Religious Hate:

• Islamists committed religiously-inspired mass murder in the Kashmir (and there again), Kyrgyzstan, and in Iraq. Islamists also used violence to target political opponents in Denmark. In Switzerland, a plot to blow up an Israeli airliner was broken up.

• Efforts to impose Islamic law continued in Indonesia and Australia. We wonder: why go through all the hassle, when obsequent Westerners will go out of their way not to make you feel at home right now?

• Disgusting:

  A Somali teenager publicly hacked his father's killer to death in a punishment sanctioned under Islamic law today. Hundreds of people gathered in Mogadishu to watch the court-ordered execution.... Mohamed Moalim, 16, approached the condemned man... and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest, neck and head... The execution was the first to be held in the Somalian capital for a decade and was hailed by local Islamic spiritual leaders as a sign that order was being restored.

  For the reaction of the Western media to this kind of order being restored, we refer you to the first bullet-point under Idiotarian Seething.

• To be clear, though, Islamic law doesn't always allow you to kill people out of revenge. For instance, if you're a Muslim woman and you kill a man who tried to rape you... well then, you might have to die. Also, if you're a Muslim woman (even in the West) and you displease your husband... well then, you might have to die. If you're a little girl and you refuse to marry who your family tells you too... well, then, they might shoot you in cold blood. The choice for women in many Islamist societies is explicit: humiliate themselves through self-imposed inferiority or get raped. Still, Western Europe can rest assured: probably no reason to offend Muslims by, you know, trying to protect Muslim women.

• When the Zionist Organization of America needed a test case to get a judicial ruling that anti-Semitism on US campuses constituted a form of racism, they chose UC Irvine because of its institutionalized acquiescence to violent hate speech. Apparently, they could also have used nearby Cal State Long Beach as an example:

  Some students protested, holding the Israeli flag and signs that read, "Teach Love, Not Hate" and "Your student fees at work." Whatever the response, last Thursday's Muslim Student Association (MSA)-sponsored speaker Amir Abdel Malik Ali, provoked students, angering some and interesting others. Ali's speech, titled "Resisting Occupation by Any Means Necessary," hit the event's purpose "right on the nose," according to Naadiya Patel, events coordinator and MSA member.

  In fairness to Ali, if it wasn't for the Jewish-controlled media, you might have heard more about his speech.
  And not to worry, UC Irvine Muslims responded to CSU Long Beach's challenge (which school can have the most virulent events) with all the vicious energy that we've come to expect. They even went so far as to host Malik Ali too - just so they could have all the racism CSULB had, and more! You know, it's almost like there's something going on in and around Orange County's Islamic community.

• Do you remember a time when being offensive wasn't a reason to lynch someone?. And if you don't, do you at least remember a time when reporting that someone almost got lynched by Muslims for being offensive was actually surprising? Even in the Anglosphere, the phenomenon of ministers and MPs openly inciting murder seems to have dulled people's sensitivity to what ought to be outrageous.

• Insult to Muslim cleric, massive riots, subsequent apologies, blah blah blah

• Despite what many of our critics imply, we do believe in deference to religious sensibilities - up to a certain line. We're not sure where that line is exactly, of course. In fact, it's more of a guiding sensibility - an inchoate mixture of reactions - than a bright line. So for instance, we can't explain exactly why Canada shouldn't have to give Korans to terrorists who believe that the Koran ordered them to kill Canadians - but it just feels wrong. Something about being suicidally stupid.

• Pakistani Islamists want to ban culture.

• You know how Saudi Arabia keeps insisting that incitement against infidels has been removed from their textbooks? Yeah, no.

Idiotarian Seethings:

• Last month: Islamists ask what about all the good things Hitler did? This month: The LA Times asks what about all the good things Islamists do? Next month: Hitler asks, what about all the good things the LA Times does? Yeah, cause we're too proud to make that joke...

• Jimmy Carter is starting to get on our nerves. If we had let the dominos of Islamism start falling in the Middle East under our watch, we'd at least have the good graces to shut the hell up and stop giving advice on how to make nice with violent, fascist terrorists. It's not just that he's so wrong about Hamas, it's that he's so shameless about it.

• Self-hating Jew Noam Chomsky will support any genocidal cretin that happens to be sufficiently anti-American. But then, you already knew that.

• Maybe if enough global unions will agree to boycott Israel - Canada and Britain can't do it all on their own - then the Palestinians will stop trying to kill Jews. Stop rolling your eyes - it makes perfect sense.

• We live in a world where leading political scientists declare that the US government is being controlled by Jews and in which genocidal Iranian mullahs converge with left wing moonbats on 9/11 conspiracy theories. Certain flavors of crazy are drawn to conspiracy theories because such theories make complete sense out of a chaotic world. So, paradoxically, the wilder the theory is the more compelling it gets. A theory that ties together banking and Jews is good. A theory that ties together banking, Jews, Templars, the Catholic Church, and the Bush family is even better. The Which explains how more that can be explained away as the machinations of a mere man behind the curtain, the greater the psychic payoff:

  The government was making plans for large-scale detention centers in case of an "emergency influx" of immigrants. KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary recently reprimanded for gross overcharging in its military contracts in Iraq, won a $385 million contract to build the centers... Certainly the detention centers raise the specter of WW II Japanese internment camps. The new facilities could be used for round-ups of Muslim Americans or other American citizens tagged as "enemy combatants."

  Bush imposing martial law is good... Bush imposing martial law with Halliburton is better! It's more attractive because it seems to explain more about the world. Seriously - totally batshit crazy.

• Also, the Jews looted the Baghdad Museum. This isn't really a new story, but we'd be failing in our conspiracy-theory chronicling duties if we didn't bring your attention to it.

• Leftist theories otherwise notwithstanding, the arrests in Miami were not manufactured by the FBI to strengthen the Bush Administration. Nor were they meant to disenfranchise black voters. We know that this is a family blog, but seriously - these people are just totally batshit crazy.

• The elegant and gorgeous Alexandra of the eponymous All Things Beautiful was accused of being a Nazis last month. Turns out, angry leftwing moonbats are ill-bred louts. Who knew?

• Oh god, please not this again.

• With due respect, this is objectively stupid:

  A Keller school district parent said political correctness has run amok at her daughter's elementary school, where the principal chose to omit the words "In God We Trust" from an oversize coin depicted on the yearbook cover. Janet Travis, principal of Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville, wanted to avoid offending students of different religions, a district spokesman said. Students were given stickers with the words that could be affixed to the book if they so chose.

  Are there any religious students (from whatever different religion Travis imagines them to be) who don't trust God and so would be offended by the implication that they should? And if there are, isn't that kind of not being part of a religion?

• Every once in a while, an anti-war moonbat thinks he can get away with lying about having been a decorated soldier. So the rightwing blogosphere has to roll up a newspaper, hit him on the nose, and firmly say "no!"

• Pro-illegal immigrant rallies culminated in a massive May Day rally. Consequence: we could actually get around Los Angeles. Oh, and increasingly obvious electoral backlashes and cascading political failures. But in fairness, who could have seen that coming?. Michelle Malkin has your pics.

• LGF has the pics from the moonbat anti-Israel rally at Brandeis. How could a former haven for disenfranchised Jews be slipping down the slope of irrational anti-Zionism? We have no idea.

• The Democratic Party: where being accused of wanting to murder the President is a compliment.

• In a startlingly clear display of the romatic love of thugishness that so often characterizes the Che-loving Left, the Guardian finds itself unable to condemn Palestinians who torture confessions out of ostensible collaborators. Because whether it's torturing a 17 year old until he condemns his mother to be lynched or forcing an innocent man to proclaim his guilt and then killing him, if it's anti-Israel it must be OK. You know, we have a theory: maybe the Guardian doesn't really mind collaborator lynchings since those lynchings are later then used to calculate Palestinian victims in the Intifada. In other words, those deaths are blamed on Israel. On the other hand, you know what - that's a horrible thing to say. We take it back.
  Although the thing about Palestinians lynched by other Palestinians being tabulated as "Palestinian deaths" that are blamed on Israel - that part's true.
  Take away the machismo of Leftist journalists insisting that street life is hard, and this is what you're left with:

  Muhammad Abu al-Hawa was a 42-year-old father of eight when he died last Wednesday night... Abu al-Hawa's body and car were torched. Abu al-Hawa was tortured and murdered because he stood accused of committing what the Palestinians consider a capital crime. Eight young children were orphaned last Wednesday night because their father allegedly sold an apartment building in Israel's capital city to Jews.

  While "progressives" fete the thugs in far off places, innocent people actually die.

• Myopic multiculturalism makes people write really stupid things.

• Fashionable liberalism at its most exhibitionist. The nauseating thing is to imagine the sanctimonious self-satisfaction that accompanied this stunt:

  The upscale "Marc by Marc Jacobs" fashion outlet at 2142 Fillmore Street in San Francisco's exclusive Pacific Heights shopping district recently unveiled a new window display: seven-foot-high blue letters spelling out the phrase "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!"... The windows were ordered up by the visual department of Jacobs' New York office, which tells me they were specified only for San Francisco.

  Tsk tsk - one almost begins to suspect something along the lines of a clever corporate entity playing on its audience's shallow political sensibilities. Hey, it works for American Apparel.

• On June 20, we explained on our home blog why anyone who says that Abbas's referendum endorses a two-state solution is either ignorant or lying. So of course, The Guardian, June 22:

  Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a document that recognise Israel's right to exist and a negotiated two-state solution, according to Palestinian leaders.

  The trick, of course, is that the document demands that 5-8 million radicalized Palestinians currently living in UN camps be allowed to overrun Israel - the so-called Right of Return, which effectively means the end of Israel. You want to get a sense of just how pathological the Palestinian hatred of Israel is? There's still a significant percent of the Palestinian public (25%-ish at last count) that won't endorse the document - demographic suffocation of Israel isn't good enough for them, they want to achieve the destruction by military means.

• You're Ward Churchill. You're a star of the idiotarian Left. You've translated this stardom into celebrity status in the American academy. And yet members of this same academy - an environment famous for its literally fetishistic deference to political correctness - still decide to unequivocally declare you a liar. The universe is trying to give you a hint: it's time to get your life together.

• YearlyKos happened. In other DailyKos news, lots of people think that politicians are to some extent or another buying influence from these moral political crusaders. Comedy gold.

Race and Culture:

• It is the official position of HateWatch that Ann Coulter has a point. No, not about the evolution stuff - that's just silly. But there are indeed 9/11 widows who used the tragedy that befell them to launch borderline slanderous attacks against the President of the United States. And there were indeed liberal shills who defended them in the same terms tone that they would later use to declare that absolute moral authority attached to losing a dear child in the Iraq War. We applaud Townhall, which responded to the controversy by writing an article filled with more Coulter quotes. Coulter's lack of sensitivity doesn't make her wrong - it just makes her insensitive. If it's sensitivity that you long for, give up politics and devote the rest of your life to watching Anderson Cooper 360.
  Speaking of which, it is the official position of HateWatch that Anderson Cooper is a overwrought, hand-wringing pretty-boy more suitable to MTV's The Real World than to a serious news channel (countdown to Joe Katzman email, subject: "Winds of Change and Omri's authority to declare official positions for anyone about anything" begins... now).

• The MSM needs stop leaking classified information. Seriously.

• This statement from a Milan official, commenting on the desecration of Jewish graves in his city, is ironic in ways we can't even begin to describe:

  Deputy Mayor Riccardo De Corato called the incident "an event of... extreme seriousness" and expressed his solidarity with the chief rabbi and the Jewish community "for this intolerable offense to dignity." "It is absurd that in a multicultural town like ours we should allow these serious acts of anti-Semitism and I hope that will we soon be able to...deliver to justice the people responsible for the desecrations.

  Except to say this: it seems that it is precisely these European multicultural towns where anti-Semitism is being prevalent. We can't help but wonder if maybe there's any specific culture - among all the multi-cultures that coexist - that's driving this dynamic. Which is not to say that this was Islamist anti-Semitism - we're just shocked that people can still assert with straight faces that anti-Semitism could ever emerge in the context of European multiculturalism.

• TIME's 100 people who shape our (their) world. Arianna Huffington yes, Glenn Reynolds no. Hugo Chavez yes, Tony Blair no. Dixie Chicks yes... actually, that punchline kind of writes itself (we were actually more perturbed about the lack of any String Theory skeptics in the Scientists and Thinkers category - apparently cutting edge books and a growing, wave of media coverage aren't signs of "the big ideas of our time"). But we digress.

• Someone from Reuters threatens to kill LGF blogger Charles Johnson. Hilarity ensues.

• Chris Hitchens took time out of his busy schedule to slap around Juan Cole for more or less claiming that Ahmadinejad's Mein Kampf-esque statements aren't really all that bad. Then Hitchens took a fortifying sip or two of bourbon (because he can) and did it again. These things he did because Juan Cole is a lying, near-illiterate mediocrity. So that's fair. Plus, Iran is probably just kidding. Really - that uranium hexaflouride gas is just a party favor.

• At the risk of overloading you with Christopher Hitchens, his first and second articles from last month about Holland's shameful treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali are mandatory. There will be a quiz on the material later (or you could read apologists for Islamism disgustingly piling on against this brave woman).

• Howard Dean lied about the Democratic Party's pro-gay platform:

  Democratic chairman Howard Dean mischaracterized his party's platform on gay rights in an interview courting evangelicals, then set the record straight Thursday when an advocacy group called him on it. Dean told Christian Broadcasting Network News that the 2004 Democratic platform declares "marriage is between a man and a woman" just one of the points he made in reaching out to religious conservatives who are largely hostile to the party. But the platform does not define marriage that way, and his remarks prompted the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to return a $5,000 donation from the Democratic National Committee.

  We're glad that the Chairman of the Democratic Party is unwilling to take a principled stance in favor of gay marriage - less guilt the next time we pull the lever Republican on national security issues.

• Moussaoui declared victory after getting life in prison. Cause the poor baby had a rough childhood or something. Listen, we don't know how we feel about the verdict - but we do know that, rightwing bloggers' fantasies of prison justice aside, arrested dissident blogger Alaa Abdel-Fatah. Not only did this act have something less than the publicity-dampening effects they had hoped, but by the time they released him all they had managed to do was dramatically demonstrate their impotence. Governments need to understand that arresting bloggers doesn't work. Bloggers have blogger friends, who tend to be energetic, politically active, and computer literate. Very few things unite and energize bloggers across the political spectrum, but that's one of them.

• It seems like a reasonable premise: if a culture is unwilling to defend itself, it will lose when attacked. So England better hope that it's never attacked. Wait - it's already been violently attacked by Muslim terrorists? Yeah, then they're kind of screwed.

• European support for the Palestinian cause is a fickle thing. If the Palestinians don't make much trouble for a while, their support in Europe plummets. Let the Palestinians start up a new round of rocket fire, though, and soon the Europeans remember what they've loved all along.

• Walt and Mearsheimer are still on the radio, and they're still insisting that they actually like Jewish people. In fairness and without sarcasm, we believe them. We agree with people deep in the IR community that the two of them are probably not anti-Semitic. They just do the leg work ... and for the white supremicists and the vulgar Islamists and the people who want to wipe out the State of Israel. But at least they're not anti-Semitic! Still wrong though.

• Guess that overhyping Zarqawi's importance before taking him down an infinite number of notches doesn't seem like such a bad idea now? The MSM: strategists par excellance.

• This is why, in the immortal words of Eminem, nobody listens to techno (no, just ask your kids...).

• Pathetic and sad do not a funny skit make:

  Here he is in a transmission from “parallel Earth,” making lockbox jokes five and a half years after they went stale. Which tells me Franken probably wrote the sketch. Greeted by wild applause, too, of course; George Bush isn't my president! This won’t get as much attention as Colbert’s WHCD gig because Bush didn’t have to sit through it, but it should be good... nonetheless. They play into the same fantasy, after all: if Colby’s the leader of the Resistance, Gore’s the head of the government-in-exile.

  But at least his movie is populat in LA, New York, and Europe.

A Hopeful Note:

• Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, has noticed that there's something about some forms of Islam that seem less than peaceful. Should he pen a memo to this effect and distribute it, it would not be a bad thing.

• Algerian moderate Malek Chebel has issued 27 Propositions for Reforming Islam. JihadWatch is skeptical, largely as a reaction against the energy with which some in the West will trumpet even the most tenuous signs of Islamic reform. Yet a sign of hope this is, and a sign of hope it should be taken as.

• Kuwait held its first ever election in which women could vote. In the past, we've been cynical about the fact that this counts as progress, but really - it does, and we're grateful.

• Turkey - traditionally the only secular Muslim-majority democracy in the world - has spent the last half decade or so slipping into anti-Americanism and Islamism. At the end of last May, secularists started to push back.

• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by coalition forces in Iraq.

• Protests broke out across Iranian universities toward the end of last month.

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But some are speculating that there's been a profound shift here. From The Belmont Club (building on a conjecture by Chester):

If protections that normally accrue to states after debate and ratification can now be given over to non-states which have no mechanism for ratification, let alone debate, one can easily imagine a scenario in which non-state organizations form themselves and immediately possess the rights of a state, with no corresponding need to adhere to any laws in their own activities. If this is the case, then we have the answer to the war: it will be privatized, and its ultimate victories won by uninhibited private military actors, not the hamstrung citizen militaries of nation-states.

The Supreme Court has pulled out the stops. So, who would have the advantage in a privatized war? Ultimately it boils down to tactical and strategic, organizational and technological expertise.

Anyone laying odds?

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And since we wanted to see how academia measured up against the rest of the society we conducted the same search engine analysis for a number of other institutional sectors: political parties, trade unions, business associations, churches, mainstream media, and the blogosphere. Although this wasn't a rigorous analysis, what we found was surprisingly consistent and provocative.

The findings are summarized in this press release and detailed in the report: Words to Live By: How Diversity Trumps Freedom on University Websites.

What might be of special interest to the blogosphere is that even if we include both the left and right hemispheres of the "new media", bloggers are still less enthralled by the diversity mantra than is any other sector, with the possible exception of the electoral committees of the political parties. In other words "diversity", although it enthralls academics, doesn't seem to have much appeal for sectors of the society that have any kind of direct accountability to the public. The more accountable, the less likely they are to refer to such terms of art.

Again, I don't want to characterize this as a "slam dunk" indictment of academia. Rather, it supports a robust hypothesis that inspires further analysis. But if these findings are born out then the academy has drifted pretty far from the main stream of society, and they'd better start giving some thought to how they're going to find their way back, before they end up permanently in the wilderness, awaiting their own version of the second coming.

