Petrified Truth

Quote of the Day

"Within an hour's journey of this castle lies a monument to the darkest impulses of man. Today, I saw Auschwitz, the sites of the Holocaust and Polish martyrdom; a place where evil found its willing servants and its innocent victims. One boy imprisoned there was branded with the number A70713. Returning to Auschwitz a lifetime later, Elie Wiesel recalled his first night in the camp: I asked myself, God, is this the end of your people, the end of mankind, the end of the world?

"With every murder, a world was ended. And the death camps still bear witness. They remind us that evil is real and must be called by name and must be opposed. All the good that has come to this continent -- all the progress, the prosperity, the peace -- came because beyond the barbed wire there were people willing to take up arms against evil.

"And history asks more than memory, because hatred and aggression and
murderous ambitions are still alive in the world. Having seen the works of evil firsthand on this continent, we must never lose the courage to oppose it everywhere."

- President George W. Bush, remarks to the people of Poland delivered at Wawel Royal Castle, Krakow, Poland

via The White House

Creep-o captured

Glad to see the creep Eric Robert Rudolph captured. Gratified to know that he was caught while dumpster-diving, not living large somewhere. Hopeful that it would give Fox News something else to talk about besides Laci Peterson's corpse.

Fox was tremendous during the Iraq campaign, but for me they are losing the peace.

Security breach

The U. of California should lose these contracts.

The federal government is threatening to take over security at a nuclear weapons lab after learning top managers were kept in the dark for weeks about a missing access badge that could open thousands of doors. Officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said Friday they have no evidence that anyone tried to use the badge, or a set of keys lost separately. But they acknowledged the loss was "fundamentally a management failure."

"We don't have any excuse for this," said lab Director Michael Anastasio. The incidents were more bad news for the University of California, which manages Livermore and the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico. Problems at Los Alamos led the government to announce that it will put the management contract for that lab up for bid when it expires in 2005, breaking UC's 60-year lock on the facility.

via AP and Mercury News

The real world

Israel's Ze'ev Schiff says that facing up to the truth is indispensable to success in achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Just so. President Bush has shown more interest in facing reality than many past presidents. That's one of the things that drives the professional diplomats (and the nomenklatura in general) crazy about him. I just hope he and his people will follow through.

The failure of the Oslo agreements stems primarily from the flawed implementation and not from the inherent desire to reach an agreement between the two peoples. These flaws, which cropped up quickly along the way and were based on lies and covering up for these lies, led to the armed confrontation that began in September, 2000.

The Americans usually ignored the lies because for them the main thing was rapid progress, which was subsequently revealed to be a journey on shifting sands. If the system of lies and whitewashing continues after the "road map" - failure is assured. Even now there are negative signs of the perpetuation of this shoddy system when the Americans say to the breaking of a substantive promise by the Palestinians that the main thing is to move forward. If there is not immediate attention to substantive violations, once again we will find ourselves in the post-Oslo mine field.

Baathists taken down

This is a bit of good news from Bagdhad. Best aspect is that these holdouts were undoubtedly finked on by citizens. Our guys were glad to oblige.

American forces arrested 15 members of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party as they met Saturday, an American official advising Iraq's Interior Ministry said. The members of the group were arrested at the country's main police college, where they had been holding weekly meetings, Bernard Kerik, former New York City police chief, told reporters.

Kerik said a crowd of police officers standing outside the academy broke into applause as the party members were taken out in handcuffs. "Evidently they knew this was going on," Kerik said of the police officers. "I believe they were afraid to come forward."

The 15 people arrested included the dean of the college, five brigadier generals and one major general. Fourteen were arrested for engaging in an illegal activity, and one for resisting arrest. Kerik said no shots were fired during the arrests.

via AP and Fox News

Islamic terrorism - no!

Some encouraging words from a Big Guy in Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the imam and khateeb of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, yesterday called upon international Islamic organizations to set up a project to tackle violence and terrorism. “It is high time for the Ummah to have an Islamic cultural project to tackle the phenomena of violence and terrorism through international Islamic organizations,” the imam said while giving his Friday sermon.

He advised Muslims to follow the moderate path of Islam and keep away from violence and extremism. He urged parents to bring up their children on the basis of Islamic teachings and values. The call by the imam comes two weeks after nine militants bombed three residential compounds in Riyadh, killing 34 people.

Al-Sudais denounced the May 12 bombings as a heinous and horrendous crime, adding that the criminals wanted to destabilize the Kingdom and terrorize peaceful people including those under its protection. He criticized those who kill innocent people in the name of Islam. “Our Shariah calls for the protection of five essentials: the religion, life, mind, wealth and dignity of a person,” the imam said and quoted a number of Qur’anic verses that prohibit killing of innocent people.

via Arab News

Quote of the Day

"Based on the evidence presented by the expert witnesses at trial, the court finds that it is beyond question that Hezbollah and its agents received massive material and technical support from the Iranian government.''

- U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, on the 1983 terrorist bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut

China on the Moon?

Former Congressman Robert S. Walker, once chairman of the House Science Committee, says the space race is on again. Are we in the game? Sure doesn't seem like it.

Many Japanese space observers are convinced that China has a moon program and that, ultimately, Japan may be drawn into the competition. India already has created its own moon mission, in large part because they are monitoring Chinese space efforts.

At my Washington office a few weeks ago, I met with a visiting Japanese parliamentarian who specializes in science and technology issues. I related to him my belief that the Chinese would be on the moon within a decade with a declaration of permanent occupation. He disagreed. He smiled and said my conclusion was accurate but my timing was off. In his view, the Chinese would be on the moon within three to four years.

Regardless of who is right about the time frame, and I still believe that even a decade is ambitious, the fact remains that the Chinese are devoting resources and gearing up to do something that we are no longer technologically capable of achieving in the immediate future. We went to the moon, planted our flag, gathered samples, took credit for an amazing achievement in human history and then abandoned the effort. The space technology available to us today could not be used to replicate what we did 35 years ago.

via The Washington Times

Japan lands in Alaska

This is good to see.

Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter aircraft made a bit of history in Alaska on Tuesday. Six of them landed on North American soil for the first time at Elmendorf Air Force Base, where they will take part in Cooperative Cope Thunder, a Pacific Air Forces-sponsored air combat training exercise set for June 5-20.

“The Japanese involvement is very significant ... of all the foreign participants, they bring the biggest contingent of people and different missions to this exercise,” Lt. Col. David Ennis, commander of Elemendorf’s Detachment 1, 353rd Combat Training Squadron, said in an Air Force news release.

