Aleksandr Solzhenytsin On Russia's Future

Interviewed by Vitaly Tretyakov of the Moscow News, via Johnson's Russia List. Some excerpts:

Vitaly Tretyakov: Aleksandr Isayevich, what is your general impression of Russia's present development under President Vladimir Putin as compared with the Yeltsin and Gorbachev era?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Under Gorbachev, the concept and perception of statehood per se was discarded. (Hence his numerous acts of capitulation and unconditional concessions in foreign policy which won him kudos in the West.)

On Yeltsin's watch, that line was essentially continued, but it was further
aggravated by the uncontrolled plundering of Russia, its property and
national legacy, as well as by inaction and collusion in the face of a
countrywide crisis. Under Putin, efforts were made, although not
immediately, to reverse the trend and save Russia's statehood. At first,
however, some of those attempts were rather cosmetic, but then they became
more focused. Considering our condition and our potentialities, the
country's foreign policy today is sensible and increasingly pragmatic.
Russia, however, has yet much to do to overcome the heavy burden of the
past. The overall condition of the people's life is still difficult and
there is much chaos.

VT: In the past several months there has been a flurry of political and other
activity around the so-called national priority projects, including reform
of the education and healthcare system, the housing and utilities sector,
and agriculture. What do you think about these projects? Were they
correctly prioritized?

AS: When a boat has 99 holes in its hull, with the best of intentions, it is
impossible to fix all of them at once. All of these projects have a right
to be "national priority projects." All of them are vitally important. As
for agriculture and the moribund countryside (a problem that was recently
highlighted by Moscow Mayor Yu. M. Luzhkov in rather forceful terms) - a
countryside that has been abandoned to its fate and degrading for decades
now it is really a pressing need: We are not only becoming dependent on
food supplies [from abroad] but losing valuable lands.

***

VT: I, for one, believe that unless the three principal subjects of
Euro-Atlantic (Christian) civilization - specifically, the North American
Union, the (Western) European Union, and the East European (Russian) Union
- form a strategic alliance (with supra-state bodies), our civilization
will disappear sooner or later. Where do you think salvation for the
Euro-Atlantic civilization lies?

AS: Unfortunately, the global political process is not moving in the direction
that you have just outlined. The United States has been deploying its
occupation troops in one country after another. This has been the case in
Bosnia for the past nine years, in Kosovo and Afghanistan for the past five
years, and in Iraq for the past three years. And it is bound to continue
for a very long time yet. There is no substantial difference between NATO
and U.S. actions. Seeing that Russia today poses no threat to it, NATO is
systematically, persistently expanding its military apparatus - to eastern
Europe and to the south of Russia. This includes open financial and
ideological support for "color" revolutions and the absurd imposition of
North-Atlantic interests on Central Asia. All of this leaves no doubt that
Russia is being encircled with a view to destroying its sovereignty.
Russia's accession to the Euro-Atlantic alliance, which is now forcibly
imposing Western democratic values in various parts of the world, would
result not in the expansion but the decline of Christian civilization.

VT: Do you agree with the view that the world is rapidly moving toward
neo-authoritarianism (probably as a reaction to total liberalism)?

AS: "Total liberalism," as you have aptly put it, has certainly had its day in
the world and is now more or less a spent force. It will be replaced by
some other forms of public and state consciousness, but I would not dare
predict their essence or the forms that they will actually assume.

VT: What is your perspective on the situation in Ukraine? In this context, what
do you think about the problem of the division of the Russian nation (the
largest divided nation in modern Europe)? Should Russia - if not
politically, at least intellectually - ponder the possibility of
reunification of ethnic Russians and Russian lands if Ukraine joins the EU
and especially NATO?

AS: I am pained by what has been going on in Ukraine - ever since the 1991
referendum. The fanatical suppression and persecution of the Russian
language (which, according to previous polls, was used as the main language
by over 60 percent of Ukraine's population) is simply an act of atrocity
that is aimed against Ukraine's own cultural heritage. Vast tracts of land,
which have never been part of historical Ukraine, e.g., Novorossia, the
Crimea and the entire southeastern region, have been forcibly incorporated
into the modern Ukrainian state and into its policy of acquiring NATO
membership at any cost. Throughout Yeltsin's term in office, not a single
meeting that he had with any of the Ukrainian presidents had gone without
capitulation and concessions to them. Pushing the Black Sea Fleet out of
Sevastopol (the city was never ceded to Ukraine, not even under Khrushchev)
is an outrageous humiliation of the entire 19th- and 20th-century Russian
history.

Under these conditions, Russia must not cast Ukraine's multimillion Russian
population to the whims of fate, abandoning it, and cutting off all links
with it.

VT: Is it your view that Russian language and Russian literature are dying - in
the sense that they will never again attain, let alone surpass, 19th and
20th century models?

AS: Despite its uncontrolled contamination with jargon and Anglo-Americanisms
(I am talking not about the natural use of technical terminology but
slavish, fashion-driven borrowings), the Russian language will not degrade,
will not let itself be irretrievably polluted as long as there are Russian
people.