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All American citizens and resident aliens (legal or illegal), and all corporations and unincorporated associations doing business in the United States, who publish classified information, which a reasonable person would consider to be classified, will be strictly (this one is critical – it eliminates the need to prove causation), jointly and severally liable for civil damages (payable to the victims who would have a private right of action) caused by ALL subsequent acts of terrorism occurring WITHIN the United States (not those occurring outside the U.S.) under the following circumstances:

a) The publication must have taken place during a period of hostilities authorized or recognized by Congress. There must have been at least a Congressional resolution authorizing the President to use military force – hostilities initiated and conducted by the President without Congressional approval will be insufficient – see The Powers of War and Peace by John Yoo. Publication of classified information in peacetime would not create liability.

b) The damage must have been caused by an individual who is not an American citizen, or a group acting in concert of which at least one individual is not an American citizen. Purely domestic terrorism would not trigger liability, even if the individuals involved are Muslim American citizens. It must be act of war or foreign terrorism in some fashion.

c) The acts causing the damage must constitute an act of war or terrorism as defined by statute. I believe there already are such statutes whose definitions can be incorporated within this legislation. This will exclude acts by the insane that use Islam as their excuse instead of receiving messages from Mars. As examples, the foreign Muslim student who drove his car into a North Carolina crowd to run down people is probably insane, while the Egyptian who attacked an El Al ticket counter in the Los Angeles airport was found, I believe, to be a terrorist. The plaintiffs bringing such lawsuits would have the burden of proving that they were injured by an act of terrorism. A formal designation by the U.S. government that a given act was a terrorist act, or act of war, would create a conclusive presumption that it was one but, in the absence of a federal designation, plaintiffs would still be able to prove that in court.

d) The President must have certified, prior to the acts of terrorism or war causing the damage (though certification can occur after the unauthorized disclosure), that the classified information published was material to national security and that its disclosure was unauthorized. There is a problem with overclassification (i.e., the adage that “classifying the time of day doesn’t make it a secret”), while federal officials often disclose classified information, with the intent that it be published, as part of their official duties. A requirement that the President certify that a given publication of classified information is or was material to national security will limit the reach of liability under this statute. Defendants would have an affirmative defense that disclosure and publication was authorized even if a President certifies that it wasn't, but may not dispute its materiality.

e) Punitive damages would be awardable based on findings of reckless disregard of the risk of injury to third parties (in addition to malice). A request by the President that the information not be published would create liability for punitive damages.

f) Judgments against corporations and unincorporated associations would not be dischargeable in bankruptcy, but those against individuals, including officers and directors of corporations and unincorporated associations, would be dischargeable in bankruptcy, i.e., offending businesses could not seek reorganization in bankruptcy. Judgments against those who disclose the classified information, i.e., those who signed an agreement giving them access to classified information, would not be dischargeable. Note that intentional torts are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. This statute would require a separate finding that the acts creating liability were done with malice or with reckless disregard of the consequences for punitive damage purposes, such that an award of punitive damages would result in the entire judgment being non-dischargeable

g) Liability would be retroactive to January 1, 2005, i.e., the New York Times’ publication of classified information in 2005 and 2006 will make it liable for any future acts of terrorism in the U.S. The Times has become an imminent threat to the lives of all Americans and its actions must be treated accordingly before it kills more of us. Times delenda est. This provision would be severable.

h) The statute of limitations would be ten years. I would specifically borrow the California rule that civil conspiracy tolls limitations – Wyatt v. Union Mortgage (1979) 24 Cal.3d 773, 786-789 – as conspiracy does not normally toll limitations under federal law.

i) There is a major problem with free speech – it is necessary to deny liability under this statute when the classified information is already public knowledge (once the New York Times publishes a given item of classified information, anyone else can republish it, link to it, etc., without the liability risk the Times runs). I would deal with this by giving corporations and unincorporated associations an affirmative defense that the classified information was already a matter of WIDESPREAD public knowledge (there are many secrets in classified documents which are publicly accessible in some fashion, but are not known, or little known, to terrorists who continue to act as though we aren’t intercepting their communications, tracking their financial transactions, etc.), while requiring that plaintiffs suing individuals prove in their case in chief that the classified information was in fact secret. This part of the statute will not be easy to write as individuals working in concert with news organizations, including their own employees, could misuse the additional protection given them here by publishing classified information first, and then have the news organizations repeat it under the guise of reporting public information. This is why civil conspiracy rules will be important, and quite possibly require changes to the normal rule that corporate employees cannot conspire with their corporate employer.

j) The free speech problem is worse than that given the known tactic of suing people to discourage them from speaking up on public issues, commonly called a Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP). California resolves this with its Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 – a special motion to strike with an attorney fee and cost-shifting clause. I would borrow this, with significant modifications, on the prior publication defense. This will probably be the most difficult part of the statute to write, and I won’t go into the details as this is not a legal blog. Federal officials who disclose classified information within the course and scope of their employment would be immune to liability, and would have a related special motion to strike with a similar attorney fee and cost-shifting clause.

In legal terms, the duty is defined as one not to publish classified information during a period of hostilities authorized by Congress, the breach of duty is the unauthorized intentional publication of classified information during that period (intentional = reasonable grounds to believe it is classified), proximate cause is created by this statute rather than normal civil tort principles, the scope of liability is created by this statute; and damages are defined as those inflicted within the United States by foreign enemies of the United States.

To survive attack on Constitutional grounds, there must be Congressional findings that it is difficult or impossible to show probable cause between publication of any given item of classified information and a specific act of war and terrorism, while publication of classified information does in fact enable foreign enemies to attack the United States.

This proposed statute is specifically intended to create a “chilling deterrent effect” on publication of classified information in wartime while being limited to foreign attacks in the United States. The New York Times would risk all its shareholders’ equity when publishing classified information that is material to national security, but only to those injured by subsequent acts of war or terrorism.

I’ve left out an enormous amount, but this is enough to start a discussion. I believe such a statute would withstand attack on Constitutional grounds. Its political feasibility is another matter, but a Congressional debate and votes on it would have significant political/electoral effects as well as having the desired chilling deterrent effect on news organizations’ publication of classified information. That is a good thing in wartime.

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There would be no problem with the NYT's leaks, or acceding to demands that every enemy combatant be provided with the full panoply of procedural protections, requiring that captured terrorists only be asked their name, rank and serial number -- they have any of those -- and insisting that gentlemen don't read other people's mail for so long as one was willing to pay the price. The problem is that many of the very same persons who want to restrict society's ability to make war also want casualty free wars, no collateral damage to enemy targets and a guarantee of safety not only to the population of the US and Allied Countries, but even to civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not principled behavior. It is infantile behavior.

One would think this was obvious unless there were some way to convince yourself that we're not actually at war and it's all just another Bush fiction. Or if you don't really believe that, then at least your acknowledgment can wait until there are fewer people willing to toss their load on your back should you think about joining the adults. It's a time calculation with a discount rate for an ultimate risk that no one really knows. The one thing that's certain is that the fewer people playing this free riding game, the shorter the term for everyone.

The real betrayal lies in the claim that that's not as certain as we know it to be.

Update: Pretty embarassing revelation about the NYT from Sweetness & Light by way of LGF.

Updtade 2 (because the comment section won't accept embedded links to blogspot.com blogs):

Wretchard has more material about the NYT's rather inconsistent use of editorial judgment here. It pretty much lays to rest most of the excuses and apologetics of the alchemist and others. An excerpt from Secretary Snow's letter to Bill Keller:

You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that "terror financiers know" our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money. The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works. While terrorists are relying more heavily than before on cumbersome methods to move money, such as cash couriers, we have continued to see them using the formal financial system, which has made this particular program incredibly valuable.

Lastly, justifying this disclosure by citing the "public interest" in knowing information about this program means the paper has given itself free license to expose any covert activity that it happens to learn of - even those that are legally grounded, responsibly administered, independently overseen, and highly effective. Indeed, you have done so here.

What you've seemed to overlook is that it is also a matter of public interest that we use all means available - lawfully and responsibly - to help protect the American people from the deadly threats of terrorists. I am deeply disappointed in the New York Times.

Thus, there isn't the slightest credibility either to the objection that the "terrorists already knew" or to the bogus concept that there was anything untoward in how the program was run. And all of that was spelled out to the Times editorial staff, who simply chose to ignore it. They did, however, decide not to "insult" the Islamists by publishing the cartoons.

Now, one might consider the main reason why they were so sensitive about giving offense to the Islamists is that the Islamists tend to hurt people who insult them. The Times staff might very well feel the same accommodative sensitivity toward motorcycle gangs.

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And I'm not going to wax preachy about how Spelling helped destroy the medium, either. I had no trouble avoiding what he produced, so have to assume that if consumers chose it they got what they wanted. But I'd just like to register that the fellow wasn't a great man merely because he's now pushing up the daisies. Had he never lived the world wouldn't be any the worse for it. There are lots of people like that. And as part of my tendancy to pick on the dead let me also compare the gushy tributes to Spelling with the near silence from the media at James Coleman's death a few years ago. Had Coleman not lived the world would have almost certainly been a worse place, and the dysfunctional way we grieve (or fail to) is but another clue to how our mainstream media may be distorting, and even perverting, our society. But better to grieve something together, than nothing, I guess.

Well, we get what we want... which isn't necessarily a condemnation so much as a promise.

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This conference was about the ethical issues involved in being in the military, and one of the discussions involved media superstars Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings. Here's Fallows:

Then Ogletree turned to the two most famous members of the evening's panel, better known than William Westmoreland himself. These were two star TV journalists: Peter Jennings of World News Tonight and ABC, and Mike Wallace of 6o Minutes and CBS. Ogletree brought them into the same hypothetical war. He asked Jennings to imagine that he worked for a network that had been in contact with the enemy North Kosanese government. After much pleading, the North Kosanese had agreed to let Jennings and his news crew into their country, to film behind the lines and even travel with military units. Would Jennings be willing to go? Of course, Jennings replied. Any reporter would-and in real wars reporters from his network often had. But while Jennings and his crew are traveling with a North Kosanese unit, to visit the site of an alleged atrocity by American and South Kosanese troops, they unexpectedly cross the trail of a small group of American and South Kosanese soldiers. With Jennings in their midst, the northern soldiers set up a perfect ambush, which will let them gun down the Americans and Southerners, every one. What does Jennings do? Ogletree asks. Would he tell his cameramen to "Roll tape!" as the North Kosanese opened fire? What would go through his mind as he watched the North Kosanese prepare to ambush the Americans? Jennings sat silent for about fifteen seconds after Ogletree asked this question. "Well, I guess I wouldn't," he finally said. "I am going to tell you now what I am feeling, rather than the hypothesis I drew for myself. If I were with a North Kosanese unit that came upon Americans, I think that I personally would do what I could to warn the Americans." Even if it means losing the story? Ogletree asked.

Even though it would almost certainly mean losing my life, Jennings replied. "But I do not think that I could bring myself to participate in that act. That's purely personal, and other reporters might have a different reaction." Immediately Mike Wallace spoke up. "I think some other reporters would have a different reaction," he said, obviously referring to himself. "They would regard it simply as a story they were there to cover." "I am astonished, really," at Jennings's answer, Wallace said a moment later. He turned toward Jennings and began to lecture him: "You're a reporter. Granted you're an American"-at least for purposes of the fictional example; Jennings has actually retained Canadian citizenship. "I'm a little bit at a loss to understand why, because you're an American, you would not have covered that story." Ogletree pushed Wallace. Didn't Jennings have some higher duty, either patriotic or human, to do something other than just roll film as soldiers from his own country were being shot? "No," Wallace said flatly and immediately. "You don't have a higher duty. No. No. You're a reporter!" Jennings backtracked fast. Wallace was right, he said. "I chickened out." Jennings said that he had gotten so wrapped up in the hypothetical questions that he had lost sight of his journalistic duty to remain detached. As Jennings said he agreed with Wallace, everyone else in the room seemed to regard the two of them with horror. Retired Air Force general Brent Scowcroft, who had been Gerald Ford's national security advisor and would soon serve in the same job for George Bush, said it was simply wrong to stand and watch as your side was slaughtered. "What's it worth?" he asked Wallace bitterly. "It's worth thirty seconds on the evening news, as opposed to saving a platoon." Ogletree turned to Wallace. What about that? Shouldn't the reporter have said something? Wallace gave his most disarming grin, shrugged his shoulders and spread his palms wide in a "Don't ask me!" gesture, and said, "I don't know." He was mugging to the crowd in such a way that he got a big laugh-the first such moment of the discussion. Wallace paused to enjoy the crowd's reaction. Jennings, however, was all business, and was still concerned about the first answer he had given. "I wish I had made another decision," Jennings said, as if asking permission to live the last five minutes over again. "I would like to have made his decision"-that is, Wallace's decision to keep on filming. A few minutes later Ogletree turned to George M. Connell, a Marine colonel in full uniform, jaw muscles flexing in anger, with stress on each word, Connell looked at the TV stars and said, "I feel utter . . . contempt. " Two days after this hypothetical episode, Connell Jennings or Wallace might be back with the American forces--and could be wounded by stray fire, as combat journalists often had been before. The instant that happened he said, they wouldn't be "just journalists" any more. Then they would drag them back, rather than leaving them to bleed to death on the battlefield. "We'll do it!" Connell said. "And that is what makes me so contemptuous of them. Marines will die going to get ... a couple of journalists." The last few words dripped with disgust. Not even Ogletree knew what to say. There was dead silence for several seconds. Then a square-jawed man with neat gray hair and aviator glasses spoke up. It was Newt Gingrich, looking a generation younger and trimmer than when he became Speaker of the House in I995. One thing was clear from this exercise, he said: "The military has done a vastly better 'job of systematically thinking through the ethics of behavior in a violent environment than the journalists have." That was about the mildest way to put it. Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace are just two individuals, but their reactions spoke volumes about the values of their craft. Jennings was made to feel embarrassed about his natural, decent human impulse. Wallace was completely unembarrassed about feeling no connection to the soldiers in his country's army considering their deaths before his eyes as "simply a story." In other important occupations people sometimes need to do the horrible. Frederick Downs [an earlier speaker who had discussed the ethics of torture and battlefield interrogation], after all, was willing to torture a man and hear him scream. But had thought through all the consequences and alternatives, and he knew he would live with the horror for the rest of his days. When Mike Wallace said he would do something horrible, he didn't bother to argue a rationale. He did not try to explain the reasons a reporter might feel obliged to remain silent as the attack began--for instance, that in combat reporters must be beyond country, or that they have a duty to bear impartial witness to deaths on either side, or that Jennings had implicitly made a promise not to betray the North Kosanese when he agreed to accompany them on the hypothetical patrol. The soldiers might or might not have found such arguments convincing, but Wallace didn't even make them. He relied on charm and star power to win acceptance from the crowd. Mike Wallace on patrol with the North Kosanese, cameras rolling while his countrymen are gunned down, recognizing no "higher duty" to interfere in any way and offering no rationale beyond "I'm with the press"--this is a nice symbol for what Americans hate about their media establishment in our age.

That's a long quote, so let me pull out two key quotes from it that, to me sum up the nub of the issue. Mike Wallace:

"I am astonished, really," at Jennings's answer, Wallace said a moment later. He turned toward Jennings and began to lecture him: "You're a reporter. Granted you're an American"-at least for purposes of the fictional example; Jennings has actually retained Canadian citizenship. "I'm a little bit at a loss to understand why, because you're an American, you would not have covered that story." Ogletree pushed Wallace. Didn't Jennings have some higher duty, either patriotic or human, to do something other than just roll film as soldiers from his own country were being shot? "No," Wallace said flatly and immediately. "You don't have a higher duty. No. No. You're a reporter!"

[emphasis added]

Col. George M. Connell:

"I feel utter . . . contempt. " Two days after this hypothetical episode, Connell Jennings or Wallace might be back with the American forces--and could be wounded by stray fire, as combat journalists often had been before. The instant that happened he said, they wouldn't be "just journalists" any more. Then they would drag them back, rather than leaving them to bleed to death on the battlefield. "We'll do it!" Connell said. "And that is what makes me so contemptuous of them. Marines will die going to get ... a couple of journalists." The last few words dripped with disgust.

The problem is, simply, that journalists are part of a larger society. Journalism as Mike Wallace practices it could not be practiced in 'North Kosistan' (funny name, now that I think about it) or in Al-Zarquawi's fantasy of Iraq.

Earlier journalists, as I show in my Feb. post, got that. I do not believe that the editors of the NY Times and LA Times do.

Dean Baquet (who got a copy of my email canceling my subscription) has a letter justifying their decision in today's paper (no, I don't get the paper, it was in the roundup email that I still get from the Times, and yes, as Kevin Drum pointed out at lunch Sunday, I know I'm 'cheating' by reading the online edition)

Here're some highlights from Baquet, with some comments from me interspersed:

MANY READERS have been sharply critical of our decision to publish an article Friday on the U.S. Treasury Department's program to secretly monitor worldwide money transfers in an effort to track terrorist financing.

They have sent me sincere and powerful expressions of their disappointment in our newspaper, and they deserve an equally thoughtful and honest response.

The decision to publish this article was not one we took lightly. We considered very seriously the government's assertion that these disclosures could cause difficulties for counterterrorism programs. And we weighed that assertion against the fact that there is an intense and ongoing public debate about whether surveillance programs like these pose a serious threat to civil liberties.

I do think there's a legitimate set of debates to have about the limits of the surveillance state (see what England is doing these days). But by the standard Baquet holds up here, any and all surveillance programs are up for disclosure, no matter how legal or effective - simply because the controversy exists. I guess I'd like to know where Baquet draws the line.

We sometimes withhold information when we believe that reporting it would threaten a life. In this case, we believed, based on our talks with many people in the government and on our own reporting, that the information on the Treasury Department's program did not pose that threat. Nor did the government give us any strong evidence that the information would thwart true terrorism inquiries. In fact, a close read of the article shows that some in the government believe that the program is ineffective in fighting terrorism.

And now we know. If it's so operational that someone might die, then it's off bounds. Anything else is fair game - secrets to be kept, if the government can do so. And let's also go to the point that patterico makes: the program had had significant successes, but the Times reporters weren't good enough to have unearthed them.

In the end, we felt that the legitimate public interest in this program outweighed the potential cost to counterterrorism efforts.

Well, the public is interested in all kinds of things, including autopsy pictures. I'm slightly worried that Baquet feel that he and his lawyers are the arbiter of which of those interests is 'legitimate'.

Some readers have seen our decision to publish this story as an attack on the Bush administration and an attempt to undermine the war on terror.

We are not out to get the president. This newspaper has done much hard-hitting reporting on terrorism, from around the world, often at substantial risk to our reporters. We have exposed terrorist cells and led the way in exposing the work of terrorists. We devoted a reporter to covering Al Qaeda's role in world terrorism in the months before 9/11. I know, because I made the assignment.

But we also have an obligation to cover the government, with its tremendous power, and to offer information about its activities so citizens can make their own decisions. That's the role of the press in our democracy.

I don't actually disagree with this. But the perspective that you cover the government from - the way you decide what and when to report - does matter.

And the problem is that I keep seeing Mike Wallace sitting and rolling tape with the North Kosanese, and he's saying exactly the same things.

I think that what Bill Keller and Dean Baquet went too far in this case. I don't know if they are feeling pressure yet (after all, my subscription might have paid his coffee bill for a day or two) or genuinely wondering what the reaction is all about.

Patterico is all over this, and points out some of the slippery thinking and changing stories coming from the Times.

« ok, I'm done now

Over the last twenty-five years, the desire of people in high places to cling to their posts has grown exponentially, to a degree never before witnessed in our country. Or, for that matter, in any society that enjoys political and social mobility, i.e. in societies marked with a high degree of democracy. As I mentioned, fate afforded me the opportunity to spend nearly twenty years in an international corporation which, since the nineteenth century, has been one of the five largest economic conglomerates in the world. Its revenues from sales in 2005 were three times higher than Egypt's national income for the same period, and much of its success can be attributed to the guiding principles by which it is governed and which it upholds strictly and unconditionally.

• A general culture based on the premise that the driving engine of success is the institution itself and not any individual, no matter who.

• A policy that abjures the notion of rewarding an individual for his exceptional performance by keeping him on in the same position indefinitely. For the well-being of the institution itself and in terms of sound management, the belief that no single individual is indispensable and hence irreplaceable makes more sense than the idea that a person who performs his job well and achieves good results has acquired the right to a lifelong tenure of the post.

• Occupancy of a high-ranking post must not exceed a period of three to five years.

• Any person who reaches the age of retirement must retire, no matter how exceptionally brilliant, competent and talented he may be.

Conversely, a culture of "staying put" has pervaded our country in the last quarter of a century. Anyone occupying the top position in any given area – the president of a club, say, or of a professional syndicate or a political party – considers it a lifelong commission. The word "former" when applied to a minister not reappointed in a cabinet reshuffle is tantamount to referring to him as the "late" so and so. Departure from a high post sets the rumor mills rolling: the occupant has either fallen foul of the powers that be or his performance was so poor that he had to be removed. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, it is a normal human ambition to want to hold on to a high post, but when the ambition attains the proportions it has done in our current cultural context it becomes a phenomenon that needs to be studied and, perhaps, treated.

