TERROR IN DELHI

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s the Indian capital's people prepared for the upcoming and coinciding festivals of two religious communities (the Hindu "Festival of Light" Diwali and the Muslim end of the holy fasting month Idul Fitri), terrorists celebrated their manhood by coordinating bomb attacks against the citizens of New Delhi yesterday. Three large blasts in crowded market areas across the city have killed about 60 people. Thankfully for some, there were alert heroes among them:

The story of the blast on a packed Delhi Transport Corporation bus in south Delhi's Govindpuri could have been similar to those of the two crowded markets. But a few seconds before the bomb went off, Budh Prakash and Kuldeep Singh changed the terrorists' script.

Prakash, 42, the conductor of the DTC bus on the Outer Ring Road route and Singh, its driver, are now at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences -- Prakash with minor injuries and Singh in a critical condition. But their presence of mind saved scores of passengers. The Govindpuri toll: No death, nine injured.

A passenger sighted a black rexin bag three seats behind the driver's and alerted Prakash. He made the driver stop the bus. "There were 100 passengers on the bus at that point so we stopped the bus near Okhla Mandi and took the bag out. The driver saw a wire hanging out of the bag which was about two-feet long. The only solution seemed to be to throw the bag away and as the driver was doing that, the blast happened," said Prakash who has minor injuries on his arm. Singh is seriously injured. "His whole arm has burnt and he is in a critical state at the moment. Had the conductor and the driver not taken action in time, many lives would have been lost," said DTC's chairman and managing director A. Majumdar.

Best wishes to Kuldeep Singh and all others injured by this atrocity. How fitting it would be if the alert passenger, unidentified in this story, would be a Muslim -- to go along with the Hindu conductor and the Sikh driver in saving so many lives. That this third bomb caused no deaths is truly amazing, and due only to the perceptive alertness and heroic actions of these three people. The story carries a lesson that, unfortunately, we all need to learn, internalise, and carry around with us at all times these days. 'Terrorist jihad can be inflicted on anyone, at anytime, and I am the first line of defence.'

A kind reader recently reminded me that India has been one of the earliest victims of devastating attacks by jihadist violence. Just over one month before al Qaeda's first attempt to demolish the World Trade Center in New York, Mumbai (then known as Bombay) was attacked with a wave of 13 bombings on March 12, 1993. Cars, vans, taxis and bajaj (ph: "bajai" as they call them in Indonesia, little three wheeler taxi vehicles) were packed with high explosives and detonated all over the city -- 257 people were killed. The subsequent trial showed apparent involvement of Pakistan's notorious ISI (secret intel services), the same group which provided much support for the Taliban fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan, al Qaeda and others involved in the "Kashmiri jihad".

Ten years later on August 25, 2003, a double bombing in Mumbai killed 55. That attack was traced to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based jihadist outfit. Yesterday's New Delhi bomb attacks have now been claimed by the "Front for Islamic Uprising," a group of which authorities now confirm having previous knowledge, and which is linked to the aforementioned lashkar group. (Lashkar simply means "brigade" or similar, as in the now defunct Laskar Jihad of Indonesia). The Indian capital itself was of course spectacularly assaulted by heavily armed jihadis very soon after September 11, when terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. A number of police and security officers lost their lives repelling that attack.

These despicable atrocities in India yesterday should serve as a reminder for all of us -- as my kind reader reminded me only a week earlier -- that India has been one of the earliest victims of our current wave of massive terror attacks on civilians, and that we all need to watch out for each other, and never let our guard down.

POSO, AGAIN

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lso at the weekend, a group of girls heading off to their Christian high school near Poso, Central Sulawesi were attacked by six men with machetes. Three of the girls were beheaded. The perpetrators carried the heads away, depositing them later outside local police stations and a church. This inhuman attack has had very major attention all weekend across the country, in newspapers and on television. Normally in such cases, the government does all it can to suppress sectarian aspects in an effort to avoid provoking communal anger, but here the religious aspect is so prominent as to make this impossible.

Jihadist fighters have been active in this area for years, trying to provoke a religous war in a region where Christians used to be the majority. Although the situation has cooled down a bit following peace efforts by religious leaders, mujahideen groups continued their activity, including a market bombing five months ago which killed 22. This account gives a roundup of recent incidents:

In May a pair of bomb attacks killed 22 people at a market in the neighbouring coastal town of Tentena...

Last December a Christian priest was critically injured when unidentified attackers slashed him with machetes in Poso ahead of Christmas services, police said. On the same day south of the provincial capital Palu, to the west of Poso, two Christians died in a machete attack.

Among other violence last year was the assassination of a Christian prosecutor who handled terrorism cases in Palu.

In July last year gunmen sprayed bullets into a Palu church, killing a woman priest and injuring four other people.

In the worst bloodshed of 2003, armed gangs in October killed 10 people in attacks on mainly Christian villages.

A report last year by the International Crisis Group think-tank blamed many of the Christian deaths in Poso on Mujahidin KOMPAK, an outfit with loose affiliations to the Jemaah Islamiyah.

Meanwhile, indications this week are that some of those convicted in the Bali bombings of 2002, including Jemaah Islamiyah's "emir" Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, will receive sentence reductions in honour of the end of Ramadan month Hari Raya (Great Day), Idul Fitri.

I think extending forgiveness on Idul Fitri is fine, that's what it's all about. Knock a few weeks off the sentences of shoplifters, embezzlers or ganja possessors -- no problem with that. But for people convicted of conspiring to mass murder for God, even a partial clemency is completely unjustified. I hope SBY would reconsider, and set a precedent by singling out these crimes as comprising an ineligible category. Those who engage in terrorism deserve no clemency, whether he's a ringleader or a low level "go-fer." The most pernicious lie that needs to be discredited in every way possible, is the contemptible idea that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." One way is to demonstrate with every opportunity, that those who embrace these tactics -- whatever their cause -- are nothing like ordinary criminals, and deserve no such consideration like time off for Idul Fitri.

EDITING PHOTOS, AND A DEAD SOLDIER'S LETTER

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very time I think that the mass media formerly known as "respectable" can't sink any lower, they go right on ahead and surprise me. It would be disappointing enough, if all the gaffes, misquotes and accidents (and through the spectrum all the way up to lies, forgeries and hatchet jobs) would have ended up settling in an even distribution pattern favouring no particular "side" or point of view. But for some funny, perhaps metaphysical reason that defies the law of averages, media mistakes (intentional or otherwise) always seem to come down against the party, philosophy or group which 95% of journalists don't happen to subscribe to.

Michelle Malkin had a fine example last week, showing an obviously over the top manipulation by USA Today, of a photo of Condoleezza Rice. I mean, just take a look -- Michelle puts it next to the original wire service photo which someone found on the Spanish Yahoo site. What in the hell were they thinking, that no one would notice? Were the "editors" (and I use that term in the most condescending way possible) perhaps going for the 'demon hound from hell' look, or was it more of the 'Stepford wife possessed by Satan' genre? It could also have a little bit of 'reptoid alien inhabits Condi's body' aspect too, it's hard to tell exactly what was in their puny little brains. Maybe USA Today "editors" were suddenly possessed by Satanic reptoid hounds of outer space, it's hard to figure. They removed the photo after a pathetic attempt at excuse-making.

A blogger I've just rediscovered recently, is Mark in Mexico, a very good writer with a clever way with words. He picked up on this racially charged Photoshopping job by a "progressive liberal" against the Lt. Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele. Mr. Steele is running for the US Senate, but has a politically incorrect identity as a Republican who happens to be black (hey, sort of like Condi!). I remember him from the Repub's convention last year, where he delivered quite the impressive speech. I bet he never dreamed he'd be villified by a "progressive black blogger" as a little black Sambo caricature, just for having the temerity of wanting off of the liberal plantation. But Mark takes it further, and shows examples of why conservatively minded folks have no need for photo manipulation if they wish to embarrass their opponents. The real honest truth is good enough for that.

And back to Michelle's site again for What The Nytimes Left Out. As part of last week's Grim Milestone Parade™, the Times ran a piece about Cpl Jeffrey B. Starr, who was on his third tour of duty in Iraq. He was killed in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 at the age of 22. His laptop computer was returned to his family, and the Times wrote:

Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. "I kind of predicted this," Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. "A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."

End of quote, desired point made.

But Corporal Starr's uncle, Timothy Lickness saw the Times story online, and wrote to Michelle so that others could know what the "newspaper of record" didn't want to tell:

Yesterday's New York Times on-line edition carried the story of the 2000 Iraq US military death[s]. It grabbed my attention as the picture they used with the headline was that of my nephew, Cpl Jeffrey B. Starr, USMC.

Unfortunately they did not tell Jeffrey's story. Jeffrey believed in what he was doing. He [was] willing put his life on the line for this cause. Just before he left for his third tour of duty in Iraq I asked him what he thought about going back the third time. He said: "If we (Americans) don't do this (free the Iraqi people from tyranny) who will? No one else can."

Several months after Jeffrey was killed his laptop computer was returned to his parents who found a letter in it that was addressed to his girlfriend and was intended to be found only if he did not return alive. It is a most poignant letter and filled with personal feelings he had for his girlfriend. But of importance to the rest of us was his expression of how he felt about putting his life at risk for this cause. He said it with grace and maturity.

He wrote: "Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

What Jeffrey said is important. Americans need to understand that most of those who are or have been there understand what's going on. It would honor Jeffrey's memory if you would publish the rest of his story.

What have we done to deserve such men and women? The answer is, we don't automatically deserve them at all, we have to work at it, we have to be worth it. The Times' "editors" decided we didn't need to hear what Jeffrey's uncle knew of his grace and maturity. It was merely the "news [not] fit to print," and they prevented their readers from understanding, and deserving, a man like Jeffrey Starr.

In Michael Yon's most recent dispatch on the Iraqi constitutional referendum, Purple Fingers, he describes a conversation with an Iraqi Major:

I then spoke with Major Yayha Rasuruh from the Iraqi Army, who said that four million people live in Sadr City. He is charged with securing the 46th Sector, and said he took all fifty of his soldiers to vote, and he showed his purple finger proudly and said, "I think this is great time Iraq passes through. Thirty-five years we suffer. There is freedom now." We talked for about ten minutes, and I asked what it was like to vote, and Major Yayha said that the voting worker made him fold his ballot before sticking it in the box. I laughed and said, "The worker was brave. He told an Army Major to fold his paper!"

Major Yayha laughed, "Yes, no longer afraid to talk with Police or Army. This is good change." The moment was warm and fuzzy, but the true situation is not. There is little doubt that the people are getting more confident in their new world, but the under-theme is still Jungle Law. Major Yayha expressed gratitude to America for supporting Iraq, and I did not have the heart to say that many Americans are ready to abandon him powerless and adrift on windswept sands.

