CUANAS: 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The Nobility of Appeasement

Wretchard at Belmont Club has a great post up today which explains the thought processes of the appeasement crowd circa the 1930's. He starts by quoting a readers comment on an article by Paul Berman, on the subject of Terrorism and Liberalism:

... Islamism (is) a totalitarian reaction against Western liberalism in a class with Nazism and communism ... Berman delineates how all three movements descended from utopian visions (in the case of Islamism, the restoration of a pure seventh-century Islam) into irrational cults of death.

In a word the Left would logically be expected to oppose Osama Bin Laden because it represents everything Berman thinks the Left has fought against since it's inception.

The question Berman tries to answer is why the precise opposite has happened. To get a handle on the problem he dissects the failure of the 1930s French Left to resolutely oppose Hitler. On pages 124-128 Berman says:

Blum and his supporters regarded Hitler and the Nazis with horror ... But mostly they remembered the First World War ... They grew thoughtful, therefore. They did not wish to reduce Germany in all its Teutonic complexity to black-and-white terms of good and evil. ... And, having analyzed the German scene in that manner, the anti-war Socialists concluded that Hitler and the Nazis, in railing against the great powers and the Treaty of Versailles, did make some legitimate arguments ... Why not look for ways to conciliate the outraged German people and, in that way, to conciliate the Nazis? ...

The anti-war Socialists of France did not think they were being cowardly or unprincipled in making those arguments. On the contrary, they ... regarded themselves as exceptionally brave and honest. They felt that courage and radicalism allowed them to peer beneath the surface of events and identify the deeper factors at work in international relations-the truest danger facing France. This danger, in their judgment, did not come from Hitler and the Nazis, not principally. The truest danger came from the warmongers and arms manufacturers of France itself ... who stood to benefit in material ways from a new war. ...

But the political arguments rested on something deeper, too -- a philosophical belief; profound, large, and attractive ... that, in the modern world, even the enemies of reason cannot be the enemies of reason. Even the unreasonable must be, in some fashion, reasonable.

The belief underlying those anti-war arguments was, in short, an unyielding faith in universal rationality. ... And, stirred by that antique idea, the anti-war Socialists gazed across the Rhine and simply refused to believe ... in a political movement whose animating principles were paranoid conspiracy theories, blood-curdling hatreds, medieval superstitions, and the lure of murder.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? As they say, those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it, and it does seem that the Left doesn't know the history of their own behavior.

Wretchard goes on to describe how, once the Germans had invaded France, many on the Left in their dedication to trying to understand the rational in the Nazi movement, began to sympathize, and even to work alongside the Vichy Government:

... among the anti-war Socialists, a number of people, having voted with Petain, took the logical next step and, on patriotic an idealistic grounds, accepted positions in his new government, at Vichy. Some of those Socialists went a little further, too, and began to see a virtue in Petain's program for a new France and a new Europe-a program for strength and virility, a Europe ruled by a single-party state instead of by the corrupt cliques of bourgeois democracy, a Europe cleansed of the impurities of Judaism and of the Jews themselves, a Europe of the anti-liberal imagination.

And, in that very remarkable fashion, a number of the anti-war Socialists of France came full circle. They had begun as defenders of liberal values and human rights, and they evolved into defenders of bigotry, tyranny, superstition, and mass murder. They were democratic leftists who, through the miraculous workings of the slippery slope and a naïve faith in the rationalism of all things, ended as fascists.

Long ago, you say? Not so long ago.

"If I Make My Bed In Hell
Behonld, You Are There"

Phillip Yancey tells the story of a former Nazi soldier who became a Theologian:

Juergen Moltmann was planning on a career in quantum physics until he was drafted at age 18 at the height of the Second World War. Assigned to anti-aircraft batteries in Hamburg, he saw compatriots incinerated in the fire-bombings there. The question "Why did I survive?" haunted him.

After surrendering to the British, the young soldier spent the next three years in prison camps in Belgium, Scotland, and England. When Hitler's empire imploded, exposing the moral rot at the center of the Third Reich, Moltmann saw how other German prisoners "collapsed inwardly, how they gave up all hope, sickening for the lack of it, some of them dying."

As he learned the truth about the Nazis, Moltmann felt an inconsolable grief about life, "weighed down by the somber burden of a guilt which could never be paid off."

Moltmann had no Christian background. He had brought two books with him into battle—Goethe's poems and the works of Nietzsche—neither of which nourished much hope. But an American chaplain gave him an Army-issue New Testament and Psalms, signed by President Roosevelt. "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there," the prisoner read.

Could God be present in that dark place? As he read on, Moltmann found words that perfectly captured his feelings of desolation. He became convinced that God "was present even behind the barbed wire—no, most of all behind the barbed wire."

Moltmann also found something new in the Psalms: hope. Walking the perimeter of the barbed wire at night for exercise, he would circle a small hill in the center of the camp on which stood a hut that served as a chapel. That hut became for him a symbol of God's presence in the midst of suffering.

Later Moltmann was transferred to Norton Camp, an educational camp in England run by the YMCA. The local population welcomed the German prisoners, bringing them homemade food, teaching them Christian doctrine, and never adding to the burden of guilt the prisoners felt over Nazi atrocities.

Upon release, Moltmann began to articulate his theology of hope. We exist in a state of contradiction between the Cross and the Resurrection. Surrounded by decay, we nonetheless hope for restoration, a hope illuminated by the "foreglow" of Christ's resurrection. Faith in that glorious future can transform the present—just as Moltmann's own hope of eventual release from prison camp transformed his daily experience there.

Through all of Moltmann's dense theological works run two themes: God's presence with us in our suffering and God's promise of a perfected future.

If Jesus had lived in Europe during the Third Reich, Moltmann noted, he likely would have been branded like other Jews and shipped to the gas chambers.

Yes, it is more than likely. It is almost assured.

I think one of the first duties of any Christian is to ask God to help him to find the person inside himself who would have helped nail Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, to the cross. That person is in all of us.

Until we find that person, and ask God to help us banish him (the old man), the world is not safe from us.

Why Libertarian Isolationism Is An Oxymoron

My blogbrother Titus has written a penetrating analysis on the issue of whether war is a rational or irrational policy. My favorite part is where Titus tears apart the reigning Libertarian orthodoxy that war is an unnecessary entangling alliance:

Addressing the arguments that paleo-libertarians make against the rationality of war, we find that their position is actually contrary to what one would expect from their philosophy of the state. Indeed, given that war is an act of the state (or tribe, or band), and the libertarians themselves general believe that the object of the state is to increase its own power vis-a-vis the individual citizens, it would seem that libertarians should understand war to be a rational, though undesireable, activity as the state seems to augment its power through a reasoned course of action.

I love the smell of Pat Buchanan stewing in his own juices. Go read the whole thing.

How To Help The People of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama

At Feed The Children, $7 will send 50 lbs. of food out to people who need it.

American Red Cross appears to be inundated right now, but try later.

Little Green Footballs has a list of links to charities as well.

Victory In Iraq
Iraqis Rally In Support Of Their Constitution

Iraqi Demonstrators hold banners in support of the draft constitution in Kut, Iraq, yesterday, August 29. (Reuters) Protesters said that passing the Constitution would help end the terrorist attacks in the country. (FOX)

(Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.)

The Astute Blogger comments:

The Sunni Arabs don't like the new Iraqi Constitution. So what do they do? Protest and say they will VOTE it down.

That means we have won in Iraq.

It's probably a bit premature to declare victory, but The Astute Blogger is correct. As of now, the Iraqi people are functioning as a Democracy.

Europe, We Hardly Know Ye

From Ed Morrisey:

Leave it to the current German government and their knee-jerk anti-Americanism to try to score political points off of the natural catastrophe occuring in New Orleans. As many of the blogosphere have already pointed out, German environmental minister Juergen Tritten blamed George Bush for Hurricane Katrina and the deadly devestation it inflicted on New Orleans and Gulfport this week. Der Spiegel also reports that Tritten is hardly alone among Germans in believing that George Bush controls the weather:

The toughest commentary of the day comes from Germany's Environmental Minister, Jürgen Trittin, a Green Party member, who takes space in the Frankfurter Rundschau, a paper owned by the Social Democrats, to bash US President George W. Bush's environmental laxity. He begins by likening the photos and videos of the hurricane stricken areas to scenes from a Roland Emmerich sci-fi film and insists that global warming and climate change are making it ever more likely that storms and floods will plague America and Europe. ...

Trittin also calls for a reworking of the Kyoto Protocol -- dubbing it the uncreative title of "Kyoto 2" -- and insisting that the US be included.

The Germans, especially on the Left, have plenty to say about their newfound belief in George Bush's deity. Die Tageszeitung also urges politicians to draw a lesson from Katrina, apparently believing that one data point demonstrates causality. Handelsblatt follows suit, arguing that Katrina shows that hurricanes have gotten more intense.

Does anyone see any similarities between this reaction and the so-called outpouring of sympathy we received after 9/11? Oh, it's a shame about the poor Americans in New York/Orleans, they say. But you know they brought it on themselves, warming the planet like that. Why, don't they know that their arrogant and unilateral policies anger al-Qaeda/Gaia? Tritten even trotted out the statistics on energy consumption as rescue workers had only just started rafting past the dead bodies floating in the Big Easy to try to find survivors.

I have never felt as betrayed as I did when, on 9/11, I heard those criticisms from Europe. Today the betrayal comes close.

When The Levee Breaks

I've been to several blog sites and have seen extensive comments on the looting in New Orleans. It is a tragedy. However, let me say something here to all of you. The blogs I frequent are sites which often touch on the issue of the War against Islamofascism and anti-Semitism. If anyone ought to understand The Madness of Crowds, it ought to be those who know the history of anti-Semitism.

The truth about human society is that there is just a thin blue line which separates us from chaos. When disaster strikes, and society buckles, chaos will come rushing in just as sure as when the levee in New Orleans broke, and water flooded the city.

For people to take postures of morality on the issue of looting in this situation seems absurd to me. It seems to me there may be racism and classism involved in some of these criticisms. Remember, the people with money had cars, and they got out.

Imagine that you were one of the few people left stranded in a city teetering on chaos. Imagine the fear. Imagine the desperation. Some people may choose to deal with their situation by stealing a basketball goal as in this story from Michelle Malkin's site. A fireman who watched the absurd spectacle commented,

"It’s a f---- hurricane, what are you do with a basketball goal?"

Yes, exactly. What is he going to do with it? You can't play basketball on flooded, unstable streets, can you?

This incident demonstrates the chaos which has crept into the minds of those left behind to fend for themselves, without the thin blue line separating them from the chaos of the outer world. Some will "steal" food, and others might seek entertainment. In fact, seeking entertainment is a way of attempting to establish the normality of society, and fend off chaos.

The reality of the hurricane, and the devastation it has caused, is so much bigger than the action of the looters. To get angry with the looters in the aftermath of Katrina is almost the same as if you were to look out at the ocean and get angry that there is a buoy blocking your view.

I have to wonder if some of the anger being directed at the looters is really just an expression of the futility many of us feel at knowing that there isn't much we can do to help. And, maybe it is an expression of fright at the chaos we feel welling up within ourselves.

I am not trying to defend looting. I am only saying that I don't think morality is the natural state of mankind. We are Graced to be moral. And the culture we surround ourselves with gives us the strength to be moral. If the culture were taken away from us, we might find ourselves doing things we never thought we were capable of.

I think we need to stop criticizing those who were left behind.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Pope Benedict, Oriana Fallaci,
Islamofascism, and the Jews

Today is a day of bad news in America. I haven't posted much on Hurricane Katrina because not much concrete information has come out yet. But, even as we are learning of the devastation caused by Katrina, some good news is coming to us today, from Europe. Pope Benedict has met with Oriana Fallaci, the champion of Western Civilization, and one of the rare people in this world who is willing to truly stand up and fight against Islamofascism:

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a strident critic of Islam, Vatican sources confirmed.

The 76-year-old writer, who describes herself as an atheist Christian and was sued in Italy for insulting the Muslim faith in one of her books, asked to meet the pope, a source said.

The meeting on Saturday between Benedict XVI and the former war correspondent became public only after Fallaci’s associates let slip that the meeting took place.

Based in the United States where she is being treated for cancer, Fallaci once said in a newspaper interview that she was comforted by the writings of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope after the death of John Paul II.

We can be sure that the Pope knows all about Ms. Fallaci's controversial views. Thus, this is a signal that the Pope must largely agree with her. If he agrees with her, then we know that he intends to confront the menace of Islamofascism.

This is some of the best news I have heard in a very long time.

I also want to note that, if Pope Benedict agrees with Oriana Fallaci, then that also indicates that he is, by no means, on the side of the Palestinians in the Middle East Conflict, as many have been saying recently. Here's an example of Ms. Fallaci's writing on Islamofascism:

Now, I ask myself: “What do you say, what do you have to say, about what happened in London?” They ask me face-to-face, via fax and email; often scolding me because up until now I have remained silent. Almost as if my silence were a betrayal. And each time I shake my head and murmur to myself: what else should I say?!? I’ve been saying it for four years--that I fight against the Monster that has decided to eliminate us physically and, along with our bodies, to destroy our principles and values. Our civilization. For four years I’ve been talking about Islamic Nazism; about the war against the West; about the death cult; about European suicide. About a Europe that is no longer Europe, but Eurabia, and that with its feebleness, its inertia, its blindness, its servitude to the enemy is digging its own grave.

If one agrees with her, then one sees that we are in a war for our survival, a war in which there is no potential for compromise.

I have never joined the ranks of pro-Israel pundits who accuse the Pope of anti-Semitism, because I know about the Pope's history. I believe he is a good man.

Imagine No America
It Is Frightening To Do

The American Thinker gives a very solemn warning:

As has been documented scores of times by The American Thinker, the homeland battle of ideas is an attempt by the mainstream media, the academic world, government schools, textbook publishers, establishment churches, wealthy foundations, city governments, Hollywood liberals, State Department bureaucrats, the Ivy League playpen at the CIA, pop stars, rap artists, civil libertarians, and other assorted noisemakers to mislead the public about the nature of the enemy, an attempt repeatedly frustrated by the enemy himself, who reveals his nature with every attack.

The “war on terrorism” is thus a shooting war with Islamofascist terrorists and a battle of ideas with respectable society, which, for its own truly perverse reasons, at best exhibits a dull-witted indifference to the terrorist threat to our lives and way of life.

It is a war that we could lose—and with it everything.

Since the war is a two-front war, a shooting war and a war of truth against falsehood, it is a war that our armed forces cannot win by themselves. Every American has a responsibility to the truth. Abdicating this responsibility and forcing the military to fight alone is stupid, selfish, self-defeating, shortsighted, and immoral.

If we do not fulfill our responsibility on the homefront, we will lose the war, no matter how brave our soldiers are. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will be no more.

Many in our society are taking America for granted. We don't seem to realize that America is as much a miracle of history, as the emergence of life out of the primordial soup.

America, and Western Civilizaton in general are so precious. They are a sanctuary in which we are blessed to be able to take refuge from the unremitting murder and pestilence of the history of human civilization.

Without America, the world would sink into chaos.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Michael Jackson getting the royal treatment in Dubai.

Shouldn't they be stoning him to death, rather than treating him like royalty?

Here's the story, if you are interested.

When Did AP Go Pharisee On Us?

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong. Associated Press published this photo of this poor woman from New Orleans today, with the following caption:

A woman walks through chest-deep water as she heads to loot a grocery store in New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, as floodwaters continue to rise after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Oh, she's going to "loot a grocery store?" Yeah, right.

Why not say she is going to get groceries? If the grocery store isn't open, because it has been abandoned, and there is no other way to get food, then it isn't looting.

This is an excellent example of Pharasaic thinking. Following the letter of the Law, and not understanding the Spirit.

For Associated Press to have published a phtograph of this woman, with a caption accusing her of "looting", is slander. They would have never done this to a person who looked like they had money. They only did it because she looks like a poor person. And, sorry to say, because she is a poor, black person.

Al Qaeda University:
Is The Phillipines Becoming
The New Afghanistan?

From Associated Press:

MANILA, Philippines - Al-Qaida's Southeast Asian ally is sharing bomb-making expertise with Muslim militants in the Philippines, providing at least nine explosive designs and eight chemical recipes to help ragtag insurgents become more lethal, according to government reports.

The results: 116 people killed in the country's worst terror attack, a series of high-tech explosions and close cooperation among local and foreign militants using the southern Philippines as a training ground following the loss of al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan.

While U.S.-backed offensives have overrun established camps in the Mindanao region in the last couple of years, training by al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah's Indonesian operatives has continued on a limited basis with militants setting up classes and plotting attacks, police and military intelligence officers told The Associated Press.

One Philippine security official said Mindanao in the southern part of the country "is like a terrorist academy" with trainees taught how to make bombs, plant them, then set them off in test missions designed to help militants perfect their techniques to complete the course.

Jemaah Islamiyah militants appear to be continuously testing new designs and explosives mixtures, said officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of the information. Previously, many Philippine militants, especially Abu Sayyaf rebels, had relied on simple hand and rocket-propelled grenades to attack civilian targets.

Investigators looking into Sunday's bombing of a passenger ferry while it was boarding on Basilan island, injuring 30 people, said it appeared to be designed more to sow panic than kill, but that it was too early to speculate on the design.

More powerful chemical mixtures not used before by local militants also have been detected at bombing scenes in recent years, the reports said.

The new mixtures give the militants more leeway in attaining a particular effect. Some spark fires to scare extortion targets; others are designed to kill and destroy.

Authorities said they have detected evidence of al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah "training and technology transfer" in bomb devices for the past four or five years.

Such international cooperation and terror technology exchanges is not entirely new.

When police in 1995 raided the Manila apartment of Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, they found several juice bottles filled with the same powerful explosives used in that attack and a brand of quartz alarm clock later used in a bombing in Iraq.

The Devastation In New Orleans

Via Michelle Malkin:

In a most frightening interview with WWL TV, Mayor C. Ray Nagin gave the worse-case scenario of events that anyone could possibly imagine. In the beginning of the interview, he stated that New Orleans is devastated.

Of most importance is the breach of the levee between Jefferson and Orleans Parish.

“We probably have 80 percent of our city under water with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet”.

Both airports are underwater

The twin spans are destroyed.

The Yacht club is burned and destroyed.

Mayor Nagin also stated he was not sure of the structural soundness of the highrise. He stated that it is possible that the highrise bridge in east New Orleans could be unstable.

The Mayor also stated that all of Slidell (a city [over] which he has no jurisdiction) is under water. Nagin also stated that there was no clear path in and out of New Orleans, that I-10 is underwater.

Nagin stated that FEMA is coming into town tomorrow and that New Orleans will need to obtain major federal help to rebuild the city of New Orleans.

As corroboration, a spokesperson from Tulane University said that they were about to move all of the patients from the hospital due to rising water at one inch every five minutes. She said white water was pouring down Canal Street (which would be from Lake Ponchatrain-related to the breach in the levee) from the canal separating the two parishes.

Click here to see video of the Mayor's comments.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Bush Calls On Abbas To Show "Political Courage"

With thanks to Charles at Little Green Footballs:

EL MIRAGE, Arizona (Reuters) - President Bush stepped up pressure on the Palestinians one day after a suicide bomb attack, urging President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday to show the “political courage” to rein in militants.

Bush called Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza the first step toward creating a democracy for the Palestinians. “It took political courage to make that decision,” Bush said of the withdrawal of Jewish settlers.

“And now it’s going to take political courage by the Palestinians and ... Abbas to step up, reject violence, reject terrorism and build a democracy,” he added during a speech in El Mirage, Arizona.

Bush’s comments marked an escalation in U.S. pressure on Abbas to begin taking action against militants in response to Israel’s withdrawal.

The call for action appeared to run counter to assertions by Palestinian officials in Washington that the White House understood that Abbas and his security forces would need more time to prepare for any major push to disarm the militants.

A senior Bush administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues, said the White House believes that Abbas already has the means to restrain the groups responsible for attacks on Israel.

“We want him to be a responsible leader. He needs to rein in the groups that want to harm the ‘road map’ process,” the official said, referring to the U.S.-backed peace process that envisions creating a viable Palestinian state.

Why The Christians In Sudan?
Why The Jews?

In the Sudan, the Islamofascist government has been on a 22-year long spree of murdering Christians. All told, they have killed over 2 million people for the crime of believing that in Jesus and not Allah. Here's a little bit about Nina Shea, and her fight against the Islamofascist Genocide in the Sudan:

Shea and the coalition she helped assemble have been pushing for agreement for more than a decade. The 22-year genocidal jihad waged by the ruling National Islamic Front against Sudan's predominantly Christian and animist South has ended. But Shea and others say they will not rest until peace is restored to Darfur, where a second genocide rages on.

Drawing attention to religious persecution around the globe is something Shea has learned to do well. She is described by her friends as forthright and direct, and by her critics as "shrill." No matter. Her reputation as an intensely focused, doggedly persistent advocate of religious freedom led Newsweek magazine to credit her with "making Christian persecution Washington's hottest cause."

In uscirf meetings with President Bush, Shea will try to "buttonhole him and use the time to raise the issues she thinks need to be talked about," says colleague Paul Marshall. Marshall, senior fellow at the CRF and author of Their Blood Cries Out, a bestselling survey of religious persecution, adds, "She's not overawed by people."

Shea's approach is to bring together politically diverse coalitions of churches, religious groups, and civil-rights organizations to press for government action. It has proven effective. In 1998, Shea, McDonnell, Michael Horowitz, and others began laying the groundwork for the Sudan Coalition, a loosely affiliated network of human-rights groups, students, and religious organizations. It later joined forces with the Sudan Campaign, a group launched by African American civil-rights leaders, to pass the 2002 Sudan Peace Act.

In the early 1980s, the League sent her to El Salvador, where clandestine death squads were abducting and killing people by the thousands. "I was investigating disappearances and talking to families whose loved ones were being tortured and killed," Shea says. "It was a very intimidating environment."

On one prison visit, a notorious police official told Shea and her delegation to step inside a dark cell. He locked the door, then after an appropriate pause, jokingly opened it. The experience impressed upon Shea the protections her American citizenship afforded. "We could speak out when the locals could not," she says. But she still recognized what she was doing was risky:

In Latin America, she started to become disillusioned with what she calls her colleagues' "double standard on human rights."

"In my secular days, I really believed that the human-rights movement was altruistic," says Shea, a liberal Democrat when she joined the League. "Then I saw that when governments on the Left started abusing human rights, human rights were no longer important."

The last straw came when superiors began pressuring her to suppress her report on Sandinista atrocities. "I decided to dig in," Shea says. "Somebody had to stand up for these principles."

During these years, her spiritual life began to blossom. For a long period of about 15 years during college, law school, and at her job with the International League for Human Rights, she "really did not know any believing Christians," Shea says.

During her work in the '80s for the League, Shea began meeting Christians whose lives she describes as "a great witness." Shea recalls one Pentecostal preacher in the Dominican Republic living in a shack next to a garbage dump. "He was there, in the garbage dump, amidst the open sewers, trying to give dignity to people's lives," Shea says.

In Haiti, Shea met a Dutch priest and former classics professor who was starting schools and soup kitchens in "the worst slum of the Western world."

"They were living under constant threat, constant violence, and they were doing it out of love," she says. "It had a powerful impact on me. I saw this repeated in country after country."
What resulted was an "intellectual awakening" where the importance of religion, worship, and the role of religious figures became clearer, Shea says. "It was a rational commitment I made before becoming a Christian.

"I recognized there was something very powerful here, something that I found deeply attractive. At the same time, I observed prejudice in the secular culture against the people I found deeply heroic. Because of their love for others, these people were being persecuted, marginalized, and ignored.

"I started seeing how churches were crushed, and how religious people of all faiths were being crushed." She watched in Nicaragua as communists tried to manipulate the churches as they did in Eastern Europe. "They were replacing the priests with Marxist liberation priests.

"This was a powerful witness to me. It provoked a reckoning within me about what life was about and whom I admired." In addition, the fact that "these people were often dismissed by the press and human-rights groups" proved a powerful motivator.

Aside from a few Jewish groups, "no one was speaking out on behalf of persecuted religious figures," Shea says. "Certainly no one was speaking out for persecuted Christians. Something had to be done."

Shea turned her attention to the persecuted Christian church. "It jolted me into learning more about my faith as an adult. I really hadn't learned the Catholic Church's philosophy of life. I didn't learn it in school. I started delving into it as an adult."

In her 1997 book, In the Lion's Den, Shea wrote, "The shocking, untold story of our time is that more Christians have died in this century simply for being Christians than in the first 19 centuries after the birth of Christ."

During an address by Shea at Catholic University Law School, a member of the audience identified himself as a representative from the Sudan embassy; he also said he was from the state of Nuba, where the pro-government imams had issued a fatwa against insurgents. "Nina took him on," McDonnell recalls. "

She basically said, 'You are from Nuba, and the government of Sudan has tried to totally wipe out your people! How dare you sell out your own people!'"

Asked where she finds her ongoing passion, as well as her strength during times of discouragement, Shea says, "As a Catholic, I find my strength at Mass and in sharing in the Eucharist with other believers, but another great source of strength is Daniel 6:22." It's a verse that inspired the title of her book. "I love that image of God sending his angel to close the mouths of the lions," she says.

I like how Shea describes her conversion as an "intellectual awakening" and a "rational act" inspired by seeing how important people of faith were to the world. I have had a similar experience over the past few years. I have been a Christian for quite a while, but the last few years have taught me the importance of my faith.

(I do not write any of this to convert anybody. Whatever you believe is alright with me, as long as you love your neighbor, and are grateful to the God who created you. Whatever name you want to call God by, is ok with me, but if you feel no thankfulness to God, and you don't love your neighbor, then that is too bad for you. A hell is opening up in your soul this very day, and it will only grow. I don't need to convert you. You will find your own way.)

Anyway, back to my experience. Having worked with the other members of CUANAS, and having looked, for so long, at the menace of anti-Semitism, I have seen what happens when people put their faith in power ideologies, rather than love and the grace of God.

It is clear to me that it is only those who have a powerful faith in God, and who believe it is their duty to sacrifice themselves in His name, who are willing to help Jews. All others find excuses for why those who hate Jews might have a point here or there.

Dennis Prager says he found God in a classroom at Columbia University, when he realized how much the foolish beliefs of many of his professors contrasted with the level of their intellect, it became clear to him that the verse from Psalm 111 which says, "Wisdom begins with fear of God" was being played out for him in the flesh.

Similarly, I have come to an intellectual awakening. I have realized that there is no rational reason for the level of hatred directed at Jews. There is nothing special enough about Jews as a people. They have too many different opinions. They perform too many different functions in society. They contribute a tremendous amount to the world, and yet there are good Jews, and there are bad Jews, just as there are good and bad in any other race.

The Jews may have been appointed to carry God's Law through the ages, but they have often not behaved according to God's Law. On the other hand, from my experience Jews are extraordinarily charitable people. But, of course, this is no reason to hate Jews.

So, why is it that people who are obsessed with attaining ultimate power (Hitler, Stalin, Khomeini, Bin Laden, etc.) inevitably turn their wrath on Jews? Why do they become obsessed with the idea of killing Jews?

Ask yourself, why would Hitler say, "You will see how little time we shall need in order to upset the ideas and the criteria for the whole world, simply and purely by attacking Judaism. The struggle for world domination will be fought entirely between Germans and Jews. All else is facade and illusion"?