Japan will participate with U.S. forces in defensive exercises but not in the “offensive counter air” missions other nations will practice during Cope Thunder, Ennis said.

via Stars and Stripes

Poland's importance to America

Special attention was paid to Poland today. The President had some good comments about Poland and Europe just before he left for Krakow and beyond.

In an interview with TVP Poland at the White House May 29, President Bush expressed a "special fondness" for Poland and said he was "absolutely sure" he made the right decision in asking Poland to run one of the zones in post-war Iraq.

"I think it's very important for the Polish people to understand how deeply Americans appreciate their sacrifice and their courage and their willingness to work with us in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Bush said, citing his message of thanks as one reason for his visit to Poland.

Asked about criticism by some European countries toward Poland because of its support for the campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime, Bush replied that he thinks it "unfortunate that some of the countries in Europe will try to bully Poland for standing up for what ... [it thinks] is right."

"The critics need to watch very carefully what's happening," he said. "NATO is going to support the Polish efforts inside of Iraq. Poland will not be alone."

But Bush also said that during his trip he was going to "remind the countries of Europe that we must work together."

"We don't need divides between us. We need to work together to achieve big objectives, which is to fight terror, to fight global poverty, to fight AIDS and to promote freedom," he said.

Asked about the possibility of American military bases in Poland, Bush replied that the United States is "looking at all the options."

"I make no promises, but we will remember who our friends are. And the
Polish people have been strong friends of the United States."

via the State Department's Washington File; includes full transcript.

Poland

Radek Sikorski, Poland's former deputy minister for defense and for foreign affairs, writes today about the strong relationship between Poland and the U.S., as well as Poland's strengths in peacekeeping.

Poles believe that with wise statesmanship, Europe can acquire greater influence not by opposing the U.S., but by cooperating with America in endeavors that are evidently in Europe's best interest, such as the democratization of the Arab world. If Europe's political coherence and military forces were to grow in harmony with America's strategic aims, we could restore the West's sense of common mission.

Unusual as it may seem, this vision is shared by Poles of most political parties and ideologies. There is enough here, in short, to merit talk of a closer alliance between Poland and the U.S.

We know our army is a fraction the size of the American one, but then so is everybody else's. We know our economy is still recovering from half a century of communism. But it isn't economic support that the U.S. needs. Poland shares America's values, Poland shares America's geopolitical goals. With the Polish air force soon to fly F-16s, and some U.S. military bases moving East, co-operation over Iraq may prove to have been the beginning of, as they say in the movies, a beautiful relationship.

via OpinionJournal

Syria deal?

This would be interesting, if it turned out to be true.

The United States is reportedly making a fresh attempt to strike a behind-the-scenes deal to neutralize Hizbullah, offering the government half a billion dollars if the resistance is dismantled and Syria pulls its troops out of Lebanon.

The offer is reportedly being conveyed by Darryl Issa, a Republican congressman for California, and Democrat Robert Wexler during a visit to Beirut Friday, the daily As-Safir said Thursday. The two congressmen will also travel to Damascus to discuss the offer with Syrian officials, the paper said.

The daily quoted sources in the US Congress as saying the deal is being sold as a counterweight to the Syria Accountability Act which seeks to impose political and economic sanctions against Damascus.

via LebanonWire.com

thanks to NRO's The Corner for the tip

Merchants of death

I have no idea how people who work in the tobacco industry can look at themselves in the mirror each day. I do know that America should not export death to the rest of the world.

Marlboro cigarettes, the world's most popular brand, have considerably higher levels of a potent cancer-causing compound than almost all other cigarettes, a study has found. Research by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that the level of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a known cause of cancer, was at least twice as high in Marlboros as in local brands in 10 of 13 nations tested. In some countries, the Marlboro level was as much as 22 times higher than local brands. The study, published yesterday in the Journal of Tobacco and Nicotine Research, is the first to document the significantly greater threat from nitrosamines posed by an American cigarette.

The popularity of Marlboros and their high levels of nitrosamines may be related, since it is the type of tobacco used and the way it is cured and mixed that creates both the distinct American cigarette taste and the higher nitrosamine levels.

The conclusion that Marlboros and most other American cigarettes are very high in nitrosamines comes at a time when US tobacco companies are looking increasingly to developing nations as their growth market, since cigarette consumption rates in the US and in other developed nations are steady or decreasing. The report said that while overall cigarette demand was growing about 1 per cent annually, demand for American-style blended cigarettes has been projected to grow 3 per cent per year - with many more cigarettes, and more disease, going to developing nations.

via The Age (Australia)

Intelligence

More critical commentary on the CIA and the intelligence community today. The issues: quality of analysis, HUMINT, and trained people. George Friedman of STRATFOR has been saying essentially the same thing for several years to anyone who'll listen. Again, quick fixes do little good and paying attention to the people and the non-sexy factors are key -- dull and diligent would save a lot of lives.

A few key paragraphs here, but better to read the whole piece.

The world war against terrorism, analysts add, will consist of 90 percent intelligence and only 10 percent combat. That's a huge challenge for the U.S. intelligence community, which has retained most of the Cold War structures and mind-sets that many consider dangerously obsolete. At present the Pentagon and uniformed services are writhing in the painful throes of a "defense-transformation" process, bringing the national-defense community out of the Cold War configurations of the Industrial Age to Space Age and Information Age designs suitable for the world war on terrorism. These require extreme flexibility, agility, stealth and speed, as well as increasing intellect and evermore intelligence collection, analysis and processing. The intelligence community, however, has not been keeping pace, leaving what professionals see as a dangerous gap that finds U.S. national-security needs far exceeding the capabilities of the intelligence services.

The fundamental problem crying for solution is the people factor: leadership and personnel. "We see immense resources placed on acquisition of the world's best technological tools, but little emphasis on improving the vital skills of analysis, education and training," a senior administration official says. "DoD [Department of Defense] has to treat intelligence differently. It's not a weapons system. You can't just buy it." Leadership isn't only at the top levels, according to a senior intelligence officer. "It also works down through the second and third tiers of defense intelligence, where moral leadership and fortitude are in short supply."

The collection of human intelligence (HUMINT) is an art that requires intensive linguistic capabilities, social and professional interaction with counterparts in target areas and a thorough knowledge of local politics, history, mores and customs. But the intelligence community's reliance on high technology, and the nature of the personnel system and promotion practices, place relatively little value and afford few opportunities for the cultivation and recruitment of HUMINT networks around the world. According to a Pentagon official, "The system doesn't reward HUMINT officers. It doesn't reward area specialists."

