Is Paris Burning? (2005)

On CNN , from Reuters (ht to LittleGreenFootballs).

Ann Althouse on Scooter Libby

She thinks one has to keep the meaning of the Pentagon Papers in mind. Interestingly, I went to school with Robert Ellsberg, who helped his father Daniel Ellsberg photocopy the Pentagon Papers. I didn't know anything about it. He was one of my best friends, and was in my living room watching TV with me when Walter Cronkite reported on the case. I had no idea.He didn't leak, that's for sure. Robert went on to become a professor of religion at Harvard University...

Delhi Terror Blasts Kill 50

Here's the story from The Hindu.

More on Scooter Libby, Tim Russert and Chris Matthews

...at WarandPiece...

Putin's Secret

Konstantin's Russian Blog says that Putin doesn't really want to be President--which is why he is so popular...

Iran Stands By President's Vow

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the link to this story in Gulf News. Is this surprising? No. What is disappointing is that some in the West still make apologies for Iran and Islamism.

Scooter Libby Indicted

You can read the indictement here, on Patrick Fitzgerald's website.

200,000 Russians Move to London

According to today's Washington Post, London is now a major Russian city, home to the elite of Moscow and St. Petersburg...

Israeli Bomb Victim Came From Uzbekistan

According to Haaretz, Michael Koifman was a recent Uzbek immigrant:

Michael Koifman, 68, from Hadera immigrated to Israel from Uzbekistan in 1993. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, their two children and four grandchildren.

Koifman's son, Alex, said on Wednesday that Michael "went to a routine medical examination at the clinic, which isn't far from the market. His appointment was moved up, tragically, and he left the clinic and went to buy grapes."

"He apparently was buying grapes at a stand near Falafel Barzilai, when he was injured and killed. If his appointment hadn't been early, he would probably still be alive," he added.

Family members recalled that in Uzbekistan, Koifman was a senior manager in an auto production company. He had difficulty finding work in Israel that matched his skills.

"We will remember his as a warm and loving father," Alex said. Koifman is to be buried at 2 P.M. Thursday in the new cemetery in Hadera.

Israel Responds to Hadera Suicide Bombing

With airstrikes in Gaza, according to Haaretz.

Judy Miller's Wikipedia Page

Well, now Judy Miller is eternal...

NY Times Throwing Judy Miller Overboard?

That's the drift of this Wall Street Journal story.

If they fire her, I hope she sues. The legal case for wrongful dismissal itself would make a nice chapter for her upcoming book.

BTW, if there never were any WMD in Iraq, and everyone knew it before the war, what were those UN inspectors looking for, exactly? And why did opponents of the war want to give the inspections more time?

What is America Doing to Afghanistan?

The Scranton Times-Tribune speaks truth to power in its editorial on resurgent Taliban-style Islamism in Afghanistan:

The power of the Islamic state was brought to bear upon Mr. Nasab for his magazine’s publication of two articles that, according to the prosecutor, put the editor in the position of having abandoned the Islamic faith. One article argued that Muslims who convert to other faiths should not be stoned to death; the other argued that people who commit adultery should not be subjected to 100 lashes.

Democracy advocates were left to ponder that U.S. allies within the government noted that Mr. Nasab was given just two years in prison, whereas the prosecutor had argued for the death sentence. And, of course, the magazine itself was removed from newsstands.

This cannot be what Americans are fighting, dying and paying for in Afghanistan.

I wonder who made the American decision to let the Taliban back into Afghan government--instead of completely crushing them--and why?

Thank You, Patricia Cardoso...

Sometimes, strange things turn up in an IMDB search. For example, I learned that director Patricia Cardoso was kind enough to give me credit (though the spelling isn't quite right) for working on her short film as assistant production manager a long time ago--Cartas al Nino Dios (1991). We went to UCLA film school together, and she went on to become a big-time director. According to IMDB, her films include The Jane Plan (2006) (announced);Nappily Ever After (2005) (announced);Real Women Have Curves (2002); Reino de los cielos, El (1994);... aka The Kingdom of Heaven ;The Water Carrier of Cucunuba (1994);Cartas al niño Dios (1991);The Air Globes (1990); and Aisle of Dreams (1989).