More than a quarter of a century ago, Francois Mitterrand, then the president of France, called on President Anwar Sadat and, as he was leaving, told Sadat that he would be going on to visit Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. The Egyptian president's immediate reaction to this bit of news was to exclaim: "But I fired him!" President Mitterrand told friends later that he could not understand what that had to do with his decision to meet Heikal: "I didn't say I was going to call on the editor of Al-Ahram; I said I was going to call on Mohamed Hassanein Heikal." When the story was related to me by Mitterrand's daughter, whose paternity he acknowledged shortly before his death, I said her father's inability to understand Sadat's remark was due to the different cultural backgrounds and mentalities of the two men. For Sadat, as for many of our countrymen, a person's worth is measured in terms of the position he holds. Thus if Heikal's value stemmed from his position as editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram, then it follows that when Sadat fired him he became a worthless nobody – hence Sadat's surprise that Mitterrand would want to meet him. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. Although I differ with Mr. Heikal on most political issues, I know that he is far and away the best journalist in the Arabic-speaking world. I also know that all those who attack him today do so to curry favour with people in high places to whom they are greatly beholden for their good fortune. And, talking of how a person's worth should be appraised, I wonder if the international publishers who published Mr. Heikal's best-selling books would even deign to look at a manuscript presented by any of his attackers. I would like to recount an anecdote here that is self-explanatory. Despite my political differences with Mr. Heikal, I was lunching with him at a London restaurant a few years ago when he called the Spanish royal palace to request an appointment with King Juan Carlos two days later. After only fifteen minutes, the palace called him back to confirm that the king would be happy to see him the day after tomorrow. This is a man whose books have been translated into many languages and read by millions of people throughout the world. As to his critics, it is a fact that they vilify him for no other reason than to ingratiate themselves with their benefactors. It is also a fact that not a single one of them is capable of putting together a manuscript that would be acceptable to an international publisher.

The deeply entrenched notion that personal worth is measured in terms of the post one holds has led to a series of ugly events in recent years. For example, it led the deputy president of the "Yesterday Party", Mr. M. M., to betray its president, Mr. A. N., for the account of a third party, confirming the truth of the famous verse by Al-Mutanaby:

"Does Egypt open its doors
To every slave who kills his master?"

It is almost certainly what led the university professor and former dean of the Faculty of Law to enter into a pitched battle with his opponents in the party, using live ammunition, in a bid to stay on as party president against the will of its members. Perhaps he would not have been so determined to cling to his position at the head of the party if he had remembered that its founder, who held no official position, was more popular than Egypt's king and its prime minister.
The same thing happened in a famous sports club, where violent battles were fought over the club presidency.

These and hundreds of other examples show how far people will go to cling to their privileged positions. Nobody today accepts the idea that occupancy of these positions is a temporary, not a permanent, state of affairs.

A few weeks ago, Dar el Hilal published a book on the monarchs who ruled Egypt more than five thousand years ago, i.e. from the time of the founder of the First Dynasty in 3400 B.C., the Pharaoh Menes who unified Upper and Lower Egypt. A simple statistical survey shows that these rulers can be divided into three numerically equal groups:

- Those who were forcibly removed from the throne
- Those who died in office
- Those killed in office.

My search for a single ruler who had voluntarily abdicated proved fruitless. In this connection, I would like to mention the sole exception to this pattern. On Wednesday, October 17th, 1917, the ruler of Egypt, Sultan Hussein Kamel, died. In accordance with the rules of succession, the throne was offered to his son, Prince Kamal el-Din Hussein, who turned down the offer. The throne went instead to the "blackguard" prince, the sultan's younger brother Ahmed Fouad. In a lecture I gave to a class of history students, I asked if any of them knew the name of the man who, less than a hundred years ago, had declined the throne of Egypt when it was offered to him. Not a single one of the history students knew what I was talking about: it was as though the event had never happened. The only explanation for this collective amnesia is that in our culture anyone who actually turns down the chance to wield absolute power must be demented and hence not worth remembering. And so a man of high principle, an idealist who exercised his free will in the face of the ultimate temptation, has been relegated to oblivion. In using the word "blackguard" to describe Prince Ahmed Fouad, I am quoting Bairam el-Tonsi who lamented the accession of a prince best known for his love of cabarets to the throne of the great Pharaohs in a famous poem that goes like this:

"When in Egypt we ran out of kings,
The British brought you and threw you in the ring,
They sat you on the throne to masquerade as a king true,
where did they find a traitor and blackguard like you."

A friend of mine with a philosophical bent of mind is fond of quoting the dictum that "answers are blind, questions are clear-sighted." I would like to ask our esteemed historians if they have a scientific explanation for the monstrous growth and spread of the "staying put" culture in our society, a phenomenon that has led us to witness the infamous Gomaa using firearms to remain at the head of a party that no longer wanted him as its leader.

« ok, I'm done now

Although tour leaders do generally maintain connections within the Palestinian communities they visit, participants might cross that “gray line,” says Adler, when they, for example, take photographs of Palestinians going through checkpoints, which, though often new and shocking to tour participants, is a regular occurrence in Palestinian life that may seem disrespectful to photograph.

(New and shocking? Newspapers and advocacy websites have been doing photo spreads of checkpoints for years.)

Melissa Weintraub, who co-founded Encounter Trips to Bethlehem and Hebron for future rabbis and Jewish educators, specifically chose not to bring her large tour groups to a refugee camp “because it felt like we would be treating the camp like a zoo.”

(Weintraub was ordained by JTS Rabbinical School this year.)

Others, however, deny the possibility of of voyeurism in these tours. Rami Kassis, Executive Director of ATG, links these alternative tours to a global trend of “responsible, solidarity tourism.” . . . . “ It is a tricky situation,” Mermelstein explains, “since we encourage people to document their experience in order to share Palestinians’ stories upon return to their home countries. Some of this documentation involves photographing others’ pain and situations of injustice.”

This business has the same agenda as UNRWA: confirming the Palestinians in their victimhood, because if they become productive normal citizens of their own country, UN bureaucrats, grievance merchants, and terrorists are all out of a job.

Does JTS teach its students about Rambam's ladder of tzedakah? By those criteria, the very lowest rung would be allowing refugee camps to fester, which the activists claim to be against. (I don't want to think what Rambam would say about making a display of the refugees' plight; I am at least grateful that a rabbi has qualms about that). But I would be pleasantly surprised if the activists' solution to this squalid situation involved challenging those responsible for maintaining dependency and rehearsing grievances.

If you have more time in the summer and want college credit for demonstrating solidarity with the oppressed, the Palestine Summer Encounter - a permutation of the International Solidarity Movement which is run by the Holy Land Trust - might be for you. [I have no idea if any rabbis or rabbinical students are involved in any of these programs.]

The ISM has long sent American students to the Middle East, where they undergo training by the ISM-ally, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a known terrorist group, and then physically obstruct Israeli forces trying to nab Palestinian terrorists. Front Page Magazine's exposure of the ISM and the much-publicized deaths of two ISM-affiliated students, American Rachel Corrie and Englishman Tom Hurndall, led to dwindling recruitment numbers. Heightened scrutiny of terrorist organizations as well as a recent Israeli crackdown on ISM leaders like Kate Raphael has forced George Rishmawi, a Canadian-Palestinian Communist who co-founded the ISM, to rethink his organization's tactics. Now the radical group has hit upon using international student exchanges in its campaign to aid the cause of Palestinian genocidal terror.

Mindful of the setbacks suffered by his activist troops, Rishmawi has set about remaking the ISM. For starters, he has rechristened the ISM the Palestine Summer Encounter (PSE). PSE has even managed to find a shill at Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank to offer U.S. academic credit in Arabic. That will make the "educational" program of value to Middle East study centers across the U.S., many of which have been turned into de facto lobbying and propaganda bases calling for the dismantling of Israel. Incidentally, generous Saudi and PLO grants are funding these programs.

Now it gets more interesting. That is no shill, that's the PSE director's dad.

The PSE's program will be financed by the Holy Land Trust, a California-based NGO. Already the Holy Land Trust has caused headaches for U.S. counterterrorism officials by funding Palestinian NGOs that refuse to guarantee that the U.S. Agency for International Development funds they receive won't be used to bankroll terrorism. The trust is run by Executive Director Sami Awad, who formerly headed the Palestine Children's Welfare Relief Fund, an outfit that routinely featured photos and praise of suicide bombers on its website.

. . . . According to the ISM website, "Bethlehem Bible College seeks to train and prepare Christian servant-leaders for the churches and society within an Arab context." As to what is meant by "Arab context," a clue comes from the views of Bethlehem Bible College President Bishara Awad [who happens to be the father of Sami Awad]. Although thousands of Christians have fled the Holy Land in recent decades due to Muslim persecution, Awad blames the Jewish State for their departure. "Israeli persecution is first and foremost to blame for Christian (and Muslim) emigration," he claims.

Indeed, according to Awad, Israel is the greatest force for religious oppression in the Middle East. . . . Asked to comment on Israeli allegations that many Christians leave the Middle East as a result of harassment by Muslims, Awad flatly denies the charge.

(The question of whether Israel or Islam is most responsible for the dwindling population of Christians in the Territories continues to be controversial, recently manifesting itself in the halls of Congress. Even assuming that Israel deserves some blame for their situation, Awad undermines his credibility with the preposterous claim that "Israel is the greatest force for religious oppression in the Middle East.")

Bishara is not only the father of Sami but the brother of Alex and Mubarek Awad. Bishara and Alex said the following upon the death of Yassir Arafat:

Palestinian Christians view Israel, not Arafat, as the problem. Arafat loved and cared for the Palestinian people, says Bishara Awad, president of Bethlehem Bible College. He described Arafat as someone who was "sincere about trying to work for peace and justice for his people, for the liberation of the Palestinian territory."

. . . . Alex Awad, brother of Bishara and pastor of Peace Jerusalem Baptist Church says, "The Christian community particularly will regret the departure of Arafat because he was very, very much at peace and also in solidarity with the Christian community in the Holy Land . . . . He surrounded himself with Christians that he trusted very much. Many of his advisors, many of his councilors also were Christians."

Either the Awads are apologists for the corrupt regime of Arafat and his successors, or they have to say stuff like this to survive. Given their other activities, the former seems more likely.

Mubarek Awad, in addition to his many other activities,

is a featured speaker for the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Sabeel has spearheaded the drive for mainline churches to divest from Israel and organized conferences across the U.S. to demonize Israel and encourage divestment. Awad spoke at Sabeel conferences in Decatur, Georgia in February 2005, and in Cedar Rapids in October 2005.

More on Sabeel (with numerous links) and its connections to ISM, its championing of divestment initiatives, and its advocacy of replacement theology, which has a long and disgraceful history as a justification for the eradication of Judaism.

(I was going to proceed to comparing the politicized replacement theology of Sabeel with the politicized dispensationalism of the Christian Zionists: in both cases Jewish history and peoplehood are co-opted for theological purposes not our own. But I quickly realized that I was treading in theological waters without a boat, or even a life-vest, of knowledge of the topic, so I will leave that exercise to students of religion.)

It is a cliche that the Palestinians "have had bad leaders" or "have made bad choices," and the Awads are a good example of this. If they unequivocably distanced themselves from terrorism (including Arafat), if they really believed in non-violent resistance, if they were not engaged in actively delegitimizing Israel, their advocacy for their people and their recruitment of volunteers would be praiseworthy. They would be the "Martin Luther Kings" that, the cliche has it, the Palestinians need.

To circle back around to my first link, idealists see oppression and injustice, there is no Martin Luther King in sight, nor (even more needed) a Hernando de Soto. Instead they are presented with a program and rationalizations which demonize Israel and let the Arab bloc and the NGOs off the hook. Israel is just across the street, the others are nebulous entities whose exploitation of the Palestinians is difficult to describe and impossible to fight directly, rule of law and development of a stable middle class are abstract concepts most people can't contribute to actualizing (and which don't seem related to "social justice" but are), writing your Congressman and holding teach-ins are concrete actions accessible to anyone (and seem to create "social justice" but are really peripheral), taking one side causes awkward silences within your desired peer group and taking the other doesn't. Thus are bad leaders enabled and useful idiots recruited.

RELATED: Sabeel must be in the air today. While I was writing this, Solomonia was writing about Catherine Nichols, another Sabeel tentacle. While I ask, "What were they thinking at JTS?" Solomon asks, "What were they thinking at Brandeis?"

« ok, I'm done now

The Army's Picatinny Arsenal, which conducted the study, has this to say:

The study sought to answer whether any commercial, off-the-shelf 5.56mm bullets that perform better than M855 against unarmored targets in Close Quarters Battle might be available.

It was limited further to determining if the Army could quickly purchase and field a possible replacement for the M855 and did not consider replacing the current inventory of 5.56mm weapons with weapons of another caliber.

“This was not a caliber study” Rider said. “However, it did find that the current family of 5.56mm weapons and the older 7.62mm M14 have the same potential effectiveness in the hands of a Warfighter during the heat of battle.”

The study also showed an increase in lethal potential when the marksmanship technique of firing controlled pairs, i.e. firing two rounds in rapid succession, was used.

The present edition of the M16 is the M16A2, introduced in 1985, as I recall. The 'A2 has a full-auto setting that fires only three rounds, no more, per trigger pull. It also shoots semi-auto, of course. The reason for this setting is that on unrestricted full auto firing the fourth and subsequent rounds wind up going skyward, a symptom of full-auto handheld guns since the Thompson submachine gun. IIRC, one soldier per fire team is normally designated as a automatic rifleman and in combat he would normally be the only one who routinely shoots his M16 on full auto, repetitively sending bursts of three downrange.

Not any more. If every soldier now understand that he has to shoot a bad guy twice to ensure a kill, then he'll reasonbly figure, "If two is good, three is better," set his rifle on auto, and rock and roll every time. Besides, the automatic cyclic rate of fire of the rifle is 800 rounds per minute, or 13 rounds per second. That's much faster than anyone can achieve pulling the trigger twice. (My guess is that a lot of troops have been three-bursting all along.)

I must say that the study's finding that "the older 7.62mm M14 have the same potential effectiveness" is rather difficult to believe. The 7.62mm basically is a .30-caliber bullet, which was the Army's standard diameter round since 1906 (hence the "30-06" round). This cartridge was used throughout World War II in the Garand rifle, "The greatest battle implement ever devised," according to this authority.

Top - .30-06 round; bottom, 5.56mm round

I'm not suggesting that the Army re-adopt the .30-06 round. There are alternatives to both it and the M855, 5.56mm round that offer many of the advantages of both. The '06 had stellar knock-down power and was heavy enough to rip through truck engines, surely an excellent capability for a time when car- or truck-mounted IED's are common. The 5.56mm round is lightweight, which means a grunt can carry a lot more of them than the '06. It also means that the rifle can be lighter: the M 16A2 weighs more than a pound less than the M1 Garand. There was consideration to developing a 6.8mm round for the XM8 rifle, but the XM8 project settled on the present 5.56mm (M855) round before being canceled last fall.

There was some discussion for awhile, I recall, to re-introduce the 7.62mm NATO-standard round in a new infantry rifle, but it never went anywhere. This round is highly effective in combat with excellent range, very good material penetration and knockdown power. The round was used in the M14 rifle and the famous M60 series medium machinegun, both introduced in 1957. The M14 was based on the M1 Garand and featured a 20-round magazine rather than an eight-round clip.

The M855 round was introduced for the M16A2. It replaced the 'A1 and earlier models, which all used the M193 round. The M855 bullet is longer and heavier and slower out the muzzle than the M193. The replacement was made for two main reasons: increase the maximum effective range and achieve commonality with the M249, 5.56mm Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), a light machinegun for infantry squads that replaced the M60, 7.72mm machinegun. Achieving an effective range of 1,000 meters for the SAW while retaining the 5.56mm round required the heavier M855 round. The M16A2 was introduced to enable all the weapons of an infantry squad to use the same ammunition.

Paradoxically, the heavier round sacrificed lethality at the short ranges of typical infantry-rifle combat. As I noted three years ago, rifle-combat ranges have not changed since 1917, about 20-30 meters. A technical explanation of wound ballistics can be found here, but the short version is this. Immediately incapacitating wounds from full metal jacket bullets, the only kind allowed by warfare conventions, come from the bullet tumbling and fragmenting in the body. All FMJ bullets will tumble (except in flight, of course) because their center of gravity is well behind the nose, but just when depends on their speed. The 5.56mm round tumbles and fragments when it slows to 2,700 feet per second. With greater inertia than the older M193 round, the heavier M855 slows after impact less readily. Thus, unless it hits bone, it will fly straight in and out without causing an immediately incapacitating wound, as the Army's study report notes.

There is no quick fix to this conundrum. The M16A2's chamber is designed for the longer M855 bullet, as is the SAW's. So the older M193 round can't just be reissued. And no replacement weapon or round is in the works. So the Army tells the troops, "shoot 'em in the head, twice."

Dunnigan concludes, in masterful understatement, "The army report is not likely to be well received by the troops."

BTW, the 9mm pistol is almost worthless, too.


Cross posted at donaldsensing.com.

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Iran & the Middle East

• Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli army post near the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two Israelis before soldiers shot dead three terrorists.

• In a leaflet distributed in the Gaza strip, the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade announced they had developed more than 20 types of chemical and biological weapons, and threatened to deploy them against Israel.

• Negotiations between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas are ongoing, as the groups attempt to resolve differences and form a unified approach to dealing with Israel.

• Iran said it was seriously considering incentives to halt its nuclear program and that the United States and other nations should be patient, but on Saturday rejected a deadline for their response.

• In Beirut, a bomb was discovered near the building of Future television, owned by the family of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. In 2003, two rockets were fired at the structure as well.

• Israeli forces captured two Hamas members in the Gaza strip on Saturday, reported to have been plotting imminent attacks against Israel. The pair was identified as Osama and Mustafa Abu Muamar, sons of Hamas member Ali Muamar.

• Donna Abu-Nasr reports on the alleged widening rift between Hezbollah and al Qaeda and says the verbal dispute "threatens to burst into confrontation."

• On Saturday, Jordan's King Abdullah called for increased efforts to root out terrorism and extremists threatening Islam and the world, saying that "we must move quickly to uproot terrorism, stop accusations in the name of religion, and harness all efforts to find comprehensive solutions for the problems and challenges facing the Islamic world."

• Kuwaiti women hope to make a historic leap into parliamentary representation in the national elections on Thursday, that for the first time in the history of the Persian Gulf nation will allow female citizens to vote.

• Iran criticized Russia on Sunday for not fulfilling its commitments on the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

• An explosion at a Turkish resort has killed four people and injured twenty-five others, and the cause has yet to be determined.

• Michael Slackman writes in the New York Times about the growing relationship between Syria and Iran in the face of perceived threats from the United States. Hezbollah is the direct beneficiary of this cooperation.

• Iran denies recent charges by U.S. General George Casey that Teheran was playing a role in the unrest and violence in Iraq by supporting radical Shi'ite elements. Wretchard at the Belmont Club offers additional commentary and links.

• On the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the Khobar Towers, Steve Schippert of ThreatsWatch cites former FBI Director Louis Freeh in questioning whether Iran will ever be held accountable for their involvement in the attacks.

America Domestic Security & the Americas

• Seven people were arrested in Miami after a sweep by law enforcement authorities in connection with an alleged plot against targets that may have included the Sears Tower, officials told CNN. Federal officials say there is no immediate threat against the landmark skyscraper. Reactions and roundups from Michelle Malkin, AllahPundit, and Blogs of War.

• The Transportation Security Administration’s intelligence office needs to improve its IT links with other intelligence units within the Homeland Security Department, a senior TSA official said at a congressional hearing Wednesday. Connectivity needs to expand between TSA and other agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coast Guard, said William Gaches, assistant administrator for intelligence at TSA.

• Almost five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security continue to clash over who is in charge of coordinating and vetting terrorism information. As a result, many state and local officials continue to get conflicting or incomplete information -- and sometimes none at all -- on threats inside the United States, state officials say.

• The United States Senate voted to block U.S. aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and ban contacts with Hamas until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist.

• The FBI disputes allegations made in Ron Suskind's new book that claims that U.S. intelligence officials warned Britain that the alleged leader of the July 7 suicide bombings in London had been in touch with extremists plotting to blow up synagogues in the United States.

• Suspected Ottawa terrorist Mohamed Harkat was freed on bail Wednesday amid claims in a newly published book that Abu Zubaydah, a former "high-ranking" al-Qaida informant whose information triggered Harkat's arrest was, in fact, a relatively minor and "certifiably insane" man with multiple personalities.

• CBC News has obtained a copy of the video allegedly handed out by one of the Toronto bomb-plot suspects in the parking lot of a local mosque. The video offers a chilling glimpse inside the jihadist mind and is intended as a wake-up call to Muslim youth in Canada.