Cpl. Starr and his comrades know very much better than Major Yayha would, about that. They know that their home media is full of doom and disaster, reporting that nothing is going right and everything is getting worse. I watched a CBS news "National Security" correspondent last week fielding calls on Washington Journal, stating as matters of indisputable fact that there is no progress with the Iraqi Army and Police, that the situation is dire and going quickly downhill, and that the insurgency has not changed in the past 2 1/2 years. All claims which are demonstrably false, except if you only get your information from the information gatekeepers, formerly known as the responsible news media.

UNDER THE FITZMAS TREE

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or weeks upon weeks, the leftish side of the blogosphere has been in a state of great anticipation: what would old saint Patrick give them at Fitzmastime? The Daily Kos-acks and Democratic Undergrounders were just sure that their patience would be rewarded, that the whole stinking, venal, criminal cesspool of George W's administration would come apart at the seams after Mr. Fitzgerald's 2 year investigation into who leaked Valerie Plame's name to the press. Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson the Fourth, who was sent by the CIA to investigate whether Saddam had purchased uranium from Niger.

Every night the Kos-acks and their fellow Chimpy-haters went to bed, dreaming themselves to sleep with visions of perp-walks and frog-marches dancing in their heads (not of sugar plums though). And every morning.... darn! .... they had to wait another day. Well last Friday, Fitzmas finally came. They wanted to see the Dark Prince Rove dragged across the Rose Garden in shackles, preferably followed by the rest of the "cabal." And maybe a nice shiny pony too. "Huh? All that waiting and being good, and all we get is this crummy Scooter? Not even handcuffs either! Hobbling on crutches? Rip-off! Wait, there's something else here under the tree... a steaming heap of horse droppings? Hold on, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere!" Always the optimists. Well ok, not always, but sometimes.

So who leaked the name of a covert CIA agent? The prosecutor was careful to say that the indictments do not refer to any "covert agent." Yet this construction is still used in most news articles (for some unknown reason? Hah!). She was a "CIA officer" whose employment was "classified." She hadn't been "covert" since Aldridge Ames outed her something like eleven years ago. So who is charged with passing classified information to those not entitled to receive it? Nobody. No charges under the Espionage Act at all. Mr. Libby is charged with giving false statements and obstructing justice when he told a grand jury, and FBI investigators, that he had learned Ms. Plame's identity from reporters, when (it is alleged) that he had known it already. A stupid thing for him to do, and a serious enough crime if convicted. But it's his word against the reporters, who will all be called to give public evidence. It should be interesting. But Bush's Watergate, it isn't.

Apparently, the main offence of the Bush White House was to attempt to correct the public record after Joe Wilson came back from Niger and started leaking to reporters about what he did there. Most of what was written before he "came out of the closet" was wrong, and he had to disavow much of it after he'd written his own account in the New York Times. Later, it was found by a Senate investigating committee that his public account was full of misrepresentations as well. The committee, Democrats and Republicans, found that he had lied to them in many instances. He denied that his wife, the CIA officer, had any role in sending him to Niger -- until this fact was confirmed. He claimed to have completely debunked a statement in Bush's State of the Union speech, that British Intelligence has found that Saddam had tried to purchase uranium from Africa (which British Intelligence continues to stand by to this day). Wilson found nothing of the sort. He found that Saddam had not purchased any uranium from Niger. His CIA debriefing actually bolstered their evidence that Saddam had tried to get the uranium, and the CIA's own debriefing documents reflect this. A lot of this controversy is Joseph Wilson (and his media friends) playing with language.

Stephen F. Hayes has written some very good summaries of all this at the Weekly Standard. If you're interested at all to see just how far the media has been exerting itself to avoid reporting all the discrepancies in Joe Wilson's story, have a read through The White House, the CIA, and the Wilsons, The Incredibles and One Good Leak Deserves Another. How our info-gatekeepers manage to keep all this out of the public consciousness is something truly amazing -- but they do it.

Oh, and another interesting development on this whole fiasco. The documents which Wilson claimed to have recognised as forgeries, "because the names were wrong, and the dates were wrong," and thus proving that the Niger caper was all cooked up -- he was lying about that too. Because the documents didn't surface until months after he'd written his Times article! He couldn't possibly have seen them (unless... read on) when he claimed to have done. His response to this: "I may have misspoken."

The forged documents (which British Intelligence say formed no part of their assessment, by the way) were proffered by an Italian businessman who had been cited in Italian, British and other newspaper accounts by an alias, has now also "come out of the closet." Evidently he was in the pay, and acting on behalf of, the French government. The businessman has turned himself in to the Italian police. Now, why would France want to have some sloppy, obviously forged documents about Saddam having purchased uranium from Niger? I wonder...

From that Telegraph article,

"After being exposed in the international press, French intelligence can hardly be amused or happy with him," one western diplomat said. "Martino may have thought the safest thing was to hand himself over to the Italians." Investigators in Rome suspect that Mr Martino was first engaged by the French secret services five years ago, when he was asked to investigate rumours of illicit trafficking in uranium from Niger. He is thought to have then been retained the following year to collect more information. It was then that he is suspected of having assembled a dossier containing both real and bogus documents from Niger, the latter apparently forged by a diplomat.

Interesting.... apparently forged by a "diplomat."

Here's an interesting exercise in putting all this confusing material into a logical progression, on a cool little site called Truthmapping. Simply put, using authoritative sources, we can see the story arranged as "if this is true, and if this is true, and if this is also true; then following from 1, 2 and 3 that this must be true." Try it, and see if there's a flaw in the logic.

The conclusion is that, "The mainstream media (MSM) continually repeats Wilson's false assertions without reporting the entire truth in an attempt to make him appear more credible than he is."

And the Kos-acks were tucked, all snug in their beds....

Wai NRO Media Blog for the Truthmapping page.
- posted by Agam @ 9:04 PM 0 comments

 
MEA CULPA

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wo weeks ago, I mentioned the case of a Chinese democracy activist who, while in the company of a Guardian journalist, had been brutally beaten by a mob of thugs (in the company of uniformed police), with links to two blogs which were following the story. Ten days ago I wanted to draw the attention of any readers who hadn't followed those links, to the fact that the activist had not been killed -- as had been claimed by the journalist, and then reported as such by many media outlets around the world. Well, I think that will be the last time I take anything with such origins of the Guardian persuasion at face value. I have steered clear of them on anything related to America, its president, Iraq, al Qaeda and terrorist Islamism, Israel and Palestine, Saddam, George Galloway, Oil for Food -- in fact almost everything. But I thought that this one eyewitness report concerning the tribulations of China's democracy workers would surely not be subject to any of their known agendas. Mea culpa, and I won't do that again.

Tim Blair spotted this little item in the Melbourne Age a few days ago (on a page of short "items" this one was at the bottom, presumably the least important of the lot):

While not quite as damaging as Jayson Blair, the reporter who brought scandal to The New York Times in 2003 for his fabricated stories, Guardian rookie foreign correspondent Benjamin Joffe-Walt managed to tarnish the credibility of the respected British broadsheet for his embellished story about a Chinese democracy activist. Turns out the newspaper's recently installed Shanghai correspondent exaggerated his first-hand account of Lu Banglie's savage beating by a uniformed mob outside Taishi village in southern Guangdong province, which ran on the front page of The Guardian and was picked up in other newspapers across the globe, including The Age.

Joffe-Walt, who had been travelling in a taxi with Lu and an interpreter, reported that Lu's head had been stomped on several times, "his eye (lay) out of its socket", and the ligaments in his neck were broken. When it later emerged that he did not sustain any serious injuries except some bruising, The Guardian recalled Joffe-Walt to London for a "please explain", issued a retraction and, after some investigation, discovered that their correspondent's journalism credentials amounted to not much more than a six-month stint on a defunct South African newspaper.

As Tim notes, this recalls another recent Guardian reporter that the paper knew little about, Dilpazier Aslam, who valued his membership in the Hizb ut Tahrir terrorism-supporting organisation more than his job as a Grauniad journalist. He also notes, and I repeat for my handful of readers here as well, that while The Age correction refers to a "respected British broadsheet," this is not correct either. Last month they converted to a tabloid format, but I guess it just doesn't have the same kick when one refers to a "respected British tabloid."

BREAKING THE MEDIA SCRIPT

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ere is a little more info on a story the MSM drummed up a few weeks ago according to their preferred script, in which a satellite-linked conversation between President Bush and some troops in Iraq was said to have been "rehearsed, choreographed and scripted." I pointed readers last week to a blog written by one of the participants, who gave his view of the exchanges. But none of the big media organs which hyped up the "it was all a staged farce" idea have seen fit to offer corrections, or to give the soldiers' side of things. The big boys like NYT and WaPo are obviously way to pre-occupied reporting leaks about leaks about leak investigations. But I did find this piece from the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

A Chattanooga soldier now in Iraq with the 278th Regimental Combat Team said soldiers used their own words during comments made last week in a satellite discussion with President Bush.

"We wanted to give President Bush a no-kidding assessment of what we have all been working 14- (to) 18-hour days on for the last 11 months," said Lt. Gregg Murphy, of Chattanooga. "We gave him the God's honest truth as we know it."

The dialogue was among President Bush and 10 U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq last Thursday on the eve of Iraq's constitutional referendum. Media outlets have called the event staged because the solders went through a rehearsal before talking live with President Bush.

"Staged infers that we were given scripts and that we followed those scripts," Lt. Murphy wrote in an e-mail to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "This is not true. None of the members on the panel used any words that were not their own."

Lt. Murphy said he was chosen to travel to Tikrit, Iraq, for the interview because he had spent the last three months leading an Iraqi army training program at a 278th base near the Iranian border. He said the soldiers got together before the interview and discussed what they wanted to say. "We shared our different experiences of working with the Iraqi army," he said. "We started brainstorming about what questions the president was sure to ask."

Lt. Murphy said White House officials later told the soldiers President Bush wanted to talk about the referendum and the Iraqi security force's role in Saturday's vote on a proposed Iraqi constitution. "They continuously told us that the president wanted us to explain the situation in our own words in a way that the American public could understand," Lt. Murphy said.

Chattanooga attorney Robin Flores served alongside Lt. Murphy when the two were members of another National Guard unit. "I'm a staunch Democrat, but if Gregg Murphy tells you it was his own words, then it was his own words," Mr. Flores said. "His word is as good as gold."

Lt. Murphy said time was limited for the interview, so the soldiers selected a mediator and organized who would field each question. He said the only guidance the solders received was to avoid using military jargon that would confuse the general public and to write out bullet points to keep their comments concise and clear. Lt. Murphy said writing out key points kept the soldiers from being nervous.

"We feared that if we didn't have organized thoughts to share with him we would look like bumbling fools on TV," Lt. Murphy said. He said the soldiers practiced passing around the microphone for a Defense Department employee in Washington moments before the interview. "She did not orchestrate the interview," Lt. Murphy said of the Defense Department employee. "We were nervous, and she put us at ease. Nothing more."

He said the military rehearses all the time. "We do that so that when we actually have to execute, there isn't any confusion," he said. "Rehearsing is why we are so good at what we do."

