Brussels Journal on the Danish Cartoon Crisis

Brussels Journal (Motto: "We Are All Danes Now") has this post citing a Telegraph article claiming victory for the Islamic clerics who started this clash:

The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that’s a clear victory. It’s confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call ‘adverse consequences’ – violence to the rest of us – then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent.”

DC Anti-Danish Protest Fizzles

Tom the Redhunter was there, and has photos that make one think of that 1960s line, "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came..." (ht Michelle Malkin)

Michelle Malkin is Angry at Karen Hughes

Malkin said this:

Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes ought to read Rose's entire piece before she opens her mouth again on foreign soil and knocks newspapers who have dared to publish the cartoons

...About Hughes saying this, at the US-Islamic World Forum:

Of course, with freedom comes responsibility, maa-alhurria, mas’uliya.  Governments have responsibilities to their people -- to establish the rule of law, protect human rights, including the rights of women and minorities, fight corruption and widen political participation. Elections are an important part of democracy, but they are only a part – a thriving democracy requires independent political parties, non-governmental organizations, a free press, and civic institutions that allow people to assemble freely and engage in discussion and debate without fear or government harassment.  The challenge for leaders in this region is to listen to their people’s call for greater freedom: allow them to form political parties, let them gather and speak more freely, give them access to newsprint so they can run their own newspapers.

In a free society, individuals have community responsibilities as well.  We have a responsibility to respect and appreciate, even celebrate, the views of others.  In a genuine democracy, all have a right to express their views, share ideas and participate as equals.  In a society built on freedom and justice, we have the right to offend one another but the responsibility to do our best not to.  In my country certain racial and ethnic slurs are no longer used by civil people even though there is no law prohibiting it – and while newspapers would be free to publish them most would never do so – just as many American newspapers chose not to reprint the cartoons depicting the Prophet because they recognize they are deeply offensive, even blasphemous to the precious convictions of our Muslim friends and neighbors.

Mark Steyn on the Danish Cartoon Crisis

Mark Steyn has some thoughts on the way the Danish Cartoon Crisis seems to be playing out:

Meanwhile, from Malaysia to Jordan to Scandinavia, it was a bad week for journalists increasingly constrained -- not to mention fired and otherwise humiliated -- in their ability to cover the big story of our time. If I had to pick a single moment to contrast with the hilariously parochial narcissist buffoons of the Washington press, it would be another press conference in another government building, this time in Oslo, called by Norway's minister of labor. Surrounded by cabinet ministers and a phalanx of imams, Velbjorn Selbekk, the editor of an obscure Christian publication called Magazinet, issued an abject public apology for reprinting the Danish Muhammed cartoons. He had initially stood firm in the face of Muslim death threats and the usual lack of support from Europe's political class, but in the end Mr. Selbekk was prevailed upon to recant and the head of Norway's Islamic Council, Mohammed Hamdan, graciously accepted the apology and assured the prostrate editor that he was now under his personal protection. As the American author Bruce Bawer commented, "It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom."

In Canada, by contrast, the Western Standard (for which I also write) stood firm in its decision to publish the cartoons, and as a result is suffering legal harassment from Muslim lobby groups and has been banned from both Air Canada and two of the country's leading bookstore chains, Indigo-Chapters and McNally Robinson. Paul McNally of the latter defended his action this way: "We feel there is nothing to gain on the side of freedom of expression and much to lose on the side of hurting feelings." Not exactly Voltaire, is it? "I disagree strongly with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it as long as it doesn't hurt anybody's feelings." Maybe it could be Canada's new national motto.

It's easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions "the public's right to know" about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they've no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world. On CNN, out of "sensitivity" to Islam, they show the cartoons but with the Prophet's face pixilated so that he looks as if Cheney's ventilated him with birdshot and it turned puffy and gangrenous. C'mon, guys, these are interesting times. Anyone can unload the umpteenth round of blanks into the bulletproof Chimpy Hallibushitler, but why not take a shot at something that matters?

Or perhaps it would just be easier to change the term ''free press'' to the ''Roses of the Prophet Muhammed press.''

This Photo Says All That Needs To Be Said...

About what the protesters are calling for, in the Danish Cartoon Crisis. (Source: Little Green Footballs from German TV coverage of an anti-Danish Cartoon demonstration in Pakistan)

First Sarkozy, Now Calderoli...