The same is true for Russian literature. Despite all the garbage, it has
preserved its lucid and conscientious core that will yet produce excellent
works supporting our spirit, our morale, and our consciousness.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali To Speak

At Harvard University, on May 9th. (ht LGF)

US Welcomes Burmese Refugees

Accordning to a report in the Navhind Times, some 9,000 ethnic Karen refugees from camps on the Thai-Burmese border may soon be on their way to the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice waived anti-terrorism provisions of the Patriot Act that had prevented some families associated with Karen National Liberation Army guerrillas from coming to America. The Department of Homeland Security has decided that non-combatant Karens pose no threat to the United States.

The refugee camps have been an long-term irritant in Thai-Burmese relations, accused of serving as bases for attacks by Burma, and resented by Thailand due to violent incidents at Karen protests.

Thailand's Karen refugees camps have been in operation for 16 years.

UPDATE: More on the Karen at Wikipedia.

CIA Failures Led to Goss Ouster

According to the not always reliable Debka Report, more than poker parties at the Watergate are involved:

Indeed, DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources note the CIA is on its uppers in three vital spheres:

1.US forces are not getting to grips with either of the two segments of the Iraqi guerrilla insurgency: the mostly secular Baathists and the extremist Islamist Iraqi groups and al Qaeda. The continuous upsurge of violence in Iraq means the CIA has failed by and large to penetrate the most dangerous insurgent groups.

2. While the Taliban-al Qaeda rebellion rages in Afghanistan, Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s Iraq wing - far from being crushed - has in the last six months opened up new terror fronts in Sinai, Egypt, Palestinian territories and Algeria.

3. On Iran, the CIA comes up short on two interconnected issues: derailing Iran’s nuclear program with the help of local surrogates which, given the millions of expatriate Iranian exiles who detest the clerical regime, should pose fewer difficulties than penetrating al Qaeda. Secondly, American operatives should have been able to head off the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and intelligence agents who have permeated every corner of Iraqi politics and whose influence in Baghdad often prevails over the word from Washington - despite the presence of 135,000 US troops.

Henry Allen: Winning is Everything

In today's Washington Post, a staff writer takes a look at American strategy in Iraq:

"In war, we have to win," said Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.

This was on television about 20 years ago, a PBS series about the war in Vietnam. Giap was sitting behind a desk, as I recall, a picture of lethal ease. He seemed amused to think he knew something that the Americans still hadn't figured out. He added: "Absolutely have to win."

For me, a former Marine corporal who'd heard some Viet Cong rounds go past at Chu Lai, Giap spoke and the heavens opened -- a truth seizure, eureka. I finally had a useful, practical explanation for why we had lost after the best and brightest promised we were going to win. And nowadays, thanks to Giap, I have a theory, no more than that, about why winning is so elusive in Iraq...

Allen believes that the Bush administration doesn't know how to win, and concludes:

This war is not working out the way our leaders thought it would. We could lose. If we lose, we'll be humiliated, we'll be the schoolyard hotshot who picked a fight and then got whipped. I'm tired of our leaders putting me and my country in this position.

I'm not saying I want to fight no wars, or even saying I want to win more wars -- I'm just saying that I want us to win the wars that we fight. And I'm worried that Iraq was never one of them because it was started by people who knew everything except how to win -- who have yet to learn that in war we absolutely have to win.

Afghan Pop Music VJ Killed By Islamists

While driving in the car yesterday, I heard a fascinating interview with Shakeb Issar, Shaima Rezayee's VJ co-host on Tolo TV, who now in hiding in Sweden--after the British embassy refused to grant asylum for diplomatic reasons--on BBC World News. Issar said he lived in the TV studio after Shaima Rezayee, 24, was killed by a single shot to the head on May 18th, 2005 following a denunciation of her music television program as un-Islamic.

Her appearance on television shocked many Afghans with her western-style of dressing and the barest of headscarves, as the only female presenter on the daily TV music show ‘Hop’. Conservative clerics hated her. Young women admired her. 24-year-old Shaima Rezayee stood out, and she had to pay a heavy price for this. First she was fired from her job. Now she has been killed.

This quote about the killing, from the US-government-funded NGO Internews on Jaghury.com makes me want to throw up:

But Aunohita Mojumdar, a media analyst at Internews, says the wrath Tolo incurs needs to be viewed in the context of Afghanistan's recent history. "In a country where all images were banned until the collapse of the Taliban, any TV station in existence would have drawn fire."

Your US tax dollars at work...

UPDATE: Here's a link to the BBC Outlook program interview by Heather Payton, and the BBC summary:

TOLO TV
An Afghan TV host has left his home country and moved to Sweden because he is in fear of his life. 22 year old Shakeb Issar is 22 and he used to host a music show called Hop on Afghan television; he's now living in one room, on state benefits, in Sweden. A year ago he was riding high, wearing trendy western clothes and introducing music videos from all over the world on independent Tolo TV, many of them featuring scantily clad women. Then his co-host, Shaima Rezayee was found dead, beaten up and with a bullet through her head. Shakeb too was getting death threats and he decided it was time to flee the country. He tells Outlook presenter Heather Payton the reasons for his decision.

