Happy New Year!

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nd "Sawatdii Phi Mai !", and ."Selamat Tahun Baru !" to all. Wishing everyone happiness, good health and freedom from fear in 2006.

Sometimes people here joke with it, and say "Happy New Mia." In a Thai speaking manner, it can sound almost the same... it means "Happy New Wife." Always joking....
- posted by Agam @ 8:31 PM 0 comments

 
GUS DUR ON WALL STREET OPINION JOURNAL

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he former president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid has written a very stimulating essay for the Wall Street Journal -- "Right Islam vs. Wrong Islam." Long identified with the moderate Muslim organisation Nadhlatul Ulama (said to be the largest Muslim organisation in the world) of which he is a former chairman, he is more commonly known in his country as Gus Dur -- a sort of affectionate honorific. I've always liked him a lot, and not only because we share a birthday. He has been a moral anchor for Indonesian people since the Suharto regime period, and his election as president by the People's Representative Assembly in 1999 (in competition with Megawati Sukarnoputri) was a complete surprise to almost everyone. His ouster in mid-term, and replacement by Vice President Megawati over a trumped up corruption scandal (to this day never validated), was in my opinion totally unconstitutional and set a terrible precedent.

Gus Dur writes of the situation of Islam in the world today -- the continuing struggle for the hearts of Muslims, between the violent and intolerant fanatic's vision of the future, and the moderate, tolerant and modernist vision which is still the mainstream in his own country. That's not to say this struggle is not going on in Indonesia -- it is, and the outcome there is of crucial importance to the broader struggle. This struggle, he says, is "nothing less than a global struggle for the soul of Islam."

And supplying the context today, in the wake of our great relief that Christmas Eve passed peacefully for Christian Indonesians last weekend, terrorists have once again attacked them in the tortured city of Palu, in Central Sulawesi province. Very early this morning a public marketplace was bombed. There is little doubt the sole intent was to kill Christians. On New Year's Eve morning when people would be buying food for evening celebrations, and this market being the only one in Palu which sells pork, the bombers knew exactly how to maximise Christian casualties. This market was apparently not a regular daily one, but was normally set up in advance of special occasions. The bombing comes only a few days after an interfaith meeting of religious figures in Palu. MetroTV is reporting this evening that eight people were killed in the blast, the device being packed with nails.

Gus Dur says that all of us need to see ourselves as being in this struggle together. No matter which countries we come from or how remote we may feel from the treat of Islamist extremism, we are all involved:

News organizations report that Osama bin Laden has obtained a religious edict from a misguided Saudi cleric, justifying the use of nuclear weapons against America and the infliction of mass casualties. It requires great emotional strength to confront the potential ramifications of this fact. Yet can anyone doubt that those who joyfully incinerate the occupants of office buildings, commuter trains, hotels and nightclubs would leap at the chance to magnify their damage a thousandfold?

Imagine the impact of a single nuclear bomb detonated in New York, London, Paris, Sydney or L.A.! What about two or three? The entire edifice of modern civilization is built on economic and technological foundations that terrorists hope to collapse with nuclear attacks like so many fishing huts in the wake of a tsunami.

Just two small, well-placed bombs devastated Bali's tourist economy in 2002 and sent much of its population back to the rice fields and out to sea, to fill their empty bellies. What would be the effect of a global economic crisis in the wake of attacks far more devastating than those of Bali or 9/11?

It is time for people of good will from every faith and nation to recognize that a terrible danger threatens humanity. We cannot afford to continue "business as usual" in the face of this existential threat. Rather, we must set aside our international and partisan bickering, and join to confront the danger that lies before us.

He says that the problem is a crisis of misunderstanding which grips Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It's not really very noteworthy to say that many non-Muslims misunderstand Islam, but he also says that too many Muslims fail to grasp Islam as well, and fall too easily under the sway of demagogues who pervert Islam into a "dogma of intolerance, hatred and bloodshed." The "warriors" who conduct attacks from Asia to the Middle East to Europe and North America, are only the tip of the iceberg. He outlines the strengths of this worldwide movement:

1) An aggressive program with clear ideological and political goals;
2) immense funding from oil-rich Wahhabi sponsors;
3) the ability to distribute funds in impoverished areas to buy loyalty and power;
4) a claim to and aura of religious authenticity and Arab prestige;
5) an appeal to Islamic identity, pride and history;
6) an ability to blend into the much larger traditionalist masses and blur the distinction between moderate Islam and their brand of religious extremism;
7) full-time commitment by its agents/leadership;
8) networks of Islamic schools that propagate extremism;
9) the absence of organized opposition in the Islamic world;
10) a global network of fundamentalist imams who guide their flocks to extremism;
11) a well-oiled "machine" established to translate, publish and distribute Wahhabi/Salafi propaganda and disseminate its ideology throughout the world;
12) scholarships for locals to study in Saudi Arabia and return with degrees and indoctrination, to serve as future leaders;
13) the ability to cross national and cultural borders in the name of religion;
14) Internet communication; and
15) the reluctance of many national governments to supervise or control this entire process.

Quite a list. Yet the counterstrategy he proposes has a number of strengths at its disposal as well, if only they could be utilised in a more conscious and effective way:

1) Human dignity, which demands freedom of conscience and rejects the forced imposition of religious views;
2) the ability to mobilize immense resources to bring to bear on this problem, once it is identified and a global commitment is made to solve it;
3) the ability to leverage resources by supporting individuals and organizations that truly embrace a peaceful and tolerant Islam;
4) nearly 1,400 years of Islamic traditions and spirituality, which are inimical to fundamentalist ideology;
5) appeals to local and national--as well as Islamic--culture/traditions/pride;
6) the power of the feminine spirit, and the fact that half of humanity consists of women, who have an inherent stake in the outcome of this struggle;
7) traditional and Sufi leadership and masses, who are not yet radicalized (strong numeric advantage: 85% to 90% of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims);
8) the ability to harness networks of Islamic schools to propagate a peaceful and tolerant Islam;
9) the natural tendency of like-minded people to work together when alerted to a common danger;
10) the ability to form a global network of like-minded individuals, organizations and opinion leaders to promote moderate and progressive ideas throughout the Muslim world;
11) the existence of a counterideology, in the form of traditional, Sufi and modern Islamic teachings, and the ability to translate such works into key languages;
12) the benefits of modernity, for all its flaws, and the widespread appeal of popular culture;
13) the ability to cross national and cultural borders in the name of religion;
14) Internet communications, to disseminate progressive views--linking and inspiring like-minded individuals and organizations throughout the world;
15) the nation-state; and
16) the universal human desire for freedom, justice and a better life for oneself and loved ones.

I've quoted quite a bit here from Gus Dur's piece, but there is a lot more to his argument than this. Please read the whole thing.

Gus Dur's personal website is here, and the Libforall Foundation of which he is the patron and advisor is here. Also see this online symposium on jihad in Indonesia, featuring Rohan Gunaratna, Badrus Sholeh, Andrew Cochran and Walid Phares.
- posted by Agam @ 7:48 PM 0 comments

 
FREEDOM'S PROGRESS

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ast week, Freedom House released its report on 2005's progress of freedom in the world. Showing measurable gains in the Middle East -- although it still lags behind other regions -- the current year's findings show 27 countries and one territory recording gains, and only 9 countries registering a setback. A change in their scores -- comprising a 1 - 7 score in two categories (Political Rights and Civil Liberties) -- does not necessarily mean a change in category, of which there are three: Not Free, Partly Free, and Free. But this year, Indonesia moved from Partly Free to Free, while Thailand and Philippines both regressed from Free to Partly Free -- two of only four countries which actually dropped a category. Eight countries and the territory of the Palestinian Authority advanced one category.

The charts and tables may be downloaded here (pdf 123 Kb), and the summary essay is here (pdf 69 Kb). You can also download the table for all countries from 1972 to the present (MS Excel file 368 Kb). A very interesting picture of the past 33 years.

Joshua Muravchik, writing a commentary in the LA Times (wai Tim Blair), says:

But here's the really interesting part. Of the nine countries that improved their ratings, no fewer than six are Muslim countries. Indonesia moved from "partly free" to "free," while Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mauritania and the Palestinian Authority moved from "not free" to "partly free." Of the four countries that became less free in 2005, none was a Muslim country.

He means the four countries which dropped a category, and the nine countries which advanced a category. In the Philippines and Thailand scores, they both dropped from "2" to "3" in Political Rights ("1" is most freedom, "7" is least freedom). Both maintained their "3" on Civil Liberties. Indonesia is up to "2" for PR and "3" for CL -- an increase in both fields over last year.

The lowest possible score of "7" for PR and "7" for CL were awarded to eight countries: Cuba, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Libya, Syria, Sudan and Burma. Two territories also found themselves in the worst-rated group: Tibet and Chechnya.
- posted by Agam @ 5:15 PM 0 comments

 
KOFI THROWS A SNIT

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'm a little late remarking on this, but last week I caught part of Kofi Annan's traditional year end press conference over the APTN. I wish I'd been able to watch the whole thing, because as I found out the next day, he threw something of a temper tantrum at one of the veterans on the UN beat, James Bone.