One thing about a crisis, as the Chinese proverb points out, is that it presents both danger and opportunity. In France, the riots brough Nicholas Sarkozy to the fore. In Italy, the Danish Cartoon Crisis has propelled Roberto Calderoli into the limelight, as this BBC story details:

Mr Calderoli was widely criticised by his cabinet colleagues for announcing earlier this week that he would distribute T-shirts emblazoned with the controversial cartoons.

He even undid his shirt live on television to reveal he was wearing one of the offending t-shirts.

Despite growing calls for his resignation - and facing blame for the riot in Libya on Friday that led to at least 10 deaths - Mr Calderoli was defiant, calling it a "battle for freedom".

"I can be sorry for the victims, but what happened in Libya has nothing to do with my T-shirt. The question is different. What's at stake is Western civilisation," he was quoted by the daily La Repubblica as saying.

He has resigned from Prime Minister Berlusconi's cabinet as a result of his actions. Unfortunately for the USA, so far no major political leader has yet stepped forward to defend free speech . . .

Flemming Rose: Why I Published Mohammed Cartoons

The editor of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten explains what's at stake in the Danish Cartoon Crisis, in Sunday's Washington Post:

Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn't intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.

This is exactly why Karl Popper, in his seminal work "The Open Society and Its Enemies," insisted that one should not be tolerant with the intolerant. Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations.

I acknowledge that some people have been offended by the publication of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that. But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed by worries about every possible insult.

Rumsfeld Says Al Qaeda Winning Propaganda War

Like the technocrat he is, according to this report on Yahoo! News, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appears to blame processes, bureaucratic and technical problems like 8-hour days, satellite TV, and the internet rather than objective factors such as mixed American messages, bad American strategy, conflicting American aims, "contracting out" to 2nd rate political cronies (e.g., the Lincoln Group in Iraq); failure to convince the American people; use of the war for partisan purposes rather than national unity, and so on.

The fact is that the US government does not have a consistent message, cannot name or describe the enemy, and that even the Secretary of Defense was asking for "metrics" on what victory would look like. Not to mention the obvious horrors of American torture chambers, secret prisons and inability or unwillingness to defeat the enemy decisively in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Cheney's hunting accident--which has made him and American "leadership" in general appear as blundering laughingstocks--doesn't help either.

Rumsfeld's whining is simply embarrassing. The SecDef needs to realize right now that the fault is not in the internet, work schedules, or satellites, Dear Horatio. The fault is in himself. Rumsfeld's immediate resignation might actually help make American victory possible. He has become an obstacle to victory.

After all, although General McLellan couldn't figure out how to win the Civil War despite years of inconclusive skirmishing, Generals Grant and Sherman could--and did.

Ann Coulter: Declare War on Syria Now

Ann Coulter, herself a lawyer, says the US government is now legally obligated to declare war on Syria:

In addition, I believe we are legally required to be bombing Syria right now. And unlike the Quran's alleged prohibition on depictions of Muhammad, I've got documentation to back that up!

Muslims in Syria torched the Danish Embassy a few weeks ago, burning it to the ground. According to everyone, the Syrian government was behind the attack — the prime minister of Denmark, Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Scott McClellan. I think even the gals on "The View" have acknowledged that Damascus was behind this one.

McClellan said: "We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support."

We are signatories to a treaty that requires us to do more than "hold Syria responsible" for this attack. Syria has staged a state-sponsored attack on our NATO partner on Danish soil, the Danish embassy. According to the terms of the NATO treaty, the United States and most of Europe have an obligation to go to war with Syria.

Or is NATO — like the conventions of civilized behavior, personal hygiene and grooming — inapplicable when Muslims are involved? Liberals complain about "unilateral action," but under the terms of a treaty created by Dean Acheson and the Democrats, France, Germany, Spain and Greece are all obliged to go to war with us against Syria. Why, it's almost like a coalition!

Michael Maren on NGOs

I'm doing research for a scholarly article on the role of NGOs in international relations, and found this interesting interview author Michael Maren gave to Might Magazine. He says NGOs hurt the very people they intend to help:

Q: Doesn't it seem to you that these charitable organizations come into a country like Somalia or into poor areas of the U.S. offering the promise of new schools or better health care or food or whatever, and in so doing, they sort of exonerate us from having to worry about the fact that our government doesn't care for the needs of a certain percentage of its population?

A: Or our government is supporting a dictator of a country who's ripping off the national treasury for billions of dollars. The president of Kenya is a billionaire. He's stolen more money than all of these organizations are ever going to bring in. He gets to play with these NGOs.

