ishkabible: Terrorism Archives

Terrorism Archives

August 17, 2006

"Bleeding-heart ignoramuses"

All across the board, Lebanese civilians are referred to as "civilians" where Israeli civilians are referred to as "Israelis" - an eerie and sinister difference pointed out by the non-Jewish stand-up comic genius Natalie Haynes, and one which very few people appear to have noticed - even me, until then.
. . .
Personally, I'd far prefer the Jews to be angry, aggressive and alive than meek, mild and dead - and that's what makes me and a minority like me feel so much like strangers in our own country, now more than ever. I've always loved being a hack, but now even that feels weird, as though I'm living among a bunch of snatched-body zombies who look like journalists but believe and say the most inhuman, evil things.

"Bleeding-heart ignoramuses," by Julie Burchill, HAARETZ, August 2006

Posted at 06:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Bigotry , Ignorance , Nihilism , Stupidity , Terrorism

August 14, 2006

"Purportedly 'moderate' Muslim leaders"

To the President of Indonesia, the West acts, Muslims merely react. Thus Israel must be stopped, even though it was provoked by Iranian-backed Hebollah in the first place. If not, benighted Muslims will have no choice but to become “radicalized,” and perpetrate even more acts of terrorism.

Why doesn’t this work the other way around? Why not demand the destruction of Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, or Western “moderates” will become “radicalized” and demand a more hands-on approach to the Middle East? Why can Westerners control their actions, and Muslims merely offer irrational, uncontrollable reactions?

"A 'Moderate' Threat?" Wizbang, August 6, 2006

Posted at 11:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Gynephobes , Terrorism

August 13, 2006

"Recognising Muslim 'anger' for what it is"

Muslim 'moderates' in Britain are calling for changes to British foreign policy as the only way to prevent Muslim 'extremists' in Britain from attacking the rest of us.

This is of course the same approach used by Sinn Fein and other Republicans in Northern Ireland, who held that only by political engagement and accommodation with 'moderate' political figures (i.e. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness) could the wicked IRA be stopped from blowing people up. Of course the fact Sinn Fein and the IRA were actually inseparable parts of the same movement was something only a reader of the Guardian could have failed to notice.

And so a 'moderate' Muslim, a member of the Tory Party no less, tell us that 'Muslim anger' must be recognised (our old chum root causes). Is that so? Well I think increasingly it is being recognised. It is being recognised as an excuse used for getting non-democratic Muslim veto over British foreign policies just as a majority of Muslims also appear to want a Muslim veto over freedom of expression in Britain.

"Recognising Muslim 'anger' for what it is," samizdata, August 13, 2006

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August 06, 2006

Grievances of ... seeing unveiled women ... the Jewish people ... the heresy of democracy ... a work of fiction ... the existence of black African Muslim farmers ... etc., ad nauseum

It's a long, and nauseating, list of grievances ....

We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are. The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.
For a few moments yesterday, Londoners received a taste of what life is like for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, whose Muslim faith does not protect them from slaughter at the hands of those who think they are not Muslim enough, or are the wrong Muslim.

"We Cannot Surrender: States which shelter these killers will know no peace," by Christopher Hitchens, Mirror.co.uk, July 8, 2005

Posted at 08:47 AM · Categories: Nihilism , Terrorism

July 21, 2006

Moral Authority

The problem with Moral Authority is its antonym, the Palestinian Authority. Does Dean mean the Oslo accords? President Clinton had been in office less than a year. There‘s a reason they’re not the Little Rock Accords: Norwegian diplomats did all the heavy lifting. (Specifically, suspending disbelief about Arafat’s motives, which can throw your back out if you’re not careful.) Does Dean mean the Camp David negotiations, which ended in the bloody second intifada? Details, details. Moral authority, that’s what counts. Doesn’t stop wars, but it makes the bad guys look extra guilty. Ingrates!

"You can’t call this the Arab-Israeli war of 06, since the usual belligerents have declined to participate," by James Lileks, Screedblog, July 21, 2006

Posted at 08:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Humor , Politics , Terrorism

May 20, 2006

"Sadism" or "fascism" or "nihilism"

It must have been infernal underneath King's Cross, but above ground no panic, no screaming, no wailing and beating the air, no yells for vengeance.
I'm writing this in the early aftermath, but I would be willing to bet there will have been little or no bloody foolishness, either: no random attacks on mosques or shops or individuals. After all, devices on our buses and tubes are an open proclamation that the perpetrators don't care if they kill Muslims. Which, of course, is part of the point. When we use the weak and vague word "terrorism" we imply indiscriminate cruelty directed at civilians.

"Sadism" or "fascism" or "nihilism" would do just as nicely: all the venom that lurks just on the sub-human level of the human species.

In a tightly interwoven society, all that this poison has to do is ally itself with a certain low cunning.

"We Cannot Surrender: States which shelter these killers will know no peace," by Christopher Hitchens, Mirror.co.uk, July 8, 2005

Posted at 07:27 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Nihilism , Terrorism

April 22, 2006

"A Megaphone for Psychotic Killers"

It is a big mistake to believe this is an assault on "our" values or "our" way of life. It is, rather, an assault on all civilisation. I know perfectly well there are people thinking, and even saying, that Tony Blair brought this upon us by his alliance with George Bush.
A word of advice to them: try and keep it down, will you? Or wait at least until the funerals are over. And beware of the non-sequitur: you can be as opposed to the Iraq operation as much as you like, but you can't get from that "grievance" to the detonating of explosives at rush hour on London buses and tubes.

Don't even try to connect the two. By George Galloway's logic, British squaddies in Iraq are the root cause of dead bodies at home. How can anyone bear to be so wicked and stupid? How can anyone bear to act as a megaphone for psychotic killers?

The grievances I listed above are unappeasable, one of many reasons why the jihadists will lose.

"We Cannot Surrender: States which shelter these killers will know no peace," by Christopher Hitchens, Mirror.co.uk, July 8, 2005

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March 19, 2006

Demanding the "cessation of all life in favour of prostration before a totalitarian vision."

The grievances I listed above are unappeasable, one of many reasons why the jihadists will lose.
They demand the impossible - the cessation of all life in favour of prostration before a totalitarian vision. Plainly, we cannot surrender. There is no one with whom to negotiate, let alone capitulate.