When I did have access to CNN, their best half hour of the week was Richard Roth's "Diplomatic License," and particularly his weekly round up of UN happenings and discussion with James Bone of the Times of London, and Afsane Bassir Pour of Le Monde. Bone has reported on the UN for 17 years, but to the Secretary General he's just an "overgrown schoolboy" who "embarrasses his colleagues" and is "very cheeky." Having watched him many, many times on "Diplomatic License," he always seemed to be someone with an easy-going nature, a comprehensive understanding of the United Nations system and personalities, and probably a lot of very good inside contacts. And not the type to grovel at the feet of a Secretary General, as most of the UN press corps seems to be.

I found a transcript of the conference here, from which I'll extract the portions relevant to Mr. Annan's tantrum. It begins with some apparent banter between press people -- hard to tell which questioner is whom, but I suspect this (inaudible) is Mr. Bone's entry into the fray:

Question: (inaudible) If you don't know what that means, that's "Happy New Year" in Arabic.

Question: Don't look at me!

The Secretary-General: But it's not Arabic.

Question: It is Arabic, but it (inaudible) doesn't mean "Happy New Year"; it means something else.

Question: It had the word "Mercedes" in, but I took it out. Just to comment on the Mercedes before I ask my question. The Volcker report says that the Mercedes was bought in your name, so as the owner of the car, can you tell us what happened to it and where it is now?

Now, my question is that, it's true that we missed a lot of stories in the oil-for-food scandal, and the UN hasn't made it easy. And even your answer today on the Mercedes so far hasn't made it easy. Some of your own stories -- your own version of events -- don't really make sense. I'd like to ask you particularly --

The Secretary-General: I think you are being very cheeky here.

Question: Well, let me -- Sir, let me ask my question.

The Secretary-General: No, hold on. Hold on. Listen, James Bone. You have been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving, and please let's move on to a more serious subject.

Question: (inaudible) my question.

The Secretary-General: No, move on to a serious --

Question: There are inconsistencies --

The Secretary-General: No, move on to serious journalists. You go ahead.

Question: James, are you finished?

The Secretary-General: No, go ahead.

Question: Okay. Mr. Secretary-General, I was waiting for this question. I believe that I was even before James Bone. But, anyhow, here is my question... [goes on with a softball question]

Touched by such a stalwart defence from his colleague, Mr. Bone apparently leaves the conference soon after. But he then misses this half-hearted comrade's gentle reminder of the public's right to know:

Question: Mr. Secretary-General, in defence of James Bone, he's a hard-working journalist trying to get to the bottom of issues of transparency within the Organization. As a public servant, you understand the need for transparency, and when issues of money and conduct - professional conduct - come into attention, they need to be looked into. But be that as it may, we'll leave that aside... [goes on to toss a few unrelated softball questions]

The Secretary-General: I think James would be happy to know he has a lawyer in the room. Unfortunately, he's gone, but I'm sure others will tell him... [goes on to bunt the softballs]

Ha ha!... "lawyer in the room"... brilliant! Next question!

Toward the end of the conference, another timid query lightly brushed the issue of accountability to legitimate questions:

Question: Mr. Secretary-General, this is a question that's sort of evolved as this conference has gone along. At the beginning, you talked about having a thick skin, thick skin being important. We have seen a side of you, though, that we don't often see. I have two questions. One, how do you feel when you receive this sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes fairly well-researched criticism of you personally, your family, your policies and the United Nations? And second, given the criticisms, are you bracing for a difficult year ahead in 2006?

The Secretary-General: Let me say that when you talk of criticism, I am not afraid of criticism. Some criticisms have been constructive and helpful, and I accept that. Some have been out of place and have really gone beyond the zone of all reasonableness, and you wouldn't expect me or anybody in this house to accept that. But as we move into next year, as I have indicated, I have given you an idea of the agenda I have ahead of me. I have lots of work to do, and I'm going to focus on that and get my work done.

Question: (inaudible) in terms of your family and of the United Nations?

The Secretary-General: I think that I have answered that by saying that some are fair and are unfair, and I don't accept it when it's not fair.

It's not fair, I tell you. Questions about UN corruption or nepotism, and especially where Kojo and duty-free Mercedes Benz's are concerned, are just not fair. Next!

After a few more softballs and "Happy Holidays" wishes from his press watchdogs, Mr. Annan wraps up the press conference. But there is one more member of the press corps with something to say:

Question: Sir, I'm sorry. I really have to do this for the record, Sir.

On behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association, I have to tell you that James Bone is not an embarrassment. He's a member in good standing of UNCA. He had every right to ask the question (inaudible).

The Secretary-General: No, I agree with you: he has a right to ask questions, and I came here to answer questions. But I think we also have to understand that we have to treat each other with some respect. You can ask questions -- there are ways of asking questions and ways not to ask questions. We also know -- I am not the only one -- you know what has been going on in this room. You know how my spokesmen have been badgered, mistreated, insulted. They have been professional. They have stood there and taken it. And you should also have taken that up with those who behave that way. I'm not worried about answering questions. You have the right to ask all questions you want to ask. I reserve the right to refuse to answer questions I don't want to answer. But there is a certain behaviour and a certain mutual respect which we have to respect.

So there you have it, and it leaves me with one more question. Can you imagine Scott McClellan saying stuff like this in a White House briefing, much less President Bush? OK, two questions. Can you imagine the obsequious White House Press Corps declining to defend itself after, let's say, the President takes a question from the WHPC Queen Helen Thomas -- and he were to reply with belittling schoolyard insults instead of an answer? The uproar! The scandal! Impeach! They'd be beaning him with their notepads and pens...

Claudia Roset, who almost singlehandedly moved the whole massive UN "Oil for Food" scandal into the light of day, has her take on these proceedings (and a good run-down on the growing number of unanswered questions), while James Bone tells his side in the London Times:

AS A journalist, I expect my share of verbal abuse. But it is not everyday that I have my professionalism impugned by the world's top diplomat on global TV.

The advantage is that I have not felt as young for years as I do now that Kofi Annan has described me as an "overgrown schoolboy". The disadvantage --- rather more serious --- is that the UN Secretary-General continues to refuse to respond to the still-unanswered questions about his role in the Oil-For-Food corruption scandal.

You can see the SG's official response at the end of that piece -- a response that again amounts to, "I have nothing to add." James Bone also wrote in yesterday's OpinionJournal:

Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general and Nobel peace laureate, is normally the meekest of diplomats. He is so accommodating he once described Saddam Hussein as a man "I can do business with." These days he spends a good deal of time on the phone with Syria's Bashar al-Assad. Yet he seems to have problem with me.

Well James, you're not the tyrannical strongman of a belligerent state, and those guys are so much easier to get along with. And do business with, ahem...
- posted by Agam @ 4:04 PM 0 comments

 
POST MISINFORMATION SERVICE

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he Washington Post runs a poorly researched piece on freelance journalist / blogger Bill Roggio (who just returned home from Iraq last week), in an apparent attempt to tie him to their pre-filled, paint by numbers portrait of Pentagon Disinformation Operations. Unfortunately, the WaPo writers got basically everything about Bill Roggio wrong -- and lots more besides. Roggio sets the record straight, leaving me wondering how the two WaPo writers can even think of themselves as journalists.

It's abundantly clear from this incident that their purpose could not have been to disseminate truthful information, for they made no evident attempt to check or verify many (or any?) of the "facts" they weave their story around. Roggio writes:

There are three problems with this article which require a response: the use iof incorrect facts which could have been easily checked; the portrayal of my embed as an information operation; and equating U.S. military information operations with al-Qaeda propaganda efforts.

One would expect that reporters from such a foremost news source (ha!) would know the basics of the journalist "embedding" procedure -- something they can easily check out by asking questions within their own organisation. But they evidently don't, and didn't.

The MSM are their own worst detractors, when plain examples of an agenda like this one are cropping up with increased frequency. It's not that they're overtly making accusations against Bill like "psy-ops propagandist" or such, but rather arranging and parsing a stew of facts, semi-facts and errors such as to encourage readers to "connect the dots" and come to that conclusion. Read Bill's response to see just how deep this sort of thing can go, within a single media story. And how many of these must go out every day, with an equally loose grip on facts but without someone in Bill's position to say, "Hey, wait a minute!"

PJ's has a roundup of the whole gamut of opinion on this incident, and Richard at Belmont Club has posted a very intriguing essay as well: "Who is a journalist?" That seems like becoming the question of the century, so far. One thing I'm sure of: without people like Bill Roggio (home base here, Iraq dispatches here), or Michael Yon, or the late Steven Vincent -- and of course the many soldiers who are writing up their experiences on their own blogs and sites in which the media have no interest -- our impressions of what's going on over there would be completely at the mercy of such shoddy and slanted reporting as noted above.

