EU Aided CIA Torture Flights

The BBC is reporting that fourteen European Union countries helped the CIA with torture flights to secret prisons in Poland and Romania, according to a Swiss report.

The new report says: "It is now clear - although we are still far from having established the truth - that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities.

"Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know."

Spain, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus provided "staging posts" for rendition operations, while the UK, Portugal, Ireland and Greece were "stop-off points", the report says.

It says Italy, Sweden, Macedonia and Bosnia allowed the abduction of residents from their soil.

The most serious charges are levelled at Poland and Romania, where Mr Marty says there is enough evidence to support suspicions that CIA secret prisons were established.

Although the Swiss senator says the US must bear responsibility for the flights, he says the programme could operate only with "the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners".

The "spider's web" of US rendition flights is based on an "utterly alien" approach that breaches human rights, he concludes.

Henry Kissinger's Moscow Press Conference

Today's newspaper coverage didn't make clear what Henry Kissinger had to say about his meeting yesterday in Moscow with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Luckily, the Kremlin put up an English-language transcript of the Q & A with the Russian press corps, so here it is:

QUESTION: Today many people are talking about Russian-American relations. What do you think is necessary to improve the two countries’ relations? Do you consider that Vice President Richard Cheney’s famous speech damaged relations?

FORMER U. S. SECREATARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER (back translation from Russian): First of all I would like to say that I am leaving Russia with a very positive feeling. President Putin and I just had a very friendly, warm meeting. My impression as I leave this country is that there are very significant opportunities for Russian-American cooperation and that next month, when the American and Russian presidents meet, progress will be made in many areas. I think that already in the near future we will be able to talk about the positive state of our relations.

I also think that we are adult enough to understand that that we can differ on certain issues. But our differences of opinion must not stand in the way of our efforts to achieve progress in international relations as a whole and in relations between our two countries. And the cooperation that we saw concerning Iran can, undoubtedly, be expanded into other areas.

QUESTION: Russia is now preparing for the G8 summit and do you think that the fact that Russia is a member of the G8 and holds the G8 presidency represents a victory for the international community? Or do you have some concerns regarding this issue?

HENRY KISSINGER: No, I don’t have any concerns regarding this issue. Russia fully deserves its G8 membership. Decisions that are taken by the G8 would not be possible without Russia’s participation.

QUESTION: What do you think about the fact that certain people express their concern regarding the condition of democracy in Russia?

HENRY KISSINGER: One must think about the evolution that takes place in any country. I have a very positive feeling regarding the evolution that is taking place in Russia. I participated in establishing the G8 in 1975. The issues that we discuss today are better solved thanks to Russia’s participation than those that we discussed in 1975.

QUESTION: Many political analysts predict that there will be a harsh discussion concerning Russian energy policy at the G8 summit. What position do you think the American administration will take on this issue?

HENRY KISSINGER: You must understand that I am simply a citizen and your question should be addressed to government representatives who would be better able to answer it. I am more concerned about the fact that at the summit in St Petersburg they will discuss issues linked with the energy security of all countries and not only one country’s energy policy.

Please excuse me but I must catch my plane. Allow me to use this opportunity to thank all those who gave me such a warm welcome in Moscow and especially here, in Novo-Ogaryovo. And I would like to say that each time I am in Russia I always have the impression that progress has been made during my absence. I will undoubtedly return to Russia again.

Thank you very much.

Inside Higher Ed

A friend of mine just got a job interview for a teaching post, thanks to a listing on Inside Higher Ed. And my favorite Central Asia blog, Registan.net, just linked to Inside Higher Ed's story about professor Frederick Starr.

Naturally, I wanted to know more about this web publication, so I toured their website's "About Us" section. Turns out at least one of the founders is a veteran of the Chronicle of Higher Education--namely, Scott Jaschik. He did a great job as editor of their news section, and I was surprised when the Chronicle let him go a while back. I had met him in another context, along with someone I know and trust, and we both were impressed with his intelligence, good taste, and reasoned approach to things. So, it's good to see he's back in the saddle, and from the blurb on Inside Higher Ed's website, taking on the Chronicle mano a mano. Unlike the Chronicle, it's free. And free access is one of their stated principles:

So we conceived of Inside Higher Ed with a few underlying principles:

Excellence. We believe deeply in the many missions of colleges and universities: shaping minds, training workers, engaging in discovery. To carry out those missions, the people who work in higher education need the best news and information possible about their professional world. By “best,” we mean above all accurate, thorough, and reliable. We also care about history, about context, about nuance — one of the reasons we love being part of higher education is that the toughest issues here aren’t simple. But that doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily like everything we publish on this site: We take our watchdog role seriously and will do plenty of hard-hitting investigative reporting, sparing no sacred cows. And just because information is authoritative doesn’t mean it has to be bland or boring: We want you to have a little fun when you visit Inside Higher Ed, which is why you’ll find cartoons and humor columns amid our breaking news, incisive commentary and freewheeling blogs.

Accessibility. You don’t need an expense account any more to get the best news, information and career services. At Inside Higher Ed, we’ve eliminated or lowered barriers based on cost. All of our content is free — so everyone can be an insider. Job seekers, too, can use virtually all of our services without paying a dime. And employers will find a comprehensive suite of jobs services at prices that every institution can afford. In every way, this is a site for everyone in higher education.

Community. If we’re doing our jobs well, everyone who works in or cares about higher education should feel, every day, that this site is produced for them. This is a gathering place for all of the many constituents and diverse institutions that make up the rich web of higher education. At Inside Higher Ed, you’ll find no pecking orders or second-class citizens. We invite you — no, actively encourage you — to add your views to our mix. Comment on an article. Submit a letter to the editor. Send article ideas or tips to our staff members. If you have a computer (or heck, a piece of paper and a stamp), you’ve got a voice here.

Well, I'll start by adding Inside Higher Ed to my blogroll...

Make the Legal Case Against Iran at the UN

Today's Washington Post also has this really interesting oped:A Legal Case Against Iran
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey. Their bottom line:

So far U.S.-led efforts to have the Security Council directly condemn and impose sanctions on Iran under Chapter VII for its nuclear ambitions have not succeeded. That's why seeking the council's intervention on Iran's illegal threats to use force makes excellent diplomatic sense. Such an approach would provide multiple and reinforcing benefits.

First, it would broaden the international dialogue beyond Tehran's breach of nonproliferation obligations, focusing on the real underlying problem: the bellicose nature of the Iranian regime and the use it might make of nuclear weapons. And since Tehran's violations of the U.N. Charter are, by their nature, issues that can be handled only by the Security Council, bringing them to the council would counter Iran's efforts to displace the U.N. framework in favor of direct negotiations with the European Union and the United States. Indeed, a serious debate on Ahmadinejad's illegal threat would give the United States a unique opportunity to focus the Security Council on the shrill anti-Israeli rhetoric emanating not just from Iran but also from numerous other Islamic countries. This rhetoric fosters regional tensions and nurtures the dangerous "jihadist" sentiments.

Second, demands that Iran withdraw its threat and acknowledge its obligation to peacefully resolve any dispute it may have with Israel would be firmly grounded in international law -- so much so that Security Council members Russia and China would be hard-pressed to oppose the effort. Both of those countries have routinely cloaked their objections to E.U.-U.S. policy toward Iran in the language of international law, arguing, for example, that Iran has a legal right to pursue civilian nuclear activities. No country, of course, is entitled to violate the U.N. Charter.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is how the U.N. system was, and is, supposed to work. When a clear threat to peace arises, it is incumbent upon the Security Council to act in defense of the threatened party to head off the unilateral use of force and to advance "collective security." This imperative is particularly compelling when the very legitimacy of the threatened party and its right to independent national existence have been challenged. Such a challenge goes beyond the violation of Article 2.4 and raises the specter of the most heinous international crimes, including genocide.

Washington's Somali Community Follows Events on the Web

A Washington Post reporter asked the local Somali community what's going on, and learned they get news from websites like Hiiraan.com:

Mogadishu has been the scene of some of the worst clashes since U.S. soldiers withdrew from Somalia in 1994 after a failed intervention.

But unlike then, the chaos in the East African homeland is closer than ever for thousands of Somalian immigrants in the Washington region and across the nation. Technology is propelling the conflict into their living rooms and offices, providing a painful ringside view of the crisis as well as ways to help relatives in danger.

It's the latest manifestation of how immigrants in the region, from Ethiopians to Salvadorans, from Liberians to Iranians, are increasingly connected in real time to violence and political upheavals unfolding in their home countries.

"Everything that happens in Somalia is now instantaneous," said Dahir Amalo, 43, a mortgage banker.

Today, several dozen Internet sites follow every twist and turn of the conflict. They post digital photos of the chaos, blogs and round-the-clock news. It's easy to listen to online radio and video broadcasts from the BBC and Voice of America.

Expatriates have bankrolled Internet cafes in Somalia and helped build one of the most reliable and inexpensive phone networks in Africa, where cellphone and online use is rapidly growing. It's cheaper for Somalis in Mogadishu to phone the United States than the other way around, said immigrants here. And they use text messaging, e-mail and instant messaging to further cut costs.