So far, I have not seen this story reported in the American media--even on MTV news.

UPDATE: Wikipedia entry here.

Cheney Answers Questions About Russia

In Astana, Kazakhstan:

Q Yes, Matt Spetalnick, with Reuters. Mr. Vice President, the Kremlin has dismissed your criticism of Russia's record of democracy and its energy policy as "incomprehensible." Can you respond to that and explain how are you going to get this message across if they don't want to hear it? And what this could bode for the G8 Summit?

And for Mr. President, what do you think of the rising tensions between these two major powers?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I haven't had an opportunity to -- excuse me.

MODERATOR: Excuse me -- which superpowers you were talking about, sir? United States and Russia?

Q United States and Russia. (Laughter.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I haven't had an opportunity to study the response out of Moscow. The speech was very carefully crafted. It made the point that we don't look upon Russia as an enemy by any means, that we want them as a strong friend and ally. But I also made it clear that we had some concerns with respect to the extent to which they seem to resist the development of strong democracies, if you will, in those areas represented by the governments that were represented at the conference in Vilnius in Lithuania.

And I expressed the concern that I heard repeated by many of the people I interacted with at the conference that Russia is using its control over energy resources to gain political leverage of various kinds on those governments that were represented at the conference.

I expect the G8 conference will go forward as scheduled in Petersburg, and that we'll all benefit from a free, open, and honest exchange of views at that conference.

PRESIDENT NAZARBAYEV: (As translated) Well, first of all, I think that there is no such thing as confrontation between United States and Russia. We think that there is a friendly exchange of opinions and views. And we all have to know that every country has their own way of solving their own problems, and that is called politics. And we have to respect politics of every country. But every country also has a right to voice their opinion of what is happening in another country. And if that would be done in a friendly manner, I think we will just benefit from that.

Laura Rozen on CIA Chief's Resignation

War and Piece has a lot of information and theories about Porter Goss's sudden departure from the CIA. IMHO, it looks clumsy from the outside, and doesn't increase one's confidence in the Bush administration...

Ari Halberstam, Rashid Baz, Andrea Elliott & The New York Times

From a very interesting post at Winds of Change:

Joe's posts about white guilt and shame brought to mind several instances of contact between Americans and Muslims which illustrate his theme.

The first two concern young female New York Times journalists whose credulity and callousness derive - I think - from being ashamed of Western culture in the way Joe describes. (This is exactly the kind of person who would be hired and groomed by the Times, which then perpetuates this shame through the approach its reporters take to their stories.) In the contrasting examples Muslims upbraid white Westerners for being ashamed of Western values.

First, Andrea Elliott:
In 1994, three weeks before Passover, Ari Halberstam, 16, was riding in a van over the Brooklyn Bridge when Rashid Baz, in a nearby car, shot a bullet into Halberstam’s brain. . . . On March 5, exactly 12 years to the day Ari died, The New York Times began a three-part series on Imam Reda Shata and the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge. [Ari's mother Devorah] remembered that at the murder trial, witnesses testified that Baz attended a raging anti-Semitic sermon at that very same place. Jews were “racist and fascist, as bad as the Nazis” said a speaker there (not Shata), shortly before Baz got into his car with a Glock semiautomatic pistol and a Cobray machine gun, hunting for Jews.

Keep reading for Mrs. Halberstam's encounter with the author of the series.

But the article, by Andrea Elliot, never mentioned Baz nor his victim. The article, if anything, depicted the mosque as more moderate than not. Elliot did report that the imam praised Hamas and a suicide bomber, even as he “forged friendships with rabbis in New York.”

Devorah Halberstam says she called Elliot and asked if the reporter ever heard of Ari Halberstam. According to Halberstam, Elliot answered, “Who?” She never heard of the murder either, adds Halberstam.

“When I told her the story,” says Halberstam, “she just said, ‘That’s a long time ago.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ First of all, it’s hardly a long time ago; second, to say that to a mother is disgusting; and third, terror like that is very pertinent to this day and age, after 9-ll.”

I have no idea how old Andrea Elliott is, but I'm picturing her rolling her eyes, cracking gum and playing with her split ends while talking to Mrs Halberstam on her cell, with her feet up on her desk. The imam was a representative of an exotic culture, and one that she had been taught at her (probably) Ivy League school was treated badly by the West. Mrs. Halberstam was just some Jewish mother, Orthodox yet, nagging her. It was clear to her who deserved respect and who deserved a brush-off.

There's more interesting stuff here about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ron Chernow, Philip Gourevitch and the PEN International Center...

UPDATE: Winds of Change guessed right about Elliott's Ivy League background--according to the ASNE website, she graduated first in her class from Columbia University's graduate school of journalism.

Prosecute the FBI

Someone we know pointed out that since the Massaoui verdict, there is now a precedent for 9/11 prosecutions that leads directly to FBI agents who were warned about the 9/11 attacks yet chose to do nothing. As Peggy Noonan laid out the case in the Wall Street Journal:

This is what Moussaoui did: He was in jail on a visa violation in August 2001. He knew of the upcoming attacks. In fact, he had taken flight lessons to take part in them. He told no one what was coming. He lied to the FBI so the attacks could go forward. He pled guilty last year to conspiring with al Qaeda; at his trial he bragged to the court that he had intended to be on the fifth aircraft, which was supposed to destroy the White House.