Why would he say that? The answer is this:

Because obsession with the attainment of ultimate power is demonic, and the Jews are the Chosen People of God. They are God's people, so those who act according to the demonic, those who are obsessed with ultimate power will inevitably come to the belief (as if by delirium) that the first thing they need to do to attain the unlimited power they seek, is to kill the Jews.

If killing the Jews is so incredibly important to all the most evil people in history, then we ought to come to the conclusion that keeping the Jews safe must be very important to all of us who would like to see the world survive and bloom.

P.S. I realize that it must seem odd to see someone the use the term "intellectual awakening" to describe the process of coming to the the conclusion that hatred of the Jews is demonic in origin. Of course, demons, if they exist, are spiritual, not physical, in nature.

But, the reason I used the term intellectual awakening is because, as in the case of Nina Shea and Dennis Prager, my faith was awakened through the observation of phenomena in the physical world. In other words, I observed the hatred directed at the Jews. I considered the possible motivating factors for this hatred. I came to the conclusion that none of these motivating factors made sense, except the one proposed by the Bible.

In the case of Dennis Pragers' conversion, one could say, yes but there could be reasons, other than spiritual, for extremely intellectual professors believing such foolishness. Yes, there could be, but Mr. Prager considered the various reasons and came to the intellectual conclusion that the answer provided by the Bible (that those who do not fear God will fall to foolishness) was the correct conclusion.

That's what I have done. No motivating factor which exists in the physical world is sufficient to explain the obsessive hatred directed at Jews. Jews are hated in nations, and by people (such as Malaysians) who have never even seen a Jew. So, where does the hatred come from?

Why is this obsessive hatred not directed at another group, like Filipinos for instance? Can you imagine the whole world hating Filipinos? There are probably a similar number of Filipinos in the world? Why doesn't the world start directing it's resevoir of hatred at Filipinos?

Because they are not God's Chosen People. That's why.

A Young Girl Who Survived The Beslan Massacre

A Young Girl Who Didn't

The Aftermath of the Beslan Massacre

Last year Islamofascist Jihadis stormed an elementary school in Beslan, Chechneya and went on a raping and murdering rampage which lasted for several days, and culminated with a massacre which killed over 200 children.

The other day, the surviving children had the "opportunity" to relive their horrible experiences by testifying in court about what happened to them:

Children of the Beslan Massacre from a year ago sobbed in court as they recounted the horrific abuse they endured last year when terrorists took siege of their school in this North Ossetian town:

A 10-year-old boy testified Thursday, August 25th in the trial of the one lone terrorist to be captured alive after the siege in Beslan. One of the female terrorists ... told us that if she found a phone on anyone, that person would be killed and three more people near him or her would be killed too.

Tamerlan Toguzov a survivor of the Beslan terrorist attack, stands outside the court Wednesday to talk with reporters. He shared a bottle of vodka with other thirsty hostages to survive the ordeal. (Moscow Times)

Alan Kochiyev, 13, told how the attackers shot a hostage in the gym. He also recalled how they forced a boy sitting next to him to stand up and threatened to shoot him if the hostages did not keep quiet.

Tamerlan Toguzov, 13, said that after a female suicide bomber died in a blast on the first day, he and his mother, a doctor, removed medicine from her bloodied bags. He said his mother, Larisa Mamitova, treated hostages and wounded attackers and twice was sent out to hand over notes demanding that federal troops be withdrawn from Chechnya and that President Vladimir Putin resign.

The boy said he found a bottle of vodka in one of the bomber's bags and sipped it with other children because they had nothing else to drink.

But, the most moving testimony was that of the 14 year old boy who burst into tears: Malik Kalchakeyev, 14, speaking slowly and in great detail, told of how the schoolchildren and their parents were herded into the school's gym, how the attackers stopped providing water and how they taunted the exhausted hostages, often forcing them to stand and sit quickly in the hot, crowded gym."

On the second day, we were all very thirsty. Women told us, the boys, to pee into plastic bottles so that the children could then drink our pee," the boy said, bursting into tears. "I peed into a bottle, and small children -- even babies -- drank it."

"Listen, Kulayev, listen," Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov angrily ordered the defendant, who showed no emotion as he sat in a steel cage with bulletproof glass behind the testifying children.

As the boy tried to stop sobbing, the courtroom spectators, mostly women wearing black clothes and black headscarves, swore at Kulayev. "Give this terrorist to us! We will tear the bastard apart!" the women shouted.

This testimony took place a few days ago. Right around the same time, one of the masterminds of the Beslan Massacre received a promotion. He is now second in command of the Chechen rebellion:

Warlord Shamil Basayev has become the second most powerful figure in the Chechen rebel government as part of a reshuffle that confirms its shift toward radical Islam.

Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, including last September's hostage-taking raid in Beslan, has been appointed first deputy prime minister in the rebel government, according to a document posted Thursday on the rebel web site Kavkaz Center.

Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, the Muslim cleric who succeeded Aslan Maskhadov as Chechen separatist president after Maskhadov's killing by pro-Moscow forces in March, named Basayev and other rebel leaders to posts in his government in a decree dated Aug. 23. Sadulayev also holds the post of prime minister in the rebel government.

The reshuffle "demonstrates the consolidation of the separatist Chechen government and, most probably, of its further radicalization," said Alexei Malashenko, a Chechnya analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center.

I am often amazed to find that there are people who still don't realize that we truly are at war, and that we are at war with an evil menace on the level of Nazism. I don't understand how people can not see this. These Islamofascists took a school full of children hostage, and raped and killed them.

In this war, the enemy is so clearly evil it is almost farcical. It's almost like in the Lord of the Rings, where all the evil people were ugly trolls and orcs whose bodies oozed and who grunt and huff when breathing. But, it isn't farcical at all. It's true. They really are that evil. They really will stoop to raping and killing a school full of children.

What The Media Hath Wrought

From a Rasmussen poll, via Q and O:

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Americans say that it is important for "Iraq to become a stable company that rejects terrorism." That figure includes 59% who say that Iraqi stability if very important to the U.S. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 14% say that objective is not very important or not at all important.

While 79% agree with President Bush on the importance of the Iraqi mission, just 48% believe that success is likely. In fact, just 13% say achieving stability in Iraq is "very likely." The public concerns about the War effort are primarily about competence, not ideology.

So, in other words while the media is telling us that support for the War is declining, it is far from the truth. Support for our tactics is declining, but, the truth is, that's because the media deluges us with bad news all day, every day.

Q and O notes that General Downing, former commander of the US Special Operations Command was on Meet the Press the other day, and had this to say:

Quite frankly, I think one of the problems that we're having is that the news media, the opposition to the war are framing this entire discussion in the terms of casualties and casualties only. I think what we don't have is a serious discussion about why you take those casualties.

We're not out there roaming the roads in Iraq and Afghanistan, looking for IEDs to blow up. Everything we're doing in a military campaign, both the U.S., the coalition and the Iraqi forces, are aimed at objectives. And those objectives are to promote the political process, number one, because what we're doing, Tim—for the last six weeks we've been doing this—we're preparing for the election in the middle of October—I mean, the referendum on the constitution and then the following one, the election in December to ratify it.

The other things we're doing is we're supporting the economic development of that country and the social development. That's why these military operations are going on.

And I really think that it's incumbent upon you and the others and the responsible American press to put the casualties into these kind of context.

In other words, what is it that they're accomplishing? I mean, can you imagine us and, you know, it's been quoted out there in the Web, judging the D-Day invasion of Normandy back in 1944 by the casualties that were suffered?

Well, that puts into context, doesn't it?

And now let's take a look at what the media hath wrought. this is the story of Marine sergeant Marco Martinez, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a full-time psychology major at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif and his incredible valor, and the treatment it has afforded him on his college campus:

“A woman on campus had apparently learned I might be a Marine. When I told her I was, she said, ‘You’re a disgusting human being, and I hope you rot in hell!’ ”

Indeed, Martinez, who will be the first male in his family to receive a college diploma, says he is receiving more of an education than he bargained for: “There are a lot of people who don’t appreciate military service in college,” Martinez said. “If someone asks me about it, and I think that they’re not too liberal, I might tell them I was in Iraq. But I don’t tell them the full extent of it or anything about the Navy Cross.”

The Navy Cross — as in second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Martinez, formerly of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, is a bona-fide American hero and the first Hispanic American since Vietnam to receive the Navy Cross.

During the Battle of At Tarmiya, one of Sergeant Martinez’s fellow marines had been hit in the legs and left for dead by five terrorists holed up in an adobe garden shed. That’s when Martinez used his body to shield the dying marine from the terrorist before mounting a 20-meter frontal charge at the bunker with nothing but a depleted rifle and a grenade.

With enemy bullets pinging off his gear, Martinez unpinned the grenade, slammed his body into the adobe building, and lobbed the device into the window of the structure, killing all the terrorists inside.

Honestly, grown men should bow their heads when they meet this man. Women should weep grateful tears that such a man exists.

Stories like this are what the Iraq War is made up of. Men, who volunteered for service, sacrificing themselves with the hope and determination that people in a part of the world which has never tasted freedom may finally find themselves free human beings with rights and opportunities.

As Christopher Hitchens says, this is a war to be proud of.

Head-Turning News Of The Day

France is increasing it's military presence in Afghanistan:

Aug. 29, 2005 - As the going gets tougher for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region, one ally has stepped up despite a recent straining of ties: France.

Paris has significantly boosted its military presence in Central Asia and Afghanistan, plus in nearby seas, as both it and Washington nurture their budding rapprochement after a bitter falling out over the Iraq war.
French fighters have been flying sorties under U.S. command in Afghanistan since Aug. 16, and France also took command this month of an international naval task force on terrorism-related patrols in the seas between the Horn of Africa and Pakistan.

France has kept about 900 troops in Afghanistan since 2003, including 200 Special Forces soldiers fighting alongside the Americans. Its air force periodically has joined the U.S.-led coalition since taking its biggest role in the war's opening weeks in 2001, when France had 5,500 troops in the region.

"It's France's wish to show that we are cooperating in the fight against terror and in support of you in Afghanistan," said French Air Force Col. Gilles Michel, who oversees his country's air force role in the theater. "We told the Americans, 'If you need some assets, we will provide them.'"

Something has snapped with France, it seems. Not only are they helping us out like this, but they are actually far tougher on domstic terrorists than we are.

Go Read Fjordman This Morning

There is a great discussion/argument going on over at Fjordman's site. It centers around a debate between Fjordman and Bjoern Staerk, another Norwegian blogger who fancies himself to be more rational than Fjordman.

Of course, I threw my .22 cents in as well.

That's where I've been this morning and why there are no CUANAS posts. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

Go there and read it.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Ophelia Drowning

The Nazis and The Anti-War Left
Are In Solidarity

The Nazis have announced their solidarity with Cindy Sheehan and the anti-War Left:

One of the most important steps that Whites are taking these days (and, we all must admit, that millions of non-Whites have already taken) is a recognition that Jewish power is toxic to any society that allows it to exist. (And allowing it free rein is tantamount to suicide.) Jewish power is behind the drive for racial mixing, open borders, raceless globalism, and international capitalism, just as it was behind racially-destructive international Communism.

But what is really waking people up is the Jewish power behind the current war in the Middle East, and the outrageous hypocrisy of Israel as Jews maintain an aggressive racial state (armed to the teeth, by the way, with Weapons of Mass Destruction) while doing everything in their power to open the borders of and multiracialize and multiculturalize other peoples’ countries.

I’m sure that all of you are by now familiar with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of Casey, her son who was killed in Iraq last year, and her vigil outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. Her story has moved the hearts of millions just as it has angered the neocon spinmeisters who pushed for this war. Though she has hesitated and backpedaled more than once, she has brought out into public view the one flaming truth that the Jewish-controlled left and Jewish-controlled right are desperate to conceal: that her son, and all the other Americans being brought back home in body bags, died for Israel, not America.

... her story is a moving testament to the horrible injustice and irreparable harm done to our people by the Jewish supremacists.

Yes, indeed-dee. LGF reader, cjstavern, comments:

Let me see if I understand this. Liberals call Bush a Nazi, but the Nazi's are just as anti war as the liberals? Seems to me Nazis have much more in common with the liberals.

Heh.

Yes, that's funny, but it's not a hard phenomenon to understand once you have read the excellent post Democracy's Domestic Abusers, by my blogbrother Titus, over at the Internet Journal of Public Policy. Go read it, especially points #4 and #5.

It is very enlightening.

Are Beautiful Women
Against The Law In Canada?

Get the story at Gates of Vienna.

Pray For The People
Of Louisiana and Alabama

This image from NOAA collected at 4:33 EDT Sunday Aug. 28, 2005 shows Hurricane Katrina about 275 South-Southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. According the the National Hurricane Center Katrina is currently a category four hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 145 MPH with higher gusts. Hurricane force winds now extend out from the center 85 miles with some strengthening forecast during the next 24 hours. (AP Photo/NOAA)

Cars carrying residents leave downtown New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina August 28, 2005.

Drivers and passengers wait outside their vehicles as traffic snarls on the interstate highway leaving downtown New Orleans August 28, 2005. Authorities in New Orleans ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to flee on Sunday as Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a rare top-ranked storm and barreled towards the vulnerable U.S. Gulf Coast city. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

I'm Starting To Believe
There is No Possibility
Of a Two-State Solution

From Jihad Watch:

Hamas on Saturday released a rare videotape of a man it said is the bombmaker pursued by Israeli security forces for more than a decade.

The man, identifying himself as fugitive Mohammed Deif, described Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a victory for armed resistance, rejected calls for his group to disarm, and vowed to continue attacks on Israel until the Jewish state is erased from the map.

"You are leaving Gaza today in shame," he said. "Today you are leaving hell. But we promise you that tomorrow all Palestine will be hell for you, God willing."

Israeli officials on Saturday urged the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Hamas after the Islamic group released a videotape of a top bombmaker who has eluded Israeli forces for more than a decade.

In the video, the man, identifying himself as Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, described Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a victory for armed resistance, rejected calls for his group to disarm, and vowed to continue attacks on Israel until the Jewish state is erased from the map.

Now, this is absurd. How is the Palestinian Authority supposed to crack down on the opposition party in the Palestinian Parliament? To do so would be to violate their own constitution. Hamas is an elected body. The Palestinian Authority (as represented by Abbas' Fatah Party) could enact law against them, but until they did, Hamas' policies are the policies of Palestine.

If Israel does not recognize this, they are in trouble. And, I must say, I am disappointed that a member of the Sharon government would be so stupid as to believe that the PA is going to do anything about Hamas.

Israel has to make a decision at this juncture. They have to declare the Palestinian state, and say that any further attacks will be met with all-out war. This is, as Charles Johnson always says, a farce.

And, now that we have looked at Israel's farcical treatment of itself, let's look at more of the world's farcical treatment of Israel:

EU Envoy Otte: Withdrawal is the Model for Jerusalem

“Our position regarding the West Bank and east Jerusalem is identical - they are occupied territories, and the future of Jerusalem will also be discussed in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,” Mr. Otte told Al-Quds, a Jerusalem-based Arabic-language newspaper.

Otte dismissed statements by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israel will retain large blocs of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in any permanent arrangement with the Palestinian Authority. Such commitments, the European Union envoy asserted, are nothing more than “spin” intended for internal Israeli consumption.

The EU also does not take seriously Israel’s demand that the PA fulfill its commitments to disarm Arab terrorist groups. According to the Al-Quds interview, Mr. Otte said the EU does not demand that the PA confront terrorist groups militarily, or that the PA initiate a civil war in order to carry out its obligations.

In June, Mr. Otte defended European Union contacts with Hamas representatives, despite the organization being listed as a terrorist organization in EU countries, by saying that “if they are duly elected in free and fair elections under international supervision, you have to know what to do with elected representatives.”

So, according to the EU envoy to the Middle East, Mark Otte, Israel is supposed to give up part of Jerusalem without the Palestinian Authority having even met the first condition of the Road Map to Peace, which calls for the dismantlement of terrorist organizations.

This goes to prove what my man Someguy, over at Mystery Achievement says, that the cause of a Palestinian Homeland is the continuation of the Holocaust, by other means.

If Europe is going to quit insisting that the Palestinians dismantle terrorist organizations, and the Palestinians do not do it themselves (which they won't, of course), then CUANAS will cease to believe in a two-state solution.

Instead, our position will be that the only solution to the problem will be all-out war. And it will need to be a war of the kind the United States waged against Germany and Japan in World War II. It will need to be a war which destroys the existing army and government of Palestine, and thoroughly humiliates and discredits the ideology of the PLO.

The aftermath of the war will have to include completely restructuring and re-education of the entirety of the Palestinian populace. All Jihadi, and anti-Israel, and anti-Zionist, and anti-Jewish (there all the same thing, by the way) ideology will have to be thoroughly eliminated, just as the Americans eliminated Nazi ideology from Germany after World War II.

In addition, all members of Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad, will have to be tried on War Crimes Charges.

Israel can not be expected to live beside an enemy, which foments racist propaganda against her people, and attacks her militarily on a regular basis. To expect Israel to continue to have it's citizens killed in unanswered attacks by the Palestinian military is immoral. And, as such, it is not a position which a Christian organization could take.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Ophelia

by Domenico Tojetti

"There is a willow grows ascant the brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples. . . ."

A Meeting Of The, Uh, Minds

Earlier today I posted about my disdain for NPR. Well, another one of my pet peeves on the radio dial is KPFK, a seditionist radio station featuring 24-hour a day vagina monologues and lunatic political commentary, mostly both at the same time. Here, Little Green Footballs brings us the news that they are hosting a networing symposium of the far-left and the Islamofascists:

On Monday, Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m., Middle East historian Mark LeVine presents his new book Why They Don’t Hate Us: Unveiling the Axis of Evil and engages in conversation with CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans, who has made several trips to Iraq, along with Baghdad-born Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a progressive voice for Muslim Americans based in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

The evening is moderated by political scientist Suzi Weissman, host of KPFK’s “Beneath the Surface” Monday edition, and is cosponsored by CODEPINK and MPAC.

Charles has the dish on Salam Al-Marayati:

Salam Al-Marayati is notorious for telling radio station KCRW, within hours of the September 11 mass murder: “If we’re going to look at suspects we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies.”

Quite a “progressive voice,” eh?

CAMERA has a long list of similar statements by Al-Marayati, supporting extremist movements and terrorist groups, vilifying Israel, and condemning US anti-terrorism measures.
And Daniel Pipes also has a piece about this character: Needed: Muslims against Terror [and Not Salam Al-Marayati].

Yet mainstream media continues to portray him as a moderate Muslim civil rights advocate—and they never bring up these statements at all.

Freedom Is Light
Tyranny is Dark

From the Astute Blogger:

The contrast between tyranny and freedom is not abstract. It is not cultural. It is REAL. R-E-A-L. Want to see it. Look at these satellite photos. they compare North Korea at night to South Korea at night.

North Korea is dark. South Korea is lit up.

WHY!?

Freedom.

South Korea is free, so it is LIT UP. Same people - north and south. The south had poorer resources in 1952 - and was poorer in GDP, too. But now it is richer. One of the richest ecomnonies in the world. WHY!? Freedom. The south of Korea is FREE. Freedom creates prosperity.

The difference betweem Vietnam today and what South Vietnam MIGHT have been - if the Lefties in the Democrat Party hadn't pulled the plug - is just as stark. If the Left hadn't pulled the plug on the South Vietnamese government in 1975, then the South of Vietnam would be as rich and as free as the South Korea. We might be driving SOUTH VIETNAMESE cars instead of South Korean cars!

Why do I bring this up!? Well, because many on the Left question whether we can IMPOSE freedom on any people or culture. As if some people or some type of people are "READY" for freedom and others are not.

Well, we did "impose" freeedom on the South Koreans, and IT WORKED. Just as it worked on the Japanese and the Germans. And in all those cases it required that we keep 50,000 troops in the theater FOR DECADES to accomplish it, and THAT wasn't questioned (just like our continued troop presence in Bosnia is never questioned). It was accepted that it was worth it. We had troops in German and Japan for 50 years.

Yes, and it was worth it in, oh, so many ways. Germany and Japan have both become Democracy's, trading partners, producers of brilliant innovations, and bulwarks against onrushing tyranny. It was worth it beyond our wildest imagination.

Wasn't it?

Go ahead, admit it. It will be good for you to get it out in the open.

Oh, and by the way, the Astute Blogger is one of the best bloggers on the internet. Everyone should read him everyday.

Latino Rights Groups In League With Islamofascists?

From Jihad Watch:

This comes from the California separatist group La Voz de Aztlan, which is clearly happy about the news. Given the source, it is likely that this report does not contain even an ounce of credibility; however, it is significant enough as a threat and attempt to intimidate the foes of Islamic terror into silence. And if Congressman Tancredo or anyone who has spoken honestly about the roots and causes of Islamic terror does indeed get shot in the coming months, I hope authorities will be soon thereafter speaking with Ernesto Cienfuegos of La Voz de Aztlan, who filed this report:

"Highly trained Islamic snipers on their way to the USA."

A particular worrisome development for USA based warmongers is a CIA intelligence report that says that a superbly trained Islamic sniper squad is on its way to the USA. According to the report, the Al-Ikhwan Al-Moslemoon (Muslim Brotherhood) is preparing to send a highly trained sniper squad to the USA that will target, at first, the lower and middle level leadership of the Islamophobic organizations that cater to the Zionists. This, we presume, includes the lackeys of the Zionists on radio and television.

A few weeks ago, these puppets of Israel added insult to injury when they went on a vile tirade in support of the "toilet flushers" of the Holy Koran at Guantanamo. Many of these radio talk jockeys are not Jews but they act as mouthpieces for their employers who are. One of these virulent pundits for the Zionists said over the airwaves, "US soldiers at Guantanamo should have used the pages of the Koran to wipe their asses!"

La Voz de Aztlan received an e-mail from one of our subscribers in Saudi Arabia concerning the CIA report. Ali bin Ahmed bin Saleh Al-Fulani wrote that the Islamic sniper squad should include Congressman Tom Tancredo of the Colorado 6th Congressional District as one of its first targets.

Tancredo recently made a public statement proposing that the USA "nuke" Mecca. "Nuke" means blasting a city with a nuclear bomb as was done to Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Mecca is Islam's holiest cities where millions of Muslims make a yearly religious pilgrimage. Ali added, "Instead of nuking the entire 6th congressional district and killing hundreds of thousands innocent civilians, a sniper should "nuke' Tancredo's ass with one 7.62mm Kalashnikov bullet hardened with depleted uranium!"...

Who is La Voz de Aztlan? Glad you asked. Here's some info:

La Voz de Aztlán ("The Voice of Aztlán") is the webzine of the Nation of Aztlán, a secessionist organization headquartered in Whittier, California, United States. Its stated goal is the formation of Aztlán as a country containing both modern Mexico and the entirety of the U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and parts of Oklahoma.

La Voz de Aztlán is rumored to have ties with the controversial Chicano group MEChA.

Every college campus I have ever been to has a Mecha club for the Hispanic students. These Mecha clubs are openly advertised with well-printed posters in classrooms and on message boards across campus.

Mecha stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán. Here's some info about Mecha:

MEChA is an organization dedicated to the promotion of Chicano history, education, and political action. In Spanish, the word mecha means fuse.

Early MEChA rhetoric was highly steeped in the politics of racial identity, with frequent reference to such terms as "la Raza de Bronze" (the Bronze Race). Although the significance of "la Raza" is still prominent within MEChA ideology, in 1999 the group adopted a document entitled The Philosophy of MEChA, which affirmed the more moderate view that "all people are potential Chicanas and Chicanos", and that "Chicano identity is not a nationality but a philosophy".[5] According to MEChA, no one is born "Chicano". MEChistas (or members of MEChA) consider themselves neither Americans nor Mexicans in terms of ethnicity, but descendants (either genetically or spiritually) of the indigenous pre-Columbian nations—hence, the Chicano Student's Movement of Aztlán.

Oh yeah? Not so fast there, mis amigos racistas. Why don't we look at a Mecha website:

In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlán from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny.

We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlán belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent.

Brotherhood unites us, and love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits our riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlán.

Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.

That means, "For our race, everything. For their race, nothing.

Nope, doesn't sound racist to me.

Do you see? It is no wonder that when you go to La Voz de Aztlan website, it is filled with pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic propaganda. The movimientos of both organizations are the same. They are very big movements.

However, unfortunately for us, their intestines never seem to empty of the feces of hatred.

We are in big, big trouble if we don't face este problema, mi amigos Americanos.

The Latest By Al Qaeda Iraq
Sounds Like It Was
Written By An American
If You Ask Me

I just have to throw something out there. I don't much care about this latest screed from Al Qaeda in Iraq, but I've got to note, it doesn't sound like it's written by a Middle Eastern Muslim:

(CNN) -- Laying out its ideology in a broad manifesto, the group al Qaeda in Iraq -- which has been behind many of the worst attacks, beheadings and kidnappings in Iraq -- says the insurgency is in better shape than the United States acknowledges and vows to continue the insurgency and "destroy the American empire."

"Every now and then, the schoolboys of the Pentagon and the adolescents of the Black House keep blasting our ears with talks of pure arrogance and conviction saying, 'We will not leave Iraq until we accomplish our mission.' This desperate catchphrase that they keep repeating is used to make the public believe that the mujahedeens are in bad shape, as if they are begging the Americans, saying, 'Please Americans, leave Iraq,' " the group says in an e-book, an extensive document on the Internet.

"We vow by the name of God that we are determined to destroy the American empire," it says.

That writing has a distinctly America cadence, if you ask me. And the phrase "by the name of God" sounds American as well. Muslims don't usually use the word God. They use Allah, of course.

I wonder if the Al Qaeda website could have been scammed into publishing this, or if it was hacked.

Or, maybe Al Qaeda had an American Muslim write this, thinking it might strike home with us even more, if it was written in language we are used to.

NPR
National Palestinian Radio

One of the little charms of my marriage is that my wife listens to NPR. I really don't understand why. My wife is more conservative than I am. But, I come home from work, and she's listening to NPR. I go to my car in the morning after she has borrowed it (rather than driving her kid-mobile) and the radio is tuned to NPR. God help me.

She has learned to not listen to it around me, because she knows that the broadcasts will be punctuated with shouts of "Lies. Lies. That not true," emanating from my direction. And she knows that she will be subjected to history lessons explaining exactly why and how NPR is wrong.

Truth is, I despised NPR for years before I became a conservative. I hate their measured pretentiousness. I hate the way they play soothing classical music between tales of genocide and rape. I hate the aura of sophistication and intelligence they create with the facade of quiet voices and baroque music. I hate the way that facade levels out all the horrors they discuss on their news programs, giving the impression that they represent an oasis of civility in a world of chaos, removing them from any complicity, as if they were the pantheon of intellectual gods, suspended in the ether, and hovering above us all, dispensing wisdom and short bursts of "alternative" electronic music.

F NPR. F them and the tax money they rode in on.

Check this one out, though. NPR has squated down and produced a new acrid abomination which goes beyond almost any in their history.

I invite you to meet a woman named Mariam Sobh. Barely a woman, really. Just a year or two out of the University of Illinois' journalism program, where she was caught manufacturing hateful quotes and putting them in the mouth of Ariel Sharon in order to bolster her pro-Palestinian agenda. Yes, that's right, writing crude propaganda in the guise of journalism:

...Mariam Sobh introduced her Dec 11 piece with the following statement, purportedly uttered by Ariel Sharon, in order “to show a clearer picture of the Israeli leadership:”

“I don’t know something called International Principles. I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child’s existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I’ve killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do,” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.