"Smartest Boy in America" (of 1929) Dies

Wilber Huston and Arthur Williams pose with Thomas Edison
According to his obituary in today's Washington Post,in 1929 Wilber B. Huston passed a written and oral examination given by Thomas Alva Edison. He quit working for Edison a short while after graduation from MIT. After spending some time in evangelical missions for "moral rearmament", Huston went to work for the US government at the start of World War II, spending his career as a rocket scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

In New Jersey, the 49 rivals toured Edison's scientific laboratories, rode through the recently opened Holland Tunnel and visited Coney Island. The four-hour exam at Edison's old battery laboratory covered math, physics, chemistry and "general knowledge." Huston recalled that two questions in the last category included "Who is Jenny Lind?" and "When do you consider a lie permissible?" Most of the boys knew the name of the 19th-century "Swedish Nightingale." A lie is permissible, Huston said, "in case of serious trouble, pain and grief, and you do not benefit yourself in any way."

Ten years later, it was revealed that four other boys finished so close to Huston in the written test that Edison decided to add an oral exam.

No contemporary applicant to Harvard, Stanford or Chicago has faced a panel of judges who compare to those who grilled Huston and his rivals the day after their exam. Besides Edison, they included film-and-camera company founder George Eastman, automaker Henry Ford, industrialist Harvey Firestone, aviator Charles Lindbergh, the headmaster of Phillips Exeter Academy and the president of MIT.

After the quiz, the group immediately announced Huston the winner. A moment of silence was followed by cheers, then the other boys hoisted him on their shoulders. The whole group hustled off to a trip around New York on the mayor's yacht and had dinner in a fancy restaurant. "I was impressed by the dinner as well as the check of which I managed to catch a glimpse: $20.00. (Remember, this was 1929)," Huston said in a family memoir that his son has posted on his Web site.

The student awoke the next morning to a transatlantic telephone call from a London newspaper. Huston's photo was on Page 1 of the New York Times, accompanied by a long article and multiple photos inside the paper. The movie newsreels, having missed the announcement, came to his hotel for interviews. The media, which had created a hullabaloo around the event, dubbed Huston "the smartest boy in America," and unwanted publicity dogged him for years.

Huston, who had planned to study chemical engineering, switched to physics and graduated in 1933. Unable to get a scholarship for graduate school, he went to work for Edison's son but four years later became fascinated with an evangelist's "moral re-armament" crusade. He worked for that campaign until World War II, when the need for scientists pulled him back to his intellectual home. He ended up with NASA and lived in Bowie until after his retirement.

But in that heady first week of August 1929, Edison sent word to Huston that he wished to have dinner with him. Huston arrived at the grand Edison home to a formal family dinner, with servants in attendance.

"The first course was a soup," Huston wrote in his family memoir. "After a few minutes Mr. Edison said something, and everyone laughed. I asked my dinner partner what he had said. 'I see he tasted his soup before he salted it' was the reply. Mr. Edison is famous for saying, 'I have no use for a man who salts his soup before he tastes it.' So I guess I passed both his examinations."

Here's a link to the MIT webpage about the Edison scholarshipThere's also a nice tidbit in the Arizona Republic:

In 1944, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor to National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was there that Huston met his wife, Dorothy Beadle, a mathematician aide. They married in 1946.

Huston's daughter, Kathryn Grant of Fountain Hills, remembers watching her father deciphering calculations at home. He told her he was figuring out how to put satellites up in space and keep them there.

The New Yorker's Oriana Fallaci Profile

Here. (ht Roger L. Simon) An excerpt:

Fallaci recalled that she found Khomeini intelligent, and “the most handsome old man I had ever met in my life. He resembled the ‘Moses’ sculpted by Michelangelo.” And, she said, Khomeini was “not a puppet like Arafat or Qaddafi or the many other dictators I met in the Islamic world. He was a sort of Pope, a sort of king—a real leader. And it did not take long to realize that in spite of his quiet appearance he represented the Robespierre or the Lenin of something which would go very far and would poison the world. People loved him too much. They saw in him another Prophet. Worse: a God.”

Upon leaving Khomeini’s house after her first interview, Fallaci was besieged by Iranians who wanted to touch her because she’d been in the Ayatollah’s presence. “The sleeves of my shirt were all torn off, my slacks, too,” she recalled. “My arms were full of bruises, and hands, too. Do believe me: everything started with Khomeini. Without Khomeini, we would not be where we are. What a pity that, when pregnant with him, his mother did not choose to have an abortion.”

Canada Busts Ontario Terror Cell

Here's a question: If it is lack of democracy that causes terrorism, as President Bush has said, why are there terror cells operating in Canada? From the Toronto Star:

At a news conference earlier in the day, a CSIS official said a series of terrorist attacks plotted against unspecified targets in southern Ontario were “inspired by Al Qaeda,” adding that the ring of suspects arrested posed a “real and serious” threat.

Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a commonly used fertilizer used to make explosives, were recovered by police, who say that’s three times the amount used in the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma that killed 168 people.

“It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack,” RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell told a news conference in Toronto.

“If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one tonne of ammonium nitrate.”

“This group posed a real and serious threat,” he added. “It had the capacity and intent to carry out these acts.”

A source who asked not to be named said information provided by U.S. officials played a part in the Canadian arrests.

An FBI affidavit alleges Amercians Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both from the Atlanta region, travelled to Toronto in March 2005, meeting with others of interest to U.S. authorities. The men supposedly discussed terrorist training and bomb plots against military facilities and oil refineries.

Maybe this document from Canadian intelligence might explain what's going on north of the border. (ht LGF)

Konstantin on the Essence of Russia

Konstantin says a love of chaos is key to the Russian soul, citing a Moscow News oped by Robert Bridges. An excerpt:

In America, when you go to the doctor's office, for example, you take a number and have a seat in the waiting room. When your number is called, the doctor will see you. Pretty straightforward. In Russia, you walk into a riot, ask who is last, and tell that person to hold your spot and then go shopping or something. You return about an hour later and hop back into line like nothing happened. This drives Westerners nuts. Then (then!), while all this is happening, or not happening, people are attacking the gates from other directions, with all kind of plausible and not so plausible explanations.

Yet, in the midst of this chaos, it seems the Russians truly enjoy the lively debate, the human friction, the feeling of being on the edge of god knows what.

Across the Russian capital, the sound of lawnmowers and the smell of cut grass are becoming more common. Grass is sprouting up everywhere. A woman I know even replaced her lush garden at the dacha with grass seed.
Yes, the weed whacker of Western rationalization is slowly making headway against Russian impulsiveness; I just hope it does not supplant what makes Russia so unique.

British Police Continue Search for Chemical Weapons

The Times of London says the British police are not finished searching--after shooting a man in the raid of a London apartment, after a tip, but finding nothing. British police say they are concerned about possible terror attacks on the World Cup soccer championship, among other possible targets.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Talks to the Philadelphia Inquirer

Here. (ht LGF)

"So I said," Hirsi Ali confides, " 'You know what, darling Europeans? I'm going to tell you about Muhammad!' "

True to her gloves-off approach, Hirsi Ali talked about how Muhammad, who had nine wives, fell in love with his wife Aisha when she was 6 and married her when she was 9. Hirsi Ali outraged Dutch Muslims by accusing Muhammad of pedophilia.

Hirsi Ali says some took the issue seriously. She emphasizes its relevance because "there are more and more men taking minors as wives, and saying that Muhammad is their example."

Hirsi Ali says the debate gave her hope - she received one letter from a Muslim that read, "I don't know what you started in me, but I am thinking... . "

In the same way, Hirsi Ali explains, she'd like to challenge the beliefs of Black Muslims in America. She finds it as unfathomable that African Americans would convert to Islam as that Jews would convert to Nazism.

"I want to tell them about Darfur," she asserts firmly. "The people in Darfur are being exterminated just because they are black. So [Islam] is also a racist doctrine... . People don't know what's going on in Saudi Arabia. All these palaces are full of black slaves! So the black community here converting to Islam is like converting voluntarily to slavery.

"I think if they hear it from a black person," she says hopefully, "it will help."

These days, Hirsi Ali reports, she's working on a book about Enlightenment values - Voltaire remains a great hero. She plans to have it translated into Arabic, Urdu, and other key languages and distributed around the world in video and audio.

"I'm going to resurrect Muhammad, and he's going to have conversations with [British philosopher Karl] Popper and me and [economic theorist Friedrich] Hayek."

Hirsi Ali smiles. "I hope I live long enough to complete it," she says.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Der Spiegel Interview

Mark Steyn said this Der Spiegel article is a "must read". An excerpt:

SPIEGEL: There was great indignation in Germany when it became known that you might be coming to the soccer world championship. Did that surprise you?

Ahmadinejad: No, that's not important. I didn't even understand how that came about. It also had no meaning for me. I don't know what all the excitement is about.

SPIEGEL: It concerned your remarks about the Holocaust. It was inevitable that the Iranian president's denial of the systematic murder of the Jews by the Germans would trigger outrage.

Ahmadinejad: I don't exactly understand the connection.

SPIEGEL: First you make your remarks about the Holocaust. Then comes the news that you may travel to Germany -- this causes an uproar. So you were surprised after all?

Ahmadinejad: No, not at all, because the network of Zionism is very active around the world, in Europe too. So I wasn't surprised. We were addressing the German people. We have nothing to do with Zionists.