Sometimes I wonder how these soldiers can keep up their positive attitude. Not because of the difficulties they encounter in their efforts over there -- and there surely are many of those -- but because of the relentless negativity and doom mongering by the media in their home country. Occasionally we see glimpses of what some of them think of it, as when some network media star asked soldiers about the negative mood of the American public, and a soldier answered him that, if he had only the US media to rely on for his information, well he'd be damn depressed too. Instead, he was very positive because he knows what's going on first hand, and doesn't need the media to tell him.

Speaking of which, Michael Yon has just put up his latest dispatch, in which he recounts his experiences during the constitutional referendum. It's quite long, and contains some very good photos as well. It's loaded with some very perceptive insights and many accounts of the current determination of Iraq's people. Truly inspiring stuff almost totally ignored by the mass media, now in the grip of the grim milestone. LGF has been doing an ongoing "grim milestone watch" for the past few days, and it's really amazing how widely used that exact phrase has been in different outlets. Almost as though the same person was writing everything related to the 2000th dead soldier. I did actually hear a variation on it today though, as the execrable Matt Frei pontificated today on BBC about this "grimmest of milestones." Always one to one-up the competition, I guess, that's our British Broadcorping Castration correspondent, fresh from occupied New Orleans dodging white policemen as they blast their shotguns at hungry refugees. Somehow, the official announcement of the ratification of Iraq's new constitution was nearly lost amongst all the "grimness."

THE MILLION MOANS SEMINAR, AND A HEROIC GENTLE SPIRIT

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f there is one thing that I've detested all my life, from as far back as I can remember, it's bigotry in any form. Against anyone, for any reason -- race, religion, language or culture, I don't care what it is. Anti-Semitic attitudes are every bit as bad as Jim Crow segregationist attitudes, as is bigotry against Muslims, Sikhs, Gypsies, atheists or French. Well maybe not French (I'm joking!). This is why it was rather difficult for me to watch that pre-Millions More Movement seminar I mentioned last week, that was carried on C-SPAN. I know, I blamed the shrillness, and the whiny manner of complaining for the fact that I couldn't bring myself to watch it straight through for four hours, but really the underlying factor that I think creates this style of oratory, is just old fashioned bigotry. Now, many of these folks may have very good reasons in their lives to feel that a particular racial group (which is itself a fallacy for another day -- races don't actually exist, they are a pigment of your imagination) is inferior and beneath them. But it's simply too tiresome to listen for very long to strident, righteous-sounding anger when it's largely based on such foundations.

So, only now do I find out that I missed a star that day, whose bigotry would have actually had me glued to the set, I'm sure. A fellow by the name of Dr. Kamau Kambon, apparently until recently a professor at one of the respected institutes of academia, let fly with such as this:

Now how do I know that the white people know that we are going to come up with a solution to the problem? I know it because they have retina scans, they have what they call racial profiling, DNA banks, and they're monitoring our people to try to prevent the one person from coming up with the one idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. (tepid applause) Now I don't care whether you clap or not, but I'm saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us. And I will leave on that. So we just have to just set up our own system and stop playing and get very serious and not be diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem and the problem on the planet is white people.

Note: the tepid applause was not noted by my quoted source, but it's there. Even tepid applause at a call for genocide, should be a cause for shame. I don't care if the call would be for extermination of black people, white people, Jewish people, Muslim people or Republican people -- anybody who claps for that needs a serious sense of shame. Yet this "Professor" appears to be someone that a lot of American human beings evidently respect; this incident occurred at a widely publicised seminar on the "Movement's" strategies in advance of their big "Millions More" event on the Washington Mall.

Dr. Kambon's performance may be viewed by picking the video link from this page, but be warned: the program is four hours long. This guy comes on at around 3 1/2 hour mark. Audio only recordings can also be accessed in two parts: Part I and Part II (the above quote is in Part II). The activist's performance also earned him an episode in Protein Wisdom's interview series.

* * * *

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eanwhile, lest we forget, a truly revolutionary figure passed away the other day at the age of 92.

The year was 1955, and racial segregation seemed like the immutable reality of the American south. Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama after her day's work was done, and took an empty seat. She was told to give it to a white man. She was tired of giving in to such treatment, and she declined to stand. "Why do you treat us this way?" she asked the policeman who came to arrest her (he answered that he didn't know, but that was the law).

The bravery of this gentle spirit inspired Montgomery's black population, led to a year long bus boycott, the involvement of a young minister named Martin Luther King, and onwards to Birmingham and Selma. A civil rights leader of those times whom I listened to on the Lehrer News Hour this morning, stated that all those roads and many others led directly back to this quiet, dignified lady who was simply tired of giving way -- Rosa Louise Parks. Every human being can learn something from her simple, transformative act -- but particularly those hate-filled faux revolutionaries such as the one mentioned earlier.

Rosa Parks was asked, in one of her last interviews, how she would like people to remember her after her passing. Her answer was simple, and powerful:

"I'd like people to say I'm a person who always wanted to be free and wanted it not only for myself; freedom is for all human beings."

Yes, and thank you Rosa Parks for who you were, and who you will continue to be. "Freedom is for all human beings," is something I've recently heard someone else say as well. But this isn't the place to get into that. Rest in Peace, gentle spirit.

TRUTH, OR CONSEQUENCES

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he problem with being a famous firebrand, is frequently that his own mouth often gets him into the most trouble. That seems to be the case now with one very loud and belligerent Scotsman -- who practically owns the firebrand descriptor all to himself -- none other than gruesome George Galloway. The darling and undisputed champion of the "Iraqi resistance" admiring extremist left, seems to have gotten himself into a bit of a sticky wicket. The US Senate Subcommittee -- before which Galloway put on such a rude and combative show a few months back, leading to much triumphalist shouting from his partisans and more than a few extra opportunities to spew on BBC -- have said that they plan to charge him with lying under oath.

One of the things that were so perplexing about the Galloway hearing back in May, was the seeming passivity and non-combativeness on the part of the senators. However much Galloway baited and bellowed at them, they just calmly kept asking their questions without particularly challenging his narrative. At that time, as Belmont Club's Wretchard recalls yesterday in Playing to the Galloway (damn, how come he can think up such cool headlines?), he had noted this passivity with interest. Perhaps it was an indicator to the committee's intentions?

In the exchange above it is abundantly clear that both Coleman and Levin simply wanted to enter Galloway's denial of having discussed Oil for Food business with Tariq Aziz in the record. Levin immediately ends his questioning after eliciting Galloway's "Never". Coleman is content to merely establish that Aziz and Galloway were "friends" who had met "many times" before saying "I have no further questions of the witness".

It appears now that the senators, recognising the British MP's penchant for shooting off his mouth, were simply playing him like a fiddle and getting certain points on the record. The Senate now alleges that they have a paper trail showing payments from Fawaz Zureikat (a beneficiary of Saddam's oil voucher scam) to both Galloway's wife, and to his charity the Mariam Appeal. The evidence shows that Galloway asked for, and received from Tariq Aziz and others, allocations of 23 million barrels of oil. At the time of his performance, Galloway thundered, "I can assure you, Mr. Zureikat never gave me a penny from an oil deal, from a cake deal, from a bread deal, or from any deal." I recall finding it quite humourous that when he denied receiving any oil from the Saddam regime, he did so by claiming to have never received even one "barrel of oil." Not only that, but "I have never even seen a barrel of oil," or something to that effect.

Norwegian blogger SEIXON has done a lot of investigative work into the Mariam Appeal, and yesterday took a close look at the committee's findings -- in particular the bank statements. There is a total of close to half a million dollars that Mr. Zureikat transferred into the two accounts, of which the smallest possible amount which must have come from the corrupt oil voucher scam would have been over $270,000. That is if one makes every single possible assumption about the origin of the money, in Galloway's favour. At the time in question, Zureikat was playing with over $850,000 in his account. Check Seixon's arithmetic on the linked article, or download the subcommittee's investigation report right here (pdf file).

Wretchard has a subsequent article yesterday, in which he notes that Mr. Zureikat is once again doing business in Iraq. If Galloway is hoping to claim that his business partner deceived him, and that he actually knows "naaah-tink" about all that money, he may need to rely on Mr. Zureikat covering for him. One would expect Mr. Zureikat to be reluctant to take a fall, merely to save the bombastic politician, and would likely be cooperative for his own sake.

Galloway's nemesis Christopher Hitchens relates an interesting anecdote in his new Slate article. Last month, before the taping of a television show at which they both were guests, worried functionaries asked him if he planned to reiterate his challenge for Galloway to sign an affidavit, affirming that he'd never discussed the Oil for Food money scam with Tariq Aziz. Galloway was apparently worried that Hitchens would bring one on the set with him, and spring it upon him during the show. Hitchens replied that it wasn't any longer necessary, since his public denial had been broadcast, and that this confirmed the apparent perjury before the Senate committee. "I added that I wanted no further contact with Galloway until I could have the opportunity of reviewing his prison diaries."

But what has been established is breathtaking enough. A member of the British Parliament was in receipt of serious money originating from a homicidal dictatorship. That money was supposed to have been used to ameliorate the suffering of Iraqis living under sanctions. It was instead diverted to the purposes of enriching Saddam's toadies and of helping them propagandize in favor of the regime whose crimes and aggressions had necessitated the sanctions and created the suffering in the first place. This is something more than mere "corruption." It is the cynical theft of food and medicine from the desperate to pay for the palaces of a psychopath.

A psychopath, I can hear you ask? Isn't that a bit much? As an aside, some time ago while watching Washington Journal, a caller mentioned the name of an English author who had done a biography of Saddam. A quick search turned up this interview on NPR with Con Coughlin in November 2002. Hands up, anyone who knows that Saddam was raised by an uncle with Nazi connections, and who had a philosophy which held that the "Three Whom God Despises--Jews, Persians and Flies," -- and that "of all these three, flies were the most noble." I had read of the Ba'ath Party connection with Naziism, but hadn't realised that Saddam was practically weaned on it.

Hitchens also reminds us of the suit Galloway launched against the London Daily Telegraph, one which he won and collected money for. It's very probable that the Telegraph was correct, and Galloway lied under oath there as well. And all this during the week that a UN sponsored investigation into the assassination of Rafiq Hariri is pointing to the direct involvement of the Assad regime of Syria. Yes, the same regime Hitchens teased George about during their debate, when he noted that he had recently turned up in Damascus:

"The man's search for a tyrannical fatherland never ends. The Soviet Union's let him down. Albania's gone. The Red Army's out of Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia. The hunt persists! Saddam has been overthrown, and his criminal connections with him have been exposed -- but on to the next. On the 30th of July, in Damascus in Syria, appearing -- I've given it all to you on a piece of paper -- in front of Mr. Assad, whose death squads are cutting down the leaders of democracy in Lebanon as this is going on, to tell the Syrian people they're fortunate to have such a leader. The slobbering dauphin who they've got because he's the son of the slobbering tyrant who came before him. How anyone with a tincture of socialist principle can actually speak in this way, is beyond me and I hope ladies and gentlemen, far beyond you and far beneath your contempt. Thank you."

