothing that might offend a fundamentalist Muslim — and, to assuage our treachery to freedom and liberalism, we'll always be equipped with the new rationale of multiculturalism and cultural equivalence which so poorly cloaks our abject fear.
Mark Steyn v. Hugh Hewitt on Danish Cartoon Crisis
Hugh Hewitt had Mark Steyn on his radio show to talk about the Danish Cartoon crisis:
HH: ...Mark Steyn, now let's turn to the Danish cartoons. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims turned out in Beirut today to protest the cartoons. The head of Hezbollah told George Bush to shut up over Syria and Iran fueling protests. And in Gaza, a quaint little story of entrepreneur Ahmed Abu Daya, who has laid in a hundred hard to find Danish and Norwegian flags for sale to flag burners.
MS: Yeah.
HH: What's going on?
MS: Well in a sense, that sums up the economic energy in the Muslim world, that they're actually great for...if you want to start a flag business for people to burn flags, that's a viable business in the Muslim world. Not a lot of other things are. That's one of the problems. You know, I disagree with the line you've taken on this, Hugh, and I do accept that in the simple politics of it, there's something actually quite useful in the United States detaching itself from Europe's position. But from Europe's point of view, the problem is that the basic narrative here in all these stories, the French riots, the murder of the Dutch filmmaker, the banning of Pooh and Piglet mugs in English municipal government offices, all these little nothing stories all basically derive their energy from the same point, that the fact that the Europeans are weak and elderly and fading, and their Muslims populations are young and surging. And in all these clashes, they're basically putting down markers for the way things are going to be the day after tomorrow, in the way that if you're a new owner, you may buy a house and have the kitchen remodeled before moving in. I mean, a lot of the things they're putting in place now, the Muslims are demanding, the Muslim lobby groups are demanding. They're basically putting in place the remodeled kitchen before they move in and take over.
HH: So I've not persuaded you with my analogy to Churchill's treatment of Franco during the War, that we've got to worry about Pakistan's stability, we don't really want Danish newspaper editors making these calls for the Pentagon. We would...I want our government to engage this world and these fanatics on their terms and their timing, not the timing of Danish out of touch cultural editors, which is what this all began with.
MS: Well, I wouldn't actually call those guys out of touch, because in some ways, they're living with far...in a far worse situation than people are in parts of the Muslim world. And again, I would slightly disagree with you there, because I think Muslims in the Muslim world are actually far more culturally reformable than Muslims in Europe are, because they're living in relatively homogenous societies that can be shifted culturally in significant ways. The problem in Europe is that Muslims feel alienated, because they regard Western culture as an abomination, it's all around them. They regard them as soft, decadent, narcissist fornicators and sodomites, and they loathe the society they're living in. And I think in a sense, that's a much more problematic thing. You know, whether there...I think there are moderate Muslims in Jordan. Whether there are moderate Muslims in the Netherlands is a much more problematic question.
HH: You know, I asked Dennis Prager this week. I don't know if you had a chance to read that interview with Prager, Medved and Joe Carter.
MS: Yeah, that was a great show, actually.
HH: Well, I thought so, too, but I was a little stunned when Dennis said he thought 20% of the Muslim world was radicalized, and that it would go to more than 50%. Do you agree with those numbers?
MS: Well, I think the thing is you have to distinguish between...the proportion of Muslims who are prepared to fly planes into skyscrapers is incredibly small. But when you take polls...they took a poll in Britain this week of British Muslims, and basically found that 2/5ths of British Muslims regard Jewish civilians as legitimate targets. Now that provides a huge comfort zone for Muslim terrorists to operate in.
HH: Yes.
MS: It means that they can go and set up in Manchester or Birmingham or Rotterdam or Copenhagen or Buffalo or Seattle, knowing that within those communities, there's a very huge comfort zone for them to be able to operate in. And in that sense, I think Dennis may be, in fact, underestimating the number a little.
HH: Now what do you make, though, of hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah followers in Lebanon? Is this conflict unavoidable with Hezbollah?
MS: Well, I think that is part of something that's slightly more calculated. Spontaneous demonstrations don't erupt in that part of the world.
HH: That's right.
MS: They're basically as stage managed as the opening ceremony at the Moscow Olympics. And what is happening is that Iran is putting pressure, because there's this parallel situation going on with Iran's nuclear program being referred to the U.N. Security Council, and Iran is basically calling some of its client groups out into the streets to remind some of the weaker members of that Security Council that in fact, if they want a clash of civilizations, bring it on, baby. That's the message these groups are making.
