John Fund on the Yale Taliban

John Fund (ht lgf) is not happy with the Yale Taliban featured in the New York Times Sunday Magazine:

I don't believe Mr. Rahmatullah had direct knowledge of the 9/11 plot, and I don't think he has ever killed anyone. I can appreciate that he is trying to rebuild his life. But he willingly and cheerfully served an evil regime in a manner that would have made Goebbels proud. That he was 22 at the time is little of an excuse. There are many poor, bright students--American and foreign alike--who would jump at the opportunity to attend Yale. Why should Mr. Rahmatullah go to the line ahead of all of them? That's a question Yale alumni should ask when their alma mater comes looking for contributions.

President Bush, who already has a well-known disdain for Yale elitism from his student days there, may also have some questions. In the wake of his being blindsided by his own administration over the Dubai port deal, he should be interested in finding out exactly who at the State Department approved Mr. Rahmatullah's application for a student visa.

When I was teaching in Uzbekistan, it was almost impossible for my students to get a visa to study in the USA. Even if they had money. Even if they were medical students. So, not only did Mr. Rahmatullah go to the head of Yale's line, my guess is that he jumped to the head of the US visa line, too.

Remember Ukraine?

Neeka's Backlog has new photos of Yulia Timoshenko's campaign. Will she depose Yushchenko to become the next President of the Republic? At this point, from Neeka's pictures, it certainly looks like she's well-organized and well-funded. Hell hath no fury...

UPDATE: The Times of London has this headline Ukraine Turns Back to Russia...

A Russian Anecdote

(Photo by And-rey)

Yesterday, I took a Russian friend to the airport. She was returning to Moscow. Before boarding her flight, while she was putting away her ticket and passport, she told me this story, which somehow seemed very Russian:

There once was a officer in the Soviet army. He was beginning his career, which seemed very bright. He had done well in school, and was a member of the Communist Party. The future stretched in front of him. Everything was possible. Perhaps he would become a general. Then, one day, he didn't know how it happened, he misplaced his Party card. He had to show it, and when he went through his pockets, it was gone.

Losing your Party card was a very serious offense in the USSR. It was interpreted to mean that you didn't care enough about the Party to know where your card was kept. The officer was reported, he was reprimanded, and a note was made in his permanent file. He knew that his career was over. His comrades rose to higher ranks, but he was not promoted.

So, he began to drink.

Years passed. 10, 20 years. Perestroika came and went. The USSR collapsed. The Soviet army became the Russian army. He retired, and lived on a very small pension.

He decided to quit drinking. He straightened himself up a bit. And then one day, he needed to show his documents for something official, and looked through papers in his desk. He would start a new life.

Suddenly, he found himself holding his Communist Party card. "Aha! So it was in my drawer all along."

He began to drink, again.

Some Differences Between the UK and UAE

Since the perceptually challenged President Bush and administration apologists like Frances Fragos Townsend can't see the obvious, Michelle Malkin quotes Walid Phares' list of some differences between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates:

a) Great Britain is listed as a target by al Qaida, not the UAE; b) Tony Blair was sitting in the US Congress when President Bush declared War on the Taliban in October 2001, not the monarchs of the UAE; c) The UK has a clear strategy against the Jihadist-Terrorists, not the Emirates; and last but not least, the Prime Minister of the Isles declared the ideology of al Qaida as terrorist and criminal, not Dubai’s rulers. These, plus many other considerations grants Britain a clear status of strategic ally in the War with the Jihadists over the UAE’s somewhat cooperation against al Qaida...

Saudi Arabia Behind Danish Cartoon Crisis

So say Dr. Ali H. Alyami and Colonel B. Wayne Quist, who explain the international political calculation underlying the Danish Cartoon Crisis :

Given Saudi influence with the Muslim faithful worldwide, the royal family
failed to exercise restraint in the cartoon controversy and placed its own
narrow self-interests before peace, stability, respect for law, and sanctity
of life. The Saudi regime demonstrated that it would risk plunging the world
into religious war if its domination or survival were perceivably
threatened.