• A leader of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said on a television interview that the rebel group was willing to release some 60 hostages, including three Americans, in exchange for scores of jailed rebels.

• Canada's intelligence service says foreign spies from Russia and China are trying to infiltrate key federal departments in their quest for secrets according to the Canadian Post. In its latest annual report, the CSIS says scientific and technological developments in Canada's natural resource sector remain a prime target.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• The Azerbaijani media has accused Russia of cooperating with Iran, with the aim of fomenting religious confrontation in Azerbaijan between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority.

• Officials in Russia are denying media reports and several eyewitness accounts that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il had entered the country, as reported on by RIAN a day earlier.

• A Ukrainian military official is saying that 3 proposed NATO radar systems in the Ukraine are intended to control Russian airspace.

• Russian authorities captured two Chechen militants in the Grozny region, accused of fighting against Russian forces in the 1990s.

• An explosion in the village of Tazen-Kale in Chechnya wounded two Russian soldiers on Sunday.

• On Friday a bomb exploded in the Republic of Daghestan, wounding two police officers. A separate bombing in Vladikavkaz caused damaged to a communications transmission tower. Jeff Kouba has more analysis and links regarding the violence in Daghestan at Peace Like a River.

• Russia's Air Force will receive seven new Mi-28N Night Hunter military helicopters by the end of 2006 according to Air Force Commander Vladimir Mikhailov.

• On Friday a Chechen militant was detained by Federal authorities after he was caught checking a weapons cache in the Urus-Martan District.

• Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is calling on western countries to stop interfering in Russia's domestic affairs, saying "I have said myself that Putin has made mistakes. But the principles of democracy are realised in a specific context, and you have to bear in mind the Russian historical, economic and social situation."

• According to a report by the Foreign Policy Center, Russia does not meet democratic standards for membership of the Group of Eight and its leadership risks destroying the G8’s credibility.

Afghanistan & Southern Asia

• U.S.-led forces have killed more than 30 Taliban fighters in clashes during a major operation against rebels in volatile southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Friday. Eight insurgents were killed in a raid on Thursday on a cave complex used as a "meeting place and sanctuary" for Taliban bomb-makers in Uruzgan province.

• Four US soldiers were killed and one was wounded in clashes with militants in north-eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said Thursday. The four were killed yesterday during "combat operations and combat rescue operations" in Nuristan province near the border with Pakistan, they said.

• British paratroopers told on Wednesday how they knocked out a Taliban mortar team in a deadly fire fight during a five-day covert search and destroy mission.

• Around 45 Taliban insurgents and two U.S.-led coalition soldiers have been killed in a clash in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Sunday. The clash erupted after coalition forces engaged a group of eight to 10 Taliban in Panjwai district of Kandahar province on Saturday.

• C.S. Scott details the heavy losses suffered by the Taliban since April. Afghan and Coalition forces have not gone unscathed, though.

• Five Afghan aid workers, including three employed by a Swedish aid agency, were abducted in eastern Afghanistan, a police official said Sunday. The five — two doctors and an employee of the aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan and two local government workers — were kidnapped on Thursday while driving in the province of Nuristan, said Ghalamullah Nuristani, the provincial deputy police chief.

• After Al Qaeda's top deputy urged Afghans in a videotape to rise up against U.S.-led forces, President Hamid Karzai called Ayman al-Zawahiri the enemy of the people and said the Egyptian-born fugitive had killed thousands of Afghans. The video, al-Zawahiri's sixth this year, was posted Thursday on an Islamic Web site and called "American Crimes in Kabul."

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar should emerge from hiding if he is "really in charge" and "face the danger that he is causing to hundreds of young people in Afghanistan and Pakistan." In an audiotape purportedly made by Omar aired by a Pakistani television station on Sunday, the reclusive spiritual leader claims Taliban militants control large areas of Afghanistan, including mountainous regions.

• A Taliban commander Maulvi Jalal Al Din Haqani has asked his supporters not to wage war against Pakistan, while renewing his pledge to continue the jihad against the United States and the government of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

• Taliban militants beheaded four Afghans they accused of spying for the US military in southern Afghanistan, a local government official and the insurgent group said. The beheaded corpses of the men were found Thursday in Shajoy district of insurgency-hit Zabul province where the rebels launch almost daily attacks on US troops and government targets, the official said on Friday.

• A major anti-Taliban operation by Afghan and coalition forces has killed 149 insurgents in the past two weeks, with three Afghan soldiers also losing their lives, the defence ministry said. Another 32 insurgents have been wounded and 61 arrested as part of Operation Mountain Thrust in the past fortnight, ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said on Saturday.

• Eccentric Star links to a Washington Post story which says "An unofficial attempt by Afghanistan's national intelligence service to quash sensational and negative coverage by the Afghan news media appears to have backfired badly this week, provoking both outrage and ridicule among journalists and opinion makers, and swift repudiation by the office of President Hamid Karzai."

• An article in the July 1 issue of Joint Force Quarterly looks at lessons learned (PDF) in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

• Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to step up their cooperation in the fight against terrorism, an official statement said after a meeting between Kabul's foreign minister and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.

• A tide of Islamic militancy is spreading across and beyond the semiautonomous tribal areas of northwest Pakistan that hug the Afghan border, despite the deployment of some 70,000 Pakistani army troops there, according to a variety of people with close family, professional or political ties to the tribal regions. There may be talks of truce underway, however.

• Security forces arrested 11 Afghan nationals in southwest Pakistan, a day after rounding up five foreigners suspected of links with the Al-Qaeda terror network, an intelligence official said. The 11 were arrested during a raid in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, on information gleaned from four Turkish nationals and one Afghan arrested on Thursday in the same province, the official said on Friday.

• The Government of Balochistan in Exile blog reports that "President Hamid Karzai voiced his concern on Thursday over growing attacks by Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan and urged the world to extend the war against the militants beyond his country’s borders into Pakistan." Also, "Karzai did not elaborate on 'foreign factors' but Afghan officials have repeatedly accused neighboring Pakistan of offering full military support to Taliban and al Qaeda militants who they say launch attacks from the Pakistani side of the border."

• Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• The Indian government is experimenting with new ways of fighting back against Maoist fighters, who now operate in almost half of the country's 28 states. In the past year, the Chhattisgarh state government has introduced new anti-terrorism training for the police - and is backing a civil militia called Salwa Judum.

• Nine policemen and eight civilians were wounded in two separate grenade blasts in Indian Kashmir, while the army shot dead two Muslim rebels in the restive region, police said.

• Two Islamic militants and an Indian army officer were killed and 15 people hurt in fresh shootouts and a grenade blast in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, police said. The deaths took place in the district of Pulwama early Saturday when the Indian army raided a rebel hide-out, a police spokesman said on Saturday.

• Police in India's northeastern state of Tripura arrested 10 guerrillas after they entered the country from bases inside Bangladesh, police said. A police spokesman said the rebels were members of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) and were arrested late Thursday near Hirachara village close to the border with Bangladesh.

• Four Bangladeshis, including a woman, were shot dead by Indian border guards along the southwestern frontier, local officials said on Saturday. In a separate shootout, four Bangladeshi youths were in critical condition after being shot by the BSF in Bagachhara area in Jessore district, also on Friday.

• Police in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka baton charged a group of hardline Islamic protestors as they tried to march on a mosque belonging to the Ahmadiya Muslim minority.

• It's thanks to Sri Lanka's overseas Tamils -- people like engineer S. Vijayadeva or accountant Kana Naheerathan -- that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) can afford to keep up its insurgency. The Tigers say the Tamil diaspora of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people -- many of them professionals living in Canada, Scandinavia and Northern Europe -- only give money for development in rebel areas, funding the Tigers' police force, courts, banking system and political offices, not its weapons.

• Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers on Saturday extended a deadline for European Union truce monitors to withdraw from the island, while the army accused the rebels of shooting dead two soldiers in the northwest.

• For 10 years, Nepal's Maoist rebels were beyond the pale — hunted, shunned and feared as they waged a brutal war against the government. Now they have been welcomed into the establishment. A quiet euphoria swept the nation when the government signed a deal with the rebels to give them a share of power for the first time and end the conflict. But as the elation ebbs, stark questions arise: What is the rebels' agenda? Can they adapt to mainstream politics? Will they disarm?

Far East & Southeast Asia

• An explosion at a market on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Sunday has killed 5 people and wounded 10 others. According to authorities, Andal Ampatuan, the governor of Maguindanao province, was the target of the attack.

• Japan warned on Sunday that it would consider "all options" against North Korea, including sanctions on oil and food sales, if Pyongyang goes ahead with a test launch of a long-range missile.

• Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will meet on Monday to discuss relations that includes talks about terrorism.

• Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the Bush administration should hold direct talks with North Korea as concerns grow over a possible test launch of a missile that could reach the U.S.

• On Saturday, thousands of protesters demanded the ouster of Mari Alkatiri, East Timor's prime minister, blaming him for provoking violence and political chaos. New Zealand has announced the deployment of 25 police officers to the island in an effort to help restore security.

• Joshua Eisenman & Josh Rogin write in the Weekly Standard about the necessity of Japan and the United States to form a unified policy with respects to Taiwan.

• An estimated 200 Singapore Airlines passengers and staff were quarantined at an airport in southern Australia on Sunday after white powder was found on luggage, airport and emergency officials said. Authorities said 80 of the passengers were required to take showers at Adelaide airport in a "wet decontamination process," although tests showed the substance was not dangerous.

• Abu Sayyaf and Rajah Solaiman Movement cells in the Philippines are reported to be targeting malls, mass transit, and oil depots.

• William Perry and Ashton B. Carter, two Clinton-era defense officials have called on President Bush to strike the North Korean missile on its launch pad should Pyongyang persist in its determination to fire the device.

Europe

• Christopher Caldwell has an article in the New York Times Magazine titled "After Londonistan" that discusses how London became a bastion of Islamic fanatics. Joe Katzman also offered his analysis and some good additional links yesterday.

• German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with Iranian officials in Berlin and called on Teheran to cease enrichment of uranium if it wants to resume negotiations with the international community.

• According to Martin Gilbertson, a former associate of several of the men that carried out the 7 July 2005 London subway attacks, he tried to warn British authorities about the pair before the attacks.

• Wives and family members of British soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls believe to be from insurgents, issuing death threats after phone calls home from the soldiers using cell phones were apparently intercepted.

• The Serbian government is planning to request help from Germany to catch war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, according to German media. Serbian foreign minister Vuk Daskovic told the Freie Presse newspaper that Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica would like to hold a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the issue.

• British-Muslim leaders have condemned the killing of innocent people as against Islam in a religious edict as the one year anniversary of the London subway attacks approach. Robert Spencer notes the ambiguous nature of the condemnation though.

• The UK Telegraph reports that British MI5 operatives think it's only a matter of time before Islamists set off a dirty bomb attack against London or another western capital.

• Scheherezade Faramarzi looks at the lack of public condemnation of terrorism by European Muslims and says they must engage on an issue many have plenty to say about in private.

Africa

• Anarchy in Sudan's Darfur is spilling over into Chad, where rival armed groups supported by the governments of Chad and Sudan are committing serious crimes against civilians, a human rights group said Thursday. Hundreds of Chadian civilians have been killed in recent weeks in cross-border attacks by Sudanese militias known as janjaweed and allied Chadian fighters, and more than 50,000 have been displaced.

• Marvin Hutchens at ThreatsWatch looks at the situation in the Horn of Africa, where Islamists are denying terror ties and an Ethiopian incursion.

• Sudan has suspended the work of a U.N. mission in its violent Darfur region after accusing the world body of transporting a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal, a Sudanese official said on Sunday.

• In a rebel camp along the barren, windswept border between Sudan and Chad, dozens of trucks packed with dreadlocked fighters manning heavy machine guns are lined up. Piled up behind them are ammunition boxes, covered in Chinese symbols -- it's impossible to know exactly where the bullets in the boxes came from but they offer a glimpse of the complex and circuitous routes of the global arms trade.

• An award-winning Swedish journalist was fatally shot in the back as he filmed a demonstration Friday in the restive capital of Somalia, where lawlessness and anger at foreigners run high despite peace efforts.

• Britain agreed Friday to provide $9 million in aid to improve the living conditions of three brigades in the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Global War

• Rape and sexual violence in conflict appear to be worsening and very little is being done to tackle the problem, a major UN conference has heard.

• The US military is relying ever more on space satellites to help wage combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, though analysts say that Washington's space supremacy could be threatened by rivals in the future. The Pentagon is using sophisticated satellites that orbit Earth in a bid to track down its enemies and keep a round-the-clock watch on unfriendly foes.

• In a new video tape, al Qaeda deputy commander Ayman al-Zawahiri praises the recently liquidated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and vows revenge on his behalf.

• Here is the Reading Room from Vital Perspective for May 9 through June 12. It collects material on Iran and Iraq, as well as coverage of Israel, Hezbollah, Syria, Egypt, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the War on Terrorism, United Nations, U.S. politics and policy on the region, commentary on the infamous Harvard paper and energy concerns.

• Since 9/11, hundreds of U.S. bomb technicians, police chiefs, police officers, and FBI, Secret Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents have made repeated trips to Israel to learn from their counterparts and their extensive experience in detecting and deterring Palestinian suicide bombers.

• A RAND monograph entitled War and Escalation in South Asia examines how the advent of two nuclear powers in South Asia, discoveries of nuclear trafficking, and insurgencies and terrorism that threaten important U.S. interests and objectives directly have transformed the region from a strategic backwater into a primary theater of concern for the United States.

• Rich Lowry writes an article at the National Review that looks at the U.S. missile defense program in the context of the recent preparations of a missile launch being made by North Korea.

• According to a report from the United Nations, the AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle will remain the world’s favorite killing machine in conflict zones for at least the next 20 years because its production is poorly regulated.

• 1,200 people gathered at a Los Angeles hotel on the weekend for what organisers billed as the largest conference on the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks.

• John Rosenthal reports on some background information on Khaled Al-Masri that has not received coverage in English.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.

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REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• As the Iraqi government continues to work to improve security in Baghdad, it declared a state of emergency and established a curfew in the capital. The curfew may have had some effect, as Baghdad was relatively calm on Sunday after a violent week.

• The U.S. Army has charged three soldiers in connection with the deaths of three Iraqis who were in military custody in northern Iraq last month.

• A shoe bomber blew himself up inside an important Shiite mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20, as violence persisted in the capital despite a massive security operation aimed at restoring order.

• U.S. forces raided the home of a major Sunni cleric, detaining him for several hours and sparking anger among Sunni Iraqis. Sheikh Jamal Abdel Karim al-Dabaan was released quickly and the U.S. apologized, but the damage may already be done.

• The top American commander in Iraq believes Iran is providing aid to the Iraqi insurgency, providing "weapons, IED technology and training to Shia extremist groups in Iraq."

• Iraqi forces will take over responsibility for security of Maysan province in southern Iraq from British forces later this year, though a specific timeline has yet to be announced.

• The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003. This revelation will do little to buck up the Iraq WMD storyline, however, as the shells found thus far have all been old and probably predate the 1991 war.

• Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops met little resistance Sunday as they planted new outposts in southern Ramadi, seeking to choke off supplies getting to insurgents who control large swaths of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab city.

• Two U.S. soldiers are dead after having been captured in an action south of Baghdad last Sunday. Reports claim the men were tortured before being killed, but the United States would not confirm those claims.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• Through Paris Club agreements, Iraq has been forgiven 80% of its debt to Russia - leaving only $800M out of a total $13B debt.

• The Japanese government has announced the release of 3.348B yen for Iraq to establish service projects in al-Muthana province.

• The Ireland Iraq Trade Association (IITA) has begun cooperating with the Kingdom of Bahrain. Bahrain is the main financial center for the Gulf area.

IRAQI POLITICS

• Iraq's National Security Advisor, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, says that Iraq needs to start taking responsibility for its own decisions or risk becoming weak by relying only on foreign advisors to make its decisions.

• Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claims that members of the Sunni insurgency are reaching out to the Iraqi government, news that may indicate the Iraqi government will be able to co-opt some fraction of the insurgency into the political process.

• This week's Carnival of the Liberated is up.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• Australian troops shot and killed a bodyguard of Iraq's trade minister, and Australian wheat deals with Iraq may also be a casualty of the shooting.

• Japan will withdraw its Ground Self-Defense Forces from Iraq, but the government insists that its support of the Iraq mission will continue through other channels. This will mark the end of the first deployment of Japanese ground forces outside Japan since the close of World War II, other than UN peacekeeping missions.

• The U.S. Senate defeated a proposal to begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by a 86-13 vote.

ETCETERA

• The prosecution in the trial of Saddam Hussein began giving its closing arguments Monday, launching the final phase of the eight-month-old trial against the former leader and seven ex-members of his regime for crimes against humanity.

• Saddam ended his one-meal hunger strike in protest of his lawyer's killing.

• Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!

• Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!

• Many American troops have taken it upon themselves to reconstruct schools and gather learning tools for the children of Iraq. Their efforts have been met with immense gratitude from the local Iraqis and their children. You can help too! Visit Operation Iraqi Children and get involved.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. And if you have a tip for a future Iraq Report, email us at MondayIraqReport(at)windsofchange.net.

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"Like most modern 'diaspora' immigrants, the Pakistani-British visit their native country with little difficulty. There were 400,000 British visitors to Pakistan in 2004. All countries with large Muslim diasporas are vulnerable to the worldwide Wahhabi radicalization fomented at mosques and cultural centers financed by Saudi Arabia's government and its private charities. But on top of that, Britain is vulnerable to radicalizing trends of South Asia: India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. These trends risk becoming Britain's own..."

It helps to understand that people are one of the Pakistani economy's largest exports, and that remittances from foreign countries are an even more important percentage of GDP in Pakistan than they are in Mexico. See Winds' coverage of Pakistan and Bangladesh for more on the Islamist dynamics there, and esp. our coverage of Bangladesh's slide toward the violent, imperialist side of Islam.

Worse...

"But over the past quarter-century, Britain has seen a dispiriting tendency toward segregation, or resegregation. Young newcomers have not found a niche in the service economy as easily as the arrivals of 40 and 50 years ago did in the industrial one. Others, born in Britain, have cast about for identities other than the British one they were raised with. In 2001, the northern industrial towns of Oldham, Burnley and Bradford experienced several days of violent racial mayhem between white and Asian gangs. A Home Office report issued in the wake of the riots found 'separate educational arrangements, community and voluntary bodies, employment, places of worship, language, social and cultural networks,' producing living arrangements that 'do not seem to touch at any point.' "

This is all aggravated by trends Winds has reported on extensively...

"South Asian religion has changed, too. The Islam that most immigrants took to Britain from the Indian subcontinent was a pious traditional Sufism, marked by great reverence for the Prophet Muhammad and an elaborate system of mentorship, under the control of various pirs, or holy men. Probably the majority of Britain's 1,500 or so mosques have their roots in Sufism. This kind of Islam has not been wiped out, but it has been losing ground in South Asia and Britain alike to simpler, more fashionable trends in Sunni Islam. The Deobandi school, which was founded in Pakistan in the 19th century, has grown increasingly conservative - and distrustful of non-Islamic cultures - under the influence of the Saudi Wahhabis."

What a polite way to describe organized racism and the promotion of violent hate.

"At least since the Afghan war in the 80's, hard-line Deobandi madrasas have spread throughout Pakistan. Jamaat-i-Islami, the sectarian and highly politicized movement started by the journalist Abu A'la Maududi, has grown since the 60's and is influential in the largest Muslim group in Britain, the Muslim Council of Britain (M.C.B.). While the M.C.B. has no official government status, it does claim to speak for much of the Muslim population and is the government's interlocutor of first resort when integration is at issue."