We shall track down those responsible. States that shelter them will know no peace. Communities that shelter them do not take forever to discover their mistake. And their sordid love of death is as nothing compared to our love of London, which we will defend as always, and which will survive this with ease.

"We Cannot Surrender: States which shelter these killers will know no peace," by Christopher Hitchens, Mirror.co.uk, July 8, 2005

Posted at 07:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Nihilism , Terrorism

February 20, 2006

"Islamic truths" - 1

Another week, another Muslim country burns in rage over months-old Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in an unflattering light. On Friday it was Libya, and earlier in the week it was my father's homeland, Pakistan, where violent protests were scattered across the nation. Some Muslims have decided that burning cities in defense of a prophet's teachings, which none of them seem willing to practice, is preferable to participating in rational debate about the myths and realities of a religion whose worst enemies are increasingly its own adherents.
This week's events should compel those of us who claim Islam as our system of philosophical guidance to ask hard questions of ourselves in order to revive the religion's essential foundation: justice, peaceful and tolerant coexistence, compassion, the search for knowledge and unwavering faith in the unity of God.

"Islamic truths," by Mansoor Ijaz, Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2006

Posted at 06:27 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Good Advice , Nihilism , Terrorism

February 11, 2006

"The struggle for Islam's soul"

While most Muslims abhor violence, some terrorists are a product of a specific mindset with deep roots in Islamic history. If Muslims everywhere refuse to confront this, we will all be prey to more terror.
. . .
Within hours of the London atrocity, Muslim groups throughout Britain condemned the bombing, declaring in unequivocal terms that such acts had nothing to do with Islam.
"Religious precepts," declared the Muslim Council of Britain, "cannot be used to justify such crimes, which are completely contrary to our teaching and practice." The eminently sensible Imam Abdul Jalil Sajid, chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony U.K., announced: "No school of Islam allows the targeting of civilians or the killing of innocents. Indiscriminate, senseless and targeted killing has no justification in Islam."

The tenor of these statements is: These are the acts of pathologically mad people; Islam has nothing to do with it.

But Islam has everything to do with it. As Dr. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, director of the Muslim Institute, points out: "The terrorists are using Islamic sources to justify their actions. How can one then say it has nothing to do with Islam?"

"The struggle for Islam's soul," by Ziauddin Sardar, Toronto Star, July 22, 2005

Posted at 04:37 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Nihilism , Terrorism

February 03, 2006

Hitler wins ... nothing to see here, move along ...

If the election proves anything, it’s that Hitler can win and people still won’t see the parallels to the last big batch of professional Jew-haters – no matter how crazy they get. The election was barely over, and the celebratory bullets hadn’t all pattered to earth, when the demands began. Israeli National News quoted Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar on the key issue of the day: the insulting affront presented by the Israeli flag. "Israel must remove the two blue stripes from its national flag", said Zahar. “The stripes on the flag are symbols of occupation. They signify Israel's borders stretching from the River Euphrates to the River Nile."
Yes, indeed. And the fifty stars on the American flag symbolize this nation’s desire to occupy and annex the Milky Way. European diplomats will shrug off Zahar’s demands, just as the Iranian president’s pearls of wisdom are dismissed: he’s only playing to his base. Perhaps, but what does that say about the base? Nothing! They elected Hamas because they were fed up with the corruption of Fatah, just as Americans, tired of Nixon’s skullduggery, voted in the Birch-Klan-Commie Axis in ’74. Or something like that.

In any case, Hamas will have to govern now, the apologists say. Collect the trash. Or, more like, blame Zionist jets for strafing the garbage trucks. They might well “improve” the schools, but since they’ve already announced they’ll will impose Sharia, this might not sit well with secular Palestinians. (Helpful note to angry emailers: this is where you point out that some Christians want to teach Intelligent Design in Kansas, which of course is exactly the same thing as segregating students by sex and teaching the girls why driving is a sin.)

"Hitler," Screedblog, by James Lileks, February 3, 2006

Posted at 05:57 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Gynephobes , Nihilism , Terrorism

"Offensive" cartoons

"Militants Surround EU Offices in Gaza Over 'Offensive' Cartoons," AP, February 2, 2006

During the Cold War, it was suggested that to defeat Russia all the US had to do was drop JC Penney and Sears catalogs all over the country ... maybe to defeat Islamic fascism, we just need to drop "offensive" cartoons all over the Middle East ... in Chinese ... or maybe French and German ... or send over some of Robert Mapplethorpe's acolytes ...

Posted at 12:07 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Bigotry , Gynephobes , Nihilism , Terrorism

January 30, 2006

Danish products

From the burning of its flag to a boycott of its brands of butter and cookies, Denmark is feeling Islamic outrage over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
. . .
"In (the West) it is considered freedom of speech if they insult Islam and Muslims," Mohammed al-Shaibani, a columnist, wrote in Kuwait's Al-Qabas daily Monday. "But such freedom becomes racism and a breach of human rights and anti-Semitism if Arabs and Muslims criticize their religion and religious laws."
. . .
In two West Bank towns Sunday, Palestinians burned Danish flags and demanded an apology. Several Islamist groups, including the Palestinian militant Hamas party and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, called for a worldwide boycott of Danish products.
. . .
President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon condemned the cartoon, saying his country "cannot accept any insult to any religion."

"Outrage Builds in Mideast Over Cartoons," by Donna Abu-Nasr, Forbes, January 30, 2006

we love that last quote ....

"Al Qaida's Jihad against Lebanese Christians," Jihad Watch, November 15, 2003

"The Forgotten Christians of Lebanon: Once free and equal, Lebanon's Christians now struggle against tremendous odds in a country dominated by Syrian politics and an increasingly Islamized culture," by Habib C. Malik, The Offical Lebanese Forces web site

"Lebanon's Christians," Center for Religious Freedom

Christians in the Middle East are fast disappearing from the area. The Lebanese Christians, who constitute the only influential Christian community in the Middle East, are fast declining in numbers and power.

"The Rise and Fall of Christian Minorities in Lebanon," by Fouad Abi-Esber BA MA, Encyclopedia Phoeniciana

Posted at 10:57 PM · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Gynephobes , Nihilism , Stupidity , Terrorism

January 27, 2006

"How the suicide bomber saved Zionism"

For my Palestinian friends, this word:
At this point you hardly need to be told that suicidal policies are, well, self-destructive. But it might be prove instructive to see the effect that the last suicide bombing of 2005 had on this country.

