Issandr El Amran on Ian Johnson's Mosque in Munich

In the United Arab Emirate's The National:

One argument that runs through much of the book is a warning against Western engagement of Islamists, an idea popularised in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks as a way to recruit “moderate” Islamists against the nihilism of salafist jihadist groups like al Qa’eda. The Brothers have actually needed no such encouragement to have a public tiff with al Qa’eda’s Ayman Zawahri, who hates the Brothers as much he does the “Crusaders”. But if Johnson makes a good point in cautioning against paying undue attention to the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe – where it is after all a vanguard group that is not necessarily representative of the European Muslim experience – he often does so for the wrong reason. A more compelling reason for governments and spies to steer clear of the manipulation of religious groups is that, as the West has learned at a great cost, it can so often backfire.

Ian Johnson: "We continue to make the same mistake..."

The author of A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West  was recently interviewed about US support for Islamists on NPR's KPCC-FM:

RAZ: How was the Munich mosque tied to the attacks of September 11, 2001?

Mr. JOHNSON: There's no direct ties. However, a couple of people who were closely linked to several attacks were active at the mosque. For example, in 1998, one of the Al-Qaida financiers was arrested while visiting people who frequented the mosque and he was extradited to the United States.

RAZ: You write that both the Bush administration and the Obama administration supported some efforts to work with and cultivate Islamist groups. How so?

Mr. JOHNSON: Shortly after 9/11, there was this desire to cut all ties with Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and even to prosecute them. The fundamental problem with that effort was that it tried to link them directly to terrorism, which is really not so much what the Muslim Brotherhood does. The Muslim Brotherhood creates the worldview that can lead to terrorism, the milieu where that can flourish.

So after these prosecutions failed, the Muslim Brotherhood reestablished itself, and by the second term of the Bush administration, there were already very clear efforts where brotherhood groups in Europe are being clearly cultivated for U.S. foreign policy aims.

So much of the rhetoric that you hear today is similar to what we were saying in the 1950s: that Islam is essentially a tool that we can use for foreign policy purposes. I think this is kind of - this is a fundamental problem in how we look at this religion. It's come back to haunt us again and again, but we continue to make the same mistake.

Worth a Detour: Norlfolk's Chrysler Museum

During a recent trip to Norfolk to visit the birthplace of the father of someone I know, we stopped by the Chrysler Museum of Art. It's terrific, and worth a visit. It's a hidden gem, with wonderful paintings, facilities, free admission, and free parking.

Walter Chrysler had a good eye (he built the Chrysler building), and the collection is magnificent. I especially liked the statues, the pre-Columbian art, and the paintings. But there's something for everyone--even Egyptian mummies!

No lines, no waiting, no tickets required. Plus the Sheraton  Hotel in Norfolk offers a weekend special--only $99 a night. We enjoyed the Victory Rover boat tour of the US Navy Base from the dock next door, it was also a lot of fun to see all the big ships and drydocks. There were plenty of restaurants downtown, too. Plus, the Ghent neighborhood is trendy and attractive.

A visiting show featuring antique furniture alongside Vermeers was also very good.

Arianna's Art World

Arianna has set up a new Huffington Post website covering the arts, so here's a link.

As a lifelong lover of the arts, and having written books on two of the greatest artists of the 20th century -- Pablo Picasso and Maria Callas -- I have from the beginning looked forward to having a HuffPost section devoted to covering music, painting, sculpture, film, photography, drama, dance, etc. So I am delighted to announce the launch of HuffPost Arts. Like all of our sections, HuffPost Arts will bring you the latest news -- in this case on all things artistic and cultural. It will also be home to a freewheeling group blog in which artists, critics, curators, and those who love the arts will sound off. And we look forward to having your active involvement with the section, sending tips, posting comments, voting on slideshows, and contributing your own stories and images. So check out HuffPost Arts. And let us know what you think.

What Does Geert Wilders Want?

Radio Netherlands published his manifesto on their website:

Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) is now a serious partner in exploratory coalition talks with the pro-business liberal VVD. As the populist party's policies are often radical, very few people would have believed until recently that this could happen.