His search for a tyrannical fatherland never ends. What a perfect line. Where might it lead next, should baby Assad fall on hard times I wonder? George is running out of dictators to coddle with. Those who favour the Iraqi "resistance" have a kindred spirit here, but I just don't see what there is to be proud about. Trusting Galloway, or citing him as any sort of authority in anything but licking jackboots, is approximately on a par with citing Ward Churchill as an authority for anything other than being an academic fraud. But many of the committed will remain committed til the bitter end, I suppose. As a wise one once said, a mind is a difficult thing to change. Hitchens again, on Galloway: "I wonder if any of those who furnished him a platform will now have the grace to admit that they were hosting a man who is not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well." It is a nice thing to hope, but I wouldn't bet on it.
- posted by Agam @ 8:02 PM 0 comments

 
PATRONS, CLIENTS, AND PROTECTION RACKETS

BORDER CONTROL: Chinese border guard inspects Burmese timber - "I know nah-tink, naaahh-tink!" Photo credit: Global Witness http://www.globalwitness.org/

O

n Tuesday this week at the Bangkok Foreign Correspondents' Club, the environmental watchdog group Global Witness launched a major report into the massive illegal plundering of Burma's remaining hardwood forests by Chinese logging companies, aided by the complicity of both Chinese officials and the Burmese military dictatorship, and the disinterest of much of the world. More than 95% of the timber shipped across the Burma - China border is done illegally with a nod and a wink, causing a loss to the Burmese people of around a quarter of a billion dollars per year.

As the great forests of teak and other hardwoods nearest the Chinese border are depleted, the Chinese logging companies are moving deeper into the interior of the country. The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the report's findings, claiming that China does not allow its citizens "to conduct illegal deforestation activities and trade across the border." The photo above is only one of many contained in the report which belie that claim. Global Witness also cites the EU for failing to follow through on commitments made a year ago to come up with initiatives to help save some of the last remaining old growth forests in Asia, considered as the most richly bio-diverse temperate areas left on earth. China also made promises in 2001 to address the illicit timber trade, but has done nothing about it. In fact, the virtual theft of this natural resource has increased by 60% since then.

Normally, an illegal activity involving the removal of valuable property from one country and its transfer into another country for massive profit, would be called "smuggling." But in this case the word hardly does the activity justice, because it is being done on such a massive scale and absolutely out in the open. There's no need to hide anything, when everyone in authority, on both sides of the frontier, is involved. Even the word "ironic" is insufficient to describe the stern forest protection measures on the Chinese side of these border passes -- passes which see Chinese trucks (average load 15 tonnes) crossing Chinese checkpoints with illegal timber every seven minutes (day and night, 365 days a year). You see, Chinese forests are protected, and logging is not allowed. Since massive cutting of eastern Tibet's forests contributed to deadly flash flooding in China and India several years ago, the Chinese government clamped down on logging in their own country.

The Burmese military dictatorship is one of the most brutal and repressive to rule any nation at the present time -- and also one of the most forgotten. We've just seen a remarkably fast consitutional process in a country that is beginning to emerge from under the boot of a vicious tyranny -- and the Burmese generals' regime was often likened by Burmese democracy activists over the years to that of Saddam's Iraq. But the Iraqis were able to hammer out a constitutional agreement in three months, and ratify it soon after. The new nation of Timor Leste (East Timor) took seven months to create theirs. The Burmese generals have had their laughable constitution writing project under way (after their proxies lost an election that Aung San Suu Kyi's party won by a landslide), for more than 15 years! This is how they've kept their misrule going for that same 15 years ("We're workin' on it!") while they make wars of genocide against ethnic minorities like the Karen and the Shan.

And one of the main reasons the world is impotent to do anything to improve the lot of Burma's people, apart from some trade sanctions and somewhat stronger measures by the US, is that Burma has a strong protector sitting on the UN Security Council by the name of the People's Republic of China. Beijing expends political capital to protect these tyrants from the criticism of the world's democracies (well, some of them anyway), and it expects something in return. It amounts to a protection racket, and since Burma is such a poor country due to the gross mismanagement of the ruling junta, they pay for it with their valuables instead of cash. And make no mistake, these hardwoods are extremely valuable. Burma is receiving chump change in relation to their true worth, and because of the perverse Orwellian system they live under, the people of the country see little to none of the aforementioned chump change anyway.

The Global Witness press release is here, and the full report -- containing much detail, many charts and graphs as well as plenty of revealing photos -- can be downloaded from this page. Here's hoping that the US will be able to put Burma on the UNSC agenda this month, as they have pledged to try again, after having been blocked in June by Russia and China, and the same countries are standing in the way this month. Burma needs to be discussed in that council -- the Burmese people's nightmare has been going on for far too long already. Getting past the "protection racket" (I wonder what Russia's angle is, besides Chechnya) will be very difficult, but at least the Americans have a strong voice to move the issue forward if anyone can. John Bolton, let's see you do your stuff.

RAMADAN SEASONAL WILDLIFE MIGRATIONS

A

s sure as night follows day, once the holy fasting month of Ramadan is declared by Indonesia's Islamic scholars, certain life forms are almost guaranteed to begin their annual activities. And while the national police continue to conduct "sweeping" activities aimed at netting conspirators and/or participants in the October 1 bombings in Bali, the Islamic Defenders' Front (Front Pembela Islam) has once again emerged to conduct their own version of "sweeping" -- aiming to stop "immoral activities" during the sacred period of peace, contemplation and introspection. The FPI is not only active during the fasting month though, as some readers may recall their aggressive attempt a few months ago to halt a Miss Waria (ladyboy) competition in Jakarta. But they are particularly keen to keep everyone in line during Ramadan, and their methods are anything but introspective.

And so once again, Indonesians have seen violent FPI attacks from Jakarta to Kalimantan. In West Jakarta's Kalijodo area of small bars and "green light" establishments last weekend, FPI militants clashed with local residents who fought them off with thrown projectiles, as well as bows and arrows. At least three of the self-appointed morality enforcers were wounded during the half hour battle, before police fired warning shots and broke it up. Several local people were also wounded by the "sharp weapons" carried by the attackers. When FPI does anything, they never forget to bring their swords -- although pool cues will also do in a pinch. They also held a demonstration at the West Jakarta police precinct this week to protest the investigation of this incident, and they brought along their swords for that occasion as well.

I've seen these fellows holding demos in the capital over recent years, and they are seemingly never without a good supply of long, curved, Arabic-looking swords -- and it was annoying that while everybody would wring their hands and wish they wouldn't do that, they seemed to have impunity to break the law for some reason. Now, I'll admit that the swords do look good with these birds' beautiful plumage and all -- the long robes, the colourful turbans, and head wrappings to hide their faces -- but if they want to re-enact the 7th century, maybe they should all go out into a field somewhere away from other people and do their re-enactments like the medieval historical societies do with their armour and chain mail parties. A crowded metropolis like Jakarta is no place for roving gangs armed with cutlasses, eh? Anyway, the West Jakarta police actually detained eight of them on this occasion, although the police admitted that at least 30 of them had been carrying spears, machetes, swords and sickles. This from the Jakarta Post, so forget about the link (because the Post only makes them linkable on the date of publication).

In Samarinda, in East Kalimantan province, FPI gangs targetted bars, hotels and street vendor stalls, with hundreds of militants going around the city in gangs of about twenty. They beat people who they suspected were acting "immorally", and stole mobile phones. An FPI "commander" was quoted by the Kaltim Post:

"Allahu Akbar [God is Great]! Remember, this is the month of Ramadhan. Don't be afflicted by spiritual torment from your immoral actions. Don't sell alcohol. Quickly close these dark kiosks. And the guards of women's stalls, go home quickly."

In another street, some young men and women were sitting together when the FPI gang started a quarrel and then engaged in a scuffle with them. Some of the girls cursed the attackers, and one shouted that they had groped her breasts. The "commander" of this gang replied:

"Your parents are ashamed to have a child like you. What kind of child does not go home by midnight? You must go home immediately. Don't make us more emotional with your immoral actions."

The gangs also raided hotels in Samarinda, chasing beer drinkers out of the restaurant and couples out of their rooms. The overall "commander" of this multi-pronged operation, Habib Fauzi Al-Kharid, denied that his men had beaten anyone or stolen property. He claimed that any bad acivities must have been carried out by infiltrators, and that his militants had been wearing green armbands as a precaution against this. But he added that if the public refuse to obey to FPI's instructions, or if they oppose its "sweeping" activities against "immorality," then his group would react with even greater force.

Samarinda police officials claimed they were "not afraid to take firm action" against further such raids. These particular FPI raids started around 11 pm and ran until 2:15 am. Could it be that those charged with "protecting and serving" the good citizens of Samarinda City were simply awestruck by the beautiful Arabic plumage on these boys? I've written before (and I've felt it for years), that I'm really tired of seeing normally sensible people acting all obsequious and deferential simply because some guy has long chin whiskers, a turban and a robe on.

But at least the people of Indonesia don't have it as bad as what the fundamentalist morality enforcers are inflicting on the good people of Tehran. In that city, if the police catch you acting immorally -- like eating during the fasting hours of Ramadan -- they're liable to just kill you:

TEHRAN - Iranian police have been accused of shooting and killing a motorist after he failed to stop when spotted eating during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a press report said.

The victim, identified as 22-year-old Seyed Mostafa, was shot dead in Tehran on Saturday.

He was also playing loud music with his car stereo, the government Iran newspaper said.

"Even if the police claim is right, is eating during the fasting month punishable by death?" the victim's brother was quoted as saying.

The report did not say if the family would press charges against the police, who have been actively enforcing a dawn to dusk Ramadan ban on public eating, drinking and smoking as well as a wider campaign to crack down on "lawless elements".

Wai Andy McCarthy at The Corner for catching that one. And let me draw attention again, to the very fine source for the story on FPI activities last weekend -- the recently revamped Laksamana Net is now known as Paras Indonesia, a news and opinion portal site "where democratic minds meet." The link remains where it has been for ages already, under our Asia Pacific News section. They were offline for a while during their redesign, and I changed the title when they came back with the new format but hadn't yet mentioned it in a post.

TURNING A BLIND EYE

J

ose Ramos Horta was for 25 years the internationally recognisable face of the freedom movement of East Timor, serving as its virtual foreign minister in the world's capitals and at the UN. Early in this blog's life, I linked to and quoted from an editorial he had written for the Wall Street Journal, in which he took the anti-Iraq liberation movement to task for its hypocrisy in regards to its own presumed internationalist and liberal humanitarian values. There is no doubt that he would have tread on a lot of toes with that piece, given that the set of people who actively supported the East Timor cause for many years, and the set of people who vocally and stridently oppose the liberation of Iraqis even today, can almost be said to be one and the same. How much this might or might not coincide with the set of people who believe that the United States is always wrong in every circumstance, is an issue for another day.