It was Hanukkah, and a young IDF officer stood between a young Jihadist and the celebrating children next to whom the bomber planned to detonate his 33 pounds of explosives.

The day after the bomber hit the detonator at that last-minute checkpoint, killing himself, the officer, a Palestinian taxi driver, and another Palestinian, the headlines in Israel referred to the slain second lieutenant Ori Binamo by his first name only, as if his loss was felt by nearly every household in Israel. Because it was.

This is the lesson that Palestinians would be well advised to learn about the people on this side:

You have made a new kind of martyr hero in the Holy Land, the kind who keeps the shahid from making Jewish infants and Jewish mothers into martyrs against their will.

You have demolished your cause by restoring our faith in the concept that there are those who believe strongly in the elimination of the Jewish people by violent means.

You may believe that you invented steadfastness and stubbornness. Think again.

Now is the time to decide. Hamas listens to public opinion. Make it known. You have a choice. You can play with your guns, or you can have a country.

There is a new kind of Israel, a better one, in fact, for which, perversion of perversions, we have the suicide bomber to thank.

This Israel will be harder to defeat than the enemy you faced five years ago. You have only yourselves to thank. You and your bomber.

"How the suicide bomber saved Zionism," by Bradley Burston, Haaretz.com, January 15, 2006

. . . . . . . . .

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January 20, 2006

Nuclear Iran

A lot of countries don't want an Iranian bomb. Israel is one. The United States is another. Throw Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and most of the 'Stans into this, and there are not a lot of supporters for an Iranian bomb. However, there are only two countries that can do something about it. The Israelis don't want to get the grief, but they are the ones who cannot avoid action because they are the most vulnerable if Iran should develop a weapon. The United States doesn't want Israel to strike at Iran, as that would massively complicate the U.S. situation in the region, but it doesn't want to carry out the strike itself either.
This, by the way, is a good place to pause and explain to readers who will write in wondering why the United States will tolerate an Israeli nuclear force but not an Iranian one. The answer is simple. Israel will probably not blow up New York. That's why the United States doesn't mind Israel having nukes and does mind Iran having them. Is that fair? This is power politics, not sharing time in preschool. End of digression.

"Iran's Redefined Strategy," by George Friedman, Stratfor: Geopolitical Intelligence Report, January 17, 2006, via chiagoboyz

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December 27, 2005

Viciousness

What are we to make of scenes from the eighth-century in Fallujah? Random murder, mutilation of the dead, dismemberment, televised gore, and pride in stringing up the charred corpses of those who sought to bring food to the hungry? Perhaps we can shrug and say all this is the wage of Saddam Hussein and the thirty years of brutality of his Baathists that institutionalized such barbarity? Or was the carnage the dying scream of Baathist hold-outs intent on shocking the Western world at home watching it live? We could speculate for hours.
Yet I fear that we have not seen anything new. Flip through the newspaper and the stories are as depressing as they are monotonous: bombs in Spain; fiery clerics promising death in England, even as explosive devices are uncovered in France. In-between accounts of bombings in Iraq, we get the normal murdering in Israel, and daily assassination in Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Chechnya. Murder, dismemberment, torture—these all seem to be the acceptable tools of Islamic fundamentalism and condoned as part of justifiable Middle East rage. Sheik Yassin is called a poor crippled "holy man" who ordered the deaths of hundreds, as revered in the Arab World for his mass murder as Jerry Falwell is condemned in the West for his occasional slipshod slur about Muslims.

Yet the hourly killing is perhaps not merely the wages of autocracy, but part of a larger grotesquery of Islamic fundamentalism on display. The Taliban strung up infidels from construction cranes and watched, like Romans of old, gory stoning and decapitations in soccer stadiums built with UN largess. In the last two years, Palestinian mobs have torn apart Israeli soldiers, lynched their own, wired children with suicide bombing vests, and machine-gunned down women and children—between sickening scenes of smearing themselves with the blood of "martyrs." Very few Arab intellectuals or holy men have condemned such viciousness.

"The Mirror of Fallujah: No More Passes and Excuses for the Middle East," by Victor Davis Hansen, Jewish World Review, April 4, 2004

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November 06, 2005

"You Have To Break A Few Humans To Prevent An Omelette"

Incredible ...

Dafydd at Big Lizards notes this Robert Novak column blurb about an exchange regarding ecoterrorism at the US Senate last week. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) interrogated ecological activist Dr. Jerry Vlasak about the aims of the radical environmental movement. Novak has the key, chilling exchange that reveals the utter lack of perspective that produces ecoterrorists:
Dr. Jerry Vlasak of North American Animal Liberation was quoted as saying at an animal rights convention: "I don't think you'd have to kill, assassinate too many. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, or 10 million non-human lives."
Questioned by Inhofe whether he was "advocating the murder of individuals," Vlasak replied: "I made that statement, and I stand by that statement."

That, however, gives only part of the story. Americans for Medical Progress has more of the transcript, which oddly does not appear readily accessible on the Senate's website. (Animal Crackers has the entire exchange archived, along with pungent and dead-on commentary.) Inhofe only got the ball rolling. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) becomes more and more disgusted with Vlasak as the hearing progresses, finally demanding that the witness be removed from his presence. But first, Inhofe makes sure that Vlasak hasn't been misunderstood:

Read the whole incredible thing ... "You Have To Break A Few Humans To Prevent An Omelette," Captain's Quarters, November 6, 2005

Posted at 12:58 PM · Comments (1) · Categories: Crime , Ignorance , Nihilism , Stupidity , Terrorism

November 04, 2005

"A fuse that's been lit all over Europe"

I'm actually thinking of going to Paris. I went to one of these suburbs that's currently ablaze three years ago. And what was interesting to me is I had to bribe a taxi driver a considerable amount of money just to take me out there. They're miserable places. But what was interesting to me is that after that, I then flew on to the Middle East, and I was in Yemen, and a couple of other places. And what was interesting to me was that I found more menace in the suburbs of Paris than I did in some pretty scary places in the Middle East. I mean, there is a real...this, I think, is the start of a long Eurabian civil war we're witnessing here. . . . you know, we kept hearing all this stuff ever since September 11th, you know, the Muslim street is going to explode in anger. Well, it finally did, and it was in Paris, not in the Middle East. . . . You know, the Europeans have been tolerant of, for example, Palestinian terrorism for years, and of the intifada that's been going on in France against synagogues and Jewish schools and Kosher butchers and all the rest. And now, it's moved on to more general targets. They're suddenly finding it's kind of harder to appease these people.