This shocking quote, a staple on Arab propaganda Web sites, is an internet hoax for which the journalism student, not surprisingly, provided no source. There is no record of any “General Ouze Merham” or any truth to the claim that Sharon made the quoted comments. The paper’s decision to run such an inflammatory statement with no attribution is indefensible.

The Sharon quote was not the only fabrication. Sobh alleged that former Israeli Chief of Staff, Raphael Eytan was quoted in the April 14, 1983 New York Times as saying: “We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel ... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” However, a Nexis search of all Times coverage reveals that no one, not Eytan or anyone else, was ever quoted by the paper making the purported statement...

Yes, she was caught red-handed. The world of journalism knew about this. It was in the news. Maraim Sobh was pinned to the matte like an insect by her own libel.

So, what am I so pissed off about this morning? Well, because NPR hired this distortionist to work at their affiliate WILL station. This women is a known member of the radical Islamic front-group, the Muslim Student Association, and she is a Jew-hating propaganda artist. And NPR hires her, using our tax money.

I can just hear the Brandenburg Concertos fading into Ms. Sobhs' news report:

"Word comes today that Ariel Sharon has convened a council of Zionist Elders to determine how best to take control of the world's assets and power. "This council," Mr. Sharon was quoted as saying, "will resort to any means necessary, because as everyone knows the Jews are entitled to take whatever they want from the gentiles, because the gentiles are not really human beings in the eyes of G-d. They are animals."

Yes, apparently such will be deemed worthy news on NPR in the near-future.

What? Am I libeling NPR?

F them.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Image provided by the National Gallery of Art of Venetian artist Jacopo Tintoretto's work, Christ at the Sea of Galilee. By turning an electron microscope on bits of paint from some of the works by Tintoretto and other Venetian artists, Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist at the National Gallery of Art, discovered the artists had mixed tiny bits of glass with their pigments, which enhanced the glint of the colors. This painting showed the use of glass in a yellow pigment that was among several used in representing the water by Jacopo Robusti _ better known from his father's calling as Tintoretto, 'the little dyer.' (AP Photo/National Gallery of Art)

Glass Gave Venetian Paintings Their Glow

From Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - How did paintings by Tintoretto and other Venetian Renaissance artists get their special glow? Using an electron microscope, Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist at the National Gallery of Art, discovered one of their secrets: tiny bits of glass the artists mixed with their pigments.

"By looking beyond the limits of their usual practice and transforming materials from other trades to their painting, the great artists of the Renaissance created a palette that gave them an immediate and lasting reputation as brilliant colorists," Berrie said.

It was long thought that Venetian painters, glassmakers and ceramic designers each had their own ways of concocting paints and dyes, probably getting the ingredients through apothecaries, as in most of Europe.

But Louisa Matthew, head of the Visual Arts Departments at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., found evidence that Venice developed a special market for dyes and pigments a century before other European areas did.

She was poring through the Venetian archives for information on how local artists did business. Among the dusty wills and tax records, she came upon an inventory of 102 items drawn up after the death of shop owner Domenico de Gardignano. He is identified in Italian as "dai colori" — "among the men in the color business."

"There are certain pigments that contain glass mentioned in the 1534 inventory, but by no means all," Matthew said. "Because (customers) were all buying colorants in the same place, we hypothesize that they traded ideas and ingredients including materials not on the shelf."

People from many different trades bought supplies at de Gardignano's shop and were likely to have shared both ideas and materials, Matthew surmised.

That possibility led to Berrie's examination of paint samples under an electronic microscope. She discovered rounded bits of powdered glass, only thousandths of an inch thick, in two paintings by Lorenzo Lotto — one in a red gown worn by St. Catherine, another in an orange-red coat worn by Joseph in a Nativity scene.

Glass was also discovered in a yellow pigment used in a Tintoretto painting of Jesus at the Sea of Galilee.

"They're also teaching me a lesson: to try to go beyond the bounds of what I know and what I think is right," Berrie said. "It's a good trick for an old artist to teach a new scientist something."

Yes, you really do have to admire that idea, don't you? So simple, and yet so brilliant.

Suspected Terrorist Act
Directed At Female Comedian

Yesterday I posted the story of the Pakistani born Norwegian comedienne, Shabana Rehman who angered a local Imam by grabbing him and literally picking him up off the ground. Well, it seems she has gotten herself into more trouble than she bargained for.

Thanks to Baron at Gates of Vienna for letting me know about this, from Fjordman:

Unidentified assailants on Wednesday fired shots at an Oslo restaurant owned by the family of a Pakistani-born female comediene who has achieved prominence for lampooning conservative Islam. Shabana Rehman, the 28-year-old comediene whose sister owns the restaurant, described the incident as “an appalling act of terror” and said it would not deter her from continuing her work.

The shots, fired at around 4:00 am, struck the windows of the restaurant of Fahrina Rehman, the sister of Shabana Rehman. A police spokesman said the establishment was closed, and nobody was hurt.

Rehman has made a career of joking about the cultural divide between Norway’s people and its Muslim community. She notably made headlines in the popular press last week by dropping her pants and baring her buttocks at a film festival in Haugesund, in southwest Norway.

“I want to show that in Norway, you can do such things without being lynched or arrested,” she said. “I get really angry when I see cultural conflicts, suicide bombers, all these kinds of threats. You can’t do a stunt like this in Karachi or Kabul.”

Rehman then went on to kiss vigorously Norway’s female Culture Minister Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, seeking to make a point about a debate raging in the country’s Pakistani community over a film scene showing a young Pakistani girl kissing a Norwegian boy.

Oslo police said it was too soon to make a link between the shots at the restaurant and the comedian’s film festival antics, but Rehman herself clearly saw one. “I’m going to continue doing my job despite what has happened,” she told Norway’s NTB news agency.

Police said she was being protected, although they did not give details.

The young woman, who was one when her parents moved to Norway with their seven children in 1977, has often courted controversy since 1999 when she went from writing jokes for a comedian friend to doing her own show.

She typically begins her act wearing a burqa, which she then strips away to reveal a tight, red cocktail dress.

Shabana has balls no burqa could hold. Like I said yesterday, she is the Hirsi Ali of comedy.

Where is the Fatwa against Osama?

From Memri.org:

In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyasa, Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi, a Jordanian intellectual who resides in the U.S., asks why Islamic religious scholars haven't issued a fatwa against bin Laden. [1] The following are excerpts:

Terrorism in the Arab World Has Been Encouraged by Islamic Legal Scholars

"The First International Islamic Conference, [that convened] in Amman, Jordan in July 2005, was attended by a large group of Islamic legal scholars and clerics… The conference published a series of routine recommendations whose content has already been put forward at many other such events. The recommendations condemned the blind violence in the name of Islam [that exists] in a number of countries, and called for dialogue and coexistence among the followers of [Islam's] four schools of law and the various Islamic sects. Ultimately, these recommendations are insufficient. They do not point to the wound and do not heal the patient, because this conference lacks the power to implement the recommendations…

"Many of the clerics and the legal scholars who attended the First International Islamic Conference in Amman had themselves published fatwas that incited to murdering civilians, women, children, and the elderly, under the umbrella of 'religious Jihad.' Perhaps the reason for the intensification of terrorism in the Arab world, in the form to which we are witness today, was first and foremost the encouragement it received from Islamic legal scholars, under a mantle of religion that is in most cases false, hijacked, and defective.

If the legal scholars – who have encouraged terrorism by means of these vocal religious fatwas – were acting properly, they would be issuing a fatwa calling to kill bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al-Zarqawi, and all Al-Qaeda leaders everywhere.

Go read the rest.

New York Times Fabricates Condoleeza Rice Quote

Last week the New York Times published a "quote" from Condoleeza Rice which has angered many who want good things for Israel. Condoleeza was quoted as saying of the Disengagement, "It can not be Gaza only."

I never posted on that story, because it did not fit with the Condoleeza Rice we have come to know. While I do post some outlandish stuff here from time to time, I generally only do so when I am hearing the same information from multiple sources, or when the information fits in with a pattern of information I have been receiving.

Anway, I'm glad I didn't post on the Condi story. Because IT WASN'T TRUE. The New York Times fabricated the quote.

Well, imagine that.

From Jewish Pundit via Little Green Footballs:

Last week, The New York Times published a story on their exclusive interview with Condoleezza Rice.

The first two paragraphs portrayed a Secretary of State focused, in the midst of a traumatic Israeli withdrawal, on signaling Israel that another one was next:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday offered sympathy for the Israeli settlers who are being removed from their homes in Gaza but also made it clear that she expected Israel and the Palestinians to take further steps in short order toward the creation of a Palestinian state."Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing," Ms. Rice said in an interview. But she added, "It cannot be Gaza only."

Since the Roadmap calls for the dismantlement of Palestinian terrorist capabilities and infrastructure in Phase I -- and does not require Israel to remove a single settlement (other than certain “outposts”) during that phase -- Rice’s comments seemed gratuitously insulting. One would have thought she would emphasize the need for the Palestinians -- after a unilateral Israeli withdrawal that went far beyond their initial Roadmap requirements -- to comply with their own Roadmap obligations.

On the day of the Times story, a commenter at LibertyPost.org posted this comment: “This just doesn't sound right, or like Dr Rice. . . . She doesn't screw up like this.”

Indeed, it didn’t . . . she doesn’t . . .and in fact the Times made the quote up.

The transcript of the interview was posted by the State Department this week. It shows that the purported quote -- made the centerpiece of the Times story -- was constructed by the Times from two separate, unrelated comments by Rice -- one taken out of context, the other not even accurately quoted.

The first part was lifted from Rice’s response to the Times’ question about how she could “assure that [Gaza] is not the last step for a good while?”

I know, in having talked to [Sharon and his government] and watched how hard and I think everybody empathizes with what every Israeli has to be feeling and with people uprooting from homes that they have been in for a generation and the difficulty and the pain that that causes. And so I watched Prime Minister Sharon's address to the nation and it was really remarkable statesmanship.

* * *

And it's very easy to kind of move on to the next thing, but if you stop and reflect and pause, it also helps you to see that because -- and, you know, and we all hope that it continues to go relatively smoothly -- that because of this experience you would hope that confidence and trust between the Palestinians and the Israelis is also grown up because they had to have practically daily contact and meetings at every level of government in order to be able to pull this off. And if they indeed do, I think you will have created conditions and a level of trust that is unparalleled between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

* * *

So I don't think you're going to see just something stop. I do think you'll have some momentum coming out of this.

The Times then asked other questions, including “And so what should Israel do right now, after Gaza?” [can you discern a certain theme to the Times’ questions?] and then [continuing with the same theme] “Do you think you’ll go back there in the fall to keep the momentum going?”:

Let’s see, you know, what’s required. . . . But by no means do I think that this is the end.

The other thing is, just to close off this question, the question has been put repeatedly to the Israelis and to us that it cannot be Gaza only and everybody says no, it cannot be Gaza only.
There is, after all, even a link to the West Bank and the four settlements that are going to be dismantled in the West Bank. Everybody, I believe, understands that what we're trying to do is to create momentum toward reenergizing the roadmap and through that momentum toward the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state.

It was not Rice dictating to Israel that it “cannot be Gaza only.” She was stating what others had been “repeatedly” telling Israel and the United States, and responding that there were four settlements in the West Bank being dismantled, with a Roadmap for the future.

Given the requirement in that Roadmap that the Palestinians dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure in Phase I, it is strange that the Times did not see fit to quote extensively from the following portion of the interview -- and indeed why they did not highlight it in the lead paragraphs of their story:

SECRETARY RICE: . . . [Y]ou cannot simply let a terrorist organization sit forever, that you cannot -- that there is an obligation in the roadmap to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism, not just coexist with it. . . . And so that is one of the most important next elements. I know that the Palestinians have been concerned and so are the Israelis, to have calm in this period of time. It has been a good thing that thus far the Palestinian factions have more or less respected that calm, but that isn't a substitute for the dismantling of the terrorist organizations, because as Abu Mazen himself has said, you can only have one authority and one gun.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RICE: So the answer to the question, what comes next, is that one of the obligations in the roadmap is that the Palestinian Authority should have unified security forces that are all under the authority of the Palestinian Authority and its leadership, its elected leadership. There will be elections in January. But the Palestinian Authority is going to have to deal with the infrastructure of terrorism, that's one of its obligations.

QUESTION: So the -- is it still then the U.S. position that disarmament, dismantling are the next steps for Israel in the expected steps on the right --

SECRETARY RICE: No, I'm not talking about a sequencing here because the roadmap is assiduously not sequencing one step after another. It gives, in parallel, certain obligations to both sides. And the obligation of the Palestinians has to do with the dismantling of terrorist infrastructure and organizations and they're going to have to do it.

I guess the word "fabricate" isn't quite accurate in describing what the NYT did to Condi. They, instead, seem to have Pre-fabricated the quote. You know, as in, built a pre-fabricated house of component parts, and then drove it to the site, and erected it for all to see.

It seems as if the New York Times is hell-bent on making sure the public isn't aware that the Palestinians are OBLIGATED to dismantle the terrorist organizations. Why would the New York Times not want the public to know that? Why would the New York Times instead decide to twist Condi's words beyond all recognition?

The implication the New York Times headline gave was that Condoleeza Rice had decided to sidestep United States policy in the Road Map to Peace, and instead insist that Israel give endless concessions to the Palestinians with nothing in return. Why would the New York Times give that impression unless that's what they would like to see happen? And why would they want that to happen? Why would they want Israel to just continue to give one plot of land after another to the Palestinians, without any hope for peace?

Pagan Animals

You might want to read the article below first. The idea here is to see pagan culture as an expression of our animalistic natures. From Catherine Seipp in National Review:

I went to see the King Tut exhibit, currently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until Nov. 15, then traveling to museums in Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, and Philadelphia through 2007. ... there’s always some object that stops you cold at these things, and for me it was the staff whose crook was a human figure bent gracefully backward, like an acrobat or gymnast.

Except, on closer examination, it wasn’t. The figure was actually a Nubian captive, bent backward and upside down, to illustrate that the Nubians were slaves of Egypt. And just in case anyone needed reminding who were the masters and who were the slaves in this society, King Tut (so the display card informed us) was in the habit of wearing sandals with pictures of Nubians (and Libyans and “Asiatics”) on the soles. So that every time he took a step, he further ground Egypt’s conquered peoples into the dirt.

I always feel faintly queasy looking at art from ancient pagan civilizations, because the tacit theme of unquestioned entitlement is so pervasive. The message of these artifacts, basically, is: Of course we rich and powerful have the right to make the poor and weak work endlessly on statues and sarcophagi that will display our wonderfulness for all eternity. And of course we have a right to enslave those people we manage to enslave. (Why American blacks sometimes want to claim kinship with the Ancient Egyptians, by the way, whose ancestors so brutally oppressed their ancestors, is beyond me.)

Since the Egyptians were a death cult, much attention was given to statues that would benefit the deceased from even small annoyances in the afterlife. I see echoes of this pagan attitude now in the Islamofascists, with their concern about the 72 virgins each “martyr” gets in Paradise. And the way they march around carrying pictures of their heroes on placards seems strangely idolatrous, considering the lip service they pay to strict “There is no God but God” monotheism.

Another striking thing about the King Tut exhibit is it puts all those thou-shalt-not warnings of the Old Testament, which often seem so grim and wet-blankety, in context. You can’t covet, or worship false idols, or glorify dead bodies, or rape an attractive woman you happen upon even if you’re the king — because if you do, you’ll be just like the Egyptians. And you know how they are.

I got the same feeling watching Rome, HBO’s engrossing new series that brings all those copulating figures from ancient museum urns to lurid, full-frontal life. ... a naked Polly Walker (as Caesar’s scheming niece Atia) fornicating with horse traders or dousing herself with bull’s blood in a hideous ritual of animal sacrifice ...

One that sticks in the mind is a bored legion of soldiers waiting while one of them finishes up having sex with a girl by the side of the road. Is it a rape or just a venal exchange? You can’t really tell, because the girl seems less traumatized than annoyed. But again, it reminds you that maybe all those thou-shalt-nots in the Bible were reactionary for a reason.

I have known women who like men to bleed on them during sex. I have friends who go to "Fetish Balls," parties where they seek out ways to degrade themselves. I know people who go to clubs, where they meet a guy or gal and then go out to the parking lot to "get each other off." Many girls, who are very concerned about the quality of clothing they put on their bodies, don't seem to give a second thought to what they put in their mouths.

I know it sounds like I am condemning these people. I do not want to be harsh. I understand what it's like to be horny and I understand that some people are troubled. I even understand why people might want to degrade themselves. I understand that for many people, a sex life is a theater where they can act out the hidden dimensions of themselves.

But, how far are we willing to allow ourselves to go? All the way to becoming animals once again?

The problem with being an animal is, even domesticated animals lose control of themselves, and give in to their herd instinct. Next thing you know, a whole society thinks it's ok slice the throats of a million of their countrymen (Rwanda), or put six million people in ovens (Germany), or go on a rampage through the streets of Nanking, China, killing every man, woman, and child, and lopping the breasts off women's bodies for added insult.

God's Law might not always be the funnest thing going, but it sure is a great alternative to what we become without it.

Zooropa
London Zoo Unveils Live Human Exhibit

From Agence French Presse:

LONDON (AFP) - London Zoo unveiled a new exhibition -- eight humans prowling around wearing little more than fig leaves to cover their modesty.

The "Human Zoo" is intended to show the basic nature of human beings as they frolick throughout the August bank holiday weekend.

"We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem," London Zoo said.

The scantily-clad volunteers will be treated as animals and kept amused at the central London zoo with games and music.

Why not? That's what most of us do with our lives anyway, right?

Something is starting to dawn on me. This exhibit, of course, expresses a philosophical opinion; humans are animals. We are not made in the Image of God. We are not set above animals. No, we are just the same.

And, of course, in addition to that, this exhibit levels the added insult that, not only are we animals, but we are a particularly destructive class of animals; "a plague species."

Bad, bad animals.

So, here's what I'm realizing. The Left's agenda is animalistic.

They want us to have all the birth-control pills, condoms, and RU-486 that we can get our hands on, so we can screw the night away like a bunch of animals. They want us to eat nuts and berries. They believe we can't be expected to take care of ourselves, so they want to set up elaborate social services. And, of course, when we are no longer easy to have around the house, they want to put us to sleep.

You see what I mean?

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Ophelia

Peaceful State Watch

Well, let's take a look at what's going on in the Peaceful State of Palestine today, shall we? According to Associated Press, Mahmoud Abbas, peacekeeper that he is, is urging "militants" to refrain from terrorist attacks. Well, that's what the AP headline says, anyway. What does the article say?:

Abbas Urges Militants to Hold Their Fire

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday denounced a deadly Israeli arrest raid that killed five Palestinians, calling it an intentional provocation aimed at undermining a six-month cease-fire, but he urged militant groups to hold their fire.

Militants vowed to renew attacks on Israel, a move that would undercut the good will that resulted from an Israeli pullout from 25 Jewish settlements in Gaza and part of the West Bank.

Following Tuesday's completion of the most important stage of the pullout — evacuating settlers — violence flared in three places. A rocket fired from Lebanon exploded in an Israeli village just across the border Thursday, causing some damage but no casualties.

Late Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, killing five Palestinians, at least three of them armed. A few hours before that, a Palestinian stabbed two young Jewish men in the Old City of Jerusalem, killing one and seriously wounding the other.

Abbas blamed Israel for inciting the sudden escalation with its deadly raid in Tulkarem. "This murder intentionally aims at renewing the vicious cycle of violence," he said.

So, let's see, a rocket is fired into Israel. Two Jews are stabbed and one is dead, but Abbas blames the defensive action taken by Israel in retaliation for the "escalation" of violence. And the media writes it. Well, at least, they made the timeline clear.

But, I must admit, I am still wondering why this article is called "Abbas Urges Militants to Hold Their Fire." Well, I would imagine, we'll find out. Let's go on:

Raanan Gissin, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, responded that the Palestinians have failed to control militants. "We have transferred authority over this city of Tulkarem and the surrounding villages to the Palestinian Authority, and over a period of about three months, no action has been taken," Gissin said.

Yes, that's true. The Palestinians now have control over their state. They can do what they choose to do with it.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the department was still trying to get a clear picture of what happened in Tulkarem but stressed, "Israel has a right to defend itself."

Since Abbas and Sharon declared a cease-fire in February, the number of violent incidents plunged. However, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have carried out attacks, claiming they were responding to Israeli violations.

Islamic Jihad sent a suicide bomber into Tel Aviv in February and another into Netanya in July. Five Israelis were killed in each attack. The cell's leadership was traced to the Tulkarem area, and Israel has been hunting its members, claiming that even under the truce, it has the right to take defensive measures.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the arrest raid targeted those fugitives. "This was an operation against a 'ticking bomb,'" he told Israel TV. "They were planning a suicide bombing attack in Israel."

Palestinians said the Israelis opened fire first, and Mofaz did not deny that. "Weapons were drawn on the soldiers and gunfire resulted," he said.

According to Palestinian witnesses, young Palestinians were sitting outdoors, snacking on sunflower seeds and chatting with a well-known militant leader, when undercover Israeli troops jumped out of a Mercedes. Witnesses said soldiers ordered everyone to stand up and shined a red laser at the group before opening fire.

"A car came, and armed men got out and shot toward us. I was hit in the shoulder," said Samer Murai, 15. He said a gunfight followed, and several of his friends were wounded.

About 4,000 people attended a funeral for the five. Gunmen fired in the air, and many residents accused Israel of destroying the calm that prevailed during the Gaza pullout.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades vowed revenge.

"The Zionists should prepare ... bags to collect the remains of their soldiers and settlers because we are going to hit in the depths of the entity," said Abu Abdullah, an Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip.

Hours later, militants fired two homemade rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, the army said, the first such attack since Israel began its pullout from Gaza on August 15. There were no injuries or damage.

A local militant group said the rocket fire was retaliation for the Tulkarem raid, Israel Radio reported. After sunset, hundreds of Islamic Jihad militants marched in Gaza City and Khan Younis, pledging revenge.

At midday Thursday, a rocket fired from Lebanon exploded in Margaliot, an Israeli farming village on the border. The rocket damaged a chicken coop, but no one was hurt.

Army Radio reported it was the first time such a rocket has been fired at an Israeli community since Israel ended its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000. Israeli security officials have been warning that militant groups in Lebanon might try to heat up the border area during Israel's pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank.

The Jewish seminary student killed in the Jerusalem stabbing attack was buried Thursday. He was identified as Shmuel Matt, 21, a British citizen. A second student, Sammy Weissbard, 20, from New York, was wounded.

Well, that's the whole article. I didn't edit or expurgate it. I didn't see anything in that article about Abbas urging militants to hold their fire. I wouldn't be surprised if he did say it, after all, he has said it before. Not that it caused militants to hold their fire or anything, but he has said it.

But, gosh, I really wouldn't know what to think, if he had said it. Because, just the other day, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei sat down with the leaders of various Palestinian groups and cleared way for terror ops against Israel:

TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and members of various Palestinian terror groups this week decided at a meeting "resistance" against Israel would continue and would be coordinated at the national level until the Jewish state evacuates "all territories," WND has learned.

Earlier this week, it was reported Qurei held a private conference in Damascus with leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. According to media reports, the parties reached an agreement under which the PA would not attempt to disarm the terror groups in spite of recent U.S. and Israeli calls for the groups to be dismantled after the Gaza evacuation.

But security sources close to the meeting told WND agreements reached at the conference went one step further – it was concluded the Palestinians would continue to use "resistance" against Israel until the Jewish state leaves "all occupied territories" – code for the destruction of Israel. The resistance, the sources said, is to be coordinated between the Palestinian groups and based on the foundations of Palestinian unity.

So, you can see why Israel wanted to get out of Gaza. You know, because, like, the Palestinians seem to want to kill them.

But, now that they are out of Gaza, are the Palestinians happy? Hell no. They are angry:

Palestinians fear Gaza health crisis after Israeli pullout.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Palestinian medical experts fear a looming health crisis after Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip unless patients are guaranteed access to life-saving treatment beyond the territory.

While Israel regards its departure from Gaza as signalling the end of its 38-year occupation, the Palestinians argue that Israel will remain an occupying power as long as it retains control of its borders and is thus still obliged to meet the health needs of the local population.

“I fear a worsening of the health situation after the withdrawal from Gaza as a result of the Israeli cordon,” said Dr Majdi Ashur, president of the Palestinian relief committees.

“Israel is refusing to recognise its obligations as a continuing occupation power by meeting basic health needs of the population and we do not foresee a resumption of proper freedom of movement in the short term,” he told AFP.

You see, they have been used to being able to access the superior health care services provided by Israel. Now, they will have to rely on the healthcare services of the Peaceful State of Palestine. I guess I'd be angry too.

But, that's not all they are angry about. No, no, no. They are also pissed because they can't seem to figure out what they are going to do for work now that the Jews won't be employing them anymore:

Gaza father wonders when work will come

Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip -- Outside the concrete walls that surround Badran Jamil Ahmed Abumansi's home, historic changes are taking place.

Jewish settlers have been uprooted from their homes in the Gaza Strip -- the first time since 1982, when Israel gave control of the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt, that Israel has dismantled settlements and surrendered the land where they sat. Palestinian leaders are outlining plans to build homes and factories on the land.

Yet in Abumansi's home, the only thing happening is that the sun is setting on another day without work. He sits under a tree behind his home in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, children swarming around him, simply waiting. He wonders how he will be able to support the family that depends on him, an extended family that numbers about 45 souls.

"I wouldn't exclude any kind of job," he says. "Just give it to me. "The children are in school, and there are a lot of expenses. I am waiting to know what will happen after disengagement. I hope the situation gets better and I can go to work."

So far, it has gotten worse.

That's because Abumansi, 38, like hundreds of thousands among the 1.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza, has been dependent economically on the state of Israel.

In 1991, during the first Palestinian intifada -- the uprising began in Gaza in 1987 -- one-third of employed Palestinians worked in Israel, according to the World Bank. By 2003, during the second intifada, that figure had dropped to just 9 percent.

For 20 years, Abumansi, was one of the fortunate ones.

In 1985, when the Tel Aviv chocolate factory where he worked with his father and brothers went out of business, Abumansi quickly found a job doing anything that needed doing at a Tel Aviv restaurant where he used to have lunch.

Since then, he has struggled to maintain his precarious economic hold, adapting his schedule to accommodate the ever-growing security restrictions imposed on Palestinian workers by Israeli authorities, who say the measures are required to stop Gaza-based terrorists from entering Israel.

Abumansi's life had a routine. At about 9 o'clock every evening, he would head for Erez crossing, the primary portal for Gaza workers heading to Israel. He liked to be the first in line heading through the checkpoint -- to be further back in line, he feared, could make him miss the window when the checkpoint is open to employees or could make him late for work.

He would sleep at the checkpoint, lying on a piece of cardboard on the concrete blocks that line the long echoing passageway leading to Israel. Long before dawn, he would pass through the checkpoint, catching a bus to arrive at his job by about 3:30 a.m.

At the end of his workday, around noon, he would reverse the process, arriving at home around 5 p.m. And a few hours after that, he would start the process all over again.

It didn't leave much room for a life. His wife, Maha, worried about the toll it took on his family -- their six children -- and on his health.

Earlier this summer, Abumansi's luck ran out.

On June 19, a 21-year-old Palestinian woman was caught at the Erez crossing wearing explosives under her clothing. Investigators said she planned to detonate herself inside a Beersheba hospital. Israeli officials closed the crossing immediately -- and it has remained closed ever since.