He knew the trigger was about to be pulled. He knew innocent people had been targeted, and were about to meet gruesome, unjust deaths.

He could have stopped it. He did nothing. And so 2,700 people died.

As Jeff Taylor noted in Reason magazine, that is precisely the case against the FBI agents who ignored attack warnings documented in the Massaoui trial:

One exchange from the Moussaoui trial makes clear what happened in the weeks running up to 9/11:

"You tried to move heaven and earth to get a search warrant to search this man's belongings and you were obstructed," MacMahon said to Samit.

"Yes sir, I was obstructed." Samit replied.

No disaster, it seems, can force reform on the Bureau. The same people are still manning the posts at the FBI and Main Justice. They are going to miss the next terror attack because they are dead-certain to stop the last one. That's what bureaucracies do: cover ass...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

There's more on Mexico's national holiday here:

In 1862, the French army began its advance. Under General Ignacio Zaragoza, 5,000 ill-equipped Mestizo and Zapotec Indians defeated the French army in what came to be known as the "Batalla de Puebla" on the fifth of May.

Here's an official account of President Bush's holiday party, from the White House web site:

Declaraciones del Presidente acerca del Cinco de Mayo
The East Room
1:57 P.M. EDT

EL PRESIDENTE: Gracias, Sírvanse tomar asiento. Bienvenidos, bienvenidos a la Casa Blanca. Es un honor para mí contar con la presencia de tantos distinguidos líderes hispanos y méxico-americanos aquí para la celebración del Cinco de Mayo. Quizá hayan notado que esta celebración no es el cinco de mayo. (risas). es el cuatro de Mayo. (Risas.) Es un feriado tan importante, que pensamos que comenzaríamos temprano. (Risas.)

Le agradezco a Héctor, un gusto verlo. El director de la SBA está con nosotros hoy. Gaddy Vásquez, gracias por asistir. Gracias a ambos por traer. por traer a su esposa, Héctor. Quiero darle las gracias a Anna Cabral, que es la Tesorera, y me complace que haya traído a Víctor. Gracias por asistir.

Les agradezco a los embajadores que nos acompañan. El embajador de México está hoy con nosotros. Embajador, gracias, y también, mi amigo, el embajador de Estados Unidos ante México, Antonio Garza. Bienvenidos, ambos. Es un gusto que estén aquí. Le agradezco a Eduardo Aguirre, embajador ante España. Gracias por asistir, Eduardo. Hans Hertell, el embajador ante la República Dominicana. Muchísimas gracias a todos por asistir. Gracias por sus servicios al país y gracias, embajador, por sus servicios a su país, también.

Le agradezco al personal militar que está presente hoy. Estamos orgullosos de ustedes. Gracias por llevar el uniforme de Estados Unidos de Norteamérica. (Aplausos.)

Antes de presentar a nuestra artista, quiero compartir con ustedes algunas ideas sobre la importancia del Cinco de Mayo, ya que conmemora un momento gozoso en la historia de México. Los estadounidenses deben comprender que fue un tiempo en que soldados mexicanos ganaron la Batalla de Puebla, y defendieron su independencia. Entonces, obviamente, el Cinco de Mayo es un día de orgullo especial para los ciudadanos de México, como también lo es para los estadounidenses. Es un recordatorio de un patrimonio orgulloso que compartimos con nuestro vecino del sur. Así veo ese día.

Rendimos tributo a ese patrimonio y honramos el calor y la importancia de la amistad entre nuestras dos naciones. Estados Unidos y México están unidos por vínculos familiares y por el comercio y por la historia y por la cultura y por los valores. Ambas naciones creen en los derechos y la dignidad de todos los pueblos. Compartimos una importante relación comercial. Hemos descubierto que el comercio entre nuestras naciones es bueno para nuestros pueblos. Creemos en los ideales de libertad e independencia que representa el Cinco de Mayo.

Aquí en Estados Unidos, los méxico-americanos han ayudado a que nuestro país se desarrolle y han ayudado a moldear nuestra cultura. Los méxico- americanos han hecho que nuestra nación sea cada día más enérgica y más prometedora. Los méxico-americanos han enriquecido la experiencia estadounidense con sus aportes a los negocios y las artes y la música y los deportes. Los empresarios latinos están creando puestos en todo el país; el número de empresas de propiedad de hispanos está aumentando tres veces más rápido que la tasa nacional. Más hispanoamericanos son propietarios de sus casas que nunca antes en la historia de nuestra nación.

Muchos méxico-americanos también han demostrado su devoción a este país al defenderlo. Más de 600,000 de nuestros veteranos son de origen mexicano. Veo que han vuelto algunos de nuestros veteranos. Estoy seguro de que. Es más, tenemos a muchos veteranos presentes. Deseo darles las gracias por darles tan buen ejemplo a aquéllos que ahora llevan el uniforme.