The Saudi decision to initiate a protest against Denmark was based on
well-calculated principles of royal family self-preservation and helped
divert world attention from the Hamas Palestinian election victory,
uncomfortable Kuwaiti succession issues, and the extraordinary Asian
agreements.

The primary goal of the Saudi royal family is to ensure its religious
leadership by crowning itself as the only Muslim government willing and able
to challenge the West and defend Islam at any cost. When asked about his
country’s reaction to the cartoons while attending an Arab Interior Minister
meeting in Tunis, Saudi Prince Naif said, “Nobody can pressure the Kingdom
to change its stand on a basic issue like this. I don't think it is
reasonable for international press or any organization or state to oppose
the decision taken by an Arab and Islamic country on this issue.”

The Saudi government has continually re-emphasized to the international
community the power and control it possesses as presumed leader of the
Muslim community. In contrast to other Arab and Muslim countries, there were
no demonstrations or burnings of flags or embassies in Saudi Arabia because
all forms of public expression are prohibited, despite Interior Minister
Naif's argument to the contrary during his press conference in Tunis when he
said, “Saudi Arabia respects opinion. Everybody has the right to express his
opinion.”

A Question for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Adam Garfinkle, once a speechwriter for former Secretary of Stte Colin Powell, now editor of The American Interest, blogs here that Seth Cropsey--former director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty--was present at Chris Hitchen's Stand Up for Denmark! demonstration on Friday.

So, how come, when I googled Hitchens, I didn't find any stories from VOA or RFE/RL? Is the reason censorship, or self-censorship?

I'd say "Prominent Former Bush Administration official attends Christopher Hitchens' Pro-Denmark Rally" seems to be a newsworthy story, especially when the official in question had been the director of the International Broadcasting Bureau, responsible for America's official broadcasting--including to the Arab and Muslim world.

I applaud Seth Cropsey for attending the rally, and now hope that his international broadcastering colleagues will follow his example--and stand up for freedom of speech instead of Islamist extremism, on the air and off...

FYI, here's a link to a search for "Hitchens" at the RFE/RL website that shows nothing about Hitchens' Citizens for Denmark rally.

Dynamic Russia

In Sources of Conflict in the 21st Century: Regional Futures and US Strategy, a 1998 publication from the RAND Corporation's "Project Air Force" co-edited by Zalmay Khalilzad--currently American viceroy in Iraq--one paragraph jumps out as something Dick Cheney might want to pay attention to before he plans anything rash at the upcoming G-8 summit meeting in St. Petersburg:

Dynamic Russia. The essential feature of this outcome would be a Russian "economic miracle," perhaps analogous to that which occurred in West German, Italy, and Japan in the 1950s and 60s, or such has occured in the emerging markets of East Asia in recent years. With a stable political system, free markets, and abundant natural and human resources, Russia might begin an economic "takeoff" in the course of the next several years, and sustain 8-10 percent per annum GDP growth for a decade or more. A dynamic Russia might not have overtly hegemonic aspirations toward the countries on its periphery. Indeed, a focus on improved living standards, consumption and investment by individuals and firms could direct attention away from international aspirations and could facilitate the normalization of Russia as a nation-state, much the way Japan, France, Turkey and other countries redefined themselves in the period after empire. Nonetheless, a dynamic Russia inevitably would exercise a high degree of influence on its neighbors through trde and investment, particularly if some of these countries lagged Russia in economic performance. (p.289)

In other words, a "dynamic Russia" is in America's interest. This is something that I am sure President Putin would agree with, and provides a better blueprint for American policy at the G-8 summit than anything I've seen coming out of the Bush administration nowadays (at least anything that has been published the Washington Post).

Reese Schonfeld on CNN's Danish Cartoon-phobia

Ted Turner's co-founder of CNN, Reese Schonfeld, doesn't think much of CNN's non-coverage of the Danish Cartoon Crisis:

Does CNN journalism now duck provocation because someone involved may think the provocation was unnecessary? What kind of a standard is that? Does CNN conform its journalism to the “expectations to the audience as a whole?” Does CNN let its audience determine that a subject is of “no intrinsic news values.”

