From the San Francisco Chronicle:
"John Kerry will lose this election, and he will do so decisively. The defeat will go down as perhaps the only thing this candidate has ever done decisively."
Monday, August 09, 2004
How President Bush Treats His (Former) Friends
Michael Rubin says Chalabi is being trashed under orders from Paul Bremer:
"On August 8, Iraqi judge Zuhair al-Maliky issued arrest warrants for Iraqi National Congress head Ahmad Chalabi and Salem Chalabi, a trilingual Yale graduate heading the special tribunal that is trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity.
"Al-Maliky's actions have less to do with imposing justice than obstructing it. Most Iraqi judges dispute not only al-Maliky's credentials but also those of the Central Criminal Court over which he presides. The court is not Iraqi in its origins. Former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer created it by fiat on June 18, 2003. The head of Iraq's judicial union called the court unconstitutional and illegal. Most Iraqi judges consider it to be contrary to the Geneva Conventions; many Iraqis justices read several clauses in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to forbid changing unnecessarily the judicial system..."
"On August 8, Iraqi judge Zuhair al-Maliky issued arrest warrants for Iraqi National Congress head Ahmad Chalabi and Salem Chalabi, a trilingual Yale graduate heading the special tribunal that is trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity.
"Al-Maliky's actions have less to do with imposing justice than obstructing it. Most Iraqi judges dispute not only al-Maliky's credentials but also those of the Central Criminal Court over which he presides. The court is not Iraqi in its origins. Former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer created it by fiat on June 18, 2003. The head of Iraq's judicial union called the court unconstitutional and illegal. Most Iraqi judges consider it to be contrary to the Geneva Conventions; many Iraqis justices read several clauses in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to forbid changing unnecessarily the judicial system..."
The Real Horatio Hornblower
Last night watched an episode of A & E's British ITV series Horatio Hornblower.
It was a thrilling show called "Duel", available on a Netflix DVD.
This Hornblower episode was so terrific that I googled C.S. Forester. Interestingly, the name Hornblower was inspired by Forester's Hollywood producer, Arthur Hornblow, Jr.. Here's his biography from Yahoo! Movies.
Although he had his problems with Hollywood, Forester loved America and returned in WWII to write propaganda films. Forester eventually settled in Berkeley, California.
And here's a link to the C. S. Forester Society.
It was a thrilling show called "Duel", available on a Netflix DVD.
This Hornblower episode was so terrific that I googled C.S. Forester. Interestingly, the name Hornblower was inspired by Forester's Hollywood producer, Arthur Hornblow, Jr.. Here's his biography from Yahoo! Movies.
Although he had his problems with Hollywood, Forester loved America and returned in WWII to write propaganda films. Forester eventually settled in Berkeley, California.
And here's a link to the C. S. Forester Society.
Kerry's Filmmaker's Problem
The New York Observer profiles James Moll, who directed John Kerry's convention film, "A Remarkable Promise" :
The Observer notes: "Since 1994, when he was hired by Mr. Spielberg to assemble an archive of interviews with Holocaust survivors, Mr. Moll has found himself producing a number of Holocaust films and documentaries about the Second World War.
'I approached it like I do all my documentaries,' he said of Mr. Kerry's introduction. 'I didn't think of it as a commercial. For the most part, other than those last 15 seconds, I approached like any other documentary. I didn't have to be manipulative.'"
Unfortunately, Moll's track record as a documentary filmmaker is not without question, although he did win an Oscar. When his Holocaust film, "The Last Days" appeared, it was criticized by WWII veterans as misleading and manipulative. I wrote about the controversy in The Idler:
"An interesting letter about Stephen Spielberg’s The Last Days was recently forwarded to me by Mel Rappaport, who as an army captain during World War II participated in the liberation of Buchenwald by the 6th Armored Division in April, 1945, 54 years ago... He sent me an article by Mark Schulte which had appeared in the New York Post about Stephen Spielberg’s documentary 'The Last Days'. Schulte, the son of a WWII veteran who liberated the camps, demanded the film be recalled because it was false history.