Even worse, during the last decade - for reasons ranging from political correctness imposed from above to the deteriorated state of American university education that trained the intelligence analysts from below, and on to what some see as a general lack of courage - U.S. leaders have seen a dumbing-down or corrosion of the intelligence process and its products. "Throughout the 1990s the depth of analytical skill in the intelligence agencies was eroded," according to Richard Haver, until recently a senior adviser to Rumsfeld.

via Insight Magazine

A related article summarizes 10 steps for reforming defense intelligence. We moderns are suckers for a list, but this is actually pretty good.

CIA lagging

This is kinda scary, since we want to believe that our spooks have all the tools necessary to protect us. However, it's very consistent with (a) the government environment/mindset, and (b) the insularity caused by traditional approaches to security. Times have changed -- the CIA needs to change too.

A new unclassified report, titled "Failing to Keep Up With the Information Revolution," offers a withering assessment of the CIA's use of IT for intelligence analysis, calling its networking and information-searching capabilities "primitive" and saying that the agency's emphasis on secrecy fundamentally discourages IT use and adoption by CIA analysts. The study's author, Bruce Berkowitz, interviewed almost 100 CIA employees involved in producing national security analysis, including intelligence analysts, technicians and managers.

Among other problems, Berkowitz found that CIA analysts must bounce among multiple, isolated systems to gather information, including separate systems on each desk for accessing the CIA's classified network and using the public Internet.

DI agents have no easy way to share classified information with authorized intelligence personnel outside of the CIA or to access information stored in other classified information networks within the government, such as those at the U.S. Department of Defense. "The result is that DI analysts work in an IT environment that is largely isolated from the outside world. If they need to do work that is classified in any way, there is virtually no alternative other than to use the CIA's own, restricted system," the report said.

Contrary to popular depictions of CIA agents using cutting-edge information-gathering technology, Berkowitz found that DI analysts lack access to even the most common information-searching technology for conducting intelligence analysis, such as Web-based search engines.

Although the glacial pace of government IT purchasing is partly to blame for the slow rate of technology adoption within the agency, it isn't the primary source of the CIA's troubles, Berkowitz said. Instead, he put most of the blame on the CIA's obsession with security, which he charged with creating an approach of "risk exclusion" as opposed to "risk management" regarding technology adoption.

As examples of this approach, Berkowitz noted that Palm handheld devices were forbidden in CIA facilities until recently, and it took the agency years to get Internet access to analysts' desktops.

News article via Computerworld.

Full Berkowitz article via the CIA.

Quote of the Day

"I'm so old, they've cancelled my blood type."

- Bob Hope

Thanks for the memories

Bob Hope -- actor, comedian, song-and-dance man, patriot -- is 100 years old today. He's been a superstar in America and around the world since long before most of us were born. No one appreciates him more than members of the U.S. military, for whom he has repeatedly toiled even at the risk of his own life. Congratulations to Bob Hope - a national treasure.

Stars and Stripes has collected remembrances from military personnel. Two of the best comments:

It has been said that Bob Hope traveled millions of miles while entertaining millions of troops. I'm very proud to have been just one of the millions to see him perform. In this day and age where so many are considered heroes, it seems that there needs to be a more powerful word to describe Bob Hope. After all, look at all the war-torn nations he visited. Take into account the hours of dedicated service to his country that he invested in freedom, liberty and the American way. In my way of recollection, I cannot think of a single person who consistently performed their duties for so long a time. - W.R. (Bill) Barbour, Jr., Massachusetts

I was hot, homesick and scared, but for those few hours that day, I forgot those feelings. I enjoyed seeing Bob Hope and knowing that he was risking his life to come to Vietnam and give the troops a chance to laugh and momentarily forget about the War. I was thrilled to be able to shake his hand at the end of the show. - Larry J. Bailey, Nevada

Quote of the Day

"If Smersh were still around today, this country would be a better place. It wouldn't be run by bandits and crooks."

- Woman in charge of Smersh exhibition in Moscow, who refused to give her name to reporters

SMERSH

Fiction meets reality -- again.

Smersh, Stalin's brutal military counter-espionage service, immortalised in the James Bond novels, is being celebrated in Moscow with an exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of its founding.

Smersh - a contraction of Smert Shpionam (death to spies) - is depicted in today's Russia as a patriotic band of heroes who fought valiantly against foreign intelligence agencies. In reality, the organisation was a widely hated branch of Soviet state terror. It was charged with weeding out spies, interrogating returning Soviet prisoners of war and executing front-line soldiers accused of spreading "defeatism" in the ranks.

Stalin set up Smersh in 1943, when he was paranoid that the country was being infiltrated by German and Allied spies. He wound it up three years later when it was integrated into the NKVD secret police, which later spawned the KGB. At its height, Smersh had one informer for every 10 soldiers fighting in the Red Army.

According to official records, it arrested 121,000 soldiers for "belonging to counter-revolutionary groups", 135,000 for "desertion" and 84,000 for "anti-Soviet agitation". Many were shot.

Smersh is best-known in the West as one of the arch-enemies of Ian Fleming's 007 agent, James Bond.

Many Russians are nostalgic for the communist era. The authorities tend to gloss over some of the more ignominious chapters of the Soviet regime in official pronouncements.

via The Telegraph (UK)

LOTR kitsch

This is beyond pointless.

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's dark tale of Middle Earth, is to be brought to the West End in the most expensive stage musical ever seen in London.

The epic story of Frodo's journey to Mordor will open in 2005 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Tolkien's trilogy.

Kevin Wallace, whose idea it was to bring the masterpiece to the stage, said yesterday that the audience would "smile with pleasure" at the ways in which the show will recreate some of the more challenging aspects of the books, from the complex battle scenes to the dark Lord Sauron.

"It will have the epic scale of something like The Lion King as well as the intellectual rigour of a piece of classical theatre."

Wallace, who has produced several Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, approached the Oscar-winning producer Saul Zaentz, who owns the film and stage rights to the fantasy, a year ago.

via The Telegraph (UK)

Jewish extremism

Israel is beset by all sides, including from within. This would all be hard even without Arafat's relentless opposition.

Israel has tightened security around ministers amid fears that extreme Right-wing Jewish groups may attempt an assassination to undermine the "road map" for peace in the Middle East.

The measures come days after the Israeli cabinet endorsed the US-backed plan, which will ultimately force Israel to make painful concessions in the occupied territories.

They include a military withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and a dismantling of some Jewish settlements there - anathema to Israel's far Right.

Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, is tracking Jewish extremists it considers a threat to Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, and ministers who backed him in the cabinet vote last Sunday to endorse the "road map".

One intelligence source said yesterday the security services were worried that "attacks may be carried out by Jews on government figures". Since Sunday extra bodyguards have been drafted in to protect cabinet ministers around the clock. Previously "not all of them had bodyguards all the time", he said.