Rose defends his editorial decision but Verjee cuts him short and quotes The Guardian reporting that three years ago Rose’s paper “actually refused to run cartoons that essentially poked fun at Jesus Christ and the Resurrection” because “they would be offensive to readers. Is that true?” she snaps at him. Then she cuts him short and suggests his paper is guilty of “double standards.” . . .

. . . Throughout the interview Rose has attempted to show the cartoons that are the subjects of the interview. But every time he holds one up the camera tilts away. I assume that CNN is so concerned about the reaction in the Arab world that it censors itself. May it rue the day.

Maybe now that he's left AOL-Time Warner, Ted Turner and Reese can get back together again to develop a really balanced and objective news channel--if they did, I'd want to work there...

Hurrah for Christopher Hitchens!

Joel Gelman says Hitchens' stock is on the rise:

Christopher Hitchens seems to understand the titanic struggle of civilizations that is in its early stages and seems determined to come out on the right side of history this time.

Bush to Declare New Cold War?

That sounds like the bottom line of Peter Baker's article about America's relations with Russia, in today's Washington Post:

Critics charge that Putin's leadership of the G-8 summit makes a mockery of the organization, and some, such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have called for the United States to boycott. Like their Washington counterparts, officials in London, Paris and Berlin worry the St. Petersburg summit in July will prove an embarrassment and are conferring about how to avoid appearing to endorse Putin's leadership.

"The G-8 summit in St. Petersburg is becoming the focal point for everybody to reconsider where we are in terms of Russia," said Anders Aslund, a Russia specialist at the Institute for International Economics who was among those who briefed Cheney last month. "Is this really where we want to be? Should we change policy?" ...

...In Washington, U.S. officials are discussing ways of expressing concerns about Russian democracy in advance of the summit. Among the possibilities: a comprehensive and blunt speech by a senior official, possibly Rice, laying out more explicitly the U.S. view of Russia's direction. Or perhaps a gathering of human rights, democracy and other civil society groups either inside Russia or outside the country to showcase U.S. support for those under pressure from the Kremlin.

Aslund suggested the other seven leaders of the G-8 meet elsewhere in Europe without Putin before the summit to demonstrate concern over Russia. "The U.S. administration is thinking that it needs to do something," he said, "but it doesn't know what yet."

I'd suggest America change policy all right--to a much more clearly pro-Russian policy. Make Putin a full partner in an all-out war on Jihadi states and terrorists (including Chechens).

After all, Russia is far more democratic than the United Arab Emirates. For example:

*Russia has multiple political parties. The UAE does not permit any political parties.
*Russia has an elected President. The UAE has absolute monarchs, called "Emirs" or "Sheiks."
*Russia is a secular state, the UAE are Islamic emirates.
* No Russian citizens participated in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Two citizens of the UAE did.

And so on.

So I have to smile, when the Bush administration criticizes the President of Russia as undemocratic--while defending the Emir of Dubai...

Mark Steyn on Paris' Halimi Murder

From SteynOnline(ht lgf):

In five years' time, how many Jews will be living in France? Two years ago, a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey called Sebastien Selam was heading off to work from his parents' apartment when he was jumped in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel. Selam's throat was slit twice, to the point of near-decapitation; his face was ripped off with a fork; and his eyes were gouged out. Adel climbed the stairs of the apartment house dripping blood and yelling, "I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven."

Is that an gripping story? You'd think so. Particularly when, in the same city, on the same night, a Jewish woman was brutally murdered in the presence of her daughter by another Muslim. You've got the making of a mini-trend there, and the media love trends.

Yet no major French newspaper carried the story.

This month, there was another murder. Ilan Halimi, also 23, also Jewish, was found by a railway track outside Paris with burns and knife wounds all over his body. He died en route to the hospital, having been held prisoner, hooded and naked, and brutally tortured for almost three weeks by a gang that had demanded half a million dollars from his family. Can you take a wild guess at the particular identity of the gang? During the ransom phone calls, his uncle reported that they were made to listen to Ilan's screams as he was being burned while his torturers read out verses from the Quran.