Heh, I just noticed the PMS in my title -- it was unintentional, I promise. But I'll leave it. Wait a minute, though. Maybe that's why they call the NYT by that funny name, "The Old Gray Lady"....
- posted by Agam @ 11:57 AM 0 comments

 
THE DAY OF THE WAVE

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few brief observations on the tsunami remembrance events over here this morning. The AP satellite feed was bouncing between the event in Phuket (that's "Poo-get" for the uninitiated, and not the way it looks) and the one in Sri Lanka. The ceremony in Phuket was conducted in Thai and English, had the standard speech from a government minister, some nice music, and what looked like a very large crowd of Thais and foreigners at the beachside venue to pay their respects. But after one switch back to Thailand from the Sri Lanka event, I was startled by the sound of a farang woman going bananas on the little stage, and thanks to the microphone in her hand, it was blaring out over the PA system and broadcast all over the globe instantaneously by the Associated Press Television Network.

She wasn't making a whole lot of sense, but I gather she was upset that it was too crowded around the memorial, and people were having a hard time getting close enough to lay down their flowers. So a number of people had begun to leave without having offered their flowers, and was she ever pissed about it. Literally shrieking at people to "go away" and "get back," and demanding that the Thai police in attendance should "start doing their jobs properly!" Someone near the stage was apparently saying something to her, and I guess it was something like, "You are on TV and the whole world is watching," because she shrieked back, "I don't care about the pictures, I don't care what anyone thinks, those people are leaving without putting their flowers down! Get back, clear the area, go away!" Then I suppose she had further considerations, because then she started screaming at photographers: "Stop taking pictures! Stop it! Go away!"

Now, I'd be the last to deny that sometimes event management here isn't handled exactly the way some foreigners might prefer. But if there was a way to improve the situation "on the fly," this wasn't it. A friendly word to the officer in charge, with a smile, would probably have helped achieve the desired results. But after screaming at them for "not doing your jobs properly," fergetaboutit. If there is one resource that Thailand has no shortage of, it's amateur foreign experts who know how this country should be run -- and 80% of them are here on holiday.

Down in Aceh, thousands flocked to the Great Mosque -- Mesjid Baiturrahman -- for memorial services. President Yudhoyono had a full day of activities in Aceh today, and Metro TV was covering the events with the wonderful Najwa Shihab reporting live in Aceh, and Tommy Tjokro also reporting live from Phuket. The station ran a very good documentary this morning, produced by AusAid and the Australian government, which largely followed the early response of SurfAid and other civilian first responders, as well as ongoing recovery programs.

One of the interesting facts about the entire disaster, is that the closest island to the epicenter of the earthquake, Simeuleue, had practically no casualties. The people there had a cultural memory which told them what to do. This knowledge was widespread enough -- there are many towns and villages on this island -- that when the earthquake hit, almost everyone made for high ground. Only seven people lost their lives on this island, although they would have had the shortest time period before the first wave hit.

One thing about the massive loss of lives in Aceh and around the Indian Ocean: foreign media reports seem to have settled on a final total of 216,000 deaths. In Aceh alone, the Indonesian government says that over 200,000 are either dead or still missing. And let's face it, if you're still missing after a year, you're probably dead. Something like 130,000 bodies were recovered in Aceh, and of course many would have been simply swept away and never found. The Catholic Charity Caritas has estimated the true death toll in all countries might be as many as 400,000.

MetroTV has been remembering today, and it's painful all over again to watch. On this day one year ago, we had no idea of the magnitude, and wouldn't have for several weeks afterward. Now of course we know, and those early scenes -- many from amateur videographers -- carry that much more impact. One of the most unforgettable scenes, which Metro used for some of its wonderful montage pieces, was a young mother holding her dead child to her breast, shaking her head side to side and crying, "Maya Lu, Maya Lu!" Today we saw a little piece on Maya's mother, for that was indeed her name (as I supposed, when I described it at the time). She seems to be doing well, considering, and showed pictures of little Maya. She can smile now, a little.

I'm planning a trip to Tapaktuan and the South Aceh coast next month, so I should have some stories to write when I get back.
- posted by Agam @ 7:05 PM 0 comments

 
WATCH THIS, AND PUMP UP THE VOLUME!

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he freelance journalist Michael Yon, who has been doing some absolutely fantastic reporting from Iraq this year, writes that he was sent a video last week:

I am working on a dispatch about the incredible Iraqi elections on 15th December. Meanwhile, the following video was sent to me by a caring citizen who closely follows the events in Iraq. The video was not attributed, and I saw no information regarding the authorship to ask permission to run it. Apparently the author sent it out to be distributed by the winds, and so please turn up the volume and click here.

Your humble Bangkok-based correspondent was feeling inexplicably wind-like yesterday after viewing this fine piece of work at JasonColeman.com (he has embedded the video directly on his page). I've found a free file-hosting server for it, and made a little slide show of some of the scenes which will stay on top of our side-bar for the next while. The video is three and a half minutes, weighs about 6.6 Mb, has a great soundtrack, and if it doesn't move you, something might be wrong.

[Watch this movie in Windows Media Player, or any other that handles wmv files. Get a direct link to this file from either Michael's or Jason's page linked above...UPDATE: The File Factory upload which I had linked here, has now expired. View the movie at the above linked 2 pages (note Jason's download link is incorrect - it should be "15Dec05Election.wmv" for the filename instead of "15Dec05Elections.wmv"). Also see Pamela at Atlas Shrugs, who also hosts the video at Play it Again Sam. Links from the slideshow at the top of the sidebar have also been fixed.]

Stretch the window big, pump up the volume, sit back, and have a handkerchief ready. It's all about them.

You might also pay a visit to Time Magazine's Viewers' Choice Awards, and support Michael Yon as the only non-professional photographer whose work is among the finalists. His "In His Arms" is one of the most memorable images of the past year. And by the way, the dispatch he mentions in my quoting above is now up on his site: "Three Times the Charm."

UPDATE - Sept. 10, 2006

The author of the video has contacted me, and writes the following:

I was currently deployed to Iraq when the December Elections came around. Being apart of 55h Combat Camera in the Army, we were tasked to go out to the polling sites and capture the day. I was asked to stay back with the Joint Combat Camera Imagery Management Team, so that we can process the imagery and expedite the information out of Iraq. I was also tasked with making a video for the commanding general (Brigidier General Vangiel at the time). As imagery was coming in all day, I was able to come up with a final product after sitting in front of my laptop for 18 hours. Little was I aware that 24 hours later the video was being presented to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I am very proud and honored to have been a part of such a great event in Iraq history, and to have been able to spread the news worldwide and touch so many hearts.

RONALD WRIGHT, SPC, USA
55th Combat Camera Company
Ft. Meade, MD
Email - ronald.wrightjr@us.army.mil

The credits on the video will now read:

All imagery is taken by joint Combat Camera units (Army, Air Force, and Marines).
The video was edited by SPC Ronald Wright, 55th Combat Camera Company.
The music is Aaron Copelands "Fanfare for the Common Man" played by the Marine band.
- posted by Agam @ 7:01 PM 0 comments

 
CATCHING TERRORISTS: GOOD...
WATCHING TERRORISTS: VERY VERY BAD

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ou think I'm joking? This is what the latest kerfuffle over the Bush administration's so-called "eavesdropping" on international communications amounts to. If they catch people engaged in organising or planning an attack, everyone will praise them. Well, maybe not everybody... But if a terrorist's civil rights to privacy are infringed in the process, well, it's just not worth it (according to the critics).

I don't get it. Can Americans agree or not, that there's a war going on? It certainly appears not. Apparently for roughly half the population (or at least, half the population of pundits), the present struggle against the fascist Islamism movement is simply a figment of the President's imagination or something. It's not real anymore -- a function of the passage of four years without another successful al Qaeda atrocity on the home front. Some might recognise this as a success; for others, it's like the snooze button on an alarm clock. No need to get up just quite yet, go back to sleep for a while. The Busheviks are not allowed any successes, so the lack of al Qaeda success in this area must be due to something else. Maybe they just simply stopped wanting to kill us, or maybe the whole thing was just all trumped up to start with. I heard a caller to Washington Journal yesterday claim that Sept. 11 was simply an excuse for the Bush neo-cons to invade Iraq, which is all they ever wanted anyway. Talk about short and faulty memories!

I have to admit, before going any further, that I stole the idea for this article's title from Walid Phares, writing last week in The Counterterrorism Blog: "Catch them, but do not watch them!.." Dr. Phares recounts his momentary confusion in reading the early wire service reports of these intelligence leaks. He thought the Associated Press was pushing criticism of President Bush for not doing enough surveillance of terror-related activities, only to realise it was precisely the opposite -- he was doing too much. He was surveilling Americans, crushing their civil liberties, breaking the law and (as we would learn later from the likes of Sen. Boxer) performing numerous impeachable offenses.

Reading and listening to the surreal new debate, I thought of how al-Qaeda must be laughing. In one of his caves in middle earth, Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri must be in disbelief, yelling, "By Allah, had we known we were barely monitored; we could have pulled out the big one!"

And now we find out that the Bushies have been conducting domestic radiation checks without a warrant. Oh, the outrage! Whatever next? King George has really gone too far this time...