A lot of people are responsible for his dilemma, Abumansi said. There is the Palestinian Authority, which he feels has done too little to help the people of Gaza. The closest they came so to helping him directly, he said, was when they gave out 100-shekel notes to voters on election day.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has promised large-scale development in the wake of Israel's disengagement and has said he looks forward to the day when no Palestinian will work outside of Palestinian land. Abumansi snorts at the idea of an economic divorce from the Jewish state.

"Give me a job, and I will talk like them," he said, sarcasm in his voice.

So, you see, Abumansi wants a job in Israel in the worst way. But, that doesn't stop him from threatening them:

"If Israel opens its doors for the workers, no suicide bombers will come through, but if it keeps it closed, then operations will happen," he said.

Abumansi's face was a mask of frustration.

Yeah, well, so is mine.

This Chick Is Seriously Funny
Female Comedian Lifts Mullah Off The Ground

Norwegian-Pakistani humorist Shabana Rehman pulled a stunt during a public debate with Mullah Krekar, the controversial former leader of the militant group Ansar al-Islam. She picked him up and lifted him off the ground, an act he called a "gruesome humiliation."

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Uh, Well, Maybe Not
Female Comedian Lifts Mullah

From the Norwegian daily, Aftenposten (hat tip Fjordman):

Norwegian-Pakistani humorist Shabana Rehman pulled a stunt during a public debate with Mullah Krekar, the controversial former leader of the militant group Ansar al-Islam that left the religious man fuming and threatening a lawsuit. Rehman, a popular stand-up comic who specializes in material based on culture collision, picked the mullah up off the ground, an act he called a gruesome humiliation.

The bizarre incident took place during a debate about Krekar's new book, a largely autobiographical work that tries to put his life and beliefs into perspective and give an alternative look at a man constantly embroiled in accusations of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism.

Rehman, who was born in Karachi but raised in Norway since infancy, is controversial in her own right, constantly creating a stir with comedy material touching on immigration, integration, Muslim conflicts and traditions, feminism and sexual repression.

Rehman tends not to discuss her personal relationship to Islam, calling herself a "spiritual seeker" rather than religious.

On Tuesday night as the debate was winding to a close, Rehman came on stage and said she wanted to carry out a "satiric test" to find out if Mullah Krekar was as strongly fundamentalist as some of his critics believe. When he approached her, she grabbed him and lifted him up in the air.

Krekar, who said that Rehman picked him up by reaching under his buttocks, became furious, grabbed the microphone and began speaking in Norwegian for the first time that evening.

"I do not have the right to carry her like that, she has no right to carry or touch me. She displays contempt for me. I cannot accept this," Krekar said, and promised to lodge a complaint via his lawyer. He demanded that all photographs of the incident be destroyed.

Rehman, who insists she lifted him by gripping him around the legs ("the only way for a woman 163 centimeters (5'4") to pick up a man that high"), told newspaper VG she also wanted to show that if she could lift him, he could hardly be a danger to national security.

The woman gathered in the audience laughed at the stunt but panel member Lar Gule, secretary general of Norway's Humanist Ethic League protested.

"The audience does not understand what an insult Krekar has been exposed to. This is very, very serious for Krekar, and Rehman especially should understand this," Gule said.

Rehman said she wanted to see if Krekar was as tolerant and relaxed as he claims to be, and admitted that she found his reaction confusing.

Rehman said that his willingness to appear in a public debate and bring female family members along showed liberal views. Krekar's furious reaction hinted at fundamentalism but his desire to seek legal action rather than a fatwa was the behavior of a civilized person in Norway.

This chick is seriously funny. She is the Hirsi Ali of comedy.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

View of the World Trade Center, Sept. 13, 2001. (Courtesy LGF)

A Blast From CUANAS Past
A Restatement of Why America Is The City On A Hill

From CUANAS, July 31, 2004:

Stop Writing Your Suicide Note And Fight

Anti-Chomsky has a post today about a new book by Howard Zinn. I've read a bit of Zinn in my day, and, at the time, I was reading in a spirit of general agreement with his views. This post got me to thinking, I should pop on over to Amazon and read some reviews of Zinn's major work, A People's History Of The United States (1492 to the Present).

A review by one Paul Rodriguez contains this quote:... the account is fascinating.

From the beginning, you're wretching at the accounts told of Columbus' barbarism, and soon begin to see the propaganda the American school system has taught us as just that. With that said, I think it would be wise to view this in its context. It is not the be-all-end-all account of American history. It should be balanced with other perspectives. To come away believing America an evil empire I think would be to lose sight of the reality of our history: namely that despite the corruption and evil, the principles written down in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights have lived up to their true promise and continually get closer to their ideal.

An informed electorate is essential to a functioning democracy, and the facts presented here go a long way towards helping Americans confront their dark past and learn from it, rather than trying to sugar-coat it to prop us up as an honorable Christian nation with a right to arrogance. The truth is nothing to fear.

Still, I recommend trying a conservative viewpoint after this, like Paul Johnson's "A History of the American People". That way you'll come away with both sides of the story, rather than an overly slanted perspective.

As in all things, don't ever fear a dissenting opinion. Fundamentalism from the right _and_ left is dangerous. Keep an open mind and weigh both side's arguments for yourself before you join a bandwagon.

To me, that is what is lacking in all the criticism of America and Israel. I write this blog as a counterbalance to what I see as one-sided criticism. This blog is a pushing back. It's not that I am unable to see other perspectives, rather I believe the other perspectives are far too dominant in the media.

Previous to 9/11, I was the kind of person who would scoff at the notion that there was much positive to say about America. I would go to bookstores and read Chomsky and Howard Zinn and I would argue for their points with friends.

The Tuskeegee Incident (where military Drs. injected black men with syphillis to "research" it's effects) were magnified in my mind. I believed that if we knew of one Tuskeegee there were 1000 of which we didn't know.

To this day, I believe that the issue of race is one of America's biggest failings. A friend of mine, who is black, told me a story of how when he was in college (this would be about 15 years ago) another friend of his (who also was black) was caught by the police having sex with his white girlfriend in a car on the campus of their University. (This University was located in California, within 25 miles of Los Angeles.) The police arrested took the man and his girlfriend into custody.

Rather than have to admit to her parents that she was screwing a black man on a regular basis, the girl decided to cry rape.

The man was convicted and went to jail.

Imagine that.

Incidents like those have made me very angry with America.

But,

On 9/11 I sat watching TV, or listening to the radio, most of the day, thinking to myself, these people want to destroy America. They want to take America away from us.

My wife is an immigrant (from a third world country) and her comment was, "They want to take America away from the world." Her perspective is that America is a place of hope for all those in third world countries. To her and her whole family, America is the shining city on the hill of which Reagan spoke. Without America and Europe, she says, people from countries such as her native land would not have hope.

To my wife, it is not just the prospect of being able to leave, for some in her family have returned. It is the also the example of education, achievement and possibilty that we model.

Now, of course, for the most part, we take these things for granted.

On 9/11, when the towers fell, I ceased taking America for granted.

I remember watching the towers burning on TV with my 2 year old daughter at my side demanding to watch a Disney video, and I started to cry, thinking to myself, "I brought her into this world. What have I done?" And immediately, something stopped me saying, "You didn't bring her into this world to watch Disney videos. You didn't bring her into this world to be a child. You brought her into this world to grow into an adult and, hopefully, to become a good and great human being."

I stopped crying and realized that I, we all, needed to suck it up and do the best we can for America.

I considered signing up for the military, but being in my 40's, I am too old to start a military career. So, I thought, what can I do? I can write. And so I did. It took awhile to get started, but I have written and I have defended what I believe to be the best in Western civilization because I believe it would be a tragedy for the whole human race to lose these things.

So, the next question would then be, "Why anti-Semitism?"

The answer to that is that, while my realization of what I could do was almost instantaneous, because of the typical personal concerns (making a living, taking care of the kids) my motivation did not instantaneously push me to follow through. It did, however, push me to read. And read I did. I quickly became tired of the mainstream media and it's Terrorist apologetics. So, I learned to navigate the internet and pull information from sources around the world.

What I found shocked me even more than 9/11.

I found that we live, and have lived for several years now, in a world, where it is once more ok to say murderous things about the Jews. Not about Israel, but about the Jews. Cornelio Summaruge, the head of the International Red Cross, a European man, refused to have Israel participate in serving his organization saying, "If I were to have the Star Of David I might as well have the schwastika."

That is targeted at the Jews, not at Israeli behavior.

It's like saying to a black man, "If I were to have you over to my house, I might as well invite a nigger."

In Arab state-sponsored media, it is common for columnists and heads of state to call for the death of the Jews. Read here to see what I mean.

I came to believe that the Jews are the proverbial canary in the coalmine of Western Civilization. They are the first to be threatened and the first to start dying.

Look at the rhetoric of Bin Laden and theIslamists. Who do they hate first and foremost? It is not America. It is the Jews. We are second.

This is why I started CUANAS. Initially, it was to establish a voice in the Christian community that would say along with the Jews, "Never again."

But, ever more so, as time passes, along with saying "Never again," I am also saying "Not even once," for America.

Ophelia

"And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh,
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstacy. O, woe is me
T'have seen what I have seen, see what I see."

- from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

Christians United Against Christians
Who Can't See The Difference
Between Good and Evil

The mainstream Christian magazine Christian Century proves that they understand little of the world, nor do they understand much of the Word of God, or His people, and that they can't hear it when someone tells them they want them dead:

Among the messages of sympathy that poured into London following the July 7 bombings were condolences from the governments of Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iran, Turkey—all nations with majority Muslim populations—and at least two Muslim nongovernmental groups: Hamas and Hezbollah.

But as Middle East scholar Juan Cole pointed out on his Web site "Informed Comment," only ArabicNews.com and a few Chinese sites mentioned this list. The Western media gave little attention to this strong Muslim expression of solidarity.

Why this omission? Support from Muslim nations did not fit the dominant narrative in the U.S., which insists that "the reason we are attacked is that they hate us and our way of life, and we are not going to let that deter us from fighting terror." This narrative is not based on reality.

The narrative also insists on a connection between Islam and terrorism, even though suicide bombing is anathema to Islam.

Ok, so condolences from Hamas and Hezbollah are deemed worthy expressions of caring by Christian Century. Hamas' Charter calls for death to the Jews. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel. They are almost certainly behind the bombings of Christian neighborhoods in Lebanon.

Are these the signs of organizations whose condolences should be taken into consideration? Would Christian Century accept a sympathy card from Hitler?

It doesn't seem like I belong to the same religion as these people. If they call themselves Christians, it feels shameful to me identify myself by the same name.

Let us look at some of the words of the Hamas Charter just so we can see who Christian Century is willing to get into bed with:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."

That last part is a verse from the Muslim Holy Scriptures called the Hadith.

Those are lovely, beautiful spiritual sentiments, aren't they? Is it any wonder Christian Century would consider them worthy?

According to the Bible, Christian Century will be cursed for this. I would suggest the editors of Christian Century delve into politics a little less, and crack open their Bibles a bit more. They have missed the Truth.

But, even if they don't understand the Bible, they still ought to be able to understand the difference between a terrorist organization and one of the world's greatest and most productive Democracies.

How long, Oh Lord?

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know
About Beating Your Wife
But, Were Afraid To Ask

From Arab News, via Fjordman:

I find it unacceptable when some people twist the meaning of a particular verse in the Holy Qur’an — especially the one which permits a husband to beat his disobedient wife. Those who do the twisting must understand that the permission is only given under certain circumstances and that the beating is intended as a remedy for specific situations.

It is unfortunate that some well-known and respected Muslim scholars have either willingly or unwillingly joined a campaign seeking to distort the meaning of that particular verse. The beating which is only prescribed in the case of disobedient wives is intended to serve as a remedy in an unusual situation.

If the husband feels the wife is behaving in a disobedient and rebellious manner, he is required to rectify her attitude — first by kind words, then gentle persuasion and reasoning. Beating as a last resort must never be understood to entail using a stick or any other instrument that would cause pain or injury.

A rebellious woman who is not moved by kind works, persuasion and admonition is a woman of no feeling and must therefore be punished by beating. Psychiatrists tell us of people, including women, for whom a cure lies in beating.

The controversy over the beating of disloyal and rebellious women is part of the campaign against Islam. If beating disobedient wives was advocated by Western scientists, it would have been widely supported by the same people who criticize Islam and special centers would have been set up all over the world to train husbands on how to beat their wives.

To understand this particular verse in the Koran, read this article:Beat your wives or “separate from them”?

When my wife is disobedient I find that it is helpful to grab her by the hair, drag her into the bedroom and eff the the hell out of her. When I am done, she usually gives me anything I want.

(Cue: cave man sounds)

London-Based Muslim Owned Radio Station
Broadcasts Calls For Attacks on British Troops

From Little Green Footballs:

The Government is facing demands to close down a London-based radio station broadcasting calls for attacks on British troops in Iraq.

Al-Tajdeed Radio, which is run by a prominent Saudi dissident, has close links with a website carrying films of terrorist bombings and beheadings. It also carries songs calling on Muslims to join the holy war against coalition forces.

The radio broadcasts in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The man behind the station is Dr Muhammad al-Massari.

He has lived in London since first seeking asylum there in 1994. He has frequently declared that British troops in Iraq are legitimate targets.

Patrick Mercer, shadow minister for homeland security, said the Government should close down the station and look at deporting Dr al-Massari.

Gee, do you think?

The "Refuge Camps"
In the Peaceful Land of Palestine

A little info about the history of the Peaceful State of Palestine, from Atlas Shrugs:

“Despite the money, despite the aid, despite the technology, despite the paid-for experts to teach it [many Third World countries have failed]. Why? An alternate recipe: theft, embezzlement, corruption, waste, incompetence but, above all, chaos.”

“When I landed in England again [recently], the papers were full of Ariel Sharon pulling the last Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip and, I though, that is another example. I saw Gaza on my first visit to Israel in 1968. It was created in the same year as the UN created Israel: 1948.

It was supposed to be a temporary camp for Palestinians displaced by the new Israeli state. Its inhabitants were supposed to be able to return to the new plots of land inside Israel or accept a living space in the lands of their surrounding Arab ‘brothers.’ (This was 19 years before the Israeli conquests of 1967). Alas, the ‘brothers’ did precious little. Gaza had better propaganda value as a festering sore of human misery to be waved before the world.

It soon became a sewage-smelling slum. But aid did pour in; billions of it, enough to make that tiny plot a mini Garden of Eden, a prosperous, healthy, thriving enclave beside the blue Mediterranean south of Ashkelon. Fifty years later, it was still a sewage-smelling slum, wreathed in chaos. What happened to all the money? Well, the Palestinian leadership embezzled half of it; the rest went on guns, bullets and explosives.”

How is it that the efforts of not only the Palestinian people, but of the entire world, as represented by the United Nations, and all the money, and all the media's help, and everything have all gone to nothing? How is it that the Palestinian state never improves? Why are they still living in "refuge camps?" How could that possibly be?

I mean, even if you came home one day to find your entire house buried in horse manure, you would find a way to fix it over the course of the next 57 years, wouldn't you?

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

CUANAS Would Like To Welcome
The Peaceful State of Palestine
To The Family Of Nations

All the settlers are out. Palestine is now a state. Congratulations to the Palestinian people.

SANUR, West Bank - Israeli forces armed with riot gear, saws and wire cutters evicted militant holdouts from two Jewish settlements Tuesday, completing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a corner of the West Bank.

Perhaps never, in history, has a people fought harder to have something they didn't appear to really want.

Now that they have it, what will they do with it?

Should be interesting.

Peaceful State Watch

Bush says the balls in the Palestinians court:

The Palestinians have the onus of moving forward on the road map, US President George Bush said on Tuesday. In a conversation with reporters in Idaho, where Bush is vacationing, the President made it clear that the Palestinians must take the next step towards peace, by reforming their government and their security forces.

“Of course we want to get back to the road map, but I understand that in order for this process to go forward there must be confidence, confidence that the Palestinian people would have with their own government to perform, confidence with the Israelis, that they’ll see a peaceful state emerging,” Bush said.

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs, notes, however, that the government of Palestine has already declared that they will not disarm Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Not only that, but they have also decided to name the former Israeli settlements in Gaza after Yasser Arafat and Sheikh Yassin.

Yasser Arafat was, of course, the founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which later became the Palestinian Authority, the government of the Peaceful State of Palestine. Arafat made it his life's work to kill Jews. He did it in Muich at the Olympics in 1972. He did it on hijacked airliners, where his terrorists separated Jews from Christians, and then proceeded to kill the Jews. He did it from his de facto military base in Lebanon in the 1980's. And he did it when he was allowed back into Israel in the 1990's.

The official Charter of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization calls for the destruction of Israel. To this day, this charter appears on the Palestinian Authorities official United Nations web site. Click on this link for proof.

Sheikh Yassin was the founder and "spiritual leader" of Hamas. There have been few more blatant in stating their intention to kill the Jews, than was Yassin. For instance, Yassin's Hamas Charter openly called for death to the Jews. Click this link for proof.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are the two governing parties of the Peaceful State of Palestine.

A New Culture Is Emerging For Palestinians Girls

Yes, that's right, new opportunities, vistas, and a chance to be known and, uh, remembered. From an Al Jazeera tribute to a female sucide bomber, by way of Jihad Watch:

Hanadi Jaradat: "By the power of Allah, I have decided to become the sixth female martyrdom-seeker, who will turn her body into shrapnel, which will reach the heart of every Zionist colonialist in my country, and every settler or Zionist who has tried to sow death in my country. We are not the only ones who must sow and reap..."

Reporter: "Her cousin Sami was the one who filmed her."

Sami Jaradat: "I filmed her with a video camera. There was no need to prepare a special room. She could stand and say whatever she wanted, and that's it.

"She was more courageous than a man. I was standing in front of her, and although she was the one going [on the operation], I was more mentally distressed than her...

Amjad Al-'Ubeidi, commander of the Islamic Jihad in Jenin: "It is not that complicated. We produce primitive explosives, from which we make an explosives belt, a bag, or something. You can get most of it easily these days. There is nothing special about it. The belt is like this shirt – you wear it and there is a button here. You push the button, and that's it. All she had to do was push a button. There's nothing to learn. She would wear it... Hanadi, especially, being an educated lawyer, who knows what to do, who speaks English, and gets along by herself - she did not need anyone to take her...

"From the Haifa operation in which Hanadi was martyred until my capture, I did not see her family at all. What can I possibly say to console them? They deserve to be consoled, but words are not enough. They lost [a son before Hanadi]. Nothing is more precious than a son. They lost a son. Losing a son affects the soul many times more than losing a daughter in our society. Losing even 10 daughters is not as bad as losing one son. That's how it is in our society. A son is more dear to the parents than a daughter. Since his role in life is greater, the pain is heavier."

Hussein Al-Sheikh, West Bank Fatah commander: "When Wafa Idris did this, she played a role, I think, in the shaping of a new culture among Palestinian girls. She has become a source of pride. Many girls, for various reasons, wanted to play the same role...

See that? She's a regular Joan of Arc, huh?

Palestinian society is making some major strides towards equal rights for women. One can't help but notice, though, that still there clings the vestiges of old stereotypes; that women are too dumb, and lacking in self-possession to blow themselves up. But, we are lucky that we have Amjad, the commander of Islamic Jihad, to dispel such notions. After all, even a women can blow herself up if all she has to do is push a button.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars ...

In other words
Hold my hand

In other words
Darling, kiss me

Fill my heart with song
And let me sing forever more
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore

In other words
Please be true

In other words
I love you

Dateline: Sean Penn's Continent-Sized Ego

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

It's the week preceding presidential elections. Candidates attack one another's credibility. Activists push to boycott the vote. Traffic and pollution choke the cities. Leftists support a no-win idealist. Preachers guide their flocks toward political starboard. The media have fallen under the grip of standing power, and should they defy it, they're imprisoned. University students promote human rights, while fundamentalists deny them. It is a culture in love with cinema. With Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolie. And anything Steven Spielberg.

It is a nation of nuclear power, where the lobbies of the religious right effectively blur the lines between church and state. But it is also a country of good and hospitable people.

No doubt. People are the same everywhere. Basically, we all just want to spend time with our families and friends, and we want to make a little money and have a good time. Most of us are sheep and we do what we are told. If the world around us tells us that it is ok to kill infidels, or hang black people from trees, or put Jews in ovens, or flail Christ in the street and hang him on the cross, then most of us would do it.

That's a sad fact of humanity, but history has taught us that it is true. God have mercy on us.

And when the local team wins a big match, there is dancing, kissing, drinking and drugs in the streets. Women are graduating the campuses in higher and higher numbers, occupying government in higher and higher numbers. Sound familiar? But wait. The women. Look at the women. All is not well.

Yeah, no kidding Sean, that's what us Bushitlerians have been harping about.

Now, to be fair, if I remember correctly, Sean Penn was relatively honest about his experiences in Iraq as well. I recall he recognized that he was being used, and got pissed off and left. I would assume he realizes to some extent he's being shown the Potemkin version of Iran.

And, even at that, it sucks for the women. What do you know?

At 3:30 p.m. Munich-time, Norman, Reese and I boarded Lufthansa Flight 602 to Tehran. The other passengers were about 95 percent Iranian and a few Europeans. Last year, including journalists, fewer than 500 non-Iranian Americans visited Iran. I looked around the plane, full of modern men and women in Western garb, returning from vacations, family visits and business. Alcoholic beverages were served on the plane. But no alcohol sold for duty-free purchase. Iran is an Islamic state and a dry one. Nonetheless, many of these travelers were happy to get in their last swill before landing.

Four hours and 10 minutes later and a time change that would have us land at 10:30 p.m. Tehran-time, came a P.A. announcement as we went into approach: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very important announcement to make. For all our female passengers, by decree of the government of Iran, all female visitors are required to keep their heads covered. In your own interest, therefore, we ask you to put on a scarf before leaving the aircraft in Tehran. Thank you." With that, women clamored for the lavatory.

One at a time as they exited, hundreds of years of transformation had occurred. All of these modern women, who would've looked quite at home dancing in a Paris nightclub, were now covered head to toe in black chadors, makeup scrubbed from their faces, cleavages and midriffs a memory.

Eventually, Norman, Reese and I went forward to the customs booth and presented our three American passports. We were told to "wait," rather abruptly. With that, the young Iranian customs official left his booth with our passports, taking them to another office, out of our line of sight.

The official returned, but without our passports or any explanation. We stood dumbly by, as the remaining Iranian passengers were stamped and passed us.

Over an hour later, we were still waiting in a now-empty customs hall. I sat on the floor. Reese paced. And Norman, Zen as always, stood in place. Suddenly, four uniformed customs officials appeared and hurried us into a small office, where one by one, we were fingerprinted and directed in Farsi. It wasn't clear whether the fingerprinting was leading to our being permitted into the country, or if our passports alone were the reason we were being detained.
What does he want?

The agent whose large hands had rolled my black-inked fingers and palms over several printing forms barked at me to follow him with a wave of his hand. He led me to a men's room, where he swung open the door and indicated I should go in ahead of him. It was a bit of a ratty hole. Water closets, open. Worn, reflectionless mirrors. Where our standard toilets might sit, these are simply holes in the floor, with dark glimmering puddles beneath, and fluorescent light above. He just stared at me. Neither threateningly, nor warmly. Seconds went by as I stared back. Neither threatened, nor comfortable. "Now what?" I said. He raised his hands and wiped his palms over one another. Yes, he wanted me to have the opportunity to wash my hands, rather than to walk, black-handed, into the Persian night.

So I turned to the sink, there were the last bubbles in a soap dispenser and I tried to pump it. The water came on automatically, nice modern touch, but it was cold. I rubbed my hands together under it with a bubble or two of soap, to at least a graying effect. When I looked for some sort of towel to dry them, there wasn't one. So, I took a deep breath and slid past my 6-foot-3-inch minder into one of the water closets, grabbed some toilet paper, and dried my dull gray hands.

There was, it turned out, a contrivance in the tone of all this. The language of the Iranian Parliament in the decree for fingerprinting makes no attempt to disguise the retaliatory impetus of the fingerprinting policy: Americans do it to Iranians. Iranians do it to us. When I thanked the agent for his help, I was as much thanking him for not putting my head in the water closet hole as for facilitating our clean-handed entrance into his country.

Now, Sean might not be aware of it, but he has just articulated one of Natan Sharansky principles here. Sharansky says that there are two basic types of societies. There are free societies, and there are fear societies. In a fear society, people become double-minded, thinking one thing inside, yet doing another outside. In other words, inside they are thinking they hate being intimidated, and they wish they could strangle the man who holds the key to their cell, but on the outside they are obedient. After awhile, they become used to the circumstances, and their inner reaction will likely be less violent, and more just thankful they aren't being beaten.

I'm sure Natan Sharansky would be appreciative of your well-described illustration here, Mr. Penn.

When we got to the baggage area, our driver was dutifully waiting, as were our bags. We jumped in the car and headed for the hotel.

The streets of Tehran at night are reminiscent of Baghdad or Mexico City. Jousting, yelling, horn honking and warm thickly polluted air, mud-splattered motorcycles, winding through human traffic at death-bound speeds. This was the week before the Iranian presidential election and the city was papered with campaign posters. Dominant were those of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

I knew it would be an eventful week. I did not know we were headed into the most violent week in Iran in more than a decade.

Tehran lies at the foot of the Elburz Mountains. In some directions, it doesn't look unlike Los Angeles at the foot of the San Gabriels. Staring into my room from the boulevard below was a banner with the visage of Ayatollah Khomeini. Our first scheduled event was the Friday morning prayer service. But that would not begin for several hours. I went downstairs, out the door, and walked into the Tehran morning.

This would turn out to be one of the few times I was able to be alone on the visit. But it was an important time for that. My unsure footing at the airport, the hustle of the city we drove into the night before, were by now, dreamlike and wary episodes of travel. But now I was just one more rested body and spirit walking down the Tehran street. What I had anticipated of this deeply Islamic city was some sort of post-chant, post-prayer gloominess, dark-eyed men with dark beards, eyeing me with suspicion, shrouded women not eyeing me at all. But that's not what I saw. And that's not what it felt like.

Of course one doesn't see a woman without a scarf, called a hijab, on her head at least, and a chador covering her body. It is unlawful to touch a woman in public unless you are her husband. Girlfriends and boyfriends are not permitted to hold hands. However, there are many smiles.

There was laughter and very warm feelings in the eyes that fell on this American visitor. Surprised to encounter me in their city, some told me how much they liked the movie "21 Grams," a film in which sex and drug abuse are both seen in graphic detail. Over the next days, I would find that American movies are readily available and popular in Iran, viewed on black market DVDs. The DVD man goes house to house, like a milkman might.

Yes, that's right, Sean Penn is idolized, even in Tehran. And, it seems like he likes the idea that the Iranians are enamored of the world of drug abuse. How liberated they must be, at least inside.

I walked slowly over about a 2-square-mile area. The image of Ayatollah Khomeini, as stern as an Orwellian leader, is omnipresent on the sides of buildings, walls, billboards and bus stops, watching my every move.

As I studied one of those building sides, the searing eyes of their beloved Ayatollah, I stepped off a curb and was nearly flattened by a transit bus. I leaped backward onto the sidewalk. And there they were, staring down upon me, Iranian men, in the front of the bus. But as I regained my bearings, the last third of the bus passed me and it was there, where everything went into slow motion. Sliding by me was the rear of the bus, occupied only by women in black chadors.