SPIEGEL: Denying the Holocaust is punishable in Germany. Are you indifferent when confronted with so much outrage?

Ahmadinejad: I know that DER SPIEGEL is a respected magazine. But I don't know whether it is possible for you to publish the truth about the Holocaust. Are you permitted to write everything about it?

SPIEGEL: Of course we are entitled to write about the findings of the past 60 years' historical research. In our view there is no doubt that the Germans -- unfortunately -- bear the guilt for the murder of 6 million Jews.

Ahmadinejad: Well, then we have stirred up a very concrete discussion. We are posing two very clear questions. The first is: Did the Holocaust actually take place? You answer this question in the affirmative. So, the second question is: Whose fault was it? The answer to that has to be found in Europe and not in Palestine. It is perfectly clear: If the Holocaust took place in Europe, one also has to find the answer to it in Europe.

On the other hand, if the Holocaust didn't take place, why then did this regime of occupation ...

SPIEGEL: ... You mean the state of Israel...

Ahmadinejad: ... come about? Why do the European countries commit themselves to defending this regime? Permit me to make one more point. We are of the opinion that, if an historical occurrence conforms to the truth, this truth will be revealed all the more clearly if there is more research into it and more discussion about it.
SPIEGEL: That has long since happened in Germany.

Ahmadinejad: We don't want to confirm or deny the Holocaust. We oppose every type of crime against any people. But we want to know whether this crime actually took place or not. If it did, then those who bear the responsibility for it have to be punished, and not the Palestinians. Why isn't research into a deed that occurred 60 years ago permitted? After all, other historical occurrences, some of which lie several thousand years in the past, are open to research, and even the governments support this.

SPIEGEL: Mr. President, with all due respect, the Holocaust occurred, there were concentration camps, there are dossiers on the extermination of the Jews, there has been a great deal of research, and there is neither the slightest doubt about the Holocaust nor about the fact - we greatly regret this - that the Germans are responsible for it. If we may now add one remark: the fate of the Palestinians is an entirely different issue, and this brings us into the present.

Ahmadinejad: No, no, the roots of the Palestinian conflict must be sought in history. The Holocaust and Palestine are directly connected with one another. And if the Holocaust actually occurred, then you should permit impartial groups from the whole world to research this. Why do you restrict the research to a certain group? Of course, I don't mean you, but rather the European governments.

SPIEGEL: Are you still saying that the Holocaust is just "a myth?"

Ahmadinejad: I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it.

SPIEGEL: Even though no Western scholars harbor any doubt about the Holocaust?

Ahmadinejad: But there are two opinions on this in Europe. One group of scholars or persons, most of them politically motivated, say the Holocaust occurred. Then there is the group of scholars who represent the opposite position and have therefore been imprisoned for the most part. Hence, an impartial group has to come together to investigate and to render an opinion on this very important subject, because the clarification of this issue will contribute to the solution of global problems. Under the pretext of the Holocaust, a very strong polarization has taken place in the world and fronts have been formed. It would therefore be very good if an international and impartial group looked into the matter in order to clarify it once and for all. Normally, governments promote and support the work of researchers on historical events and do not put them in prison.

SPIEGEL: Who is that supposed to be? Which researchers do you mean?

Ahmadinejad: You would know this better than I; you have the list. There are people from England, from Germany, France and from Australia.

SPIEGEL: You presumably mean, for example, the Englishman David Irving, the German-Canadian Ernst Zündel, who is on trial in Mannheim, and the Frenchman Georges Theil, all of whom deny the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad: The mere fact that my comments have caused such strong protests, although I'm not a European, and also the fact that I have been compared with certain persons in German history indicates how charged with conflict the atmosphere for research is in your country. Here in Iran you needn't worry.

BTW, An answer to the Iranian president: Although Iran was occupied by the Allies during World War II, Arabs do share responsibility with Germans for the Nazi extermination of European Jews. They opposed permitting refugees to enter Palestine--one reason so many were trapped in Europe--and Arab leaders, including the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, sided with the Nazis. It's documented. Here's a photo of the Grand Mufti with Hitler: Caption:The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, visits Berlin, meets with Hitler and makes Arabic radio broadcasts to Islamic troops fighting for the Nazi Third Reich.

Cote d'Ivoire's Civil War

There was a very mysterious BBC broadcast today about Ivory Coast. Correspondent Liz Doucette shed almost no light on why the former French colony has been torn by civil war. Her "identity" explanation explained nothing at all. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. It's complicated, all right--but at least one element involves conflict with the predominantly Muslim north. George Packer discussed this element in a New Yorker interview:

Q:How much is Ivory Coast's civil war an ethnic fight—or a Muslim-Christian fight?

A: Ethnicity and religion are closely related in Ivory Coast—if you're a Bete, you're almost certainly a Christian, for example, and if you're a Senufo you're almost certainly a Muslim. There have been attacks on mosques and on Muslim leaders, and some supporters of President Gbagbo have used Christian as well as nationalist rhetoric. (The first lady, Simone Gbagbo, is an evangelical Christian, as are increasing numbers of city dwellers in the south.) Relations between Christians and Muslims throughout West Africa (with the serious exception of Nigeria) have generally been so laid-back and tolerant, however, that, even with a civil war going on in Ivory Coast, I didn't get the feeling that religious hatred was sweeping the populace. Ethnicity is a more powerful identifier in this part of Africa. But, even though the killing has taken place largely along ethnic and religious lines, this remains, more than anything, a political war. It's also a depressingly gratuitous war. Ivory Coast wasn't doomed by geography or history to go to pieces. It's been ruined by its class of leaders. And Ivorians are still stunned by the depth to which the country has sunk.

USAID Seminar Promotes Islamism

According to Little Green Footballs:

...unfortunately, the seminar’s guest speaker was a representative of an Islamist front group:

Guest Speaker: Ahmed Younis
National Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council

The New York Post reports that on July 14, 2002, Ahmed Younis gave a speech in Irvine and implicitly supported the murder of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft

Watching the National Spelling Bee

I really enjoyed watching the National Spelling Bee on ABC last night, and the network deserves congratulations for broadcasting something educational in prime time. It was humbling to realize that a grown person--yours truly--could never compete in the contest with brilliant 10-14 year olds...

However, I have a concern about some of the words contestants were required to spell--ones with more than one acceptable spelling.

For example, the person with whom I watched the broadcast--who studied both Greek and Latin--pointed out to me that endings of Greek words put into English sometimes differ depending on the preferred style of transliteration. Britishers like AEUM, Americans prefer EUM. Or, another example, Encyclopaedia v Encyclopedia.

And then, there is the question of transliteration from living foreign languages, such as Persian and Hebrew. The judges said the word for Persian New Year is spelled: N-a-u-r-u-z. But when I looked it up online, there appear to be a wide variation of acceptable transliterations--including Nowruz, Nourus, Norouz, Noruz, Novrus, Nawrus, Nowrus, Navrus, Navrus, et al. In fact when I looked up "Nauruz" online in the American Heritage dictionary, there was no listing at all. So, what is really the right answer?

The whole world could see this problem in the case of the Hebrew H-e-c-h-s-c-h-er. In the end, judges accepted a variant, Hechsher, on the broadcast. It seems that including transliterated foreign words that have more than one acceptable English variant might spell future trouble for the Bee's judges...

Just a quibble. I guess it doesn't matter in the case of German words like ursprache.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun. So, here's a link to the official study guides, for those out there who know a child who might compete: http://www.spellingbee.com/resources.asp

Kipling on Russia

Alexander at Registan posted this quote from Rudyard Kipling:

Let it be clearly understood that the Russian is a delightful person till he tucks his shirt in. As an Oriental he is charming. It is only when he insists upon being treated as the most easterly of Western peoples, instead of the most westerly of Easterns, that he becomes a racial anomaly extremely difficult to handle. The host never knows which side of his nature is going to turn up next.

I wondered where it came from. Thanks to Google, I found out the quotation comes from his short story titled The Man Who Was.

An Arab Perspective on Political Islam

The Ongoing Conflict Between Political Islam and the West
By Magdi Khalil

While there is no issue with Islam as a religious belief, political Islam – as much as any political body – was bound to make mistakes. The Muslim Caliphate was the manifestation of that concept in past ages; and it can be identified nowadays in the upsurge of “Global Islamism”.

The offensive cartoon that triggered a violent outburst in the Muslim World, and particularly in the Arab part of that world, raises the question about the true nature of the current happenings: are we dealing with a contrived cultural confrontation or with a dispute that is gradually shaping into another round of the ongoing conflict between the West and Islam?

I personally lean towards the second option, and there are precedents in history to support that opinion. Political Islam and the West are at extreme odds, waves of mutual hostility and animosity can be tracked throughout history, and, we may indeed be witnessing the fifth round in that long, historical conflict.

The First Round: initiated by political Islam via the first Islamic invasions, or what is known in Islam as the “Islamic conquests”. The early Islamic conquests reached the West, threatened Europe and left an obvious mark on Al-Andalus.

The Second Round: Europe set off this round with the crusades; those were launched under religious banners in the same fashion as the first Islamic round, and left the Muslims of the East with extremely bitter memories.