"Mark Steyn on the Euroarabian war currently happening in the suburbs of France," transcript of Mark Steyn interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Radioblogger, November 3, 2005

As I see it, the religion of Islam is inherently incompatible with the concept of individual liberty, a crucial component of western countries.

"Paris Riots: Coming to an American Street Near You," La Shawn Barber, November 3, 2005

And Americans should take no satisfaction in the French predicament, for there are close parallels here to all these phenomena. We learned the hard way that, first of all, our cities need law and order and that talk and dialog must wait until riots have been suppressed. We have learned, also the hard way, that welfare corrupts those who receive it. But we have still to grasp the danger of that combination of Islam and crime that afflicts France — and is beginning to appear here.

"The Ongoing Muslim Riots In France," Pseudo-Random Thoughts, November 2, 2005

Posted at 07:48 AM · Comments (0) · Categories: Gynephobes , Nihilism , Terrorism

November 03, 2005

"We must say No to those movements that would exploit freedom only to abolish it."

In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton championed freedom of thought, but wisely noted that "There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped." Our society is extraordinarily accommodating of diverse points of view—especially, it sometimes seems, to those that are hostile to the ideal of diversity. In order to continue to enjoy the luxury of freedom, we must say No to those movements that would exploit freedom only to abolish it. "In order to defend itself," Kolakowski writes, "the pluralist order should voice [its fundamental] values ceaselessly and loudly. There is nothing astonishing or outrageous about the fact that within the pluralist society, the defenders and enemies of its basic principles are not treated with exactly the same indifference."

"Leszek Kolakowski & the anatomy of totalitarianism," by Roger Kimball, The New Criterion, June 2005

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October 30, 2005

"Onward, Muslim Soldiers!"

SULAWESI, Indonesia -- Muslim warriors scored yet another heroic military victory, this time against a well-trained trio of special-ops teenaged girls from a Christian school.
"Allah be praised for delivering us this magnificent triumph," an unknown brave warrior in a face-obscuring mask announced. "Those 105-pound teenaged girls fought like tigers, using all the weapons and trickery they learned at a Special Forces clinic at the 4-H Club. They also employed advanced martial arts techiques from the legendary fighting form known as 'Jazzercize.'"

The glorious Islamic heroes stated that they identified the co-ed covert operatives by their open display of the famous credo of SOCOM (the special operations command), "N'SYNC = N'STINK."

Having captured the dangerous commandos, the Muslim warriors afforded them with the full panoply of rights granted to them by the Geneva Protocols, including the invioble rights of POW's to have their heads sawed from their still-living bodies, a right which applies only upon capture by Muslims. WARNING: Extremely Graphic Pictures of the International Red Cross-approved treatment of Western prisoners.

The gay-panic murder-cultists of the Muslim world rejoiced that the three operatives had been captured while carrying the weapon most feared in the Muslim world-- vaginas.

"Onward, Muslim Soldiers!" Ace of Spades HQ, October 30, 2005

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October 23, 2005

al-Qaeda "will eventually launch an offensive war"

Since al-Qaeda always makes it clear that its only motivations are to fulfill the teachings of Islam, clearly, if and when the Islamic world is capable, it will eventually launch an offensive war. For the same infallible sources that instruct Muslims to wage defensive war also instruct them to launch an offensive war. Thus if Islam’s ubiquitous apologists tell us that jihadists like al-Qaeda misinterpret Islamic teaching about offensive war, then surely it must misinterpret Islamic teaching about defensive war.
In light of this fact, Westerners should always be cognizant of what al-Qaeda ultimately wants as they consider the long list of alleged wrongs the Islamic world has suffered at the hands of the West. In other words, if al-Qaeda’s demands are met — if Israel ceases to be, if the U.S. evacuates Iraq and Afghanistan, if the West keeps its nose out of the Islamic world’s affairs — will that be enough to satisfy al-Qaeda? Certainly, it would be a start. But based on their words and convictions that all injunctions of the Koran must be fulfilled, it seems that their jihad would merely shift from being defensive to being offensive.

The only reason there hasn’t yet been an offensive jihad is simply because the Islamic World is currently incapable of initiating one — not because they have consciously forfeited the command to establish Islam all over the world by any means necessary. The last time an Islamic people was capable, it fully engaged in conquest, as memories of the Ottoman Empire’s religiously sanctioned invasions and genocides attest.

"Al Qaeda’s Offensive Rhetoric: What Does Al-Qaeda Ultimately Want?" by Raymond Ibrahim, vdh Private Papers, October 5, 2005

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October 21, 2005

"Who does Zarkowi fear the most - France, summiteers, or Marines?"

Ask yourself this: you’re a dictator who has violated the terms of a peace treaty over and over again, and frequently shoots at the planes enforcing the treaties. Who do you fear the most? A) The magnificent concert of allies in the UN, some of whom you’ve bought off, who are desperate to prove their legitimacy by prolonging the process into the 22nd century
B) The United States, Britain and Australia, who have several hundred thousand troops on your border and frankly are in no mood to put up your crap any longer

What would you want in this situation? The answer starts with “S” and ends, five letters later, in "T."

So, I get it. We are wrong and bad and stupid and stupidly wrong-bad. We failed to make France act as though it wasn’t, you know, France, a militarily insignificant nation that is understandably motivated by self-interest, and we haven’t convened a summit so we could be castigated for ignoring the extralegal use of Israeli helicopters to turn Hamas kingpins into indistinct red smears. You’d think we nuked Paris and converted everyone to Lutheranism.

Here’s the thing. I’d really like to live in John Kerry’s world. It seems like such a rational, sensible place, where handshakes and signatures have the power to change the face of the planet. If only the terrorists lived there as well.

Who does Zarkowi fear the most - France, summiteers, or Marines?

If the rightness of a cause is measured by the number of one’s allies, would Britain have been right if the US had stayed neutral in World War Two?