Eight years ago Yitzhak Rabin, then Israel's prime minister, was shot dead at a peace rally by a Jewish student with links to an extremist group. "No one is taking any chances now," said the intelligence source.

via The Telegraph (UK)

LA Times bias

Bill O'Reilly spoke to an audience of millions on Fox News tonight about a recent memo inside the L.A. Times by editor John Carroll who is intent on "purging all political bias from our coverage." If Carroll is serious and follows through, this would be a major achievement at a publication that has been routinely leftist in its news reporting, to say nothing of its editorial page.

To: SectionEds Subject: Credibility/abortion

I'm concerned about the perception---and the occasional reality---that the Times is a liberal, "politically correct" newspaper. Generally speaking, this is an inaccurate view, but occasionally we prove our critics right. We did so today with the front-page story on the bill in Texas that would require abortion doctors to counsel patients that they may be risking breast cancer.

The apparent bias of the writer and/or the desk reveals itself in the third paragraph, which characterizes such bills in Texas and elsewhere as requiring "so-called counseling of patients." I don't think people on the anti-abortion side would consider it "so-called," a phrase that is loaded with derision.

The story makes a strong case that the link between abortion and breast cancer is widely discounted among researchers, but I wondered as I read it whether somewhere there might exist some credible scientist who believes in it.

Such a person makes no appearance in the story's lengthy passage about the scientific issue. We do quote one of the sponsors of the bill, noting that he "has a professional background in property management." Seldom will you read a cheaper shot than this. Why, if this is germane, wouldn't we point to legislators on the other side who are similarly bereft of scientific credentials?

It is not until the last three paragraphs of the story that we finally surface a professor of biology and endocrinology who believes the abortion/cancer connection is valid. But do we quote him as to why he believes this? No. We quote his political views.

Read the whole memo via NRO's The Corner

Quote of the Day

"One of the things I love most about our country is that we have such opportunities. There are places in the world where failure is final, and one early misstep will decide your fate forever. But America is still the country of the second chance. Most of us end up needing one. And when we've gone on to accomplish something, that we can be far more grateful -- be that much more grateful for the chance.

"Gratitude, in general, is a good habit. It is usually a correct appraisal of our situation. Most of us are able to succeed and rise in the world because someone helped out along the way -- whether it was a memorable teacher, or a boss who handed us a great opportunity, or the person who took a chance and gave us the first big break in our career. A grateful heart is an honest understanding of all that we have been given, and all that is expected of us in return.

"There is always the temptation to forget this -- to carry ourselves with an air of entitlement, as if good things come to us by right. They rarely do. And life has a way of working out better when we don't take things for granted -- when we have a long memory for what others have given us, when we look for the blessings, great and small, that come with every day that we're alive on this earth."

- Vice President Dick Cheney, to new graduates at the University of Missouri at Columbia

via The White House

Michael Moore should take cover

Poseur Michael Moore is going to get a mouthful of truth, like it or not, courtesy of aspiring film director Michael Wilson, who is making a movie of his own. Check out MichaelMooreHatesAmerica.com for the full tale.

Director Michael Wilson takes viewers on a journey from Sioux City, IA—where his father is unemployed and looking for work, to Las Vegas and the height of prosperity—where he visits with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller), to Wisconsin—where thousands of people have prospered through the nation’s most successful welfare-to-work program, to Flint, MI where he checks out Moore's background, to Minneapolis—where he meets up with immigrants from Korea who have created an incredible life for themselves through the liberty the US affords, and finally to New York for a showdown with Michael Moore—where Wilson asks Moore to return his Best Documentary Oscar® after presenting facts that show Bowling for Columbine was more fiction that fact.

“Despite the title, the film is not about bashing Michael Moore,” said Producer Carr Hagerman, “but Moore is a good starting point for showing people why America is great. He has the liberty to trash his own country, and we have the liberty to show people how he is wrong. The film debunks many of Moore’s claims through interviews with people who contradict what he’s saying by their own experiences and life stories.”

Moore, the oft-celebrated documentary director, has built a cottage industry by showing the less-than-perfect side of America in his films and by bending (and sometimes breaking) the truth to suit his personal and political agendas. In Bowling for Columbine, Moore blamed Lockheed-Martin for the Columbine shootings, despite the fact that no weapons were actually manufactured in the Littleton factory, and that neither of the killers or their parents had any connection to the company. Moore also claimed that the NRA came to Littleton after the school shootings for a large rally when, in fact, the NRA cancelled all but one morning of its four-day event. Because this didn’t help his case, Moore inserted footage he shot at a rally a full year later, stating that it came from the Denver rally. These are only two of the dozens of inaccuracies and fabrications in the film.

Kudos to Maripat and Lori at Right We Are! for the lowdown.

Iran wavers

The Australian and British press continue to out-report the U.S. media concerning the Middle East. Very interesting news tonight about Iran via the Aussies. To compare and contrast, Fox News has been "reporting" about the Laci Peterson case all damn night.

Al-Qaeda's third-ranked leader and alleged mastermind of the Riyadh bombings has been seized in Iran, intelligence sources say.

The United States has identified Saif al-Adel as the most senior al-Qaeda member linked to the attacks that killed 34 people, including one Australian, earlier this month.

Intelligence sources said al-Adel, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard, approved the bombing plans before his capture by Iranian security forces nine days before the attack.

Iran is thought to want to handover al-Adel to Washington, in return for senior leaders in the anti-Iranian terrorist group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK). He would probably be deported to Egypt initially.

Washington has demanded that Iran should act against al-Qaeda leaders in the country and has conveyed a message via the United Nations of its "deep, deep concern that individuals associated with al-Qaeda have planned and directed the attack in Saudi Arabia from inside Iran". Al-Adel's presence in Iran was of particular concern, the US said.

If al-Adel is transferred into US hands it will be a serious blow to al-Qaeda and a significant move by Iran in the war on terrorism. It effectively removes what is thought to be one of the few remaining havens for the terrorist group.

via Sydney Morning Herald

Freedom of Expression

UNC-Wilmington's Dr. Mike S. Adams has been messing with the minds of the politically correct folk on his campus. He's writing about it in the form of an open letter...

Dear UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees:

It has recently come to my attention that a feminist student at UNCW has taken offense to a sticker on my office door which reads "So you're a feminist . . . Isn't that cute." I found this out after obtaining a copy of a letter her father wrote to you, the Board of Trustees. I could comment at some length on the obvious hypocrisy of this student's decision to ask her father to defend feminism for her, but I won't. Let me get straight to the point: I did not put that sticker on my office door.