The back of the bus. I thought of Rosa Parks.

After getting our official credentials, we headed off to Friday prayers. Security was very tight around the stadium of Tehran University where the faithful assemble for Namaze Jumeh or Friday Prayers.

The stadium was hung with banners. One translated, "We shall always support the Palestinians." Another, "Resistance against the conspiracies of America and Israel will disappoint them to predominate over Iran's nation."

This phrase is attributed to "the grand, great leader." Bit by bit, the stadium filled until 10,000 worshipers created a sea partially of white and black turbans (the black represents the Seyed or direct descendent of the prophet Mohammed) pale and dark shirts. Chanting echoed throughout the building. Government officials fill the front rows. Military arrived in groups, in the belief that their prayers will be answered in multiples. Many, as simple conscripts, seemed less focused on the proceedings. And behind them, the sea of the devout.

The opening sermon was delivered by a low-level cleric, Ayatollah Mesbehi, and focused on economic morality. With every bow, and only backs showing, the bodies of worshipers created the illusion of an undulating Persian carpet.

The women were sequestered in an entirely separate area, all but unseen from the press balcony. The hard-line cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati arrived to deliver his sermon. He leads the six-man Guardian Council, the controversial and largely considered fundamentalist body that governs state decisions over and above those made by the president or parliament (Majlis). In an apparently direct targeting of centrist candidate Rafsanjani, he preached against the dangers of nepotism in government. Rafsanjani was known to employ many of his relatives in his cabinets, and represented a power and following that directly threatened that of the Guardian Council.

As Jannati transitioned toward international policy, he reminded what was largely considered a reluctant voting public that every vote is a shout of death to America.

He goaded the crowd to join the chanting calls for "Death to Israel!", "Death to America!" Ten thousand strong of voice.

Now, doesn't that sound familiar? A stadium, a frenzied speech, a call for death to the Jews?

Even the unflappalbe Penn seems a tad, well, flapped:

I was struck by the familiar: a cleric guiding his followers in their politics, and toward particular candidates away from others. It has been my observation that this kind of invective speech is common, not only in Iran but in the Arab states as well.

According to many with whom I spoke, it had always been clear from the Iranian point of view, that the call is related to American foreign policy and does not intend to target the death of the American people. However, when the supposed purpose of a 10,000-person rally is in the prayer and scruples of Islam,

I can say that as an American (a half Jew, by the way), the chant demeans both intent and any religion that aspires to a core of love and reduces it to a cheap political threat of violence.

Overall, I would say Sean did a fine job on his essay. I think I'll give it a B+.

Where The Road Map Ends
And Israel Begins

Looks like Sharon is done giving in. From the Jerusalem Post:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signaled a right turn Sunday, vowing to build inside the West Bank settlement blocs, even as bulldozers began mowing down Gaza's settlements.

"There will be building in the settlement blocs," Sharon said. "Each government since 1967 – right, left and national unity – has seen strategic importance in specific areas [beyond the Green Line]. I will build." Sharon mentioned specifically that "Ma'ale Adumim will continue to grow and be connected to Jerusalem," and that Ariel and its satellites would be a part of Israel forever.

Sharon was obviously aware that the road map called for a freeze of all settlement construction, and was cognizant that this construction could put Israel on a collision course with both the US and Europe.

Relating to reports Sunday that evacuees from Netzarim will be temporarily housed in Ariel, Sharon said he was not worried that this would hurt Israel's request for some $2.2 billion in aid from the US for disengagement-related development in the Negev and Galilee.

"We don't move anyone, people can go wherever they want," Sharon said, adding that Israel had an interest in settling the Negev and Galilee. Nevertheless, he said, "the Ariel bloc will remain a part of Israel forever, connected territorially to Israel."

Asked why people should believe him now, after he made similar comments in the past about Gush Katif, Sharon said: "This is something you will be able to see in a short time, that there will be no second disengagement."

Sounds like Mr. Sharon has a plan in mind, just as I have been predicting. This disengagement was just about hightailing it from an economic and terrorist threat. This was about giving the Palestinians enough rope to hang themselves. I pray to God they won't, but really, it's up to them.

Well, let's see what else he has to say.

"We will not allow attacks and we will respond to attacks as forcefully as possible," he said.

Meanwhile, Sharon referred Sunday to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's comments last week that everyone empathized with what Israel was facing. "It cannot be [about] Gaza only," Sharon said.

Sharon said Rice was "expressing the hope, which we share, that after the implementation of the disengagement plan, the momentum will continue and conditions for progress according to the road map will be created." He said that Rice made it unequivocally clear that the next step must be for the Palestinian Authority to stop terrorism and dismantle the terrorist organizations, especially Hamas.

How do you dismantle a terrorist organization when it is the countries second leading political party? Think Sheikh Yassin.

Sharon said it would be impossible to move along the road map until the Palestinians carry out their commitments. "I have no intention of conceding on them one iota," he said.

And he shouldn't. The time for Israeli concessions is absolutely over. The ball is in the Palestinian's court.

I think the disengagement was a brilliant idea. Now, there is a country of Israel, and a country of Palestine. The Palestinians have their own shoreline. They can have their own airport. They can build their economy. They can educate their young. They can build universities. They can plant trees, and orange groves. They can invent things and get them patented. They can build supercomputers. They can innovate in the world of biotechnology.

I mean, really, the sky is the limit for the Palestinians.

The one thing they had better not do is use their army (Hamas, Al-Aqsa, Islamic Jihad) to attack another sovereign nation. Any attack upon Israel should be met with ten times the force by the IDF.

Israel can not allow the country of Palestine to attack them militarily.

How To Defeat Islamofascism, Part II

A moderate Muslim journalist in Saudi Arabia tells us how to defeat the Islamofascists, and warns of what will happen if we don't:

Not everyone in the Arab world praises Osama Bin Laden and terror groups as heroes. Indeed, some Arabs have issues scathing attacks on radical Islamic groups and they manner in which they interpret Islam.

The criticism leveled at extremists by Saudi journalist Muhammad al-Sheikh, however, is unusual in its harshness. In two pieces published in Saudi newspaper al-Jazeera, and presented courtesy of the Middle East Media Research Institute, al-Sheikh charged radical Islamists hold a similar, and even worse, ideology than radical Islam, and should be treated as Europeans coped with Nazism.

The first article was published in July 10, following the release of an extremist spiritual leader from prison. The release raises many questions, al-Sheikh said.

"The man is one of the forefathers of terrorism and he is the one who raised, through his books and radical interpretations, many of those belonging to terror groups."

"They say a Jordanian court acquitted him of charges that include the blowing up of American facilities, however, this dangerous terrorist did something much worse: he seized upon the down-and-out situation of many Muslim youths today in order to perpetuate violence, murder and destruction forever. In order to plant deep roots for the idea of suicide and to incite kids to commit suicide."

"This is the root of the problem," said al-Sheikh.

`Hating the other'

According to al-Sheikh,

"eradicating terror will only be possible by doing away with the ideas that come from our society. A military solution is not enough,"

he said.

"We must treat modern Jihad parties just as the Europeans treated Naziism,"
he added.

"The ideas of radical Islam are similar to the ideas that drove the Nazi ideology. If the economic freeze and national depression in 1930 led to the emergency to murderous Nazism, we can say that the economic and cultural failure that grip Arab and Muslim countries today, together with the frustration of many Muslims, are once again driving this murderous philosophy."

Similarly, the common denominator is hatred and physical elimination of the other, al-Sheikh said

"I still believe that one of the first tasks for the international community today should be to reconstruct its experience with Nazism and cope with this barbaric, dangerous culture as it did with the Nazi culture,"

al-Sheikh wrote.

"If this isn't done, the coming days could be very eventful and their implications for the whole of humanity would be much more severe than those of the World War,"
he concluded somberly.

His ideas sound familiar.

Hamas Details Past Attacks in Gaza Strip

From Associated Press:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas militants, jockeying to take credit for Israel's Gaza Strip pullout, said they were involved in 54 percent of 400 attacks on Israeli targets in Gaza in the past five years.

The figures appeared on a Hamas Web site Monday, the day Israel set out to clear the last of its 21 Gaza settlements, Netzarim.

Remember this is the second leading political party in Israel, and these figures are appearing on their website.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the figures "are a document of Hamas' struggle and Hamas' role in liberating this precious part of the homeland."

They show that "resistance is the Palestinians' strategy of choice," Abu Zuhri said.

"It made this victory possible, and this victory can be repeated," he said, referring to Israel's Gaza withdrawal.

"It Is A Badge of Honor In Hollywood
To Hate America"

There's an amazing article in Front Page Magazine this morning, by a Hollywood screenwriter named Robert Avrech, who has apparently decided he no longer wants to work in Hollywood. I have a little bit of experience in the world of entertainment myself, so I can say that his experiences jibe with mine. He tells it like it is:

Let's be clear about one thing. Hollywood people are glamorous. But that's about it. They are ill informed about jihad. They are ill informed about Islam. They are ill informed about Israel, the PA, Iraq, Afghanistan. They are ill informed about U.S. history, the Constitution, etc. The truth is, the movie people I've met are ignorant about most everything - save the weekend grosses of the top ten films. That they know like human computers.

Like most Brooklyn Jews, I was raised a Democrat, voted Democrat for years and years, and believed, absolutely, that Republicans were evil. That's what we were taught from birth, right? Democrats are for the poor and the oppressed, and Republicans are for rich people and big corporations. Who questioned such sophisticated political analysis?

But as I grew older and watched the Democratic party turn into an alien entity run by vulgar race hustlers and anti-Semites cloaked as "mere" anti-Zionists - an alien entity that increasingly refused to confront, much less despise, communism - I realized that this was no longer the party that reflected my national or my Jewish aspirations.

The presidency of Jimmy Carter was the last straw. The man was truly ineffectual. I switched to the Republicans and never looked back.

Hollywood, once upon a time, was one of the most patriotic colonies on the planet. During World War II, Frank Capra made a series of propaganda films titled "Why We Fight." Marlene Dietrich put herself through a most grueling schedule visiting and entertaining our troops and selling war bonds. Jimmy Stewart joined the Air Force. Numerous movie stars put their careers on hold to help the war effort. These men and women loved America and understood who the enemy was and why the enemy had to be not only defeated but obliterated from the face of the earth.

Look at Hollywood now. Sean Penn, a convicted wife-beater, goes to Iraq and apologizes for American war crimes. Hollywood's patron saint is Michael Moore, its liturgy his package of lies, the movie "Fahrenheit 9/11." When this film had its Hollywood premiere, the red carpet was choked with stars just dying to make an anti-Bush statement. We're talking about movie stars who know basically nothing about politics. To call them fools would be generous. I have spent time with too many of these people, and believe me, if you're not talking about how beautiful or how talented they are, the conversation sort of just dies.

It is, I kid you not, a badge of honor in Hollywood to hate America. These airheads who have amassed millions through the free market economy constantly spout nonsense about the need for a Scandinavian style socialist government. They don't even know that the Scandinavian countries are economic basket cases. I'm not making this up. They actually cruise Sunset Strip in their Bentleys and accuse Republicans of being greedy.

Let's not forget that at the 2004 Democratic National Convention Michael Moore was given a seat of honor next to - who else? - Jimmy Carter. And the speaker who received the longest standing ovation was none other than the Rev. Al Sharpton, America's most visible race hustler since Jesse Jackson. It was as though the party had been taken over by the Three Stooges. And Hollywood loved it, showering the Dems with more money than ever.

The political divide in Hollywood is now being felt in the most important quarter: the war against Islamic terrorism. Basically, Hollywood denies that such a war exists.

Script #1: I was recently hired to write a movie for a cable station about the war on terrorism. I was flown to New York where I had a long meeting with the head of the network about what he wanted. He described it thus: "I want a hard-hitting multi-character story about terrorism, with one storyline that emphasizes how someone can be reached through education."Okay, that sounded pretty good. My juices were flowing. This is the kind of material I specialize in. Humanistic but with some good action scenes.

And then the head of the network started talking about President Bush. He accused him of being anti-Semitic.

I was flabbergasted. You may disagree with President Bush's policies, you may not like his speeches or the way he butchers the English language, but gee willikers, no American president has shown such friendship to Jews and to Israel as this fine man. I tried to lay out a few facts, but the head of the network - Jewish, naturally - just brushed them aside. Don't bother me with facts, he was saying, I believe what I believe and that's the end of the conversation.

I should have interpreted this as a warning of what was to come and not taken the job. But I did. After handing in the first draft, I was told that the character of the Islamic suicide bomber was not acceptable. I was told that my portrayal was "insensitive." After the second draft I was ordered to remove the mosque where a dissident group was vying for control from the more moderate Muslims.

And now, five drafts later, here's what the screenplay has turned into: The Islamic terrorists who properly dominated the original draft are now minor players. American militia members, ala Timothy McVeigh, are now the bad guys.

At this point in my life, I only know a few people who work in entertainment. I've written a bit here about my conversations with them. I couldn't write an article like the one Avrech has. I believe he is committing career suicide.

Later on in the article he makes a point which Roger Simon has been attempting to drive home for over a year now:

Last year the Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh was murdered in Holland at the hands of Islamic extremists. It was a gruesome murder. There was not one word of protest from the Hollywood community.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been leaning very heavily on Hollywood the past few years and the film industry is, frankly, terrified. According to CAIR, not a single Muslim should ever be portrayed as a terrorist on film, reality be damned. Because of liberal political correctness, the 2002 version of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" transformed Palestinian terrorists into European neo-Nazis.

The sad truth is that behind the dashing and courageous Hollywood characters up on the screen sit a bunch of cowards. A group of craven men and women who have little love for this country and who have no idea that Islamic terrorists are working hard to bring down the foundations of civilization.

These Hollywood liberals spend their lives negotiating. They believe that when the time comes they will sit down with Osama bin Laden and cut a deal. Imagine how surprised they'll be when the cold blade hits their necks. Imagine their shock when they realize there is no negotiating with barbarians; that Osama makes no distinctions between Democrats and Republicans, between observant Jew and Buddhist chanting Jew.

I hope it never comes to that, but imagine such a story line. Actually, it would make a pretty good movie. I should try and pitch it.

Maybe he could go help the South Park guys. You know, the ones who made Team America.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

She Comes to Seek Her Soul

The Lady of Shallot - Waterhouse

We Live In A Time
When Evil Is Unmasking Itself

And still many of us are refusing to acknowledge what is before our eyes. Now, the ACLU, who spends tremendous time, donations, and resources trying to remove Christianity from the public squae, is joining forces with CAIR to see to it that Koran's are used in courtrooms. (Hat tip, LGF):

N.C. — Traditionally, witnesses taking the stand in court are sworn in by placing their hand on the Bible.

But when Muslims in Guilford County, N.C., tried to donate copies of the Koran for courtroom use, judges turned them down.

Chief District Court Judge Joseph Turner says taking an oath on the Koran is not allowed by North Carolina state law, which specifies that witnesses shall place their hands on the “holy scriptures,” which he interprets as the Christian Bible.

“We’ve been doing it that way for 200 years,” he said. “Until the legislature changes that law, I believe I have to do what I’ve been told to do in the statutes.”

But the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union are challenging the Guilford County Courts.

“This was the first time that we had a judge ... going on record and stating unilaterally what is a holy scripture and what is not — what we believe to be a violation of the establishment clause,” said Arsalan Iftikhar of CAIR.

I understand that Muslims believe the Koran is their holy scripture, and that is, of course, ok with me. I don't mind that Muslims would prefer to swear upon the Koran, even if the Koran does recommend dissembling to the infidels. What are we going to do about it? We have freedom of religion in this country. We can not all of the sudden determine that there is freedom of religion for all, but Muslims.

However, what is shocking to me here, and really it shouldn't be shocking, is that the ACLU is promoting more religion in the public square. Well, I guess that just goes to show that religion is ok by the ACLU, as long as it isn't Christianity.

Some liberal group.

How To Defeat Islamofascism

Go see my latest post over at The Internet Journal for Public Policy.

The Leadership of the International Red Cross
Are Out of Their Minds

From Associated Press, via Little Green Footballs:

In Jordan, two newspapers published a letter from Saddam Hussein in which he vowed to sacrifice himself for the cause of Palestine and Iraq, urged Arabs to follow his path and implied he would become a martyr for the Arab cause.

The letter was delivered through the International Committee of the Red Cross to an old friend of Saddam’s now living in Jordan.

“My soul and my existence is to be sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq,” the letter to an unidentified friend said.

“It is not much for a man to support his nation with his soul and all he commands because it deserves it since it has given us life in the name of God and allowed us to inherit the best.”

If you are shocked that the Red Cross would believe in helping a murderous dictator, you shouldn't be. One of the things that really lit a fire under my butt, and caused me to organize CUANAS with like-minded people at my church, was when the news came out that Cornelio Summaruga, the head of the International Red Cross, said that he wouldn't allow Israel's ambulances to participate in Red Cross services, as the ambulances of every other nation do.

His reason? Because he didn't want the Star of David displayed on a Red Cross ambulance. Nevermind that there is a whole branch of the Red Cross serving Islamic countries called the Red Crescent. Yeah, never mind that.

Here's what Cornelio Summaruga said,

"If we're going to have the Shield of David, why would we not have to accept the swastika?"

Yes, that's right, the head of an international humanitarian aid agency compared Judaism to Nazism. It was then that I knew that anti-Semitism had caught fire again in Europe.

The Red Cross does good work all over the world, but some of their leaders are an affront to humanity.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Stop! You're Killing Me

British Muslim stand up comedian, Shazia Mirza, seen here in an undated file photo and who is currently appearing at the Edinburgh Festival, is one of several comics cracking jokes about Islamic extremism and the government's response to radical Muslim clerics(AFP/File/Steve Ullathorne)

The Protocols Of The Elders Of The BBC

From Dhimmi Watch:

Sometimes things are altogether more simple than we wish them to be. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the eminent chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, recently refused to attend the Holocaust memorial day. When asked why this was so, he muttered something about how lots of people had been killed all over the place, not least the poor Palestinians and why shouldn’t we remember them, etc., etc.

In the liberal press, extravagant excuses were made for Sacranie and his ludicrous chef de cabinet, Inayat Bunglawala. But I suspect that the simple answer, the one we didn’t want to hear, is the most accurate: Sacranie and Mr Bunglawala don’t like Jews.

They are both unequivocal anti-Semites. You do not refuse to grieve for one bunch of people because another, much smaller, bunch of people have been murdered as well. Nor should you automatically equate Jews with the right-wing Zionism of Ariel Sharon: that would be like equating all black Zimbabweans with Robert Mugabe.

Pastorius Note: Palestinians have not been "murdered." They have been killed in defensive military actions. If the Israelis wanted to murder Palestinians, it wouldn't be hard to do. The Israeli military is among the most powerful on Earth. They could easily wipe out every last Palestinian man, woman, and child.

And, in addition, Ariel Sharon is hardly Robert Mugabe. For God's sake.

Other than those two points, this is a good article. Keep reading:

It’s a racist thesis, isn’t it? Those people who are opposed to Israel’s policies are usually at pains to point out that they are not being anti-Semitic, merely anti-Zionist. It is not the Jews to whom we are opposed, they say — it’s the Zionists. In which case you’d expect them to be happy to spend two minutes in silence commemorating those six million Jews, those non-Israeli citizens by definition, murdered by the Nazis.

But Sacranie and Bunglawala wouldn’t even cross the road to attend such a memorial. It wasn’t because there are altogether too many of these sorts of commemoration these days, to the extent that they have become almost meaningless. It was because the commemoration was for the Jews; ergo, in my book, they’re anti-Semitic. They’re Jew-haters.

I thought as much at the time and think it even more so now.

Sacranie is in a bit of a bait right now because the BBC Panorama team has just completed a programme looking at this false dichotomy I’ve been banging on about for the last couple of years: the New Labour notion that there is moderate Islam, represented by the likes of the Muslim Council of Britain (which speaks for, we are told, some 50 per cent of British Muslims, although by what democratic mechanism we can’t be sure) and the rogue ‘handful’ of extremists who want the rest of us dead; and the idea that Islam, as a religion, had nothing to do with those bombings on 7 July.

The journalist responsible is John Ware — a first-rate investigative reporter if ever there was one, but I’m not sure how far his powers of investigation were stretched digging into the background of the Muslim Council of Britain. There’s plenty of stuff on the record which even journalists as hopeless as, say, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown or even Martin Kettle could find, if they cared to look. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Sacranie once said that death was ‘too easy’ for Salman Rushdie; Bunglawala meanwhile has called the creation of Israel a ‘terrible mistake’.

Yes, yes, but the BBC says these people are moderate.

Yes, but these amps go to eleven.

The Arab World:
Never Missing An Opportunity
To Miss An Opportunity

From The Wall Street Journal, via No Pasaran:

Saddam's fall was welcomed by shamefully few Arabs: The "humiliation" of seeing an Arab leader toppled by Western armies far outweighed that of seeing one of the most talented of Arab societies, the Middle East's Germany, subjected to a ferocious despotism responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Nor was there much interest regionally in the discovery of the Baath's mass graves. One reason was the secondary concern that many Arab societies have for Saddam's foremost victims--the Shiites and Kurds; but the main cause of indifference was that Saddam's crimes, if acknowledged, threatened to imply the Arabs' inability to responsibly manage their own emancipation.

In other words, applauding his ouster meant admitting that the Arab world could produce no better, and deserved no better than Western armies in its midst.

This rationale was nonsense, but spawned a cliché that Arab intellectuals routinely peddle: that Arab reform must come "from within"--though the notion would have been laughable in Baathist Iraq. Arab societies must indeed open up from inside, but absent an echo, sometimes a determining one, from outside--including the option of foreign military action--little will change.

… For all these reasons, American achievement in Iraq could have been looked on with greater self-interested approval and imagination by the Arab publics. It never was.

How the U.S. adventure in Iraq ends is anybody's guess. However, its repercussions will be felt, first, by the Arabs themselves. By refusing to profit from the prospective democratic upheaval that Saddam's removal ushered in; by never looking beyond the American messenger in Iraq to the message itself; by lamenting external hegemony while doing nothing to render it pointless, Arabs merely affirmed their impotence.

The self-pitying Arab reaction to the Iraq war showed the terrible sway of the status quo in the Middle East. An inability to marshal change for one's benefit is the stuff of captive minds.

Who's Who In Iran

Michael Ledeen at National Review tells us who, exactly, is running Iran these days:

Iranian President Ahmadi Nezhad has been busy putting together a cabinet for the Islamic republic, and while all real power remains firmly in the clammy hands of Supreme Leader Khamenei, it's worth taking a look at some of the new ministers, if only because it tells us two important things:

(1) The face the regime wishes to show to the world at large, and

(2) the policies the regime intends to unleash on the long-suffering Iranian people.

Who's Who

Let's start with the interior minister, Hojatoll-Islam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi. He was formerly the number-two man in the ministry of intelligence and security — where he was directly in charge of the foreign section (and thus the sorts of foreign operations now running full bore in Iraq and Afghanistan) — and, even more significantly, the man in charge of those matters in the office of the supreme leader.

Pour-Mohammadi comes from a sartorially celebrated family; his father and brother are tailors for leading clergy. Indeed, they prepared the raiments for both bin Laden and Zawahiri in their recent videos, in which their clothing was distinctively Iranian.

The minister for intelligence and security is Hojjatol-Islam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhei, from Isfahan, where he acquired a reputation as a particularly vicious and barbaric head of the Islamic tribunals which regularly issued brutal sentences. He has been special prosecutor in the intelligence ministry, where he was also in charge of key personnel decisions, and at present he is judge and prosecutor for the special tribunal of the clergy.

And then there is the defense minister, Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, another brigadier general in the revolutionary Guards, where he has been since its official formation in 1979. As several commentators have pointed out, he was the commander of the RG forces in Lebanon in 1983, when the Marine barracks were blown up by the Guards and Hezbollah. So we owe him one.

The mullahs have torn off their conciliatory mask in order to bare their fangs to us, the Europeans, and the Iranian people.

If we had an Iran strategy worthy of the name, our confused leaders would have pointed out the remarkable interview with the chief nuclear affairs negotiator, Hossein Musavian. It was broadcast on Iranian television August 4th, and made it quite clear that the Iranians deliberately tricked the Europeans into giving the mullahs an extra year to complete a vital part of their nuclear program in Isfahan.

"Thanks to the negotiations with Europe," he bragged, "we gained another year, in which we completed...Isfahan."

"We suspended (the enrichment program) in Isfahan in October 2004, although we were required to do so in October 2003...Today we are in a position of power: (the program) in Isfahan is complete and UF4 and UF6 gases are being produced. We have a stockpile of products, and...we have managed to convert 36 tons of yellow cake into gas and store it..."

President Chirac? Chancellor Schroeder? Prime Minister Blair? How do you all intend to answer your parliamentary inquiries? You were all gulled by the mullahs (or, to put the darkest light on the matter, willing accomplices).

Meanwhile, the mullahs are killing us. Time published a long report from Baghdad on August 14, entitled "Inside Iran's Secret War for Iraq," which lays out chapter and verse of the mullahs' longstanding efforts — often coordinated with Assad's Syria — to drive us out of Iraq.

It is the first time I've seen a major publication confirm what I reported months before Operation Iraqi Freedom: planning for the terror war against Coalition forces in Iraq "began before the U.S. invaded." And Time quotes a "British military intelligence officer about the relative inattention paid to the murderous Iranian activities. 'It's as though we are sleepwalking'."

We are at war with Iran, whether we want to admit it or not. If we don't then they will win. If we do then, we can win. If they win, the price we will pay is they will become a member of the nuclear club. We can not afford that.

My friend Titus, wrote an excellent post on what to do about Iran over at the new group blog I am working on; The Internet Journal for Public Policy. Titus believes we need to push for regime change. I am sceptical of the chances such a policy would have for success.

Here are my comments to Titus:

... you think we should do this BEFORE we attempt to take out their nuclear facilities.You believe, apparently, as Kenneth Timmerman believes, that bombing their nuclear facilities would turn the populace of Iran against us.

I can understand that idea. But, that brings a few questions to my mind.

1) How long do we give the attempts at subversion?

2) If subversion is going to work in Iran, wouldn't the perfect time to have done this already have passed - that is during the time when Iraq had their elections and the Lebanese managed to throw the Syrian military out?

3) If we somehow missed such a great opportunity, does that mean that Bush, apparently, doesn't have the same view on this as you?

4) If subversion is the way to accomplish the task of regime change, why didn't we use it in Iraq?

Indeed, if subversion is the way to topple the Mullahs, we ought to have NO hesitancy to simply supply weaponry, and other assistance, right out in the open. We have made it no secret that we consider theirs to be an illegitimate government. Therefore, the more openly we target them, the more clearly we give the signal to the Iranian people that we are TRULY behind them, and that we will come to their rescue, if they get in over their heads.

See what I mean?

Honestly, by not moving during the time of the Iraqi elections/Lebanese rejection of Syrian military, I believe we have sent the OPPOSITE message to the Iranian people.

This is not the first time we have sent a message of support to a tribe of Middle Eastern people, only to leave them when they needed us. We did this to the Kurds, after the Gulf War. The problem is, the Iranian people know that. And they very well may think we would do it again.

Anything we do, we need to do boldly; right out in the open.

No pussyfooting.

As Ledeen say, "Faster please."

