The Observer (UK): British PM Made Pan Am Bomber Deal With Gaddafi at Italian G20 Summit

This Observer story (ht Drudge) indicates that the Obama administration gave a private green-light to the Libyan deal, despite subsequent "condemnations." (Observer photo)

Downing Street released the text of a cordial letter sent to the Libyan leader on the day that Abdulbaset al-Megrahi was released, asking that the event be kept low key because a "high-profile" ceremony would distress his victims and their families.

But critically the letter also refers to a meeting between the two leaders six weeks earlier at the G8 summit in Italy, adding that "when we met [there] I stressed that, should the Scottish executive decide that Megrahi can return to Libya, this should be a purely private family occasion" rather than a public celebration.

Previously officials have said that the two men's conversation in Italy at the beginning of July was brief and that, while the Lockerbie case was raised, Brown merely stressed the matter was one for the Scottish government to decide.

However, the new letter, addressed to "Dear Muammar" and signed off by wishing him a happy Ramadan, suggests that the decision was well enough advanced and Brown well enough briefed to set terms for a homecoming – albeit unsuccessfully. A jubilant Libyan crowd, some waving Scottish flags, greeted Megrahi at the airport.

Meanwhile, details emerged of a second letter written by the Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis to the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, confirming that there were no legal reasons not to let Megrahi go and concluding: "I hope on this basis you will now feel able to consider the Libyan application."

Although the Foreign Office said it was not intended to make representations either way, the leaking of the letter suggests the SNP-led administration may be starting to fight back.

Tonight the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, redoubled calls for the government to release official records of conversations about the release, as Gaddafi increased the embarrassment by publicly thanking "my friend Brown, his government, the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew who all contributed to encouraging the Scottish government to take this historic and courageous decision".

The scale of fury in America was laid bare in a vitriolic letter from the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller – who as a justice department lawyer led the investigation into the bombing – describing the release in a scathing letter to MacAskill as a "mockery of the rule of law" and of the victims' grief.

However, the Scottish government last night responded defiantly, insisting the US had made clear in discussions that, while it opposed Megrahi's release, it regarded freeing him on compassionate grounds because of his terminal cancer as "far preferable" to a prisoner transfer deal that would have seen him in custody.

Fears that the US could retaliate against the British government were eased when Whitehall sources disclosed that the White House had made no complaint to Downing Street, reserving its ire for the Scottish administration.

The official statement released by the Libyan leader makes clear the involvement of the British Prime Minister, as well as Libya's continuing support for terrorism:

Tripoli, 22.08.2009 (JANA)

Tripoli-22.8.2009(JANA) In front of his steadfast home, the Leader of the Revolution received last night Abd al Basset al Megrahi, his family members and a crowd of his relation.

The Leader made the following statement in which he addressed a message to friends and those who objected to these friends:
"At this moment I want to address a message to our friends in Scotland , the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister to congratulate them all for their courage, that they have proven to be independent inspire of all unnecessary and unacceptable pressure they faced..but they made the right, courageous and humane decision.

"I say to my friend Brown, the British Prime Minister, his government, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew who against all odds encouraged this brave decision."

"This step is in the interests of relations between the two countries Libya and Britain and in the interests of personal friendship between me and them, and will positively affect exchange between the two countries.

As for the other side, we would like to tell them:

When Libya took up the responsibility and commuted the death sentence against the Bulgarian medical team to life imprisonment, and I took up the responsibility in response to my friend President Sarkozy, and for France we turned the team that is convicted of mass murder to serve life imprisonment in Bulgaria.

However, the world was stunned that the team, convicted of the hideous crime, was pardoned even before landing at the airport in Bulgaria, the President of Bulgaria was at the forefront of those to greet them, they were greeted as heroes, since they killed 400 innocent Libyan children and infected them with the AIDS virus.

Then, unfortunately, the European parliament welcomed the convicted team with a standing ovation, as if they were heroes.
We haven't we heard any protests on the exoneration of the convicted team? And why there was no talk that this would hurt the feelings of the families of the Libyan victims?

As for now with the release of Abdelbaset from prison, unfortunately illogical voices were raised, saying this hurts the feelings of families of the Lockerbie victims!!

Are we without any feelings, and they have feelings?!...Are we donkeys and they are humans?!

This is the double standard politics, this is an encroachment, this is arrogance and contempt for other nations, of their public opinion and humanity.

This is what brings about injustice and the terrorism they are now facing.

Terrorism is a phenomena that has justifications, which is the double standard politics.

Herein, we are extending a message to friends and to those who objected the friends.

During this reception several popular poems that express congratulations to the leader , his honorable family and the Libyan people on the occasion of 40th anniversary of Great al-Fatah Revolution and on start of the blessed month of Ramadan and the return home of brother , Abdel Basset el-Meghrahi .

These poems hailed the giant moral and material gains of al-Fatah Revolution for the Libyan people since its outbreak in 1969.

The poets reaffirmed their commitment and loyalty to the leader of the Revolution generation after generation .
/ JANA /

More reaction at BoycottScotland.com:

From the very beginning we have advocated the boycott of British Petroleum and other major British companies that have been lobbying for closer trade relations with Libya. As the news continues to unfold, more and more evidence is mounting regarding BP's role in this affair, as well as that of other major British industries seeking a foothold in the increasingly lucrative Libyan market. It has now become clear that the release of al-Megrahi was a concession made towards this end.