However, the PVV went from 9 to 24 seats in the recent parliamentary elections, making it the big winner of the poll. The other big winner was the VVD, which with 31 MPs became the biggest party in parliament - giving it the initiative to form a government.

The most controversial points from the PVV election programme are listed below:

1. Law and order
Law and order is one of the main points in the party’s programme. According to the PVV, Dutch streets are being terrorised by scum, whole neighbourhoods are being taken over by criminals and ‘street terrorists’ are calling the shots. Most of these criminal elements are identified by the PVV as either Moroccans or Antilleans.
The ‘answer’:
* Ten thousand extra police officers.
* The ethnic registration of all Dutch citizens, which would include the label ‘Antillean’. Antilleans come from Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, which both form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and their citizens are therefore issued Dutch passports).
* The deportation of Antillean criminals.
* Stripping criminals holding dual nationality of their Dutch nationality.
* High minimum sentences and severe maximum sentences; scrapping community service as a sentence.

2. Fighting Islam and mass migration
This is arguably the main point in the PVV programme, it claims the most pages in the election programme. The party argues that Islam is a totalitarian creed, geared towards dominance, violence and oppression. There is no such thing as moderate Islam, according to Geert Wilders. His party has come up with the following solutions to fight the ‘ Islamisation’ of the Netherlands:
* A full immigration ban for people from Islamic countries.
* No new mosques and the closure of all Islamic schools; a ban on burqas and the Qur’an.
* A ban on headscarves in health care, education, government institutions and subsidised organisations; and a tax on wearing headscarves (described by Mr Wilders as a 'head rag tax')
* European Union: the Netherlands should leave the EU if Turkey joins.
* Foreigners: either find a job or get out.

3. Dutch interests paramount in foreign policy
The Freedom Party writes that Dutch interests and the fight against Islam should be the key principle in Dutch foreign policy. Israel plays an important role in this fight. According to the party programme: “Israel is fighting for us. If Jerusalem falls, Athens and Rome are next. This is why Israel is the central front in the defence of the West. It is not a territorial conflict, but an ideological one; a conflict between the reason of the West and the barbarism of Islamic ideology.” the PVV has come up with the following ideas to improve Dutch foreign policy:
* Limiting development aid to emergency aid.
* Scrapping the passage on 'maintaining the international rule of law’ from the Dutch constitution.
* Reviewing Dutch participation in international treaties.
* The Dutch government referring to Jordan as 'Palestine' in future, because it has existed as an independent Palestinian state since 1946.
* Relocating the Dutch embassy from Ramat Gan to the Israeli capital: Jerusalem.

10 more main points
The Freedom Party programme has ten more main points, such as democratisation, which – mysteriously – includes a measure barring people holding dual nationally from holding government office or being elected to parliament or local councils. The PVV wants 10,000 additional workers in health care, and calls for an end to the Islamisation of care. In education, students will once again be expected to learn the national anthem, and all schools are to fly the national flag. The chapter headed “choices for a better environment” tells us that global warming is simply the latest hype which we can safely ignore, and nuclear power plants are to end our dependency on ‘fossil fuels and foreign energy’.

Non-negotiable point
Dutch politics has a tradition of coalition governments and the new cabinet will be no exception to this rule. At least three parties will be necessary to form a new government, and should the Freedom Party be one of them, the majority of the above points will not survive the coalition talks. However, this does not seem to bother Geert Wilders much. His party programme tells us, “To the PVV, safeguarding old-age pensioners’ benefits is a non-negotiable point in coalition talks. The retirement age will stay at 65, not a day older”.

After the elections however, it took Wilders just one day to drop this non-negotiable point in order to allow for a possible coalition with the conservative VVD and the Christian Democrats, both of which want to raise the legal retirement age to 67.

Scott Hodes: How to Fix FOIA

At llrx.com:

In the current Congress, there are bills pending that would create a commission to come up with ideas for faster FOIA processing. Readers of my blog know that I have been critical of this bill as yet another way to delay any FOIA reform. I've argued that there are plenty of ideas already currently floating out there. I believe taking those ideas, along with a few days of congressional oversight hearings to solicit other opinions, could give Congress plenty of fodder to create an actual bill that would implement faster FOIA processing now rather than wait for a "commission" to come up with these same ideas.