Church of England Apologizes for Slave Trade
From This 'n That:
It voted unanimously to apologise to the descendents of the slaves after an emotional debate in which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, urged the Church to share the "shame and sinfulness of our predecessors".
The Church's missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts, owned the Codrington plantation in Barbados and slaves had the word "Society" branded on their chests with red-hot irons.
The Synod was told that the society's governing body included archbishops of Canterbury. Bishops of London and archbishops of York were involved in its management.
Islamic Jihad Demonstrates in Jerusalem
Haaretz reports:
In Jerusalem, about 2,000 women, young boys and older men chanted "Bin Laden, strike again" as they marched around the Dome of the Rock on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, trampling a homemade Danish flag.
Putin Hoisting Bush By "Democracy" Petard
RIA Novosti Russian news agency reports that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is using "democracy" against President Bush--and inviting Hamas leaders to Moscow for consultation:
Russians are still angry over what they see as Western support for Chechen Islamist extremists--whom Russians believe are tied to Al Qaeda--support justified by calls for "self-determination." Likewise, Russians are angry about Western support for Islamic movements in the former Yugoslavia, and in the former Soviet Republics. No doubt, feeling that turnabout is fair play, the Russians have decided that two can play the "democracy" game. Hamas's victory gives Russia the opportunity to hassle President Bush. Putin can cause problems for the US, in the same way that Russians believe the US has been causing problems for Russia. And with Russian support for Syria, Venezuela, and now Hamas, Putin will be in a stronger position to get the West to back off any further moves to destablize Russia.
It has long been said that Russians play chess while Americans play poker. But it seems that the Hamas victory is an Ace in Putin's poker hand, which he intends to play with a poker face against President Bush.
One might also remember that the USSR was instrumental in the establishment of the PLO in the first place--as well as in the establishment of the State of Israel, funnelling arms through Czechoslovakia to the Jewish State in 1948. By embracing Hamas, Putin is re-inforcing Russia's role as a "player" in the Middle East, a Great Power whose national interests can no longer be ignored.
This is a natural consequence of an American two-track policy which encourages confrontation with Russia, rather than full partnership in the war on terror. Bush's mistakes have now given Putin leverage to veto any American initiatives in the Middle East. Which means that unless Bush makes nice to Putin, Ehud Olmert's Israeli government may need to shift its focus to the Kremlin--and Russia may find that its historical quest for a "warm water port" ends when the Russian Navy is based in Haifa...
"Today, [we] must recognize that Hamas came to power via legitimate, democratic elections in the Palestinian National Authority, which is why we must respect the choice of the Palestinian people," Putin said at a news conference in Madrid, where he is on official business.This can't be a surprise to US officials, despite public claims to the contrary. Russians see the US as trying to weaken Russia, using "democracy" as a tool.
Russians are still angry over what they see as Western support for Chechen Islamist extremists--whom Russians believe are tied to Al Qaeda--support justified by calls for "self-determination." Likewise, Russians are angry about Western support for Islamic movements in the former Yugoslavia, and in the former Soviet Republics. No doubt, feeling that turnabout is fair play, the Russians have decided that two can play the "democracy" game. Hamas's victory gives Russia the opportunity to hassle President Bush. Putin can cause problems for the US, in the same way that Russians believe the US has been causing problems for Russia. And with Russian support for Syria, Venezuela, and now Hamas, Putin will be in a stronger position to get the West to back off any further moves to destablize Russia.
It has long been said that Russians play chess while Americans play poker. But it seems that the Hamas victory is an Ace in Putin's poker hand, which he intends to play with a poker face against President Bush.
One might also remember that the USSR was instrumental in the establishment of the PLO in the first place--as well as in the establishment of the State of Israel, funnelling arms through Czechoslovakia to the Jewish State in 1948. By embracing Hamas, Putin is re-inforcing Russia's role as a "player" in the Middle East, a Great Power whose national interests can no longer be ignored.
This is a natural consequence of an American two-track policy which encourages confrontation with Russia, rather than full partnership in the war on terror. Bush's mistakes have now given Putin leverage to veto any American initiatives in the Middle East. Which means that unless Bush makes nice to Putin, Ehud Olmert's Israeli government may need to shift its focus to the Kremlin--and Russia may find that its historical quest for a "warm water port" ends when the Russian Navy is based in Haifa...