The Third Round: initiated by political Islam through the Ottoman Caliphate that was accompanied by a huge, widespread violent wave, posing a menace to the survival of Europe, and leaving a clear impact spanning from Asia Minor to the Balkans.

The Fourth Round: Europe initiated this one with the European colonization of most of the Muslim World – some countries remained under occupation until the sixties of last century.

Clearly, the two parties have exchanged “blows” throughout history, each side initiating an equal number of rounds, but with different outcomes. Political Islam left behind Muslim entities in the former USSR and in some European states, by forcing the indigenous populations to convert to Islam. The West was – and still is – engaged in helping the Jews realize their historical dream to resurrect their ancient kingdom in the land of Palestine.

It is worth mentioning that there is a difference between Islam as a religious practice, i.e. spiritual rituals, worship, and faith in God and the five pillars – and political Islam, where Islam serves as an ideology with a vision to create a viable political Muslim entity. The Muslim Caliphate was the manifestation of that concept in past ages, and it can be identified nowadays in the upsurge of the concept of “Global Islamism”. The Islamization of all aspects of life is at the heart of this comprehensive concept, and terrorism – the military side of this concept - serves as a reinforcing brutal arm. In other words, in reference to the common argument that Islam is both din wa dawla (religion and state), we need to differentiate between the two aspects; the issue has nothing to do with Islam as a religious belief, and the right of belief is a granted personal right. However the notion of Islam as “a state” addresses the political aspect, and, political Islam – as much as any political body – is bound to make mistakes.

The exclusive religious nature of Islam only lasted for a few years after its emergence; before long, Islam had fused religion and politics, giving birth to what is known as political Islam—a concept that is still in effect in our times. Political Islam, by definition (whether scientific or functional) is an old phenomenon, as ancient as Islam itself, only the labelsl have changed throughout history.

It is also worth noting that from a western perspective, the conflict with political Islam is basically of a political nature, even though it has taken on a religious angle in one particular round. On the other hand, from an Islamic perspective, it is a political / religious conflict, given that Islam has fused both aspects since its early beginnings, as mentioned earlier. This theory is supported by the fact that Eastern Christianity has suffered as a result of foreign attacks in the course of the long historical conflict with political Islam. The crusaders have played a role in weakening Eastern Christianity, and what the crusades did in Constantinople is proof enough. Furthermore, the Eastern Christians have paid – and are still paying – a heavy price, given the intense religious tone of the conflict. As perceived by political Islam, there was no way for Eastern Christians to escape unscathed, and they have become convenient targets of the hostility and rage permeating their world.

The Fifth Round: Political Islam took a turn in initiating another round, and the events of 9/11 marked the beginning of a deliberately planned round of assaults. The only difference this time around is that rather than a “Muslim Caliphate” state to carry out the assault, “Global Islamism” took that job. As mentioned earlier, “Global Islamism” is a comprehensive concept, and terrorism – planned or unplanned – represents the aggressive wing of this wide-ranging scheme. In the days of the Muslim Caliphate, there was a central state in charge of the military aspects of political Islam, and nowadays, in the absence of that state, terrorism has taken on the military role (of course, the concept of Global Islamism extends far beyond mere terrorism).

There are no designated leadership quarters for Global Islamism, but there are several quarters for the purposes of recruitment and spreading the word, and Saudi Arabia comes on top of those, followed by Egypt and Pakistan. Around the globe, millions of Muslims are sitting on the sidelines, watching the unfolding events from a distance, as this round of assaults was initiated by extremists only and not by all Muslims. Some in the West have estimated those extremists to represent around 10-15% of the total population of the Muslim world, which roughly equals 130-200 million fanatics. Islamic extremism is unfortunately gaining more ground as days go by, a fact that does not bode well for the future, hinting at the possibility of an extensive confrontation and of a shift from a cold war status to a an all-out battle.

Conspicuously, the cycles of violence instigated by political Islam – whether through the Muslim Caliphate, the Ottoman Caliphate or international terrorism – are of a global nature, hitting East and West, sparing no one, while the western attacks mostly tend to target the East and the countries of the Third World.

So, which of the Muslim states can stake a claim for the leadership of the Muslim world?

There are three types of leadership:
First, political and military leadership: it is obvious that none of the Muslim states qualify for this type of leadership, for many reasons. It is also a given that the West would not allow such a state to emerge and bring back the Muslim Caliphate; the West has no wish to revisit that period, or to be haunted once more by the phantoms of the Islamic invasions that have threatened Europe more than once.

Second: an intellectual leadership capable of offering a compelling extremist ideology that would draw and mobilize fanatics. Several states are walking that path, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan are at the top of that list.

Third: The model of Islamic reform: simply put, this implies following the example of Judaism and Christianity in making a complete separation between religion and state. So far, not a single state has dared to put this model forth, as the great majority firmly believes in an Islam that fuses “religion and state”. The Turkish model is an exceptional case, that can neither be generalized nor copied, not to mention that it has been gradually losing ground, and showing clear signs of instability and turmoil.


Possible Future Scenarios

The First Scenario: suggested by Bernard Lewis – a historian and prominent expert on the Ottoman Caliphate– in a book that was written prior to the events of 9/11, and published afterwards. In the book entitled What Went Wrong? he mentioned that the Muslim civilization has declined, and the Muslim world was crumbling under the weight of ignorance, poverty and regression. “Islam cannot (“cannot” is one word) flourish without conquests”, he clearly stated, which means that a substantial Muslim political structure cannot exist in the absence of Muslim Caliphate.

The Second Scenario: A resurgence of a Muslim Caliphate, in a different form, the dream that Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri have long harbored, and thought to accomplish through terrorism, and by taking control over a state that will serve as a launching point for the new Muslim Caliphate. They were hoping to start with Afghanistan, then move on to Saudi Arabia, overthrow the regime, and establish a base for the Caliphate, but their dream faded after Afghanistan was hit. Prior to that, Hassan Al-Turabi, who was based in Sudan, tried and failed to revive the Islamic Nationalism “al-Umamiah al-Islamiya”. Others took a step-by-step approach to revive the Muslim Caliphate, resorting first to political means, and planning to shift into a military mode once they are in power. The Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt stands out as passionate advocates of that approach, as confirmed by a statement of the late supreme guide of the movement – Mr. Mustafa Mashour “we will not give up (the goal) of restoring the Muslim Caliphate”. (Asharq Al-Awsat, 9 Aug. 2002). I personally think that these attempts are destined to fail.

The Third Scenario: suggested by Samuel Huntington in “The Clash of Civilizations”, where he wrote “in the end, Mohammed will triumph” – meaning that the Prophet of Islam will have his victory owing to the Muslim world’s rapid population growth, and the way Islam is spreading and the Muslim cells are multiplying, threatening to enfold the world within their clasp.

The Fourth Scenario: it was suggested in the aftermath of the events of 9/11 that this is the final round of the battle between political Islam and the West, which will result in “the collapse of the Muslim World.” This scenario suggests that political Islam will be entirely defeated in a matter of a few decades, because terrorism will have taken the lead in this round, at a time when the Muslim world was at its weakest. That might explain why some people have commented that the Muslim world is actually facing the most dangerous crisis in its long history.

Magdi Khalil is a political analyst, researcher, author and executive editor of the Egyptian weekly Watani International. He is also a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, London, a free-lance writer for several Arabic language newspapers, and a frequent contributor to Middle East broadcast news TV. Mr. Khalil has also published three books and written numerous research papers on citizenship rights, civil society, and the situation of minorities in the Middle East. E-mail: magdikh@hotmail.com

Sold! Voltaire's Letters to Catherine the Great

At auction, for $750,000, at Sotheby's Russian Sale in London. Report from the BBC:

The figure is a world record for handwritten correspondence from this period, said Sotheby's auction house. The 26 letters date from 1768-1777, when Catherine was ruler of Russia and Voltaire lived in Switzerland.

Some of the letters are signed "the old hermit" while in others the philosopher simply refers to himself as "V". Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, was a German-born Empress who ruled Russia from 1762-96.

She described herself as a "philosopher on the throne" and corresponded with several prominent European thinkers throughout her reign. The letters from Voltaire discuss her foreign policy, including the partition of Poland and her first war with the Ottoman Empire in 1768-74.

The Ottoman ruler, Mustafa III, comes in for ridicule throughout the correspondence, with Voltaire referring to him as "fat and ignorant".

The Haditha Massacre

Congressman Murtha was right to make an issue of this. The problem is not the crime--massacres happen in every war--but the coverup. The more quickly this is handled by a court-martial and the guilty punished, the better--because it would demonstrate that massacre is not US policy. US Marines are not professional baby killers, nor should they be, IMHO.

BTW, this might be a serious enough issue to force Rumsfeld's long-overdo resignation, if anyone has the nerve to take him on. How much worse can the image of America get? And it's been on his watch...

East Timor Crisis News Roundup

From the BBC. Interesting angle from the Sydney Telegraph:

The kumbaya crowd which pressed for East Timor's independence must shoulder much of the blame for the failure of its dysfunctional government. The fact Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri... is deeply unpopular with much of East Timor's population is largely overlooked by his left-wing sympathisers. Nor is it apparent that any of those who clamoured for East Timor's independence lodged objections to the appointment of Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, with responsibility for the novice nation's police, though he was trained by Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime.

Pssst! The Taliban Are Back...