In a way, the criticism over this mirrors the "foreign fighters" issue. Why should terrorists, who fight for no country, who wear no recognisable uniform, who don't carry their weapons openly, and who certainly haven't signed on to any international treaties (much less adhere to any Geneva Conventions), expect to be granted Geneva Convention rights? Where's the incentive for anyone else to follow such international conventions in any conflict, if the terrorist thug with his backpack bomb headed for the subway (or his supply of aerosolised ricin, anthrax or... use your imagination) is going to have the exact same rights and privileges? Captured soldiers of Saddam's military were not dealt with in the same way as Abu Musab al Zarqawi's throat-slitting murderers -- and there's a reason for that.

In the same way that demands are made for terrorists to be granted all rights and privileges of a legitimate military (more in fact -- I know of no comparable case of domestic, civilian judicial oversight over prisoners of war during conflict), more demands are now made that such terrorists (or suspected terrorists and their enablers) should be granted the full constitutional protection of civil liberties! These people have declared war on you, folks; this isn't a simple law enforcement exercise.

I read the other day of a European court proceeding, in which it was argued that infringing on a Muslim's right to carry out "jihad" (however he personally defines it for himself), is essentially an infringement on his religious freedom -- "jihad" being one of the five pillars of Islam, and therefore a requirement of all Muslims. Well, they're said to be pretty socially advanced over there in Yurp, so watch for similar arguments coming soon to a courthouse near you.

Dr. Phares again:

Were the terrorists communicating among each other in the 1990s, and was the U.S. government able to detect them and disrupt their operations before 9/11? Obviously the terrorists of Mohammed Atta and their colleagues were free to communicate, even meet on U.S. soil for years. There was no War on Terror in the Clinton administration, no advice that a jihad was happening in the research of most of academia, and no court was instructed to indict Islamo-fascism before September 11, 2001. Presidents didn't even need to develop techniques to monitor jihadists, since no doctrine on jihad was taught in military colleges. The country was on a different planet.

But Osama bin Laden changed the rules of engagement four years ago. The geopolitical reality changed, and laws had to serve the survival of Americans not to obstruct their global freedoms. Many questions are still being asked by the experts on terrorism: Are we fully prepared for them? Is our legal system, even when best interpreted ready to meet them? Apparently not: We are in a twilight zone. The Bush administration, inheriting a pre-9/11 legal system, is struggling to balance between civil liberties and terror. But its critics haven't moved past September 10th: They want to use a system designed against the mafia to play with the most lethal forces of the globe.

From what I understand, this surveillance program is less like "wiretapping" and more like "data-mining." The warrantless "searches" of communications were cases in which "dirty phone numbers" within the US -- acquired from the contacts of known terror operatives through the seizure of computers and cell phones, each of which could yield thousands of leads that must be followed -- were contacted from abroad, or where a "dirty number" abroad was contacted from the US. In the first scenario, as long as the investigation is for purposes of foreign intelligence work (basically, as long as it isn't for domestic law enforcement purposes), no warrant has ever been needed. No matter if it was an American citizen on one end of the line, either the foreign end or the US end. As long as the communication originated from abroad, it could be legally collected, filtered or whatever they do with it. Yet the exact same communication between the same two people, if it originated in the US by whomever (citizen, non-citizen, it doesn't matter) was out of bounds.

It seems fundamentally reasonable to me that if a particular communication between two points, one inside the country and one outside it, would be deemed important for an investigation into international terror networks, it shouldn't matter in the least which direction the call is made. If it involves the same two people, or at least the same two communication devices, the material is (potentially) equally crucial. It was a hole in the system which investigators needed to be filled, and the administration tried to bridge that gap. And they followed the required procedures to do so, informing congressional oversight committee leaders of both parties as a part of that procedure. This makes the horrified cries of shock all the more ridiculous, when at least half a dozen esteemed members of the opposition party knew about this long ago. And the strained whining that "Bush is spying us all," is even more pathetic -- demonstrably false paranoia, at best -- and even worse than the whole library card / Patriot Act thing. Dig into that a little and find out how much it's ever been used... I dare ya!

Well, at least it rhymes -- which is an important thing for constructing catchphrases. President Bush, the "Liar in Chief" can now be the "Spy-er in Chief" as well. I look forward to hearing the ditties, they'll fit neatly on handcrafted organic placards for the next ANSWER Coalition rallies. "Bush Lied to Us, Bush Spied on Us, No Blood for Oil!" Cha cha cha...

I'm curious though, how soon will the devoted defenders of the CIA begin demanding criminal investigations into these intelligence leaks. You know, the folks who were outraged that we should actually know who Valerie Plame is, who her husband is, and that she worked at a desk there at the formerly evil CIA. Remember "Fitzmas" and all the wonderful presents St. Patrick was expected to bring, chiefly that certain people would be "frogmarched" off to jail for the serious damage they "caused" to national security? While there isn't the slightest evidence that Val's name has had any effect whatever on that score, it's certain that the current set of intelligence leaks have seriously damaged security efforts -- both by effectively shutting down a key part of the composite set of tools, and by blowing a lot more of it around in the public sphere such that our enemies know a hell of a lot more about the techniques (and thus, how to route around them) than they did ten days ago. Thanks a lot New York Times, and that leaky, mutinous ship sometimes known as the national intelligence aparatus. Seems like a lot of those sailors are seriously afflicted with Bush Derangement Syndrome, which, once it sets in, appears in most cases to be completely incurable. Some of these insider leakmasters must still be stuck in a Vietnam War era mindset.... they feel they must destroy the country in order to save it from King Bush.

Back to Walid Phares one last time:

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda is learning more about our system -- not about the fact that the U.S. government has been monitoring them, but how little it has done and how easy it is to attack these measures within the U.S. system. The terrorists in charge of penetrating U.S. national security are better off this week than last. They would have learned how many times the president has authorized exceptional surveillance; they would have understood why the pressure was higher on terror between 2001 and 2005; and above all they would have realized that politicians in America (and their academic advisors) are detached from the reality of the post-9/11 world.

Al-Qaeda knew it was under surveillance in America, but it didn't know much about that system. Soon, it will know and will use this knowledge to its advantage. While some among us are rotating their pre-9/11 planet back in time, future jihad is railing against another of its enemies' fatal weaknesses.

I hope we see criminal charges in the new year over these stupid leaks. And I don't write that out of hoping for "presents" or "frogmarches" that would enable "me" or "us" to crow about the downfall of those we feel are stupid and/or dangerous. I don't want to say "I told you so" or "Ha! I'm right and they're evil, and now they'll pay." That kind of stuff is fine for the Kos Kiddiez and their like, for most of whom it's all just a game of gotcha anyway. I wish I could be wrong, and there was no damage to the struggle. But I don't think so; the damage is already quite plain and obvious if one just looks at the past week of news reporting.

Emily Francona is a retired US intel officer, and formerly a staff member on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She opened a new blog on intelligence issues just last week, called Intelligence Perspectives and guess what she started writing about? NSA: Domestic communications intercepts:

The most serious legal problems are posed by those who leaked this highly classified national security information to the media, an unauthorized recipient of any classified information. Any NSA or intelligence community official concerned over an intelligence activity has an internal oversight system available to address these concerns in a legal and classified environment: NSA's internal Inspector General and/or the Intelligence Community's Inspector General. If the internal oversight process proved insufficient, legislative oversight would have been the next logical place for these officials to take their concerns: congressional oversight committees routinely investigate just those types of concerns in a legal setting designed to preserve classified national security information. Should following this well-established process still not satisfy their concerns, the honorably (sic) course of action for any true intelligence professional is to resign from such an untenable position - WITHOUT revealing classified information and potentially damaging national security.

These "concerned" officials have acted extremely unprofessionally: they clearly violated their secrecy oath and the provisions of the 1980 Classified Information Procedures Act by providing classified information to the media. While it may come as a shock to some, the media is NOT entitled to classified information under any circumstances.

I do hope that Emily keeps writing, she's received a lot of attention from just the single post (so far) on her site. I found it via both Belmont Club and protein wisdom (wai to Richard and Jeff, who've both written some great stuff on the topic). See also PJ's brief round up from all sides at mid-week.
- posted by Agam @ 3:40 AM 0 comments

 
CHRISTMAS EVE PASSES PEACEFULLY IN INDONESIA

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ood news from Indonesia tonight. Despite serious warnings of terrorist attacks against Christian churches -- and perhaps due to a general heightened vigilance, along with robust security measures that included participation of many Muslim social organisations -- the many Christmas Eve services and Masses have taken place without reports of trouble. This is an extremely important good sign for the country. If there was ever an occasion for that old aphorism, "No news is good news," tonight was the night.

I watched MetroTV's last bulletin before sign-off, just after 1:00 am this morning. Their reports covered attendance at several churches around the capital tonight, and the security measures that were in place to protect the worshippers. No violence or trouble has been reported from anywhere in the country. I also watched a little bit of a live broadcast on the Indosiar network from Magelang, East Java -- a church service in true Javanese style, complete with gamelan music. Wonderful! Selamat Hari Natal indeed!

Ah, earlier tonight I also remembered that I had neglected to include something in the previous post this afternoon. In addition to Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah, I should have remembered Joyous Kwanza! And I seem to recall that an important Muslim observance occurs early in January, Idul Adha if I'm not mistaken (or as more commonly spelled in media coverage of the Arab world, Eid al-Adha).
- posted by Agam @ 2:10 AM 0 comments

 
HAVE YOURSELF A . . .