This terrible misunderstanding is all the result of an experiment on diversity and tolerance that I decided to undertake several years ago. It all started when I noticed that a colleague of mine had a "Mondale/Ferraro '84" sticker on the filing cabinet in her office. I also noticed that another colleague had one posted on the front of his office desk.

Remembering that the university has a provision specifically prohibiting faculty from using "University funds, services, supplies, vehicles, or other property to support or oppose the candidacy of any person for elective public office . . ." I decided to initiate my experiment.

First, I placed a "Clinton/Gore '96" sticker prominently on my office door to see if anyone would take offense. After two years without any complaints, I decided to replace the sticker with one that said "George W. Bush for President." Within a few weeks I heard reports from two faculty members and one staff member saying that someone was preparing to file a complaint about the Bush sticker.

Since the faculty handbook specifies "appropriate disciplinary action, including discharge from employment" as one possible consequence of violating the aforementioned rule, I decided it was time to let the faculty in on my little experiment. I did this by sending an e-mail to everyone in the building which began as follows: "You have all been involved in an experiment in tolerance which, unfortunately, some of you have failed ..."

Go to Townhall.com for the punchline, and the rest of story.

The Iraq playbook

Donald Rumsfeld reaffirms President Bush's "core principles" for transforming Iraq, and then outlines the game plan. Principles and plan look good - now we just need persistence in the face of panicked, short-attention-span media and the burblings of losers inside the bureacracy.

We are committed to helping the Iraqi people get on that path to a free society. We do not have an American "template" we want to impose: Iraqis will figure out how to build a free nation in a manner that reflects their unique culture and traditions.

What President Bush has outlined are some broad principles that are critical if Iraq's transition from tyranny is to succeed: that Iraq be a single country, which does not support terrorists, threaten its neighbors or the world with weapons of mass destruction, or threaten its diverse population with terror and repression; that it have a government that respects and protects minorities, provides opportunities for its people through a market economy, and justice through an independent judiciary and rule of law.

These are core principles that undergird the world's diverse community of free nations. The coalition will seek out Iraqis who support these principles, and who desire to have a role in their country's future. Those who oppose these principles--whose agenda is to replace Saddam Hussein's tyranny with some other form of dictatorship--will be opposed.

The game plan has 17 elements. Here are a few; the entire list is worth review.

• Assert authority. Our goal is to put functional and political authority in the hands of Iraqis as soon as possible. The Coalition Provisional Authority has the responsibility to fill the vacuum of power in a country that has been a dictatorship for decades, by asserting authority over the country. It will do so. It will not tolerate self-appointed "leaders."

• Provide security. Among the immediate objectives are restoration of law and order for the Iraqi people and provision of essential services. The coalition is hiring and training Iraqi police, and will be prepared to use force to impose order as required--because without order, little else will be possible.

• Trial and error. The transition to democracy will take time and may not always be a smooth road. In Central and Eastern Europe, the process has taken time, but it is succeeding. Trial and error and experimentation will be part of the process. It will not be perfect. Course corrections will be necessary and should be expected. This effort will require patience by all involved if it is to succeed.

• Patience and respect for Iraq's singular character. The ultimate political outcome must be decided by the Iraqi people, within the broad principles of the rule of law, minority rights, individual liberty, and representative democracy. One ought not expect the Iraqi outcome to replicate any other system.

via OpinionJournal

Quote of the Day

The President remembers

"Each Memorial Day, we pray for peace throughout the world, remembering what was gained and what was lost during times of war. From the bravery of the men at Valley Forge, to the daring of Normandy, the courage of Iwo Jima, and the steady resolve in Afghanistan and Iraq, our men and women in uniform have won for us every hour that we live in freedom. During this year's observance, we particularly recognize the courageous spirit of the men and women in our Nation's Armed Forces who are working with our coalition partners to restore civil order, provide critical humanitarian aid, and renew Afghanistan and Iraq. As we honor those who have served and have been lost, we better understand the meaning of patriotism and citizenship, and we pledge that their sacrifices will not be in vain.

Throughout our history, the decency, character, and idealism of our military troops have turned enemies into allies and oppression into hope. In all our victories, American soldiers have fought to liberate, not to conquer; and today, the United States joins with a strong coalition in the noble cause of liberty and peace for the world. On this day, America honors her own, but we also recognize the shared victories and hardships of our allied forces who have served and fallen alongside our troops.

The noble sacrifices of our service men and women will not be forgotten. Every name, every life is a loss to our military, to our Nation, and to their loved ones. Americans stand with the families who grieve, and we share in their great sorrow and great pride. There will be no homecoming on this Earth for those lost in battle, but we know that this reunion will one day come."

- President George W. Bush

via The White House

Today is Memorial Day

The World War I St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial is located at the west edge of Thiaucourt, France. This cemetery, forty acres in extent, contains the graves of 4,153 American military dead from World War I. Most of these gave their lives in the great offensive which resulted in the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient that threatened Paris.

Rabid animals?

New York Times "reporter" Chris Hedges was booed off the stage recently when he started to give a thoroughly anti-American commencement address to graduates at Rockford College near Chicago. The fact that he wasn't allowed to finish is deplorable according to the principles of free speech and free inquiry. But it was also a well-deserved audience response in the context of countless examples of suppression of free speech by Leftists on college campuses across the nation. Ask Clarence Thomas, Henry Kissinger, and plenty of other conservatives if freedom of speech is really practiced in the university setting. Maybe now that a new generation of college students is leading the counter-revolution against Leftist culture of higher education we can look forward to free speech for everyone.

Meanwhile, Chris Hedges has expanded his remarks on Amy Goodman's left-wing radio program "Democracy Now." His conclusion: patriotism turns Americans into rabid animals.

You know, as I looked out on the crowd, that is exactly what my book is about. It is about the suspension of individual conscience, and probably consciousness, for the contagion of the crowd for that euphoria that comes with patriotism. The tragedy is that – and I've seen it in conflict after conflict or society after society that plunges into war – with that kind of rabid nationalism comes racism and intolerance and a dehumanization of the other. And it's an emotional response. People find a kind of ecstasy, a kind of belonging, a kind of obliteration of their alienation in that patriotic fervor that always does come in war time.

As I gave my talk and I looked out on the crowd, I was essentially witnessing things that I had witnessed in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina or in squares in Belgrade or anywhere else. Crowds, especially crowds that become hunting packs are very frightening. People chanted the kind of cliches and aphorisms and jingoes that are handed to you by the state. "God Bless America" or people were chanting "send him to France" – this kind of stuff and that kind of contagion leads ultimately to tyranny, it's very dangerous and it has to be stopped.

via Democracy Now

Arafat cornered?