I don't know if I said anything about it here at the time, but the American decision to bring the Taliban and Islamist extremists into the Afghan government seems to have been a mistake. I remember thinking early on they'd play an inside/outside game to recapture as much power as possible, if given a chance(wouldn't you?). Completely crushing them, driving all of them into exile if necessary, seemed a better option than co-optation. And unfortunately it looks like the Taliban are doing just what was expected of them, taking advantage of American weakness and the proffered hand of friendship to stick it to the Yankees and call for "Death to America!" (Hint to President Bush: people who say things like that cannot be our friends, and those who fight them ought not to be our enemies). From The Guardian:

While Iraq continues to dominate the headlines, an upsurge of fighting in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban drew its traditional support, is worrying western politicians.

Today saw riots break out in Kabul after a fatal accident involving a US convoy. Protesters shouted slogans against Harmid Karzai, the Afghan president, and the US, and the unrest left at least seven people dead and 40 injured.

Meanwhile in the south, around 50 people, reported to be Taliban fighters and leaders were killed in a US air raid - some reports say on a mosque - after they attacked a convoy.

The latest casualties bring the number of deaths in Afghanistan to over 370 in recent in the last two weeks - comparable to the number of deaths in Iraq over the same period - in some of the heaviest fighting since the fall of the Taliban after the September 11 2001 attacks on the US.

Reports in the Pakistani press say several southern provinces including Uruzgan, Kandahar and Helmand - where 3,300 British troops are being deployed - are slipping out of control as the Taliban have taken the fight to western forces.

US and Nato forces have responded in kind, resulting in the rising level of casualties.

The Taliban's goal is that of any guerrilla force - to convey the impression that the central government and its backers cannot protect the local populace, so chipping away at its authority and credibility.

Now the warm weather has arrived in Afghanistan, western forces will have to endure more attacks from a reinvigorated and emboldened Taliban.

Who Lost Turkey?

Philip H. Gordon and Omer Taspinar of the Brookings Institution believe Turkey is the brink of becoming anti-American, because of Iraq:

The United States and Europe should be paying close attention to what is going on in Turkey today. Turkey's relationship with the United States is under great strain. Turks deeply resent the effect that the war in Iraq has had on their own Kurdish separatism problem. Turkey's long-standing fear that independence-minded Kurdish nationalists would dominate northern Iraq, thereby setting a dangerous precedent for Kurds in Turkey, has since become reality. The Kurdish population of Turkey is about 15 million, 3 to 4 times more than Iraq's Kurdish minority. Despite U.S. government protestations to the contrary, most Turks believe that a civil war in Iraq will be followed by the creation of a de facto if not de jure independent Kurdistan. In that sense, the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the ensuing disorder in the country threaten 50 years of U.S.-Turkish strategic partnership.

Apple Loses to 13-year-old Blogger

What was Apple thinking?

A Russian-Turkish-Israeli Alliance?

Axis Globe says high-level discussions are underway right now. Personally, I think it might be possible --since the US seems to be losing control of Iraq and Afghanistan, and all three have reason to fight Islamist extremists:

Meanwhile, Washington is watching with alarm the formation of the new Moscow-Ankara-Tel-Aviv energy triangle. Here one may realize more clearly that the the Baku-Ceyhan project undertaken by the American initiative is becoming the lever of influence of Moscow in the region.

Active contacts of the Israeli side with the Russian gas company "Gazprom” do not add optimism to the Americans. It is supposed that the Russian gas would flow to Israel by the underwater "Blue Stream" pipeline that will be prolonged from the Turkish Black Sea port Samsun up to the Mediterranean terminal Ceyhan and therefrom – to Lebanon and to Israel – by the Turkish state gas company Botas and "Gazprom". According to the American source in Bruxelles, the US Department of State has already informed the Israeli diplomats of their concern regarding the development of a situation, undesirable from its point of view.

I would hope that the US, rather than oppose this alliance, bless it and work with the three powers as a full partner to end this Global War on Terrorism quickly and decisively, dropping American unilateralism and instead demanding a WWII-style "unconditional surrender" from the Islamists and their supporters. Instead of a token "coaltion of the willing," we might actually be able to have some real allies.

Wanderlustress Reports On Sudan

Here.

The History of Memorial Day

From The History Channel:

Today, Memorial Day is celebrated at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony in which a small American flag is placed on each grave. Also, it is customary for the president or vice-president to give a speech honoring the contributions of the dead and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. About 5,000 people attend the ceremony annually.

Andrew Bostom on Islamic Jihad

The author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims will be on C-Span's Book TV this Sunday at 4:30 AM, according to The American Thinker blurb--Insomniacs of the world, unite...

Madeleine Bunting: Let Turkey Join EU

She writes in The Guardian:

The application to the EU is characterised by two ironies, neither of which is lost on Turks. Firstly, although Turkey pioneered secularism in the Muslim world, discussion in the EU of Turkey's application to join has focused on its 97% Muslim population. Secondly, although Turkey has finally resolved its decades-old identity crisis as to whether it is European or Asian - the majorities in favour of EU accession are substantial - Europe has now plunged into an identity crisis.

Much of the opposition to Turkish EU membership pivots on these ironies and the questions they prompt: is Europe a geographical or a cultural entity, and how do you define the boundaries of either? Nilufer Gole, a Turkish academic working in France, warns of the grave dangers of a narcissistic European Union obsessed by these questions of identity rather than motivated by the sense of project (initially, Franco-German peace) that gave birth to the EU and has sustained it. It's the project - of peace, of economic growth, of democracy and human rights - that appeals to Turkey, not indeterminate questions of identity.

An EU project that carved out a distinctive European engagement with Islam in which Turkey was a key partner would trounce Samuel Huntingdon's specious and self-fulfilling theory of a "clash of civilisations". Naked self-interest - those pipelines and pensions - will help drive this project forward. But I'm aware that many would attribute my enthusiasm to that intoxicating Istanbul effect of a city prickling with minarets above a sparkling blue sea.

Indonesian Earthquake Kills Thousands

Here's the seismic record from the US Geological Survey:

Tony Blair Comes to Washington

He's trying to help Bush, I think. But it may be too late. He's certainly not trying to help himself politically, given the low esteem Britons hold for Bush. Oh, I guess they may also be talking about bombing Iran, withdrawing from Iraq, and preparing for the G8 summit in Russia, a few little international items like that...

Alistair Cooke's New Book

Published posthumously after a 60-plus year delay, edited by Sir Harold Evans (Mr. Tina Brown), reviewed Wednesday by William Grimes in the New York Times, former Omnibus and Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke's The American Home Front: America 1941-1942 sounds like a jolly good summer read:

Mr. Cooke sees the things only a foreigner would. He grasps the unique qualities of the drug store, which he calls "the image of a complete American community — a shining fountain, the taste of lush syrups, an orgy of casual friendships and smart advertising, a halfway house between brisk comings and goings, the wayside first-aid station of American cleanliness and quick health." He has a sensitive ear for the casual cruelties of racism, and in California makes a detour to an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, which he reports on, sorrowfully and humanely, at time when most Americans could not have cared less.

Much of the reporting is upbeat. Factories are going full blast, everyone has a job, and airplanes, tanks and Jeeps are rolling off the assembly lines. Even amber waves of grain, "the American factory of winter wheat," seem to be part of the vast American war machine. The mood, in many ways, is bright.

Direct questions about the war elicit somber responses. "But walk right into his cornfield," Mr. Cooke writes of the average Kansas farmer, "exchange the time of day, admire a stallion, and ask him how's business and he will grin, wipe his forehead, and say that the last two years have been fine, and if the war keeps on, the next two years will be better."

Whether he was at a film studio in Los Angeles or a cattle ranch in Wyoming, Mr. Cooke always managed to ask that second question. While the rest of the journalistic pack nibbled at news releases back in Washington, he followed his instincts and took a good look around the rest of the country. He filed late, but boy, did he get it right.

Enron Verdict: Guilty

The Bradley Prize Winners Are...

I saw a small ad in the Washington Post today, but it didn't say how much. At $250,000 each, it seems worth mentioning. I read Hernando deSoto's books on the mystery of capital, and they were very interesting. And I also took a class from Fouad Ajami, and he certainly deserves every penny...But for some strange reason the Bradley foundation seems more excited about singer Della Reese (in the headline and the lede) than their own winners (merely mentioned in the second graf). Anyway, here's the press release for what seems to be the conservative foundation world's answer to the McArthur "genius" awards.:

Milwaukee, WI—The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation today announced world renowned singer and actress Della Reese will perform at the third annual Bradley Prizes ceremony being held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, May 25, 2006.

The 2006 Bradley Prizes honor Dr. Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies; Clint Bolick of the Alliance for School Choice; Hernando de Soto of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy and Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution. Each recipient will receive a stipend of $250,000.

“We are pleased and proud that Della Reese will perform at the 2006 Bradley Prizes ceremony,” said Michael W. Grebe, President and CEO of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. “Della Reese will add her voice and remarkable presence to what will be an exciting event.”

Bush Names New Domestic Policy Chief

Karl Zinsmeister, editor of The American Enterprise magazine, published by AEI. An excerpt from the NY Sun report:

Mr. Zinsmeister, who declined to be interviewed yesterday, is an unusual choice for a top White House job. While he has ties through the magazine to many leading intellectuals, his only government employment was a stint more than two decades ago as a legislative assistant to Senator Moynihan.