"Like 'Liberators', 'The Last Days' did not credit the actual soldiers who liberated Dachau -- the 45th Infantry Division. Instead it featured an interview with a black soldier to create the impression that an all-black unit had opened up the camp. Rappaport told me that the interview subject had been in Le Havre, France at the time, and he had documentation to prove it. Again, Rappaport feared that truth was being distorted to promote a political agenda. As with Liberators, Rappaport and his friends mobilized, writing letters and calling to complain to the producers.
"Like Liberators, this film about the Hungarian Jewish community had been embraced by the Establishment, promoted by Jewish groups, screened for members of Congress and nominated for an Academy Award.
"Unlike Liberators, it won.
"But the problem was the same. The film was not true."
You can read the whole story here.
UPDATE: AN EMAIL FROM MEL RAPPAPORT (received yesterday):
"re this fellow james moll, the --NOT so
great , director . etc ,,, way back when that film by mr Spielberg
...'the last days'-came out, we wrote many letters to him and the
SHOAH group in los angeles calif etc ,,,, and he called all of US
RACISTS and worse. etc . well we got the news paper
''''the FORWARD'' here in N Y C to get invoved and they did write some
editor. letters re this guy MOLL. i even wrote to the fellow in
charge of the ""ACADEMY -in hollywood , etc" re this film winning
that award,,, and he wrote to me,, saying he was SHOCKED,,SHOCKED (like
claude rains in Casablanca with bogie ,,,etc) but that they
can do NADA,.. it was not their job etc ,, i will send you that
letter if i can find it..."
UPDATE: THE FORWARD'S EDITORIAL ABOUT "THE LAST DAYS":
February 26, 1999
Correcting Spielberg
The chief historian for Steven Spielberg's Holocaust documentary, "The Last Days," has struck the right note by saying he will look into the question of where one of the film's heroes, Paul Parks, was when he shot the German soldier who spit on him. Mr. Parks, an American G.I. in Germany as the war was brought to an end, told our columnist Beth Pinsker that he thinks the film misportrays the situation by suggesting he shot the Nazi right outside of Dachau when, as Mr. Parks remembers, it was at another time and another place. Other questions about the film's accuracy were raised in an article in the New York Post. The film's historian, Michael Berenbaum, formerly the director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, is a former newspaperman of the school that would like to get things right. His attitude contrasts with that of the director of "The Last Days," James Moll, who at one point in his conversations with our Ms. Pinsker suggested that the only reason Ms. Pinsker, or anyone else, was inquiring on the point was because Mr. Parks is black and his interlocutors are racists. Balderdash. It seems the Holocaust movie business is still smarting over the discovery that a now infamous documentary aired on PBS, "Liberators," was way off base in suggesting that Dachau and Buchenwald were first liberated by African-American units. Nobody is saying that "The Last Days" has any fundamental error of the kind that undergirded "Liberators" and nobody is saying that Mr. Parks is not a war hero. What Ms. Pinsker understands from her days as a film and television critic, though, is that there is a tendency toward romanticism when Hollywood enters the journalism or documentary business. Committed custodians of the memory, like Mr. Berenbaum, understand the need for continuing the effort to get it exactly right.
NOTE: A BOSTON GLOBE INVESTIGATION BACKED RAPPAPORT AGAINST MOLL
"UNTANGLING PAUL PARKS'S TALL TALES\ RECORDS CONTRADICT MORE WARTIME STORIES
Published on October 22, 2000
Author(s): Walter V. Robinson, and Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff
"BERLIN - When Boston civil rights leader Paul Parks receives the Raoul Wallenberg Award here tonight for his 1945 role in liberating the Dachau concentration camp, the applause may be tentative, given fresh evidence that he was nowhere near the Nazi death camp and that his multiple stories about his involvement in the D-day landing were also concocted..."
(There is a charge to download the article from the Boston Globe online archives).
You can listen to reporter Walter Robinson talk about problems with Paul Parks' story in third segment of Here and Now, a WBUR radio program, click on the button to play.
Interestingly, Robinson has published exposes of George W. Bush, historian Joseph Ellis, and Al Gore.
The Observer notes: "Since 1994, when he was hired by Mr. Spielberg to assemble an archive of interviews with Holocaust survivors, Mr. Moll has found himself producing a number of Holocaust films and documentaries about the Second World War.