Unpredictable DEBKA reports that the new Palestinian PM is in grave danger from Yasser Arafat. The intended summit between Bush, Abbas, and Sharon is intended to challenge Arafat's standing, so this seems quite plausible. Will be interesting to watch this drama unfold. Removing Arafat is the linchpin to progress -- but even the Israelis have declined to just kill him. He must be rendered irrelevant.

DEBKAfile’s US and Israeli security sources report increasing signs that Yasser Arafat is now seriously gunning for the new Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas. He will do anything to abort the summit expected to take place in early June with President George W. Bush and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Arafat cannot abide the notion of any top-level conference going forward without him. The plot he is thought to be preparing would inculpate Israel for any harm befalling Abu Mazen or his associates. He would thus show the Palestinians and the Muslim world that his arm is still long and that if anyone is bent on sabotaging the prospects of peace it is Israel.

Hoping to blunt the threat, our sources reveal the Americans are trying to go through Europeans with access to Arafat. US secretary of state Colin Powell asked French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin to take with him on his visit to Arafat in Ramallah Monday, May 26, a last warning from Washington: Stop trying to disempower or eliminate Abu Mazen. If you continue to obstruct Washington’s plans for the region you risk a direct American reprisal.

via DEBKA

Axis of Weasels Dance Mix

The arts advance one step at a time.

Once again music, the universal language, has brought together strange bedfellows. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, and America's most popular radio host, Rush Limbaugh, have unwittingly collaborated on the new hit song, "Axis of Weasels: The Dance Mix" (Real).

The vast audio production staff at ScrappleFace labored for countless minutes to produce the dance mix, which includes music by Dutch keyboardist and composer Hans van den Bos.

via Scrappleface. Also available in MP3.

Quote of the Day

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

- Winston Churchill

Arab opinion

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid in Arab News has authored a tough opinion piece on the subject of Islamic terrorists. Realism is beginning to trickle to the surface of the Middle East dreamworld. Only the beginning, but better than total denial.

Many people treated the terrorist cell discovered in Saudi Arabia as a group that has grievances that can be dealt with. They said that they could be cured through religious institutions or by giving them more rights. That was the wrong diagnosis and, consequently, the wrong treatment — like giving a man with a headache a stick to lean on.

Yes, there is a problem in dealing with groups that use violence. But the need to have civil institutions as part of a nation’s continuous development is quite another matter. They have nothing to do with each other.

Khalid Al-Juhani and his group were arrested in Riyadh while planning to kill people. It is difficult to imagine that they were planning indiscriminate murder because they were not allowed to vote or express their opinion.

There is no relation between the terrorists and desire for such liberties. On the contrary, they are totally against such freedoms. The agenda of most of the terrorist movements that have existed in the Arab and Islamic world for over 20 years now is destructive, not reformist. Leaders of such movements continue to make that clear. They consider civil institutions un-Islamic and unacceptable. It is not lack of freedom that is the reason for the existence of such groups. If that were so, how would one explain their appearance in open Western societies, where voting and political diversity are allowed and where they have total freedom of expression? The fact is that they have chosen to use weapons against such societies because they are against them.

via Arab News

As we all know, civil reformers are the last people who use, or call for the use of, violence. The people who advocate violence do it because they love violence. Leaders of terrorist cells are against elections, the freedom of opinion and political diversity. Those who disagree with this analysis should explain their logic. What is the basis for their arguing that these terrorists support freedoms? What do they know about them that we have not known in the last 20 years? These terrorist groups consider civil institutions alien to our society. We know that. Do the others know differently?

The effort to project the activities of these people, such as their recent crime, as a movement for civil liberties distorts the truth. These people declare everything they see as un-Islamic. If they had lived in the Omayyad or Abassid periods of Islamic rule, they would have declared them also as un-Islamic and called the rulers apostates — in the same manner that the Khawarij declared the holy companions of the Prophet as apostates.

These people are products of the sick ideas that first appeared during the Afghanistan jihad. After the end of that war, they were scattered around the world, carrying with them not only explosives but also dangerous and destructive ideas that they spread through mosques, schools and public places. With their destructive mindset, they believe that they can “reform” Muslims — the whole one billion of them — whom they consider as having strayed from the true path and need to be guided and saved.

These people do not respect civil institutions and do not recognize the opinions of others. They do not tolerate disagreement, however politely expressed. They do not want to coexist with people who are different from them. They are waging a war against Muslims and they consider killing them part of their jihad. Knowing all these facts, how can some of us give them a reformist cover?

It is our first duty to reform these people. In fact, in view of the seriousness of the danger they pose, it must be considered an emergency operation. We have seen how dangerous they can be. It goes beyond differences, disputes, skirmishes or even anarchy. They consider the life of others, Muslims including, legitimate targets and their slaughtering as sacrifices that will endear them to God.

Reforming them, in my opinion, is not going to be easy.

Iran ultimatum?

The Aussies are speaking aloud what is only being rumored in the U.S. this weekend. There was no mention of this statement on the Sunday morning talk shows in the U.S., despite discussion on all of the shows about our stance on Iran.

The Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, delivered a tough, last-chance call to Iran yesterday to crack down on al-Qaeda terrorists allegedly in the country. His warning came as the United States threatened aggressive action to overthrow the Iranian Government.

Mr Downer told his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, that Tehran must do everything possible to crack down on al-Qaeda and other terrorists. Australia wanted to see tougher action and Washington saw this as a "life-or-death issue", he told Dr Kharrazi.

Australian officials confirmed that Mr Downer was delivering the warning on behalf of Canberra and Washington. "I cannot put this issue strongly enough, this is fundamental for Australia and America," Mr Downer told the Herald.

The US cancelled planned talks with Iran this week in protest against alleged terrorist links. Washington claims an al-Qaeda official, Saif al-Adel, directed this month's bombings in Saudi Arabia from Iran and that Tehran had advance warning of the attacks.

via the Sydney Morning Herald

Brits find Iraq "smoking gun"

Evidence keeps piling up, even if the WMD stash hidden underground somewhere in Iraq or Syria hasn't been found yet.

British military officers have uncovered an attempt by Saddam Hussein to build a missile capable of hitting targets throughout the Middle East, including Israel, The Telegraph can reveal.

Plans for the surface-to-surface missile were one of the regime's most closely-guarded secrets and were unknown to United Nations weapons inspectors. Its range of 600 miles would have been far greater than that of the al-Samoud rocket - which already breached the 93-mile limit imposed by the UN on any Iraqi missiles.