Mr. Zinsmeister edited the American Enterprise Institute's magazine from upstate Cazenovia [in NY state] and was rarely seen at the conservative think tank's offices in Washington.

In an e-mail to friends and colleagues yesterday, Mr. Zinsmeister signaled he will try to maintain an outsider's perspective on Washington, even as he takes up his West Wing post. He said he and his family plan to live in Baltimore, some 40 miles away.

Mr. Zinsmeister said he and Mr. Bush formed a quick bond, leading to the job offer. "After hitting it off with him and his new staff, I have accepted," the editor wrote...

...Some of the recent staffing changes have been seen as aimed at assuaging complaints about the White House from lawmakers, journalists, and other Washington insiders. However, if Mr. Bush was seeking to smooth ruffled feathers in the capital, Mr. Zinsmeister would not appear to be the right choice.

In a 2004 interview with the Syracuse New Times, the future White House aide declared, "People in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings. The mom who charters a bus for her kids to go to a rave is as bad as the lady with the crackpipe. We have sickness at the top and bottom of our society and we have a big middle, sensible with common sense and decency and morality."

Just as with Mr. Snow, some of Mr. Zinsmeister's writings could cause embarrassment to the White House. He has engaged in some mild criticism of Mr. Bush's budget policies. In a recent issue of the American Enterprise, Mr. Zinsmeister wrote, "Though he talks a good line about battling government bloat, our current president has shown an eerie lackawanna when it comes to actually keeping a lid on the federal Pandora's box."

Mr. Zinsmeister has also written candidly on race, arguing that black communities have developed crippling problems that overlap in a way unseen in other parts of America. "The point of the conservative concern over black underclass life is that the pathologies run so much deeper there," he wrote in 1996, citing his mentor Moynihan. "We desperately need to find out what it is in contemporary black culture that makes for these exceptional breakdowns."

Stamp Honors Hiram Bingham, WWII Rescuer

A story in today's Washington Post about this new stamp caught our eye. Hiram Bingham IV worked with Varian Fry's Emergency Rescue Committee to save prominent intellectuals from Hitler. I interviewed Albert O. Hirschmann, who worked on the effort (in part sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt), for my film "Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?" and I met some of Bingham's descendants at a "Visas for Life" reception at the State Department in 2003.

Bingham resigned from the State Department in protest in 1946. He was awarded a "constructive dissent" award by Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2002. For more information, here's a link to Kim Bingham's tribute website. Here's a quote from the website:

HARRY'S OWN WORDS in taped interview by his 13 year old grandaughter Tiffany Bingham (circa 1980): "We were transferred in 1937 to Marseille in France where there were a great many refugees from Nazi Germany trying to get visas to get to the United States and part of my work was giving visas to these refugees....They (the Germans – ed) had a lot of what was called the Fifth Column, which were sort of spies and people living in southern France. And we got rumors that the Germans were going to come down to southern France and would be there any time... Although we were not in the war, most of our government was on the side of the allies, the British and the French. But my boss who was the Consul General at that time, said, “The Germans are going to win the war. Why should we do anything to offend them?” And he didn't want to give any visas to these Jewish people. So...I had to do as much as I could.... The Germans had signed an agreement with the French that they could stay in that zone, but they must surrender any Germans that were there -- any refugees -- on demand, and they would then be sent back to concentration camps in Germany. TIFFANY: What was the most important thing that you did for the Jews? HIRAM: Well, in a way, it was getting as many visas as I could to as many people….And we did help them." Grandaughter Tiffany taped interview with Harry for Salem School class project, circa 1980.

And here's a photo from the website of the line in front of the US Consulate in Marseilles in 1940.

Richard Pipes Criticizes Bush Administration's Russia Policy

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interviews America's leading expert on Russia, who criticizes Bush administration handling of the upcoming G8 summit (ht Johnson's Russia List):

RFE/RL: And what about American-Russian relations? Are you satisfied with the present position of the U.S. administration?

Pipes: I am somewhat critical of the way the administration handles Russia now. I think it's not up to the American government -- I mean, particularly somebody as influential as Vice President [Richard Cheney] -- to criticize the restrictions on democracy in Russia. I think that is kind of meddling in the internal affairs of another country. But I think it would be appropriate for someone lower down and perhaps for institutions such as the Council on Foreign Relations and so on to do it -- and they are doing it, criticizing it. But the president and the vice president and the secretary of state and so on, I think, should conduct a more even-handed policy and not criticize the political developments in Russia. It bothers me when that's done. Russians are extremely sensitive to any kind of criticism, and that doesn't mean we shouldn't criticize them, but one should be very careful about what one says about what's going on in Russia.

The Russian people, I think, would want Putin to continue, which gives him a strong stimulus to run again.... The Duma, I think, is prepared to vote him powers, or to make an amendment to the constitution to enable him to rule again -- but we will just have to wait and see.

RFE/RL: What about the upcoming G-8 conference in Russia? Don't you think that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remarks were somehow connected with the preparation of this event?

Pipes: Well, they may have been. I don't know what was on their minds. I mean, the attitude in America now is very critical. We have, the Council on Foreign Relations, just published a report on Russia which is very, very negative. But it seems to me, you know, once you have accepted Russia into the G-8, once you go there, then good manners require that you tone down, mute your criticism. It's just a question of manners more than anything else. And Russians, I'd say, are very sensitive -- often unjustly so -- to criticism. They think it's a sign of hostility. Very often, it's a sign of friendship when you tell people, "You know, you are doing this wrong. It's not that I'm your enemy, I'm your friend, I would like you to do the right thing." But they find this very difficult to conceive. So, I would say, I hope that when the meeting takes place, that the criticism will be muted.

Roger L. Simon on Madonna's Confessions Tour

From RogerLSimon.com:

Mega-snooze, "Kabbalist" Madonna is evidently doing the Bush-Blair-Hitler routine in her new review. This is obviously "good for business" for the Material Girl, as is, I guess, her mock crucifixion (yawn). But how can you push the envelope when the paper's already sopping wet? How could anyone be interested in her trivial, clichéd nonsense when we've already seen the "Piss Christ" (That was banal enough), not to mention a half-dozen fifty year old Bunuel movies? Now if she had any real guts, Madonna would dance around on stage as Mohammed in drag. Don't hold your breath, however. Was this supposed freethinker around for the Danish Cartoons protest? Of course not. Why should she clutter her head with things that have nothing to do with money?

UPDATE: The Material Girl has gotten what she wanted - the Church of England has branded her Cross "offensive." Ka-ching! Ka-ching! C'mon, Madonna. How about little Mohammed action? Prove us wrong. We don't think you have the cojones.

Congressional Immunity

Congressmen are angry that the FBI descended on Capitol Hill to search the office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), a suspect in an ongoing bribery investigation. The principle in question is Congressional Immunity, contained in the Constitution, based on the separation of powers to protect speech and debate from Executive branch interference. More on this legal angle from Findlaw.com

Privilege From Arrest

This clause is practically obsolete. It applies only to arrests in civil suits, which were still common in this country at the time the Constitution was adopted. 376 It does not apply to service of process in either civil 377 or criminal cases. 378 Nor does it apply to arrest in any criminal case. The phrase ''treason, felony or breach of the peace'' is interpreted to withdraw all criminal offenses from the operation of the privilege. 379

Privilege of Speech or Debate

Members .--This clause represents ''the culmination of a long struggle for parliamentary supremacy. Behind these simple phrases lies a history of conflict between the Commons and the Tudor and Stuart monarchs during which successive monarchs utilized the criminal and civil law to suppress and intimidate critical legislators. Since the Glorious Revolution in Britain, and throughout United States history, the privilege has been recognized as an important protection of the independence and integrity of the legislature.'' 380 So Justice Harlan explained the significance of the speech-and-debate clause, the ancestry of which traces back to a clause in the English Bill of Rights of 1689 381 and the history of which traces back almost to the beginning of the development of Parliament as an independent force. 382 ''In the American governmental structure the clause serves the additional function of reinforcing the separation of powers so deliberately established by the Founders.'' 383 ''The immunities of the Speech or Debate Clause were not written into the Constitution simply for the personal or private benefit of Members of Congress, but to protect the integrity of the legislative process by insuring the independence of individual legislators.'' 384


The protection of this clause is not limited to words spoken in debate. ''Committee reports, resolutions, and the act of voting are equally covered, as are 'things generally done in a session of the House by one of its members in relation to the business before it.''' 385 Thus, so long as legislators are ''acting in the sphere of legitimate legislative activity,'' they are ''protected not only from the consequence of litigation's results but also from the burden of defending themselves.'' 386 But the scope of the meaning of ''legislative activity'' has its limits. ''The heart of the clause is speech or debate in either House, and insofar as the clause is construed to reach other matters, they must be an integral part of the deliberative and communicative processes by which Members participate in committee and House proceedings with respect to the consideration and passage or rejection of proposed legislation or with respect to other matters which the Constitution places within the jurisdiction of either House.'' 387 Immunity from civil suit, both in law and equity, and from criminal action based on the performance of legislative duties flows from a determination that a challenged act is within the definition of legislative activity, but the Court in the more recent cases appears to have narrowed the concept somewhat...