Charles B. Hall Honored in His Indiana Hometown

Dorian Trent Anderson, a retired two star general, was and is the first and only African American to receive an appointment to West Point from Brazil, Indiana. He was the guest speaker at the ceremony honoring Charles B. Hall in his hometown on Saturday as reported on This 'n That:

CHARLES B. HALL HONORED TODAY

Charles B. Hall was the first Tuskegee Airman to shoot down a German fighter plane during World War II over Italy. His home town of Brazil, Indiana paid special tribute to him today with an unveiling ceremony of a memorial constructed in his honor. Mr. Hall died in 1971 at the age of 51 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His daughter and son were in attendance...

For Kelli Ann Hall Jones, Saturday's ceremony was very special.

"It's so important," Jones said Saturday following the dedication ceremony for the Charles B. Hall Memorial in front of Brazil City Hall.

Jones is the youngest of Hall's children and lives in Oklahoma City, Okla.

"This was a chance for me to come to his hometown," Jones said. "I'd never been here. It's a lovely town."

Happy Ramadan!

London Times: UK Traded Pan Am Bomber for BP Oil Deal

According to the London Times, Scotland's "compassionate release" was about British access to Libyan oil:

Supported by a walking stick, and wearing clothes that hung off his clearly diminished frame, Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi did not look like the biggest mass murderer in British history as he boarded the flight yesterday that would take him home.

The Libyan known to the world as the Lockerbie bomber returned to his native country a free man after being granted compassionate release by the Scottish government, a decision that some believe has its roots in a deal made between Tony Blair and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi more than two years ago.

The notorious “deal in the desert” was a significant step towards Libya’s rehabilitation among world leaders after it was held responsible for the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988, and also helped to clear the way for BP to invest £450 million in exploring Libya’s vast untapped reserves of oil. The prisoner transfer arrangement that the leaders agreed was also the first indication that al-Megrahi could one day return home.

Here's the Daily Mail version of the story:

Tony Blair has been accused of agreeing a 'blood money' deal involving the Lockerbie bomber with Colonel Gaddafi just hours before BP unveiled a £500million oil contract.

The then Prime Minister laid the foundations for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi during a meeting with the Libyan leader in a desert tent two years ago.

The pair thrashed out a controversial prisoner transfer deal just before BP chairman Peter Sutherland announced the firm was investing $900million - about £545million - to search for oil in Libya. If the firm strikes rich, it could be worth £13billion.

Sounds plausible to me, as the British are rather cold-blooded and need some money fast right now. However, instead of empty statements from the administration "condemning" the release, the US government has some more substantive options, since BP does plenty of business here in the good old USA...some of it with the US government.

Congress could investigate these allegations, holding committee hearings after Labor Day. Then, if it turns out they are true, all US government contracts with BP should be cancelled immediately--Surely, there are some oil companies not in bed with mass murderers which might like to take over BP's US business?

Secondly, the families could begin their own public relations and advertising campaign to keep the matter alive--both as a public relations problem for BP (Perhaps with an ad campaign such as: "Fight Terrorism--Boycott BP") and as an issue in the 2010 congressional races. In fact, they were not the only victims of Libyan terrorism--just the most directly affected. Every US citizen was a victim of the attack on Pan Am 103. It was an attack on the United States of America (as well as Great Britain, but that's not our problem). It also set the stage for 9/11, in a "can you top this?" for terrorism kind of way.

I believe there is no statute of limitations on murder, especially mass murder. Therefore, the Justice Department may have the option of indicting Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi on some fresh charges, and asking for his extradition from Libya to face trial in the United States.

So, the silver lining of this scandal is that it presents an opportunity to let the world see just how serious anyone is about bringing terrorists to justice--without rendition, without Guantanamo, and without torture.

BTW, Here's the official Libyan position on the release--not a word about compassion or cancer--but a "hostage" no doubt traded for ransom, therefore consistent with the London Times account:

Libya Consistent Position That El Megrahi Was Political Hostage According to All International Norms is Crowned by His Return Home Today

Tripoli-20.8.2009(JANA) The Position that Libya has maintained all along that Abd al Basset al Megrahi, who was convicted in Lockerbie case, was a political hostage according to all international norms was today crowned by his release and return home from Scotland.

El Megrahi arrived in Mi'tiga International Airport accompanied by Seif al Islam Gaddafi, Chairman of Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation where he was received by his family, friends and a number of citizens.

The position of the Jamahiriya that El Megrahi should be released since he was a political hostage has attracted widespread international support ..since 2001 consecutive summits of the Arab League, African Union and the Non-aligned Movement always had the issue of El Megrahi on their agenda.

All summits have stressed repeatedly that continuous detention of El Megrahi would be considered as a political hostage in accordance with all international norms.
=JANA=

More background at The Lockerbie Case Blog. Still more from AFP at Breitbart.com:

The release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was linked to trade deals with Britain, Seif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, said in a interview broadcast Friday.

NationalAtlas.gov

Just found this neat website via Wikipedia:

NationalAtlas.gov.

A Visit to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard

From Deneen L. Brown's article, in today's Washington Post:

Oak Bluffs still encompasses one of the country's oldest circles of black wealth and power. Edward M. Brooke, the first black senator elected since Reconstruction, and Martin Luther King Jr. summered here. Spike Lee owns a house here. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett summers here, as does Vernon Jordan, former adviser to President Clinton.