'I approached it like I do all my documentaries,' he said of Mr. Kerry's introduction. 'I didn't think of it as a commercial. For the most part, other than those last 15 seconds, I approached like any other documentary. I didn't have to be manipulative.'"
Unfortunately, Moll's track record as a documentary filmmaker is not without question, although he did win an Oscar. When his Holocaust film, "The Last Days" appeared, it was criticized by WWII veterans as misleading and manipulative. I wrote about the controversy in The Idler:
"An interesting letter about Stephen Spielberg’s The Last Days was recently forwarded to me by Mel Rappaport, who as an army captain during World War II participated in the liberation of Buchenwald by the 6th Armored Division in April, 1945, 54 years ago... He sent me an article by Mark Schulte which had appeared in the New York Post about Stephen Spielberg’s documentary 'The Last Days'. Schulte, the son of a WWII veteran who liberated the camps, demanded the film be recalled because it was false history.
"Like 'Liberators', 'The Last Days' did not credit the actual soldiers who liberated Dachau -- the 45th Infantry Division. Instead it featured an interview with a black soldier to create the impression that an all-black unit had opened up the camp. Rappaport told me that the interview subject had been in Le Havre, France at the time, and he had documentation to prove it. Again, Rappaport feared that truth was being distorted to promote a political agenda. As with Liberators, Rappaport and his friends mobilized, writing letters and calling to complain to the producers.
"Like Liberators, this film about the Hungarian Jewish community had been embraced by the Establishment, promoted by Jewish groups, screened for members of Congress and nominated for an Academy Award.
"Unlike Liberators, it won.
"But the problem was the same. The film was not true."
You can read the whole story here.
UPDATE: AN EMAIL FROM MEL RAPPAPORT (received yesterday):
"re this fellow james moll, the --NOT so
great , director . etc ,,, way back when that film by mr Spielberg
...'the last days'-came out, we wrote many letters to him and the
SHOAH group in los angeles calif etc ,,,, and he called all of US
RACISTS and worse. etc . well we got the news paper
''''the FORWARD'' here in N Y C to get invoved and they did write some
editor. letters re this guy MOLL. i even wrote to the fellow in
charge of the ""ACADEMY -in hollywood , etc" re this film winning
that award,,, and he wrote to me,, saying he was SHOCKED,,SHOCKED (like
claude rains in Casablanca with bogie ,,,etc) but that they
can do NADA,.. it was not their job etc ,, i will send you that
letter if i can find it..."
UPDATE: THE FORWARD'S EDITORIAL ABOUT "THE LAST DAYS":
February 26, 1999
Correcting Spielberg
The chief historian for Steven Spielberg's Holocaust documentary, "The Last Days," has struck the right note by saying he will look into the question of where one of the film's heroes, Paul Parks, was when he shot the German soldier who spit on him. Mr. Parks, an American G.I. in Germany as the war was brought to an end, told our columnist Beth Pinsker that he thinks the film misportrays the situation by suggesting he shot the Nazi right outside of Dachau when, as Mr. Parks remembers, it was at another time and another place. Other questions about the film's accuracy were raised in an article in the New York Post. The film's historian, Michael Berenbaum, formerly the director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, is a former newspaperman of the school that would like to get things right. His attitude contrasts with that of the director of "The Last Days," James Moll, who at one point in his conversations with our Ms. Pinsker suggested that the only reason Ms. Pinsker, or anyone else, was inquiring on the point was because Mr. Parks is black and his interlocutors are racists. Balderdash. It seems the Holocaust movie business is still smarting over the discovery that a now infamous documentary aired on PBS, "Liberators," was way off base in suggesting that Dachau and Buchenwald were first liberated by African-American units. Nobody is saying that "The Last Days" has any fundamental error of the kind that undergirded "Liberators" and nobody is saying that Mr. Parks is not a war hero. What Ms. Pinsker understands from her days as a film and television critic, though, is that there is a tendency toward romanticism when Hollywood enters the journalism or documentary business. Committed custodians of the memory, like Mr. Berenbaum, understand the need for continuing the effort to get it exactly right.