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erry Little Christmas.... and a Happy Hanukkah too!

Down here in the steamy heart of Bangkok, the Gecko and I agree. The Western Jihad against Christmas is silly. The fear of offending a non-Christian who might overhear one person wishing another a hearty "Merry Christmas" along with the acceptable "Happy New Year," is silly. The declarations in past years by some Islamic "thinkers" in Indonesia, that for Muslims to extend good wishes to Christians with a simple "Selamat Hari Natal" was in some way sinful, was silly (even shaking hands with a non-Muslim was frowned on by these folks). Most Muslims don't buy that sort of intolerance, and it's exceedingly strange to see so many non-Muslims in Western countries -- obsequious Christians and non-religious believers alike -- equating this bizarre form of intolerance with political correctness.

The Thais don't need to even think about this stuff. If it's Songkran time, you wish a happy Songkran to your friends. You don't worry about, say, a person of the Hindu belief system overhearing you and feeling offended (if one does, it's his problem, not yours). Any foreigner can expect to be wished "Merry Christmas" whether the speaker knows his religion or not. It's simply seen as the major Western cultural festival of the year, and the speaker is simply expressing his or her good wishes, in a spirit of tolerance and acceptance.

This has also been my experience in Indonesia, when I've been there at this time of year. Asians (at least in these parts) are mostly very generous in this way -- curious and accepting of other traditions, happy to participate with the appropriate greeting, and don't worry about it. The more the merrier! Exactly why it's become part of Western ways to feel embarrassed or ashamed of these traditions, and why so many seem to get all uptight about them, is a mystery to me. Why not just call it a "Christmas tree," if that's what it is? It has nothing to do with any other holidays, of which there are many -- so what's with the "Holiday Tree" nonsense? I can't figure it out, but it does perhaps point to trends in Western "developed" societies. Self-directed cultural intolerance seems to be the wave of the future.

Anyway, in the spirit of Season's Greetings (and "Grated Seasonings," which I have also been known to use in years past), I offer this Christmas card to friends, family and unacquainted readers alike. Many will know that I've not been too much of a "Christmasy" person for the past number of years, mostly because of its association with a loss in our family which happened exactly 21 years ago today, Christmas Eve 1984. But he loved Christmas, and he made it wonderful for all of us while we had him. So it's in his memory that I extend my Grated Seasonings, and Merry Christmas to all.

And lest this post be considered too serious, I'll add something I came across the other day (wai Mark in Mexico) that's sure to give you a chuckle. But please don't take from this that I'm fervently anti-Hill or anything, I just think it's clever and well written. I'll give you one stanza to tempt you:

She was dressed all in white from her head to her toe,
All except for a pink blouse that set her aglow;
An American flag pin she wore with great pride,
And she looked to my eyes like a blushing new bride.
Her eyes -- how they sparkled! Her cheeks were so rosy!
Her little pug nose just like Nancy Pelosi!
Her sweet smiling lips bore no hint of complaint
And her overall bearing was that of a saint.

Read the rest!

As an aside, my apologies for being AWOL for the past week. A new computer acquisition for the Gecko's plush and opulent yet tastefully appointed editing suites, has been taking up my time. Moving files from our old beater dating from '98, getting things set up to work on a new operating system (my first crack at XP), and just generally playing with a not-yet-obsolete machine, has been my week-long preoccupation. Now I can post without having to change internet connections to a dial-up before it'll work. I'll even start separating articles rather than having a number in a single post (that's how slow the dial-up was, too much waiting to post them separately). I may even get a couple of new ones out later tonight.

My thoughts today are also, unavoidably, with Indonesia. There is a well-founded concern apparently, that extremists are planning their traditional Christmas Eve attacks. While many moderate Muslim organisations, as mentioned here a few weeks ago, are helping to safeguard churches across the country, jihadis are thought to be wanting to avenge the death of Dr. Azahari. Evidence gleaned at that event pointed toward possible large and numerous attacks in the planning, and who knows if they are still capable of carrying them out. Six years ago, I spent this evening, Christmas Eve, with a Catholic friend in Yogyakarta -- the first and only time I've attended a Catholic Mass. There were no problems, but I later heard of a few attacks on other churches (around Jakarta, as I recall). The following Christmas Eve saw coordinated bomb attacks right across Java which killed, I think, 17 people and wounded many. Let it not happen again, and may the Christians of Indonesia, and everywhere else for that matter, have a peaceful, safe and happy Christmas Eve.
- posted by Agam @ 4:29 PM 0 comments

 
IRAQIS EMBRACE DEMOCRACY ONCE AGAIN, WITH PASSION: WESTERN LEFT YAWNS

Iraqis voted in uprecedented numbers yesterday, while the terrorist - fascist coalition of anti-freedom fighters failed to disrupt the democratic progress. "Every inked finger is a bullet in the chest of a terrorist." - Iraqi voter Photo credit: Pajamas Media

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he people of Iraq have outdone themselves once again. Nation-wide voting was carried out for the third time this year, confirming the solid progress the country has made since the current interim parliament was elected in January. The constitutional referendum in October reflected a higher voter participation, sharply reduced terrorist activity and more effective voter security provided by Iraq's own police and military. Yesterday, all these trends continued in the positive direction: another solid increase in voter turnout, particulary in majority Sunni Arab regions with some districts reporting more than 80% participation; practically no opportunities for terrorist / rejectionist / Michael's Minutemen attacks (out of 50-odd attempted attacks nationwide, only 2 lives were lost); a tremendous success for Iraqi security forces, who provided 100% of the election day's on-the-ground security needs -- with multinational forces only in evidence keeping a lookout from the air. By every measure, this historic day was another milestone for the Iraqi people.

But the Iraqis have been meeting every milestone they had set for themselves for quite some time already, and the naysayers have never moderated their defeatism in the least. Last year it was, "Iraq will never be ready for elections in January." Elections took place on schedule. Then it was, "They'll never have a constitution drafted by August." The drafting committee worked hard, bumped their deadline by a few days, and got it done. "The Sunnis will boycott." The Sunnis participated, the referendum was held on schedule, the constitution was ratified. "It's a civil war already, a hopeless quagmire going to hell, if quagmires could go to hell." The election campaign was vibrant, with dozens of new parties and party lists competing for support, and religious figures of both Shia and Sunni communities encouraged their people to participate freely in politics. Although a couple of candidates were assassinated by anti-freedom fighters -- one on the day before the vote -- candidates and parties campaigned openly without fear, a marked contrast from 11 months ago. The Iraqi nation has sent a solid message to the terrorists and Saddamists among them, as well as to the defeatists and pessimists in far distant lands.

The message is a simple one: "You are on the wrong side of history."

Whatever the results of this election -- which may not be known in detail until the new year -- the true winner is already known. Iraqi Democracy, which used to be a fundamental contradiction in terms, is now an undeniable reality. Those who staked out their position firmly in the vicinity between hopeless and disaster will have a hard time denying this reality. Rather than allow themselves to feel inspired by the Iraqis' example; rather than acknowledge the power of the thirst for freedom and the strength of the human spirit; and certainly rather than admit that President Bush has a firmer conviction with his belief in that thirst and in that strength within every people (ideas that "progressives" used to espouse too, once), and far exceeding the idealism of any of the armchair revolutionaries who despise him; the solution seems to be, let's not talk about it.

Take a drive around the leftwardmost regions of the blogosphere, looking for new and fresh takes on the most democratic event ever to have taken place in the Arab world. I would link to them for you, but I couldn't find any. You'll find cynicism from those few who don't know when to stifle, like from the Kos Kiddies (which I've never linked to, but here's a top ten reasons why, if you must know). Those who recognise that such displays would make them appear petty and mundane, and altogether too un-idealistic for vanguards of the progressive movement, are just sticking to health care, Rove and "Scalito," etc. I suppose they wouldn't deny that Dec. 15 was a special day -- cause, y'know, 'all days are special in their own way' and like, 'it's the only day of the year that comes after Dec. 14, dude. And it's 10 days before Christma..^ I mean the holiday we're not s'posed to say the name of.'

There's a good round-up of bloggers' thoughts on PJM, but as I said, slim pickings from the left side. More impressive was PJM's rolling coverage throughout the day, from correspondents all across Iraq -- the full list is on their Top Stories page. This election day coverage was organised by Omar and Mohammed of Iraq the Model, who collated the dispatches from their friends across the country. You can also read these dispatches all in one updated article on their site, with the added advantage of extra photos.

Speaking of which, I loved the picture Omar and Mohammed used to head their election day report. The purple finger is still (as you see above, too) a potent symbol even after the third time. The brothers took a pic of their inked fingers in a pose reminiscent of the famous "Crossed Swords" monument in Baghdad. Just a bit before seeing this, I'd been looking through the Iraq Memory Foundation, looking through some of the documentation and oral histories reposited there. Then I saw this page, which has a good photo of the monument -- and the following text:

Iraq's interim Government officially recognized the role of the Iraq Memory Foundation in 2004, granting it long-term use of the "Crossed Swords" ceremonial parade grounds complex in Baghdad. In February 2005 that official order was formalized with a 40-year lease. When the Foundation completes planning, design and construction of the "Crossed Swords" complex, it will serve as nucleus for all its activities and programs, functioning as archive, museum, memorial and a center of culture and scholarship.