It is a destination of the rich, whether they call it that or not. Most people just say it is a magical island with down-to-earth people from all walks and tsk-tsk at all the talk about the black elite. You wonder whether that isn't New England modesty. Because, in reality, anybody who makes it here has to have reached a certain status in life and has the luxury of leisure time in a recession, can take weeks to vacation by the sea, might have at least two houses even if it's a house a grandmother bought generations ago when she arrived as a domestic. Each generation produced children who climbed into another social class -- the daughters of maids became teachers, the children of teachers became doctors and lawyers. The Obamas have rented an estate in Chilmark, about 12 miles up the island from Oak Bluffs. They are scheduled to arrive Sunday. It is assumed the Obamas will pay a visit to Oak Bluffs.

Old Money
There is a social stratification here that is hard to discern in the salt air.

But it's here just as sure as the water is cold.

It was a place where beautiful black people vacationed. The women with red lipstick and Lena Horne hair looking out from old photographs, each woman more striking than the next. The men in pinstripe suits. Adam Clayton Powell, "King of the Cats," with his hair tossed back.

Here you can watch gradations of class. A subtle thing. Unspoken.

It is a place where summer becomes a verb, as in: "Where do you summer?" And by inference, winter becomes a verb as you politely ask, "Where do you winter?" And they answer, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. The answers are clear and precise.

Not like that of the man on the bus back in Providence who explains life on the other side of the water with regular folks: "I don't roll like that," says Michael Lucas, 43. "I have to summer and winter in the same place just to keep my lights on."

On the Vineyard, you know people who arrive here have arrived. "You don't get it when you first meet them," says Donna-Marie Peters, a sociology professor at Temple University, who has come here since she was a child. "But when you do, it will be subtle. A coded word. I live on such and such street. There are many echelons of middle class. There are the new elite and the old elite."...

***

...This community holds a confluence of old upper class and new upper class and those who straddle between. The unwritten rules you can't break because they are unwritten.

There are subtle questions that get asked here. Class can be distinguished in a matter of seconds with the right questions about family and ownership.

Lawrence Otis Graham explained this kind of social stratification in his book, "Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class." "All my life, for as long as I can remember," Graham wrote, "I grew up thinking that there existed only two types of black people: those who passed the 'brown paper bag and ruler test,' " meaning lighter skin and straight hair, "and those who didn't. Those who were members of the black elite. And those who weren't. . . . There was us and there was them. There were those children who belonged to Jack and Jill and summered in Sag Harbor; Highland Beach; or Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, and there were those who didn't."

Oak Bluffs, Sag Harbor, Idlewild in Michigan -- which was called the "Black Eden" -- and Highland Beach are historically black vacation resorts built during the era of racial segregation. Highland Beach, in Maryland, was created by Frederick Douglass and members of his family.

"A lot of very early African American property owners in Oak Bluffs were apparently domestic servants of whites who vacationed in the areas. They had been exposed to the area. They liked the area and they bought land there," said Portia James, curator of "Jubilee: African American Celebration," an exhibit at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum.

"There was a time when those cottage owners who were black numbered less than a dozen -- indeed it was a gala summer when that number was achieved," Dorothy West wrote in 1969 in the Vineyard Gazette. "Their buying power made almost no ripple in the island's economy, and they, themselves, had no wish to make waves. But they had importance as forerunners. These early vacationists from Boston were among the first blacks anywhere to want for themselves and their children the same long summer of sun and sea air that a benevolent island provided to others who sought it. These first blacks made later generations vacation-minded and island-oriented."

Charles Crawford v David Miliband on Terrorism and Apartheid in South Africa

The former Ambassador to the former Yugoslavia takes on the British Foreign Minister and his recent statements on the BBC in praise of ANC terrorism and the former Communist Party's leader in South Africa:

On the Miliband/terrorism point, the FS was either simply wrong or missed a key point.

It is not whether terrorism is 'morally justifiable'. It is whether those who use terrorist methods to win power are more likely than not to use terror to stay in it.

Insofar as South Africa has emerged from apartheid 'peacefully' and today is in not too bad shape, it is because the ANC/SACP did not use terrorism (other than against fellow Africans which as we know did not count) on any great scale.

On the whole (and wisely, albeit at great cost) the South African masses did not rise up violently against apartheid, but let unrelenting pressures and contradictions of different shapes and sizes erode it.

In fact, if there was an ANC/SACP armed struggle at all it was against other African groupings (PAC/AZAPO/Inkatha). Which is why some 30,000 Africans and almost no 'whites' were massacred in South Africa's legendary Peaceful Transition to Democracy.

Plus the ANC/SACP/UDF in the mid-1980s had a clear policy of unleashing 'the worse, the better' revolutionary terror in the townships, with necklacings and other horrors being perpetrated by groups of demonic school-children. Hence, 20+ years later, South Africa's amazing violent crime rate.

In short, ANC/SACP terrorism did not 'blow down' apartheid. P W Botha's heart attack and the collapse of Communism in Europe did.

The BBC link to the interview coyly describes Joe Slovo as a 'leading member of the ANC and the first Housing Minister in Nelson Mandela's government'. The point, of course, is that Slovo was the leading South African communist and formal head of the 'military wing' of the ANC/SACP alliance. Slovo was at the heart of ANC/SACP policy-making for years, plus a close suck-up of Moscow and vigorous apologist for Communism anywhere he found it.

So here we have the ghoulish spectacle of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband extolling the merits of this dark character, a great friend of his own Marxist father Ralph Miliband.

Slovo by the usual standards of Communists was something of a moderate and pragmatist. He had to be. Years of exile forced him to grasp that the South African masses were not to be mobilised for a brisk, amazingly violent surge aimed at toppling apartheid. And he seems to have been avuncular in large doses, chatting over Marxist ideology with assorted Milibands. What a great life indeed!