NOTE: A BOSTON GLOBE INVESTIGATION BACKED RAPPAPORT AGAINST MOLL
"UNTANGLING PAUL PARKS'S TALL TALES\ RECORDS CONTRADICT MORE WARTIME STORIES
Published on October 22, 2000
Author(s): Walter V. Robinson, and Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff
"BERLIN - When Boston civil rights leader Paul Parks receives the Raoul Wallenberg Award here tonight for his 1945 role in liberating the Dachau concentration camp, the applause may be tentative, given fresh evidence that he was nowhere near the Nazi death camp and that his multiple stories about his involvement in the D-day landing were also concocted..."
(There is a charge to download the article from the Boston Globe online archives).
You can listen to reporter Walter Robinson talk about problems with Paul Parks' story in third segment of Here and Now, a WBUR radio program, click on the button to play.
Interestingly, Robinson has published exposes of George W. Bush, historian Joseph Ellis, and Al Gore.
Understanding Turkey
Michael Rubin on his visit to Turkey:
"Last month, I visited Turkey for a series of meetings with Turkish government and military officials, as well as prominent journalists and public intellectuals. 'Why have you abandoned us?' one Turkish parliamentarian asked as we drank tea in his office. 'You toss aside an 80-year tradition for an experiment in political Islam,' he explained. He cited not only the president's statement, but also that of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Ankara last April, Powell called Turkey a model for Iraq, 'a Muslim democracy living in peace with its friends and neighbors.' National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has made similar comments.
"Nice words, infused with well-meaning Washington-style political correctness, but they raised hackles in Turkey. 'We are a democracy. Islam has nothing to do with it,' one professor said. 'By calling us a Muslim democracy, Powell endorsed the [ruling] AKP [Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi]. If I called the United States a Christian democracy, what would that say to you?' "
Interestingly enough, a few years ago I attended a panel discussion in Washington where an Israeli general called Turkey a "Muslim country" in a presentation about geopolitics. The Turkish ambassador immediately spoke up, clearly offended. He stated that Turkey was not a Muslim country, rather a secular nation with a Muslim population. Since this distinction is one other nations sometimes fail to make, it is not surprising that Powell's well-meaning comment raised some hackles in Ankara and Istanbul.
"Last month, I visited Turkey for a series of meetings with Turkish government and military officials, as well as prominent journalists and public intellectuals. 'Why have you abandoned us?' one Turkish parliamentarian asked as we drank tea in his office. 'You toss aside an 80-year tradition for an experiment in political Islam,' he explained. He cited not only the president's statement, but also that of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Ankara last April, Powell called Turkey a model for Iraq, 'a Muslim democracy living in peace with its friends and neighbors.' National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has made similar comments.
"Nice words, infused with well-meaning Washington-style political correctness, but they raised hackles in Turkey. 'We are a democracy. Islam has nothing to do with it,' one professor said. 'By calling us a Muslim democracy, Powell endorsed the [ruling] AKP [Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi]. If I called the United States a Christian democracy, what would that say to you?' "
Interestingly enough, a few years ago I attended a panel discussion in Washington where an Israeli general called Turkey a "Muslim country" in a presentation about geopolitics. The Turkish ambassador immediately spoke up, clearly offended. He stated that Turkey was not a Muslim country, rather a secular nation with a Muslim population. Since this distinction is one other nations sometimes fail to make, it is not surprising that Powell's well-meaning comment raised some hackles in Ankara and Istanbul.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Roger L. Simon
An interesting blog:
"Secretly terrified I was a big fake and would never be a writer, I considered quitting school, but couldn't because I would lose my student deferment and go to Vietnam. So more out of a sense of panic than anything else, I wrote my first novel HEIR. I composed the book over a stiflingly hot summer in the front office of an African-American funeral home in Sumter, South Carolina, the only air conditioned spot available to a Northern white boy civil rights worker. The plot was a thinly veiled fictionalization of the life of a rich fellow Dartmouth student who accidentally killed his girlfriend with an overdose of heroin. The book was published for a small advance, got a couple of good reviews and sold about five copies; that includes to my family.