This time around, the French media did carry the story, yet every public official insisted there was no anti-Jewish element. Just one of those things. Coulda happened to anyone. And, if the gang did seem inordinately fixated on, ah, Jews, it was just because, as one police detective put it, ''Jews equal money.'' In London, the Observer couldn't even bring itself to pursue that particular angle. Its report of the murder managed to avoid any mention of the unfortunate Halimi's, um, Jewishness. Another British paper, the Independent, did dwell on the particular, er, identity groups involved in the incident but only in the context of a protest march by Parisian Jews marred by ''radical young Jewish men'' who'd attacked an ''Arab-run grocery.''

At one level, those spokesmonsieurs are right: It could happen to anyone. Even in the most civilized societies, there are depraved monsters who do terrible things. When they do, they rip apart entire families, like the Halimis and Selams. But what inflicts the real lasting damage on society as a whole is the silence and evasions of the state and the media and the broader culture.

This Book Looks Interesting . . .

Just found this as part of my research, and ordered a copy of this indictment of NGO neo-colonialism from Amazon.com. It reminds me of the debate over the Welfare Reform Bill that Bill Clinton signed. I wish the former President and much-mooted future UN Secretary-General would spearhead an equally strong effort to "end Foreign Aid as we know it."

Book Description
An informed and excoriating attack on the tragic waste, futility, and hubris of the West's efforts to date to improve the lot of the so-called developing world, with constructive suggestions on how to move forward.

William Easterly's The White Man's Burden is about what its author calls the twin tragedies of global poverty. The first, of course, is that so many are seemingly fated to live horribly stunted, miserable lives and die such early deaths. The second is that after fifty years and more than $2.3 trillion in aid from the West to address the first tragedy, it has shockingly little to show for it. We'll never solve the first tragedy, Easterly argues, unless we figure out the second.

The ironies are many: We preach a gospel of freedom and individual accountability, yet we intrude in the inner workings of other countries through bloated aid bureaucracies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank that are accountable to no one for the effects of their prescriptions. We take credit for the economic success stories of the last fifty years, like South Korea and Taiwan, when in fact we deserve very little. However, we reject all accountability for pouring more than half a trillion dollars into Africa and other regions and trying one "big new idea" after another, to no avail. Most of the places in which we've meddled are in fact no better off or are even worse off than they were before. Could it be that we don't know as much as we think we do about the magic spells that will open the door to the road to wealth?

Absolutely, William Easterly thunders in this angry, irreverent, and important book. He contrasts two approaches: (1) the ineffective planners' approach to development-never able to marshal enough knowledge or motivation to get the overambitious plans implemented to attain the plan's arbitrary targets and (2) a more constructive searchers' approach-always on the lookout for piecemeal improvements to poor peoples' well-being, with a system to get more aid resources to those who find things that work. Once we shift power and money from planners to searchers, there's much we can do that's focused and pragmatic to improve the lot of millions, such as public health, sanitation, education, roads, and nutrition initiatives. We need to face our own history of ineptitude and learn our lessons, especially at a time when the question of our ability to "build democracy," to transplant the institutions of our civil society into foreign soil so that they take root, has become one of the most pressing we face.

About the Author
William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. He was a senior research economist at the World Bank for more than sixteen years. In addition to his academic work, he has written widely in recent years for The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, and Foreign Policy, among others. He is the author of the acclaimed book The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. He has worked in many areas of the developing world, most extensively in Africa, Latin America, and Russia.