Yet Slovo has to bear a significant responsibility for the carnage inflicted by the SACP/ANC in the townships in its drive for sole power as apartheid ended, and the calamitous crime-rate thereafter. Not an issue I suspect the Miliband family has given much thought to, such is the Labour Party's fevered admiration for the ANC/SACP.

Plus, while Slovo was devoted to the cause of freedom for South Africans, he was openly and shamefully against freedom for those trying to cast off communism.

See how the SACP urged Moscow to suppress the pro-freedom movement in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Slovo later claimed to have had personal doubts about this, but fealty to Moscow was a prerequisite for leadership in the anti-apartheid struggle. And that was what counted, not some higher principle of real empowerment and freedom for all.

His ideological writings were ghastly beyond description. His famous piece Has Socialism Failed written in 1990 is a cracker of the genre. It agonizes over the ruin which has come to the classic Communist project as the Berlin Wall crashed, and meanders in a jargonised pseudo-logical way towards a purported condemnation of the 'Stalinism' which Slovo had championed for most of his life.

Avuncular Joe scratches for nuggets of Marxist hope in the wreckage:

The transformations which have occurred in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria are revolutionary in scope. With the exception of Romania, is there another example in human history in which those in power have responded to the inevitable with such a civilised and pacific resignation?

We should remember De Gaulle's military response in 1968 when ten million workers and students filled the streets of Paris. It is not difficult to forecast how Bush or Thatcher would deal with millions in their streets supported by general strikes demanding the overthrow of their system of rule.

Huh?

Of course for Slovo Communism in fact did quite well in lots of respects:

Among other things, statistics recently published in The Economist (UK) show that in the Soviet Union - after only 70 years of socialist endeavour in what was one of the most backward countries in the capitalist world - there are more graduate engineers than in the US, more graduate research scientists than in Japan and more medical doctors per head than in Western Europe. It also produces more steel, fuel and energy than any other country (The World in the 1990s; Economist publication).

How many capitalist countries can match the achievements of most of the socialist world in the provision of social security, child care, the ending of cultural backwardness, and so on? There is certainly no country in the world which can beat Cuba's record in the sphere of health care.

Lies and/or specious drivel.

It was all just a mistake:

We believe, however, that the theory of Marxism, in all its essential respects, remains valid and provides an indispensable theoretical guide to achieve a society free of all forms of exploitation of person by person.

The major weaknesses which have emerged in the practice of socialism are the results of distortions and misapplications. They do not flow naturally from the basic concepts of Marxism whose core is essentially humane and democratic and which project a social order with an economic potential vastly superior to that of capitalism.

My own abiding personal memory of Slovo comes from 1990, a huge rally organised by the ANC/SACP in Jo'burg soon after they were unbanned. Slovo was the final speaker. The crowd had been brought to life by the late Chris Hani leading rounds of cheery Kill the Boer chants and dancing.

Slovo at last rose to speak. Perhaps the proudest moment of his career to date.

And as he started droning on, the Africans started to go home in their droves. Who was this boring old white man anyway?

Slovo on centre-stage could see for himself what was happening. The South African masses were at last voting freely, albeit with their feet. And not for him!

The more impassioned his voice as he glorified the SACP/ANC, the faster people left. It was really remarkable. By the time he finished he was almost shouting, but to desultory applause - the stadium was close to empty.

All the pro-ANC media and its white Leftist elite of course ignored this astonishing spectacle in reporting the event. It was not just appallingly embarrassing for themselves in their self-proclaimed intellectual leadership roles. Worse, far worse, it did not fit the Narrative.

Was Slovo's a 'great life'? In its own tenaciously dogmatic, blinkered, selfish blood-flecked way, perhaps it was.

Does he deserve a fawning BBC piece led by a British Foreign Secretary?

No.

Dr. Howard Dean's Prescription for Health Care Reform

News of Dr. Howard Dean's book tour in the Washington Post. He's proposing his own solution to the health-care mess:

Dean did take a few shots at the Obama administration's handling of the current debate. "I think that there's a very mixed message coming out of the administration," he said. "What I'm selling is something that's really clear."

What Dean is selling is his latest book, or at least the proposal outlined in it. "Not to shill for my own book, but if you have $12.99 or whatever it is to spare, 'Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform' actually explains all this in plain English in about 130 pages, and you can get through it in a good afternoon," he told the Poland Spring crowd.

Why the former Vermont governor, DNC chair and practicing physician wasn't named HHS Secretary by President Obama, I'll never figure out. In any case, here's his prescription:

Much has been made of the 48 million Americans who don’t have health insurance. Their stories are heart-rending, and it’s a scandal that in the wealthiest nation on earth, we do not cover everybody. No other industrial democracy in the world puts up with this embarrassment. But the debate on healthcare reform—which is coming to a peak once again—should also focus on the fact that many Americans who do have health insurance don’t find out that it doesn’t adequately cover them until them until it is too late.

What’s the real issue?

The real issue in the debate over healthcare reform is not whether we should have “socialized medicine” or not. It’s whether we should continue with an extraordinarily inefficient system that today features a private insurance industry that takes large amounts of money out of the healthcare system for shareholders, administrators, and executives, while denying people the basic coverage they have paid for.

How to frame the debate.

The debate about healthcare reform is not a debate about how much a role the government should play. Instead, the debate should focus on this simple question: Should we give Americans under 65 the same choice we give Americans over 65? Should we give all Americans a choice of opting out of the private health insurance system and benefiting from a public health insurance plan? Americans ought to be able to decide for themselves.