And that’s what I felt after 30 minutes of the debate. If I’d stuck around for the whole thing, I think I’d be sleeping in the tool shed tonight, chewing on the old discarded Tiki torches. Now it’s time for a scotch and some TV; see you Monday. And thanks for reading this far. God knows I wouldn’t have. I do go on, don’t I. Alas and alack.

"Two consecutive boring days," Bleat by James Lileks, October 1, 2004

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October 12, 2005

"Training Camp for Young Muslim-American Men."

During the Beltway Sniper crisis, back in the fall of 2002, a series of articles in The Washington Times described John Allen Muhammad’s conversion to Islam, and his later break with the Nation of Islam (the articles are no longer available, but extracts have been preserved here). Apparently the NOI was not militant enough for Mr. Muhammad, and he left it to become involved with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra (Arabic for “community of the impoverished”), a terrorist organization founded by a notorious Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani.
What drew my eye in the article was the mention of a Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House, Virginia. Red House?! I know Red House — a small village in rural Charlotte County.

Read the whole thing ... with maps and a pic ...

"Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Virginia, Part 1," Gates of Vienna, October 10, 2005

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October 10, 2005

Islamofascists

[W]hat al-Qaida apparently hates most about “the west” are its best points: the pluralism, the rationalism, individual liberty, the emancipation of women, the openness and social dynamism that represent the strongest legacy of the Enlightenment. These values stand in counterpoint to the tyrannical social code idealised by al-Qaida and by related political groupings such as Afghanistan’s Taliban.

"Whose al-Qaida problem?" by Sasha Abramsky, openDemocracy, October 4, 2005

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October 08, 2005

OU bomber Joel Hinrichs

The MSM doesn't seem to be paying much attention to the possible jihad-related extracurricular activities of OU bomber Joel Hinrichs, but Michelle Malkin and Mark Tapscott are (keep scrolling). OU president David Boren has advised against a rush to judgment.

Southern Appeal, October 7, 2005

October 07, 2005

Islamofascism

Michael Barone says that President Bush's speech on October 7, 2005, did three things:

First, he identified the source of the terrorism we are fighting against. "Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant jihadism; still others, Islamofascism." (Score one for Christopher Hitchens, who I believe invented the term Islamofascism.) Of course Bush went on to say, quite rightly, "Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam." To the best of my memory, Bush previously has not been willing to describe what we are fighting against as "Islamic" radicalism, presumably out of fear of angering Muslims or of providing fodder for claiming that we are fighting a war against Islam.

Second, Bush provided a narrative framework for what is going on in Iraq. It is not, as the mainstream media tend to portray it, a story of endless and continuous violence against which we have no defense and are prosecuting no offense. On the contrary, our coalition, along with our Iraqi allies, is moving forward with a comprehensive, specific military plan. Area by area, city by city, we're conducting offensive operations to clear out enemy forces, and leaving behind Iraqi units to prevent the enemy from returning.

The third interesting new thing in this speech was Bush's description of what could happen if we fail in Iraq:
Some observers also claim that America would be better off by cutting our losses and leaving Iraq now. This is a dangerous illusion, refuted with a simple question: Would the United States and other free nations be more safe, or less safe, with Zarqawi and bin Laden in control of Iraq, its people, and its resources?

I am struck by the sublime indifference of most critics of Bush's Iraq policy to the fate of the Iraqi people. They are totally unexultant about the overthrow of a vicious dictatorship and seem to have no interest at all in what would happen to Iraqis if we leave suddenly.

"The president's speech," Barone blog, October 7, 2005

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October 04, 2005

"Global terrorism is not a revolution, but an attempt to suppress a revolution."

The suicide bomb, with the mass terrorism it epitomizes, is the weapon of choice against the velvet revolution. The target is not, as well-meaning critics of terrorism say, indiscriminate: it is exact and precise. The target is any population that might organize a velvet revolution, the potential sovereigns of a democratic state. It is people who are not ideological, who are willing to let others believe what they want, who want to make a living and be independent, and who want a say in their government.
Even in Israel, where it was the citizens of an already-established democratic state that were being attacked, the true target, as we are now coming to understand after the death of Arafat, was the nascent democracy of Palestine. By killing Jews, Arafat could continue to oppress and defraud Palestinians.

Global terrorism is not a revolution, but an attempt to suppress a revolution. What is being defended by suicide terror is not Islam, not traditional moral culture, not the ethnic nation yearning to be free of the colonial oppressor, but the principle of totalitarian rule -- the sovereignty of the dictator or the ayatollah, promoted as national self-identity and independence, or as the will of God. It is the last gasp, historically, of the ancient system by which the huge majority of human beings were ruled since the Neolithic agricultural revolution.

"Velvet Revolutions and the Logic of Terrorism," by Frederick Turner, TCS, September 20, 2005

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October 02, 2005

Velvet Revolutions and Suicide Bombers

Part of our difficulty in dealing with global terror directed against civilian populations is that we have not, I believe, understood what it was designed to attack. Some see it as a war between cultural blocs, others as a religious war against infidels, others as a traditionalist reaction to the social, economic, and cultural disruptions caused by globalism, others as a continuation of the liberation of oppressed peoples from colonial imperialism. There may be a grain of truth in some of these explanations, but the counter-examples to each of them are glaring.
. . .

Thirty years ago it looked as if the totalitarian state was solidly established, successful and immortal. Democratic capitalism had been stopped in its tracks. The nuclear-armed socialist dictatorship could not be attacked or defeated; it could at best be contained, and none of its incremental marginal conquests could be rolled back. Marvelously, however, a new strategy emerged, invented by the world's middle-class populations, that could bring down the totalitarian state: the velvet revolution. Totalitarian governments rely on elites to govern and control the people and defend themselves against outside ideas. Those elites must reproduce themselves, creating a property-owning educated class with great power but without the revolutionary ideology of their parents; and to remain economically viable the state must produce a skilled artisan class, like the shipbuilders of Gdansk, with the capacity to unionize. Out of these materials, generated by totalitarianism itself, comes the velvet revolution.