It is frankly amazing to see this bit in the ultra-liberal New York Times Magazine, but here you go:

"The Muslim Council of Britain now boycotts Holocaust Memorial Day every January, on the grounds that it focuses too exclusively on the genocide committed against the Jews. In response, Asim Siddiqui, the young leader of a London-based Muslim group called City Circle, organized a separate Holocaust memorial event. City Circle declares itself 'nonaligned to any overseas or established doctrinal organization.' Siddiqui is clearly a courageous and independent man. Yet the M.C.B. still gets more invitations to governmental meetings and is accepted as the logical outlet for the community's demands after, say, an antiterrorist raid. It is a good example of how the 'traffic light' strategy can fail. Its incentives drive community representatives toward radicalism. Strident political voices are not just admitted to conversation - they are the preferred voices, because they are seen as more 'authentic.' If the government's top priority is finding people with the street credibility to dissuade potential terrorists, then the ideal Muslim interlocutor is someone who shares the terrorists' goals while publicly condemning their means. Standing up for Holocaust victims and for fellowship among Britain's peoples is not much of a credential."

...and then there's this. As I've pointed out before, it's not as if people who were otherwise tolerant and inclined to peaceful cohabitation with other faiths suddenly snap one day... there's a long transmission belt of hate involved, resulting in human weapons that require only a trigger - and really, any trigger will do:

"Whether Iraq is a "cause" of terror or a mere pretext is a difficult question. Radical jihadists have threatened and attacked countries that opted out of the Iraq conflict. And if Iraq "causes" someone to become a suicide bomber, it is almost certainly not in the way Western liberals understand political causation. The terrorist may already hold jihadist views. He may be whipped into bloodlust by images on TV or the Internet. He may regard the invasion of Iraq as an incursion upon the prerogatives of the Ummah — but the source of his anger is unlikely to be any supposed violation of international law. In the end, though, it may not matter if everyone means something different by "Iraq." A shared opposition to the war tightens the identification between radical and nonradical Muslims, and between both those groups and some members of the non-Muslim Western left, and this muddies the terms with which the battle of ideas around terrorism is fought."

The collaboration of various segments of the western left goes far deeper, of course, from encouragement via "multiculturalism" of the segregation that helps to encourage violence, to apologetics for terrorism, to outright co-belligerence with Islamic terrorism's practitioners against the West.

Caldwell doesn't deal with that aspect at length, largely because he's more interested in what's going on outside the West's internal war. Which is a proper attitude to take in such situations; the world is not just a reflection of our own internal concerns.

You can read the whole article here." It's worth your time.

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In 'Fightin Moderates':

AJL (#3):

As I wrote in the Slate Fray, what has Lieberman so hot and bothered is he's in danger of losing to a liberal. Holy Joe likes losing to Republicans; they tell him what a great guy he is, pose for a photo op, tell him "Nice try". Hell, he passed up his best chance of being Vice President for the honor of being the Democrat that Republicans would support—if they weren't, of course, supporting the Republican. Remember how he literally couldn't wait to rat out Gore on the military votes is politics in Florida—including ones that looked suspiciously like they had been cast after the election? Joe couldn't find it in himself to be ungracious and filibuster any of the Bush court nominees either.

Andrew, I'll add LDS (Lieberman Derangement Syndrome) to the lexicon here. Lieberman isn't being opposed because of his corporatist votes (which I don't like); he's being opposed because he supports the War in Iraq, and for actions in which - as quoted - he puts the national interest (as he sees it) above the partisan one.

If the Democratic Party is about nothing except opposing the War in Iraq and disciplining those who stray from Party Discipline, my response would be that it's dead, Jim. I still believe that it's not and that once the bubble that Kos and MyDD have stirred up collapses, we can put together an adult Democratic Party that can win.

And yeah, Andrew - it's a great point to highlight that Lieberman refused to disenfranchise overseas troops in Gore's interest. That's highly convincing to me that Gore (and you) cared most of all about an honest election, and not about whatever it took to win.

Gabriel Chapman (#6):

And FYI: Moderate is codeword for "won't take a stand".

No it's not. Moderate is a codeword for "there's a truth somewhere in this mess that isn't represented by Daily Kos or the Freep".

Davebo (#17): When did I call Whitman a liberal? He's a right-moderate, I'm a left-moderate. I do think I probably have more in common with him than I do Kos (we're both honest and sane), and I'll guess that his positions - if adopted by the Republican Party will win a lot more elections than Kos' if adopted by the Democrats.

AJL (#22):

Let me be blunt: Lieberman isn't your hero because his positions are deep, or his advocacy impassioned, or his daughters cute. He's the hero because he's your fellow participant in the self-induced illusion that the War in Iraq is being won. The problem with presidential credibility in Iraq is that the president is a blowhard and a liar, and your problem in acknowledging the same is the natural embarrassment of looking down and seeing you are naked.

And Andrew, saying it a million times, emphatically and forcefully may eventually make it so by changing people's minds and so what we do, but the reality is that Iraq isn't lost, and while Bush may be a blowhard and a liar, so are all Presidents (especially in wartime) and you've lost all judgment when it comes to Bush or Iraq. hypocracyrules (#31):

"it's not that they want to break the iron ricebowl that's been feeding the political elites; they just want their own chopsticks." Without any facts this is simply propaganda smear. And A.L. knows it. Who is the "they?" What is the preponderance of evidence that, after millions of words written, that the "they" simply want the rice? (And yes, I mean the PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE. Not one or two examples, in the thousands of bloggers, with infinite words written.)

Oh please, hypo. This isn't a court of law where I have to make a case supported by the preponderance of evidence (or better, beyond a reasonable doubt). Kos tells Micah Sifry, when asked why he is supporting Warner:

I've now had two opportunities (first at PDF and now here at YearlyKos) to ask Markos Moulitsas why he thinks Warner is THE candidate who gets the Internet, and both times his answer is, essentially, "He hired Jerome."

So I'll call bullshit on this charge. You then segue into, 'well if they're making money, why is that so bad'??

And, who are you to be throwing stones? Is WOC part of any advertising market? Don't YOU make recommendations? Did you get paid for your work - and good work - in Iraq? Didn't this gig help in that?

We get our ads directly from TribalFusion, in part because we chose not to be a part of the baggage involved in the various blog ad networks. Yes, I make recommendations - but the people I recommend don't pay me to do so (in fact, it's the other way around, I back them with my own cash. In the case of Debra Bowen, I've disclosed that I've known Debra for some time so people can freely decide whether they think my recommendation is backed by supportable positions or personal bias. When I took the Spirit of America gig, I took a $4K/mo cut in pay, so yeah, I was profiting wildly from that one - but yes, blogging did lead me to that one. You forgot Pajamas Media, which I helped start and sold out of - and which blogging led me to. You'll note what a shill I am for them... AJL (#50):

Now, did Saddam dream of re-acquiring WMD? Well, I suppose he did. I dream of seducing Anne Hathaway (yeah, weird taste in starlets), but is that cause for whoever her boyfriend is to come beat me up? The inspections that we interrupted so that Bush could get his war on were in all likelihood going to squelch whatever Saddam had going on. Mostly he seemed interested in maintaining the human capital to develop weaponry, and I can't imagine you would think more highly of Saddam if all of his WMD-capable scientists mysteriously disappeared. It takes a little more expertise than I have to understand whose definition of dual-use is in play in these reports. In our early, confident announcements, it was obvious that equipment in my son's junior High science lab would have been considered dual use—perhaps rightfully so, it doesn't take much to come up with tactical-level chemical munitions.

Andrew, this is the core charge against the war (nice riff on Ann Hathaway, btw - I use Uma Thurman for the same point), and one that seems so obviously wrong that I'm puzzled it's still around.

Sanctions were what was preventing Saddam from making progress on his dreams of WMD - dreams he had the means to realize once he could freely sell his oil and import outside close supervision. Sanctions were breaking down, both operationally as the corruption of OFF corroded the administration of them and as the political consensus for them corroded under Madeline Albrights 'half a million Iraqi babies' comment. There's little doubt in my mind that had the US said 'basta!' and given up, that the sanctions would have be over in weeks, and Saddam would have happily started selling oil and buying centrifuges.

Saddam did admit and cooperate (grudgingly and inadequately, per Hans Blix) with UN inspectors once a quarter-million US troops were on his borders, cleaning their guns. But those troops couldn't stay there indefinitely, and the window for operations before the heat of summer or rain of winter was a narrow one. So we used them or we waited a year. Was it likely that Saddam was going to be more cooperative we couldn't move? Or even that sanctions would hold up another year?

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White's argument is simple; Bush tried to move international institutions (read France and Germany) to support actions up to and including war with Iraq, was ultimately unsuccessful and proceeded anyway. A premature attack would have been sees as reckless escalation, and since there was no way to know that the negotiations would be unsuccessful in advance (we hadn't seen the Oil-For-Food books yet), it was sensible to try everything in our power - including restraint - to strengthen them.

He highlights the Perry/Carter proposal that we send a Tomahawk in to bomb the Nork launch pad before they launch their missile. He's kinder to the proposal than I would be, and asks his audience for comments (which are interesting). My view is that this is a fairly typical example of Clinton's policy calculus: cheap, theatrical, guaranteed casualty-free, and ineffective. The fact that it would constitute an act of war seems to evade folks' attention.

And he highlights the LA Times/ NY Times articles exposing the (valuable, now hopelessly compromised) financial intelligence programs, and points out the first-cut legal arguments that support their legality.

As a side note, I'll comment that the LA Times has finally pushed me to cancel my subscription with this article, and I'd encourage anyone else reading this who gets the paper to do the same thing.

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Iran

• President Bush has again demanded that Iran stop enriching uranium, or face the fury of the UN Security Council, as well as a series of increasingly tough political and economic sanctions. After Iran replied it would provide an answer to the Western proposal by August 22nd, the president said that is too long to wait.

• Does a Bush administration strategy paper show the U.S. has in fact ruled out the violent overthrow of the mullahs, or strikes on their nuclear program? This guy thinks so.

• Saiid Mortazavi is an Iranian judge involved in the torture, rape and murder of a Canadian journalist. He closed down 200 newspapers and jailed 100 reporters. Which is, of course, why he is attending the UN's brand-spanking new Human Rights Council. Rather than taking the normal course of sending bureaucrats to attack the West, Iran has decided to send the murderous scum in person to accuse Europe and the U.S. of failing to respect freedom of expression. The leader of Iran's delegation spoke in favour of curbing free speech internationally, specifically regarding the so-called 'defamation of religion', 'particularly the divine message of Islam'.

• Forty professors and lecturers at Tehran University are being forced to retire.

• Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji says, contrary to media reports, there is no consensus amongst Iranians on the nuclear issue.

• Meanwhile, Iranian dissident groups are bickering as much as ever.

• The grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini has called on the U.S. to overthrow the mullahs currently ruling Iran. Remarkably, Hossein Khomeini made the call from inside Iran, in the holy Shia city of Qom - in an interview marking 17 years since the death of Khomeini himself.

The Middle East

• Finally, the PA security forces are to engage in a crackdown. Against 'collaborators'. Fatah have made the decision to hunt down those they think are involved in helping the Israelis eliminate terrorists.

• Egyptian blogger Alaa has been released from prison - great news!

• Egyptian terror gang Gamaa Islamiyah is to launch a new website, explaining their decision to renounce violence and even seek dialogue with Coptic Christians. The current leadership say that they view the assassination of Anwar Sadat as a mistake.

• Egypt continues its campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood, arresting 31 members for distributing leaflets. The MB says the men were on holiday.

• A fatwa against statues from the Grand Mufti of Cairo seems to have prompted the recent attack on statues in an Egyptian museum. A veiled women, yelling 'Infidels!' destroyed three statues. The incident raised fears of an increasing Islamist Egypt.

• Jordan has publically denied that it has any dispute with Syria. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak is reported to have said Cairo is mediating between Amman and Damascus, following a thwarted Hamas terror campaign in Jordan - a campaign Jordan implied Syria was involved in.

• Debka says Iranian Revolutionary Guards will deploy in the Golan Heights, meaning Iran would have troops or assets on yet another Israeli border.

• Despite the heightened tensions in and around Gaza, Israel is not even close to completing their new network centric system. The IDF is due to deploy the first first fully-digitized division by July 2007.

• Hezbollah have returned to their positions on the Lebanese-Israeli border having vacated them during the recent clashes with the IDF. Iranian military intelligence are said to have bolstered the Hezbollah presence. One military source said we are back to square one, noting that Iran have replaced and boosted their surveillance equipment.

• Israel and Jordan have agreed to begin cooperation on the construction of a joint airport at Aqaba. Shimon Peres and King Abdullah also agreed to discuss free trade zones to employ thousands of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians.

• The Syrians say it is still too early for diplomatic ties with Lebanon. Still smarting from losing their client state, Syria's foreign minister said, in the current climate, ambassadors would have been withdrawn from embassies (if Syria had considered Lebanon to be an independent country, that is).

• The Israeli army is struggling to adjust to the post-Oslo policy of restraint in the face of terrorism. A senior military advisor says the IDF is now tasked to 'explain the situation', as opposed to changing the situation. Several commanders, serving and retired, contend that the IDF officer corps is confused and demoralised, with soldiers being taught the futility of winning non-conventional wars.

• Islamic Jihad have rejected the prisoners document touted as some sort of peace-plan. Abu Mazen has accepted it, while Hamas opposes it - mostly. Hamas and Fatah are thought to be moving towards a deal on the proposal.

• Jordanian Islamists are to stage a protest march in support of four Jordanian MPs who gave their condolences to the family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The organisers expect 100,000 people to participate. The four MPs are facing impeachment and charges of inciting terrorism.

• Slate looks at Turkey's anti-American pop culture, from Valley of the Wolves: Iraq to Metal Storm. Not surprisingly, they skip the best-selling Mein Kampf and move on to say this is really no worse than America's anti-Turk pop culture...

Iraq and the Gulf

• Saudis Offered Scholarships for Aviation Courses in US. Hard to know what to say...

• The bodies of two American soldiers kidnapped in Iraq have been found - mutilated and booby-trapped. What MSM would call 'hostage-takers' mutilated the soldiers to the extent that visual identification was impossible.

• Since 2003, coalition forces have seized 500 munitions containing mustard or sarin nerve agents. They are believed to date from prior to the first Gulf War, and the chemical weapons are said to be 'degraded'.

• Foreign terrorists in Ramadi are apparently fleeing towards Syria, after they murdered the leader of the Karabila tribe. Tribe members are hunting the jihadis across Iraq, in close collaboration with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

• The creatively-named WAMY (World Assembly of Muslim Youth) has a history of indoctrinating Muslim children in North America with the now-familiar ideas of martyrdom and terror. In that light, it is perhaps not surprising that WAMY's HQ in (you guessed it) Saudi Arabia was the location for CAIR's upcoming $50 million campaign designed to combat 'Islamophobia'. The Islamic front group CAIR is getting that $50 million, plus at least $24 million more, from the United Arab Emirates.

• An al-Qaeda group in Iraq has announced its intention to murder four Russian embassy workers.

• After Sunni terrorists kidnapped around 100 factory workers in Baghdad, Iraqi police have freed 17 of the hostages. A Shia worker described how he had escaped thanks to his false Sunni identity papers. The 'hostage-takers' released women, children and Sunni men. 40-60 people are still thought to be held captive.

• Iraqi TV is due to show a 60-second public service broadcast, asking Iraqis not to be suicide bombers. The adverts are being filmed in Los Angeles by two companies, one American, one Lebanese, and will use cinematic techinques used in The Matrix to demonstrate the horror of terrorism close up. Those involved in the project speculate the $1 million ad could be shown in other Middle Eastern countries.

• Japanese troops are to withdraw from Iraq. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi noted that the force had completed their mission without firing in anger, or taking any casualties. The soldiers were deployed in a quiet corner of Iraq, repairing roads and schools.

• An American official has accused Hezbollah of killing Iraqis, Americans and Britons in Iraq. A Hezbollah spokesman denied this, claiming the terror group do not operate outside Lebanese soil. Sure.

• The Pentagon withheld the circumstances of the deaths of two American soldiers for nine months. The two California National Guardsmen were gunned down by members of Iraq's security forces.

• Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Abd Al-Aziz has launched a new Arabic TV channel - family-orientated, project tolerance, jihad until judgement day. The usual stuff.

The Americas

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement have broken up a document forgery ring in D.C., arresting eight men. The group is believed to be connected to the Mexican Castorena-Ibarra crime family, whose head was arrested in Mexico earlier in the week.

• The alleged ringleader of the Canada cell distributed videos lionizing 9/11 terrorists as heroes outside a mosque in Scarborough.

• The WSJ has an article about a jihadi imam in a San Francisco mosque - and how he won a battle with a moderate imam who wanted him out.

• The SUV jihadi, Mohammed Taheri-Azar, is to plead guilty to nine counts of attempted murder and nine counts of felonious assault. Taheri-Azar plans to represent himself in the upcoming trial.

• Canada's new prime minister, chided as a Bush-clone by opponents, says Canada's model of diversity, 'properly nurtured', is the country's greatest strength. The comment was made following criticism of the Canadian social model in the wake of the arrests of 17 Canadian Muslims alleged to have planned terrorist attacks. Harper also said that Canada's Muslim community (not that he actually said 'Muslim community') had rejected terrorism more strongly than most Canadians.

• A Canadian imam has invited a British imam to speak on issues concerning Muslim youth. Sheik Riyadh ul Haq is a noted antisemite, supporter of the Taliban and has frequently vilified Hindus and liberal Muslims.

• A former Islamic extremist and friend of three of the arrested 17 terror suspects says anger is prevalent amongst young Muslims due to the maltreatment of Muslims in other parts of the world.

• Not wanting to be outdone in the fruitcake contest with Chavez, Bolivian premier Evo Morales says the U.S. is sending soldiers disguised as tourists and students in to the country. Bolivia is seeking to extend a preferential trade agreement with the United States. For his part, Chavez is boosting the Venezulan arms industry.

• A federal court has found a palestinian not guilty of planning to join Islamic Jihad. Arwah Jaber was, however, convicted of obtaining his naturalization unlawfully, making false statements on passport and immigration applications, and two counts of making false statements on credit card applications.

Europe

• French authorities have arrested Dahou Meskine, a very moderate imam, for financing Islamic terrorism. Meskine is a founder of the government sponsored UOIF, another Muslim Brotherhood front. He is also the imam of the mosque at Clichy-Sous-Bois, the flashpoint for the violene across Europe late last year. He founded the first Muslim middle school in France, and has been a vocal opponent of 'Islamophobia' in Europe. Meskine was one of 17 people arrested for terror financing.

• British police have arrested four more terror suspects with alleged links to the 17 men arrested in Canada on terror charges. Police have already arrested two other men with suspected links to the Canada cell.

• A Spanish judge is due to investigate claims ETA suspects were tipped off by police ahead of planned arrests. El Mundo reports that the recent arrests of 12 ETA suspects was due to happen in early May.

• Italian prosecutors still want to indict a U.S. soldier they believe killed a member of Italian intelligence in Iraq. A Pentagon report in to the incident concluded that the car, driven by another member of Italian intelligence and carrying journalist Giuliana Sgrena, was speeding towards the Army checkpoint. An Italian investigation countered that, and blamed U.S. forces for not indicating there was a checkpoint.

• Bosnian authorities have stripped 38 terror suspects of Bosnian citizenship. All 38 are Muslim veterans of the Bosnian war thought to be involved in ongoing terrorism. Western intelligence agencies have warned Bosnia about mujahideen veterans running training camps and spreading radical Islamic thought.

• Ansar al-Islam founder Mullah Krekar is still praising jihadis whilst living in Norway.

• Three alleged members of Ansar al-Islam are on trial in Germany for planning to murder Iyad Allawi in 2004. One of the men is accused of being the Ansar leader in Germany.

• Kosovo Serbs have warned of an increase in Albanian terrorism, including shootings and roadside bombs. Serb groups have claimed an Albanian claim to stamp out Serb culture in Kosovo, including 150 attacks on churches since 1999.

• A German parliamentary committee investigating the CIA's alleged rendition program has heard from a German citizen who says he was held in an Afghan jail for five months. Khaled el-Masri told the panel he was kidnapped by the CIA on the Serbian-Macedonian border in 2003, and only released when they realised they had the wrong man.

• Britain's chairman of the Commission of Racial Equality has called for more Muslim police and intelligence officers. Trevor Philllips praised the Muslim community for continuing to cooperate with police, despite 'putting up with being searched investigated and dragged out of their homes'.