"Subsequently it was made into an unwatchable movie, but I used the film sale as a bridge to Hollywood, and soon I was out in LA, trying to write screenplays, even make films, something I have been attempting with greater and lesser success ever since."
"Secretly terrified I was a big fake and would never be a writer, I considered quitting school, but couldn't because I would lose my student deferment and go to Vietnam. So more out of a sense of panic than anything else, I wrote my first novel HEIR. I composed the book over a stiflingly hot summer in the front office of an African-American funeral home in Sumter, South Carolina, the only air conditioned spot available to a Northern white boy civil rights worker. The plot was a thinly veiled fictionalization of the life of a rich fellow Dartmouth student who accidentally killed his girlfriend with an overdose of heroin. The book was published for a small advance, got a couple of good reviews and sold about five copies; that includes to my family.
"Subsequently it was made into an unwatchable movie, but I used the film sale as a bridge to Hollywood, and soon I was out in LA, trying to write screenplays, even make films, something I have been attempting with greater and lesser success ever since."
Political Clans in Central Asia and the USA
From Far Outliers (thanks again to The Argus for the tip).
Anne Applebaum on Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
In The Washington Post:
"The confusion and horror of the French retreat through the Russian winter are well described. 'The air itself,' wrote a French colonel, 'was thick with tiny icicles which sparkled in the sun but cut one's face drawing blood.' Another Frenchman recalled that 'it frequently happened that the ice would seal my eyelids shut.' Prince Wilhelm of Baden, one of Napoleon's commanders, gave the order to march on the morning of Dec. 7, only to discover that 'the last drummer boy had frozen to death.' Soldiers had resorted to looting, stripping corpses and even to cannibalism by the time the march was over."
"The confusion and horror of the French retreat through the Russian winter are well described. 'The air itself,' wrote a French colonel, 'was thick with tiny icicles which sparkled in the sun but cut one's face drawing blood.' Another Frenchman recalled that 'it frequently happened that the ice would seal my eyelids shut.' Prince Wilhelm of Baden, one of Napoleon's commanders, gave the order to march on the morning of Dec. 7, only to discover that 'the last drummer boy had frozen to death.' Soldiers had resorted to looting, stripping corpses and even to cannibalism by the time the march was over."
Georgia on my mind
From greenpass (thanks to Nathan at the Argus for the tip):
"Georgia's one of those countries that should have it made. It has gorgeous countryside, the most amazing people, lovely beaches, great skiing (yes, it's true) and Tbilisi is a graciously crumbling crossroads of Asia, the Middle East and turn of the century Europe that is one of the most enjoyable cities I've ever had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time in. Yet the legacy of communism clings to everything like radioactive dust, and unlike the Chinese, the Georgians were not born to commerce."
"Georgia's one of those countries that should have it made. It has gorgeous countryside, the most amazing people, lovely beaches, great skiing (yes, it's true) and Tbilisi is a graciously crumbling crossroads of Asia, the Middle East and turn of the century Europe that is one of the most enjoyable cities I've ever had the good fortune to spend a bunch of time in. Yet the legacy of communism clings to everything like radioactive dust, and unlike the Chinese, the Georgians were not born to commerce."
What Makes a Good Museum?
Blake Gopnik says it is having lots of stuff on display:
"Two new museums open in the Washington area during the last year or so. One, in suburban Virginia a good hour's drive from the Mall, lives up to hopeful expectations: In the eight months the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been open, 1.3 million people have flocked to this branch of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
"The other museum, smack downtown and across the street from the new Convention Center, falters after just 14 months of operation: As my colleague Jacqueline Trescott reported recently, the City Museum of Washington has pulled in only 33,000 people, somewhere between one-third and one-tenth the numbers forecast for it, depending on the forecaster.
"The reason for the difference? Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum. "
"Two new museums open in the Washington area during the last year or so. One, in suburban Virginia a good hour's drive from the Mall, lives up to hopeful expectations: In the eight months the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been open, 1.3 million people have flocked to this branch of the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.
"The other museum, smack downtown and across the street from the new Convention Center, falters after just 14 months of operation: As my colleague Jacqueline Trescott reported recently, the City Museum of Washington has pulled in only 33,000 people, somewhere between one-third and one-tenth the numbers forecast for it, depending on the forecaster.