The velvet revolution (also named the orange revolution, the purple finger, the rose revolution, the cedar revolution) has swept the world. In different ways, nonviolent, non-ideological middle-class and skilled-worker mass movements have unseated tyrants and established democracies in an amazing range of countries: Spain, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Indonesia, the Baltic states, Mexico, Serbia, Albania, Georgia, the Ukraine, the Philippines, Lebanon, even Palestine, all fell to the regimes of popular sovereignty. China nearly fell in 1989, with the Tiananmen protest, and will become a democracy some time in the next twenty years. If there is one defining event that characterizes the end of twentieth century political modernism, it is this one.

"Velvet Revolutions and the Logic of Terrorism," by Frederick Turner, TCS, September 20, 2005

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September 01, 2005

"Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber"

These quotes are extracted from an article that appeared in Front Page, "Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber," by Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, August 12, 2005

Some quotes from the article:

Jamie Glazov

Humiliation, marginalization, and dashed expectations? Yes, those words can fit the plight of many Jews under Nazi occupation, but you didn’t see them strapping bombs unto themselves and walking into cafés and blowing themselves up.
...
It is clear that Islamist terrorists hate globalization. But they do so because it makes life on this earth even more materially comfortable. They reject earthly pleasure and happiness. The enjoyment of life represents humiliation to them. The sight of a happy free and spontaneous woman laughing, dressed as she wants to be dressed, represents humiliation to them. That is the problem. Can we really blame America for the unhappiness of those who venerate a death-cult that rejects individualism and the pursuit of happiness in earthly existence?

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August 27, 2005

"Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber" - Hans-Peter Raddatz

These quotes are extracted from an article that appeared in Front Page, "Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber," by Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, August 12, 2005

Dr. Hans-Peter Raddatz, a scholar of Islamic Studies and author of Von Allah zum Terror? Der Djihad und die Deformierung des Westens (From Allah to Terror? Jihad and the Western Deformation).

Dr. Hans-Peter Raddatz

If you were a molecule type of "personality" who has only one alternative of existence, namely being stripped of any individual ego and merged with the mass of the "umma", the community of Allah, you might also be tempted to look for some dynamite - or rather C4 - in order to focus your unimportant life into one single, supposedly grandiose moment. ... Some of the Palestinian suicide bombers wrap their penises into fire-proof aluminum foil to save them for the pleasures to come. ... Islam appears as a comprehensive spectrum that contains and encourages all sorts of behaviour but clearly favours deceit and violence as far as the achievement of goals is concerned, especially in "competition" with non-Islam. ... There should be consent not only on the spectral character of the Islamic culture but also the corresponding special kind of freedom it creates. As the Koran and tradition offer a wide variety of measures between peace and war, Muslim power has always preferred the violent side and, therefore, has brought about a historically grown phenomenon which I call "counter-ethics". This means to say that the special Muslim freedom created a similarly special inclination to violence wherever an opportunity arises to gain an advantage - inside and outside of Islam.
We should note here some very important examples I have mentioned partially in a previous round. They confirm the power of man and a rather free interpretation of what is referred to as "religion" but is merely naked and mostly quite primitive power politics. Firstly, Jews and Christians have been historically extinguished although there are Koranic regulations to the opposite. Secondly, women have been historically humiliated, beaten, raped and killed although there are Koranic rules and many traditions to the opposite. Thirdly, dissenters and apostates are badly beaten and often killed although there are clear rules saying that their punisment should be postponed into the beyond.

So we should not be very astonished if we are repeatedly confronted with "honor" murderers, suicide bombers and other Islamic geared perpetrators as long as our "elites" tell us that "Islam is not the problem".

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August 26, 2005

"Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber" - Nancy Kobrin

These Nancy Kobrin quotes are extracted from an article that appeared in Front Page, "Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber," by Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, August 12, 2005

Dr. Nancy Kobrin, an affiliated professor to the University of Haifa, Arabist, psychoanalyst and author of the upcoming book, "The Sheikh's New Clothes: Islamic Suicide Terror and What It's Really All About."

Dr. Nancy Kobrin

Dr. Dalrymple has succinctly described the crux of the problem – that the other is always already guilty and hence expendable. Similarly Dr. Raddatz is correct in fore grounding the Ummah. Just as the child in Arab Muslim culture is not permitted to separate from the Umm [Ar. mother], this enmeshment gets repeated and reinforced by the Ummah as a singularly fused group.
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If you are denied a life and live in a community where power [meaning absolute control of the other] is the rule of thumb and it is enforced brutally through honor killings, child beating, sexual abuse, beheadings etc., fear and terror are pervasive. The need to hate and the need to have an enemy are in place by age 3 – and the Jew is among the most hated of all. I will return to this in a moment. It is precisely because of the terror that few factor in the ramifications of shame-based child rearing practices because the implications are enormous and the ability to do effective interventions are highly compromised.
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There are many adults who may appear to be high functioning but the splitting is there below the surface in their minds and they still struggle to be "free" from their terrors of abandonment and rejection, feeling humiliated and shamed by this impotent inability. So that when the terrorists and the Ummah scream in a deafening voice "we have been shamed and humiliated!" it might be worth the while to ask – how did they themselves participate in creating a collective self which is so easily shamed by others? If a person has a realistic sense of self, it is hard to buy into being shamed as an adult. There is the Arabic saying: "He hits me and cries, and races me to complain."
...
But in the mind’s eye of the Muslim, Judaism and Christianity and their believers are subjugated to Islam as Dhimma. The root of the word means to blame so that the Prophet Muhammad built into the religion an institutionalized ideology where you can always blame the other and never have to assume responsibility for your own community’s predicament.
...
You know, Musa (Moses) is the most frequently mentioned prophet in the Qur’an. Why? Because of the giving of the law at Sinai Moses makes divine will manifest in human discourse in the Torah. However, to be a believer requires a leap of faith. The Christians had to appropriate the giving of the law and then added to it with the New Testament. The Prophet Muhammad was faced with a much more difficult task since he had to juggle two preceding religious identities. Muhammad initially borrowed extensively from the Jews who at that time lived in what is now Judenrein Saudi Arabia. He borrowed with the hopes that the Jews would convert. When that didn’t happen, he became enraged and more deeply engaged in Jihad and Da’wa [the call to convert].
...
Jihad is unique to Islam – Judaism and Christianity have nothing remotely similar. People routinely fail to remember that the Muslims invaded Spain fi sabil Allah – [fighting] in the path of Allah in 711 AD. They came on Jihad. The Crusades were a response to massacre, forced conversions to Islam, Muslim invasion, conquest and the animosity for the Prophet co-opting the New Testament by the Quran. So the Islamic terrorists attempt to resolve their religious identity confusion by brute force, using suicide bombers as a tactical tool with this psychological undercurrent. By the way, the Sira (the biography of Muhammad) records that the prophet attempted suicide twice; though this has rarely been pointed out as a modeling moment for Muslim identity.
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"Ego-extinction" (Arabic: tadjarrud) is an official, high-ranking mental exercise to get rid of individual temptations. Among the "normal" Muslims you will find very few who allow themselves an independent, outspoken opinion outside the official Islam mainstream. Whoever has lived for a longer period of time in Islamic countries - like myself - very probably has experienced that there is a lot of distrust and tactical behaviour within the closest family relations. He or she who violates the rules or just makes simply a wrong decision, does bring shame over the family, over the tribe and - ultimately - Islam.
...
Thus, we should not be too astonished at the Western process - at least in some major European countries like England, Germany and France - of a distinct approach and assimilation to Islamic rules and regulations. It is accompanied by long-term aspects which are clearly meta-historical and out of direct political reach, namely a growing hostility against women, combined with an equally growing "understanding" for homosexual and paedophiliac interests, as well as renewed anti-Semitism. The latter is not restricted to Muslims but being emancipated again in Europe nowadays. It is an old phenomenon as the repeated attempt to "overcome" traditional society patterns, particularly connected to the Jews as "inventors" of the first law as such in the development of mankind.
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As for Muhammad’s biography (sira), the scholars are not very certain about the double suicide thing, as they are very shy about him altogether. We are faced with another psychological question here waiting for discussion and clarification. It has a lot to do with Muhammed’s wildly changing mental states and obviously deeply rooted, rather psychotic situations, reported by his companions. As the Koran waits for a historical analysis, Muhammad waits to be laid on the couch.
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Those hijackers of 9/11 and the suicide bombers who were well educated and came from middle to upper middle class families had their own sense of emotional deprivation, rejection and abandonment which went undetected and which was accompanied by profound rage leading to violence and cold blooded murder.
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It should not be forgotten too, that the Prophet Muhammad died with his head in the lap of his “favorite” wife Aisha whose name happens to mean ‘life’. Furthermore, he was buried in her room where she continued to live, earning her keep from the alms she received from pilgrims who visited the site. Think: Womb to Tomb. The image venerates a permanent fusion signaling that the ideal is never to separate.