Muchos méxico-americanos han llevado el uniforme militar de Estados Unidos y defienden nuestro país con valor. Están haciendo que Estados Unidos sea más seguro, y a la vez, están sentando las bases de la paz para generaciones futuras.

Sé que nuestros ciudadanos están muy orgullosos de su patrimonio mexicano, y con todo derecho. También sabemos que Estados Unidos ha prosperado como nación porque siempre hemos acogido a los recién llegados, quienes a su vez acogen nuestros valores y nuestra forma de vida. Hacerse estadounidense es un gran privilegio y conlleva responsabilidades. Aquéllos que vienen aquí para comenzar vidas nuevas tienen una responsabilidad de comprender lo que representa Estados Unidos y la responsabilidad de aprender inglés para que puedan comprender mejor nuestro carácter nacional y participar plenamente en la vida estadounidense. Eso es lo que queremos. Hacer este esfuerzo es también clave para aprovechar las oportunidades de Estados Unidos, permitir que las personas surjan en la sociedad y hacer realidad el Sueño Americano.

En este país, estamos teniendo ahora un importante debate sobre la inmigración. Y es realmente importante que tratemos este asunto de una manera que honre las mejores tradiciones de este país. Nuestra nación no tiene que escoger entre ser una sociedad compasiva y una sociedad de derecho. (Aplausos.) Una sociedad de derecho es una que aplica sus leyes y vela por su frontera. Eso es lo que hace que una sociedad sea una de derecho. Una sociedad compasiva rechaza un sistema que trata a la gente como si fuese objeto de contrabando, honra los derechos humanos y la dignidad humana, ayuda a la gente a salir de las sombras de la sociedad, trata a la gente de manera decente y humana.

Entonces, respaldo reforzar nuestras fronteras y apoyo un programa de trabajadores temporales que pondría a trabajadores dispuestos en contacto con empleadores estadounidenses. ¿Ven? Considero que debemos crear un medio seguro y legal para que la gente pueda venir a este país a trabajar. Reducirá el número de personas que tratan de cruzar nuestra frontera a hurtadillas. Tratará a las personas humanamente. Eliminará a los coyotes y falsificadores de documentos. Afirmará nuestra creencia que cada persona tiene dignidad y cada persona tiene valor, y a la vez, facilitará que seamos un estado de derecho y protejamos nuestra frontera. (Aplausos.)

La reforma inmigratoria debe ser integral porque todos los elementos de este problema deben ser abordados conjuntamente o ninguno de ellos será resuelto. El pueblo estadounidense debe llevar este debate con dignidad. Debe recordar que somos una nación de inmigrantes. Debe recordar. (aplausos.) Debe recordar que durante el transcurso de nuestra historia han venido personas a Estados Unidos porque éste es un lugar en el que pueden ir en pos de sus sueños, independientemente de quiénes son o de dónde son.

Los méxico-americanos han traído consigo una cultura basada en la fe en Dios, un amor profundo por la familia y la convicción de que el trabajo arduo lleva a una vida mejor. Cada inmigrante que vive según estos valores hace que Estados Unidos sea un país mejor, hace que nuestro futuro sea más prometedor, como una nación bajo Dios. (Aplausos.)

Mañana, en todo Estados Unidos, habrá muchas celebraciones del Cinco de Mayo. Las presentaciones que veremos hoy representan a lo mejor del talento. Nos recuerdan que somos una nación que es fuerte debido a nuestra diversidad. Habrá mucha música tradicional, como también mucha comida mexicana muy buena, les apuesto. (Risas.) Nos recuerda, de cierto modo, un poco de Texas, ¿verdad, embajador?

Que Dios continúe bendiciéndolos a todos ustedes que tienen la dicha de vivir en este país y que Dios continúe bendiciendo a nuestro país y a los muchos hijos e hijas de México que han hecho de nuestro país su hogar. Feliz Cinco de Mayo, y ahora, es un placer para mí presentar a uno de los mejores talentos de México, Graciela Beltrán (Aplausos.)

Cheney's "Ultimatum"

Kommersant compared Cheney's Vilnius remarks to Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri:

Until yesterday, the White House preferred to criticize Kremlin policies only through press secretaries. U.S. President George W. Bush and politicians close to him spoke of Russia as a reliable partner in the fight against international terrorism, even while admitting to certain disagreements. Cheney's Vilnius speech has broken that tradition and was the most pointed declaration by an American leader since the end of the Cold War.

Cheney Declares War on Russia

Diplomatically:

America and all of Europe also want to see Russia in the category of healthy, vibrant democracies. Yet in Russia today, opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade. In many areas of civil society -- from religion and the news media, to advocacy groups and political parties -- the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her people. Other actions by the Russian government have been counterproductive, and could begin to affect relations with other countries. No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation. And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements.

Russia has a choice to make. And there is no question that a return to democratic reform in Russia will generate further success for its people and greater respect among fellow nations. Democratization in Russia helped to end the Cold War, and the Russian people have made heroic progress in overcoming the miseries of the 20th century. They deserve now to live out their peaceful aspirations under a government that upholds freedom at home, and builds good relations abroad.