What Americans Should Demand of Real Healthcare Reform.

Choice: Everyone should be able to choose between a public health insurance option—like Medicare— or a private health insurance option.
No forced moves: If you like the health insurance coverage you have, you should be able to keep it.
Coverage options for small business: Very small businesses should have the option of handing over health insurance coverage for their employees to a public or private plan subsidized by the government.
Everybody in, nobody out: Public and private health insurance plans should turn no one away based on illness, pre-existing conditions, or other criteria.
Similar premiums for everyone: Despite age or illness, all Americans should be able to opt into a public or private healthcare without wide discrepancies in cost based on age or previous illness.
More options, not less: Healthcare reform should expand Americans’ healthcare choices, not reduce them.
Financial protection: A public health insurance option is more affordable because it’s more efficient. This protects families’ financial health.
Fewer of your healthcare dollars spent on overhead: A public health insurance option is much cheaper to operate and will help reduce non-health-related overhead costs.
Universality: Everyone other than those already covered by Medicare or Medicaid should have the option to join a public plan.
Portability: A public health insurance plan should cover you no matter how many times you move, no matter who you work for, and no matter where you live.

More at DeansHealthCare.com... and in this YouTube clip (sure wish they didn't have that distracting flag in the background, though...):

FBI Had 600-Page File on Michael Jackson

The existence of Michael Jackson's FBI file was unearthed by a FOIA request from blogger Michael Petrelis (ht FOIABlog):

When I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for any records they may have in their archive on Michael Jackson, I expected the agency would reply saying they didn't locate any such records, or that there were only a handful on pages on the late entertainer. I was wrong.

A letter from the FBI yesterday informs me they've located close to 600 pages on him. As I've learned from years of filing these sort of FOIAs, it's going to be a while before anything is released, and, when pages are eventually provided to me, they could be quite mundane.

England v Britain

An interesting account of the present state of the age-old ethnic conflict, in the light of Scottish Prime Minister Gordon Brown's attempts to come up with a national ideology for Great Britain (apparently being subjects of Her Majesty is no longer sufficient identity, as a member of the EU), can be found on the Britology blog. (ht Charles Crawford)

2) Don’t say ‘England’, or – if you have to – marginalise it: In order for Englishness to be re-presented as Britishness in this way, Brown needs to suppress or marginalise all references to England. This is because the thing he has to avoid at all costs is referring to the real political history of Britain, which is that the British state has been predominantly driven and moulded by English national and economic interests; and that England could once again develop a national consciousness that, this time, could see its interests as being better served outside the UK, rather than inside. This marginalisation is evident in the above-quoted reference to “our nurturing Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English identities and sensibilities”: putting ‘English’ last in line after the smaller nations, as if England were only one and – by implication – almost the least important driver of British identity; well, the least distinctive element in Brown’s Britishness, that’s for sure.

Another example is a quite ludicrous passage referring to the recent financial crisis:

“I believe a debate on Britishness is well timed, because of its relevance to the recent financial crisis. When it struck, no one questioned the British state standing behind banks headquartered in Scotland [yes, they bloody well did!]. No one discussed what a Wales-only response might be to the selling of sub-prime mortgages, or wondered how Northern Ireland might find its own solution to changing global conditions”.

Yes, this is where the discussion ends. ‘What about England, you f***er?’ was literally my response on reading this (well, OK, without the asterisks, if you see what I mean). The point being that people did question whether England would be better off weathering the financial crisis on its own: that it wouldn’t have been so s***ing awful in the first place, and then we wouldn’t have had to mortgage the future of the next generation of English kids and NHS patients to prop up the Scottish banks (and Chancellors) that had been foremost in getting us into the mess in the first place. (While on the subject of the NHS, you’ll love the lyrical passage about how it is an example of our fairness and unity as a ‘nation’. What a load of absolute tosh: there are four NHS’s thanks to Brown and New Labour, and the English one gets the smallest per-capita funding of them all – really united and fair!)

Of course as every Scot knows, the Irish, Welsh and Scots are the native Britons--the English are of course historically Germanic and Norman invaders from across the Channel who first drove them out of their homeland...then out of Scotland to Canada and Ireland to the USA and Australia. The Welsh had been penned in by Offa's Dike.

Happy Birthday, Central Asian Bloggers!

Nathan Hamm and Joshua Foust's Central Asia Blog has just turned six...

Also, Happy Birthday to Ferghana.ru! Russia's Central Asian News website, edited by Daniel Kislov, which recently turned ten.

Pop Culture is a Lagging Indicator

Just a thought, inspired by dinner last night with a "public diplomacy" official who asserted that because the world mourned for Michael Jackson, it indicated that the world was looking to America for leadership rather than, for example, China.

Someone I know at the dinner suggested that, to the contrary, cultural influence follows on the heels of economic, political, and military power--that culture, especially pop culture, is a lagging rather than leading indicator. Which means that countries with a low profile culturally--for example, again, China--would become culturally dominant globally after achieving primacy in other spheres. The argument is simple. French became the language of diplomacy in the 19th Century not only because of the appeal of French artists, writers, and composers, but because Napoleon had conquered most of Europe. To understand and communicate with the French, one needed to know French. After the Franco-Prussian War, with the rise of German military and scientific might, German became the culture to know, and everything from Beethoven to Thomas Mann to Richard Wagner to goose-stepping soldiers de rigueur. Viz., Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. With the crushing of Germany in World War II, English came to replace French as the language of diplomacy and German as the language of science. Widepread Anglophilia was a reflection of the fact that the sun never set on the British Empire. With the collapse of that Empire and assumption of the mantle by the USA, dressing for dinner and memorizing Keats and Shelley were abandoned in favor of blue jeans, country-western music, and Michael Jackson. Likewise one may chart the rise and fall of interest in Russian culture according to the ups and downs of the Cold War.