The freedom struggle of East Timor, as a popular cause for "progressive" sorts of people since the late 1970's (this writer included), is a fact that Chris Hitchens likes to remind his readers (and audiences -- see the Galloway debate) about frequently. It is a useful reminder, and one of the issues that actually has the potential to induce people to re-examine some of their interlocking mosaic of ideological notions, that they may perhaps find an inconsistency there. Particularly so in Australia, where the East Timor struggle attracted strong support from a large number of Australians. A great number of Australian public personalities and opinion journalists are quite outspoken in their opposition to the Howard government's participation in the international coalition which ousted Saddam's regime, and many of them advocate a more "understanding" approach to the causes of the terrorists -- whether it be those fighting for the Islamic empire in Iraq, or in Asia or elsewhere. There must be some "root causes" in all this, and if we can just divine exactly what they are, they can be addressed in a fair way, and everybody will be happy. No more radical Islamist terror once the legitimate grievances have been taken care of.

Australians see the attacks on tourist locales in Bali as largely directed against them, because Australians take their holidays to Bali more than any other nationality. Yet the most deadly attack in 2002 which took over 80 Australian lives, was well before that country joined in the allied invasion of Iraq. Although one of the bombers claimed they had been hoping to kill more Americans, many others in radical Islamist circles cited Australia's role in "taking" East Timor away from their "Muslim" country. That reason is still given to this day by jihadists, as a reason for their hatred of Australia. And following the al Qaeda attack in Baghdad which destroyed the UN mission there, killing many internationalists including the respected diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, bin Laden himself claimed revenge for de Mello's role in helping East Timor's transition to independence. Those whom the left now seeks to "understand," see the liberation of East Timor as nothing more than a theft from the Islamic world by infidels -- and no less of a crime to be avenged for Islamic honour, than is the case for Iraqi freedom today.

Ramos-Horta has taken a lot of insults from the left for his views, often from the very same people who championed him only a few years earlier. Well, he's in for more of the same. In a recent issue of the Asian Wall Street Journal, he wrote in praise of the young soldiers who are now standing with the Iraqi people as they struggle to solidify a new and democratic system for their country. I don't find the full article available on the net, but The Australian published an exerpt this week (wai Tim Blair):

TIME and again as I watch the barbarity inflicted on innocent Iraqi civilians, often women and children, pass with seeming silence and indifference from the rest of the world, I ask where are those who are so quick to take to the streets to protest every alleged US sin, be it real or imaginary?

If they are so appalled at the graphic photos showing the depraved acts committed by a small number of American servicemen - photos that, never let it be forgotten, were unearthed as a result of the US Army's own investigation - surely they should be even more appalled by the daily carnage inflicted on the Shiah majority in Iraq.

Instead, those who hate the US seem to believe that every wrong committed by an American serviceman must not only be loudly condemned but portrayed as a deliberate act by the US Government, while the systematic and daily barbarities perpetrated predominantly by Sunni Muslims upon their fellow Muslims pass without comment. Such hypocrisy and unwarranted attacks increase the pressure on the US to cut and run from Iraq...

For all the present violence, in a few years Iraq could easily evolve into a peaceful and democratic country. Whether that transpires ultimately rests in the hands of the millions of Iraqis. But they cannot succeed if they are abandoned. And the brave, young American soldiers whom we today see cruising the treacherous streets of Iraq, sometimes battling the terrorists, sometimes conversing with ordinary Iraqis, will be remembered as the heroes who made this possible.

By the way, the guys over at Iraq the Model have some great writing up now on Iraqis' views on watching the Saddam trial. For somewhat more technical and legalistic debate on this trial of the century, see the Saddam Trial Blog.
- posted by Agam @ 6:20 PM 0 comments

 
TERRORISTS SUFFER MAJOR DEFEAT -- HAVE BLUES

FAMILY OUTING: Young future voter proudly shows his blue finger. Photo credit: Sooni in Baghdad http://justsooni.blogspot.com/

I

n yet another highly choreographed and scripted event staged by the Bush White House, Iraqi citizens on Saturday took another firm step in the exercise of their inalienable sovereign rights as a free people by participating in a national referendum on their country's new constitution.

Please excuse my introductory lapse into sarcasm, I couldn't resist (see next article). Of course October 15 belonged entirely to the Iraqi voters, regardless of whether they chose to accept or reject the proposed constitution. As many of the Iraqi writers I've been reading lately have pointed out, a "yes" result will be a victory, and a "no" result will also be a victory. The crucial issue was to see whether the momentum carried through from the January 30 elections would be toward democracy. It was, with an estimated 10 million citizens participating this time. The other "metric" for success was the amount of mischief the terrorist insurgency could not produce. During the January vote -- considered a great success, except by those who decided to pretend it never happened -- Saddamist and Islamist terrorists conducted 346 attacks of various kinds across the country, highlighting the sheer bravery of Iraqi democrats. On Saturday, they were able to pull off only 13 such attacks nationwide.

It will still be some days before all the counting is done and results announced, but on Saturday evening Omar at Iraq the Model reported an early assessment from the national electoral commission, giving a rough estimate of turnout for each of the 18 provinces. Less than one-third is 'low,' between one and two-thirds is 'moderate,' and more than two-thirds is 'high.' In that tally, there was one 'low,' seven 'moderate,' and nine 'high' provincial turnouts. At the time, Anbar province was still 'unknown,' but since the wire services are all stressing the large turnout in majority Sunni areas, it may well go into the 'high' column. Meaning that more than half of Iraq's provinces produced more than a two-thirds rate of voter participation.

Even the butcher Saddam had the right to vote, along with other prisoners and hospital patients, a day early -- but it is said that he failed to exercise his right. Well..... if you can't even be bothered to vote, then you have no right to complain later! Everybody knows that. Iraq grants him what he never granted them -- priceless.

Another priceless moment was witnessed by your correspondent via the AP satellite video newsfeed during Friday's advanced voting. A new Iraqi mother reclined on her hospital bed, her newborn child cradled in her right arm while she dropped her ballot into the box with her left hand. I gotta tell ya, that one choked me up.

Saturday afternoons here in the Gecko's opulent yet tasteful editing suites (if I haven't gone out of town someplace) normally sees the dish tuned to C-SPAN. But this weekend, I left it a lot of the time on the AP channel, because the feeds from Iraq were coming through quite frequently. One camera crew was just driving around Hilla, talking to people in the markets, around voting places, and just showing the town as they drove through the streets -- mainly empty but for kids playing football and small groups of people walking to or from their voting places. In all of this footage, I didn't notice any women in full burqa -- faces were open to the world, and they looked very happy. It was interesting to notice that while most women covered their hair, I also saw many who were without any head covering at all. Most people seemed to make the event into a family outing, with children going along too -- and even getting their fingers dyed, despite being too young to vote (yet!). The photo above is a detail from one of Sooni's pictures, and wai to Omar for the tip. By the way, that lovely young woman in the photo, perhaps the boy's mother, looks amazingly like Metro TV presenter Najwa Shihab!

Omar's brother Mohammed has a particularly nice way with words, and on the day before voting he wrote of his feelings, ending with a memory from Saddam's 'referendum' of three years ago. The family members had decided not to vote, but his father felt that one of them should go and vote for the family in the interests of their safety.

We looked at each other thinking who's going to volunteer to do this ugly job to protect the family. At that moment my father said "it was my generation that caused the misery we're living in so I'm the one who should do this".
I couldn't stop him and I couldn't utter a word but I felt sad for him; his sacrifice was big and I had teary eyes when I watched him taking our papers and heading out.

It is different this time father, no more 100% and a 'no' would make me happy just like a 'yes' would do and no one ever will force us to do something against our will anymore.

Tomorrow will be another day for Iraqi bravery. May God protect you my people...you have suffered so much and you will still be suffering for some time but I am sure the future will be bright.
God bless you my people and all the freedom lovers who keep sacrificing to make this world a better place.

Omar then posted something after voting, where he met some friends he hadn't seen in a while:

I met one friend on the way and when I asked him what would his vote be he said that he hasn't decided yet "if I voted yes I would be approving some articles that I don't agree with and if I voted no we would go back to where we started from..." he said and that was really refreshing because this guy who used to believe in conspiracy theories and stuff like "what America wants is what's going to happen" now feels that his vote can make a difference.

Congratulations to Iraqis for your successful and almost violence-free referendum. You have delivered another defeat to the nihilistic forces that aim to stop the unstoppable. Perhaps now the western media will refrain from endlessly trying to force you all into one of those three distinct boxes of Sunni, Shia or Kurd. It seems that many Kurds were dissatisfied with the constitution because they felt it didn't give them enough, so participation was down in some Kurdish areas. Sunni Muslim participation was very strong, and yet it already seems clear that many of those, a least in two Sunni majority provinces, voted yes. Some Shia Muslims in Baghdad were quoted as having voted 'no' despite their religious leaders' recommendations to support it. Perhaps the media can learn a bit of nuance out of this, and give up the idea that their constant recitations of the three main "groups" in Iraq qualifies them as experts.

Too many western media outlets have been far too heavily invested in Iraqi and American failure. They will accentuate every setback and virtually ignore any progress, although hopefully after this weekend, that might begin to change. Habits are hard to break though. Most accounts will dutifully report that of the six thousand and some odd polling stations across Iraq, something like 128 of them either could not open or were closed for security reasons. And they leave it at that, leaving also the impression of some number of disenfranchised citizens with nowhere to vote. But if you read the Iraqi blogs, you'd know that on polling day the government announced that any voter can vote at any polling place within his or her own province, making things even more convenient for voters. So people could actually vote somewhere closer to their homes in many cases, and if a polling place couldn't open for some reason, they could vote at any other one.

See Iraq the Model for their latest updates -- they also have some photos and a video posted, and links to many more Iraqi blogs too.

And here I wish to publish one analysis of Iraq's progress that I came across on Saturday night as well, just after the polls had closed. I just don't think any of this can be seriously challenged, or why anyone would want to disagree with any of it:

This weekend is a momentous time in the history of the Middle East. After choosing their leaders in free elections in January, the Iraqi people have gone to the polls to vote on a democratic constitution. This constitution is the result of months of debate and compromise by representatives of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities. These leaders came together to produce a document that protects fundamental freedoms and lays the foundation for a lasting democracy. Earlier this week, the Iraqi people embraced changes to the text that have led to its endorsement by some Sunni leaders, as well as Kurdish and Shia leaders. Now the people of Iraq will have the final say.

By casting their ballots, the Iraqi people deal a severe blow to the terrorists and send a clear message to the world: Iraqis will decide the future of their country through peaceful elections, not violent insurgency.