Here's a link to his Washington Post article: The West Can't Save Africa. And here's a link to his Foreign Policy article, The Utopian Nightmare. Finally, Easterly's critique of Jeffery Sachs's book, also in the Washington Post:

"Success in ending the poverty trap," Sachs writes, "will be much easier than it appears." Really? If it's so easy, why haven't five decades of effort gotten the job done? Sachs should redirect some of his outrage at the question of why the previous $2.3 trillion didn't reach the poor so that the next $2.3 trillion does. In fact, ending poverty is not easy at all. In those five decades, poverty researchers have learned a great deal about the complexity of toxic politics, bad history (including exploitative or inept colonialism), ethnic and regional conflicts, elites' manipulation of politics and institutions, official corruption, dysfunctional public services, malevolent police forces and armies, the difficulty of honoring contracts and property rights, unaccountable and excessively bureaucratic donors and many other issues. Sachs, however, sees these factors as relatively unimportant. Indeed, he seems deaf to the babble and bungling of the U.N. agencies he calls upon to run the Big Plan, not to mention other unaccountable and ineffectual aid agencies.

New Sisyphus: Declare War Now on Jihadi States

The former US State Deparment Official blogging as New Sisyphus says President Bush has not been tough enough, and argues Andrew Jackson was a better wartime leader:

RESOLVED: That the Jacksonian approach described above is the only way to victory in the War on Terror, meaning that the immediate and full war mobilization of the United States should be ordered, war should be declared on the leading states supporting Jihadism-including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria-and merciless, unrelenting war should be waged on their homelands until the Arab world begs for peace or until eradicated.

Agree or disagree? Let the debate begin.

Neeka's Backlog

Saw a link to a post on this site on Neeka's Backlog, and thought I'd return the favor. Thanks, Neeka!

Video of Christopher Hitchens' Danish Cartoon Solidarity Speech

At the Age of Hooper blog (scroll down).(ht the Christopher Hitchens website).

Here's a transcript from The Adventures of Chester (ht Instapundit):

Brothers and sisters, I just thought I would thank everyone for coming and say how touching it is that people will take a minute from a working day to do something that our government won't do for us, which is quite simply to say that we know who our friends and our allies are, and they should know that we know it. And that we take a stand of democracy against dictatorship. And when the embassies of democracies are burned in the capital cities of dictatorships, we think the State Department should denounce that, and not denounce the cartoons.

[Cheers of support and applause]

And that we're fed up with the invertebrate nature of our State Department.

[Laughter, cheers, applause]

If we had more time, brothers and sisters, I think that we should have gone from here to the embassy of Iraq, to express our support for another country that is facing a campaign of lies and hatred and violence. And we would -- if we did that we would say that we knew blasphemy when we saw it, we knew sacrilege when we saw it: it is sacrilegious to blow up beautiful houses of worship in Samarra. That would be worth filling the streets of the world to protest about.

[Cheers and applause]

We are not for profanity nor for disrespect, though we are, and without any conditions, or any ifs or any buts, for free expression in all times and in all places

[applause]

and our solidarity . . . [inaudible]

[applause]

So, we said we would, I told the Danish embassy that we would disperse at one o'clock. I hope and believe we've made our point, I hope and believe that today's tv will have some more agreeable features, such as your own, to show, instead of the faces of violence and hatred, and fascism, and I think I can just close by saying, solidarity with Denmark, death to fascism.

And there's a long-ish and interesting biography of Hitchens on Wikipedia.

Washington Times story here.
Cox News Service story here.

"Solidarity With Denmark--Death To Fascism!" Conclusion

Not all the demonstrators were conservatives.   For example, this is Will Marshall, a Clinton Democrat, and BMOC at the Progressive Policy Institute. He was with Marshall Wittman, aka Bull Moose, also a progressive Democrat. And I met a Johns Hopkins physics professor there, who had driven down from Baltimore. So he and I made up an accidental delegation, and it was nice not to be the only one.
  And of course, here is Andrew Sullivan , who did a lot to publicize the demonstration on his blog. He arrived late, and was almost invisible under his watch cap, sunglasses, and beard. Luckily, he hugged Hitch, and that was a give-away. He didn't address the crowd, though.
  The mysterious woman in the sunglasses and hat seemed to be a close friend of Hitchens. His wife? Who knows. She wasn't the only one with sunglasses, which made celebrity-spotting a little difficult.
 In the end, the demonstration made it's point very well. And the spirit in the air at Chistopher Hitchens's solidarity demonstration in front of the Danish Embassy reminded me of Henry V's St. Crispin's day speech:

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

 

"Solidarity With Denmark--Death To Fascism!", Cont'd.