CAIR Needs To Be Stopped

From Joel Mowbray, via Dhimmi Watch:

Local talk-radio station WMAL is under assault from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that has savaged journalists, critics of radical Islam, even the Fox TV show "24" -- but which just as steadfastly has refused to specifically condemn various Islamic terrorist organizations.

CAIR has instigated a campaign to pressure the Disney-owned WMAL to fire its already-suspended midday host, which came on the heels of its initial effort to have him suspended.
Though the outcome is uncertain in the current situation, two things are certain:

1) CAIR will continue demonizing genuine criticism of radical Islam as "Islamophobia," and

2) it will never specifically condemn radical Islam or Islamic terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

At issue are remarks made by mid-morning host Michael Graham, in which he said that "Islam has, sadly, become a terrorist organization." But what is lost in most media accounts -- and is never mentioned by CAIR -- are the surrounding statements made by Mr. Graham, which put the thrust of his comments in an entirely different light.

Mr. Graham's comments, in fact, were not met with immediate condemnation or outrage. He wasn't suspended until July 28, almost a week after his on-air remarks. In the interim, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper even came on Mr. Graham's show -- telling him that CAIR didn't want him fired, just punished. Once Mr. Graham was suspended indefinitely later that week, CAIR quickly called for his head.

Here are Mr. Graham's remarks, with full context:

"Because of the mix of Islamic theology that -- rightly or wrongly -- is interpreted to promote violence, added to an organizational structure that allows violent radicals to operate openly in Islam's name with impunity, Islam has, sadly, become a terrorist organization. It pains me to say it. But the good news is it doesn't have to stay this way, if the vast majority of Muslims who don't support terror will step forward and reclaim their religion."

Plenty of people can -- and should -- take issue with the framing of the religion itself as a "terrorist organization." But his surrounding comments have more than a ring of truth. Islamic theology is used to promote violence. And in many parts of the world, radicals have taken control of Islam--and the moderates have been effectively silenced.

(Pastorius note: Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Sudan, Nigeria; just to name a few)

And Mr. Graham's desire that moderates reclaim control of Islam is shared by many, though likely not by CAIR or groups of its ilk.

CAIR was founded in 1994 by two former high-ranking officials with the Islamic Association of Palestine, a rabidly anti-Semitic organization known as Hamas' biggest political booster in the United States.

Since September 11, CAIR officials have been careful to avoid the appearance that they support Islamic terrorism. But not before September 11. In November 1999, CAIR President Omar Ahmad addressed a youth session at the IAP annual convention in Chicago, where he praised suicide bombers who "kill themselves for Islam": "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam ? that is not suicide. They kill themselves for Islam." (Transcript provided by the Investigative Project.)

People who are aware of this information need to band together and call on all radio and TV hosts, and other members of the media to stop consulting, and interviewing CAIR spokespeople.

Muslim Women Protest Against
The Islamofascist Government of Sudan

Get the whole story over at Atlas Shrugs.

Psalm 23

Lord, you are my provider and my guide. You will not abandon me to wander in need. With you, I luxuriate in lush fields of emerald and fragrance. You bring me down from the hills to rest by the mirrored plateau of your peace.

And you restore my soul.

You guide me along the exalted path; a parade of saints and spirits for your Name's sake.

Though there appears before my eyes visions of bones and dryness in a haunted land, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your Truth and Guidance gives me comfort, and sustains in me hope.

My enemies are nothing to me. No assailants, no doubt or fears, or anger can steal me away from you. Because, inside the temple of my body you have already lit the fire, and you have laid out the bread and the wine, and already I sit there, and feast with my Father and my Family.

My enemies are stunned and frightened by the vision, and they howl even more, but you have annointed my head with oil. I am sealed in you.

You have poured my cup to overflowing, and we dance and sing with You, and for You forevermore.

Pope Urges Muslim Leaders To Fight Terror

From Associated Press:

COLOGNE, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI decried the "cruel fanaticism" of terrorism Saturday and urged Muslims to join Christians in trying to combat its spread.

In blunt remarks, he told a gathering of Muslim officials in Germany that Muslim leaders had a "great responsibility" in properly educating their younger generations.

"I am certain that I echo your own thoughts when I bring up as one of our concerns the spread of terrorism," Benedict told the Muslim leadership, mainly Turks, in his most extensive remarks on terrorism during his four-month papacy.

"Terrorist activity is continually recurring in various parts of the world, sowing death and destruction, and plunging many of our brothers and sisters into grief and despair."

Benedict did not mention specific attacks or assess blame, but it appeared significant that he chose a Muslim audience for his remarks on terrorism.

"Those who instigate and plan these attacks evidently wish to poison our relations, making use of all means, including religion, to oppose every attempt to build a peaceful, fair and serene life together," he said.

The meeting, during Benedict's four-day trip to Germany for World Youth Day, was part of the pope's outreach to non-Catholics to achieve common positions on social issues and world peace. There are some 3.5 million Muslims in Germany, one of the highest figures in western Europe.

Going into Saturday's meeting, he had been cautious about making any links between terrorism and Islam, rejecting the idea that the world faced a "clash of civilizations" and reportedly overruling an aide who wanted to brand the July 7 London bombings as anti-Christian.

But in warning Saturday that the world risked exposure to "the darkness of a new barbarism," he stressed that Muslim leaders must "guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith."

"Teaching is the vehicle through which ideas and convictions are transmitted. Words are highly influential in the education of the mind. You, therefore, have a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation," the pontiff said.

By working together, Catholics and Muslims could "turn back the wave of cruel fanaticism that endangers the lives of so many people and hinders progress toward world peace," he said.

The pope spoke of terrorism striking in "various parts of the world" but did not mention any specific attacks.

Israel sharply criticized the Vatican last month after Benedict condemned terrorist attacks in Britain, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey but did not mention a suicide bombing in Israel that killed five Israelis.

Benedict also alluded to another of his themes — the need for reciprocity in religious freedom for Christians and other minorities in some Islamic countries. He did not name any but said "the defense of religious freedom ... is a permanent imperative and respect for minorities is a clear sign of true civilization."

Something Smells Like Shit In Iraq

I use the profanity in the title because I want to shock you, and make you take notice of this. Of all the posts that I have written on CUANAS since I started this blog 17 months back, this is among the most bitter.

News comes today that the Iraqi Constitution is more than likely going to enshrine Sharia as "the" source of law in Iraq. From Little Green Footballs:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. diplomats have conceded ground to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraq, negotiators said on Saturday as they raced to meet a 48-hour deadline to draft a constitution under intense U.S. pressure.

U.S. diplomats, who have insisted the constitution must enshrine ideals of equal rights and democracy, declined comment.

Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish negotiators all said there was accord on a bigger role for Islamic law than Iraq had before.

But a secular Kurdish politician said Kurds opposed making Islam “the,” not “a,” main source of law — changing current wording — and subjecting all legislation to a religious test.

“We understand the Americans have sided with the Shi’ites,” he said. “It’s shocking. It doesn’t fit American values. They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state ... I can’t believe that’s what the Americans really want or what the American people want.”

I have noted over the past few weeks, on a few occasions, that things looked like they might be going in this direction. I have made the point that, if this is what will happen, we have wasted huge amounts of blood and money.

Charles at Little Green Footballs put it this way:

... if it’s even remotely accurate this is bad. Very bad.

Yes, it is.

If we allow this to happen, then I think we need to start thinking differently about George Bush and his Administration. I don't know what to think, honestly.

Is he afraid because he believes the media has defeated him, and turned the American people against his project?

Has he lost his resolve?

Or, has it all been lip service from the beginning?

I think we need to consider the following perspective (offered by commenter Bob W., at the blog Israpundit):

I have a hunch - regardless of what the Washington Post writes - that America's critical strategic objectives in Iraq were already obtained.

The first strategic objective was to keep the oil trade denominated in US dollars. The Euro lost out. The second strategic objective was to build "lily pad" bases around the Arab oil fields and the Caspian pipeline. The Arab portion has since been completed. A third strategic objective was to reconfigure the US military. Although far from complete, it's already beyond the halfway mark.

Note that the Wash Post article addresses the domestic public concerns. Outside the floodlights of the US media, the USG now controls the pricing mechanism of OPEC Vienna.

I hope American readers don't think the recent price spikes for consumer gasoline (Does anyone think the Defense Fuel Agency recently experienced a bona fide price increase because of contract acceleration clauses?!) is money going to the Arabs. Call a tax a tax and a shovel a shovel. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, USG debt service is benefiting from this recent de facto user tax.

So far the US oil lobby is on the top of the pile. They are well represented.

Much of Bob W.'s perspective sounds like conspiracy theory. For instance, I have a very hard time understanding how the Bush Administration could hide a "tax" in the price of gasosline. One would think such a thing would show up.

However, I do think it is possible that, while the Bush Admin. may have had Democratic goals for Iraq, and for the entirety of the war, those goals paled in comparison to more pragmatic and pressing goals involving economics and short-term National Security concerns.

Well, that is not acceptable, as far as I am concerned. This war has been far too expensive to have been ALL ABOUT US.

I would love to hear the perspective of others on this. Am I being too emotional here?

Friday, August 19, 2005

Jet in the sky

A jet draws patterns in the sky during a demonstration flight at the Moscow International Air Show at Zhukovsky, outside Moscow. (AFP/Denis Sinyakov)

What can we make of the emerging Russia-China-Iran Alliance?

Screwing With The Absolute
Labcoat Guys Go Faster Than The Speed of Light

Whatever God made, man will figure out how to manipulate:

Researchers in Switzerland have succeeded in breaking the cosmic speed limit by getting light to go faster than, well, light.

Or is it all an illusion?

Scientists have recently succeeded in doing all sorts of fancy things with light, including slowing it down and even stopping it all together.

Now a team at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland is controlling the speed of light using simple off-the-shelf optical fibers, without the aid of special media such as cold gases or crystalline solids like in other experiments.

“This has the enormous advantage of being a simple, inexpensive procedure that works at any wavelength,” said Luc Thévenaz, lead author of the study detailing the research.

Using a technique called Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, the researchers were able to slow down or ratchet up the speed of light like the gas pedal on a car. They succeeded in reducing the speed of light by almost a factor of 4 (although that’s still plenty fast at 46,500 miles per second), but even more dramatically, the team was also able to speed up the speed of light.

Light in a vacuum travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second, but a popular misconception is that, according to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, nothing in the universe can travel faster than this speed.

This seeming paradox can be resolved because a pulse of light is actually made up of many separate frequency components, each of which moves at their own velocities. This is known as the pulse’s phase velocity. If all the frequency components have the same phase velocity, then the overall pulse will also appear to move at that velocity.

However, if the components have different phase velocities, then the pulse’s overall velocity will depend on the relationships between the velocities of the separate components. If the velocities differ, the pulse is said to be moving at the group velocity.

By tweaking the relationship between phase velocities, it’s possible to adjust the group velocity and create the illusion that parts of the pulse are traveling faster than the speed of light.

One area where such an advance could be enormously beneficial is in the telecommunications industry.

Heh.

The Muslim March For Peace

Well, they said they were going to march for peace, anyway. From Little Green Footballs:

The idea of a “million Muslim march” event in Lodi by Muslims to publicly denounce terrorism has officially died, say those involved.

Envisioned in late June as a response to the allegations of terrorists in Lodi’s Muslim community, the idea drew the interest of Mayor John Beckman, conservative radio host Mark Williams, the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and local Muslims.

Interest waned, however, when it became apparent the deep division in Lodi’s Muslim community would make organizing such an event difficult if not impossible. It appears it has become impossible, as Beckman said this week the event will not be happening.

Meanwhile, the patience of people around the world is waning. Muslims can expect to experience increasing distrust from their fellow citizens unless they start taking some concrete steps to combat the Islamofascists who are stealing the credibility of their religion.

Here are some steps they could take:

1) start by contacting Christian churches, Jewish Synagogues, and Mormon Temples, and inviting them down to their mosques for a day of gathering up the hate material, and carting it to the recycling plant.

2) call the FBI every time they hear of Islamist terrorists recruiting people on campus or in a Mosque.

3) eject Imams and other speakers from Mosques when you hear them say things like this and this.

When mainstream Muslims start taking strong action against such hatred, then they can expect the level of respect for their community to rise dramatically. Until then, they can expect suspicion.

Pope Warns of Increase in Anti-Semitism

From Associated Press:

COLOGNE, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI warned Friday of rising anti-Semitism and hostility to foreigners, winning a standing ovation from members of Germany's oldest Jewish community during a visit to a rebuilt synagogue that had been destroyed by the Nazis.

With the shrill sound of a ram's horn and a choir chanting in Hebrew "peace be with you," Benedict became only the second pope to visit a synagogue, praying and remembering Holocaust victims.

"Today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of a general hostility toward foreigners," he said.

Benedict said progress had been made, but "much more remains to be done. We must come to know one another much more and much better."

He did not elaborate on his warning except to call for more vigilance, receiving loud applause from the audience after his remarks.

Earlier, Benedict stood quietly with his hands clasped during a Hebrew prayer before a memorial to the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany, and strode into the main hall as the choir sang, "Shalom alechem," or "peace be with you."

A shofar, or ram's horn, sounded as the pope sat down at the front. He then listened intently to the cantor's singing in the blue-domed Roonstrasse Synagogue, which was destroyed during the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.

Rabbi Netanel Teitlebaum called his visit "a step toward peace between all peoples."

The pope underlined his commitment to continue in the path of his predecessor, John Paul II, who made the first papal visit to a synagogue in Rome in 1986 and improved relations between Catholics and Jews.

"Today I, too, wish to reaffirm that I intend to continue on the path toward improved relations and friendship with the Jewish people, following the decisive lead given by John Paul II," said Benedict, who did much of the theological groundwork for John Paul's outreach while serving as a Vatican official in charge of doctrine.

Outreach to Jews and Muslims is one of the themes of Benedict's first foreign trip since his election as pope on April 19 in conjunction with the World Youth Day festival that has drawn over 300,000 young people to Cologne.

Progress had been made, he said, but "much more remains to be done. We must come to know one another much more and much better."

He did not say where or among whom he saw rising signs of anti-Semitism, but called simply for more vigilance and stressed the Roman Catholic Church's belief in the equality of all and respect for human life. He was answered with loud applause from the audience.

The German-born pope did not discuss his own personal experience of World War II — being unwillingly enrolled in the Hitler Youth as a teenager and risking execution by deserting the German army at the end of the war.

He was given a shofar as a gift from the congregation, which has roots going back to Roman times. Some 11,000 Jews from Cologne died in the Holocaust; the community has rebounded in the past decade with the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union and now numbers 5,000.
Benedict's visit appeared to have helped smooth over a dispute between the Vatican and Israel that arose after the Israeli government faulted Benedict for not mentioning attacks on Israelis in a recent condemnation of terrorism. The Vatican responded with a terse statement asking the Israelis not to tell the pope what to say.

Abraham Lehrer, a member of the synagogue board, said the controversy "did not cast any shadow over the synagogue visit."

He noted the presence in the front row of Israel's ambassador to Germany, Shimon Stein, calling that "a sign that the controversy has been overcome."

Benedict's remarks focused on the horror of the Holocaust, the common heritage of Christans and Jews, and the need for better relations to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

"In the 20th century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neo-paganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry," he said. "The result has passed into history as the Shoah," he said, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.

Yes, and now, here in the 21st century an insane racist ideology, born of the Jihadi ideology of Wahhabi Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood has given rise to another attempt to exterminate the Jews. Oh yes, and the infidels too.

It might have been nice for him to have mentioned that. There will be other opportunities, I'm sure.

I'm glad to see the Pope reaching out to the Jews in this way, but I am certainly not surprised.

Patriot Act, Schmatriot Act

Victor Davis Hanson compares the European reaction to terrorsm, to America's reaction:

We endlessly quarrel over the Patriot Act as an infringement of civil rights. "We are a nation of laws and liberties, not of a knock in the night," John Kerry intoned to Iowa votersduring the 2004 presidential primaries. "So it is time to end the era of John Ashcroft. That starts with replacing the Patriot Act with a new law that protects our people and our liberties at the same time."

Yet few Democratic senators, including John Kerry, now seem to want to repeal it. But in terms of what either the British or Dutch are doing, the Patriot Act is pretty tame.
We are hardly arresting Americans for inflammatory speech, closing down madrassas, or stripping suspect naturalized Americans from the Middle East of their citizenship — even in a war where the only real danger to the homeland seems to come from Islamicists who are planning our destruction through cells so far undetected often due to our past laxity.

Our European friends used to equate the Patriot Act with over-the-top cowboyism; now in their brave new judicial landscape it is becoming passé.

Well, yeah, and they are becoming like cowboys:

Leaked documents appear to contradict the official account of how police mistook a Brazilian man for a suicide bomber and shot him.

The papers, from the probe into Jean Charles de Menezes' death, and leaked to ITV, suggest he was restrained before being shot eight times.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was killed at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has said it will not comment on its investigation.

Public inquiry

The documents, including witness statements, also suggest Mr de Menezes did not hurdle the barrier at Stockwell tube station and was not wearing a padded jacket that could have concealed a bomb, as eyewitness reports previously suggested.

As Charles at LGF noted, the London police have succeeded in handing a HUGE propaganda victory to the radical Islamists.

How Many Times Must I Explain Myself
Before I Can Talk To The Boss?

Saudi Arabia says they will give their people voting rights ... in fifteen years. From the Washington Times:

Saudi King Abdullah promised Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a series of reforms that could give the desert kingdom an elected government within 10 to 15 years, says a senior U.S. official who was present when the two met in June.

"He professed to transform his country and talked about having a representative government within a decade or a decade and a half," said the official, who asked not to be named.

The 82-year-old king made the pledge during a June 20 visit by Miss Rice to the capital, Riyadh, when he was still crown prince and the kingdom's de facto ruler.

It is thought to be the first time a Saudi ruler has attached a timeline to moving toward a democratic process.

Okey doke.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Worldwide Islamic Rule In Seven Easy Steps

Thanks to AlwaysOnWatch for emailing me this Jihad Watch link about an Arab journalist who spent time with various Al Qaeda leaders. This is an example of a good Muslim using his status as a Muslim to get a real glimpse of Islamofascists with their guard down:

If there is anyone who might possibly have an inkling as to what al-Qaida are up to, it is the Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein. He has not only spent time in prison with al-Zarqawi, but has also managed make contact with many of the network's leaders. Based on correspondence with these sources, he has now brought out a book detailing the organization's master plan....

One of Hussein's most sensational sources for the book, according to what he told SPIEGEL Online, was Seif al-Adl. The Egyptian terrorist, who is suspected of taking part in the attacks on the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998, has a ransom of US$5 million on his head from the FBI. Secret services suspect that al-Adl is now in Iran....

An Islamic Caliphate in Seven Easy Steps

In the introduction, the Jordanian journalist writes, "I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future."

What he then describes between pages 202 and 213 is a scenario, proof both of the terrorists' blindness as well as their brutal single-mindedness. In seven phases the terror network hopes to establish an Islamic caliphate which the West will then be too weak to fight.

The First Phase Known as "the awakening" -- this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby "awakening" Muslims.

"The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaida as very successful," writes Hussein. "The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target." The terrorist network is also reported as being satisfied that its message can now be heard "everywhere."

The Second Phase "Opening Eyes" is, according to Hussein's definition, the period we are now in and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy aware of the "Islamic community."

Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaida wants an organization to develop into a movement. The network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an "army" set up there and bases established in other Arabic states.

The Third Phase - This is described as "Arising and Standing Up" and should last from 2007 to 2010. "There will be a focus on Syria," prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and -- even more explosive -- in Israel are predicted.

Al-Qaida's masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.

The Fourth Phase Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that al-Qaida will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments. The estimate is that "the creeping loss of the regimes' power will lead to a steady growth in strength within al-Qaida." At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.

The Fifth Phase - This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.

The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of "total confrontation." As soon as the caliphate has been declared the "Islamic army" it will instigate the "fight between the believers and the non-believers" which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.

The Seventh Phase This final stage is described as "definitive victory." Hussein writes that in the terrorists' eyes, because the rest of the world will be so beaten down by the "one-and-a-half billion Muslims," the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed. This phase should be completed by 2020, although the war shouldn't last longer than two years.

Report On The Gaza Pullout
Egypt To Post Troops Along Southern Border
To Stop Flow Of Weapons Into Gaza -
Palestinians Celebrate Jew-Free Territory

From Associated Press:

CAIRO, Egypt - Watching the dramatic footage of Israeli soldiers pulling Jewish settlers from synagogues Thursday, many Arabs cheered what they saw as a victory for the Palestinian cause while wondering how the Gaza withdrawal will reshuffle Mideast politics.

Egypt, meanwhile, was preparing to post hundreds of troops along the Gaza border to heighten security once Israeli troops leave. Around 450 Egyptian soldiers arrived Wednesday in the town of el-Arish, near the border.

The deployment increases Egypt's role in the future of the Gaza Strip and the wider peace process. Israel wants Egypt to ensure that weapons and other materials are not smuggled across the border to militant groups in Gaza.

Israel and the United States have said the degree to which the Palestinian leadership curtails militants and establishes control in Gaza after the Israeli departure will have an effect on future peace moves.

Cairo has given few details on the deployment, including when its troops will move into place. Israel is to complete the removal of its forces from the Mediterranean strip in about three weeks.

"This is an important opportunity to broaden the circle of peace in the area. Let me say that we see this not just as Gaza, but more than Gaza. If confidence can be rebuilt between Israelis and Palestinians, there's an opportunity to do more," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch after talks in Cairo with Egyptian Prime Minster Ahmed Nazief.

I see it that way too. I hope for peace. But, what are they doing on the Palestinian side?:

Arab satellite stations gave extensive coverage to the removal of settlers, particularly the most popular channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, which broadcast live footage from the scene. Al-Jazeera interviewed an Arab-speaking Israeli officer on how the evictions were proceeding.

In Lebanon, Al-Manar TV, the station of the Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah, cheered the settlers' removal with shows featuring Palestinian dances and clips of fighting from the Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, set to martial music.

Al-Manar's exuberant coverage brought up an implicit — but clear — parallel between the Gaza pullout and the 1990 Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon after years of bloody fighting with Hezbollah forces, giving both events the aura of victory by armed resistance.

Two top officials from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Khaled Mashaal and Osama Hamdan, met Thursday with Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the top Shiite Muslim cleric in Lebanon, to "thank him for his support of the Palestinian cause."

The Gaza withdrawal is a "real victory, and achievement, albeit limited in size, but with great consequences. We see in it good tidings ... a beginning of withdrawal, the beginning of retreat and the beginning of an ultimate triumph for the resistance," Meshaal said after the meeting, according to Al-Manar.

Still, many in the Arab world fear that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is withdrawing from Gaza only to strengthen his country's hold on the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as part of a future state.

In Jordan, university student Kameel al-Khalidi said the resistance of settlers to leaving Gaza "proves that Israelis nurture biblical dreams in Palestine."

Yes, this is true. There are hardcore Zionist Jews who do operate under the understanding that Israel is theirs because God gave it to them. If one were to poll Israelis and ask them if this is what they believe, one would find that far less then 10%, probably something more like 4% of Israelis believe that.

Meanwhile, Palestinians elected two political parties to lead them, both of whom publicly flaunt political charters which call for the utter destruction of Israel.

There is no moral equivalency here.

Despite concerns over the next steps, however, some said the end of the Gaza occupation marked a decisive change, proving that Israel can be forced to remove its settlements from Arab lands.

Yes, because there must be no Jews living in Arab lands. Question, how are these Arabs different than the Nazis who wanted Europe to be Judenrein?

How?

No Jews Allowed In Palestine

One might note that for a pro-Jewish, pro-Israel website, it is rare that CUANAS ever comments on the Gaza pullout, or any border issues for that matter. That's by design. The only comment I have is that I am happy that the Palestinians will finally have autonomy and control over a portion of land. I am happy that they will have, in effect, a state of Palestine, whether they choose to call it that or not.

However, there is one other thing to note about the Gaza pullout. David Horowitz, over at Front Page Magazine nails it on the head:

Forget for a moment all the strategic and geopolitical rationales for the Gaza pullout and consider the reason that the Jewish settlements in Gaza are an issue at all: Palestinian Arabs and indeed all the Arab states of the Middle East hate Jews. They hate Jews so ferociously that they can't live alongside them. Not even if there are 8,000 Jews living among 2 million Arabs.

By contrast there are more than million Arabs, Muslim and Christian, living safely in Israel where they enjoy more citizen rights than the Arabs living in any Arab country -- or for that matter the Muslims living in any Muslim country. But not a single Jew can live in a single Arab state.

The ethnic cleansing of the Jews from the Middle East began in 1921 when Churchill created the state of Jordan out of 80% of the Palestine mandate. The order creating the state of Jordan said no Jew is allowed to live on this land. That was what the Arabs wanted. No Jew should dirty this land. Seventy-percent of the population of Jordan is Palestinian Arabs. But they don't want Jordan as their Palestinian state because there are no Jews there to drive into the sea.

Palestinians have shown twice -- in 1948 and again in 2000 that they want to kill Jews more than they want a Palestinian state. Jew-hatred is the cause of the Middle East conflict and it is the only reason the Jews in Gaza are an issue at all.

Click the links to find out what happened in 1948 and 2000.

The Mind of Bin Laden

I have added a new blog to my blogroll called The Reform Club. A friend of mine recently was invited to join the staff of writers there, so I began reading. The Reform Club is a group journal which seems to offer a nice mix of high-minded commentary and intelligent humor.

Here, my friend Tom Van Dyke reminds us of the ideology of Osama Bin Laden by referring to his 1996 Fatwa declaring war on the United States:

"But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where--after vigorous propaganda about the power of the USA and its post cold war leadership of the new world order--you moved tens of thousands of international force, including twenty eight thousands American solders into Somalia. However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you.

Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the "heart" of every Muslim and a remedy to the "chests" of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu."

---from bin Laden's 1996 fatwa against the West

Tom's commentary is worth reading. Go check it out. He makes the point that Bin Laden's Fatwa makes it clear that weakness, not strength, feeds Jihadism. In a series of comments, Thlaloc takes issue with this assertion:

You are mistaken. Read all of OBL's words and you see clearly he's pissed off by the US forces in the Middle East and the support of Israel and the US intervention in arab countries internal concerns. Much more importantly those are the things that piss off moderate muslims and hence recruit for Al Qaeda.

I can't explain this to you any clearer: Terrorism is a tactic designed to defeat military strength.

The military option has always failed: Israel, Ireland, Iraq give us a nice window into that. Ireland also gives us a nice view that a terrorist threat can be overcome by deciding which of their demands are things that can be accepted and which can't. You accept those that are okay and thus cut their motivation. Or you deal with daily attacks like Israel and respond everytime with more force and thus perpetuate the cycle.

The IRA is an example that what I'm suggesting has worked at least once. Do you have a single example of a well established terrorist group being destroyed by military force?

That's a very good question. Thlaloc has framed the issue well. He has proved his intelligence.

Now, let me pose a question. Thlaloc rightly asserts that "Terrorism is a tactic to defeat military strength." Ok, so suppose the Nazis had chosen the tactic of Terrorism instead of using their military. Should the world have then have figured out a way to deal with the Nazis?

Read Bin Laden's statements and demands. He wants to establish a Caliphate (transnational Islamic superstate) which includes Andalusia (Spain). He wants to kill the Christians and the Jews. He wants to establish Sharia Law as the rule of the land.

How are Bin Laden's demands different from those of Hitler?

It is important to understand that Afghanistan and the Sudan are Bin Laden's models of the perfect state. I wonder if Thlaloc could find something to compromise with in such an ideology.