None of us believes that Russia is fated to become an enemy. A Russia that increasingly shares the values of this community can be a strategic partner and a trusted friend as we work toward common goals. In that spirit, the leading industrialized nations will engage Russia at the Group of Eight Summit in St. Petersburg this summer. We will make the case, clearly and confidently, that Russia has nothing to fear and everything to gain from having strong, stable democracies on its borders, and that by aligning with the West, Russia joins all of us on a course to prosperity and greatness. The vision we affirm today is of a community of sovereign democracies that transcend old grievances, that honor the many links of culture and history among us, that trade in freedom, respect each other as great nations, and strive together for a century of peace.

Expect More?

It seems that Donald Rumsfeld isn't the only one grading government programs. The White House has this section on the OMB website, called ExpectMore.gov that officially grades US Government programs. Funny, I've never seen anyone mention these reports anywhere. For example, this item about US Public Diplomacy five years into the Global War on Terror:

Program Assessment

Program
Public Diplomacy

These programs articulate the foreign policy objectives of the US and create an international environment receptive to US interests through exchanges, training and outreach activities. Public Diplomacy also provides US policy-makers with information about how the US and its actions are perceived abroad.

Rating
What This Rating Means

NOT PERFORMING
Results Not Demonstrated

A rating of Results Not Demonstrated (RND) indicates that a program has not been able to develop acceptable performance goals or collect data to determine whether it is performing.

* These programs have had difficulty measuring their impact, if they have been evaluated at all. Frequently there is anecdotal evidence that a program is achieving success but there is no formal data to support those claims.
* Few of the State Department public diplomacy programs link budget to performance.
* There is no broad overarching US Government public diplomacy strategy. Because of this lack of a plan, programs such as this one may not be the most effective both in the long and short term.

Improvement Plan
About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

* Developing an overarching US Government strategic public diplomacy plan.
* Determining if current programs are most effective to reach target audiences and ensuring that those targeted are the most influential to make the greatest impact.
* Presenting resource needs in a complete and transparent manner; and linking resource needs clearly to program activities.

Louis Rukeyser Remembered

From By David Zurawik's obituary in the Baltimore Sun:

At its peak in the 1980s, Wall Street Week was carried on more than 300 public television stations and boasted a weekly audience of 4.1 million viewers. The 30-minute program that aired Friday nights at 8 - four hours after the market closed for the week - was public television's longest-running weekly prime-time series, second only to CBS' venerable 60 Minutes in overall TV tenure. The series was canceled by MPT in June 2005 after three years of audience erosion that followed Mr. Rukeyser's departure.

"Before Louis Rukeyser, there was no such thing as a financial advice show on television," said Douglas Gomery, professor and media economist at the University of Maryland, College Park. "Along with Sesame Street, Wall Street Week was one of the first shows on PBS, a landmark series by anybody's definition. The reason for its success was Louis Rukeyser. He was the franchise - proof that the star system worked even for PBS."

Mr. Rukeyser's ability to translate economics into compelling television talk helped make investors out of millions of Americans: "In essence, what he did was bring Wall Street to Main Street - he made Wall Street understandable in terms of Main Street," said Frank Cappiello, a money manager who appeared as a panelist on Mr. Rukeyser's first PBS telecast in 1970 and his last in 2002, as well as his first and last on CNBC.

"You have to remember when the program started in 1970, we had just been through the Vietnam War and rising inflation, and so much changed financially during that 10-year span from 1970 to 1980. And every week, Lou would be there on TV explaining the changes - from commodities to money market funds - in very simple terms to millions of viewers, many of whom became investors as a result of what they learned from him and the experts he brought in."

A wide-ranging economic expertise only begins to describe the formula that made Mr. Rukeyser one of public television's first major stars - along with Alistair Cooke, host of Masterpiece Theatre, and Sesame Street's Big Bird.

The New York City native, who was dubbed "the dismal science's only sex symbol" by People magazine, was known within the ranks of PBS as "The Big Bird of Prime Time" because of the underwriting support, ratings and viewer pledges that he brought to the fledgling public broadcasting lineup in the 1970s.

In an interview shortly before his own death in August, Baltimore financial analyst Julius Westheimer, who was a recurring panelist on Wall Street Week for 29 years, said Mr. Rukeyser never forgot the audience: "Lou always said that the best educators throughout history were in part entertainers, and he stressed that to those of us who were regulars on the show. He also told us to talk about money, not economics. 'Economics puts people to sleep; money wakes them up,' he used to say."

A Reasonable Verdict...

...in the Moussaoui case. From the Jury form, as published in Newsday:

Section III. Mitigating factors.

Indicate the number of Jurors who find that the defense has established the existence of each listed mitigating factor by a preponderance of the evidence.

A. That if he is not sentenced to death, Zacarias Moussaoui will be incarcerated in prison for the rest of his life, without the possibility of release. Number of jurors who so find -- five.

B. That Moussaoui has maintained a nonviolent record for the past four years while incarcerated in the Alexandria Detention Center with minimal rules violations. Number of jurors -- one.