It's nice when people who don't need to remember you, show that they do.

Is Today the Day?

Jim Vandehei and Carol D. Leonnig are reporting in The Washington Post that indictments might come as early as today in the Valerie Plame case that's spooking the Bush administration:

WASHINGTON -- The prosecutor in the CIA leak case was preparing to outline possible charges before a federal grand jury as early as today, even as the FBI conducted last-minute interviews in the high-profile investigation, according to people familiar with the case.

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald was seen Tuesday in Washington with lawyers in the case, and some White House officials braced for at least one indictment when the grand jury meets today. Several people in the case say I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is a main focus but not the only one.

One Woman Who Made a Difference

Roger L. Simon tipped us off to the passing of Rosa Parks, aged 92 years. You can read about how she changed America, here.

Daniel Pipes on Islamaphobia

Daniel Pipes says the term is being used by some extremist groups in a way that does harm to traditional Islam. Money quote:

Muslims should dispense with this discredited term and instead engage in some earnest introspection. Rather than blame the potential victim for fearing his would-be executioner, they would do better to ponder how Islamists have transformed their faith into an ideology celebrating murder (Al-Qaeda : "You love life, we love death") and develop strategies to redeem their religion by combating this morbid totalitarianism.

Sons of the Conquerors

Nathan has posted my book review of Hugh Pope's wonderful survey of the Pan-Turanian world on Registan.

NY Sun Defends Judith Miller

Who has been the better journalist - Judith Miller or those attacking her in her own paper's pages? Ms. Miller was sounding the alarm about the Iraqi threat and working her sources and fighting not to get beat. Ms. Dowd was parroting unsubstantiated smears, and Mr. Wilson was falsely downplaying Iraq's effort to obtain weapons of mass destruction, without disclosing to Times readers his wife's institutional interests. And huge numbers of Times reporters have been complaining about her to competing news companies. To which we can only say that if Ms. Miller is to be run out of the Times in favor of Ms. Dowd and Mr. Wilson and those who believe, falsely, that the Iraq war was all just an elaborate con job by Mr. Chalabi and his neoconservative allies - well, then the Times is in even worse straits than we thought.

But if she is let go by the Times, will the NY Sun editors offer Miller a job? (It might help the Sun become a better paper).

There is Nothing Inevitable About the Triumph of Islamism

In a rebuttal to those who would have America work Islamists, Martin Kramer points out Islamism can be defeated by its own fundamental intolerance:

So smart people, many of them with experience "handling" Islamists, have been wrong about them time and again. They have told us they know how to talk to Islamists, how to channel them away from violence, how to find common ground. And leaders, governments, and everyday people have paid the price for their errors. It has been the worst precisely in places where Islamists were given the most space to organize, preach, plan, and operate. So when old intelligence hands tell us that they have a bright idea on how to engage Islamists, we should first ask them to give us an accounting for errors past, and tell us the lessons, if any, they've learned.

One of the lessons we have learned these last 25 years is that there is nothing inevitable about the triumph of Islamism. Way back when I wrote Political Islam, many people feared that a tsunami of Islamist revolution might sweep the region. But the progress of Islamism has been erratic. It has been most potent in places that have been subject to war and occupation, and where the state is weak: Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Iraq. Where states are stronger, regimes have kept Islamists in check or at bay. Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Algeria–all of them have faced Islamist challenges, which they have turned back. Islamism has faltered in these settings for two reasons: first, Arab rulers were more resolute and ruthless than the Shah; and second, the Islamists were less adept at forging alliances than Khomeini.

They have been less adept at forging alliances because they have been unwilling to compromise on their core values or their insistence that they dominate any system in which they participate. To put it in a word, they are intolerant, and so they stir deep misgivings among other opposition groups and potential sympathizers in the West.