Haaretz: Elie Wiesel Helped Israeli PM

From Haaretz:

Author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel helped write the speech that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will give to a joint session of Congress Wednesday (complete text here).

Wiesel received a draft of the speech last week in order to add to it and make comments.

Wiesel joined former prime minister Ariel Sharon on the March of the Living at Auschwitz last year, and the two held a long conversation during the trip.

Olmert's speech will include events from his own life as they were intertwined with the history of the State of Israel. He will also speak about the relationship between Israel and the United States. Olmert will not speak from a prepared text. His speech also will refer to the Iranian threat against Israel and Israeli-Palestinian relations, as well as the West Bank convergence plan.

Olmert spent hours working on his speech, poring over drafts written by two Foreign Ministry officials, including attorney Daniel Taub of the Law Division. Olmert's chief of staff, Yoram Turbowicz, and his foreign policy adviser, Shalom Turjeman, were in charge of the final version.

I believe the report. Elie Wiesel once helped me, too, when I made my film "Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?". I had read his essay, "The Jews of Silence." So I invited him to take a look at a rough cut of my film. He came to my editing room, sat through the picture in silence. I was more than a little bit worried. Had I made some major error that would require a lot of work? At the end, however, Wiesel just said: "Every word is true." And then he left. It gave me confidence to finish the picture and stand behind it when I was attacked by Commentary magazine and some other people. Much later, I learned Wiesel had worked with Samuel Merlin--an Irgun leader who was one of the stars of the film--on a newspaper in Paris after the war. Small world....

Belinda Stronach on Bill Clinton

The Canadian MP talked to the CBC about news reports of her relationship with the former US President:

CAROLE MACNEIL: Did you see the Globe? Not the Globe and Mail but the Globe Magazine in the grocery stores this week? It has a picture of you and Bill Clinton.

BELINDA STRONACH: I think that was last week

CAROLE MACNEIL: Or last week, yeah. What's your reaction?

BELINDA STRONACH: Look there's, there's media out there, it's ... it's a tabloid. So Canadians can judge if it's entertainment, or if it's newsworthy or if it's factual and then, I'm saying it's a tabloid.

CAROLE MACNEIL: You're saying it's not factual? I ... the only reason I say that, and I know it sounds weird that I say that, but, because somebody said "is she having a relationship with Bill Clinton?" I mean, it's a question that's out there and everybody knows it's out there. What is your relationship with Bill Clinton?

BELINDA STRONACH: Bill Clinton is somebody I know, is someone I've had the opportunity to meet through a number of circumstances, is someone that I would welcome the advice on if I had the opportunity to take it, but that's it. That's it.

CAROLE MACNEIL: Does he give you any advice, or has he given you any advice?

BELINDA STRONACH: That's it. Like, given the opportunity to, I've met many world leaders, Bill Clinton, and many others, and uh, I consider it a great honour to be able to meet people that have achieved great things, and given the opportunity to discuss complex issues, I would take that opportunity. But no, we don't consult each other on a regular basis. (smiles)

Wikipedia entry here

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Speaks to Channel Four (UK)

(ht LGF).

Happy Birthday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...

Today's Google icon reminded us of Sherlock Holmes's author's birthday. Here's his official website.

Goodnight and Good Luck, Mike Wallace

Really enjoyed the 60 Minutes piece on Mike Wallace. He had a personality, and that 1950s Leonard Bernstein-Edward R. Murrow-style cigarette-smoking tough-guy sophistication that made the Tiffany Network the jewel in the crown of American television. Where did it all go? I can't say that I disagree with Andy Rooney. 60 Minutes won't be the same without Mike Wallace. Indeed, I tremble at the thought of Katie Couric on Sunday nights.

Interestingly, Mike Wallace made possible Ben Hecht's short-lived 1950s television show.

A Good Week

I Liked It . . .

Saw it yesterday at our local movie house. Yes, it's got a really ludicrous plot (I laughed out loud, just like the Cannes audience). Yes, it is anti-Catholic (they could have changed the name of Opus Dei to something fictional, like "Carpe Diem"). But it is a roller-coaster of a movie, lots of entertainment--car chases, castles, airplanes, priests, tombs, museums, professors, French, English, Italians...I liked The Da Vinci Code.

It has nostalgia value, too, like those 60s thrillers with Cary Grant and Audsrey Hepburn running around Europe accused of a crime he didn't commit, running from people without knowing why. American innocence confronting European horror.

BTW Ron Howard did a good directing job. And Tom Hanks is just fine, as is Mlle. Tatou and the supporting cast. Ian McKellen steals the show with his good-guy/bad-guy/who knows what? English lord star turn.

Favorite line: "I've got to get to a library!"

Not to be taken seriously. But a lot of fun. Plus, I love the cinematic references to "A Beautiful Mind" in the puzzle-solving scenes when Tom Hanks sees glowing letters and swirling orbs. The protagonist of that earlier Ron Howard/Akiva Goldsman film--as all you Harvard symbology professors reading this surely know--was a paranoid schizophrenic.

A Visit to the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home

Yesterday, at the invitation of a friend, we spent the afternoon at the annual garden party for The Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home. It was the most pleasant afternoon we have passed in a long time. There were several bands, and the residents of this venerable (the Louise home for women was founded in 1869) institution had more energy than we did. They were still dancing when we left. It has to be the nicest and best-maintained home for the aged I'd ever seen. People seemed happy to be there. There are only 100 places, we were told, and a long waiting list. And the food, catered by the kitchen, was delicious.

The Desperate Hours

Took another look at William Wyler's production of The Desperate Hours, starring Humphrey Bogart and Frederic March, based on the Joseph Hayes Broadway play with Paul Newman and Karl Malden. (Interesting IMDB trivia: Spencer Tracy had been slated for March's role, but pulled out in a billing dispute.) In the Encylopedia of Film Noir, Alain Silver bashed the picture as pro-famiy and so omitted it from his list of noir. IMDB corrects this omission, lists the genre as noir. It is indeed noir. The film takes place mostly at night, has a nightmarish quality, stars Humphrey Bogart as a criminal. It's noir.

It really holds up well. What may have been intended as a Cold War parable--peaceful suburbanites=USA/ruthless gangsters=USSR--can be read in the context of the Global War on Terror just as readily. Bogart could be a Bin Laden-type. The complacent surburbanites are just as apt today. Message: you can't rely on the authorities alone to defeat terror, suburbanites must think for themselves. Frederic March actually stands up not only to Bogart, but also to the police, in order to defeat the desperatdoes.

In the 50s it meant standing up to Joe McCarthy and Stalin both. Today, it means standing up to George W. Bush as well as Osama Bin Laden.

It's not called "Hollywood's Golden Age" for nothing...

More on Turkey's Anti-Islamist Revolt

From Yahoo! News (ht LGF):

Turkey's Islamist-rooted government faced a wave of anger and calls for resignation after a deadly fundamentalist attack on the country's highest administrative court stunned a nation fiercely proud of its secular system.

The anti-government backlash Friday coincided with ceremonies marking the 87th anniversary of the start of the War of Independence, which ushered in a secular republic on the ruins of the theocratic Ottoman Empire.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of Ankara residents took to the streets in protest against the attack on the Council of State by an Islamist lawyer whose shooting spree killed one judge and wounded four others.

Alparslan Arslan, 29, shouting "I am a soldier of Allah", sprayed the judges' meeting with handgun fire, saying later that he wanted to "punish" the court for upholding a ban on the Islamic headscarf.

Contemporary Conflicts

I came across this website containing essays from the Social Science Research Council while doing some online research today. It has background on places like Darfur that I found interesting and thought-provoking. Your tax dollars at work, if you happen to be a US Citizen. Here's their blurb:

Not long after the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, the Council launched a website of commissioned essays dealing with the causes, consequences and interpretations of the tragic events (archive for "After September 11"). Response to the site was favorable, reminding us that there is strong demand, even in these information-rich days, for careful, reliable and scholarly analysis of contemporary issues. With the launching of the SSRC website Contemporary Conflicts, we have extended coverage to other conflicts in the world besides those directly related to the events of September 11—reaffirming that these, too, merit serious scholarly attention. But coverage has continued on events related—or putatively related—to September 11, as many conflicts in the world have become enmeshed in what until recently was called "the war against terror."

Bush's Falling Stock

How low can public approval for President George W. Bush go? It's pretty low now, that's for sure. For example, last night I went to the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center with someone I know. It was a crummy production of Rossini's "Italian Girl in Algiers." Everything was vulgar, crude, in poor taste, and not working. We had seen a lovely and charming production a few years ago in Charlottesville, so this was a disappointment. In any case, during a break my companion turned to me and said, out of the blue:

"I really hate George W. Bush."

What makes you say that? I asked.

"I blame him for this production."

Note to non-Washington readers: The Kennedy Center budget is subsidized by US government appropriations.

Turks Demonstrate for Secularism

The London Times reports:

Some 40,000 protesters took to the streets of Turkey today to noisily support their country's secular traditions, a day after a suspected Islamist militant shot dead a judge.

Members of Turkey's pro-Islamist government were booed as they attended memorial services, and the Turkish President issued a warning that "no one will be able to overthrow the (secular) regime".