So putting my money where my mouth is, I have presented ideas to create faster FOIA processing in FOIA agencies. I've presented these in a series of four posts on my blog, but I'm condensing and updating them here in one article...

BP Oil Spill Timeline

You can view the Deepwater Horizon disaster news day-by-day, by clicking on this link to ibleedcrimsonred.com.

Mohammed Taqi on CIA Support for Islamism

Writing in Pakistan's Daily Times, he cites Ian Johnson's new book on the CIA-Nazi-Islamist nexus described in A Mosque in Munich, to support his call for a purge of the Muslim Brotherhood from Pakistani Mosques:

In his most recent interview on June 5, 2010 aired on the National Public Radio (NPR), Ian Johnson made a shocking revelation, saying: “Shortly after 9/11, there was this desire to cut all ties with Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and even to prosecute them. The fundamental problem with that effort was that it tried to link them directly to terrorism, which is really not so much what the Muslim Brotherhood does.

“The Muslim Brotherhood creates the worldview that can lead to terrorism, the milieu where that can flourish. So, after these prosecutions failed, the Muslim Brotherhood re-established itself, and by the second term of the Bush administration, there were already very clear efforts where brotherhood groups in Europe are being clearly cultivated for US foreign policy aims.

“So, much of the rhetoric that you hear today is similar to what we were saying in the 1950s: that Islam is essentially a tool that we can use for foreign policy purposes. I think this is kind of — this is a fundamental problem in how we look at this religion. It has come back to haunt us again and again, but we continue to make the same mistake.”

Considering the admixture of an aggressive political Islam, analysts unable or unwilling to propose foreign policy alternatives to reliance on Riyadh and a series of governments relying on such analysts, the perpetual US confusion about the Islamic world and its dynamics, especially the militancy, is not surprising.

Ian Johnson records that on the eve of his meeting with the Muslim Brothers, the gist of Eisenhower’s message, as reported by his aides, was: “The president thought we should do everything to emphasise the ‘holy war’ aspect.” If this is still the attitude that the US administration is going to take towards the Muslim Brotherhood, its various incarnations and its Saudi patrons, this might be the third and probably an insurmountable hurdle for everyday Muslim-Americans, before they can take back the mosque pulpit.

For more on the story, David Shribman's laudatory review in The Boston Globe can be found here.

New Israeli "Free Gaza" Video

Wall Street Journal: US-Connected Bank Implicated in Kyrgyzstan Crisis

By the Kyrgyz government, according to today's article by Alan Cullison and Kadyr Toktogulov:

Kyrgyz prosecutors want to try Maksim Bakiyev for abuse of office, misuse of government funds and money laundering, a prosecutor's spokesman said Tuesday.

While details of the charges are sketchy, one involves the younger Mr. Bakiyev's relationship with Asia Universal Bank, a Kyrgyz bank that was advised by U.S. consultants APCO Worldwide and Kroll Associates and whose board members included three former U.S. senators. Prosecutors allege that the younger Mr. Bakiyev steered to AUB part of a $300 million Russian state loan to Kyrgyzstan, and personally benefitted from it, the spokesman said.

Critics of the Kyrgyz government were suspicious of Maksim Bakiyev's relationship with AUB, which under his father's rule grew from a little-known bank to the country's most influential financial institution. AUB shuffled a large amount of money out of the country when the government collapsed. On the night of the coup, April 7, officials at AUB approved international wire transfers that they say were requested by AUB clients totalling about $170 million, or more than 10% of the country's banking assets, according to central bank officials.

Kyrgyzstan's new leaders say they suspect a chunk of that money was the plundered wealth of President Bakiyev and his inner circle. They have asked for the U.S. to help recover those funds. The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek said the U.S. is "looking into" the request. The Kyrgyz government has now nationalized AUB and is dividing it into two banks because of what the government calls an illegal acquisition.