In this model of cultural dominance, the spread of a particular cultural icon's image around the world is dependent on base of military, economic, and political supremacy.

In sum, the continuing spread of American culture, and indeed American values, depends upon military victory, economic prosperity, and political dynamism. To the extent to which other nations are victorious, prosperous, and dynamic, their cultural influences should follow.

Thant Myint-U: Talk to Burma

Senator Jim Webb seems to be following Thant Myint-U's advice in yesterday's Washington Post:

Last winter the Obama administration announced a review of Burma policy. I hope it will reconsider the United States' long-standing reliance on sanctions. It's not just that they don't work, but that they've been hugely counterproductive, taking away the one big force -- American soft power -- that could have played a role in reshaping the landscape.

Asia has experienced many successful democratic transitions, and none came about because of the sanctions and lectures that Western powers and advocacy groups seem to think will work in Burma. Generals don't negotiate away their power in the face of threats. You have to change the ground beneath them.

Engagement is not just about talking -- it's about dealing with the powers that be enough to get a foot in the door and create new facts on the ground, especially through economic contacts with the Burmese people. Nor is it based on the notion that economic development will automatically produce democracy, but that we must tackle simultaneously Burma's political and economic ills.

Many in America and worldwide are again outraged by goings-on in Burma. But without new thinking, 20 more years will pass and the dream of a prosperous, democratic Burma will be more distant still.

Julie & Julia: A Movie About Coping With 9/11?

Yesterday someone I know and I went to see Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia at our neigbhorhood Avalon theatre.

I have to admit bias. I interviewed Julia Child briefly at a PBS convention, and wrote about her shows for my book PBS: Behind the Screen. She was indeed very tall, very jolly, and peered down at me, hunched over, like a crane. So it seems that Meryl Streep certainly got her right.

I didn't mind the alternating story as much as some people. It seemed to illustrate an important and recurring theme: the failure of the Lower Manhattan Development Commission to rebuild the World Trade Center after 9/11. The picture repeatedly returns to the wasteland where the Twin Towers once stood, as well as repeatedly shows the "cube farm" where calls from the public were answered by people who could do nothing to help. So, I thought to myself, this explains the intensification of the "foodie" pheonomenon that swept New York. It was a displacement of rage, a form of dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by fulfilling some primal drives--to eat good food, for example. Okay, it seemed the message of the film came through, if one can't rebuild the World Trade Center, at least one can cook Boeuf Bourguignon...

It gave the film a very sad, almost tragic, after-effect...at least on this viewer. How pathetic that the young people of New York, the "best and the brightest" (Julie Powell had been, in the film at least, editor of the Amherst literary magazine), are unable to deal directly with the attack on their city. Instead, the drive to accomplish something meaningful--such as the defeat of Al Qaeda and its allies--had been sublimated in the face of an unresponsive and incompetent bureaucracy. This turning away from the world of work resembled, in a sense, the "inner emigration" described by Anti-Nazi Germans during World War II, or the victims of Stalinist repressions. Since nothing can be done about politics or society, just bake a tasty chocolate cake for your family and friends.

In addition to overwhelming sadness in the film, there is evidence of this phenomenon in posts on Julie Powell's blog:

Maps - I'm sorry you feel that my book expresses no compassion for the families of 9/11 victims,because that was not my intent at all. I merely wanted to show that being faced with that suffering - and with the various complaints of everyday New Yorkers who seemed to feel that their irritations with, say, the memorial design or some such, equating the agonies and traumas of those who had actually suffered in that horrible event - took a toll on me personally, as a secretary with no power to truly help, and overwhelmed by bureaucratic nonsense. I could have written a varnished pretty version of my experience, all sweetness and light, but to me that is what would have been dishonest and disrespectful to those who have truly suffered so much.

Also - I'm not a government drone anymore, and the Ritz-Carlton is on Sony's tab.

She certainly doesn't say that it filled her with pride to be part of a vital and patriotic effort to rebuild New York. And her callers in the film say that they "hate" what the government is doing.

(So do I, as you can see from my post of July 8, 2008: "Rebuilding what your enemies destroy is War Propaganda 101--it's what the British did after the Nazis flattened the Houses of Parliament...and the Pentagon did after 9/11. The dithering and unseemly fighting over the money surrounding the World Trade Center project sends a very bad signal of weakness and disarray to America's adversaries. The empty lot is a victory for Terrorists. Putting something else there would be a victory for Al Qaeda ('Look Mom, we blew it up.'). It signals fear...")

The subtext of Julie and Julia is a terrible commentary on New York's--and America's--response to the greatest attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor. It merits expansion into another film of its own....

Another Uzbek Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Protester Hospitalized

(Ferghana.ru photo)

Nothing so far in US media about continuing protests and a hunger strike against RFE/RL by Uzbek dissidents--but Russia's Ferghana.ru has the story:

Isokzhon Zokirov, another active member of the Birdamlik opposition movement, is placed in hospital. It is worth mentioning that on August 10, the representatives of the Birdamlik opposition movement declared open-ended hunger strike, demanding the abolishment of the censorship of Uzbek service – Radio Ozodlik – and offer the tribune to all the leaders of Uzbek political opposition, residing both in Uzbekistan and abroad. The hunger strike is taking place in front of RFE/RL headquarters in Washington, DC.