The entire leadership of the Turkish military, which has led three coups in the past and regards itself as the guardians of secularism, lined up beside the flag-draped coffin of Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin, at his funeral today.

If it comes down to a conflict between Islamic fundamentalist democracy and military secularism in Turkey, I'd side with the latter--and I would hope (and pray) that the Bush administration will finally drop its "faith-based" "democracy-building" foreign policy--aka spreading worldwide Islamic revolution.

Agustin Blazquez to Star at Palm Beach Film Festival

Our favorite Cuban-American film director is having a really big show in Palm Beach next week (you can view his trailers via Google, here):

In person the filmmaker Agustin Blazquez at the Palm Beach International Film Festival by María Argelia Vizcaíno

The awaited first Palm Beach International Latin Film Festival, to be held from May 25 to 28, 2006, will rely on the participation in person of the recognized filmmaker, Agustin Blazquez.

The festival will last four days and will have several of the most important films of South America and Spain, and Blazquez’s films, made in the United States.

Blazquez was born in Cardenas, in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, grew up in the towns of Coliseo and Limonar. He left Cuba for Spain in 1965, and as many Cuban exiles, followed his destiny to the United States.

Agustin Blazquez is not only a daring, dynamic and truthful filmmaker, but an actor, a screenplay writer, a historian, and a writer who knows how to inform and educate the Anglo community that doesn’t have other ways to learn the real story denied by the massive communication media and their interests favoring the left.

Articles like “Collaborating With The Enemy,” “Children Kidnapped By Castro” and about a women’s prison in Cuba, “A Women’s Prison Known As Black Mantle,” etc. are some of his articles he has written in English especially for Americans.

With the same goal, he makes his documentaries that shows with facts the reality that is denied to the American people. That’s why in 1995 “COVERING CUBA 1" was born, and ”COVERING CUBA 2: The Next Generation” (2000), “COVERING CUBA 3: Elian” (2002), “CUBA: The Pearl of the Antilles” (1999) and “COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below” (2005) in English with Spanish subtitles.

In this last one he confirms what many Cubans already knew, how the power of money and greed of the American politicians brought a tragedy to little Elian. In this film reveals how the domination of an unscrupulous corporation influenced the government of President Bill Clinton to kidnap an innocent boy - violating his human rights – voiding the possibility of solving his status peacefully under the laws established by the Constitution of the United States.

That’s why “The Rats Below” is the continuation of “COVERING CUBA 3: Elian” and both will be exhibited in this Palm Beach County International Latin Film Festival during the last week of May.

The first film opening the festival will be “COVERING CUBA 3: Elian” on Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 5 p.m. For his second film there will be a Cocktail Reception with the talented filmmaker Agustin Blazquez on Saturday, May 27 at 5:30 p.m. in the lobby of the theater sponsored by Semanario Accion. In it, the director Blazquez, can exchange impressions with the audience. The screening of his film “The Rats Below” is programmed for 6 p.m.

The tickets for each film are $10.00 per person and include the access to all parties and celebrations. The screenings will be at the Cuillo Center For The Arts at 201 Clematis St. in the center of West Palm Beach. There are three options for parking: Valet Parking, street parking meter and city garage parking.

For the complete schedule of the other films, visit: www.PalmBeachLatinFilmFestival.com

Agustin Blazquez’s documentaries will be available for sale at the lobby or visit: http://www.cubacollectibles.com/

Joe Galloway on Rumsfeld's Iran War Game

The same friend who told me about Office Space told me the story of Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper's experience with Pentagon War Games, described in this column by Joe Galloway of Knight Ridder:

One event that shocked Van Riper occurred in 2002 when he was asked, as he had been before, to play the commander of an enemy Red Force in a huge $250 million three-week war game titled Millennium Challenge 2002. It was widely advertised as the best kind of such exercises -- a free-play unscripted test of some of the Pentagon's and Rumsfeld's fondest ideas and theories.

Though fictional names were applied, it involved a crisis moving toward war in the Persian Gulf and in actuality was a barely veiled test of an invasion of Iran.

In the computer-controlled game, a flotilla of Navy warships and Marine amphibious warfare ships steamed into the Persian Gulf for what Van Riper assumed would be a pre-emptive strike against the country he was defending.

Van Riper resolved to strike first and unconventionally using fast patrol boats and converted pleasure boats fitted with ship-to-ship missiles as well as first generation shore-launched anti-ship cruise missiles. He packed small boats and small propeller aircraft with explosives for one mass wave of suicide attacks against the Blue fleet. Last, the general shut down all radio traffic and sent commands by motorcycle messengers, beyond the reach of the code-breakers.

At the appointed hour he sent hundreds of missiles screaming into the fleet, and dozens of kamikaze boats and planes plunging into the Navy ships in a simultaneous sneak attack that overwhelmed the Navy's much-vaunted defenses based on its Aegis cruisers and their radar controlled Gatling guns.

When the figurative smoke cleared it was found that the Red Forces had sunk 16 Navy ships, including an aircraft carrier. Thousands of Marines and sailors were dead.

The referees stopped the game, which is normal when a victory is won so early. Van Riper assumed that the Blue Force would draw new, better plans and the free play war games would resume.

Instead he learned that the war game was now following a script drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory: He was ordered to turn on all his anti-aircraft radar so it could be destroyed and he was told his forces would not be allowed to shoot down any of the aircraft bringing Blue Force troops ashore.

The Pentagon has never explained. It classified Van Riper's 21-page report criticizing the results and conduct of the rest of the exercise, along with the report of another DOD observer. Pentagon officials have not released Joint Forces Command's own report on the exercise.

Van Riper walked out and didn't come back. He was furious that the war game had turned from an honest, open free play test of America's war-fighting capabilities into a rigidly controlled and scripted exercise meant to end in an overwhelming American victory.

Daniel Cohen: Bush's Embrace of Kadafi Dishonors America

From Daniel Cohen's oped in today's LA Times (ht LGF):

HOW WOULD YOU feel if the man who murdered your child was forgiven — and embraced — by your government?

That's what happened to me Monday when the State Department announced that Moammar Kadafi's Libya was being taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and that the United States would establish full and friendly relations with the regime.

Libya, you may recall, was the country that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988. The blast killed 270 people, 189 of them Americans. It was the worst terrorist attack on American civilians before 9/11. My daughter, Theodora — everyone called her Theo — was a Syracuse University drama student returning home from a semester in Britain on the flight. She was our only child, and her killing shattered our lives.

I know national policy cannot be influenced by the personal grief and rage of a single family. But the Bush administration has dishonored our country. The excuse the administration gives for its actions is that Libya has changed: It has given up its weapons of mass destruction. But Libya never really had weapons of mass destruction. Yes, it had materials bought from Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear supermarket, and maybe Kadafi was nuts enough to believe that he could build nuclear weapons someday. But he didn't actually have any, and his program had been completely compromised long before he magnanimously agreed to give it up.

Libya had no biological weapons either, apart from some World War I-era mustard gas. The truth is, Kadafi gave up nothing of value. It's hard to see how his example will inspire North Korea or Iran, countries that really do have nuclear weapons or the means to make them. The message they will take away is that the United States can be rolled.

Has Libya embraced democracy? Not according to human rights groups, which say that Kadafi remains a brutal and unstable dictator. So much for President Bush's doctrine of spreading democracy. The message here is that the U.S. doesn't really mind doing business with tyrants.

America by Ray Bradbury

Bradbury's ode to immigration on today's Opinion Journal channels poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman...

His final stanza:

Run warm those souls: America is bad?
Sit down, stare in their faces, see!
You be the hoped-for thing a hopeless world would be.
In tides of immigrants that this year flow
You still remain the beckoning hearth they'd know.
In midnight beds with blueprint, plan and scheme
You are the dream that other people dream.

Michelle Malkin Connects Illegal Immigration to 9/11

In her latest Hot Air video Vent.

Office Space

A friend of mine who works at a Washington think-tank told me to see Office Space to understand what goes on at the US State Department. Note the "TPS reports," he said.

I quickly ordered the DVD from Netflix and watched it the other night.

He was right. Mike Judge's film is terrific. Funny but not nasty, charming really. I'm sorry I missed it in 1999. It's like Dilbert with live action figures. Plus, Jennifer Anniston is great as the girl next door working at "Chochkes" wearing 15 pieces of "flair."

Add it to your Netflix queue. Five stars.

Bill Cosby Speaks!

The comedian was in town at the University of the District of Columbia's "Call Out!" event. He created a stir with his criticism of drug dealers, crime, and hypocritical church-goers (Cosby lost a son tragically under mysterious circumstances, possibly shot in a drug deal gone wrong). Here's one account from the Washington Post:

Entertainer Bill Cosby yesterday chastised churchgoers who preach religion but fail to confront problems that plague their communities.

And another from Casey Lartigue in BlackElectorate.com:, contrasting Cosby to Eric Dyson:

Over his 4 decade career, Cosby has made it clear that he believes that there are barriers (Dyson literally swoons when discussing Cosby’s 1976 dissertation bashing institutional racism). But Cosby has also made it clear that we can’t just “stay where we are.” After those four decades of giving his own money and time to the effort, Cosby may be telling people to stand up because he is tired of stepping over them.