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Reflections on the Danish Cartoon Crisis
Here are some reasons I find the Danish Cartoon crisis interesting:1. Denmark is a democracy.
Which means that any extremist rage or terrorist acts against Denmark can't be explained as a result of Denmark's autocratic rulers, secret police, or torture chambers.
2. Denmark is rich.
Again, poverty can't be the explanation for the movement we have seen. People actually immigrate to Denmark to find work. Those who can't work enjoy social benefits among the most generous in the world.
3. Denmark is peaceful.
Although Danish troops are in Afghanistan and Iraq, Denmark has been among the least warlike nations in recent history.
4. Denmark respects human rights.
Once more, Denmark is a world leader in this field.
5. Denmark is honest.
Every year, Scandanavian countries rank among the top in the world, in every anti-corruption index. So, this can't be seen as a protest against a corrupt government, either.
All of these facts make Denmark an interesting test case for the various theories on how to combat terrorism. For Denmark is clearly a target of terror. The Danish Cartoon crisis is a terrorist campaign, complete with riots, arson, mobs, and threats to bring a 9/11 to Denmark. Hizb-ut-Tahrir declared a jihad against Denmark even before the cxartoons were published.
My own belief is that the Danish case reveals the bankruptcy of President Bush's anti-terror strategy, based on false premises of "democracy deficit", corruption, poverty, and so forth. Likewise, it counteracts liberal theories that multi-culturalism and attempts at understanding the "Other" will bring about a reduction in tensions.
What the Danish case shows is that there is no alternative but to fight against Islamist extremists and fanatics, wherever they may be living--including Saudi Arabia. And to focus on this fight, in words spoken by former President Bill Clinton in relation to the US economy, "like a laser beam."
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan says:
I have to say I am ashamed that the West has not been more forthright in defending the Danes. That idiots like John Kerry and Bill Clinton would call standing up to Islamist intimidation bigotry appalls me. The West has a right to say that all its citizens have an inviolable right to free speech, and that all its female - and gay and Jewish - citizens have a right not to submit to medieval barbarism. Period.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali told the BBC:
Ms Hirsi Ali, speaking in Berlin, said that "today the open society is challenged by Islamism".
She added: "Within Islam exists a hardline Islamist movement that rejects democratic freedoms and wants to destroy them."
Ms Hirsi Ali criticised European leaders for not standing by Denmark and urged politicians to stop appeasing fundamentalists.
Jill Carroll Still Alive...
In a new video, she said: "I am here. I am fine. Please just do whatever they want, give them whatever they want as quickly as possible."
Bush's Ironic Meeting with King Abdullah
(White House Photo by Eric Draper)
Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Mona Eltahawy takes President Bush to task for sitting next to King Abdullah while discussing the Danish Cartoons:
UPDATE: IMHO, The Bush administration's handling of this crisis has been so terrible that it poses a threat to American national security. It revealed a panicky administration that made public statements without even bothering to research the facts at issue. Any web-surfer who reads Michelle Malkin would know enough about what is going on to tell Bush one simple truth--the Danes were not irresponsible, the Danish press was not irresponsible, the Danish cartoonists were not irresponsible. Rather, the Danish imams, and their extremist supporters around the world who agitated for violence, were the irresponsible ones.
Which makes George Bush's statements on the Danish Cartoon crisis--"irresponsible."
Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Mona Eltahawy takes President Bush to task for sitting next to King Abdullah while discussing the Danish Cartoons:Two Jordanian editors and a Yemeni editor who dared to publish some of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad are under arrest, accused of insulting religion under their countries' press and publication laws. For them, it was not so much an issue of joining the chorus of European and then international newspapers that sang in defense of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons in September. Rather, it was a chance to challenge state-sanctioned religious rules....
...It is ironic that President George W. Bush is asking these same leaders to help calm Muslim anger when they were so instrumental in inflaming it in the first place. It is particularly telling that he made this call as he stood with King Abdullah of Jordan, while making no mention of the jailed editors [who published the cartoons in Arab countries].
Perhaps the ultimate double standard, though, is the repeated calls from Muslim dictators that the freedom of expression must be exercised with responsibility. Why isn't anyone telling them that an equally healthy dose of responsibility must accompany the enormous power they wield?