• Schools in Oslo will ban students from wearing the burqa. The Oslo Education Department said that clothing that obscure the faces of students prevent teachers from doing their jobs.

• British farmers are being told to lock up their fertiliser, lest terrorists steal it for bomb construction. British officials note that terrorists seeking to buy fertiliser, somewhat surprisingly, 'would not be dressed as terrorists'. Police have also warned that terrorists might take part in outdoors sports like water-rafting, and groups who run such activities should report suspicious behaviour.

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali is expected to retain her Dutch citizenship, despite lying to authorities whilst applying for asylum. Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has backed down following outcry in the international press.

• An Algerian terror suspect has been deported to Algeria from Britain. Held without charge for several years, Mr "I" withdrew his appeal against deportation.

• Police in Northern Ireland have arrested 10 people thought to be republican terrorists plotting a major terrorist attack. One of the ten is thought to have been involved in the Omagh bombing of 1998, in which 29 civilians were murdered.

Russia and Central Asia

• After Chechen militant Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev was killed a week ago, two versions of his demise have surfaced. The official one claims 'operation intelligence' led a special task force to his hideout, where he was killed in a gunbattle. The less glamourous version says police and FSB responded to a call about workmen suspicious of bearded men hiding in a basement. Jamestown also have some interesting perspectives on what his death means, here and here.

• A video has emerged showing a disputed confrontation in Uzbekistan, during which Uzbek forces killed hundreds of people. The government says it was putting down an armed uprising, but rights groups say unarmed civilians were gunned down. Unfortunately, the video doesn't add much information. It shows armed men, carrying rifles and Molotov cocktails, but was known already that some people were armed. Observers say the video does not, however, prove Karimov's forces acted maliciously (as opposed to incompetently).

The Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan

• Pakistan's military government is claiming a double victory, over Taliban in Waziristan, and over separatists in Balochistan. In Waziristan, at least, it sounds like the Pakistanis have spoken too soon - Taliban law is increasingly prevalent. Jamestown looks at the tactics being used in Waziristan.

• Bill Roggio has two posts about his exploits in Afghanistan: Kabul to Qalat and Observations from Southeastern Afghanistan. This is a primary source, ladies and gents. Use it.

• British forces are encountering more Taliban than expected in the restive province of Helmand. A British commander noted that the Taliban had demonstrated their determination by conducting a series of suicide attacks during the winter, a period when guerilla groups typically go to ground. True to form, the Taliban have used women and children as human shields in several clashes with British troops.

• An al-Qaeda cell has recently arrived in Pakistan, from Afghanistan, to conduct major attacks and kill senior Pakistani leaders, according to the Pakistani Interior Ministry. The group is apparently made up of former Taliban and Arab veterans of Afghanistan and Chechnya.

• Despite that, and so much more, a Taliban commander says they are not at war with Pakistan.

• Al-Qaeda have released a new video featuring Zawahiri. The video focuses on a traffic accident in Kabul in late May, with the usual calls to arms. It is unusual in its length (3mins, 44secs), and its translation in to Arabic, Farsi and Pashtu.

• The Taliban may be planning an attack on Kandahar. Two sources with Taliban connections claim they are planning a major assault within the city walls, to be carried out in the next 3-4 months. Shades of Tet?

• A Pakistani terrorist from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been arrested over the murder of 150 mostly Shia Pakistanis. Usman Kurd is accused of leading Lashkar-e-Jhangvi efforts in parts of Balochistan.

• Indian authorities are pretty startled by the stories of those incarcerated for terror offences in Kashmir. Many suspected terrorists aren't hardened Islamic extremists, but petty criminals or unemployed youths willing to carry out attacks for money.

• The dangers of reporting on Pakistani jihadists was highlighted by the brutal murder of Daniel Pearl, but Pakistani journalists are killed with alarming frequency. The threat is allegedly from the ISI, as well as al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

• Another bus service linking Jammu and Kashmir is to launch. The first line, while still running, was targeted by Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Far East & South East Asia

• The Islamic separatist group waging war in southern Thailand, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, is being financially and logistically supported by Thai criminals who want to distract police attention away from their own activities. The Thai investigation has found that the BRN saved up $1.2 million for their bomb campaign last week, during which around 70 bombs were detonated across the south. Fortunately, fewer than ten people were killed.

• Faheem Khalid Lodhi, the Pakistani-born Australian architect, has been convicted of planning acts of terrorism on Australian soil. Lodhi, alleged to have trained at a Lashkar-e-Taiba camp in Pakistan, faces life imprisonment. He was found to have bomb-making instructions, and to have ordered chemicals used in explosives.

• An Islamic extremist group in Australia has raised $50,000 for the families of 22 terror suspects arrested in Melbourne last month.

• Nepalese Maoists have refused to disarm, but are willing to accept UN arms supervision. FWIW, I haven't found out yet what 'arms supervision' by the United Nations actually entails.

• China carries out so many executions that they've decided to make capital punishment mobile. The Chinese say that the shift to lethal injection (as opposed to firing squads) indicates China's acceptance of human rights, but critics say that lethal injection is a better way to preserve organs for the black market. The remains of those executed are not returned to the families, fuelling suspicions.

• Jamestown's China Brief has a new issue: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; America's China policy; and China's booming energy relations with Africa.

• Manila is on alert for a terrorist attack, after specific intelligence of a plan to bomb multiple locations. Filipino authorities said the plot involved Muslim rebels (perhaps a term for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front?) and foreign terrorists.

• The Filipinos are also declaring all-out war on rebels - communist rebels.

Africa

• Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's 'president', has barred UN peacekeepers from deploying in Darfur. Bashir blamed Jewish organisations for international pressure on the genocidal terror state. Related, several dozen Pakistanis have arrived in Darfur to lead the two jihadi groups awaiting any UN forces.

• Sudanese irregulars, guided by Chadian rebels, have conducted several raids deep in to Chadian territory, including one 75km across the border. Sudan has been backing Chadian groups opposed to the government, while Chad plays host to the Sudanese Liberation Army and others.

• South Africans have been told by the Safety and Security Minister to stop 'whingeing' about the country's horrendous crime levels. 51 murders and 151 rapes are reported every day in South Africa. That's around 18,000 murders a year, for a country with a population around 45 million.

The Global War

• U.S. Treasury officials say that the flow of cash to jihadi groups is being choked. Victor Comras at the CT blog isn't so sure, and notes the unabated terror campaigns being waged around the world, plus the apparently-loaded groups in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• The One Percent Doctrine, a soon-to-be-released book on the war on terror, has alleged that Mohammad Sidique Khan (the 7/7 ringleader) was linked to a radical mosque in New York. The author, Ron Suskind, also claims U.S. intelligence warned the Brits about Khan, and had barred Khan from entering the United States. British intelligence officials deny all of the above and claim that Suskind's sources mistook Mohammed Ajmal Khan (jailed in the UK for terror offences) for Sidique Khan. Suskind is adamant that the sources interviewed for his book made no mistake.

• The Department of Homeland Security has listed nine al-Qaeda plots to attack aviation worldwide since 9/11, including plots to crash passenger planes in to Heathrow airport and London landmarks like Canary Wharf.

• A retired senior ISI official who fought with al-Qaeda says that AQ are seriously considering the e-bomb as a means of bringing down the United States. Ruling out a nuclear attack, Khalid Khawaja said that some in the 'anti-American resistance' (his words) favour 'bringing America back to the Stone Age without harming human lives'.

• The U.S. military is increasingly potent, thanks to a series of advances focused on precision as opposed to firepower. The improvements start at the riflemen, who shoots better, has better sights, and fires single rounds, to smart artillery, and the much-loved JDAM. Strategy Page has it all.

No, seriously...

• Camp Viking, the Danish military base outside Kabul, has a For Sale sign out front - Danish forces in Afghanistan having been moved south. Several countries are thought to be bidding, though the identities of those countries - and their bids - are still under wraps.

• Ghanian embassies in the Middle East recieved death threats after a Ghanian player waved an Israeli flag in a recent World Cup match. John Painstil, who plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv, has since apologised for offence caused.

• The leader of the PFLP is planning to sue the British government for violating his human rights. British monitors evacuated Jericho prison in March following threats to their lives, prompting an Israeli operation to arrest Ahmed Saadat and several other fugitives.

• The U.S. Embassy in Israel is still adamant that Jerusalem isn't in Israel - to the point they're even altering death certificates.

• was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi registered for benefits in India? Maybe...

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.

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I wrote more than two years ago that the media need to be biased, the question is, which bias? Gen. Richard Myers said in April 2005,

A bomb blast is seen as more newsworthy than the steady progress of rebuilding communities and lives, remodeling schools and running vaccination programs and water purification plants.

I assessed the symbiosis between terrorism and the media in 2004 thus:

There are only four basic outcomes of this war:

1. Over time, the United States engenders deep-rooted reformist impulses in Muslim lands, especially Arab countries, leading their societies away from the self- and other-destructive patterns they now exhibit. It is almost certainly too much to ask that the societies become principally democratic as we conceive democracy (at least not for a very long time), but we can (and must) work to help them remit tendencies toward violent Islamism from their cultures so that terrorism does not threaten us or them. This goal is what amounts to total victory for the United States.

2. The Islamofascists achieve their goals of Islamismicization (there’s a word for you!) of the entire Middle East (at the minimum), the ejection of all non-Muslims from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Persian Gulf, the destruction of Israel, and the deaths of countless numbers of Americans. This outcome is what amounts to total victory for al Qaeda.

3. Absent achieving the goals stated just above, al Qaeda successfully unleashes a mass-destructive, mass-casualty attack against the United States and full-scale war erupts between the US and, at the minimum, Syria and Iran. This would amount to a defeat for all concerned.

4. None of the above happen, so the conflict sputters along for decades more with no real changes: we send our troops into combat intermittently, suffer non-catastrophic attacks intermittently, and neither side possesses all of the will, the means and the opportunity to achieve decisive victory. The war becomes the Forever War.

Perhaps you can think of other, different outcomes, but I think these pretty much cover the possibilities.

So the question for us commentati, whether based on the web or in traditional media, is simply: which of these outcomes is best? Which will be most favorable to human flourishing?

As for me, I choose the first, and have no qualms admitting I am heavily biased in favor thereof. And that bias certainly shapes my blogging!

The basic issue for news media: Which outcome do you want?

It is not possible to pretend neutrality here, for the power of the media to frame the public’s debate is too great to claim you are merely being “fair and balanced.” There literally is no neutral ground here, no “God’s eye view” of events, and hence no possibility of not taking sides. One way or another, what you print or broadcast, what stories you cover and how you cover them, what attention you pay to what issues and how you describe them - all these things mean that you will support one outcome over another. Which will you choose? How will you support it? These are the most important questions of your vocation today.

It's nice to see Mr. Pinkerton facing them. Let us hope other media managers will, too. Cross posted at donaldsensing.com

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Monday, he put up a great post:

The Moose calls for moderates with attitudes.

These days if you want to be taken seriously in politics you have to have an attitude. Just look who the MSM pays attention to - blowhard bloggers and pugilistic pundits. In fact, Coulter and Kos are kissing cousins.

They deserve each other. The primary difference between the two is that the Republican Party leadership does not grovel at the feet of Coulter nor do their Senate candidates give her a staring role in their commercials.

...

It is time that changed. The Moose suggests that our nation desperately needs moderates with attitudes. No, they should not be course, crude and crass. But they should be unafraid and unapologetic about their centrism.

First and foremost, the immoderate center should not temper their views when they come under assault from the fever swamp of the left and the right. There is no accommodating these folks.

America needs national unity as never before. We are faced with a Jihadist enemy that poses a potential existential threat to our nation. The stakes are high. That is why the McCain-Lieberman Party in American politics must be bold and daring. While the two parties slavishly appease their respective bases, the broad swath of the electorate remains unrepresented.

He goes on to quote David Broder interviewing Joe Lieberman:

My opponent says it [the controversial Wall Street Journal op-ed] broke Democratic unity," Lieberman said. "Well, dammit, I wasn't thinking about Democratic unity. It was a moment to put the national interest above partisan interest...

"I know I'm taking a position that is not popular within the party," Lieberman said, "but that is a challenge for the party -- whether it will accept diversity of opinion or is on a kind of crusade or jihad of its own to have everybody toe the line. No successful political party has ever done that."

Where do I sign up?

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. . . this resolution passed against the desire of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) and the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC) who both advised against this condemnation. My correspondent notes:

The ACSWP's objections included assertions that it was one-sided and that the General Assembly had alread condemned violence in any form and that "The biblical witness on suicide and war is complex. It includes Saul's suicide and Samson's pulling down a Philistine temple on himself and others." -- This last argument is straight from Naim Ateek's essay on suicide bombing, by the way.

(More on Ateek and his organization Sabeel.)

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Tigerhawk has a gallery of Persian soccer hotties, and Matthew adds (via email):

They don't dress like that in Tehran. Also, being in Londonistan, I can tell you there are plenty of cars flying green, white and red, with "IRAN" written through the white stripe instead of the symbol on the post-revolution flag (mostly Beemers as it happens . . .).

Germany caught the patriotic fever:

When it came to the national anthem and its opening line "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles", so often accompanied by uncertainty and shoe-gazing, much of the 65,000-strong crowd rose to their feet and joined in, as did the national team. . . . . Patriotism has for decades been associated with nationalism, and the sinister past of blind obedience to a dictatorial leader. If you are a proud German you generally do not express that by flying the national flag or singing the national anthem, both of which have been more associated with Germany's far-right parties. . . . As successive generations distance themselves from the Nazi past - without forgetting it - there is a feeling that the World Cup is a timely celebration of Germany's modern democracy. It seemed to start a week before kick-off when fans from all nations began to arrive, proudly bearing their national colours from cars, camper vans and on thousands of replica shirts. At that point many of the 80 million Germans, with a proud footballing heritage, seemed to have asked themselves, why are we not doing the same?

Did you ever think you'd see the same people waving Israeli flags and singing "Deutschland über alles"?

But the most conspicuous symbol of a politicized sports event was Ghanian player John Pantsil whipping out an Israeli flag every time his team scored a goal against the Czech Republic. (Pantsil also plays for the Israeli team, which would probably qualify for the tournament if it could compete with teams in the Asian region rather than the European one. Muslim countries won't play Israel, so . . . . Pantsil wanted to cheer up his Israeli fans.)

Egypt was flummoxed and began generating Zionist conspiracy theories:

"As soon as the referee blew his whistle to start the match, Egyptians were out enthusiastically, almost hysterically supporting Ghana, until defender John Paintsil took out the Israeli flag," read the paper's front page article. . . . "The main question on Egyptian lips after the match was "why?".

Some papers described Paintsil as a "Mossad agent", others said "an Israeli had paid him to do it" but the most elaborate theory was offered by the top-selling state-owned daily Al-Ahram. "The real reason," sports analyst Hassan el-Mestekawi wrote, stems from the fact that many Ghanaian players go through football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who "discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent's children" with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs. "The training program for these children starts every morning with a salute to the Israeli flag," Mestekawi claimed.

. . . . "We were totally supporting Ghana and we were so excited by how well they were doing," Ashraf al-Berri, who watched the match with a dozen friends told AFP. "We were screaming with joy, but the whole room went quiet when Paintsil took out the flag. We didn't really know how to react," he said.

"As an Egyptian I am very sensitive when it comes to Israel," Osama Mohy, who watched the match at a friend's house, told AFP. "If Mido scores, would he wave the England flag? and if he did everyone would hate him for it," he said refering to Egyptian striker Mido (Ahmed Hossam) who plays for England's Tottenham Hotspurs.

African champions Egypt failed to qualify for the World Cup finals.

Sandmonkey:

Some are even calling for the saudi or Tunisian teams to start waving the palestinian flags after every football game that they win "in retalliation". We are all in Kindergarden apparently!

Ghana Football Assoc. apologized, FIFA doesn't care.

Well, the Olympics were always at least as much an opportunity to play subtle geopolitical games as to overt athletic ones, so why not the World Cup?

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The most horrible were the fragments of the Calvin Klein watch inside Michal's neck. You can see her x-rays, among many others, at the website of Inside Terrorism: The X-ray Project. This exhibit is also an installation, partly funded by the David Project, which you can bring to your school, museum, or other location.

Then there is the Palestinian woman wounded in the Gaza beach explosion, sent to an Israeli hospital in a coma, after first being treated at a Palestinian hospital. The Israeli medical staff isn't right coming out and saying that the Palestinian hospital removed almost all of the shrapnel in her body, contrary to standard medical practice, even though she was already severely wounded from the bomb. But it's pretty obvious.

Now why would they do that . . . .

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Tepid.

Here's why.

On the website, there's a clear message sent by the images - all of which are orange-vested long-gun toting outdoor sportsmen. No target shooters, no precision long-distance shooters, no handgun shooters at all (not even handgun hunters).

Go to the "Gun Rights" section, and there are two links: Working With Our Legislators and DC Gun Law.

Working with our legislators involves a day of bonding and upland bird hunting (hey, I like bird hunting...).

DC Gun Law encourages (sensibly) that the District allow law-abiding citizens to purchase guns.

Nothing earth-shaking.

Then we go to the Law Enforcement section. Here's the lede:

AHSA is an organization committed to supporting our nation’s law enforcement officers and first responders in their fight against easy access to guns by criminals, terrorists, and others who would abuse the right to keep and bear arms.

Reading down the policy proposals, what it looks like to me is an effort to broaden the data gathered and stored about gun purchasers and purchases.

There's a huge and recent history around this, in which current law pretty clearly prohibits law enforcement from retaining gun sales data gathered during background checks. Some agencies kept it anyway, thinking that it would have some future utility and Congress and the Administration jointly slapped their hands.

In other words, law enforcement administration attempted to use records that are by law to be used only to vet gun purchasers and are supposed to be destroyed as a backdoor registry.

My feelings about registration are complex, but at the end of the day if the option is a single federal or state registry, I'm against it. Go see how well it worked in Canada.

OK, one strike.

Let's go to the section headed A Gun In The Home For Self-Protection?

The American Hunters and Shooters Association does not promote nor do we discourage keeping a firearm in the home for self-protection. We believe it is inappropriate for anyone to make a one-size-fits-all recommendation that an individual in Maryland, Texas, California or Massachusetts should or should not keep a firearm in the home.

In deciding whether a firearm in the home is a risk or a benefit, four common sense factors must be considered:

1. Is a firearm in the home more likely to be used to protect its owner or is it more likely to be used against a member of the household?
2. How frequently are guns used for self-protection?
3. How effective are handguns when they are used for self-protection?
4. Overall, how safe are guns in the home?

There are certain factors that weigh heavily against keeping a gun in the home for self-protection. One of the most widely quoted statements about guns is that a firearm kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder. This comes from the Journal of Medicine in 1986, following a six-year review of gunshot deaths in Seattle, Washington, conducted by Dr. Arthur Kellermann and others. The validity of this study in determining the value and risk of firearms for home protection has been questioned. The Kellermann study focused only on defensive gun uses where the criminal intruder was shot and killed. Instances in which intruders or assailants were wounded or frightened away were not included.

This is waffling at a level I would have thought only John Kerry capable of. Strike two.

I don't believe everyone in America should own a gun. I don't believe that people who don't have guns in their homes ready to hand are in imminent danger because they refuse to arm.

But here's a place where a clear stance should be taken - and we ought to know exactly where the organization stands.

because in reality, that's the fissure point in American society around guns. Most Americans wouldn't have an issue with the Savage deer rifle in my gun safe, or the classic Remington 53 shotgun.

But the Scattergun Tech police shotgun or the handguns probably give them pause.

Because the fundamental question is: do you trust me and citizens like me enough to allow me ready access to the tools for deadly force in order to defend myself?

And do you in light of the incontrovertible fact that many people misuse those tools with tragic outcomes?

It's a bright line, and you're typically on one side or the other.

When I'm clearer which side AHSA is on, I'll know more about how I feel.

But at this point, the cynic in me suggests that it's a stalking horse designed to try and split the shooting community. It feels vaguely like a 'womens rights' organization that is ambivalent about women working outside the home.

I'll suggest two steps the organization could take that would make me feel a lot more comfy.