"The reason for the difference? Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum. "
Are New Yorkers in Denial?
Michael Powell thinks so:
"But not for the first time I looked at a fellow New Yorker and wondered at how resolutely we deny our unfortunate inheritance. Terrorists have come for us three times in the past 11 years. You are aware, I thought as Murdock talked, that almost 2,800 people died and the city's two largest skyscrapers disintegrated three years ago? That the same crew came within a few misplaced bombs of taking down at least one of those towers in 1993?
"In the end, I didn't pose these questions, perhaps because they sounded too argumentative and perhaps because of my own uncertainty. Am I so confident of my own rationality in such matters? I rode the A-train to the World Trade Center stop that brilliant late summer day in 2001 and came upstairs to the collective gasps of reporters and rescue workers as they watched men and women tumble through the sky. I heard the terrible groan of a tower cracking, and saw a thick, gray eight-story-high cloud roll toward me. "
"But not for the first time I looked at a fellow New Yorker and wondered at how resolutely we deny our unfortunate inheritance. Terrorists have come for us three times in the past 11 years. You are aware, I thought as Murdock talked, that almost 2,800 people died and the city's two largest skyscrapers disintegrated three years ago? That the same crew came within a few misplaced bombs of taking down at least one of those towers in 1993?
"In the end, I didn't pose these questions, perhaps because they sounded too argumentative and perhaps because of my own uncertainty. Am I so confident of my own rationality in such matters? I rode the A-train to the World Trade Center stop that brilliant late summer day in 2001 and came upstairs to the collective gasps of reporters and rescue workers as they watched men and women tumble through the sky. I heard the terrible groan of a tower cracking, and saw a thick, gray eight-story-high cloud roll toward me. "
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Healing Iraq on the Fighting in Najaf
Zeyad writes:
"Over 300 militiamen are reported dead and a 1000 have been arrested according to the governor of Najaf. Overall, the situation looks bleak for Sadr, and one has to surmise if this would end in either his arrest or his death. I doubt that the Sadrist movement would be over with Muqtada's death, they would just have a third martyr from the Sadr family to add to their list.
One also can't help but wonder about the timing of Sistani's departure from Najaf to London for treatment. The man is known for his subtle messages, could this be a sign for his tacit approval to finish Sadr and his militia once and for all?"
"Over 300 militiamen are reported dead and a 1000 have been arrested according to the governor of Najaf. Overall, the situation looks bleak for Sadr, and one has to surmise if this would end in either his arrest or his death. I doubt that the Sadrist movement would be over with Muqtada's death, they would just have a third martyr from the Sadr family to add to their list.
One also can't help but wonder about the timing of Sistani's departure from Najaf to London for treatment. The man is known for his subtle messages, could this be a sign for his tacit approval to finish Sadr and his militia once and for all?"
On the Trail of the Congo's "Cannibal Rebels"
Another interesting story by Eliza Griswold in Slate, published last March:
"Eliza Griswold traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo twice to investigate claims of cannibalism as a weapon of war."
"Eliza Griswold traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo twice to investigate claims of cannibalism as a weapon of war."
Eliza Griswold on Afghanistan
Watch the New Yorker correspondent, author of "In the Hiding Zone" in the July 18th issue (not online!), talk about her clandestine visit to Waziristan onCSPAN's clip of the day for August 4th.
A New Yorker press release summarizes her published story like this:
"In "In the Hiding Zone," Eliza Griswold reports from Waziristan, the lawless tribal borderland on the northwestern edge of Pakistan whose people are sometimes suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden. Griswold, who was detained earlier this year in Waziristan by Pakistani authorities, travels with Khalid Wazir, who, at the age of thirty, is "the de-facto prince of a forbidden kingdom, a putative expert on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and gatekeeper to a region traditionally closed to outsiders." Khalid tells Griswold that he was recently asked by an international news organization if bin Laden was in fact hiding in Waziristan.