C. That the Federal Bureau of Prisons has the authority and ability to maintain Moussaoui under highly secure conditions. Number of jurors -- one.

D. That given his conduct, and the likely conditions of his maximum security confinement, Moussaoui will not present a substantial risk to prison officials or other inmates if he is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. Number of jurors -- three.

E. That a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release, under the strict conditions the Bureau of Prisons is likely to impose, will be a more severe punishment for Moussaoui than a sentence of death. Number of jurors -- none.

F. That Moussaoui believes that his execution will be part of his Jihad and will provide him with the rewards attendant to a martyr's death. Number of jurors -- none.

G. That execution will create a martyr for radical Muslim fundamentalists, and to al-Qaida in particular. Number of jurors -- none.

H. That Moussaoui's unstable early childhood and dysfunctional family resulted in his being placed in orphanages and having a home life without structure and emotional and financial support eventually resulting in his leaving home due to his hostile relationship with his mother. Number of jurors -- nine.

(On Count III, eight jurors found this mitigating factor to be true. On Count IV, seven jurors found this mitigating factor to be true.)

I. That Moussaoui's father had a violent temper and physically and emotionally abused his family. Number of jurors -- nine.

(On County III, 7 jurors found this mitigating factor to be true. On Count IV, six jurors found this mitigating factor to be true.)

J. That Moussaoui's father abandoned him and his siblings, leaving Zacarias's mother to support and raise their children on her own. Number of jurors -- two.

K. That Moussaoui was subject to racism as a youngster because of his Moroccan background which affected him deeply. Number of jurors -- three.

L. That Moussaoui's mother had a violent uncle or men unrelated to the family living in the home with the family. Number of jurors -- none.

M. That his two sisters and his father all suffered from psychotic illnesses. Number of jurors -- four.

N. That even though he arrived in England with no money and lived in a homeless shelter, he endured the hardship and through perseverance graduated with a masters degree from South Bank University. Number of jurors -- none.

O. That his mother's failure to provide her children with any meaningful religious training or practice left Moussaoui without the theological or intellectual basis to resist the preachings and propaganda of radical Muslim fundamentalists in London who provided him with a sense of group identity he never had. Number of jurors -- none.

P. That Moussaoui suffers from a psychotic disorder, most likely schizophrenia, paranoid subtype. Number of jurors -- none.

Q. That Moussaoui's role in al-Qaida while in Afghanistan was as a security clerk at a guesthouse and as a driver for persons staying at the guesthouse. Number of jurors -- none.

R. That Moussaoui's testimony about his plan to fly a plane into the White House is unreliable and is contradicted by his statements about other plots he was involved in. Number of jurors -- none.

S. That Moussaoui's role in the Sept. 11 operation, if any, was minor. Number of jurors -- three.

T. That he was incarcerated on the day of the Sept. 11 attacks. Number of jurors -- one.

U. That he was an ineffectual al-Qaida operative. Number of jurors -- none.

V. That other persons who were equally culpable in the offense, whether indicted or not, will not be punished by death and/or have not been the subject of a capital prosecution. Number of jurors -- none.

W. That other factors in the background or character of Moussaoui suggest that life without the possibility of release is the most appropriate punishment. Number of jurors -- none.

X. List any additional mitigating factors found by at least one juror and the number of jurors who so found.

-- Defendant had limited knowledge of Sept. 11 attack plans, three jurors.

Viva Bush!

Drudge quotes Kevin Phillips' report that the President sung the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish on the 2000 Presidential campaign trail:

"When visiting cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, or Philadelphia, in pivotal states, George W. Bush would drop in at Hispanic festivals and parties, sometimes joining in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Spanish, sometimes partying with a “Viva Bush” mariachi band flown in from Texas."

Putin Hires PR Firms

Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin has hired Ketchum Public Relations in the US and GPlus in the EU to improve Russia's image in advance of the G-8 Summit:

London, May 1, 2006 – Ketchum, a global communications firm, today announced that it has been selected to lead a multi-agency team to support the Russian Presidency of the G8 (Group of Eight) and the upcoming G8 Summit in July in St. Petersburg. The team will support the three main priorities of the annual economic and political summit that Russia, as the host country, has selected: ensuring energy security, addressing infectious diseases, and improving education.

Teaming with Ketchum is GPlus, one of the most respected European Union political-communications specialist agencies in Brussels, and in Japan, Gavin Anderson, a leading corporate and financial public relations advisory firm, as well as Ketchum’s affiliate in Moscow, Maslov, Sokur & Associates. The London office of Ketchum was awarded the account following a competitive process.

“We look forward to working closely with the Presidency of the G8 to raise awareness of G8 priorities which are so important to the world today,” said Raymond L. Kotcher, Ketchum senior partner and chief executive officer.

Along with Russia, the G8 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The G8 presidency rotates every year. Last year the presidency was held by the U.K. hosting the meeting in Gleneagles; this year, for the first time, it is held by Russia. The G8 meetings serve as a forum for developing solutions to the most pressing world issues of the day.

The primary scope and responsibility of the work entails ensuring a high level of logistical and communications support at the Summit and to promote the three priority issues throughout the year.