Doctor are providing medical aid to Zokirov
Bakhodir Choriev, the leader of the Birdamlik movement, informed Ferghana.RU that on the fourth day of the event Isokzhon Zokirov flaked out and at about 2 pm, local time, he was placed in hospital. Zokirov is in grave condition.

Zokirov on the way to hospital
This is the second member of the movement, placed in hospital. Ferghana.Ru reported earlier that on the third day of the hunger strike, the oldest participant 73-year old human rights activist Yadgar Turlibekov felt sick and the protesters had to call for ambulance. Today, Mr. Turlibekov is in one of the hospitals in DC and feels better.
"So far none of RFE/RL representatives inquired about our health condition either personally or by phone. This is sad that after two participants were placed in hospital there is still no reaction from RFE/RL management – Choriev notes. – We will continue the hunger strike and whatever happens to us will be on RFE/RL’s head..."

Charles Crawford on the Future of Bosnia

From the World's First Diplomatic Blogoir:

Bosnia is a sulky donkey with three bickering heads, unimpressed by the EU's remote carrots and unmoved by sharp smacks on its rump from successive High Representatives.

Hopeless? No. I'd go for a New Deal. A fast-track EU membership with visa-free travel for all Bosnians, in return for a new constitution. This would create three regions, each dominated by one community but with substantive responsibility for its own affairs, all with light but real central powers and a push to make Bosnia the least regulated economy in Europe. A fair, coherent structure which rewards responsibility and private initiative.

Alas, to reach there things will have to get notably worse, to bring all concerned in Bosnia and Brussels to agree that, finally, there is no alternative. A future Foreign Secretary will need strong nerves.

Bosnia is, of course, a remarkable example of diplomatic action for all sorts of reasons. It is a small country whose population is half the size of London's, in Europe, literate and so on. If we can't fix that, what can we fix?

Bosnia shows how if the foundations of policy are illogical and incoherent, the results will be so too, far into the future.

And it reminds us that having launched an unsatisfactory project the 'international community' then must not be surprised when it takes on new exotic life-forms of its own which, by virtue of being in some way 'organic' and legitimised over time are damn difficult to change later without serious breakdown.

My ideas, such as they are, are to give Bosnia a constitution which roughly corresponds to reality and is coherent in itself, something the current one concocted in huge haste at Dayton to help B Clinton get re-elected is not.

The main problem with a sort of 'three Entity' arrangement is that the largest group (Bosniacs/Muslims) hanker after a 'one Entity' outcome, which necessarily suits them as the largest group.

But that, I think, is not now achievable, or fair. In part because the Bosniacs themselves have refused to contemplate 'ethnic disarmament'.

Former President Izetbegovic put this to me in so many words: "we won't accept ethnic disarmament for fifty years". His argument was that the Bosniacs at some two million people had to build their strength for many years to come, as they were surrounded by some 15 million dangerous Serbs and Croats.

So be it. By insisting on maintaining their ethnic weapon stockpiles, maybe for plausible reasons, the Bosniacs now will do well to be part of a BH that actually works and starts to get richer, which means a BH rearranged to function sensibly.

But someone will have to do very heavy lifting to achieve anything like that, when attentions are on even more ghastly problems further East...

My Cousin, the Hero Nominee

My cousin, Rabbi Ben Tzion Kravitz, has been nominated as a hero of the Jewish Community of Los Angeles.

Tell us about your nominee. Why should he or she be recognized as a Jewish Community Hero?

Rabbi Kravitz is the founder of Jews for Judaism. Through his work he has brought a tremendous amount of people closer to Judaism

What problem did your nominee identify in the community that needed to be solved? How has your nominee's efforts made a difference for others?

Rabbi Kravitz's work has helped dampen the lure to other religions. Jews for Judaism is the only full time worldwide organization that combats deceptive proselytizing that targets the Jewish community.

If you feel like it, you can see other nominees and vote, at this website.

In Case You Missed Yesterday's Perseid Meteor Shower...

Bill Clinton Praises US Secretary of State's Dancing Ability

In the NY Daily News:

At an event promoting Zagat Survey's first-ever guide to Harlem, the former president made specific mention about his wife's seven-nation tour of Africa.

"I saw on television Hillary boogying with those women," he said, eliciting a knowing titter from the audience.

"You see that?" Bill Clinton said to the crowd. "In Kenya, and I thought, well, you know, Kenya? Harlem? What am I chopped liver? Maybe I can get her to come and do that here."

Bill's right, Hillary can dance...Let's go to the videotape:

American Diplomatic Smackdown!

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton practices "smart diplomacy" winning "hearts and minds" by answering audience questions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
More "smart diplomacy" to be found in State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley's discussion of the above incident at the daily press briefing:

QUESTION: P.J., you told CNN that the student who asked the question yesterday was apparently lost in translation, had touched a nerve with Secretary Clinton. I was wondering if you can explain a little more of what you meant by that. And also, does Secretary Clinton have any regret? Is she sorry that she lost her cool over this offense?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I would say two things: First, it is our understanding that the student – perhaps he was nervous in talking to the Secretary of State. He meant to say – meant to ask a question about the views of President Obama. By mistake, he said the views of President Clinton. So there was a – and he was speaking one language, but obviously, as I said, what the Secretary heard, I think you have to put it in context. Obviously, she is the Secretary of State. As we’ve seen, her husband, as a significant global figure in his own right, has his own agenda.