My answer to Thlaloc's points (because, as I said, they are intelligent) is, if a military response has not worked against terrorism in the past, then we need to find a different way to use our military. In fact, we have done that so far in the WoT. Our new tactics have worked to some extent. The enemy adapts. We adapt. Some days it looks like we're doing a good job, and other days we are frightened.

That's war.

But, all our doubts and fears do not take away from the fact that Bin Laden's list of demands are not something we can abide. He and his rabid followers need to be removed from the face of the Earth.

The Creation of Eurabia From Within

From the New Zealand Herald, via Fjordman:

I came across an article the other day which, in the light of the London bombings and other acts of Muslim terrorism in Western Europe, gave me cause to reflect afresh on the growing population of Muslims here in New Zealand.

The article, headed "The Islamisation of Europe", was written by Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, who is director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, the research arm of the Christian aid agency Barnabas Fund based in Pewsey, Wiltshire. According to Dr Sookhdeo, Europe is undergoing a rapid process of change as Muslims make their presence felt in politics, economics, law, education and the media.

Europe, he says, is being transformed into a society in which Islam takes its place not just as an equal with the many other faith communities but often as the dominant player. It is, says Dr Sookhdeo, not happening by chance but is the result of a careful and deliberate strategy by certain Muslim leaders which was planned in 1980 when the Islamic Council of Europe published a book called Muslim Communities in Non-Muslim States, which clearly explained the Islamic agenda in Europe.

The instructions given in the book told Muslims to get together and organise themselves into viable Muslim communities based on Islamic principles. This was the duty of every individual Muslim living in a non-Muslim country. They should set up mosques, community centres and Islamic schools.

At all costs they must avoid being assimilated by the majority, and to resist assimilation must group themselves geographically, forming areas of high Muslim concentration within the population as a whole. Yet they must also interact with non-Muslims so as to share the message of Islam with them.

The ultimate goal was for Muslims to become the majority and the entire nation be governed according to Islam.

Go here to read the rest.

Whither Goest Europe?

A radio station in Denmark proposed that the extent of radical Islamist infiltration of the Danish populace is so extensive that there are only two possible ways to solve the problem at this point; one is the mass expulsion of Muslims, and the other is to kill all extremist Muslims.

In a separate story the Danish branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir put out a flier calling for Muslims to kill Danish authorities and members of the Danish military.

The radio station immediately had their license suspended. Meanwhile, the Danish government is "looking to find a legal way" to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Now, note the distinctions in this story. The West, whether we want to admit it or not, is at war with Islamofascists, or to put it another way, we are at war with extremist Islam. So, a Danish radio station proposes two ways to deal with that fact; One, which does not involve killing Muslims, and the other which calls for killing only "extremist" Muslims.

Hizb ut-Tahrir called for the killing of Danish people with no distinctions, no contingencies. Just kill them.

Danish society has a way to deal with one problem, but not the other? How could that be? Isn't it clear that what Hizb ut-Tahrir did was worse than what the radio station did?

Go read the story from BBC.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

An Iraqi woman holds a poster explaining the procedures regarding the new Iraqi constitution in Najaf. Al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch launched an Internet campaign threatening Iraqis with death if they take part in the October referendum to approve the country's constitution.(AFP/Qassem Zein)

They Did What to Her Clitoris?
How Many?

We hear, all the time, about the horrors Islam brings upon it's people. When confronted with evil, the natural reaction of human beings is to attempt to disbelieve what we are confronted with. It is impossible to fathom, so it must not be true.

Hitler told the Jews what he was going to do to them. He wrote it in Mein Kampf and he proceeded to repeat it in speeches. But, the Jews, and in fact, the whole world, refused to believe what they were hearing.

Similarly, the Jihadis openly tell us they want to establish a transnational Caliphate ruled by Sharia Law, but we refuse to believe they mean it. They tell us they are charged by the Koran to kill Christians and Jews, but we don't listen.

Why do we not listen? Because it is impossible to fathom the idea that someone would want us dead because we are "Christians." Especially since many of us don't consider ourselves Christians.

Well, if you want to understand whether to believe them or not, here's a story that will give you nightmares. You may have already heard of Female Genital Mutilation. The name means the removal (usually using crude surgical techniques, and without anesthesia) of the clitoris. FGM is practiced by Muslims for the purpose of making sure women do not enjoy sex.

So, now, if you have heard of this practice, you probably have formed some opinion. You think it's awful, right? But, you probably don't think it is very widespread, right? C'mon, admit it.

Well, read this. From Little Green Footballs:

KIRKUK, IRAQ - Set on an arid plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like a place forsaken by time. Sheep amble past mud-brick houses and the odd sickly palm tree shades children’s games. There is no electricity.

Yet along with 39 other villages in this region that Iraq’s Kurds have named Germian (meaning hot place), Hasira and its people have become noted for presenting the first statistical evidence in Iraq of the existence of female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as critics call it.

“We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice,” says Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, director of a German nongovernmental organization called WADI, which has been based in Iraq for more than a decade.

Of 1,554 women and girls over 10 years old interviewed by WADI’s local medical team, 907, or more than 60 percent, said they had had the operation.

The practice is known to exist throughout the Middle East, particularly in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, and Iraq. There is also circumstantial evidence to suggest it is present in Syria, western Iran, and southern Turkey.

But while this practice was suspected in the region, there was never solid proof that the procedure was so prevalent.

The Global War on Terror is a war to free women from the slavery of Islam. It is among the most just wars ever fought in the history of the world.

May God hold everyone of us accountable. We can not allow this to go on anymore.

How Pakistan's Dr. X
Gave al-Qaida Islamic Bomb

World Net Daily claims that the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb has already given nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda:

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father of the Islamic bomb" and the "godfather of nuclear proliferation," provided nuclear expertise, nuclear materials, and designs for atomic weapons to Osama bin Laden ...

News about Dr. Khan's involvement with al-Qaida and the American Hiroshima plan first emerged with the capture of several al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan in October 2001, during the first phase of Operation Enduring Freedom, and, later, with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, bin Laden's military operations chief, in Karachi, Pakistan, March 2, 2003.

From Khalid Mohammad's laptop, CIA officials uncovered details of al-Qaida's plan to create a series of "nuclear hell storms" throughout the United States.

After days of interrogation coupled with severe sleep deprivation, Khalid Mohammad told U.S. intelligence officials that the chain of command for the "American Hiroshima" answered directly to bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and a mysterious scientist whom he, at first, referred to as "Dr. X," but later identified as Dr. Khan.

Tim Burger and Tim McGirk in the May 12, 2003, edition of Time managed to confirm that at least one meeting between Dr. Khan and bin Laden occurred within a safe house in Kabul.

More information was squeezed out of Khalid Mohammad in subsequent months, including accounts of continuous visits by bin Laden and company to the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan, where they gained the assistance of such renowned nuclear physicists, including Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission.
Dr. Mahmood's Confession

Mahmood was taken into custody by Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence and CIA agents Oct. 23, 2001. After months of questioning, Mahmood at last admitted that he had met with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and other al-Qaida officials on several occasions, including the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001, to discuss the means of speeding up the process of manufacturing nukes from the highly enriched uranium that al-Qaida had obtained from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and other sources.

Mahmood insisted that he had provided answers to technical questions concerning tactical nuclear weapons but declined to provide bin Laden actual hands-on help for the creation of such devices. Upon voicing this denial, Mahmood was subjected to six lie-detector tests. He failed them all.

Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, PAEC's chief engineer, admitted that he met with bin Laden and other al-Qaida officials on a regular basis to provide technical assistance for the construction and care of its nuclear weapons. Dr. Mirza Yusuf Baig, another PAEC engineer, made a similar confession.

... the interrogations of the Pakistani scientists, coupled with findings from Dr. Mahmood's office for "charitable affairs" in Kabul, verified for the CIA that al-Qaida had produced several nuclear weapons from highly enriched uranium and plutonium pellets the size of silver dollars at Khan's facilities. At least one of these weapons was transported to Karachi where it was shipped to the United States in a cargo container.

The story of the deployed nuke was reported by Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times Dec. 10, 2001. It was carried by United Press International but received little play in the national press and garnered scant attention from such major news outlets as ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN.

The whereabouts of the weapon remains a mystery.

There are more than 18 million cargo containers that pass through U.S. ports every year. Only 3% of them are inspected.

Jihad Roundup

As if they weren't already abusing the Human Rights of mass-murder advocates enough, now Britain is going to expel even more Jihadis:

The Home Secretary said that further expulsions were imminent and that it would be “absolutely foolish” to assume that there will not be a third terrorist attack in London.

The security services and immigration officials are understood to have drawn up a list of foreign extremists to be deported. Many are understood to be young clerics who have come in recent years from Pakistan and North Africa. These so-called preachers of hate are not as well known as clerics such as Abu Qatada and Omar Bakri Mohammed but are seen as stirring up hatred and extremism among young followers.

Muslim leaders have been consulted about a number of the suspects who are expected to be arrested shortly. Their identities are being kept secret for fear that the men may go into hiding before arrests can be made.

As well as clerics, the list is understood to include owners of radical Islamic bookshops, writers, a number of teachers and website operators of different nationalities....

In future unacceptable behaviour will include fomenting terrorism or seeking to provoke others to terror, justifying terrorism, fomenting other serious criminal activity, fostering hatred which may lead to intra-community violence, advocating violence in support of particular beliefs and expressing what the Government considers to be extreme views conflicting with Britain’s culture of tolerance.

It will apply to anyone preaching, public speeches, websites and those writing, publishing or distributing such material. British diplomats have been told to speed up their negotiations to get more countries to sign a deal to take militants who have been expelled.

I think you can bet that if the police are "consulting" with the Muslim community on information which they want kept from the Jihadis, it ain't gonna happen.

Yesterday, I featured a post on a condemnation of the new British terrorism laws, released by "moderate" Muslims. In their condemnation they said the following:

It is natural for Muslims to feel sympathy with fellow Muslims elsewhere in the world and to desire justice for those of them living under oppression.

In other words, they are Muslim before they are British. And they do consider these new terrorism laws to be oppressive, so they will decline to help. I can guarantee it.

And while we are on the subject of Tony Blair's new terrorism policies, let us examine one of the Islamic extremist groups he wants to ban:

The London bombings have prompted the UK government to outlaw Hizb ut Tahrir - a radical Islamic group that wants to replace secular governments with an Islamic Caliphate, or super-state run according to Sharia Law.

The group is particularly strong in Central Asia, where it believes it may take the first steps towards establishing its Caliphate.

High in the mountains of poverty-stricken Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia a bearded man with a fierce gaze slices a watermelon. It is a very colourful sight - red drops of juice on the green carpet, with the glistening snow-covered peaks in the distance.

"In this village, people trust us, not the authorities," says Nur Mohammed, a local leader of Hizb ut Tahrir, which is also banned in Kyrgyzstan.

"Everybody here knows that we will solve their problems quickly and in strict accordance with the Koran. And this suits people a lot better than the slow, bureaucratic and often expensive official route."...

"We have already won the battles on prostitution, drink and robbery," says Nur Mohammed.

"All we do is talk to people about the Koran. Sometimes, it requires more than just the skill of persuasion - but in the end, we do come out on top.

But for Hizb ut Tahrir, battles for hearts and minds in small villages like Arslanbob are just routine. The organisation aims much higher.

"All Muslims in the world already want to live in a Caliphate, under Sharia law," he says. "It will be a huge state, a very powerful state. Even now you are all afraid of us - America, Israel, you in the UK too."

Meanwhile, the confederation of "moderate" British Muslim groups says there is nothing wrong with that:

To equate "extremism" with the aspirations of Muslims for Sharia laws in the Muslim world or the desire to see unification towards a Caliphate in the Muslim lands, as seemed to be misrepresented by the prime minister, is inaccurate and disingenuous.

The proposal to ban the non-violent organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir is, in our view, unwarranted, unjust and unwise, and runs counter to all the principles which Western democracies are currently trying to promote abroad.

Yes, that's right, they believe there is nothing wrong with the idea of creating a Muslim superstate, made up of formerly secular countries, where Sharia Law will rule.

Don't worry about the Caliphate, infidels. It's nothing to lose your head over.

And, if you think the British are doing a good job with their new terrorism policies (and I do), then you will truly be blown away by the Italians:

ROME — Italian police have arrested 141 people in raids at Islamic gathering places across the country, but the country remains at an "elevated risk" for a terrorist attack, the government said Monday.

Police sweeps recently, including raids across Italy on Friday and Saturday, brought the arrests of 141 people, the Interior Ministry said. Two of those arrests were for possession of false documents under a new law stepping up anti-terrorism crackdowns after the London transit attacks last month.

The ministry said others were arrested for suspected robberies or thefts and other "common crimes" but that none of the suspects had immediately been linked to terrorism.

Targeted in the raids were "Islamic gathering places: call centers, Internet Points, Islamic butcher shops and money transfer business," the ministry statement said.

But, that was yesterday. Today comes the news that the Italians have targeted 700 militants for expulsion:

ISN SECURITY WATCH (16/08/05) – The Italian police on Monday said they had arrested more than 100 suspected Muslim militants and planned to expel hundreds more in a massive “anti-terror” sweep made possible by new legislation granting broader powers to police.

More than 141 suspected militants have been arrested, and officials claim to have questioned 32,000 suspects since the introduction of new anti-terrorism legislation last month.

In late July, the Italian parliament passed legislation granting greater powers to police and making it easier to detain people on suspicion of membership in a militant group. Civil liberties groups have harshly criticized the legislation.

The move comes only weeks after one of the suspects in the failed 21 July attack on the London transport system, Hussain Osman, was detained in Rome. Osman is among 701 people Italy plans to expel or extradite for alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

Now, all of Western Civilization needs to learn how to give the Jihadis the big Italian boot in the ass.

Maybe It Wasn't Terrorism

I'm starting to think the Cypress airliner that went down the other day was probably not the victim of terrorism. It all still sounds fishy, but I think the problems were more liley issues of improper mainetenance, rather than terrorism. In addition, shoddy communications and reporting has added to the aura of mystery.

From CNN:

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A crew member or passenger may have made a last, desperate attempt to save a Cypriot passenger jet before it crashed into a mountainside north of Athens, killing all 121 people aboard, Greek media reported Wednesday.

The reports came as families in Cyprus began burying victims of the Helios Airways crash Sunday. Investigators were trying to determine whether anything on board made the passengers and crew lose consciousness before the plane went down. They were also looking into prior reports of technical problems.

Two Greek air force F-16 jets scrambled after the Helios flight lost radio contact flew by the airliner over the Aegean Sea. The F-16 pilots reported seeing someone in the cockpit - probably a man - take control of the plane as is flew in a gradually descending holding pattern, apparently on autopilot, at about 37,000 feet near Athens airport.

That person then banked the plane away from Athens, lowering it first to 2,000 feet and then climbing back up to 7,000 feet before the plane apparently ran out of fuel and crashed, state-run NET television reported, quoting unnamed Defense Ministry sources.

Greek government and military officials refused to comment until the end of the investigation. Officials have not released any information about the last half-hour of the flight or what the F-16 pilots reported about how the plane crashed.

Relatives have said one of the flight attendants, 25-year-old Andreas Prodromou, had a pilot's license. But chief investigator Akrivos Tsolakis said only that someone on board other than the pilot and co-pilot was qualified to fly.

Coroners said the only identified flight attendant found near the wreckage was Louiza Vouteri. The plane went down near the village of Grammatiko, 25 miles north of Athens.

The F-16 pilots also reported seeing the co-pilot slumped on his seat, the pilot missing from his position and two other people in the cockpit, apparently trying to take control of the plane. It was unclear if that included the person which media reports said tried to fly the plane.

The mystery surrounding the cause of the plane crash and reports that the aircraft had past technical problems further angered grieving family members.

Relatives and politicians attending the funeral of co-pilot Pambos Haralambous in Cyprus demanded punishment for anyone found responsible for the disaster.

Haralambous' son, Yiannis, said his father, a flight engineer and pilot for 25 years, kept a detailed diary of his flights.

``He told me that if his diary was published then the company (Helios) would close,'' he said in a TV interview before the funeral. The diary was believed to be missing in the wreckage.

Autopsy results on 26 bodies showed that the passengers and at least two crew members - including the co-pilot - were alive when the plane crashed. Coroners hoped further tests would show whether toxic gases possibly had rendered them unconscious.

Coroners also said a 5-year-old boy was alive for a second after the plane went down. An autopsy on his burned body revealed he inhaled soot from a fire sparked by the crash; later tests showed he inhaled only a small amount of soot, consistent with drawing his last breath.

Investigators were still searching for the remains of three people. Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition from a brush fire sparked by the crash, and DNA analysis will be necessary for identification.

The plane's flight data recorder and the remains of the badly damaged voice recorder are being examined in Paris.

Investigators were also looking into claims that the plane had suffered technical problems in the past.

A former chief mechanic for Helios, Kyriakos Pilavakis, said the Boeing 737-300 had lost cabin pressure during a flight from Warsaw in December, after a door apparently was not sealed properly.

Obviously, something made the co-pilot lose conciousness, but it could very well have been an exhaust/oxygen probelm, or some other toxic gas. I wouldn't have any idea how such a thing could happen, but there is too much evidence coming out to suggest any kind of coverup, or even the kind of hesitancy one would expect, if this were related to terrorism.

In addition, it now seems clear that the reason they can't find the pilots body is because it was burned beyond recognition. That woudn't be at all surprising.

United Nations Funds Anti-Israel Propaganda

Now, the United Nations is funding anti-Israel propaganda. Here's the post from Little Green Footballs, because sometimes Charles just puts it so perfectly:

The United Nations truly has hit bottom now—directly funding anti-Israel propaganda, and then brushing it off as insignificant when they’re caught: United Nations Bankrolled Latest Anti-israel Propaganda.

The United Nations bankrolled the production of thousands of banners, bumper stickers, mugs, and T-shirts bearing the slogan “Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem,” which have been widely distributed to Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip, according to a U.N. official.

The U.N. support of the Palestinian Authority’s propaganda operation in the midst of the Israeli evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip has provoked outrage from Israeli and Jewish leaders, who are blaming Turtle Bay for propagating an inflammatory message that they say encourages Palestinian Arab violence. ...

A special representative of the United Nations Development Program in the Gaza Strip, Timothy Rothermel, told Fox News that his office provided financial support for the production of materials that make up the Palestinian Authority’s propaganda campaign, timed to coincide with the Gaza pullout. The Palestinian Authority’s withdrawal committee developed and produced the posters and other items using U.N. money, Mr. Rothermel said.

In addition to the slogan “Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem,” many of the materials displayed the logo of the United Nations Development Program, which operates in 166 countries and spends about half a billion dollars a year.

Asked by a Fox News correspondent about one of the banners bearing the words implying an impending Palestinian Arab takeover of the disputed areas, Mr. Rothermel, said, “That particular poster was prepared by the disengagement office with financial support from the United Nations Development Program.”

UNDP officials at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, however, denied that money from the program went directly to the propaganda campaign.

A UNDP spokesman, William Orme, said his office gave money to the Palestinian Withdrawal Committee to “help the Palestinian Authority communicate to the populace about the withdrawal and its economic and social impact.”

The money was funneled to the committee through a subagency called Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People. U.N. officials were not told about the propaganda campaign or about the slogan, he said.

And there is an interesting admission, as the United Nations claims they have no idea how the Palestinians are spending their money.

CAIR Has An Obligation To America

Mychal Massie, writing in WND, says we have the right to know about the Council on American/Islamic Relations (CAIR):

Conventional wisdom would dictate if you, your group-organization and/or religion as a whole were viewed with contempt by some, skepticism by many and distrust by nearly all, it would be prudent to try to diffuse ill-will.

But said logic is not part of a reasoned thought process when it comes to the Council on American-Islamic Relations – at least, it doesn't appear to be part of Ibrahim Hooper's, their director of communication.

Appearing on my talk show "Straight Talk with Mychal Massie," Mr. Hooper displayed the character of a petulant child as he feigned indignation so as to cut short the interview that would have forced him to articulate the truth of his position.

In less than five minutes of air time, the person responsible for putting forth a favorable presentation of CAIR hung up, leaving the audience with nothing to warrant a change in opinion of him, his organization or his religion.

I had assured the gentleman prior to his agreeing to appear that I would not seek to embarrass or diminish him, but I also assured him I would ask straightforward questions. His rhetoric almost immediately degenerated into a puerile phonemic tirade, with him accusing me of "advocating genocide" and of saying "every Muslim on the planet is a member of terrorist organization." He fomented: "You'd kill me, you'd kill my family, you'd kill every member of my mosque ..." – none of which had I even remotely suggested. I submit he is in a much better position to know who within his element is a terrorist than I.

CAIR and Mr. Hooper have an obligation to prove senators like Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrong when he says: "[CAIR is] unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect." And Sen. Chuck Schumer, when he says: "We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism."

CAIR and Hooper have an obligation to the citizens of America and those who lost loved ones on 9-11 to explain why CAIR refused to endorse a rally against terror sponsored by the Free Muslims and 80 other supporting organizations. If as Hooper and CAIR want people to believe Muslims are a pastoral, homogenic group wishing no one harm, why are they not shouting this at every opportunity?

Hooper took offense when I pointed out that of the 400-plus recognized terrorist groups in the world, over 90 percent were Islamist groups. (Peaceful religion is not spelled I-s-l-a-m). But the fact remains it isn't the Amish, the Mennonites or the Seventh Day Adventists who are beheading innocent people and murdering innocent women and children – it is Muslims. It was not the Methodists who celebrated the dastardly attacks of 9-11 during candlelight vigils on certain college campuses – it was Muslims.

CAIR may think it fair to accuse anyone who questions, doubts or seeks validation of their integrity of suggesting every Muslim is a terrorist. But in reality, it is fair to raise the question of how a devout Muslim can also be a loyal citizen of an infidel state like America.

CAIR may back a fatwa against terror along with other Muslim leaders, groups and institutions – they may say that Islam condemns violence against innocent lives and civilians. But they don't say whether or not those innocent lives are Baptist, Buddhist, Pentecostal or other Muslims. That distinction is not made.

America has a right to know why members of CAIR's leadership have been deported and convicted of pro-terrorist crimes. Is it wrong to question why in America they need a civil-rights organization to funnel money through?

Hooper has an obligation to publicly denounce Muslim hatred toward the West. He has an obligation to openly and unambiguously renounce every form of barbaric terrorism. He has an obligation to shed all vestiges of doubt pursuant to where Muslim loyalties lie in America.

Hooper and CAIR would do well by encouraging Muslims to help the London Police, to share information about bin Laden's whereabouts and to condemn immediately all who practice anti-Semitism.

But he won't, because he can't – the intent of Islam is for the world to be subdued under Islamic rule. And that will only come about by Shariah Law, because a free people will not be ruled by sanguineous zealots who have nothing to offer save hatred, violence and extremism.

Go here to listen to Mr. Massie's radio program.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I don't think the word "cute" has ever been used here on the CUANAS blog. Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose.

Love-Based Sufi Islam Thrives In Pakistan

This is good news. From Fjordman:

The mystical form of Islam espoused by Sufi saints for hundreds of years continues to thrive in Pakistan despite opposition from religious hardliners and the authorities. As the sun sets on a Thursday evening, hundreds of working class people descend on a shrine to the eighth-century mystic, Abdullah Shah Ghazi, in Karachi.

The shrine is located on a hill in the upmarket Clifton district of Pakistan's financial capital, flanked by swanky shopping malls and the posh residential area of Defence. In the grounds below the shrine gather electricians, plumbers, construction workers, vagabonds, transvestites, prostitutes. Encircled by a cheering crowd, men take turns in a weightlifting competition.

Sufism has historically provided Islam with an alternative to orthodoxy and has won it most of its converts. Sufi saints created mass appeal through their merging with pre-existing faiths of the region and their ability to align themselves with popular interests.

That's not all. Sufi Islam is a love-based relgion. In it's emphasis on love as being central to understanding God, and to having a relationship with Him, it is in a category of two; itself and Christianity.

Sufism combines this emphasis on love with a Hindu-like mysticism. Here's some more information:

The central concept in Sufism is "love". Dervishes -- the name given to initiates of sufi orders -- believe that love is a projection of the essence of God to the universe. They believe that God desires to recognize beauty, and as if one looks at a mirror to see oneself, God "looks" at himself within the dynamics of nature.

From what I know of Sufism, it is among the most peaceful of religions. Could Sufism save Islam?

British Muslim Groups Say
There Is Nothing Extreme About Sharia

The Islamofascists best friend in the newspaper business, The Guardian, today published this joint statement from the Muslim community in Britain:

As members of the Muslim community the undersigned individuals and organisations feel the need to communicate our view regarding some of the recently proposed antiterrorism measures in the aftermath of the London bombings, and address statements made by the prime minister in the past few weeks. We fear that recent events are being exploited by some sections in society to demonise legitimate Islamic values and beliefs and hence consider it appropriate to make the following observations:

1. The term "extremism", frequently used in the public discourse about religion and terrorism, has no tangible legal meaning or definition and is thus unhelpful and emotive. To equate "extremism" with the aspirations of Muslims for Sharia laws in the Muslim world or the desire to see unification towards a Caliphate in the Muslim lands, as seemed to be misrepresented by the prime minister, is inaccurate and disingenuous. It indicates ignorance of what the Sharia is and what a Caliphate is and will alienate and victimise the Muslim community unnecessarily.

2. The Muslim community in Britain has unequivocally denounced acts of terrorism. However, the right of people anywhere in the world to resist invasion and occupation is legitimate. Therefore the proposal to criminalise "justification" or "validation" of such self defence appears to be intended to stifle discussion about, and support for, such resistance. Thus anyone even verbally opposing the illegal invasion of Iraq, for example, could in future be made out to be justifying and supporting "acts of terrorism" and prosecuted. We are concerned that these proposed measures are intended to prevent the popular opposition witnessed in the run-up to the Iraq war should the United States wish to attack Iran, Syria or any other sovereign nation in the near future.

In other words, they want to have the right to encourage their believers to attack British and American troops in Iraq. If these people are citizens, then they would be hanged for treason. If they are not citizens they should leave Britain.

It is insane to expect Britain, or any other country to allow people within their borders to advocate attacks against their own armed forces.

3. It is natural for Muslims to feel sympathy with fellow Muslims elsewhere in the world and to desire justice for those of them living under oppression. Many people compare the Israeli reality with South African apartheid and demand a similar solution. To denounce anybody who questions the legitimacy of Israel will be seen as an attempt to silence academic thought and legitimate political expression. If the government hopes to pander to Zionist pressure by condemning and excluding from this country people who are critical of Israeli apartheid, it is in fact supporting apartheid.

In other words, they are Muslims before they are British. When they see poor Iraqis being oppressed, they want to have the right to encourage believers to take up arms against Britain.

4. The proposal to ban the non-violent organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir is, in our view, unwarranted, unjust and unwise, and runs counter to all the principles which Western democracies are currently trying to promote abroad. Any disagreement with a political organisation must be expressed through debate not censorship. Whatever objections one may have to someone else's point of view, we must uphold their right to hold and articulate those views. If it is suggested that any laws have been broken by any individuals or groups then this must be proven by due legal process. Criminalising the mere possession of certain opinions is the hallmark of dictatorships, not democracies.

5. The same reasoning applies to the proposal to close mosques if they are arbitrarily defined as being "extremist" or to try and politically influence what may or may not be said during a religious talk. This would amount to a collective punishment of the community and will be likely to create fear and prevent legitimate political discussion within mosques. This repression could lead to the very radical subculture which we all seek to prevent.