This weekend's election is a critical step forward in Iraq's march toward democracy, and with each step the Iraqi people take, al Qaeda's vision for the region becomes more remote. As Iraqis prepared for this election, the world learned of a letter written by a leading terrorist explaining why Iraq is the central front in their war on civilization. Al Qaeda's number two leader, a man named Zawahiri, wrote to his chief deputy in Iraq, the terrorist Zarqawi. [...] In it, Zawahiri lays out why al Qaeda views Iraq as "the place for the greatest battle" of our day.

He says that establishing al Qaeda's dominion over Iraq is the first step towards their larger goal of imposing Islamic radicalism across the broader Middle East. Zawahiri writes: "The jihad in Iraq requires several incremental goals. The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq. The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority over as much territory as you can to spread its power in Iraq. The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq."

This letter shows that al Qaeda intends to make Iraq a terrorist haven and a staging ground for attacks against other nations, including the United States. The letter makes equally clear that the terrorists have a problem: Their campaign of murder and mayhem is turning the people against them. The letter warns Zarqawi that, "many of your Muslim admirers amongst the common folk are wondering about your attacks on the Shia." Even al Qaeda recognizes that with every random bombing and every funeral of a child, the Muslim world sees the terrorists for what they really are: murderers at war with the Iraqi people.

These terrorists are driven by an ideology that exploits Islam to serve a violent political vision: the establishment of a totalitarian empire that denies political and religious freedom. This is why the terrorists have fought to prevent and disrupt this weekend's elections. They understand that the act of voting is a rejection of them and their distorted vision of Islam. Simply by coming out to vote, the Iraqi people have shown that they want to live in freedom, and they will not accept a return to tyranny and terror.

OK, I cheated a little bit there. I cut out one sentence that would have given my plan away. In the third paragraph, where you see [...] I removed the sentence, "We intercepted this letter, and we have released it to the public." I wanted you to read all the above without knowing who it is. And it is, of course, President Bush. His weekly radio address was carried on the AP newsfeed that same night, airing wonderfully between the raw clips of peacefully voting Iraqis. I stopped what I was doing, and listened. Why would anyone dispute this? For most people who would, it would only be due to recognising the speaker while still being afflicted with terminal BDS. I thought that offering it here, while removing that prejudicial information, might have an interesting effect on some readers.

President Bush then completed his address:

The terrorists know their only chance for success is to break our will and force us to retreat. The al Qaeda letter points to Vietnam as a model. Zawahiri says: "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam, and how they ran and left their agents, is noteworthy." Al Qaeda believes that America can be made to run again. They are gravely mistaken. America will not run, and we will not forget our responsibilities.

In Iraq, we have brought down a murderous regime. We have stood by the Iraqi people through two elections, and we will stand by them until they have established a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself. When we do, Iraq will be an ally in the war on terror and a partner for peace and moderation in the Muslim world. And because America stood firm in this important fight, our children and grandchildren will be safer and more secure.

Thank you for listening.

Transcript is here (so you know I didn't change anything), and the Zawahiri letter to Zarqawi can be downloaded here, in either English translation or Arabic original. And yes, I have heard the charges that it's an American forgery, most notably from the "Iraq expert" Juan Cole (who has never set foot in Iraq himself). I've also seen several native Arabic speakers comprehensively debunk his claims that an Egyptian Sunni Muslim would never use this or that Arabic phrasing, by pointing him to such individuals doing exactly that -- and even on Arabic websites which link to some writings of Zawahiri's own teacher! Cole is all too often just not credible, and lets his virulent anti-US mindset get in the way of his "scholarship." The letter was retrieved during an operation in Iraq. Until there is more concrete evidence than Juan Cole's contrived and partisan grasping at straws, I will treat the Zawahiri letter as authentic. It's very illuminating and well worth reading in full.

Q & A WITH TROOPS - CHOREOGRAPHY STORY STAGED AND SCRIPTED

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t just doesn't get much funnier, if you are one that thinks the media's antics with all things Bush and/or Iraq related are now dangerously close to self-caricature. One of the big stories last week was the few minutes of pre-event preparation via satellite link-up between Washington and Tikrit, Iraq. All the talking heads and various and sundry experts thought this would surely be their "gotcha" moment, as they spun into their script the actions of some Defense Department functionary seen running through the procedures of President Bush's Q & A with a group of soldiers waiting to speak with him. It became a huge deal before everybody actually realised that there was no evidence of any scripting of answers whatsoever. What happened was that the official in DC simply told the men and women in Tikrit the main issues that the President was interested in asking them about. The soldiers practiced passing the microphone around, deciding that if such-and-such question was asked, that was to go to this respondent, if another issue then who would be the one to reply to that. She asked that some water bottles be moved out of the camera's view, and some of the soldiers even spoke a bit on their delegated issues, just to get the feel of it. It's called being prepared folks, even Boy Scouts know about it!

But to hear the media frenzy after this was just unbelievable. It was based on nothing more than their incredible drive to believe that "A-hah, now we've caught them scripting the spontaneous answers from our troops!" There was nothing of the kind, but the networks seem to have no shame at all (and of course, the anti-Bush bloggers were on fire for days with this one). I even saw a clip of WaPo's Dana Milbank being interviewed about it on one of the big networks, and he opened the interview by ridiculing the Iraqi Defence Force officer's awkward English. The man had interjected, while speaking with Bush, that "I like you." Milbank put on a pathetic sounding Iraqi accent and did a variation of what the man said, and both he and the host got a good chuckle out of it. Pathetic.

One of the soldiers taking part in the conversation, relates his experience -- and the absolutely stupid media reaction to it -- here. But really, the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, was the way NBC's morning program decided to lead in to this "scripted choreography" nonsense. The silly air-head says something like, "But before we go to that rehearsed event with the troops, let's go and see how Francine is doing in those horrible floods in New Jersey." And we see Francine or whoever it is, clumsily paddling in her canoe from a low camera shot, telling us how tragic it all was. And while she's spinning the canoe around in one place, spending more time passing the paddle awkwardly back and forth from one side to the other than actually paddling, breathlessly telling us of the tragedy, two guys come walking through the camera shot carrying things. The water was ankle deep! Hillarious! See the video here at The Political Teen. Sorta maybe screwed up their lead-in to a "gotcha" story of Pentagon "choreography" heh. No embarrassment at all, just a funny laugh at the unmentioned irony by the "anchor people."

I'm not sure whether humourously lampooning the media even has a future any more, when you can get his level of quality from the real thing. Finding the stories that might not even be there? We all saw the tape of New Orleans policemen assaulting that elderly man last week. It looks like he'll have a very strong case for police brutality -- but he was adamant to reporters who asked him, that he didn't feel that it was a case of racism. He is an elderly black man, and the officers were white, yet he maintains that it is a simple case of police being too aggressive (to him as well as to a nearby reporter). Here is WuzzaDem's take -- pictorial and satirical, and very funny.

MILLIONS MAN MARCH MORE MOVEMENT

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n the day Iraqis were taking their futures more securely into their own hands, Minister Louis Farrakhan was leading the 10th anniversary re-enactment of the 1995 Million Man March. I watched some of it on C-SPAN (it was carried live and then replayed again). I find it difficult to listen to angry tirades of shrillness for extended periods, and this thing went on for hours. So I did need to take some breaks, and missed Jesse and Al and most of the big stars. But I did hear all 75 minutes of Minister Farrakhan -- couldn't drag myself away, he's that weird. The high point for me was when he invoked the memory of Mao, and how that mass murderer had enlisted the help of China's artistic community to collectively restore China's great cultural heritage behind his ideological leadership. I wish I had a transcript of that one, it was quite the performance. It struck me that Farrakhan sees himself in a similar role, like he idealised Mao because he wants to do likewise. His portrayal of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was simply astounding.

One aspect that really surprised me though, was the amount of time various speakers spent asking the people to give them money. There was one Nation of Islam character who said he wasn't "allowed" to ask people to give money to the folks going around collecting it, and he spent about five minutes explaining what the money would be used for, and where the receptacles were, and how much power it would give to the movement if they collected lots and lots of money. Then somebody else came up, and diverging from prepared text, started extolling the virtues of "Everlasting Spring Water," on sale all over the Mall from kiosks and stands, the purest spring water to ever exist on planet Earth, and by the way it's owned by NoI or MMM or something too, so buy a bottle or several bottles, it's delicious, so delicious, so why not buy a case to take home to your family? And then Farrakhan himself launched into shilling for money himself, declaring a new movement was born on this day, and every black person in America should pledge one dollar a week to the success of this wonderful new people's movement. And he went on and on, only one dollar a week, who can't afford that? Well, it's more than signing up for Times Select to read Krugman and Dowd, and practically nobody wants to do that. Yes, give one dollar a week, and also pledge to fast one day a week, and you'll save more than that dollar on your grocery bill, so you'll actually come out ahead! Brothers and Sisters!

In a related pre-event seminar, I heard one angry people's warrior declare that after the rally, "white America and her white media" would not get its reporting right. It would misrepresent everything, "and they'll probably even call it the Million Man March, and get the name wrong." So it was kind of funny to hear Farrakhan, in declaring his "Millions More Movement Relief Fund" actually goof up himself, when he accidentally called it the "Million Man March Relief Fund." I wonder how many others caught that, or whether aforementioned people's warrior did.

One black conservative blogger did a little searching, and came up with two pictures worth a million words. If this is momentum, unlike the Iraqi democrats, this one is in the wrong direction. Wai Gateway Pundit.

CHINESE DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST BEATEN, BUT ALIVE

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ast week I linked to Rebecca McKinnon's site, and to Gateway Pundit for roundups of the situation with a Chinese rights activist who was thought (by his Guardian journalist companion) to have been beaten to death. Thankfully, the man survived his ordeal. Also thankfully, both sites updated their articles with this information, so anyone following the links would have found the updated information. This is for anyone reading here who might not have done so. Those Chinese rights activists are a lot tougher than they may look (and a good thing too).
- posted by Agam @ 9:03 PM 0 comments

 
THE KASHMIR QUAKE

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et again, a natural disaster of gargantuan proportions; and once again the "kafir" countries are in there almost instantly with relief and rescue. Not that there should be any such ulterior motive for coming to the aid of people in crisis, but it would be nice to think that this readiness to mount such massive operations at short notice, for anybody regardless of nation, ideology or creed, might be properly noted by the more intolerant or radical streams in the Islamic communities. Here is an area which by many accounts, contains numerous Pakistani jihadist training camps, whose fighters have conducted many violent raids into Indian-administered Kashmir. The area is also not far from the section of Northwest Frontier Province where many al Qaeda researchers believe Osama and his sidekick Zawahiri are being sheltered.