But as I said to CNN, it’s important to understand the context here, that one of – an abiding theme that she has in her trip to Africa is empowering women. As the question was posed to her, it was posed in a way that said I want to get the views of two men, but not you, the Secretary of State. And I think it – obviously, she reacted to that. But I think it’s part of something that she is obviously very passionate about, which is making sure that if – that the role of women in the agricultural sector and the political sector and civil society – if Africa is going to advance in the future, the role of women has to be more significant in the continent than it is today.

QUESTION: But back to my core question, though, sir.

MR. CROWLEY: And just to finish the --

QUESTION: Does she have any regret?

MR. CROWLEY: Just to finish the point --

QUESTION: Go ahead. I thought you were done. I’m sorry.

MR. CROWLEY: -- at the conclusion of the town hall, she and the young man got together and I don’t think there were any hard feelings that were --

QUESTION: But chauvinism aside, sir, does she have any regret about --

MR. CROWLEY: I have not talked to the Secretary. She is --

QUESTION: -- losing her cool as the top diplomat in public?

MR. CROWLEY: She’s currently in the air coming back from Goma and I have not talked with her.

QUESTION: Was the student selected to make – to ask a question?

MR. CROWLEY: I --

QUESTION: Pre-selected?

MR. CROWLEY: I do not know.

QUESTION: Isn’t it – doesn’t it strike you as a little bit odd to take on a student like this? It’s hardly an argument between equals, whatever he might say that’s outrageous or unsettling. Does it suggest a certain super-sensitivity on the Secretary’s part?

MR. CROWLEY: Again, obviously, she reacted to what she heard, but resolved it with the student before the event ended.

QUESTION: Just a follow-up on this. You just said that this was an error on the student’s part. Yesterday --

MR. CROWLEY: No, no, I’m saying it’s been reported that the student meant to say President Obama, said President Clinton by mistake.

QUESTION: Well, okay. No, but that’s what I’m trying to clarify, because yesterday, officials at the State Department and what the traveling party were saying that this was a translation error by the translator. You’re saying now that this was --

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I --

QUESTION: -- a student being nervous and saying the wrong thing. Which one is it?

MR. CROWLEY: We – I wasn’t there, okay? And I was careful when I talked to CNN to say there may have been an error in translation. Clearly, she reacted to the English translation of the student’s question. It has been reported – I’ve seen one report where the student said he meant to say something else rather than what he did say. There was – the traveling party went back to the French – the original question as it was posed in French to try to understand exactly what the student said. I don’t know what the sourcing was by the network that I saw last night that said that the student meant to say something else.

All I’m saying is that, to Barry’s question, which is how the Secretary responded to the question as it was posed to her in English, I think it’s important to put that in context, which is she’s in Africa focused significantly on the role of women in that country, and as it was posed to her, as she said, I’m the Secretary of State, do you want to ask – you want my opinion on an issue, I’m happy to provide it. But she’s not there to provide a perspective of --

QUESTION: I understand that, but --

MR. CROWLEY: -- as it was posed in English.

QUESTION: Right, I understand that. Okay, I guess where my confusion was is that you were describing the incident in the initial question – answer to your initial question. And I’m kind of curious why you chose to highlight the --

MR. CROWLEY: I have not talked to the traveling party today to find out if they have further clarified, based on their analysis last night. I don’t think that we have a problem with the translation per se, and the report that the student said I meant to say Obama, I said Clinton, so that there – actually, the question was fairly posed, but that the student posed the question the wrong way, I have no reason to doubt that version of events.

QUESTION: Okay. So that’s sounds to be the one you’re going with then.

MR. CROWLEY: Well --

QUESTION: I mean, you’ve gone back to that several times, so --

MR. CROWLEY: Put it this way: If you want to ask me about the Secretary’s comments, I’ll be happy to take – to go into that in further detail. I can’t speak for the young student.

Yes.

QUESTION: Can I switch topics?

MR. CROWLEY: Please. (Laughter.)

Columnist Maureen Dowd explained, in today's New York Times:

Hillary’s KO in the Congo on Monday made the covers of both New York tabloids. Using tough hand gestures not seen since “The Sopranos” went off HBO, Hillary snapped back at an African college student who asked about the growing influence of China on Africa and then, according to the translator, wanted to know: “What does Mr. Clinton think?”

It turned out that the student was trying to ask how President Obama felt about it. But before he was able to clarify, the secretary of state flared: “Wait, you want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the secretary of state. I am.”

This raw, competitive response showed that the experiment in using the Clintons as a tandem team on diplomacy may not be going as smoothly as we had hoped; once more, as with health care, the conjugal psychodrama drags down the positive contribution the couple can make on policy.

At Tuesday’s State Department briefing, Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley explained that Hillary was particularly irritated to feel overshadowed by men in Africa, where she is pushing her “abiding theme” of “empowering women.”

Nice try, P.J. But we all know Hillary could just as well have made the same comment in Paris. (And looking unhinged about your marriage on an international stage hardly empowers women.) She may have been steamed about Bill celebrating his upcoming 63rd birthday in Las Vegas with his posse. The Times’s Adam Nagourney irritated Clinton Inc. when he reported that Bill went to the pricey Craftsteak restaurant at the MGM Grand Hotel Monday night with Hollywood moguls Steve Bing and Haim Saban, and former advisers Terry McAuliffe and Paul Begala, among others.