First, clarify their position on nonhunting, nonsporting ownership and use of guns. There's language on the site which could be taken either way, and that's bad. Assuming their position is close to mine, clarity here would buy a lot of comfort from me.

Second, take a position on 'shall-issue' CCW. While John Lott's data supporting lower crime rates in states with policies that readily grant weapons permits to noncriminal citizens is pretty much out the window, I have seen no data that suggests any significant negative impacts - and I know people are looking.

Overall, my problem with that isn't Ray Schoenke, the former Redskin who's the president of the group (although his campaign donations to Sen. Kennedy, Sen. Feinstein, Sen. Boxer and others on the anti-gun side of the world would seem to put him clearly on one side of the issue), or Bob Ricker, the executive director who left the NRA in a Fury and participated in several of the lawsuits against gun manufacturers (a particularly odious thing to do, in my view), or their consultants who include former Congressman David Bonior, who has been a reliable antigun voter. It's quite possible that they could come to the conclusion that gun rights matter, and that a different organization than the NRA could do a good - or even in some lights better - job of defending them. My problem is that there is a space to the left of the NRA, but it's a narrow one. And I wonder if these guys haven't stepped too far away.

If they haven't, it'd be a great opening to the Democrats to the 'guys who have Confederate flags on their pickups' - men and women whose support they need if they are going to start winning elections.

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American commanders have not yet announced the two bodies were those of the Menchaca and Tucker, who were kidnaped last week after their outpost was attacked by insurgents. Spec. David J. Babineau was killed in the attack.

"Killed in a barbaric way" almost certainly means, "beheaded." Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq resumed beheading hostages after a U.S. Air Force F-16 dropped bombs on terrorist commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killing him. They had begun executing prisoners by gunfire after being reprimanded by no. 2 al Qaeda figure Ayman Al-Zawahiri that beheadings were counter-productive to their cause.

An al Qaeda web site today claimed that Zarqawi's successor, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had personally killed the two men. The NYT reports that the site used "a word for slaughter that is commonly understood to mean beheading... ."

I predicted two years ago that if terrorists in Iraq started beheading American military captives,

... the terrorists will learn something else: they have made the war personal. When that happens, the American experience of war shows that our troops will shed the veneer of restraint like a snake's skin. And for every American head Zarqawi severs, he will soon find three of his own men's heads.

That kind of retribution by US troops has happened before; read the post for more information.

Cross-posted at donaldsensing.com

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My other theory is that much of this comes from envy. Some of it is relatively benign, like French politicians using the U.S. as a whipping boy to get elected. I’m sure that stuff doesn’t go unnoticed, but most people understand that’s how politics works. The other things, like the African dictator’s son damning us for acting in one instance (Bosnia) and not in another (Rwanda) is simply throwing up things to see if they will stick. There is a market for this kind of nonsense in Europe and elsewhere, and given the detachment from reality and/or stupidity of the accusers, I’m not overly concerned with that either. We will be resented by someone no matter what we do simply because of our current place in the world.

One instance that demonstrates what we should do is the tsunami. We figured out the right thing to do, and we did it with the help of Japan and Australia. We had ships on the scene shortly after the catastrophe to help by flying people out of soaked areas, bringing fresh water and food to others and various other things. While we were doing this, to distract from their own incompetence, the UN had Jan Egeland complaining that we didn’t give enough of our GDP to international institutions. While they were having conferences about setting up more conferences, we were helping people. That’s how I believe we should handle these matters: Decide the right thing to do and do it; let others bicker over insignificant side issues. We should probably accept that no gratitude will be forthcoming when we do help. It’ll be another reason to criticize us later on.

We should help anyway.

In case you're wondering, I agree.

But I also think that we have to be working toward international institutions that work as they should and have some measure of effectiveness and legitimacy.

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I'm already a reprobate Democrat in many people's eyes, and I'm genuinely sorry about that. I think of myself as a strong believer in Democratic values and have some small hope for the future of the party. But in this case, I'm going to step further off the reservation and ask people to go visit the site of Moran's opponent Tom O'Donoghue, the GOP candidate for the 8th CD seat in Virginia.

He's a veteran, and seems like a decent guy. It wouldn't hurt to toss a few bucks his way.

How can he be worse than Moran?

Why am I doing this?

Here's Moran's history, as I've blogged it.

Took $400K from MBNA and then sponsored a bad bankruptcy reform bill.

Blamed American Jews for the Iraq war.

Explained that if he got the chairmanship of Appropriations, he's "earmark the shit" out of the spending bills.

Today, Instapundit points to an undelivered weapons system that has cost $37 million dollars - with the strong support of Moran, delivered for a $17,000 contribution.

If you want to have some fun, go check out the goodbyejim.com site - it's got an astounding set of stories about Rep. Moran.

His wife is a real estate developer, seeking a HUD grant and financing - do you think she'll get it?

Now while he's probably among the worst in Congress, we ought to see some progress by the Democrats in cleaning their own house, right?

Wrong.

The time to criticize the Republicans’ “culture of corruption,” a Democratic refrain for nearly a year, is at an end, Pelosi said; Democrats need to begin promoting their own vision of America.

I'm going say that I called this one when I posted back in 2002:

WHY MY OSTENSIBLE PARTY, THE DEMOCRATS, WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE BUSH'S CORPORATE HISTORY AGAINST HIM

So if they won't turn him out, it's up to the voters.

At some point, the Democratic Party leadership will get the idea that there's a market for genuine reform, and clean our house. I'll keep kicking them until they do. Want to help?

[Update: Corrected dumb typo "Murtha" for "Moran"]

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Iran & the Middle East

• The trial of 14 Egyptians accused of terror involvement in an April 2005 attack, has begun in Cairo. Three tourists were killed and 19 others wounded in the duo suicide bombings.

• The "Quartet" of world power seeking a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on a plan to resume aid for Palestinians, frozen since the Hamas government came to power.

• Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee ten days ago that weapons smuggling from Egypt into the Gaza Strip has increased greatly since the Israeli withdrawal on 12 September 2005 (H/T: Matt from Eurabian Times).

• Israeli defense forces captured 11 terrorists belonging to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Tanzim organizations in raids throughout Judea and Samaria.

• According to Palestinian militant Abu Yousuf, weapons transferred last week by the Israeli's to the presidential guard units of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, have been used in attacks against Israelis (H/T: Matt from Eurabian Times).

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is attempting to rally Arab nations to block Israeli's plans to redraw its borders.

• Amir Taheri explains in Arab News why the U.S. is unlikely to get any help at next month's G-8 Summit, towards checking Iran's nuclear ambitions.

• According to reports, Iran is prepared to limit its nuclear program but will not suspend uranium enrichment as a pre-condition for multi-party talks.

• Hossein Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, is calling for the United States military to overthrow the regime in Teheran, saying his "grandfather's revolution has devoured its children and has strayed from its course."

• Iran and Syria have signed a defense cooperation agreement that would include the Syrian procurement of Iranian missiles, air defense systems and main battle tanks.

America Domestic Security & the Americas

• On Friday, the US House voted 256 to 153 to affirm "that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror." Of the 153, 149 Democrats voted against the resolution.

• A Time magazine report says Al-Qaeda terrorists came within 45 days of attacking the New York subway system with a lethal gas similar to that used in Nazi death camps. They were stopped not by any intelligence breakthrough, but by an order from Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Zawahiri.

• In Trinidad, the state intends to respond to allegations made by incarcerated Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr that Prime Minister Patrick Manning had waived a multi-million debt in exchange for election muscle during the run up to the 2002 general elections.

• The first ship of the U.S. Navy’s newest class of aircraft carrier (CVN-21) is likely to be named the USS Gerald Ford, after the nations 38th President.

• According to a new book by Ron Suskind, U.S. authorities discovered in 2003 that Mohammad Sidique Khan was plotting attacks against the United States and included his name on a no-fly list, two years before his involvement in the 7 July 2005 London subway bombings. The British government has denied the allegations.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

• Three explosions in the Tajik capital of Danshube damaged a pipeline and several structures on Friday morning. Authorities are investigating the incidents.

• Two militants were killed and a militant base was discovered near Psedakh during a special operation in Ingushetia carried out by the Russian Federal security service.

• World-renowned Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has created a monument entitled "To The Struggle Against World Terrorism," a gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the people of Russia and the artist to the people of the United States. The monument will be dedicated on the five-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

• Wanted militant Andzor Barchashvili was killed on Sunday during a government operation in the Ingush village of Nesterovskaya.

• Timur Gayev, the Emir of Grozny, was captured at a bus stop in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan, along with four other militants.

• Russia and Belarus began exercises Union Shield 2006 in Belarus on Sunday, involving an estimated 8,800 troops, 40 tanks, 180 combat vehicles, and more than 40 artillery pieces.

Afghanistan & Southern Asia

• Taliban militants killed five people in an ambush Sunday while U.S.-led coalition troops moved deeper into Afghanistan's southern mountains in an offensive that has killed about 90 insurgents in less than a week, officials said.

• British troops said they had killed six Taliban rebels who had been firing mortars at one of Afghanistan's few functioning hydro-electric dams. British forces returned fire with mortars after they also came under fire late Saturday near the Kajaki dam and power plant in southern Helmand province, a British military spokesman said on Sunday.

• As fighting in Afghanistan has intensified over the past three months, the U.S. military has conducted 340 airstrikes there, more than twice the 160 carried out in the much higher-profile war in Iraq, according to data from the Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for the Middle East.

• A mid-level Taliban commander said to lead more than 100 men in southern Afghanistan surrendered to a government reconciliation drive s authorities arrested 12 other rebels.

• A suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up near an Afghan army vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, wounding three civilians and two soldiers, an official said.

• In Afghanistan, on paper, the Peace Through Strength program maintains a blacklist of Taliban members who aren't eligible because of their serious crimes. But the program has been getting ambitious, using fresh recruits from the Taliban to send delegations to the highest levels of the insurgency with offers of amnesty.

• An update by Bill Roggio on Friday details recent Taliban activity in Afghanistan.

• Here is the CDI's Afghan update for the month of May. It is a roundup of events in Afghanistan throughout the month.

• Here is a roundup of events in Balochistan.

• In Balochistan, a restaurant and two shops were destroyed in a bomb blast in the Barkhan district’s Rakhni town on Friday. A tower of the Sibi-Harnai power transmission line was blown up near Sibi and security forces seized a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the Neligh area of Sui during an operation. A checkpost of the FC was also attacked in the Bolan area. The bomb planted inside the Noor Restaurant in the Rakhni bazaar went off when the restaurant was closed for Friday prayers, official sources said.

• Pakistani troops shot dead two pro-Taliban militants after an attack on a military checkpoint in a restive tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. Soldiers at the post near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan tribal district spotted two armed men and cautioned them to stop. But the pair opened fire and were killed in a "retaliatory strike" by the troops.

• Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• The deputy superintendent of Karachi Central Prison was gunned down in broad daylight in one of the city’s busiest markets on Thursday. Eight gunmen peppered Amanullah Khan Niazi’s Toyota Corolla car with bullets as he was on his way to the Home Department.

• Suspected Islamist militants killed a villager in Indian Kashmir by slitting his throat and cut off the tongues and noses of four others, accusing them of being police informers, authorities said today. The attackers also beat up seven other villagers and set several houses ablaze late on Wednesday in a remote village near Mahore town, 65 km north-east of Jammu city, the Indian state's winter capital.

• A Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist was gunned down by police in Gandoh area of Doda district on Sunday, police said in Jammu.

• Security agencies were put on high alert in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday following reports that about two dozen terrorists had entered the region after sneaking across the LoC, days ahead of a visit to the area by Congress president Sonia Gandh.

• A top leader of India's main Maoist group has been killed in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, police say. Police say the Maoist leader, Ravi Kumar, was shot dead in an exchange on Friday night.

• Sri Lanka's air force bombed areas around the headquarters of Tamil Tiger rebels for a second night on Friday as victims of a suspected rebel civilian bus ambush were buried in a mass grave. Jets raided areas near the de facto rebel capital Kilinochchi at first light, but attacks then ceased apparently while the funerals of the 64 people killed in Thursday's attack were held. Witnesses said bombing resumed at nightfall.

• Sri Lankan troops in boats and helicopters battled Tamil rebels Saturday, and witnesses accused government forces of opening fire in a fishing village, killing five people — one inside a church — and wounding dozens.

• In Sri Lanka, no one is betting on a quick return to calm, certainly not the 2,000 Sri Lankans who have crossed over to India since April or the 500 others who have flocked to this area hoping to follow suit. A dozen people have drowned making the attempt.

• Suspected Tamil Tiger rebel attacks killed three policemen and left two soldiers missing on Sunday, the army said, and rebels said they were attacked by government forces as a recent upsurge of violence continued.

Far East & Southeast Asia

• Philippine forces have captured Basit Usman, who served as an "executioner" for Abu Sayyaf on the southern island of Mindanao. Usman took part in a June 2001 attack which Abu Sayyaf kidnapped and executed 10 farmers.

• Thai security forces have captured Sabri Amiruddin, an Indonesian who had a kilo of fertilizer and two kilos of nails in his possession.

• Japan and the United States are both warning North Korea not to test fire the expected launch of a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile, saying the move would lead to greater isolation. Signs out of North Korea are pointing towards an imminent launch (H/T: Matt from Eurabian Times).

• On Monday, Australia summoned the North Korean ambassador to warn North Korea against conducting the long-range ballistic missile test, saying such a move would have "serious consequences."

• North Korea is vowing to "increase the military deterrent" against the United States, which according to Pyongyang is "hell-bent on provocations for war."

• Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is touring six African nations in an effort to boost economic and trade ties, as well as access to raw materials such as oil, copper and timber.

• At the request of President Xanana Gusmao, rebels in East Timor are handing over weapons to foreign peacekeepers, but the group is still opposed to Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

• Following a U.S. travel advisory on Saturday, Filipino authorities are saying there is no immediate threat from terrorist attacks, despite the recent series of intimidating bombings, defense and military officials.

• Australians are angry over the release of radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual leader of al Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah, and sentenced to prison for involvement with the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Prime Minister John Howard is prepared to express the anger in a meeting later this month with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

• Australian troops will still have a role in Iraq after foreign forces hand over security to Iraqi forces in the country's south, Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday, indicating his country's troops would not be brought home anytime soon.

• More international police will soon be sent to East Timor to restore order following recent deadly violence.

Europe

• The British government deported an Algerian man suspected of being a senior member of a group linked to al Qaeda, in the first of what it expected to be a wave of deportations.

• The global war on terror must observe the rule of law, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Friday in a thinly-veiled criticism of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

• On Friday, Omar Khyam, 24, and Jawad Akbar, 22, appeared in front of a jury at Old Bailey courthouse, where tapes were played of the men talking about crashing a jet with 300 people on board with the help of 30 sympathisers.

• A French appeals court on Friday eased restrictions on the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian exiled opposition group with links to an armed guerrilla movement which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States. In response, Iran condemned the decision as "a green light to terrorism and violence."

• The British government has warned citizens of the UK that al Qaeda was targeting westerners in Saudi Arabia, and terror attacks could be imminent (H/T: Matt from Eurabian Times).

• Abubaker Deghayes, a British-Muslim cleric at the al-Quds mosque, told an undercover reporter that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George Bush were both "legitimate targets" for terrorist attacks.

Africa

• At least six people were killed in the southeast Nigerian city of Onitsha when a feud between a separatist group and a transport union degenerated into street battles, residents said on Saturday. One witness said men armed with guns and machetes boarded a bus, forced out all the passengers and shot and beheaded one of them at the roadside.

• The leader of the Islamic militia that seized Somalia's capital said Saturday that 300 Ethiopian soldiers had entered the country to help his rivals, but he promised not to attack the weak government that represented his only challenge. An Ethiopian official denied Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's claims, but said his government had massed troops along the border and was monitoring the Islamic militants' advance across the country.

• The leader of Somalia's newly dominant Islamists denied any links to al Qaeda on Saturday and warned the interim government not to put any conditions on proposed peace talks in Yemen. Islamic Courts Union Chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed gave his first news conference to foreign journalists days after the fall of Jowhar, where his militias routed warlords from their last stronghold, 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.

• A US military vessel has picked up two defeated Somali warlords from Mogadishu, while a third defected to the Islamic Courts militia now in control of the capital, officials said.

• In Senegal, the begging industry has become so successful that children are smuggled from neighboring Mali, Gambia or Mauritania to beg in Dakar, U.N. child agency UNICEF said. Koranic schools are fueling the child trafficking.

The Global War

• Senior law enforcement officials from G8 countries convened Thursday in Moscow for two days of talks on combating terrorism and organized crime. Protection of transportation and communication networks should top the list of security concerns, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said.

• Ryan Schmalz and Carl Wingate, sailors aboard the USS Cole when it was attacked in 2001, recall the attack, which was carried out by al Qaeda and killed 17 of their shipmates.

• Abu Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, a key insurgency leader in Iraq, said the U.S. killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a 'great loss,' but one that will strengthen the militants' determination, according to an audio tape broadcast Friday.

• Barry Rubin explains in the Turkish Daily News why capturing or killing terrorist leaders matters for those in need of having this explained.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.

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REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• The New York Times has an in-depth look at the investigation of what happened at Haditha.

• U.S. forces are increasing the pressure on insurgents in Ramadi, establishing checkpoints around the town to disrupt their freedom of movement. Ramadi, considered an insurgent hub since the clearing of Fallujah, may be the next target of the Iraqi government as it seeks to break the back of the insurgency. The fighting going on there now has caused some 10,000 people to flee the city for the time being, however, seeking a life beyond the shooting and service interruptions common in Ramadi.

• Foreign troops will for the first time hand over responsibility for the security of al-Muthanna province to local forces under an agreement expected to be announced next week.

• Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday a 'huge treasure' of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

• The U.S. military said the man claiming to be the new al Qaeda in Iraq leader is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to al Qaeda's No. 2 leader.

• A final Pentagon investigation into allegations of detainee abuse found that U.S. special operations forces continued to use unauthorized interrogation techniques in Iraq for a four-month period in early 2004. The investigation concluded that the problem was one of inadequate guidance and not misconduct on the part of the soldiers involved.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• Iraq intends to import wheat from other European countries after buying from Germany earlier this year, the head of Iraq's state Grain Board said.

• A South Korean businessman accused of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal has been charged with lying to the FBI.

• Iraq aims soon to < a href="http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=1527">export its first batch of crude from its beleaguered northern oilfields for the first time in nearly a year.

• The nascent government in Iraq is dealing a blow to Korean exports in a neglected but lucrative field -- used cars.

IRAQI POLITICS

• The Iraqi government plans to present an amnesty plan that would attempt to bring members of the insurgency into the political process and out of the fighting. Formal announcement of the plan is expected later this week.

• Some Islamic parties in northern Iraq are demanding that Islam be a "principle source of legislation" for the regional constitution leaders are attempting to create there. These demands mean it's likely the current draft of the constitution will have to be returned to the drawing board for further work.

• This week's Carnival of the Liberated is up.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• Iran is not interested in direct talks with the United States regarding Iraq at this time. Iraqi leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim urged such talks as a benefit to all parties, but Iran claims that U.S. actions have made direct talks on the matter impossible at this time.

• According to some sources, Japan may decide when it is withdrawing its forces from Iraq as soon as this week, before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the United States late this month. But the Japanese government has denied domestic news reports that its troops in Iraq are to be withdrawn from the southern city of Samawah next week.

• Australian Prime Minister John Howard, however, says that Australian troops won't be leaving Iraq soon, but will stay until they are no longer needed.

ETCETERA

• Iraq's prisons are overrun by Shiite Muslim militias who abuse and kill inmates, and Iraqi officials have asked the US to suspend the transfer of prisons and prisoners to Iraqi control.

• Austin Bay examines why President Bush's trip to Baghdad was a good idea both politically and for the war effort.

• Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!

• Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!

• Many American troops have taken it upon themselves to reconstruct schools and gather learning tools for the children of Iraq. Their efforts have been met with immense gratitude from the local Iraqis and their children. You can help too! Visit Operation Iraqi Children and get involved.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. And if you have a tip for a future Iraq Report, email us at MondayIraqReport(at)windsofchange.net.