Yet the "Great Satan" and many lesser "Satans" were in there within 24 hours with food, tents and rescue teams, even while in some places, Pakistani military people were standing around doing nothing due to "lack of orders," and their oil-rich Islamic brother countries' cargo planes and helicopters must have been busy elsewhere. India, which suffered thousands of deaths of her own citizens, offered Pakistan assistance -- and it was accepted. The secular democracies again show their principles in action, while those whose talents run more to sectarian or nationalist chauvinism are dumbfounded, wondering which fearless oratory to pull out for the occasion. Oh, I'm sure they will all show up very soon, with bags of food or first aid teams -- this is after all Pakistan, the very first state to be born as an explicitly Islamic one. She needs all the help she can get right now, and as quickly as possible. With the death toll now up to the 35,000 range, and very cold nighttime temperatures in those Himalayan foothills, millions of people who needed help yesterday are still waiting for deliverance. All of our best wishes for their strength and endurance, as for those now working night and day to reach them, feed them and shelter them.

Some of the folks who quickly launched the Tsunami Help Blog last December, have jumped into action again with South Asia Quake Help, a portal to find more info from local bloggers, channels for assistance and other up to date news on the situation. Wai to Mahmood's Den (a very good Bahraini blog) and to Tim Blair (who reports that Aussies are coming through generously once again.... or should I say, as usual).

And once again, I'm very sure we will see some O.I.C. and Arab League countries' efforts on the ground very soon, and thanks in advance. But here's a hypothetical: suppose this massively destructive earthquake had hit, oh let's say in Israel. Tens of thousands dead, infrastructure crippled, and that country completely overwhelmed by the scale of devastation, unable to instantly respond with sufficient rescue operations. I hope someday to live in a world in which Israel's immediate neighbours of the O.I.C. and Arab League persuasion (which counts for all of them, if I'm not mistaken), would be first on the scene with large scale humanitarian help. In that world, such help would be given gladly and in brotherhood. In that world, there would be no need to be concerned about embarrassing episodes of mass jubilant dancing in certain capitals' streets, nor of self-sanctified "spiritual leaders" declaring the deserved wrath of God's vengeance -- for such irrationality would be considered too kooky to contemplate by anyone, of any faith.

IN MEMORIAM

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n this day three years ago, several gangs of deranged religious extremists, motivated by a lust for the blood of unbelievers, carried their insanity through to its sickening conclusion on a peaceful island. More than 200 people of all races and faiths were killed, many hundreds more were maimed for life. That atrocity still stands today as the worst terrorist attack since September 11, 2001. This morning in Bali, representatives of many countries, and of many families, joined with the Balinese people to remember and mourn, as well as to affirm their solidarity, brotherhood and unified resistance against the violent fringe of freaks who claim to represent an entire major world religion. But now, as three years ago, expressions of "never again" are not enough.

The second attack on Bali eleven days ago was thankfully not as deadly as the first, but that's not much comfort to those maimed and killed, nor to the family and friends they left behind. Much better comfort would be provided with the capturing or killing of the planners and masterminds of the atrocity. On that score there is precious little progress to date, in contrast with the relatively quick progress in 2002. The Indonesian government seems possibly concerned with a sense of frustration in Bali, and a few days ago authorities moved the five major figures convicted of Bom Bali I from their digs at a Bali prison, to the more secure location of Nusa Kambangan, a prison on a small island offshore from Cilacap, Central Java. Of the five, two have been sentenced to life, and three to death.

Yet government leaders in Jakarta have been giving somewhat wimpy, and even shameful remarks lately. Presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng -- a prominent young commentator in the media for many years now, and whom I've admired since Suharto times -- had remarked during the first days after the attacks, that the government would be unable to legally ban or restrict the Jemaah Islamiyah organisation, due to the fact that JI doesn't officially have any members. It's not an officially recognised organisation, so it can't be banned! The Australian government has been pressing Jakarta to do just that, and a few days ago I was surprised to see this headline on Metro TV: MENLU: JEMAAH ISLAMIYAH TIDAK PERNAH EKSIS DI INDONESIA. It means, "Foreign Minister [abbrev.]: Jemaah Islamiyah has never existed in Indonesia"......! Huh? Nobody serious about this issue could ever say such a thing, even given the nebulous character of the movement itself -- organised, disorganised, unorganised or otherwise.

His actual words contained in the report were actually not quite so categorical as the headline writer's, yet somehow even more infuriating. "Karena itu melarang sesuatu yang tidak pernah secara formal eksis tentunya kita harus lakukan kalkulasi," tegas Menlu kepada wartawan di Jakarta, Jumat (7/10). "Therefore forbidding something which has never formally existed, certainly we must make a calculation," the FM said to reporters in Jakarta on Friday. Perhaps this can actually be seen as progress from Andi's remarks some days earlier, but not much. To Hasan Wirayuda and fellow ministers: Make your calculation if necessary, and then get on with it.

More dismaying though, was a comment contained in this AP story, made by Vice President Yusuf Kalla:

"Suicide bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq are perhaps understandable because there is an 'opponent' there," Yusuf Kalla said after prayers in the capital Jakarta on the Muslim holy day.

"But here in Indonesia, it makes no sense. Why do they kill their own people, who have done nothing wrong?" he asked, calling on Islamic leaders to condemn the practice as being "not in line with the religion we hold."

Vice Prez Kalla is one of GOLKAR party's big shot businessmen, a connection that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono probably needed in order to get elected (SBY doesn't have a powerful party behind him). GOLKAR has never been seen as a bastion of principled, democratic idealism. This is one reason that the late, great, Nurcholis Majid declined to run for office with GOLKAR's backing (Nurcholis, affectionately known as Cak Nur would have been a wonderful leader for Indonesia). But even given his affiliation, I'm astounded that a man in Kalla's position could say such a thing.

The suicide bombings in Afghanistan -- and especially in Iraq -- have been targetting mainly civilians, including lots of schoolkids and their teachers, with the express purpose of inciting sectarian hatred and revenge between Iraqi communities. The jihadists understand that their only hope in stalling democracy there is to get a good hot civil war going. They are up-front and completely clear on this point! [As I write, a flash on BBC says Afghanistan terrorists (ok, "terrorists" is my word not theirs) have killed some Afghan police and NGO people working there. People working for the security and benefit of the Afghani citizens, people who have done nothing wrong, in Kalla's phrase.]

Here we have the second highest office-holder in the most populous Muslim country - a secular, pluralistic, multi-ethnic-cultural-religious and everything else constitutional democracy -- seeming to justify or even to support suicide bombing tactics in somebody else's country! In point of fact, a country not as far along in creating their own pluralistic multi-everything constitutional democracy as Indonesia is, but whose people have demonstrated that this is what they intend to accomplish nevertheless. Eight and a half months ago, eight and a half million of them risked violence from jihadi hands to do just that, and they will do it again in a further solid step toward their constitutional democratic national compact in just three days time.

And Yusuf Kalla has the nerve to call the blowing up of these brave and determined people, as well as their children, as "understandable?" His last-quoted sentence above, applies every bit as much to the despicable "insurgency" of terrorists in Iraq, as it does to the intolerant jihadist groups within his own country. "Why do they kill their own people, who have done nothing wrong?"

And why the distinction of "their own people" anyway? Is it somehow less bad if they kill "not their own people" in a senseless act of slaughter? Have the "not their own people" victims done something wrong? Is his yardstick for the worst and most senseless category of terrorism, simply the identity of victims being "one's own people?" It sure sounds like it.

If the first Bali bombs had killed more than 200 Australians, Americans, British, Italians, Danes, Poles, Thais, Japanese etc. but no Indonesians -- would that have been more "understandable" for Mr. Kalla? I shudder to think that it might be.

President Bush made a powerful and principled address last week to the National Endowment for Democracy, which got little notice in the mainstream media (big surprise!). It is very worth taking a few minutes to read (or listen, C-SPAN has it). Within this speech, he reiterated again one of the first policy changes he initiated after Sept. 11:

The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them, because they're equally as guilty of murder. (Applause.) Any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has also chosen to be an enemy of civilization. And the civilized world must hold those regimes to account.

Any government official, particularly a high office holder in a democratic country with its own indigenous terrorism problem, needs to choose his words very carefully about what he finds "perhaps understandable."
* * * *

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adical Islamist groups seeking to create an Islamic state out of Indonesia, are nothing particularly new. In fact the current crop can trace their entwined geneologies back in time through the entire lifespan of the Republic, and in some cases, long before independence. Here are some recommended readings which I've come across in the past few days.

International Crisis Group is an excellent source for research papers in this field, and I have kept many of these briefing papers and report files on hand for reference. A report published there in February looked into the ancestry of the recycled militants involved in last year's Australia embassy bombing attack. A few days back, I noticed that Dan Darling, a very well informed researcher into terror groups and their links in his own right, has done an analysis of this ICG report and posted a summary (if you don't care to wade through the amazing detail of Sydney Jones' work) on the Winds of Change group blog (WoC is also highly recommended for regular reading). Part 2 of Dan's summary, focussing on the Usroh movement, is here. And if you can spare an hour or so to watch a presentation that ICG's Sydney Jones made a few months ago, at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, then please go here. Sydney really knows this stuff well, and the web presentation of the seminar (with the video to one side, and her accompanying reference slides displayed with proper timing alongside it) is very well done. Anyone concerned with terror groups in Indonesia needs to see this presentation.

And to end on a more positive note here, check out this op-ed piece in the Washington Post, authored by K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) and C. Holland Taylor: In Indonesia, Songs Against Terrorism. Gus Dur was the first democratically elected president of Indonesia (not exactly popularly elected, but rather elected by a popularly elected legislature), and he remains a strong voice for tolerance, and against religious chauvinism. Mr. Taylor founded the Libforall Foundation, which aims to lend support to those who value freedom and tolerance around the world. Gus Dur is the chief patron of this foundation in Indonesia.

The article looks at the origins of the Laskar Jihad movement and the sectarian violence which erupted soon after Gus Dur took office. Much of what is outlined in this piece is not widely known -- or at least it was news to me. Although I should say that it confirms some of my suspicions about what was happening at that time, regarding certain "green" factions in the armed forces unwilling to submit to civilian control. It's a very interesting history. The article continues with an account of the beginnings of a new youth-based movement inspired by the example of one of the most popular rock bands in Indonesia, Dewa, and their front man Ahmad Dhani.

In response to Laskar Jihad's atrocities, and to discredit the appeal of fundamentalist ideology, Dhani composed the best-selling album "Laskar Cinta" ("Warriors of Love"). Released in November 2004, it quickly rose to the top of the charts as millions of young Indonesians embraced its message of love, peace and tolerance.

A few months ago, I recall seeing on the news that Dewa had been hauled into court by one of the hardline Islamist groups, possibly FPI (the notorious Islamic Defenders' Front, which I've written of previously). The impression given by the reporting was that the Islamists were mad because the album cover bore the Arabic calligraphic for "Allah". (shades of the Burger King ice cream cup caper!) No indeed, they were most exercised at the use of music to promote a Muslim message of tolerance and love -- a dangerous competitor to their own creed of extreme chauvinism and hatred.