Saddam's masterplan for the new missile, which was being developed by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission (MIC), the body responsible for weapons procurement, constitutes the most serious breach uncovered so far of the tight restrictions imposed on Iraq's military capability after the 1991 Gulf war. The range of Saddam's missiles was restricted to prevent him from using them as a delivery system for weapons of mass destruction.

David Kay, the former United Nations weapons inspector responsible for dismantling Iraq's nuclear weapons programme in the 1990s, said the British discovery proved that Saddam had no intention of complying with UN requirements.

"This is the smoking gun we have been looking for," he said.

via The Telegraph (UK)

North Korea

Jim Hoagland makes two interesting points about our approach to North Korea. His first point, about the current state of affairs, sounds plausible if not encouraging.

Bush would quickly bridge the warring factions of the Defense and State departments -- as he did in Iraq and Afghanistan -- if either the hawks or the doves could present him with a workable option. They haven't. Fudge stays on the menu as the president pursues diplomacy, refuses "to take the military option off the table" and waits for something to turn up.

But the second point is not bold enough. Surely there is another policy choice than returning to the failed Clinton strategy.

It is hard to argue against slow and steady in such unclear circumstances. But recent events underline the costs involved in the administration's policy of talking but not negotiating with Pyongyang while playing down the military risks of the confrontation. It may now be time to elevate both the diplomatic track and the muscle track and, most important, to synchronize them.

It is too late in this crisis to consider U.S. troop withdrawals, however satisfying it would be to leave anti-American protesters in South Korea to experience the dangers of answered prayers. That will have to wait for calmer times. This is the moment to reinforce U.S. military options -- while linking them explicitly to greater flexibility in meeting North Korean demands for U.S. security guarantees.

This would be a Bush version of the "coercive diplomacy" that the Clinton administration used to get the 1994 framework agreement, which did buy an eight-year freeze on plutonium reprocessing (even as the North Koreans launched a secret uranium enrichment program in one of the starkest betrayals of an international accord in recent history).

Getting back to square one is never a glorious outcome, and it is likely to be especially disdained by this president. But squeezing Kim into a new and verifiable freeze may be the most realistic goal available.

But despite the desirability of a more definitive strategy, sometimes watchful waiting is the best, if worrisome, choice. Realistic patience may be required, with a healthy dollup of vigilance and preparation.

via The Washington Post

Quote of the Day

"History teaches us that freedom is not destined to prevail over tyranny. Liberty and our way of life are fragile gifts; their care is in your hands.

"In my lifetime, I have lived through the Great Depression, witnessed the rise and fall of empires. My generation has seen fascism, communism and now terrorism emerge to challenge free nations and free people. And we've seen free nations successfully unite and turn back every one of those challenges.

"But each time a foe has been defeated in one corner of the world, a new challenge arises, which is why each generation of Americans has been called upon to produce patriots, patriots willing to dedicate their lives to the defense of liberty.

"You are that next generation of patriots, and upon your shoulders, that burden now rests. The future must not simply unfold. Rather, it will need to be shaped by your leadership. The decisions you make, the courage and creativity you bring to your responsibilities will determine America's future."

- Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to new graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy

Stiletto Conservatives

The NY Times has a lengthy article about the new conservative movement on college campuses. The Times writer is alarmed by the fact that the right-wing kids are not only articulate, effective, and growing in popularity, but also -- egad -- connected to conservative organizations. Although the author can't help but discuss the leftist culture prevalent on almost every college campus, there is not one mention in a 6,000-word article about left-wing organizations and support networks, which are easily as well-funded and relentless as those on the right. The young conservative women in the article were impressive. And I learned a new phrase: ''stiletto conservatives.''

One Bucknell conservatives club member, Allison Kasic, buys it. She's a 19-year-old who just finished her sophomore year, and she writes a regular column in The Counterweight and has her own rock-music show each Monday on the college radio station. Raised in Littleton, Colo., the daughter of an administrative judge, she is a confident, tough young woman who wears little makeup and favors jeans and T-shirts. As a management major concentrating in marketing, she sees the importance of selling a new brand of conservatism to female students. ''There's the old stereotype of the WASP-y country-club wife or the Bible-study mom from the Midwest,'' Kasic says. ''But that's not what conservative women are anymore.'' Kasic, instead, points to ''stiletto conservatives'' like Hoff Sommers and Coulter. ''We have role models now,'' she says. ''Hip, strong women who exude the message: 'I don't need hand-holding just because I'm a woman.''' Kasic herself plans to be a working woman when she graduates (''I'm no soccer mom,'' she laughs; ''I don't even like kids''), but she respects women who choose a different path -- to be homemakers, like her own mother. ''Conservatives are inclusive in a way that liberals are not,'' she says, voicing a central theme of the Independent Women's Forum ethos. ''We say that women can be executives or stay-at-home mothers.'' Kasic extends this notion to the abortion debate. Herself an anti-abortion Catholic, she says that the Republican Party today nevertheless supports candidates who espouse the right to abortion. ''But the National Organization for Women has never supported a pro-life candidate,'' she says, as proof of the left's narrowness and the right's ''diversity'' (a term the conservative movement has deliberately co-opted from the left).

It can be disorienting to hear conservatism advanced as the ideology that frees women, but such is the skill with which the right has reframed the issues for the campus crowd, and such is the degree to which the left has allowed its own message to drift into rigidity and irrelevance for many college-age women. Another Bucknell conservatives club member, Denise Chaykun, typifies how some young women are only driven further to the right by what they see as the pieties of the left. Chaykun, with her shoulder-length blond hair, faded jeans and rock T-shirt, could have stepped out of a 1970's campus sit-in. But she is one of the most combative and hard-core conservatives at Bucknell. ''You come to college, and the message they give you is 'Your parents are racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, and we're going to take you and change that,''' she says. ''A lot of the courses are mushy stuff about sex and gender and social relations. You can't take a class about a war. We don't have a military historian at Bucknell. Everything is so dumbed down because no one wants to offend anyone.''

via The New York Times Magazine

Quote of the Day

"A new Jim Carrey movie is coming out about a man who acts like God. I think it’s called "The Bill O’Reilly Story."

- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

Rumsfeld strikes!

Bill Gertz reports that Donald Rumsfeld is continuing his efforts to tame the Pentagon and cut through the layers of bureacracy. It's amazingly hard. I hope Rumsfeld will stick around for the second term.

Stephen Cambone has assumed sweeping power over the Pentagon's intelligence bureaucracy as the new undersecretary of defense for intelligence. We obtained a copy of a May 8 memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz setting up the new office. It states that the office takes over all 286 persons and policies attached to the intelligence, counterintelligence and security, and other intelligence-related issues that were in the portfolio of the assistant defense secretary for command, control, communications and intelligence, once the Pentagon's top intelligence official.