"How was I supposed to know?" he says. "If he's there, why don't they catch him? I have nothing to do with it.... I am the chief. I know there are terrorists in Waziristan? George Bush was elected President by the state of Florida. His brother is governor of Florida. George Bush knew there were terrorists training in Florida?" Griswold notes that "of all the Pashtun tribes, the Wazirs are known as the most conservative and irascible," although "the revival of radical Islam in Waziristan is relatively recent," a product, in part, of the effort to push the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. "More recently," Griswold reports, "the region has become a haven for Al Qaeda members. As Islamic fighters fled the mountains of Afghanistan, Waziristan became a virtual jihadi highway."
Khalid sees himself locked in a battle for influence with the radical mullahs in the area. His own plan for combatting the influence of radical Islam includes not military action ("Kill one terrorist, make ten," he says) but a comprehensive public-works program that has yet to develop. "The mullah gives a man one meal," he says, "we will give him two." The United States already had crop-substitution programs running in the area before September 11th, although Westerners are not allowed in Waziristan.
"There have been social programs in the region since the nineteen-seventies in the tribal areas," Husain Haqqani, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says. "I don't think there are any empirical data to suggest that after your house has been intrusively searched you say, 'Oh, those are the good guys! They put the water fountain in my village.' " With the Waziris angry at both the Pakistani Army and America, the situation isn't getting any easier. "We certainly believe there are remnants of Al Qaeda or those closely allied with it up there," one State Department official tells Griswold. "There will need to be a continuing effort.... It's U.S. policy to try as much as we can to assist these people. But you can't just walk in with a bunch of Americans and say, " 'Hi! We're trying to help.' "
A New Yorker press release summarizes her published story like this:
"In "In the Hiding Zone," Eliza Griswold reports from Waziristan, the lawless tribal borderland on the northwestern edge of Pakistan whose people are sometimes suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden. Griswold, who was detained earlier this year in Waziristan by Pakistani authorities, travels with Khalid Wazir, who, at the age of thirty, is "the de-facto prince of a forbidden kingdom, a putative expert on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and gatekeeper to a region traditionally closed to outsiders." Khalid tells Griswold that he was recently asked by an international news organization if bin Laden was in fact hiding in Waziristan.
"How was I supposed to know?" he says. "If he's there, why don't they catch him? I have nothing to do with it.... I am the chief. I know there are terrorists in Waziristan? George Bush was elected President by the state of Florida. His brother is governor of Florida. George Bush knew there were terrorists training in Florida?" Griswold notes that "of all the Pashtun tribes, the Wazirs are known as the most conservative and irascible," although "the revival of radical Islam in Waziristan is relatively recent," a product, in part, of the effort to push the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. "More recently," Griswold reports, "the region has become a haven for Al Qaeda members. As Islamic fighters fled the mountains of Afghanistan, Waziristan became a virtual jihadi highway."
Khalid sees himself locked in a battle for influence with the radical mullahs in the area. His own plan for combatting the influence of radical Islam includes not military action ("Kill one terrorist, make ten," he says) but a comprehensive public-works program that has yet to develop. "The mullah gives a man one meal," he says, "we will give him two." The United States already had crop-substitution programs running in the area before September 11th, although Westerners are not allowed in Waziristan.
"There have been social programs in the region since the nineteen-seventies in the tribal areas," Husain Haqqani, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says. "I don't think there are any empirical data to suggest that after your house has been intrusively searched you say, 'Oh, those are the good guys! They put the water fountain in my village.' " With the Waziris angry at both the Pakistani Army and America, the situation isn't getting any easier. "We certainly believe there are remnants of Al Qaeda or those closely allied with it up there," one State Department official tells Griswold. "There will need to be a continuing effort.... It's U.S. policy to try as much as we can to assist these people. But you can't just walk in with a bunch of Americans and say, " 'Hi! We're trying to help.' "
Fandorin on the Leviathan
Just finished Boris Akunin's entertaining romp Murder on the Leviathan . It's a quick read, a fun homage to Agatha Christie. Here Fandorin, travelling as a Russian diplomat, matches wits with the French Inspector Gauche, no doubt based on Hercule Poirot, to solve a grisly series of murders. Suspects are a veritable United Nations of characters, enabling Akunin to play games with national character issues, as well as literary genres. Not to mention the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. For example, the Japanese gentleman, a Samurai warrior, writes Haiku poetry...