“The focus of the G8 meeting is the exchange between world leaders. We are pleased to be handling the communications along with our partners at GPlus,” said Jon Higgins, Ketchum partner and CEO, Europe. Added Peter Guilford, director of GPlus: “This is a prestigious assignment for us. We hope during the course of this year to give the kind of communications support that makes the life of journalists easier at this time of unprecedented focus on Russia and the G8.”

Ketchum's clients include Kodak, Cingular, Carlsberg, Frito-Lay, Levi-Strauss, Mattel, Pepsi, Procter*Gamble, Just for Men, Wendy's, Clorox, FedEx, Fireman's Fund, the Almond Board of California, the California Dried Plum Board, the Canned Food Alliance, the Norwegian Seafood Export Council, Tropicana, Pfizer, Intuit, and the US Potato Board...(ht Johnson's Russia List)

Christopher Hitchens on Iran

From Slate (ht LGF):

In some ways, the continuing row over his call for the complete destruction of Israel must baffle Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. All he did, after all, was to turn up at a routine anti-Zionist event and repeat the standard line—laid down by the Ayatollah Khomeini and thus considered by some to be beyond repeal—that the state of Israel is illegitimate and must be obliterated. There's nothing new in that. In the early '90s, I can remember seeing, in the areas around Baalbek in Lebanon that were dominated by Hezbollah and Amal, large posters of the by-then-late Khomeini embellished (in English) with the slogan, "Israel Must Be Completely Destroyed!" And I have twice been to Friday prayers in Tehran itself, addressed by leading mullahs and by former President Rafsanjani, where the more terse version (Marg bar Esrail—"Death to Israel") is chanted as a matter of routine; sometimes as an applause line to an especially deft clerical thrust.

No, what worries me more about Ahmadinejad is his devout belief in the return of the "occulted" or 12th imam and his related belief that, when he himself spoke recently at the United Nations, the whole scene was suffused with a sublime green light that held all his audience in a state of suspended animation. This uncultured jerk is, of course, only a puppet figure with no real power, but this choice of puppet by the theocracy is unsettling in itself. So is Iran's complete lack of embarrassment at being caught, time and again, with nuclear enrichment facilities that have never been declared to the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

However, words and details and nuances do matter in all this, so I was not surprised to see professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan denying that Ahmadinejad, or indeed Khomeini, had ever made this call for the removal of Israel from the map. Cole is a minor nuisance on the fringes of the academic Muslim apologist community. At one point, there was a danger that he would become a go-to person for quotes in New York Times articles (a sort of Shiite fellow-traveling version of Norman Ornstein, if such an alarming phenomenon can be imagined), but this crisis appears to have passed.

Crunchy Rod Dreher

Today's Washington Post Style section has Hank Stuever's profile of Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, ... America (or at least the Republican Party).

I met Dreher about ten years ago, when he covered cultural issues for The Washington Times, before he worked for Arianna Huffington, the National Review, and the New York Post. He's now at the Dallas Morning News. He was very bright--he'd been to a special boarding school for geniuses in Lousiana--and seemed to know what he was talking about. He certainly got a good writeup in the paper today. Here's a sample:

The Dreher family likes its comfy, Ikea living-room sofa and nights spent reading. It's about front porches, not Porsches. They like jazz on (yechh) public radio. They are committed to saving the planet. They closely scrutinize what their kids watch and read, and Dreher brags that his sons routinely ask to hear his old college-radio faves on the stereo, the good stuff -- U2 and XTC. What might strike you as sort of post-hippie strikes them, paradoxically, as intrinsically conservative. It's God, family and Elvis Costello. And speaking of kooky old GOP furnishings, they like Peggy Noonan, too. (And she likes them; she's a godmother to their youngest child.)

Before Texas, Rod and Julie Dreher made a really good stab at being Brooklynites. He was a film critic and later columnist at the New York Post. Dreher says he was always the most conservative person at cocktail parties in Manhattan, "unless someone named Podhoretz was in the room."

Since "Crunchy Cons" was published earlier this year (it has gone back for two additional printings, according to a publicist at Crown publishers), Dreher has also taken a drubbing from his punditry cohort, including National Review's Jonah Goldberg, who views "Crunchy Con" as heretical to the "big tent" ideals of the one true Republican faith. Goldberg bites at "Crunchy Con" with occasional essays and blog entries of his own.

"To Rod's credit, he doesn't claim that 'mainstream conservatives' are racists; but he does claim that they are uptight, blue-blazered, two-dimensional men motivated by greed. They are Godless materialists, unthinking dupes of Madison Avenue, with no connection to spirituality or religion unless, that is, you think being an idolatrous votary of the free market counts as being religious," Goldberg wrote in March.

"Crunchy conservatism strikes me now -- as it did back when I first heard about it -- as a journalistic invention, a confabulation fit for some snarking liberal reporter at the Washington Post 'Style' section."

Ding-dong, we're here, a smidge late.

Forgot to bring wine, and we are perfectly okay with the idea that most people don't give the tiniest, insignificant poops about what Jonah Goldberg thinks.