I am a Muslim who fully supports Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, as I defend the rights of Muslims to be offended. But I find the daily human rights violations by our dictators to be more offensive to the memory of the prophet's life than a few cartoons ever could be.
UPDATE: IMHO, The Bush administration's handling of this crisis has been so terrible that it poses a threat to American national security. It revealed a panicky administration that made public statements without even bothering to research the facts at issue. Any web-surfer who reads Michelle Malkin would know enough about what is going on to tell Bush one simple truth--the Danes were not irresponsible, the Danish press was not irresponsible, the Danish cartoonists were not irresponsible. Rather, the Danish imams, and their extremist supporters around the world who agitated for violence, were the irresponsible ones.
Which makes George Bush's statements on the Danish Cartoon crisis--"irresponsible."
Telegraph: Saudis Behind Danish Cartoon Crisis
Despite Condoleezza Rice's blaming Iran and Syria, Anton LaGuardia says Saudi Arabian agitation turned the publications of 12 Danish cartoons into an international crisis:
The uproar over the Danish cartoons has some intriguing parallels with the furious dispute over Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses almost exactly 17 years ago.
Then, as now, it took several months for isolated protests over the affront to the Prophet Mohammed to explode into an international fireball involving Islamic indignation, western outrage, death threats - and a good deal of political manipulation.
In 1989 it was Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini who sued a fatwa sentencing Salman Rushdie to death. Today it is Saudi Arabia, Iran’s rival for influence in the Islamic world, that has given force to the campaign against the Danish cartoons.
In the space of a few days at the end of January, Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador to Copenhagen, its top religious leader called for the Danish government to punish the Jyllands-Posten for the “ugly crime” and Saudi religious leaders instigated a boycott of Danish goods – all publicised by Saudi newspapers and satellite television stations...
...Mr Abu Laban himself appears to concede the point when he admits that Saudi-owned satellite stations such as al-Majd and Iqra had a "big influence" in fomenting the trade boycott.
Ann Coulter on the Danish Cartoon Crisis
Ann Coulter (who was fired from National Review after an "offensive" column) discusses the meaning of the Danish cartoons:One showed Muhammad turning away suicide bombers from the gates of heaven, saying "Stop, stop — we ran out of virgins!" — which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. Another was a cartoon of Muhammad with horns, which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. The third showed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb, which I believe was an expression of post-industrial ennui in a secular — oops, no, wait: It was more of a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.
In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.
Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.
The little darlings brandish placards with typical Religion of Peace slogans, such as: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam." They warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come" — which is ironic, because they almost had me convinced the Jews were behind the 9/11 attack.
The rioting Muslims claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad — though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers.
Bush Blows It--Again...
Watching President with King Abdullah on the TV news last night, spouting an "evenhanded" line regarding the Danish Cartoon crisis--about how violence must stop but that freedom also carries responsibility--someone I know turned to me and said: So, the President is on the side of the protesters?
That's how it looked to me, too--despite today's Washington Post story claiming there has been a shift in the White House position.
Today's page one story had a quote from an unnamed State Department source who said that Kurtis Cooper's first response, to condemn the cartoons outright, was motivated by a belief that it would help to calm things down.
First, the Post should find out who made that call, then publish the name of the person responsible--Karen Hughes perhaps?
Since it didn't calm things down, as appeasement breeds agression (one of the few iron laws of international relations), the person who designed the US response to the Danish Cartoon crisis should then be asked to resign at once. Enough damage has been done.
Saying nothing would have been better than what the US has done so far. The US doesn't have to have an opinion on cartoons published in obscure regional Danish newspapers. If Bush couldn't bring himself to side with Denmark, he could have stayed out of it.
But to kowtow, as his administration has done, is just plain demoralizing. Every sign of weakness fans the flames of fanaticism. And the Bush administration looks very weak indeed--Bush actually sounded scared to me, his voice was trembling in the news clip with Abdullah.
Any rational person would ask: Why King Abdullah? What does Jordan have to do with this story? Why not the Danish ambassador?
Oh, where o where o where is Rudy Giuliani when we need him?
That's how it looked to me, too--despite today's Washington Post story claiming there has been a shift in the White House position.
Today's page one story had a quote from an unnamed State Department source who said that Kurtis Cooper's first response, to condemn the cartoons outright, was motivated by a belief that it would help to calm things down.