"The Iraq Memory Foundation shall establish a national institution located in the center of Baghdad, at the Ceremonial Parade Grounds and the Arches of Victory, to gather these testimonies, documents and artifacts. This institution will be a landmark in the capital, open to all citizens, and shall be a national endowment."

Prime Ministerial Order, 25/8/04

Then I went to ITM, and saw Omar and Mohammed's minimalist, but triumphant photo. I understood their wordless message. And I wai deeply in their general direction.
- posted by Agam @ 6:55 PM 0 comments

 
DONGZHOU KILLINGS CONDEMNED -- FROM INSIDE AS WELL AS OUT

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nternational human rights NGO's have called for an international investigation over the killing of Dongzhou villagers last Tuesday, in recognition of China's deeply flawed justice system and its subservience to the Communist Party. Government officials replied that everyone should just stay out of their business, this is an internal affair. Well. That's that, then. None of your business.

It is, however, some of these people's business.

In an open letter posted on the Internet, more than 50 scholars and intellectuals called on authorities to publish the names of the dead, offer compensation to their families and punish those involved after an independent investigation.

"We strongly protest the Chinese government's failure to publicly explain, clarify and investigate the killings. We protest against its gross action to forbid domestic media from reporting on the case," the letter said.

[...]

The open letter said what it called China's "social crisis" would continue unless such grassroots complaints were handled properly and the country became more open.

"If there isn't a democratic and free constitutional system, an open political space and open expression of appeals of different interests, it is impossible for China to resolve these social conflicts peacefully," it said.

This is a bold move for these brave people, and let's hope there is safety in numbers. Working for reform from inside can be extremely risky in China, but perhaps clamping down on 50+ intellectuals at one time, would be a bigger bite than the authorities would dare. Here is an inspiring story of one idealistic lawyer named Gao Zhisheng, presently in hiding somewhere in northern China. If there was ever an article to make the Times' free registration worthwile, this is it (or try BugMeNot if you doubt me). It's a very long piece, by a writer who clearly knows Mr. Gao well and is in his confidence. I won't try to summarise it -- read it all, and get the flavour of what it's like to work for truth and justice in a modern police state. As of Dec. 14, Mr. Gao is a fugitive. He continues his work in an undisclosed location, taking down testimonies of torture from adherents of the persecuted Falun Gong meditation group. He has also worked on some of the cases I mentioned here in recent articles. His last word, from his current undisclosed location, was this:

"I'm not sure how much time I have left to conduct my work," Mr. Gao said. "But I will use every minute to expose the barbaric tactics of our leadership."

I

've always felt that one of the smartest and most reliable China watchers -- with probably the best collection of contacts inside the country -- is Willy Lam of CNN. I haven't seen him for a long time as I don't have CNN anymore, but now via Timur-I-Leng I find that he's been booted from the network. Blogger Zhang Fei surmises that it has something to do with parent company Time-Warner's conducivity to do what the CCP wants, and the CCP certainly were not fans of Willy Lam. Anyway, Zhang Fei quotes extensively from an article Mr. Lam wrote for the WSJ ($ registration req'd) regarding the Dongzhou killings, and I will quote a little bit less of it right here, courtesy of Timur-I-Leng:

But no attempt has been made to seriously address the most common cause of complaints, the expropriation of large plots of land and displacement of tens of thousands of residents. Property developers as well as owners of mines, oilfields and hydroelectric stations find it easy to bully peasants, most of whom are poorly educated and have no recourse to legal help. One of the most explosive peasant uprisings last year took place in northern Sichuan Province, where tens of thousands of farmers clashed with police over the damming of the famous Dadu River for the purpose of constructing a hydroelectric facility. Again, the lowly peasants were no match for a coalition of local officials and power monopolies, in many cases run by retired senior cadres and children of senior leaders.

Despite their lip service to policies such as "putting people first" and "building a harmonious society," the Hu-Wen leadership are -- at the very least -- turning a blind eye to the scheming of such powerful local interests all over China. For example, the bulk of the coal mines -- in whose inhumane bowels at least 6,000 miners perish every year -- are run by networks of regional cadres, "red" entrepreneurs and financiers, local triad bosses, as well as the police and paramilitary officers. This explains why, as the recent peasant protest in Taishi village in Guangdong province, illustrated, officials can easily call upon armies of thugs to beat up demonstrators -- as well as Chinese and foreign reporters covering the scandals.

Even more disturbing, the killings in Dongzhou raise the possibility that the Hu-Wen leadership has gone beyond turning a blind eye to local grievances and is now willing to actively connive in their suppression. Alarmed by the recent series of "velvet revolutions" in neighboring Central Asian nations such as Kyrgyzstan, Beijing has begun taking a tougher stance against anyone deemed a threat to the Communist regime. That includes not only Internet users and nongovernmental organizations, but even peasants who have themselves been the victims of exploitation.

After all, President Hu, as an obedient student of Chairman Mao Zedong, is sure to be familiar with one of the Great Helmsman's most famous sayings: "A spark from heaven can set the whole plain ablaze." So rather than run the risk of the wrath of isolated villages coalescing, and turning the entire countryside into a ball of fire that would topple the leadership from power, the Hu-Wen team would rather err on the side of "caution" -- even when that involves aiding and abetting instances of local tyranny.

Not exactly encouraging trends coming from the "new" generation of Chinese leadership. I think it's likely that things will not remain stagnant: either political reforms begin in reality rather than rhetoric, as a means to relieve the pressure -- or the lid will be bolted on even tighter. When the Olympic Games were awarded to Beijing, the committee made a bet that the new "progressive" leaders would be encouraged to pursue openness, and that China would be a very different country by the time it welcomed the world. That now looks like it was a poor bet to make. 2008 is not so very far off, and the Hu-Wen team has wasted a lot of time on this score already.
- posted by Agam @ 6:53 PM 0 comments

 
DONGZHOU VILLAGE: "SAVE US!"

Townspeople kneel before troops of the 'People's Armed Police' begging for the return of the bodies of their loved ones. Officials have sought to pay the villagers for bodies which police failed to recover after killing them. Photo: Epoch Times

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n Saturday, the Chinese government finally admitted that the Dongzhou incident had in fact taken place, and that people had been killed by the police. Previous official statements that the villagers ("troublemakers") had viciously attacked the police with bombs and other weapons, and that accounts of any deaths were unfounded gossip, have been slightly ammended over the weekend. It's still all the protesters' fault -- they caused the officers of the People's Armed Police to "fire their weapons in alarm," resulting in the "accidental shooting" which killed "three" citizens. Non-CCP sources report estimates between 20 and 70 deaths, with dozens still missing.

[The photo above is strongly reminiscent of that horrible night in Bangkok -- May 17, 1992 -- which I recalled here in Saturday's article. The same configuration of armed troops facing people kneeling in the street, but on a considerably larger scale.]

Chinese media also reported the detention of the police official who gave the order to open fire, although some sources noted that this is a form of detention which is not equivalent to a formal arrest. According to reports from Sound of Hope Radio (wai Gateway Pundit), several PLA tanks have been sent to standby along the roads outside the village. The Epoch Times continues to have the lead in English language coverage of this event, reporting on Sunday that police shootings continued well after the initial incident on Dec. 6. A villager, contacted on December 8, described the situation:

"Yesterday, we were busy dealing with the problems caused by the incident. We counted the number of dead and injured and sent six corpses to Dongzhou Hospital. A severely injured villager died and there are still 30 to 40 people unaccounted for. No one knows whether they are dead or hiding. We heard that there are still corpses in the mountains yet we are forbidden to enter the area. The town's main representatives are in danger. As of now, the authorities do not simply arrest and then sentence people, but shoot them at will. A villager was shot dead in public yesterday afternoon."

This bit is a little creepy, and gives me more flashbacks from Black May 13 years ago:

A villager said that the authorities attempted to destroy the corpses. After the massacre on the night of December 6, the authorities cremated some of the bodies and sent others to the seashore for disposal.

Epoch Times also offers a link to an NTDTV video report in English from that page, or just try it from here (Real format). Here is a listing of all The Epoch Times reports on the story, including several pages of photos smuggled out by their journalists. Keep in mind that Epoch Times is a confirmed anti-communist news source on Chinese issues, but there's no doubt that they have the most in depth coverage at this point. Yesterday's report carries more indications that the shootings were anything but "accidental":

According to a report from the Apple Daily on December 10, Chen, a villager who escaped from the tragedy said, "It was so brutal. One villager was shot in the leg. He kneeled down to beg for his life. But they dragged him over to a pile of grass and shot him twice..."

According to the villagers, the military police reported that they did not open fire. But the villagers had collected many cartridge cases imprinted with the numbers "91" and "61". These cartridges are believed to be from submachine guns.

Associated Press reported on Monday that the shootings went on for at least 12 hours, and describes vehicles driving through town while their loudspeakers blared ... "Righteousness suppresses evil tendencies." An AP reporter was detained for several hours on Sunday, questioned about who she had interviewed, and warned not to return.