Dhani and his group are on the front lines of a global conflict, defending Islam from its fanatical hijackers. In a world all too often marred by hatred and violence committed in the name of religion, they seek to rescue an entire generation from Wahhabi-financed extremists whose goal is to transform Muslim youth into holy warriors and suicide bombers.

Here then, is a frontline in the struggle for hearts and minds, between the regressive, imperialist vision of the 7th century dreamed of by modern jihadists, and the progressive future for Islam dreamed of by the Laskar Cinta, Warriors of Love. The field is the beautiful country called Indonesia, the largest concentration of moderate, tolerant Islamic followers anywhere on earth, and it is critical that Ahmad Dhani and his comrades should succeed.

Read more about Dhani and Dewa here, with photos and music lyrics. There are also videos available on the site, see especially A Muslim Solution to Terror (flash movie, about 10 Mb).

One more: A very interesting account on Gus Dur Net (Abdurrahman Wahid's official site - don't forget to read his jokes!) of an alumnus of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's infamous Ngruki Pesantren. It is a terrorism school? Nice indeed, to know that someone can go through the indoctrination of hatred and anti-Semitism, and still come out of it with humanity intact.

Late note: Good thing they moved those convicted bombers out of Bali the other day. This afternoon, thousands of Balinese converged on the prison demanding their immediate execution. It looked like a major seige! I didn't see any real violence in the video, but it was a huge crowd and they were angry! They could have probably taken the place apart one brick at a time if they'd wanted to. They broke down a fence and massed around the building, but remained under control. Metro doesn't have the video up on their site yet.

THE NOT SO GOOD CHINA

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his is a horrible story, and one which the world might likely not have even heard about had it not been witnessed by a British reporter. A Chinese democratic rights activist has been dragged from the taxi he was sharing with this Guardian journalist, after it was surrounded by large numbers of thugs -- some in uniform and some without. The uniformed guys disappeared while the plainclothes thugs took the rights activist out and beat him to a pulp. By the accounts I've seen, it seems unlikely that anyone could have survived such a brutal beating.

Read the accounts on Rebecca McKinnon's blog here, and on Gateway Pundit here. Wai InstaPundit for both.

IRAQ, ON THE GROUND

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here is so much "received wisdom" about Iraq being bandied about, especially by people who don't make the slightest effort to honestly inform themselves before flapping their gums, that these days the "conventional wisdom" is nothing more or less than absolute and complete failure. Here I'm thinking particularly of a substantial heap of US senators. I heard one the other day, Durbin as I recall, and every single claim he was making was totally wrong! And as per usual, the reporters lapped it all up without question. That's because he was merely pronouncing the exact talking points of conventional wisdom that he (more than likely) got from them in the first place.

Strange as it may seem, there actually is one freelance reporter seeing events up close and personal, observing the relationships and interaction between coalition forces and the Iraqi Security Forces, and reporting actual happenings with remarkable style and courage. He has been in Mosul, living with and accompanying the "Deuce Four" in operations there. His name is Michael Yon, and he'll surely be remembered by history as our generation's Ernie Pyle.

In Michael's writing, there are insights galore into what's happening in Mosul, and more widely in that part of the country. Make no mistake: nobody is saying that everything is going perfectly or that success is just around the corner. But a huge amount of progress is being made, and simply not being reported by our esteemed media. And the media front is the one that the terrorists have had the most success in exploiting:

To an enemy in need of assets, a press that is increasingly disengaged is like an empty car with keys in the ignition--begging to be stolen. How the keys came to be left in the car, and how the inevitable theft managed to go unreported are questions for a different dispatch. To really understand the dynamics of the Battle for Mosul, it suffices to say the enemy started with a media advantage that they continue to exploit even now.

Michael Yon's Online Magazine makes rivetting reading, very human and even quite funny at times. When I see, through his work, what the Iraqi forces are actually doing in defence of their own country, and the solid commitment they have displayed particularly since the January 30 election, and the attitudes of local people toward those who slaughter their children, I'm more sure than ever that the bad guys simply cannot win. Their capacity for making things miserable degrades by the day -- and they are capable of nothing more than producing misery. Take in Michael's latest dispatch, a highly engaging read. And if you can manage to read to the end (and he includes plenty of photos), don't miss the previous entry on "Operation Rhma" (it's not what you'd expect with that name)

Recently returned from Iraq, and making the rounds of press conferences and speaking engagements, is the highly respected Lt. Gen. David Petraeus. General Petraeus has been leading the transition work involved with having Iraqi forces take over the defence of their country, and progress in this area has been very good over the past 8 or 10 months. Don't believe it? Think the conventional wisdom, that Iraqi forces are useless and getting worse, is the actual truth? Think again, if you can -- or at least keep an open mind about it. Give General Petraeus a few minutes of your time. He's an honourable soldier who doesn't sugar-coat the situation, and he knows the truth far more precisely than Durbin and Kennedy. Read what he says, or even better, take the time to watch his presentation: Lt. Gen. David Petraeus speaks at Princeton. Then you, too, will know more than Durbin and Kennedy. Tigerhawk was there, and offers not only a full account, but links to Princeton's video of the presentation so you can make up your own mind. After watching it myself, I could see exactly what the Durbinite dismal doom mongers are up to -- and whatever it is, it ain't honesty. Wai Counterterrorism Blog.

One link I'd wanted to pass along some time back, is Fouad Ajami's recently featured article in WSJ: Heart of Darkness. It's all about what's at stake -- in Iraq and the wider struggle. The defeatists simply don't understand how truly dangerous they are. Wai protein wisdom.

SUMMER OF LOVE

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wanted to write something about last month's anti-war rallies, since those earlier mass rallies in Europe and elsewhere (was it 2002 or 2003? I've forgotten already) were a turning point of sorts for me. I saw the pictures of the massive crowds and thought, "Just a few years ago I would have been right in there. But this time, they are wrong." It was a strange sensation, one that I tried to explain to some close friends via email. The banners and placards were ones that I might have carried myself not so long before. Now, all I could think while watching them was, "How could you?" I tried to express this inner conflict I was feeling, to people I'd been long close to, still somewhat wondering whether I was right now and wrong then, or vice versa. I bared my soul, writing things that I'd never actually expressed out loud. I didn't know exactly what my correspondents' attitudes were, but I was becoming more sure that the movement against the liberation of the Iraqi people was either naive, just plain understandably wrong, willfully malicious toward a downtrodden and tyrannized people, some combination of these or something else unknown. I simply felt that they weren't right.

Some of my correspondents simply stopped corresponding, and I never really did hear what they thought. Some longtime friends simply decided to act as if I'd ceased to exist, which for them I had. Their love was conditional on our perpetual agreement. When that agreement fractured on this issue, that was the end. I might as well be dead. A couple of years later, when I listened to a Democratic senator speaking in front of a stadium full of Republicans, something he said resonated strongly with me. Zell Miller spoke about people's attachment to ideology and their "party," and he said that for him, family came before party. He was a Democrat who put the safety and future of his family before adherence to his party's position, he was a Democrat who supported President Bush. In a different way, but in the same sentiment, I couldn't cut loved ones off just because we might suddenly disagree about politics. Family, and friends who were like family, came before politics, whether we agreed or not. Imagine my surprise to learn that for some of them, party came first.

I watched nearly all of the ANSWER Coalition sponsored event in DC last month. C-SPAN carried it live, and re-broadcast it the next day as well. Then I was also able to see the "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" counterprotest which followed. The numbers weren't even close -- many tens of thousands vs. a few tens of hundreds -- but the honesty factor was miles apart in the other direction. I wish everyone could have just heard the contrast in what was actually said on those stages. Or in the first event, a more accurate term would be screamed. Those who spoke eloquently of liberty and honour at the second event didn't need to bellow, where reason can carry the argument.

The ANSWER Coalition is a front group of the Workers' World Party, a Stalinist offshoot that broke away from some other branch of international communism over the Soviet invasion of Hungary -- these are the folks who supported it. Their faves on the current world stage are regimes like Kim Jong Il's North Korea. These people are no more pacifist than is al Zarqawi himself, they're just a lot less honest about it. I'm sure there were many honourable peace-loving people at the rally (though you wouldn't know it by the signage!), but they simply do not understand who they are following. It was to be a "stop the war, bring the troops home now" event -- even the notoriously shrill Mr. Daily Kos exhorted participants to leave their anti-Israel, smash capitalism, no blood for oil and abortion for all signs at home. It didn't work. Instead of a unified pacifist message, they effectively portrayed a dizzying array of dissparate causes, many completely unrelated to either the Iraq policy or the war on fundamentalist terror.

Everything from "Smash the Zionist State" to "Destroy Capitalism, Communist Revolution Now!" was on offer. Supporters for the "Iraqi Resistance" were out in force, many choosing to come dressed as hooded jihadis. It's all so romantic, eh Habib? Abortion activists, Katrina groupies, and lots and lots of Nazi regalia to festoon pics of George W. and Condi, all so very smart and intellectual, and so very reasonable. Profanities on banners and t-shirts would surely shock the American people to wake up to a peaceful world, wouldn't it? Not to mention the cadre of the Very Large Womyn Corps who fearlessly bared their large, very pendulous breasts to Bring the Troops Home Now. You really go for that, eh Habib?

"Help, help! I'm repressed .... um, I mean I'm being repressed! Wheeee...."

I was listening to Washington Journal a few days later (the C-SPAN call-in show) when one of the "angry left" explained why he went. "Of course we support the troops," he said, "what we're against is the US military!" OK buddy, if you say so. That afternoon, the parade of committed activists getting their three minutes at the mike, was a spectacle exactly like the one at every ANSWER rally. The speakers actually had a PA system, but seemed not to understand this. I can't think of a single angry activist group, of all the various causes that might make people paint themselves and dress up funny, that wasn't on the roster. Everything that Kos had warned them not to do, they did it. When it was Cindy's turn, she'd only barely gotten started when someone behind her warned her to "keep it short" or "wrap it up" -- she actually stopped and said, "OK, I'm almost finished." Looks like her day in the sun among the comrades is almost up, although why they might worry about her embarrassing them is a puzzle to me. Cindy's Summer of Love has reached its end. The mother who praised the killers of her own son, has served her purpose to the smash Israel and capitalism crowd.

Cindy wrote the day following her arrest, in explanation as to why she looked so happy being lifted by DC police officers, that she was excited because somebody might see the Abu Ghraib torture impliments hidden under her dress (panties, she said -- same diff). Having the time of her life during her days in the spotlight, so exciting and making a difference to change the world, and all that. Her son made a difference, and he chose to do so as an adult with full franchise of a free man. Someday she will look back on her summer, and she might not smile so broadly.

Chris Hitchens wrote a good piece on the phony peaceniks after all was said and done, well worth reading from a former Trotskyist. Zombietime has a fine categorized set of photo galleries from the San Francisco rally, and here's another extensive set of photo pages from the DC rally. They pretty much make my point without words, but there, it's off my chest now.
- posted by Agam @ 9:33 PM 0 comments