Bush has made a calculated decision to focus on the violence in recent days, according to White House aides. The administration's initial reaction, delivered last Friday by the State Department, was to sharply criticize the drawings. "Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said at the time. Cooper was repeating talking points provided by higher-level officials when the controversy erupted. "We hoped it would be a calming influence," a State Department official said.Bad call, I'd say. Very bad.
First, the Post should find out who made that call, then publish the name of the person responsible--Karen Hughes perhaps?
Since it didn't calm things down, as appeasement breeds agression (one of the few iron laws of international relations), the person who designed the US response to the Danish Cartoon crisis should then be asked to resign at once. Enough damage has been done.
Saying nothing would have been better than what the US has done so far. The US doesn't have to have an opinion on cartoons published in obscure regional Danish newspapers. If Bush couldn't bring himself to side with Denmark, he could have stayed out of it.
But to kowtow, as his administration has done, is just plain demoralizing. Every sign of weakness fans the flames of fanaticism. And the Bush administration looks very weak indeed--Bush actually sounded scared to me, his voice was trembling in the news clip with Abdullah.
Any rational person would ask: Why King Abdullah? What does Jordan have to do with this story? Why not the Danish ambassador?
Oh, where o where o where is Rudy Giuliani when we need him?
Egyptian Newspaper Published Danish Cartoons
Egyptian Sandmonkey has the images of an Egyptian newspaper that published copies of the famous Danish cartoons in December--something the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe still refuse to do... which makes one think about some sort of variation on the cliche, "more Catholic than the Pope," to explain their editorial decisions. (ht lgf)Andrew Sullivan has this to say:
So we now discover that the hideously offensive and blasphemous cartoons - so blasphemous that CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, won't publish them ... were reprinted last October. In Egypt. On the front frigging page. No one rioted. No editor at Al Fager was threatened. So it's official: the Egyptian state media is less deferential to Islamists than the New York Times. So where were the riots in Cairo? This whole affair is a contrived, manufactured attempt by extremist Muslims to move the goal-posts on Western freedom. They're saying: we determine what you can and cannot print; and there's a difference between what Muslims can print and what infidels can print. And, so far, much of the West has gone along. In this, well-meaning American editors have been played for fools and cowards. Maybe if they'd covered the murders of von Gogh and Fortuyn more aggressively they'd have a better idea of what's going on; and stared down this intimidation. The whole business reminds me of the NYT's coverage of the Nazis in the 1930s. They didn't get the threat then. They don't get it now.
Bernard Henry-Levy on the Danish Cartoon Crisis
The Wall Street Journal published this essay by Bernard Henry-Levy online today:
And, faced with this triangulation in progress, faced with this formidable hate-and-death machine, faced with this "moral atomic bomb," we have no other solution than to counter with another triangle--a triangle of life and reason, which more than ever must unite the United States, Europe and Israel in a rejection of any clash of civilizations of the kind desired by the extremists of the Arab-Muslim world and by them alone.
The heart of this second triangle? First, the affirmation of principles. The affirmation of the press's right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing--rather than the acts of repentance that too many leaders have resorted to, and which merely encourages in the Arab street the false and counterproductive illusion that a democratic state may exert power over its press.
And second, in the same breath, the reaffirmation of our support for those enlightened moderate Muslims who know that the honor of Islam is far more insulted, and trampled under foot, when Iraqi terrorists bomb a mosque in Baghdad, when Pakistani jihadists decapitate Daniel Pearl in the name of God and film their crime, or when an Algerian fundamentalist emir disembowels, while reciting the Quran, an Algerian woman whose only crime was to have dared show her beautiful face. Moderate Muslims are alone these days, and in their solitude they more than ever need to be acknowledged and hailed.
Philadelphia Inquirer Publishes Danish Cartoon
Here's editor Amanda Bennett's explanation for breaking ranks with the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe:
On Saturday, February 4, The Inquirer published one of the cartoons originally commissioned for a Danish newspaper. These cartoons have become the subject of international protests, debates and, in some cases, violence.
At the heart of this debate are our journalistic values, and how we practice them day to day. To us, this was a moment for newspaper journalists to do what they are uniquely qualified to do in this country - to lay out all sides of the issue for a well-informed public to debate and discuss. The Inquirer published the image to inform our readers, not to inflame them. Before we published it, we interviewed a wide range of people, from Muslim theologians to experts in journalistic ethics. We considered the publication of the image in the same way we have previously considered publishing difficult or troubling images. Other such examples include the burned bodies of contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah, and artistic works that included disturbing Christian imagery.