There is some question as to whether this is in fact the first such case of protesting civilians being shot down by security forces in China, since the Beijing Massacre of 1989 (as I wrote on Saturday). This claim has been made in several of the international wire service accounts. But there was an incident in Sichuan province just over a year ago, at a place called Hanyuan which call the claim into question. That story will give you some idea of the difficulties journalists face in any attempts to verify these incidents. VOA reporter Luis Ramirez was honoured with the Human Rights Press Award for that story. The Awards are sponsored by Amnesty International Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Foreign Correspondents' Club-Hong Kong for reporting in Asia.

One of the accounts I linked to on Saturday, from Radio Free Asia, apparently became inoperative. Here is a working link for that. In a later posted account (dated Friday but updated on Monday), RFA notes that officials have launched a major "information offensive" as phone service is disrupted and computer networks are shut down. Families who have lost loved ones in the violence are being closely watched and followed, and when phone calls get through, they are tapped. More on the fate of the "missing":

"That night, there were injured people who were dragged aboard police vehicles and were shot to death," said one man. "The police then took the bodies to the crematorium near the beach, but because there was no signature on the death certificate for cremation they threw the bodies into the sea instead. This definitely happened. This is not a rumor. If there were rumors going around, I wouldn't tell them to you."

"The bodies were discovered when they began to float in the seawater. They keep saying on the broadcasts the that 'counterrevolutionary leaders' are terrorists.

And in classic communist-style reliance on their ministries of propaganda -- and the official Party mouth organ, the Xinhua News Agency -- journalists are instructed to simply "read the paper":

Officials contacted by RFA Monday declined to add anything to the official version of events reported by Xinhua.

A duty officer at the Shanwei municipal government propaganda department said all the relevant information had already been reported in the newspapers.

"This has all been very clearly and extensively reported in the newspapers. If you read that you'll be fine," he said.

A Foreign Affairs Ministry official in Beijing said she didn't know the details of the situation. "I don't know much about this. Perhaps you could leave your details, and we'll get in touch with you if we get information on this matter."

Yeah, I'll just bet you will. And how about that directive: "Read the paper, and you'll be fine." Everybody remember the SARS coverup two years ago? Reading Xinhua and waiting on MFA statements would have been the last place to find any truth on either the SARS cases themselves or the CCP's blatant coverup of the facts.

For some good roundups of bloggers' work on this story, see the new Pajamas Media portal -- Friday's Trouble in Workers' Paradise, Continued and Sunday's The aftermath of the Dongzhou shootings. And keep checking with Gateway Pundit, who's keeping well on top of this story.

INDONESIAN MUSLIMS TO GUARD CHURCHES AGAIN THIS YEAR

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embers of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, will again be helping to provide security for the country's Christian churches this Christmas, reports Reuters. I think with a membership of 40 million, it may be as accurate to say "the world's largest Muslim organisation," as I don't know of another that comes close. Nahdlatul Ulama has a very moderate orientation, formerly headed by Abdurrahman Wahid -- the beloved "Gus Dur" who later became Indonesia's fourth president. NU has always opposed sectarianism and Wahhabist fanatacism, and strove to reinforce the natural tolerance of Indonesia's majority Muslim population, which numbers around 200 million.

The NU's youth organisation known as Banser usually provide security for NU's mass events and conferences, and have assisted with Christmas security in years past. In the rash of bombings of Christian churches in 2000, one Banser volunteer was killed in East Java. Volunteers from other religious faiths have plans to join in the effort. Tatang Hidayat, national coordinator of NU's Banser group said, "We have an annual programme to set up posts to secure Christmas. For this year, I have contacted groups from other religions like the Hindhus and Buddhists and they have responded positively." Way to go, kawan-kawan. Show the hardheads what Islam is really about!

Thanks for the tip from Pickled Politics, which was via Harry's Place, in turn via Glenn Reynolds. However the page they all linked to seems to have coding problems, so I found the Reuters story elsewhere.

STEVEN VINCENT'S WIDOW SPEAKS

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eaders who were here at the beginning of August should remember my writing about a great journalist named Steven Vincent, who was murdered in Basra, Iraq on August 2. Following some particularly nasty rumour-mongering by the likes of Prof. Juan Cole, Steven's widow Lisa Ramaci was obliged to interupt her grieving process and defend the good name of her husband. Her letter was published on a sympathetic milblog.

Now Lisa has agreed to do an interview with Fayrouz on her blog Iraqi In America. It's a really wonderful read, full of insights into the kind of man Steven was and what it was like to share life with him. Lisa brings us up to date on Steven's translator, Nour (who was badly wounded after they both were abducted, and left for dead). Lisa still hopes to help Nour to come to America, as Steven was attempting to do before his murder. Lisa also hopes to obtain Steven's unfinished work on Basra, and get it published. His laptop and notebooks are currently considered as evidence in the murder investigation, and are being held by the FBI.

However, I have asked for copies of everything in both the computer and the books, and once I have access to them, then yes, I will try and write the book in his stead. I want to call it "Basra: The Final Journey of Steven Vincent."

Take some time to read the whole thing, as they say.

DOCUMENTING SADDAM

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he Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes has once again been denied access to unclassified Iraqi documents presently undergoing "exploitation" in a project located in Doha, Qatar. According to his latest article, the entire program is in danger of being closed down, with only a fraction of the documents having been translated and evaluated. Hayes had previously published (and I quoted on this page) a list of titles he had acquired outside official channels. He has now obtained more details on some of these, but the Dept. of Defence has declined to release them in what might be the last chance of them seeing the light of day.

The project in Doha sounds as though it is (was?) a very large undertaking. But out of more than 2 million "exploitable items" only about 50,000 have been processed. Hayes had previously reported that over 200 translators were working on this, but in this latest dispatch he makes a correction. There were more than 200 persons working per shift, with three round the clock shifts -- making an estimated manpower count of around 700 people. One would expect the Bush administration to recognise the importance of learning as much as can be learned from this data from the Saddam regime, much of which might still be useful in the present time -- above and beyond gaining a clearer picture of the past, including the regime's relationships with al Qaeda and other terrorist networks.

Some of the new, more detailed summaries are quite suggestive, others less so. Hayes quotes several in his piece, including:

Title: Intelligence coded memo by two IIS officers containing info on various topics; weapons boat, Palestinians training in Iraq, etc.
Short Description: Lists Palestinians trained in Iraq, etc.
Agency: DIA
Document Date: Mar-02
Document #: IISP-2003-00038100

But I thought Saddam had nothing to do with terrorism... Palestinians in training...? Here's another (I like this one):

Title: Presidential instruction from Hussein concerning mass graves in southern Iraq, and how to handle the PR/media fallout.
Short Description: Concerning mass graves found in the south: Check for nuclear radiation, identify bodies, ensure that CNN is the first news agency onsite. Any funerals should have an international impact. Signed by Hussein.
Agency: DIA
Document Date: Feb-01
Document #: ISGZ-2004-00224003

The plan was apparently to blame mass graves in the south on US forces' actions during the first Gulf War. Classic Saddam -- blame his own mass graves on somebody else. Who might he blame these ones on? What I like on this one is the CNN reference. Eason Jordan famously admitted to having made deals with Saddam in order to keep his Baghdad bureau open. Sure enough, Saddam keeps up his end of the bargain. "[E]nsure that CNN is the first news agency onsite." Guaranteed of a "scoop" when the dictator is on your side.

There are others referring to weapons storage sites and concealment, as well as "Chemical, Biological Agent Destruction" (dated Feb. 2003). But isn't the conventional wisdom now that Saddam didn't even have any of those weapons? Was he actually destroying them the month before the invasion? Perhaps we'll never know for sure, if this program is actually terminated before its task is complete. The best we can do for now, is not "Saddam had no WMD's!" but rather "A lot of weapons and weapon components are still unaccounted for."

I'd like to get a look at this one:

Title: IIS Correspondence for the Iraq Embassy in the Philippines and Iraqi MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs].
Short Description: Various correspondence e.g. visa forms, trade delegations, full reports on the connections between Abu Sayaf and the Qadafi Charity Establishment. Report on a certain individual traveling to Pakistan and involvements with bin Laden.
Agency: DIA
Document Date: Mar-01
Document #: ISGP-2003-00014100

I'd also love to know if there's anything regarding the embassy in Jakarta. There was one particular Iraqi official that I would see (on TV) attending every pre-Sept. 11 gathering of Islamist groups in Indonesia, particularly around the early period of the Malukku conflict. These were meetings of solidarity with the now defunct Laskar Jihad, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and his friends, and the like. Iraq's Manila embassy is well known to have been engaged with Abu Sayaf, and Qadafi was funding them (he also paid a large "ransom" for Abu Sayaf hostages, and actually received praise for this, um, alternative funding method). It's a good bet that the Jakarta embassy was involved with some shady stuff as well. And what's that about "involvement with bin Laden"? I thought there supposedly wasn't any. Maybe conventional wisdom isn't all it's cooked up to be. Well, we already know there was a relationship, we just don't know yet how deep it went. These documents could well hold the answer to that, and many more questions.