Q: But the presence of Western NGOs means that governments don't have to carry out the obligations that governments should have to carry out.

A: Yeah, it lets us off the hook. "We're doing something. We're building schools over there. That's our obligation to this country"-when we're pursuing macroeconomic policies that are causing these problems to begin with, such as massive structural adjustments and debt burdens. That's really the problem, and that amount of money dwarfs the money coming in through these charities. You have to think about development in terms of larger economic issues. That's where the problems are.

Q: What would happen if these aid organizations pulled out of these countries?

A: I think if all of them went out of business today, there would be very few people who would be any worse for it, and a great number of people would be better off. People know what's best for themselves. They can do what they need to do. In most of these countries-I'm thinking of Africa-people are not developing economically because they're not being allowed to. They're being oppressed politically If you look at the development that's taken place in Asia in the past 15 or 20 years, none of that can be attributed to foreign aid. It's all investment, it all came about through change in government policies that allowed people to invest their money. I had a friend who had a business in Nairobi a number of years ago who said he wanted to keep the business small because if you stuck your head up too high they'd chop it off. The president of Kenya basically stole most of the successful businesses in The country, and now owns them. That's not the kind of policy that's going to foster large economic growth. And if the Asian model is going to apply to Africa, it's got to start slowly, and it has to start with good government. And to a certain extent, NGOs and aid organizations in these countries now help fortify a lot of bad governments.

Q: In the end, is there any role for NGOs or charitable organizations in the developing world at all?

A: No.

Music in My Heart

Last night saw Rita Hayworth, Tony Martin, Alan Mowbray and Eric Blore in Music in My Heart, a charming musical featuring conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Martin is a Broadway understudy about to be deported by the Immigration Service. He misses his boat when his taxi crashes into Rita Hayworth's cab. She's on her way to marry a millionaire, whom she misses because of the accident. So Martin goes home with Hayworth to hide out from Uncle Sam in New York's colorful Lower East Side. There, working in an Italian restaurant alongside a colorful Russian cook, he romances Hayworth. A few twists later, the millionaire turns out to have a heart of gold--and Hayworth gets hitched to Martin. This 1940 film is somehow relevant to today's immigration issues, as well as funny. Eric Blore as the millionaire's valet really steals the show. I didn't get it from Netflix, rather on VHS from my corner video rental place, but I just checked, and Netflix has it listed here. It's really worth seeing.

Interestingly Rita Hayworth really did marry a millionaire--the Aga Khan. And Tony Martin married the fabulously long-stemmed dancer Cyd Charisse in 1948. They lived happily ever after, too.

Konstantin on Russian NGOs

Citing a report in the Moscow Times, today Konstantin accuses the US and EU of double standards regarding NGOs in Russia:

The idea is very simple but absurd and irrational. Good countries can have very restrictive laws on NGO’s because they are democratic and nice. Bad countries – like Russia – are not supposed to put any restrictions on NGO’s because these countries are very repressive and not democratic. But wait a minute! Just six months ago NGO’s activities in Russia were not restricted by Kremlin in any way. Still I don’t remember if any "freedom fighting" NGO said, “Thank you, Mr. Putin for your very liberal attitude towards us”. On the contrary, US-financed NGO’s were picturing themselves as being the most repressed in the whole world, suffering beyond imagination from Putin's political terror. Go figure.

Another Interesting Press Release . . .

Muslims to Rally at Denmark Embassy to Defend Against Attack on Prophet Muhammad
2/13/2006 10:26:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: New Black Panther Party, 202-397-4577 or 267-259-6420
News Advisory:
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally at the Denmark Embassy
WHERE: Denmark Embassy, 3200 Whitehaven St., NW, Washington, D.C.
(off of Massachusetts Ave, 2 Blocks From the Islamic Center)
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 18, 1 to 4 p.m.
(meet in front in front of Islamic Center at 12 noon. Press Conference will begin at 1 p.m. and Rally which will follow, will be held after Salaatul Zuhr)
WHO:
Speakers Include: Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, Imam Akbar Bilal, Imam Abdul Alim Musa, Imam Mohammed Asi, Hodari Abdul Ali, and other community and Muslim leaders who will speak in solidarity with the worldwide Muslim Ummah (Community) that is fighting against the intentional debased attack by the Danish and western peoples against Islam. The participants recognize this as an escalation in the American-European War against Islam and the Muslims.