There were a number of reporters and photographers in the crowd in front of the Danish Embassy--yes, it is indeed across the street from Senator Hillary Clinton's house, but she was a no-show.  Here's Hitch speaking to the Atlanta Constitution.
 And here's Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol with Tony Blankley. I overheard this question answer between Kristol and a reporter:
"Did you get any threats after The Weekly Standard re-published the Danish Cartoons?"
"No."
 And here are some of the really home-made signs carried by the demonstrators. It was touching. I asked a few of them how they heard about it, and most of them seem to have found out from reading Andrew Sullivan or other bloggers, or by email. Didn't see too many rent-a-crowd types.
  

"Solidarity With Denmark--Death To Fascism!"

That was Christopher Hitchens' rallying cry to the hundred or so demonstrators gathered in front of the Danish Embassy at lunchtime in Washington, DC today to show solidarity in the Danish Cartoon Crisis. Hitch was in fine form as a speaker, jumping up on a big stone at the end to address the crowd, channelling a combination of George Orwell and La Pasionaria. It was really a solemn and moving occasion. Hitch said he did it so that Danish television viewers could watch something to make them feel better--and Danish TV was there... There were few glitterati or celebrities, but there were some. Here is Hitchens with Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol and someone who may have been Cliff May of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
 Fox News covered the event, and interviewed Hitchens. He told the reporter that Karen Hughes should be "Fired!", and condemnned the US State Department for America's failure to stand with Denmark. I don't know if this is just local Fox 5 News or national Fox News Channel. I hope the News Channel runs the footage, so the country can see Hitch in action.
  Columnist Tony Blankley, Newt Gingrich's former press secretary, who has written a controversial book about Islamism, was there. He wins my vote for best-dressed demonstrator. His coat must have been camel's hair, or vicuna, or something really expensive. It stood out in a crowd. Classy, as we say in the Bronx.
 Michelle Malkin has more links to more links, here. 

Chirac Attends Jewish Funeral in Paris

The deceased Ilan Halimi had been kidnapped, tortured, and then murdered by an anti-semitic Islamic gang, Ha'aretz reports:

PARIS - Cries of "vive la France" and "la justice" accompanied President Jacques Chirac, his wife Bernadette and Premier Dominique de Villepin last night as they left the memorial evening held here yesterday for Ilan Halimi.

The ceremony, which was held in the Grand Synagogue on rue de la Victoire, was seen by many in the Jewish community as the state leaders' formal declaration that anti-Semitism was to blame for the horrific kidnapping, torture and murder of the 23-year-old Parisian.

At 5 P.M., two hours before the ceremony's official opening, police cars surrounded the synagogue area. Police at roadblocks inspected the bag of everyone who entered the area. Hundreds of thousands of people crowded on either side of the street, waiting their turn to enter the synagogue. At the synagogue's entrance police used metal detectors and checked the identity cards and passports of all who pushed in.

The synagogue's 3,000 seats were full, dozens more mourners stood in the aisles and many thousands remained outside and could not get in.

During the chilling ceremony, an 8-year-old read the Psalm "I will raise my eyes to the mountains, whence will come my help?" near a giant picture of Halimi.

Halimi's family and others in the Jewish community said that had the authorities admitted earlier that the young man had been attacked for being a Jew, he could possibly have been saved.

Halimi was found dying, covered with burns and cuts, on Monday February 13. He had been kidnapped three weeks earlier, after a Muslim gang sent a blonde to seduce him. Halimi had agreed to meet with her after meeting in a chat room. Immediately after his abduction his mother went to the police, saying he was kidnapped by anti-Semites. Sources in the community said three Jewish youngsters had managed to escape similar abdications in recent months.

Indian Scientist Gets US Visa

The day after this Washington Post story appeared on page one, the Post reported that the US State Department has decided to grant Goverdhan Mehta a US visa, after all.