In two days, the Iraqi people will take yet another giant step into their future when they go to the polls for the third time this year. They'll elect a new, permanent legislature under the auspices of their own constitution -- one that their elected representatives wrote and negotiated compromises over, and which the people themselves have ratified. Millions of them will show their courage on Thursday by going to polling booths across the country, in the face of consistent threats against them by Zarqawi and his thugs, and the Baathist rejectionists. I think the Iraqi voter deserves much more recognition than the meager notice the world's media has given on the previous two occasions this year. Since the Nobel Peace Prize is already taken (and the Nobel committee has been badly tarnished with the Pinter fiasco anyway), how about the Iraqi Voter for Time's Person of the Year?
- posted by Agam @ 6:18 PM 0 comments

 
CHINESE POLICE KILL DEMONSTRATORS

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appy birthday, Universal Declaration of Human Rights! Today is a big day for you -- your 57th birthday! Although it seems you were misnamed at birth, as there was nothing particularly universal about you either then or now. Human rights are universal, the Declaration was, and is not so. Mrs. Roosevelt and the many other of your laudable parents may have better given you the grand, all-encompassing term as a middle name instead. The Declaration of Universal Human Rights would sound more suitable for you.

As if to mark the special day (along with Mr. el Baradei getting his Peace Prize), the Chinese Communist Party has held a special event this week. For the first time since the Beijing Massacre of 1989, Chinese police have shot and killed a number of village protesters in southern Guangdong province. Dongzhou village, a small town near the city of Shanwei had seen public protests in recent weeks over confiscation of property by the government for the purposes of industrial development, offering the villagers only meager compensation. One fellow quipped that "it wasn't even enough to buy toilet paper." There had been recurrent sit-ins and public demonstrations over the injustice in Dongzhou. This phenomenon has been noted to be on the increase in recent years as official corruption and governmental unaccountability continues to generate issues which people across the country are becoming more bold in demanding their rectification. There were more than 74,000 "riots" or "social disturbances" last year according to the government's own figures, a huge jump over the previous year.

Although these incidents are so numerous, very few of them attract the attention of outside media. One similar case took place in Taishi village, also in Guangzhou province, during the past summer (wai Gateway Pundit who has more links on the current incident and others). The Dongzhou shooting seems to have been reported first in the western media on Friday, although the incident itself apparently happened on Dec. 6. Authorities acted quickly to cover up the crime:

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper on Saturday quoted villagers who said authorities were trying to conceal the deaths by offering families money to give up bodies of the dead.

"They offered us a sum but said we would have to give up the body," an unidentified relative of one slain villager, 31-year-old Wei Jin, was quoted as saying. "We are not going to agree."

Police were carrying photos of villagers and trying to find people linked to the protest, the newspaper said, citing villagers.

As in any similar event reporting from China, we must keep in mind that tight restrictions on communications are instantly imposed by the communist authorities and can be extremely effective. Since the event, no one has been allowed to leave or enter the village, so whatever information being reported is generally acquired by telephone and is often third or fourth hand hearsay. Foreign journalists on the scene -- or near to it -- can also sometimes be unreliable, as in the earlier mentioned Taishi event when a Guardian writer greatly embellished the beating of a democracy activist there, and reported that the man was certainly beaten to death. He wasn't, and continues his democracy work. No Guardian writers were used or harmed in writing this article.

But there are several corroborative stories online today which seem to confirm that police fired their weapons into a crowd of unarmed people (some may have used fireworks to shoot back - see below), killing a number of them and wounding many others. Reuters spoke by phone to one man in the town:

"Now the authorities are coming to the village to detain people," said one villager, adding his brother was among those shot dead during the demonstrations.

"My parents and my sister-in-law are kneeling in front of the house to ask the government officials to explain the killing," he said in a telephone interview.

He put the number of dead at more than 10.

[...]

The resident said police were chasing away family members who tried to claim the bodies of those who were killed, describing the scene as "chaos" and pleading for help.

"Please send somebody to help us," he said. Noise in the background was so loud it was difficult to hear.

The New York Times had an extensive story this morning, and I hope this link to the "printer friendly" version will work (Times is notorious for links to their stories going into endless redirections...).

"From about 7 p.m. the police started firing tear gas into the crowd, but this failed to scare people," said a resident who gave his name only as Li and claimed to have been at the scene, where a relative of his was killed. "Later, we heard more than 10 explosions, and thought they were just detonators, so nobody was scared. At about 8 p.m. they started using guns, shooting bullets into the ground, but not really targeting anybody.

"Finally, at about 10 p.m. they started killing people."

[...]

Everybody, young and old, "went out to watch," said one man who claimed his cousin had been killed by a police officer's bullet in the forehead. "We didn't expect they were so evil. The farmers had no means to resist them."

Authorities claimed the people had started the whole thing, attacking them with pipe bombs. Villagers claimed that they had no weapons and that the police started shooting without provocation, but that some of their own number were holding fireworks:

"The organizers didn't have any money, so someone bought fireworks and placed them there. At the moment the trouble started many of the demonstrators were holding them, and of those who held fireworks, almost everyone was killed."

Other witnesses estimated that 10 people were killed immediately in the first volley of automatic gunfire. "I live not far from the scene, and I was running as fast as I could," said one witness, who declined to give his name. "I dragged one of the people they killed, a man in his 30's who was shot in his chest. Initially I thought he might survive, because he was still breathing, but he was panting heavily, and as soon as I pulled him aside, he died."

The witness said that he, too, had come under fire when the police saw him coming to the aid of the dying man.

This incident recalls another in Shengyou village last June, where gangs of thugs were sent in to break up a similar demonstration. No guns, but they apparently beat at least six people to death with pipes and clubs. One of the Shengyou villagers had managed to videotape that attack, which was seen in some western media. This week in Dongzhou (continuing from the NYT)...

Villagers said that in addition to the regular security forces, the authorities had enlisted thugs from local organized crime groups to help put down the demonstration. "They had knives and sticks in their hands, and they were two or three layers thick, lining the road," one man said. "They stood in front of the armed police, and when the tear gas was launched, the thugs were all ducking."

Radio Free Asia had apparently been following the Dongzhou dispute before the wireservices or big media were paying attention, and in their latest coverage posted this morning, has more details on the official cover-up:

Others were still waiting for news of missing loved ones. Estimates of those dead, feared missing, were between 20 and 30, with many unconfirmed reports circulating that bodies had been destroyed.

"Some people said they saw police dressing up three of the villagers' bodies in police uniforms and taking photos of them," one man said. "Some also said that several bodies had already been taken to the crematorium and that they had also been changed into police uniforms."

No reports have emerged of the incident in mainland Chinese media so far: The online transcript of Thursday's regular foreign ministry press briefing had questions about the Shanwei troubles edited out.

"The officials have been warning us---perhaps it's because some journalists have arrived---not to 'speak carelessly'," the Dongzhou woman said. "We are supposed to say that the dead were killed by our own during the violence, and not to mention that they were shot by the police."

This stuff begins to remind me of General Suchinda's goons during the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators here in Bangkok, in May 1992. There were the dead, there were the wounded, and then there were the large number who simply went "missing," never to be heard from again. Reports of bodies having been loaded on trucks and taken out of the city to be disposed of, and grainy night photos of such trucks with a barely discernable tangle of limbs sticking out from beneath the canvas. That was the end of military rule -- even behind a facade democracy as it was at the time -- once and for all.

Only a few days before the brutal attack in Dongzhou, on December 4 up to a quarter million Hong Kong people took to their streets demanding full democracy, and there have been other massive democracy protests in that city as well. Surely some of their neighbours, still living under Communist Party rule outside the "Special Administrative Region" must be aware of these events, and perhaps take some courage from them. Guangdong province is the area which completely surrounds the Hong Kong SAR, and Dongzhou appears to be not too far along the coast to the northeast. A friend of mine, originally from Hong Kong, once told me prior to its handover back to the PRC "motherland" that Hong Kong would be a "poison pill" which would sooner or later kill the one-party communist rule on the mainland.

The best way for the CCP to mark the goal of Universal Human Rights would be to admit that they have no intention of honouring the country's signature on that non-universal declaration, admit that their eternal monopoly on power in that country is the main hindrance in attaining China's eventual status as a modern state, declare a full and nationwide freedom to organise political parties, and set a date for democratic elections. Without such a valve, the pressure will continue to increase until it explodes -- and nobody wants that, surely not even the CCP. Allow the Chinese people's creativity and innovation to finally come forward, let a thousand flowers bloom. It would be a radical shift, but it seems too late now to expect this development to succeed at the present, timid pace before the lid will blow off.

Check out Between Heaven and Earth, a new blog on China originating from my old B.C. stomping grounds (Victoria, to be precise). Wai China e-Lobby for the tip. And here's another interesting site from an expatriate American based in China (he has more on the Dongzhou incident too) -- Daai Tou Laam Diary. Best wishes for Human Rights Day, especially for those who don't have them, and for whom it must appear to be a huge uphill battle to get them. By the way, it's a special day in Thailand also. December 10 is the day we mark as Constitution Day (Wan Pra Ratchathan Rattathammanoon)
- posted by Agam @ 4:57 PM 0 comments