We published the Danish cartoon as part of a rich offering of coverage on the whole issue. We not only covered the protests, we also examined the issues behind the protests. We have run stories on why Muslims might find the images offensive and on why the American media found this such a difficult choice. We plan further coverage on a variety of topics, including satire in the Middle East. We also have invited members of our local Muslim community to contribute pieces for our op-ed page.
This is what newspapers are in the business to do. We educate people, we inform them, we spark discussion. It is not only our profession, it is our obligation.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Rice Blames Iran and Syria for Danish Cartoon Violence
Today, at a press conference with Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, the American Secretary of State pointed fingers in a direction that supports the hypothesis that the Danish Cartoon crisis may be linked to the Iranian nuclear showdown (Syria now has a defense treaty with Iran):QUESTION: Madame Secretary, in the aftermath of the printing of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, there has been outrage around the world that we've all seen. The question is: Do you think this is spontaneous as it continues? If not, who is behind it? What group or what governments might be behind it?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, let me first say that this has been a difficult period. We are strong proponents of the freedom of the press. It is one of the most fundamental freedoms of democratic development. We also believe that with press freedom comes a certain responsibility. And the United States has been a place where there has been also freedom of religion and that means that people have to exist in the same body and to respect each other's religious traditions and respect each other's religious sensibilities and that is also very important.
Now, nothing justifies the violence that has broken out in which many innocent people have been injured. Nothing justifies the burning of diplomatic facilities or threats to diplomatic facilities around the world. This is a time when everyone should urge calm and should urge that there is an atmosphere of respect and understanding.
I think that there have been a lot of governments that have spoken out about this. Note, for instance, Afghanistan and Lebanon, very important comments even by the Ayatollah Sistani about this.
But yes, there are governments that have also used this opportunity to incite violence. I don't have any doubt that given the control of the Syrian Government in Syria, given the control of the Iranian Government, which, by the way, hasn't even hidden its hand in this, that Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes. And the world ought to call them on it. All responsible people ought to say that there is no excuse for violence. We all need to respect each other's religions. We need to respect freedom of the press. But you know, again, with freedom of the press comes responsibility as well.
Al Qaeda Link in Danish Cartoon Crisis
Based on reports in the Danish media Brussels Journal charges three fake cartoons were made by Danish Imams, one of whom is linked to an Al Qaeda related publication, in order to incite violence (ht lfg & Michelle Malkin):
Denmark is being punished at the instigation of radical imams because twelve cartoonists have depicted Muhammad. However, these imams created their own three Muhammad images. They have even presented a French clown as being Muhammad. Because the twelve JP cartoonists are not Muslims, the Muslim blasphemy laws do not apply to them. But these laws do apply to the imams. Consequently, these imams deserve death. They – and no-one else – depicted the prophet as a pig – the highest imaginable insult in Islam.
In his letter of “apology” Jyllands-Posten editor Carsten Juste wrote:
“In our opinion the 12 cartoons were moderate and not intended to be insulting. They did not go against Danish laws, but have evidently offended many Muslims, for which we apologize. Meanwhile a couple of offending cartoons have circulated in the Muslim world which were never published in Jyllands-Posten and which we would never have published if they had been offered to us. We would have dismissed them on the grounds that they breached our ethical limits.”
Indeed, the three cartoons breaching the paper’s ethical limits have been made by fanatical Muslim clerics themselves in order to set the world ablaze and provoke a religious war with the West.
Even under Western law the Danish radical imams belong in jail. Their hate crime must be punished. The imams are the hate preachers who are responsible for the destruction and the fatalities that resulted from their lies and their blasphemy. One of these lying imams is Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban. He works as a translator and distributor of an al-Qaeda related publication. [Editor's note: Here's the Al Qaeda link.]
Western papers and blogs that published the twelve cartoons were right to do so. If they had not published, no-one would have been able to ascertain that the pigsnout was not among them. If they had not published, the cheating, blasphemous imams would have got away with their lies. The public is served by information, never harmed by it. Let this be a lesson to the cowards of The Guardian, SBS, the BBC and the British and American mainstream media, who “out of respect” for Islam would have allowed blasphemous imams to get away with their gross insult of the prophet, with slander and libel, and with the violent acts which they instigated.
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