Sponsored by a coalition of Muslim groups and the New Black Panther Party.

-0-(ht free republic)

UPDATE: More here, from Michelle Malkin.

Armenians Protest PBS Massacre Panel

Just got this press release about a protest against PBS from the Armenian National Committee of America:

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to cancel its plans this April to provide Armenian Genocide deniers a national television audience.

In a February 14th letter to Jacoba Atlas, PBS's Co-Chief Program Executive, ANCA Board Member and Western U.S. Chairman Steve Dadaian voiced the profound opposition of the Armenian American community to PBS's intention to televise a panel discussion featuring two known Armenian Genocide deniers following the April 2005 broadcast of 'The Armenian Genocide' by Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions. The two Genocide deniers are Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan.

In the letter, Dadaian, noted that 'the mere existence of Armenian Genocide deniers or, for that matter, Holocaust revisionists does not entitle these individuals to a place on our national stage alongside those who responsibly research and document these and other crimes against humanity.' He added, �Consider, for example, the absurdity of following a broadcast of Schindler�s List with a roundtable that includes Holocaust deniers.'

Commenting on the form letters that PBS has sent to concerned Armenian Americans over the past week, Dadaian welcomed the network's recognition that 'the majority of historians, nations and news organizations recognize the Armenian Genocide,' and pointed out that, 'save for the Turkish government and its surrogates (Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan included), this crime is universally acknowledged and unanimously condemned by the international community.'

"Heck of a job, Cheney!"

Well, those aren't Bush's exact words about Dick Cheney's hunting accident, but it seems to mean the same thing. Here's President Bush's precise quote from the Associated Press

"I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine," the president said in his first public comments on Saturday's accident. "I thought his explanation yesterday was a powerful explanation."

It took 10 days from the time President Bush praised Michael Brown until he accepted the FEMA director's resignation. Let's see how long Dick Cheney can hold on--in a nation of hunters and NRA members who know something about hunting accidents and how ordinary people handle them.

White House May Dump Cheney

Republican speechwriter and Wall Street Journalist Peggy Noonan says that the White House may try to hit the "refresh" button and dump Dick Cheney because the Vice President has become a "hate magnet". Noonan says White House insiders are wondering who might replace him:

It would have to be a man wildly popular in the party and the press. And it would have to be a decision made by Dick Cheney. If he didn't want to do it he wouldn't have to. If he were pressed--Dick, we gotta put the next guy in here or we're going to lose in '08 and see all our efforts undone--he might make the decision himself. He'd have to step down on his own. He's just been through a trauma, and he can't be liking his job as much now as he did three years ago. No one on the downside of a second term does, hate magnet or not.

Of course, all this is exactly like the sort of thing people blue-skied about in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was in trouble and a lot of people urged him to hit refresh by dumping Dan Quayle. He didn't. George W. Bush loves to do what his father didn't.

Who would it be? Someone who's a strong supporter of Iraq, and, presumably, the Bush doctrine.

Who would that be? That's what I suspect the president's men are asking themselves. But silently. (ht Ann Althouse)

My candidate for Vice President of the United States to replace Dick Cheney is well-known to readers of this blog: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Official Report of Cheney's Hunting Accident

Here's the Texas Parks and Wildlife Ranger's official report on the Vice President's hunting accident from the CBS News website. Karen Armstrong is listed as a witness. (ht Guns and Ammo Shooting Forum).

Where Are Iran's Nukes?

You can find some of them on this interesting map of Iran's nuclear facilities from the Intelligence Summit Blog (ht Roger L. Simon).

US Condemns New Images of Abu Gharib Torture

Al Jazeera seems to be reporting the US State Department's response to Australian television broadcasts of new pictures of Abu Gharib torture as a tactical defeat for the United States:

Bryan Whitman, a senior spokesman for the defence department, responded to the broadcast by Australian television network SBS of previously unpublished images of prisoner abuse.

"The department believes that a further release of images could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world and would endanger our military men and women that are serving around the world," he said.

Whitman said he did not know whether US officials had reviewed the photos and video clips or whether they were among a group of images the department had been withholding from public release since 2004.

If only the US spokesman could have said: "As Justice Brandeis said, 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'The public has a right to know, and we took strong measures to end these reported abuses when they were first reported. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took full responsibility at that time and he will announce his resignation this afternoon."

Here's a link to the Australian TV news report with the photos.

Where on earth is Rudy Giuliani?

UN to US: Shut Down Guantanamo

Al Jazeera has the story...