The new government has also accused the U.S. of enriching Maksim Bakiyev through fuel supply deals. It says a fuel-supply contractor, Mina Corp., a privately-owned company based in Gibraltar, had lucrative U.S. government contracts to supply fuel to the U.S. base. The government says Mina, which is operated by a former U.S. military attaché, used smaller delivery companies, that were allegedly controlled by Maksim Bakiyev, and funneled as much as $70 million a year to them.

According to the article, the former US senators associated with the bank are Bob Dole (R., Kan.) (resigned), J. Bennett Johnston (D., La.), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D.,Mich.).

Moscow Times: Kyrgyzstan Russian Zone of Responsibility

Writing in The Moscow Times, Fyodor Lukyanov says Russia must act in Kyrgyzstan:

The post-Soviet world is entering a dangerous new phase. The former Soviet republics have been left to cope with their problems by themselves. The regional efforts that various world powers tried to launch for various reasons in the 2000s did not work. Now it even sounds odd to speak of Russia having a zone of “privileged interests.” If anything, Russia has a “zone of responsibility.” The former Soviet republics have been left to cope with their problems by themselves. If Moscow does not find a way to respond to challenges such as Kyrgyzstan, any later claims it might make to a special role in the region will be unconvincing. It is also unlikely that any other world powers will express a desire to assume the heavy burden of responsibility for the region.

Russian TV Coverage of Kyrgyz Violence

Peace Corps Hires Kyrgyz Gunmen

According to Registan.net, the US Government's "Peace Corps" has hired Kyrgyz gunmen to protect volunteers during the current violence in Kyrgyzstan.

It seems that the Peace Corps made an excellent decision in hiring local Kyrgyz gunmen to rescue the volunteer from their besieged building, especially considering that the car was checked for Uzbeks at a roadblock. A Blackhawk full of US Marines or Rangers probably could have rescued them, but not as quietly as the locals did. That’s scary stuff, but of course almost nothing compared to what’s happening to some locals.

As I argued in my Orbis articles, NGOs and groups like the Peace Corps must inevitably wind up supporting warlords, mafia dons, and terrorists. This case is obviously neither the first, nor the last. Of course, the Kyrgyz gunmen are the ones terrorizing and killing the Uzbek minority fleeing for their lives. Your US tax dollars at work...

As I mentioned in my post about Linda Polman's new book War Games, she explains the reasons for this horrible phenomenon (even argues "humanitarian" NGOs would have paid Nazis during WWII if they operated under the same system as today) lie in the underlying immorality of NGOs and Western governments.

Meanwhile, NPR posted this account:

Over two days, ten aid workers gathered in safe houses on both sides of the conflict. When our food ran low, neighbors smuggled us bread and tea and refused to be compensated. But others sent rocks through our windows and demanded bribes. And all the while, bands of young, ethnic Kyrgyz, enraged by rumors of students having been raped, terrorized the streets around us. They ransacked Uzbek apartments. They torched markets and restaurants. They burned vehicles, piled them into barricades, and shot at those trying to escape the city. By night, gunfire and screaming mixed with thunderclaps.

Hired drivers, wearing bandanas, brandishing a hatchet and a rifle, were hired to ferry Moreno and his colleagues to an airfield. For 20 minutes – “20 long minutes,” he writes –- they idled, awaiting directions.

UPDATE: Judging from to R.B. Moreno's blog post, the Peace Corps appears to be in full cover-up mode:

Update (5:30 PM, June 15, 2010) -- The U.S. Peace Corps has requested that this post be removed until further notice.

Memo to Peace Corps HQ: That's sure making a case for transparency, open government, and the public's right to know! I wish someone in Congress would ask the Peace Corps how much they paid the Kyrgyz gunmen, and from which funding allocation the money has been taken...plus, of course, why were volunteers not pulled out before the violence erupted? Also, since R.B. Moreno was sent by the US Government to teach "journalism"...doesn't it set a bad example to make him publicly show that his dispatches are censored by the US Government? Kind of looks like the Soviet system, which we were supposedly trying to change, IMHO.

Twitter Hashtag for Journalism "Reinvention" Pow-Wow is #FTC

BTW, I'm not there, following it on Twitter, instead. After reading the list of participants, I'm glad I stayed home. IMHO, the FTC is appears unashamed to 'stack the deck' with newspaper industry and public broadcasting corporate spokesmodels...