Azar Nafisi on Islamism
From The Dialogue Project's Introductory Essay:
"Islamism has become the biggest threat to the development and survival of democracy in the world today. The Islamist threat lies not only in its potential for terror-based violence, but in the appeal and mass embrace of its ideological and cultural claims. Islamism's combination of visibility, virulence, and aggressive self-righteousness has allowed it to become the dominant lens through which the West judges the Muslim world and the Muslim-majority countries judge the West. Their ideology has come to underlie much of the international discourse on the 'East-West' relationship. "
"Islamism has become the biggest threat to the development and survival of democracy in the world today. The Islamist threat lies not only in its potential for terror-based violence, but in the appeal and mass embrace of its ideological and cultural claims. Islamism's combination of visibility, virulence, and aggressive self-righteousness has allowed it to become the dominant lens through which the West judges the Muslim world and the Muslim-majority countries judge the West. Their ideology has come to underlie much of the international discourse on the 'East-West' relationship. "
Mark Steyn on Eurotrip
From The Spectator, an analysis of Eurotrip-The Movie (you may need to scroll down):
"But, as I said, I was howling with laughter. In among the nudist jokes and Pope jokes, Eurotrip is an honest acknowledgment of near total ignorance. One thing I'm surer and surer of since September 11th is that America and Europe know next to nothing about each other. Every Monday I get a big pile of London Sunday papers full of lame features professing to have the inside track on the latest trends in America, and it's all, as the Speccie's esteemed editor would say, complete bollocks. The one saving grace of the American media is that they can't be bothered to reciprocate: a four-decade old joke about the alleged French obsession with mime will do for at least another four or five decades, by which time the Fifth Republic will be the First Islamic Republic of France and the Yanks may have to come up with a new gag. Eurotrip, its scenes of Paris, Berlin and Rome all filmed on the cheap in Prague, somehow captures the state of the Atlantic alliance more accurately than any in-depth analysis."
"But, as I said, I was howling with laughter. In among the nudist jokes and Pope jokes, Eurotrip is an honest acknowledgment of near total ignorance. One thing I'm surer and surer of since September 11th is that America and Europe know next to nothing about each other. Every Monday I get a big pile of London Sunday papers full of lame features professing to have the inside track on the latest trends in America, and it's all, as the Speccie's esteemed editor would say, complete bollocks. The one saving grace of the American media is that they can't be bothered to reciprocate: a four-decade old joke about the alleged French obsession with mime will do for at least another four or five decades, by which time the Fifth Republic will be the First Islamic Republic of France and the Yanks may have to come up with a new gag. Eurotrip, its scenes of Paris, Berlin and Rome all filmed on the cheap in Prague, somehow captures the state of the Atlantic alliance more accurately than any in-depth analysis."
Friday, August 06, 2004
Sir Max Hastings on Israel and the Palestinians
In The Spectator:
"The Israelis seem to deserve President Bush's support in rejecting any Palestinian 'right of return' inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. But Bush's behaviour has given new impetus to the Jewish settlement movement in a way that appals many Israeli moderates. They recognise a choice between a possibility of peace and a large chunk of the West Bank, and know that they cannot have both."
"The Israelis seem to deserve President Bush's support in rejecting any Palestinian 'right of return' inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. But Bush's behaviour has given new impetus to the Jewish settlement movement in a way that appals many Israeli moderates. They recognise a choice between a possibility of peace and a large chunk of the West Bank, and know that they cannot have both."
Saddam's Archaelogical Collaborators
From Middle East Quarterly:
"Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen. Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer. But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested."
"Working in a wretched totalitarian country was a conscious choice for archaeologists as it was for businessmen. Iraq purchased most of its weapons from Russia and France, sophisticated electronics from the United States, and germ samples from all over the world. Profit is its own excuse, and those who armed and supported Iraq have much for which to answer. But archaeologists submitted paperwork to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, knowing full well that staff lists would be vetted by Iraqi intelligence. European and American Jews, among the pioneers of Mesopotamian archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, were systematically excluded from participation, as they still are in Syria and Saudi Arabia. No one protested."
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