Mr. Cambone, a protege of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who has little intelligence experience, will have several deputies, including three charged with intelligence warning, war fighting and operations, and counterintelligence and security.

The key phrase of the implementing guidance memorandum relates to the office's power over other Pentagon intelligence agencies that in the past have resisted control by Pentagon policy-makers. It states that the new undersecretary will "exercise authority, direction, and control over the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Defense Security Service (DSS) and the DoD Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA)."

The job of whipping the Pentagon intelligence bureaucracy into shape is formidable. Pentagon intelligence agencies consume the lion's share of the amount spent on intelligence overall, estimated to be about $35 billion annually.

Additionally, the memorandum states that the Pentagon's chief information officer has been given a new title — assistant defense secretary for networks and information integration — and will report directly to the secretary of defense, an unusual arrangement because most assistants report to an undersecretary. The post also comes with new authority over Pentagon space activities.

via The Washington Times

Quote of the Day

"The advance of freedom is more than an interest we pursue. It is a calling we follow. Our country was created in the name and cause of freedom. And if the self-evident truths of our founding are true for us, they are true for all. As a people dedicated to civil rights, we are driven to defend the human rights of others. We are the nation that liberated continents and concentration camps. We are the nation of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and the Peace Corps. We are the nation that ended the oppression of Afghan women, and we are the nation that closed the torture chambers of Iraq.

America's national ambition is the spread of free markets, free trade, and free societies. These goals are not achieved at the expense of other nations, they are achieved for the benefit of all nations. America seeks to expand, not the borders of our country, but the realm of liberty."

- President George W. Bush, in commencement address to United States Coast Guard Academy

via The White House

Counter-Revolution

Jim Hoagland makes more explicit a point that few journalists have understood so far: the Baathists in Iraq are working very actively to turn back the liberation. As his headline says: "The War Isn't Over." It seems to me that, like in the overall war on terror, we have the advantage right now, but not victory. Not yet. The struggle will continue.

U.S. intelligence initially tended to portray a wave of postwar attacks on coalition forces and civil disturbances as ad hoc, spontaneous events. But on May 16 a secret CIA memorandum pulled together a number of incidents involving former leaders in Hussein's Baathist Party and analyzed them in the same way that many Iraqis see them: as an organized, systematic guerrilla campaign to drive out U.S. forces.

That analytical delay compounded the problems created by the failure of the administration to train and deploy with the invasion force enough U.S. civil affairs officers and Iraqi exiles to act as guides and interpreters. This prewar political decision -- not to put exile forces on a par with renegade Baathist politicians and generals whom the CIA expected to be able to install in power -- has undermined postwar operations.

"The Iraqis saw that we were not prepared to be ruthless in dealing with their jailers and killers, who were reorganizing before their eyes. So, many of the people who could have helped us kept their heads down," said one senior U.S. official. "It is hard to blame them. Threats that Saddam will come back can be dismissed easily in Washington, but not if you live in Baghdad."

Another senior Bush aide would acknowledge only that "there may have been too much desire on our part not to look like an occupation force. We are meeting that problem by reconfiguring our military units there."

But the war is not over, as even the CIA now reports: Ex-Baathists declared the formation of a new national secret movement on May 1. In Mosul on May 12, the Iraqi Vanguard Organization established a network of cells for northern Iraq. The agency has also turned up evidence of a Baathist plot to force a halt to aid shipments by attacking Western and Iraqi relief workers. And so it goes.

via The Washington Post

Saudi Arabia

It's too early to tell for sure, but the Saudis may be taking action at last against the terrorists in their midst. Now if they'll just root out the clandestine supporters and financiers, we can all be safer.

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia -- The kingdom's three major cities -- Riyadh, Dammam and Jidda -- have been turned into near-garrison towns in recent days as the royal family confronts the biggest threat to its authority in more than 20 years. Special armed forces patrol the streets and set up posts outside Western residential compounds. By evening the kingdom's streets are deserted, with Saudis and foreigners alike now certain that a major al Qaeda attack is imminent.

Already reeling from last week's attacks on three housing compounds that claimed 25 victims, authorities yesterday confronted reports that three Moroccans arrested on Monday had planned to hijack an airliner and crash it into a building in Jidda. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef denied any such plot, but a security source who spoke on the condition of anonymity stood by the claim.

Either way, the government has been forced after months of denials to admit to the presence of a terrorist network on its soil. Three cells are said to have been formed -- one that carried out the attacks in Riyadh, one that has fled across the border and a third that is planning another assault.

via The Washington Times

Quote of the Day

"The United States military is now using the music of Metallica and other heavy metal bands to break the will of Saddam Hussein supporters to get them to talk. They’re blaring heavy metal music at them. That should make the artist feel pretty good, huh? Put your heart and soul into your last CD and the Army is using it to torture people."

- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

Virtue rewarded

The admirable Norwegians are "puzzled" to learn that their sincerity, good works, and progressive attitudes don't buy them protection from Islamo-fascists. Welcome to the new reality, neighbors.

Norwegians, proud of their role as a global peacemaker, were puzzled and concerned Wednesday that a leading Al Qaeda member singled out their country in a terrorist threat. The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired an audio tape purportedly by Ayman al-Zawahri, the top lieutenant of Usama bin Laden, urging renewed attacks on the United States, Britain and Australia, which participated in the war against Iraq. But the inclusion of the Scandinavian nation in his warning drew questions. Norway didn't support the war in Iraq but sent troops and fighter planes to help oust Al Qaeda and the Taliban forces from Afghanistan.

"We were surprised," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said, adding that experts were racing to try to figure out why Al Qaeda would want to threaten Norway.

via the AP and Fox News

Iraqi justice?

Newly-freed people have decided to take some matters into their own hands. This is a somewhat raw form of throwing off the shackles of state oppression, but sounds like they are getting the job done.

Iraqis have begun tracking down and killing former members of the ruling Baath Party, doubtful that the United States intends to adequately punish the mid-level government functionaries who they say tormented them for three decades.

The assassinations appear to have picked up since the United States issued a decree last Friday that prohibits senior Baath Party officials from holding positions in Iraq's postwar government. A senior U.S. official said the order was intended to "drive a stake through [the Baath Party's] heart," but many Iraqis who continue to see party officials walking free believe it did not go far enough.

The killers appear to be working from lists looted from Iraq's bombed-out security service buildings, which kept records on informants and victims alike. But others are simply killing Baathist icons or irksome party officials identified with the Hussein government.

via The Washington Post