And by the way, what’s with this ‘favorite wife’ business? Polygamy is nothing more than a clever way to pit one wife against the other and never have to deal with male rage. Plus if you don’t like what your wife says, you can merely blow her off and go on to the next so that you never have to learn how to resolve conflict. That would make learning how to negotiate a peace quite difficult – don’t you think? That’s why, if we are going to discuss “the military occupation,” it needs to be understood in light of Islamic history and its ideologies rather than taking it at face value. The ideology of submission, i.e. Islam, would make it very difficult for male Muslims to tolerate any other position than conqueror but certainly not that of the conquered.

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August 23, 2005

"Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber" - Theodore Dalrymple

These Theodore Dalrymple quotes are extracted from an article that appeared in Front Page, "Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber," by Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, August 12, 2005.

Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, a prison psychiatrist who has had much experience with treating Muslim patients in Britain and who has witnessed the "collision of cultures." He is the author of his new collection of essays, "Our Culture, What's Left of It. The Mandarins and the Masses."

Dr. Theodore Dalrymple

I agree that poverty and humiliation are not sufficient explanations of the phenomenon. These are things which are almost part of universal human experience.
I think the problem is a combustible mixture of elements.

The first is the belief that Muslims are in possession of the final revealed truth, and that they have a testament and a tradition of sayings of the Prophet that in essence answer all human questions, and by the light of which all such questions ought not only to be answered but are answerable. While no doubt there are Christians who feel more or less the same about their favoured scriptures, they now have to live in a world of competing ideas.
...
While in possession of transcendental religious and philosophical truth, however, it has not escaped notice that the Muslim world has fallen behind the rest of the world. Japan, China, India are fast catching up or overtaking the West: they have been able to meet the Western challenge. No Muslim country has managed more than a kind of parasitic prosperity, dependent on oil ....
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The fact that Islamic civilisation was once exquisite, and in advance of most others, is in this context a disadvantage. It means that Muslims tend to think in terms of recovery of glory, rather than anything new.
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In summary, we have:
* Metaphysical superiority.
* Technical and intellectual retardation.
* Self-hatred caused by the impurity of their own desires.
* No practical means of escape from genuine quotidian humiliations.
* The promise of rewards, for their families on earth and for themselves in the other world.
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The suicide bomber is of above average intelligence.
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The person who becomes a bomber often has a special, personal sense of grievance.
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The point is:
i) that the Islamic terrorists, at least of the London bomber kind, have no specific demands to make
ii) they are clearly trying to resolve some conflict within themselves.

I think they are trying to prove to themselves that the west offers them no temptations, that they are actually more Islamic than the Prophet, though at the same time a still small voice tells them that this is not so. Death is a solution, it squares a circle.
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Perhaps people will begin to see that some values are simply not compatible with others, and will now be prepared to stand up for those that we believe in. Certainly I hope people will start to examine the abominable abuse of women that, if not universal, is very widespread in the Moslem population, and that is a large part - I believe - of the attraction of Islam to increasingly and essentially secularised men.
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In Britain, if we had the courage to defend Moslem women, I think Islam would lose a lot of it residual attraction. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's wife went into court shortly before the last election to defend a Moslem schoolgirl's right to wear 'traditional' costume - not traditional in Luton, by the way - I suspect to obtain the Moslem vote for her husband, and probably knowing, and certainly with the duty to know, the often abominable social meaning of this costume.

. . . . . .

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August 21, 2005

"Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber" - Jessica Stern

These Jessica Stern quotes are extracted from an article that appeared in Front Page, "Symposium: Through the Eyes of a Suicide Bomber," by Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, August 12, 2005.

Jessica Stern, an expert on terrorism, a lecturer on the subject at Harvard, and the author of "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill."