Doesn't that sound a bit like a threat?

6. The proposal to deport and/or extradite foreign nationals to countries known for gross human rights abuses is abhorrent to a civilised nation, irrelevant of whether or not a diplomatic assurance that deportees will not be mistreated is obtained.

This recent move comes across as a cynical attempt to resolve the problem of dealing with those currently under "control orders" after the judiciary found their continued detention without trial to be unlawful. Given that the alleged bombers on July 7 in London were British nationals, such an exploitation of the events to move against foreign nationals as well as unwanted asylum seekers is indeed shameful.

This list of concerns is not conclusive, but we are putting these issues forward to help prevent a knee-jerk reaction to recent events which would drive a rift between communities in the UK and set the course of British politics onto the slippery slope of intellectual censorship and totalitarianism.

Basically, what they are saying to Britain here is don't impose your totalitarianism. We have a better totalitarianism in mind for you.

Here's some info about the Sharia Law they want to impose:

The authority of Sharia is drawn from two primary sources, as well as two other sources. The first major source is the specific guidance in the Qur'an, and the second source is the Sunnah, literally the 'Way', i.e. the way that Muhammad (the Prophet of Islam) lived his life. (The compilation of all that Muhammad said, did or approved of is called the Hadith.) A lesser source of authority is Qiyas, which is the extension by analogy of existing Sharia law to new situations. Finally Sharia law can be based on ijma, or consensus.

There is tremendous variation in the interpretation and implementation of Islamic laws in Muslim societies today. Some believe that colonialism, which often replaced religious laws with secular ones, has caused this variation. More recently, liberal movements within Islam have questioned the relevance and applicability of sharia from a variety of perspectives. As a result, several of the countries with the largest Muslim populations, including Indonesia, Bangladesh and India, have largely secular constitutions and laws, with only a few Islamic provisions in family law. Turkey has a constitution that is strongly secular.

Likewise, most countries of the Middle East and North Africa maintain a dual system of secular courts and religious courts, in which the religious courts mainly regulate marriage and inheritance.

Saudi Arabia and Iran maintain religious courts for all aspects of jurisprudence. Sharia is also used in Sudan, Libya and for a time in modern Afghanistan. Some states in northern Nigeria have reintroduced Sharia courts.

In practice the new Sharia courts in Nigeria have most often meant the re-introduction of relatively harsh punishments without respecting the much tougher rules of evidence and testimony, such as the necessity of four eyewitnesses, with a woman's testimony counting no less than that of a man. The punishments include amputation of one/both hand(s) for theft and stoning for adultery.

So, in other words Sharia can include such punishments, in the worst case scenario, and it does in several major countries. But, usually all Sharia applies to is marriage and inheritance. In other words, it is usually only used to oppress women:

According to the Sharia, despite declarations of the equality of the sexes before God, women are considered inferior to men, and have fewer rights and responsibilities. A woman counts as half a man in giving evidence in a court of law, or in matters of inheritance. Her position is less advantageous than a man’s with regard to marriage and divorce. A husband has the moral and religious right and duty to beat his wives for disobedience or for perceived misconduct. A woman does not have the right to choose her husband, or her place of residence, to travel freely or have freedom in her choice of clothing. Women have little or no autonomy and are deemed to need the protection of their fathers, husbands or other male relatives throughout their lives. Any conduct that undermines the idea of male supremacy will fall foul of the Sharia.

The legal age of marriage varies from country to country, ranging from 9 in Iran to 13, 15 or 17 (in Tunisia). This follows from the marriage of Mohammed to Aisha, a 9-year-old girl, when the Prophet was 53. It should be noted, however, that the Prophet was allowed many actions by Allah that were denied to the other faithful, and not all Muslim scholars would accept the Aisha marriage as a precedent.

The various Sunni schools of law and that of the Shi'ites differ on a number of points important to women. In all schools, however, marriage is a contract according to which the husband should perform sexually and provide materially for the wife. The wife must have sex whenever the husband wishes. A man can easily divorce a woman by pronouncing that he is divorcing her three times. Polygamy with up to four wives is permitted, and in the Shi'ite sect, temporary marriage is allowed whereby a man can have access to an unlimited number of women. The practice is known as Mot'a or Sigheh. Men are also permitted concubines and female slaves.
In many Islamic countries a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim man whereas Muslim men are allowed to marry non-Muslim women. With the object of protecting morality and preventing sexual anarchy, women are expected to cover their whole bodies bar their faces and their hands up to their wrists. The Sharia is totally opposed to freedom of dress – for women. This is obviously a huge barrier to the personal development of women, not allowing them to develop sexually and as people. It is inhumane to imprison women behind veils when it is the men who according to Islamic law cannot be trusted to control themselves. On the pretext of protecting their honor women are kept locked up, isolated and unable to enjoy a full life or to develop their potential.

In order to protect their morality women can have no contact with men to whom they are not related without the presence of a male relative. The segregation of sexes in this way makes it very difficult for women to leave their houses and participate in society in any way at all. Under the Taliban many war widows were forced into starvation. Their crime? Had they prayed harder their husbands would have survived!

Many apologists for Islam, women among them, argue that women are happy in their roles in Islamic society, happy to be afforded the protection of their menfolk and to be kept away from the gaze of other men. But this of course is a false argument. If some women want to stay at home under the protection of their men they can do so. But do the apologists for Islam have the right to tell all other women, including non-Muslims, how they should behave? Women deserve to be treated as autonomous human beings and for this reason alone misogynistic Political Islam and its imposition of the Sharia should be opposed.

How can they say with a straight face that the desire to implement Sharia is not "extremism?"

Well, they can, because they are extremists.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Love Your Enemy

From Little Green Footballs:

The implementation of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip marks “the beginning of the end for Israel,” said Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Mashaal.

Speaking to al-Hayat newspaper, Mashaal was quoted as saying on Tuesday that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as “the beginning of the end for the Zionist program in the region.”

The Hamas leader reiterated the movement’s commitment to the calm with Israel until the end of the current year, but added the “resistance is a strategic choice, because the withdrawal from Gaza is the first step in the way to complete liberation.”

The Damascus-based official stressed that “Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants the Gaza exit to be the first and last, and the payment for the continued control in the West Bank, settlement construction, wall construction, and the annulment of any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state within the framework of the Zionist project to end the Palestinian issue with the unlimited US support,” adding “We, however, see the withdrawal as first step for full liberation and achieving all of our legitimate rights. Today Gaza and tomorrow the West Bank and later every inch of the land.”

Man, you gotta love your enemies, when they tell the truth. Thanks Khaled.

Somehow, in Khaled's mind "every inch of the land" is the "legitimate rights" of the Palestinian people. Well, that's not what the U.N. said when they partitioned the land, and Israel was made a state. And it's not ever going to be the way Khaled wants it, no matter what he and the legion of Jew-hating demons in the U.N., and Europe, and all over the world think. It isn't going to happen.

In the next few days, Khaled, you will have your state. There will be no more playing of these Stepin Fetchit Palestinians-in-the-Refuge-Camps games. Palestinians will be the legitimate citizens of the legitimate Palestinian state.

What you guys decide to make of your state is your decision. If you decide to be orderly and establish a constitution, and an infrastructure, etc., then, good for you. But, if you decide to continue on with you dumb act, it will be your own fault.

If your state attacks Israel, it will be one state making war on another. Therefore, Israel will be within their rights to kill every person who takes up an arm against her. That would be a legal war.

"We Have Ruled Out Terrorism" Part III

Well, what do you know? Yesterday, we had the "head of airline safety" saying they had recovered the "recording device," but it was so badly damaged that he thought they would be unable to retrieve information.

Now, the "head of the Greek airline safety committee" says they didn't really find the recording device, because "the internal componenets were ejected." From Associated Press:

ATHENS, Greece - Officials on Tuesday said they had found only the exterior container of the cockpit voice recorder from a Cypriot airliner crash that killed 121 people, hampering investigative efforts into the accident's cause.

The device's internal components were ejected from the container when the plane crashed into a mountainous region north of Athens on Sunday, said Akrivos Tsolakis, the head of the Greek airline safety committee.

"The only fortunate event in the investigation is that we have the flight data recorder," Tsolakis said, adding that the box would be flown to Paris on Wednesday for decoding.

He said a group of investigators would search for the rest of the voice recorder. He said American experts, including a representative of the plane's manufacturer, were providing assistance.

The voice recorder picks up any conversation inside the cockpit but records only the last 30 minutes of sound. Because the airplane appeared to have been flying disabled for several hours, it wasn't clear how useful any recovered conversations would be for investigators.

Tsolakis said the bodies of the plane's Cypriot co-pilot and one of the flight attendant were found next to the wreckage of the cockpit.

Athens' chief coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis said autopsies conducted on the first six bodies identified from the crash showed they had been alive when the jetliner crashed, though it wasn't known if they were conscious when it crashed.

The Helios Airways Boeing 737-300, with six crew and 115 passengers, plunged 34,000 feet into a mountainous area near the village of Grammatiko, 25 miles north of Athens.

Koutsaftis and his team of coroners had carried out about 13 autopsies by Tuesday morning. They had only released the results of the first six autopsies and were preparing to examine the body of co-pilot Pambos Haralambous.

In Cyprus, police raided the offices of Helios Airways in the coastal city of Larnaca, near the international airport.

A search warrant was issued "to secure ... documents and other evidence which could be useful for the investigation into possible criminal acts," Cyprus' deputy presidential spokesman Marios Karoyian said.

Investigators also were trying to determine why the pilot was not in his seat shortly before the crash.

Searchers were still looking for three bodies, including the plane's German pilot, fire officials said. Cypriot authorities identified him as Marten Hans Jurgen, 50, from Berlin.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Storm cloud hangs over Hangzhou City before the coming of typhoon Haitang in east China's Zhejiang province July 19, 2005.

"We Have Ruled Out Terrorism" Part II

As I said, I have my doubts about this Greek airliner crash. I hate posting stuff like that, because I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but, well, I'm not alone apparently. Seems American aviation experts are also saying their is something a bit fishy. From AP:

WASHINGTON - U.S. aviation experts say they can't understand the behavior of the flight crew aboard a Cypriot airliner that crashed north of Athens after flying on autopilot for what could have been hours.

Early reports indicated the Helios Airways jet lost cabin pressure. Temperatures and oxygen levels would have plummeted and left everyone aboard unconscious and freezing to death as the plane flew on autopilot long before it crashed, experts said Monday.

But if there had been a sudden decompression, experts say, the pilots and the flight attendants for some reason didn't react the way they were trained to.

"It's odd," said Terry McVenes, executive air safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association, International. "It's a very rare event to even have a pressurization problem and in general crews are very well trained to deal with it."

The plane was fairly new, a Boeing 737-300 delivered in January 1998, according to company spokesman Jim Proulx. The flight data recorder that came with the aircraft records 128 kinds of data about the plane, he said.

Investigators were sending the plane's data and cockpit voice recorders to France for expert examinations.

The aircraft flew into Greek airspace, but air traffic controllers couldn't raise the pilots on the radio and fighter jets intercepted the plane, flying at 34,000 feet.

The fighter pilots saw that the airline pilot wasn't in the cockpit, the co-pilot was slumped over his seat and oxygen masks dangled, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said. He said the air force pilots also saw two people possibly trying to take control of the plane.

It is that sequence of events that puzzles aviation experts.

Warnings should go off if an airliner suddenly loses pressure, and pilots are trained to immediately put their oxygen masks on and dive to about 12,000 feet, where there's enough oxygen for people to breathe, they say.

If a cabin loses pressure suddenly, passengers and flight crew have only seconds to put on oxygen masks before losing consciousness. Death would follow quickly.

The chief Athens coroner, though, said at least six of the victims were alive at the time of the crash.

The pilots also didn't report any windows out or holes in the fuselage, the most likely causes of a catastrophic loss of pressure, said Bill Waldock, an aviation safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona.

Another clue to a sudden pressure loss would have been frost on the windows because it's so cold at 34,000 feet, said Waldock.

If the fighter pilots could see into the cockpit, the windows couldn't have been iced over, as they were in the 1999 crash of a Learjet 35 that killed golfer Payne Stewart. Investigators blamed that crash on a sudden decompression.

Paul Czysz, emeritus professor of aerospace engineering at St. Louis University, wonders why the co-pilot was slumped over.

"He couldn't have been unconscious for a small decompression at 34,000 feet," Czysz said. "Something's amiss."

The pilot and the co-pilot would have had five times as much oxygen as the passengers, he said.

"Even if the pressurization system was failing, it doesn't fail instantaneously. Even if it goes fast, you can seal the cabin, you've got all the oxygen in the cabin to breathe, you've got the masks and you've got plenty of time to get to 12,000 feet," Czysz said.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Hero of Western Civilization

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Hero Of Western Civilization

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands. She is an immigrant from Somalia, who suffered, and underwent genital mutilation, according to the extremist Islam of her countrypeople.

When she emigrated to the Netherlands, she renounced the Muslim religion and set to work attempting to educate Westerners on the abuse of women under Islam.

She made a movie with Theo Van Gogh (great-grandson of Vincent Van Gogh) called Submission, which told of the physical and mental enslavement of women under Islam. For their efforts Theo Van Gogh was slaughtered like a pig in the street, and Hirsi Ali has lived under constant threat that the same will happen to her. She now lives with government provided military security, and sleeps in a different bed every night to avoid attack, many of these being military barracks, and prisons.

Here, in this article from Prospect Magazine, via Little Green Footballs, she explains the inspiration behind this abuse:

The terrorists, and the Shari’a-based societies to which they aspire, have an entirely different philosophy. Humans are born to serve Allah through a series of obligations that are prescribed in an ancient body of writings. These edicts vary from rituals of birth and funeral rites to the most intimate details of human life; they descend to the point of absurdity in matters such as how to blow your nose, and with what foot to step into a toilet.

Muslims, according to this philosophy, must kill those among them who leave the faith, and are required to be hostile to people of other religions and ways of life. This hostility requires them to murder innocent people and makes no distinction between civilians and the military.

In Shari’a societies, women are made subordinate to men. They must be confined to their houses, beaten if found disobedient, forced into marriage and hidden behind the veil. The hands of thieves are cut off and capital punishment is performed in crowded public squares in front of cheering crowds.

The terrorists seek to impose this way of life not only on Islamic countries, but, as Blair said, on western societies too.

At the core of this fundamental challenge to the west lies a pre-medieval figure to whom the London terrorists—along with all faithful Muslims in our modern world—look for guidance: Muhammad. All faithful Muslims believe that they must emulate this man, in principle and practical matters, under all circumstances.

When trying to understand Islamic terrorism, most politicians and other commentators have avoided the core issue, which is Muhammad’s example. The west, before embarking on a battle of ideas, must attempt to understand this figure, and his presence in the daily lives and homes of faithful Muslims today.

It is apparent on reading the Koran and the traditional writings that Muhammad’s life not only provides rules for the daily lives of Muslims; it also demonstrates the means by which his values can be imposed.

Muhammad himself constructed the House of Islam using military tactics that included mass killing, torture, targeted assassination, lying and the indiscriminate destruction of productive goods.

This may be embarrassing to moderate Muslims, but the propaganda produced by modern terrorists constantly quotes Muhammad’s deeds and edicts to justify their actions and to call on other Muslims to support their cause.

Hirsi Ali is not saying that all Muslims ascribe to these beliefs. She is saying that extremist Muslims can and do quote the Koran to justify their actions, and that there are many places in the world where these abuses are commonplace. She should know, it happened to her.

We in the West must face up to these realities. We can't go about figuring out how to eliminate this threat to Human Rights, if we don't first acknowledge the problem.

Bush Losing His Way
Blair Finding His

The London Times says it seems Bush is losing his way in the War on Terror, just as Blair is finally starting to get a handle on things. Why? Because Bush often refers to "terrorism," but rarely to the ideology which inspires them; radical Islam:

THEY have been admirers of the president since the attacks of September 11, 2001, but now some of George W Bush’s staunchest supporters are accusing him of “losing his way” in the war on terror.

Conservatives in America are contrasting Tony Blair’s clarity of purpose since the July bombings in London and the vacillations of the Bush administration about the future of Iraq and the nature of the terrorist threat.

... under pressure from opinion polls showing dwindling American support for the war, Bush is on the defensive.

Blair by contrast is getting credit for naming the enemy as Muslim extremists and for criticising the Wahhabi ideology spreading from Saudi Arabia, which remains a leading American ally. Although faulted for allowing “Londonistan” to grow into a haven for terrorism in the first place, the prime minister is regarded as going on the offensive while the Bush government dithers.

“Since the London bombings, Tony Blair has emerged as the public face of the global war on terror,” said Nile Gardiner, a former adviser to Baroness Thatcher and who is now based with the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “He is setting the agenda with tough new anti-terrorist measures.”

Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative and former Pentagon adviser, said that Bush was too reluctant to criticise Islamic fundamentalism. The president often refers to terrorists but rarely to the religious ideology inspiring them.

“I was very impressed by what Blair said straight out and I wish Bush would do the same,” said Perle. “We have been unduly sensitive to the idea that criticising Muslim extremism is politically incorrect.”

Blair’s stance has set off a debate on the right, with some conservative libertarians warning against overreacting to the London bombings. Others point to fundamental differences between Britain and America.

The United States has a more prosperous, better assimilated Muslim population than Europe so the two nations are not strictly comparable, said Ralph Peters, a former military intelligence officer and supporter of the war on terror.

“Our immigration model is working so it’s important not to alienate Muslim Americans,” Peters said. “Bush has handled them well. His blind spot is the House of Saud.”

Jihad in Kosovo
"What Is Going On In Kosovo Today
Is The Future of Europe"

For the second time in the past few days, I find in the news that leaders are specifically naming Wahhabi Islam as the instigator of Jihad. The other day, Chechneyan Imams declared a Jihad against Wahabbism. I said that this development may be a major break in the War on Terror, because naming "terror" as our enemy is not specific enough.

Today, it seems an American diplomat and several American political analysts have briefed Capitol Hill on the Wahhabi-inspired Jihad against Christians in Kosovo. From Dhimmi Watch:

(CNSNews.com) - International intervention to halt the persecution of Christians in Kosovo is a "complete failure," according to a former diplomat and other political analysts who briefed Capitol Hill staff late last week, pointing to the destruction of 150 churches and the simultaneous construction of 200 mosques.

Cybercast News Service obtained video of the burning and desecrating of the churches by ethnic Albanians, most of them Muslim. See Video

The new mosques are funded by "Wahhabist nations," the diplomats said, raising the specter of radical Islam incubating on the doorstep of Europe in a province rife with illegal arms and narcotics trafficking.

The religious persecution is also part of a political strategy of violence, which if rewarded in the granting of independence to Kosovo, could trigger similar violent secessionist movements throughout neighboring states and countries, they warned.

Unfolding events in Kosovo have already sent shock waves to as far away as China, which has now expressed concern to the U.S. over possible copycat attempts at secession in its predominantly Muslim Xinjiang Province.

Kosovo, an international protectorate administered by the United Nations, is part of Serbia and Montenegro, but the legal authority of the region is the U.N. Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

The province is considered one of the jewels of Christian heritage, having served as the "Vatican" of Serbian Christian Orthodoxy from the 12th century onward.

Serbs, who are predominantly Orthodox Christians, constitute a minority, as do Turks, Roma (gypsies) and Muslim Slavs. Eighty-eight percent of Kosovo's population is made up of Muslim Albanians.

The attacks and ongoing persecution are seen by some as the purposeful targeting of the very symbols of Christian European civilization.

Between 1999 and 2004 approximately 150 churches, monasteries, seminaries, and bishop residences were attacked by ethnic Albanian mobs. Many of the churches contained priceless Byzantine frescoes and other religious artifacts dating as far back as the 13th century. Many of the sites were reduced to rubble.

In a Capitol Hill press conference Aug. 11, former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Patrick Melady called for a heightened international presence in Kosovo and the continuation of that presence for another 12 years....

Referring to the destruction of 34 churches in March of last year Melady said, "Thanks to a few amateur films that were made when the protests broke out, we can see how things unfolded. At all the scenes someone would climb to the top and tear down the cross, then stomp on it. Then they would set fire to the church."

During the Aug. 12 congressional staff briefing, Melady's research assistant, Ivan Djurovski, showed footage of the destruction of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Podujevo.

The 17-minute video obtained by Cybercast News Service shows crowds of men ranging in age from about 15 to 50, calmly and methodically fanning out around the church after marching through town. After setting the church on fire, one of the vandals enters the bell tower to ring the church bell, which draws cheers from the crowd. Men scale the roof of the church to tear down three crosses, resulting in more cheers. Cybercast News Service edited the 17 minute video down to approximately two-and-a-half minutes....

Defense analyst Frederick Peterson said the media around the globe are ignoring the issue of Saudi Arabian and other sources flooding the economically depressed region with money to pay for new mosques as the churches are being destroyed.

"With money comes influence," Peterson told Cybercast News Service. "They are building a substantial ideological and brick and mortar infrastructure there." Peterson is a defense and counter-terrorism analyst with the Institute for Security Studies at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He also serves as military policy advisor to Joseph K. Grieboski, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.

Peterson and Djurovski both said many of the new mosques funded by Saudi and Iranian funds are currently empty, but reflect plans to indoctrinate residents with the radical Wahhabist form of Islam. The new mosques carry plaques acknowledging funding from Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, said Grieboski.

"This is a very grave threat," said Peterson. "With final status changing from Serbian Orthodox hegemony into at very best a gray line, the dividing line between the Christian and Islamic world moves closer to the European Union, and we're at great risk of tolerating what should not be tolerated in order to buy some peace in our time."

In the war against an expanding radical Islam, Peterson said, "We have three choices: convert, submit or die. But there's a fourth choice and that's to fight.

"What is going on in Kosovo today is the future of Europe tomorrow," he added.

I think naming Wahhabism as our enemy is a step in the right direction, because Wahhabism is the inspiration of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, CAIR, the Muslim Council of Britain, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, etc. In other words, it is the inspiration behind most of the enemy organizations.

However, it is possible that to name Wahhabism as the enemy is actually too specific. Why? Because, while Wahhabism is the official state religion of Saudi Arabia, it is not the religion of most Jihadi's. As I said, it is the inspiration, but it is not the religion.

Most Jihadis are Shiite or Sunni Muslims. As I understand it Wahhabism is a more rigorous form of Sunni Islam. So, in other words, to name Wahhabism as the enemy may let Shiites, and common everyday Sunnis slip through the cracks. It might put too much focus of Saudi Arabia. (Did I just write that?)

I don't know, really. Just speculating here.

"We Have Ruled Out Terrorism"

Yep, the first thing they said yesterday when the Greek airliner went down, was they didn't know what went wrong, but they knew for damn sure it wasn't terrorism. From Associated Press:

ATHENS, Greece - Police in Cyprus raided the offices of Helios Airways in the coastal city of Larnaca on Monday, a day after one of the company's passenger jets slammed into a mountainside near Athens, killing all 121 people on board.

Police spokeswoman Christalla Dimitriou said officers "carried out a search" after asking the city's court for a search warrant. No arrests were made and she did not say whether police had confiscated any material from the office.

Chief Athens coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis, meanwhile, said that tests conducted on the remains showed at least six of the 121 victims were alive when the aircraft went down.

"We have performed autopsies on six people. Our conclusion is they had circulation and were breathing at the time of death," Koutsaftis said, but he added they could have been unconscious.
French experts will examine the plane's black-box recorders, officials said.

The cause of Sunday's crash, Greece's deadliest airline disaster, appeared to be technical failure resulting in high-altitude decompression and loss of oxygen. Yet many questions remained, including why the co-pilot was unconscious in the cockpit 40 minutes before the crash and why he was alone, with the captain nowhere in sight.

The captain's body has yet to be recovered, and Greek investigators — joined by a U.S. team — were trying to determine why he was not in his seat while the Boeing 737 was in peril.

Coroners also will examine blood and tissue samples from victims' lungs to determine whether anything they breathed in could have caused their deaths.

"We will seek to determine when they died and how they died," chief Koutsaftis said earlier.

Victims' relatives gathered at a central Athens morgue to identify the remains.

There had been 21 children aboard Helios Airways flight ZU522 from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Athens, "all aged 4 and above," Greek deputy Health Minister Giorgos Constantopoulos said Monday. Initially, Greek and Cypriot officials had said 48 children were on the plane. No explanation was given for the discrepancy.

According the Cypriot government, at least 10 families with children were among the dead. Passengers and crew included at least 12 Greeks, one German — the pilot — and a four-member family of Armenian origin. The rest were Cypriot.

Police in northern Greece also arrested a man who claimed to have received a telephone text message from his cousin who was on the plane before it crashed.

The man, who was identified as 32-year-old Nektarios-Sotirios Voutas, called Greek television stations shortly after the Helios Airways flight crashed, saying his cousin Nikos Petridis sent him a message that read: "Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen."

The report that the plane was cold was taken as a sign of decompression, but police in Thessaloniki said they had determined he was lying and the name Petridis was not on the Cypriot government's official list of victims.

Voutas, a resident of the northern port city of Thessaloniki who had identified himself to Greek media as Sotiris Voutas, faced charges of disseminating false information and causing a public disturbance, police said.

The Boeing 737 had been scheduled to continue to Prague, Czech Republic, after Athens. It crashed while on autopilot at 12:05 p.m. Sunday near Grammatiko, a scenic village 25 miles north of the Greek capital, apparently after running out of fuel.

Greek state television had quoted the Cyprus transport minister as saying the plane had decompression problems in the past. But a Helios representative said the plane had "no problems and was serviced just last week."

Searchers at the crash site were still looking for three bodies, firefighting officials said Monday — including the pilot. His name was Hans-Juergen Merten, 58, of Berlin, according to German authorities and his neighbors near the German capital's Schoenefeld airport.

The body of the Cypriot co-pilot, Pambos Haralambous, reportedly was found in the cockpit.
In Cyprus, Helios Airways Chairman Andreas Drakos said the airline's crews were operating normally on Sunday, rejecting earlier reports that its pilots and crew were refusing to fly.

The head of the Greek airline safety committee, Akrivos Tsolakis, said that the two recovered black boxes — a data and cockpit voice recorder — would be sent to French air safety investigators for examination. The voice recorder was badly damaged by the crash and ensuing fire.

"It's in a bad state and, possibly, it won't give us the information we need," Tsolakis said. "Both boxes will be sent to Paris where a French committee will help us and the foreign experts that are here to decode."

He said he believed his committee would be able to reach a conclusion "in a few days, a very few days."

I have heard of some bad, bad airliner crashes, but I have never heard of a black box being damaged so badly that the head of airline safety was able to determine that they would not be able to retrieve no information, before they had even tried.

Yeah, I'll bet that conclusion they'll be reaching "in a few days, a very few days" will be pretty interesting. Swamp gas? Weather balloons? Maybe the tail wing fell off and hit the pilot in the head, knocking him unconcious, and then the co-pilot passed out while tryint to give the pilot mouth-to-mouth. And then one by one all the passengers died the same way.

Move along now. There's nothing here for you to see.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Tisha B'av - The Destruction of The Temple

Jewish men pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City August 13, 2005 on the eve of Tisha B'Av fast, commemorating the destruction of the biblical Jewish Temples 2,000 years ago. Hamas vowed on Saturday to continue armed struggle after Israel's Gaza pullout, sending a message to Palestinians.