FTC Journalism "Reinvention" Agenda for Today's National Press Club Meeting

They call it ROUNDTABLES ON THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM: How will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?(ht Adam Thierer's twitter): You can read it--and weep--here.

Russia Readying Kyrgyzstan Action

 Acccording to the London Times:

The Kremlin edged closer last night to military intervention in Kyrgyzstan as the number of people killed in ethnic violence spiralled and as many as 100,000 refugees flooded neighbouring Uzbekistan.  

An emergency meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) — the Russian-dominated group of former Soviet states — said that it was sending helicopters and lorries to help the Kyrgyz Government to quell fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that has raged for four days in southern Kyrgyzstan. At least 124 people have died and 1,500 have been wounded, although some witnesses believe the number of deaths is far higher.  

“This is extremely dangerous for this region and for this reason it is necessary to do everything possible to put an end to such acts,” President Medvedev of Russia said, after the meeting in Moscow.

Is BP British Petroleum?

Yes.

It was created by the British government specifically to serve British interests.

From the official history posted on the BP website:

Churchill was a believer. He thought Britain needed a dedicated oil supply, and he argued the case in Parliament, urging his colleagues to “look out upon the wide expanse of the oil regions of the world!” Only the British-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company, he said, could protect British interests.

The resolution passed resoundingly, and the UK government became a major shareholder in the company. Churchill had ended Anglo-Persian’s cash crisis, and no one had long to quietly ponder the long-term implications of a company entwining its financial interests with a political entity.

Two weeks later, an assassin killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Six weeks after that, Germany attacked France. The Great War had begun. By its end, war without oil would be unimaginable.

Despite its name, the British Petroleum brand was originally created by a German firm as a way of marketing its products in Britain. During the war, the British government seized the company’s assets, and the Public Trustee sold them to Anglo-Persian in 1917.
With that, Anglo-Persian had an instant distribution network in the UK, including 520 depots, 535 railway tank wagons, 1,102 road vehicles, four barges and 650 horses.

BTW, according to press accounts, the British government released the Pan Am 103 bomber in exchange for a BP oil deal with Libya--breaking a promise to the US government that he would never be let go. I suggest the US now ask the British to get him back and turn him over to US authorities for trial...

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal notes BP's Persian connection in today's web post.

Robert Picard: FTC Staff Wrongly Claim Newspaper Losses in Journalism "Reinvention" Document

The media economist and blogger says most newspapers still make money. So why "save" a profitable business with average margins of 12%? (ht Matt Creamer, BreakingMedia)

The FTC’s staff ignores the fact that most newspapers are profitable (the average operating profit in 2009 was 12%), but that their corporate parents are unprofitable because of high overhead costs and ill-advised debt loads taken on when advertising revenues were peaked at all time highs. It also fails to make adequate distinction between longer term trends affecting newspapers and the effects of the current recession. The staff thus blends the two together to give a skewed picture of the mid- to long-term health of the industry.

Registan.net on Kyrgyzstan Violence

Latest updates from Central Asia Watchers on Registan.net.

Meet Israel's Only Friend: Geert Wilders

From the Jerusalem Post, this interview with the Dutch MP:

Geert Wilders, who is demanding a halt to immigration from Muslim countries as the centerpiece of his campaign for the Dutch prime ministership, has hailed Israel for “fighting the jihad” and warned that “the West is next” if Israel is unsuccessful.

“Israel is the canary in the coal mine,” Wilders said in a recent telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post, ahead of Wednesday’s elections in the Netherlands. “The jihad against Israel isn’t against Israel only. It’s against the whole West.”

A year ago, Wilders’s PVV (Party for Freedom) was scoring 28 percent in opinion polls and appeared to have a realistic prospect of winning the elections. It has declined since then, however, he said, as economic issues have become increasingly dominant.

“There’s not a big chance that I’ll become prime minister,” he said.

Nonetheless, the PVV is expected to double its current nine seats in the 150-member parliament, and front-runner Mark Rutte, of the People’s Party for Freedom of Democracy (VVD), said this week that he was not ruling out Wilders’s party as a coalition partner.