Jessica Stern

From talking to terrorists and those who monitor them, I and others have learned that terrorism thrives in an atmosphere of humiliation, marginalization, and dashed expectations. ... I believe the best way to understand the situation in Palestine is to see suicide-murder as a kind of epidemic disease. Ordinary suicide has been shown to spread through social contagion, especially among youth. Studies have shown that a teenager whose friend or relative attempts or commits suicide is more likely to attempt or commit suicide himself. ... The notion that poverty causes terrorism has been disproven again and again, as the other participants have pointed out. But terrorists I have interviewed tend to emphasize humiliation and confused identity in their answer to the question -- why do you do what you do? Sometimes it also seems to be a kind of vicarious humiliation - the notion that my people are humiliated so therefore I must act to avenge their pain. ... Still, as our other contributors have made clear, most people feel confused about their identities at some point in their lives, and most people feel humiliated. I think of my university, Harvard, as a humiliation factory - everyone feels humiliated, except, perhaps, the president. And yet we don't see a lot of terrorists emerging from Cambridge. Not yet, anyway. So if humiliation is important, it is certainly not sufficient. Could it be that the shame-based child-rearing practices and splitting the world into good and evil are important additional ingredients, as you suggest? I think that Dr. Raddatz is absolutely correct in emphasizing Manichean world views. I have the feeling that honor and shame are also critical here, but at this point it's just a feeling - I haven't been able to do the interviews that would allow me to assess your hypothesis.

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"Did Lawyers Hinder Bin Laden Capture?"

From Jim Lindgren at Volokh Conspiracy:

It is quite depressing to read descriptions of how investigations or captures of Osama Bin Laden or other Al Qaeda were hindered by lawyers, rules developed by lawyers, or fears of lawyers. For example, there were the FBI lawyers who wouldn't allow seeking a search warrant to look into Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop computer in Minnesota just before 9/11/2001.

The latest set of lawyers' restrictions to be alleged grew out of a plan to capture Bin Laden. So great was the lawyers' concern for Bin Laden's comfort that a special chair was built to hold him and they were concerned whether the tape used to hold him would hurt his beard. This latest nonsense was revealed by the man who for 10 years headed the CIA's desk tracking Bin Laden, Michael Scheuer, interviewed by Nora O'Donnell on Hardball.

"Did Lawyers Hinder Bin Laden Capture?" by Jim Lindgren, The Volokh Conspiracy, August 20, 2005

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August 19, 2005

Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror

"Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror," by Deroy Murdock, Media Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Adapted from a September 22, 2004 presentation at the Hoover Institution.

via Powerline:

It sets out, in simple form with lots of graphics, the history of Saddam Hussein's support for terrorist groups. It's a useful history lesson for those who haven't followed closely the connection between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

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August 14, 2005

To Kill an American

This was included in an email today from Jim Hake at Spirit of America.

To Kill an American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know whatan American is... so they would know when they found one. (Good on ya, mate!!!!)

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek.

An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.

An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.

In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need.

When the Soviet army overran Afghanistan 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least!

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001, earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must.

Hitler did.

So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.

But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Author unknown

Pass this around the World

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August 13, 2005

Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean can't keep their stories straight .... protecting Jamie Gorelick?

Captain's Quarters has an interesting post about Lee Hamilton's and Thomas Kean's memories:

The AP reports tonight that 9/11 Commission co-chairs Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton have changed their story yet again. Now the two say in a joint statement to the press that they do recall hearing that Able Danger had identified Atta, two days after Hamilton categorically denied it -- and for a man who had supposedly never heard of Able Danger, Hamilton's recall of detail of the briefing appears impressive.

"Commission: Able Danger Only Told Us About Atta," August 12, 2005

And John Podhoretz reminds us that Jamie Gorelick, a member of the 9/11 Commission, was one of the people in the government responsible for creating the wall between foreign and domestic intelligence agencies.

Here's my theory: Very early on, the commissioners decided that the Bush administration was their adversary. The Bushies didn't want to share documents or give them access to documents, didn't want anybody to testify, didn't want Bush to testify, and so on -- and they came to take this not only politically, but personally. . . . This development proved unexpectedly useful for Gorelick personally when the fact that decisions she had made in government were central to the Commission's mandate to describe why this massive intelligence failure occurred.

"The Gorelick Conundrum," by John Podhoretz, NRO, August 12, 2005

baldilocks has a good overview, "Commission Admission," August 12, 2005

Chris Muir has a relevant cartoon at day by day, August 13, 2005

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August 12, 2005

It isn't you ... it's me ...

Islamists have killed thousands of Westerners over the past couple of years -- thousands in New York City alone. But they have killed far more of their own fellow Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and too many other places to list. The Terror War, or whatever we ought to call it, is not about us. It's a war waged by totalitarian Islamists against the rest of the world. We aren't targets because of what we do or even because of who we are. We are targets because we are not them. They hate everybody and we're part of "everybody."
. . .

The overwhelming majority of Islamist killers aren't terrorists. They are soldiers and members of state-sanctioned death squads. Most victims of Islamists violence aren't Westerners...they're the Islamists' fellow Muslims. It's easy to forget this -- or not even be aware of it -- if you aren't interested in what happens inside the Muslim world when George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and the rest in the West aren't involved.

Read the whole thing.

"Pape-al Fallibility: It's Not All About Us," by Michael J. Totten, TechCentralStation, August 12, 2005

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X-ray backscatter technology

The Blemont Club has an interesting post, "Unintended Consequences," on how the military is using mobile X-ray backscatter to look for bombs and people hidden in cars.

What's new is the ability of these vans to "drive by" whole streets at normal speed and examine each and every vehicle it passes. The manufacturer's website describes this capability in more detail and provides a video, complete with cheerful music, showing how the equipment can turn everything it passes into the opacity of clear glass. The backscatter X-ray is tuned to organic wavelengths, enabling it to find hidden people and explosive. But this is not all it can do. For an optional extra, the Z-Backscatter Van can also find those pesky dirty bombs and nuclear weapons that every well-managed city wants to be rid of, all at a low price and in an environmentally responsible manner: getting frisked by the Z-Backscatter Van only requires an exposure equivalent to a fifteen minute flight on a commercial aircraft.

Coming soon to ports and large cities near you ...

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August 11, 2005

Asymmetrical Warfare

In a good story about what "arms race" really means, The Belmont Club gives some interesting historical examples of the competitive development of weapons and tactics in "Th