« ok, I'm done now

Canada vs. US Gun ownership & Gun Homicide

	Canada	USA	ratio
population in 000's	33,098	298,444	9.02
guns in 000's	7,100	220,000	30.99
guns/person	0.21	0.74	3.44
firearms deaths	175	9326	53.29
per 1000 people	0.005	0.031	5.91
per 1000 guns	0.025	0.042	1.72

So the US has 9 times Canada's population, and 53 times the number of firearms murders (Canada's numbers from the Times article, the 2004 US numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports). We have 31 times the number of guns.

So we have 5.9 times the number of murders/person and 1.7 times the number of guns. These may suggest that there's something cultural afoot, instead.

But Canada's gang-related killings have gone up fourfold in a decade, along with the growth of gangs largely imported from the U.S. that attract what police and social workers describe as young black males from mostly West Indian immigrant families. And with the gangsta culture come the guns.

"If you want a gun, you can get one in a day, a couple of hours maybe," said Andrew Bacchus, 30, founder of Toronto's Vice Lords gang who is now working with Breaking the Cycle, a gang-exiting program. "The gun registry hasn't made any difference on that."

Homicide rates have increased, but shootings have mostly been confined to neighborhoods inhabited by gangs, such as Jamestown in the northeast part of the city. But the death last year of a 15-year-old girl caught in gang crossfire in a downtown shopping center the day after Christmas — and in the middle of an election campaign — was a turning point.

Fighting crime became a part of nearly every stump speech, a theme that hit home not just with Conservatives, but with middle-class voters across the spectrum. Harper promised stricter sentencing, but also a repeal of the gun registry, saying the millions it cost a year to track hunters would be better used for cracking down on gangs.

The article makes two of the three arguments I'll make about a program like Canada's.

1. It doesn't work.

Washington DC and New York City are among the highest crime cities in the US, and yet have the most Draconian firearms laws.

2. It costs a lot - financially in this case - and that money would be better spent on other programs to reduce crime.

The registry was an obvious target. When it was created a little more than a decade ago, it was expected to cost only a few million dollars, and to be largely self-sustained by user fees. The expense of creating an extensive computerized database spiraled out of control, however, and an auditor general's report this month estimated the cost to be nearly $1 billion over 10 years. It also showed that officials with the former Liberal Party government buried budget overruns so they wouldn't have to go before Parliament to seek more money.

So if it has halved the firearms death rate in Canada, from 350 to 175, it has saved 175 people a year, or 1,750 people over ten years at a cost of a billion dollars. I've got to believe that you can do better than that by spending the money somewhere else.

My third reason is visible outside my dining room window, in the park across the street that's just being renovated.

The playground used to have a 20'tall climbing structure and slide that was one of the most heavily used in the park. It's gone now, because it's considered unsafe to let children play in an environment where they might injure themselves. There are new standards for playground equipment, and many of the favorites that my older sons played on are now illegal.

The idea that we would leave people free to make mistakes in order to create a culture of responsibility is one of the major victims of laws like those gun control aimed not at legitimately restricting some aspect of firearms ownership (and I do think there are legitimate restrictions we could enact). Instead they are about changing the culture:

Although it doesn't directly address the problem of illegal handguns, the registry helps create a culture in which guns are seen as dangerous and owners are held accountable, said Wendy Cukier, a professor of justice studies at Ryerson University and the co-author of the book "The Global Gun Epidemic."

And that's why people like me, who believe that some firearms regulations can have impacts and are sensible and equitable tend to side with the absolutists.

Because regulators like Prof, Cukier don't really care if the regulations work, or if they are the best expenditure of the state's money or legitimacy.

They just want a world where there are no guns, and no playground equipment is more than 4' off the ground.

« ok, I'm done now

That's on reason I keep emphasizing sitzfleisch (an iron butt, or the willingness to just stay in the game) in talking about Iraq.

We don't think about what it must be like for the other guys, until we get a glimpse - from a captured letter, for example - of how they think they are doing.

Recently, a letter claimed to be found in Zarqawi's bombed house was released. It doesn't paint a pretty picture of what's going on in the insurgency.

I want to take a moment to divert and talk about the response to this kind of document by otherwise sensible people. Marc Lynch - Abu Aardvark - has commented here and he and I have had constructive disagreements.

His response to the letter, though, was just risable:

So about that "treasure trove" of documents allegedly found with Zarqawi which proves that the insurgency is on the run, that American military strategy is working, that the Iraqi security forces are developing into a formidable force, and that all in all everything is going America's way.... well, how can I put this?

Let's just say that were I a strategist for a military which had just killed an insurgency leader such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seized a bunch of documents full of actionable intelligence, I might not choose to, you know, release them to the media. On the other hand, had I just killed an insurgency leader such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and I wanted to follow up on that operational success by sowing confusion and disarray among his followers (and maybe even scoring some points with the domestic public opinion which my Secretary of Defense has identified as a principle theater of conflict), I might very well release a bunch of "documents" showing that the recently deceased was highly pessimistic about his prospects and that his movement was on the run. (I might also announce that said movement had just declared some random character as its new leader, just to sow more confusion.)

Oh, enough delicacy. These documents seem like a fairly obvious bit of strategic communication, psy-ops, whatever you want to call it. Nothing wrong with that as a way of pressing a temporary advantage against the jihadi wing of the insurgency, spreading confusion, that sort of thing - kind of a textbook move, even. Just as long as nobody serious is silly enough to actually believe any of it. Wouldn't want blowback now, would we?

My issue with this is simple; the only evidence he presents that this is disinformation is that he wishes it were so. He wishes it to be so because it disagrees with the way the he sees things.

It's an inconvenient truth, so it must be false.

It's certainly not impossible. But there's no data that supports his contention, and in fact there is significant other data - specifically other correspondence that has been intercepted or captured and released without disclaimer - which generally fits the points, tone, and issues raised in the new letter.

Back to the new letter.

I'll skip over the operational details, but it's clear that it makes one simple point: "Everybody is hurting."

We certainly are. The Iraqis certainly are. But so are the bad guys.

And we'd do well to keep remember that.

« ok, I'm done now

Iran

• Iran's defence minister has said Iran would use a 'nuclear defence' if 'threatened by any power'. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar also said Iranian (and Syrian) foreign policy was directed at 'strengthening resistance and tackling the threats of United States and Israel'. The announcement came as Iran and Syria signed a defence pact, consolidating military cooperation against Satans both Great and Little.

• An Iranian diplomat says the West's 'carrot-and-stick' approach is counterproductive. Predictably, the Iranians resent the stick. Javier Solana described the stick in person; whilst visiting Iran, apparently in part because Iran found previous approaches 'disrespectful'. A senior official said "Maybe we're learning, and this time our approach was different, more respectful."

• The Party for Freedom and Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), a Kurdish opposition group, is giving Iran serious headaches. The group claims to have tens of thousands of members in Iran, as well as 3,000 troops in northern Iraq. They killed at least 120 Iranian soldiers last year, and look set to better that tally. PJAK intends to revitalise Kurdish national thought as a means of sparking another revolution.

• Iran's Presidential Advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin says The Resolution of the Holocaust Issue Will End in the Destruction of Israel. Other gems include a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy to spread bird-flu - wait-for-it - in order to control the price of the chicken market. They may be crazy, but they're not stupid. Well, maybe a little stupid.

The Middle East

• Apparently adopting the long-successful PLO strategy of communicating different political messages in English/Hebrew, and Arabic, Hamas has announced its opposition to continued rocket fire from Gaza in to Israel. Hamas says it is opposed to a ceasefire, and is still firing rockets. Meanwhile, Israel's defence minister says Hamas should return their rockets to storage or face consequences. Meanwhile, Fatah and Hamas are buying up arms and ammo.

• Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert announced in France that he would be willing to withdraw from the Sheba Farms region. It would likely be conditional on Lebanon and Syria demarcating their border, and Hezbollah being replaced by the Lebanese Army. Background o Shebaa Farms here.

• Recent violence in Syria points to growing Islamist unrest in the country.

• Two Israeli teenage girls narrowly escaped kidnap by Islamic Jihad. The terrorists tried to bundle the girls in to their car while they were hitchhiking in Judea. The IDF has since called for a ban on hitchhiking in the territories. One of the girls fought her way out of the jihadis' grip, and the other hid. An Israeli officer on the scene spooked the terrorists, who were later captured.

• Unsurprisingly, the IDF is increasingly quick to use bulldozers against holed-up terrorists, thanks to a Supreme Court ban on compelling Arab civilians to mediate between the IDF and terrorists.

• Having been presented with the results of an Israeli investigation in to an explosion on a Gaza beach that killed seven members of the same family, UN secretary general Kofi Annan has retracted his comments doubting the conclusions of the IDF report.

• The Lebanese Army claims to have busted a 'terrorist network' connected to Israel's Mossad. One of the men has admitted to assassinating four Arab terrorists since 1999. The Lebanese Army apparently discovered 'state-of-the-art technology', which relayed the coordinates of an Islamic Jihad terrorist to an aircraft flying above Lebanon. Note that the Jihad leader was killed when a bomb in his car exploded.

• Syrian dissidents say that the regime is conducting a campaign of arrests in order to fracture opposition. 10 intellectuals and human rights activists were arrested in May, after they signed the 'Beirut-Damascus Declaration', which calls for Syria to acknowledge Lebanese independence and respect its sovereignty..

• Two Turkish army officers were killed, and five soldiers and two civilians wounded, in a PKK attack on an army convoy in eastern Turkey. In Istanbul, a suspected PKK bomb wounded four civilians when it exploded in a rubbish bin.

• The European Union has sent a very severe letter to the PA, following several instances of Hamas 'officials' bringing millions of dollars in cash in to Gaza. EU observers monitor the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, but do not have the authority to actually do much beyond writing severe letters.

• Four members of Jordan's Islamic Labour Front (a Muslim Brotherhood front) offered condolences to the Banu Hasan tribe, to which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi belonged. The tribe has rejected the condolences, denounced the MPs and Islamic Labour Front and said Zarqawi is not a martyr. The four MPs have been charged with 'incitement to terrorism', and may face a short prison term or fine. 3,000 Jordanians protested the remarks and condolences made by the MPs.

• Mohammed Al Sharqawy, tortured and sodomised in an Egyptian jail, is being denied medical care according to his lawyer. The jailed actvist's life is in 'real danger', Gamal Eid said.

• The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has denounced PA president Abbas over his planned referendum. The MB's spiritual guide said imposing the document various terror factions would 'serve the Zionist enemy'. Abbas has scheduled a referendum for the end of July.

• Turkish support for joining the European Union has slipped, from 70% to 57%. The same poll also indicated Erdogan's AKP will win the 2007 elections.

Iraq and the Gulf

• Iraqi and coalition forces have conducted 452 raids since Zarqawi's death, killing 104 insurgents, arresting 759 anti-Iraq elements and discovering 28 significant arms caches, in a further blow to the insurgency. Documents discovered in Zarqawi's hideout show an insurgency in trouble. His laptop also showed a terrorist campaign in disarray, according to the Iraqi government.

• Japan may keep troops in Iraq despite PM Junichiro Koizumi being scheduled to step down in September. Koizumi told the press that the presence of 600 non-combat troops in a relatively quiet part of southern Iraq would be based on the security situation. Meanwhile, Italy has decided to withdraw 1,000 troops by June 28th - leaving only 1,600 in Iraq.

• The six GCC states have adopted a contingency plan to deal with Iran closing the Hormuz strait. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hinted at a closure when he said energy flows could be interrupted if the U.S. made a 'wrong move'.

• The blogging trend is reaching the Gulf, where there are as many as 1,000 bloggers. That's a fivefold increase since 2004. About 300 of the blogs are Saudi (half of them written by women), and Kuwait has seen the use of blogs to inform democratic activists of protests.

• 500 Iraqi Shi'ite protestors attacked the Iranian consulate in Basra, following an Iranian TV program showing an Iraqi cleric as an Israeli agent.

• Saudi Arabia have gathered clerics to press them to monitor potential al-Qaeda supporters in their congregations.

The Americas

• A survey of foreign policy and terrorism experts has concluded that suicide bombs are the most likely tactic terrorists would employ against the United States - with the possibility of a WMD attack considered much lower.

• Related, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center has told the Senate that the U.S. faces a homegrown threat from Muslim radicals who lack formal ties with al-Qaeda. His three examples - the Atlanta men allgedly involved with the Canadian plot, the Lodi pair, and the LA prison gang - don't seem to back that up. The Canada plotters have links with numerous others, and the Lodi guys were formally tied with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

• Raul Castro, brother of Fidel and designated heir to the Communist Party throne, says that the Party will continue to rule in the event of a leadership change.

• Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia are all trying to boost their ties with Iran. The relationship between Cuba and Iran is not new, focusing in part on Cuba jamming anti-mullah radio in the United States. However, Bolivia is thought to be motivated in part by wanting to increase its oil and gas output, with Iranian expertise and Venezuelan cash.

• The United States is not prepared for Chavez cutting oil exports. A congressional investigation found that a Venezuelan oil embargo to the U.S. would lead to an immediate 15 per cent surge in world oil prices, which would have a major effect on the world economy.

• A U.S. federal judge has rejected claims from seven Muslims and a Hindu that their constitutional rights were violated following September 11th. The men, who are not American citizens, claim they should not have been arrested for immigration violations (which they had committed) and treated as terror suspects.

• FARC have killed ten coca farmers working for a rival cartel. FARC have also launched a 'hostile takeover' of their leftist rivals, the ELN - the National Liberation Army.

• A man who had spent six months in Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey was stopped by Homeland Security on his return for failing to attend a court date in New York. Fair enough, IMO, but he says he wasn't questioned once about his activities in the Islamic world - which included mingling with Hezbollah, visiting madarassas and watching terrorist rallies in Kashmir.

• Members of the U.S. Border Patrol are furious with John McCain, following his comments that deporting illegal aliens is impractical. 'Amnesty John' is less than well thought of amongst Border Patrol, who risk their lives during deportations.

• The Bush administration is quietly drawing up plans for a super highway across the United States. The intention is to allow cargo landing in Mexico to bypass American unions and be driven by Mexicans across the CONUS. Remarkably, the first stage of construction is due to begin next year.

• Canadian government lawyers say that some foreign terrorist suspects will have to be jailed indefinitely, without charge.

• Lawyers for some of the 17 Muslim mem arrested in Canada on terrorism charges claim they are being tortured in prison.

• The U.S. Senate has almost unanimously rejected a proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Europe

• Soviet throwback Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, in the face of mounting Western pressure, has suggested that the EU simply back off. Lukashenko denounced the EU's 'uncivilized lunges' against the 'proud and freedom-loving nation' of Belarus.

• The Counterterrorism blog says European cooperation on terrorism is improved, with an increase in cross-border investigations and arrests, and shared information, but more needs to be done.

• Two Swedish men have been jailed for planning an terrorist attack on a church. The two Muslims were also convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at an Iraqi polling station in Stockholm. One man recieved 3 1/2 years, the other 2 years. A third man recieved 8 months for planning another terror attack.

• Swedish authorities have refused to comment on the detention of four men from Malmö, apparently related to investigations in Britain. A Swedish paper reported that British police are in Sweden, involved in an investigation in to terrorist activities.

• France has jailed 25 Muslim terrorists for plotting to destroy the Eiffel Tower and attack other targets in France, in support of Chechnya. Several of the men trained in Chechen jihad camps.

• Bosnia faces a difficult challenge from 'white al-Qaeda' members, as well as the retired mujahedeen who fought in the 1992-95 war. While EUFOR do not believe there is a higher terror threat in Bosnia than elsewhere, the weakness of counter-terror agencies and other factors potentially make Bosnia a focal point for terrorists.

• How much did the Cartoon Wars effect people? Well, Denmark's education minister has admitted to self-censorship.

• Two British Muslims, aged 21 and 16, have been charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause public nuisance (very British terminology) by using poisons or explosives. The pair, from Bradford, are thought to have planned terrorism overseas (a term typically referring to Iraq).

• Holland is increasingly polarised, with nearly half of ethnic minorites believing they have been discriminated against. Meanwhile, 40% of Moroccan youths reject democracy and Western values.

• The British House of Lords has refused three Britons and a Canadian the right to sue Saudi officials. The four men were arrested, jailed and tortured for a bombing campaign blamed on alcohol smugglers - a campaign most likely carried out by Islamic terrorists.

• Spanish PM Zapatero says he intends to start talks with ETA this summer. The Spanish parliament voted last year to allow the government to start talks with ETA if it is satisfied it has ceased terrorism.

• An Iraqi man has been arrested in Germany for raising funds for Ansar al-Islam. Burhan B., arrested at Frankfurt airport, is said to have been linked to a major Ansar al-Islam terrorist, who has been charged with planning to kill Iyad Allawi.

Russia and Central Asia

• Heroic Islamic 'rebels' ambushed Ingushetia's OMON commander while he was taking his children to kindergarten. The terrorists killed him and three of his children (aged two to six), as well as his driver and bodyguard. The murders were part of a recent increase in terrorist attacks in Ingushetia. Following the attacks, Russian helicopters attacked a wooded area where as many as 10 Chechen terrorists are thought to be hiding.

• With the new campaign of terror, as well as heightened ethnic tensions, the prospect of war between Russia and Georgia seems higher - with rumours abound that Ramzan Kadyrov's private army might be sent against the much-improved Georgian military.

• Islam, Jamaats and Implications for the North Caucasus: Part 2 discusses the the various insurgencies ongoing in the Caucasus, with both background and likely future scenarios. Part 1 is here.

• Russia will launch its latest stealth fighter in 2007. The new aircraft will not be finished for several years.

The Indian Subcontinent

• Ahead of Operation Mountain Thrust, 26 Taliban were killed in eastern Afghanistan. Bill Roggio is following the soldiers of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. The same unit recently faced off against hundreds of Taliban, suffering two seriously wounded

• 10 Indian rebels have been killed in a firefight with Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion. India has been unable to verify claims that the men belonged to an Indian secessionist group.

• Pakistani authorities arrested six members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi suspected of planning suicide attacks against Shiites. The leader of the group was wanted for involvement in a suicide bombing of a Shia mosque. Police recovered, arms, explosives and detonators.

• In Karachi, eight gunmen on four motorcycles killed five people. Their target was the deputy superintendent of Karachi Central Prison. He, along with two bodyguards and two passersby, were killed in the shooting.

• India claims that Assam separatists in the northeast of the country were trained by ISI. The ULFA has been involved in a series of bombings and murders.

• A Baloch group says Pakistani security forces killed 17 civilians during a gunbattle. Twelve of the 17 are said to have been women grazing cattle. Elsewhere, security forces have arrested 12 members of the Balochistan Liberation Army.

• A Pakistani raid on a terrorist camp in Waziristan left over 30 jihadis dead - 22 of them Arabs, and three Uzbeks. The group was led by an Arab named Abu Nasir. Pakistani military sources said the group had mounted attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Elsewhere in Waziristan, an IED Wounded a Pakistani soldier.

• Taliban forces in Waziristan are banning un-Islamic activities, including movies, music and alcohol. Jamestown has more on that, plus the problems facing Pakistan in dealing with it.

• A bombing of a bus in Sri Lanka has killed 64 and wounded 80, prompting Sri Lankan forces to bomb Tamil Tiger strongholds. The LTTE has denied responsibility for the blast, the most serious attack on civilians since 2002.

• Noble mujahideen in Kashmir murdered a man and wounded 13 more, chopping off the ears and noses of two of them. Elsewhere, LeT terrorists gunned down nine workers. Indian forces killed two Pakistani terrorists planning a suicide attack.

• Two Bangladeshi communist party members were killed whilst constructing a bomb. Police say the two men, plus a third who was wounded, were involved in the murder of a politican.

Far East & South East Asia

• The U.S. envoy to South Korea says the U.S. and its allies would respond if North Korea tested a missile capable of reaching the United States.

• 46 bombs exploded in southern Thailand within half an hour, killing two and wounding 21. Many of the bombs targeted police, soldiers and government employees.

• China's new Dong Feng 31 (aka, CSS-9) is a road-mobile ICBM, due to enter service this year. China continues to develop cruise missiles, new submarine-launched ballistic missiles and medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

• Filipino authorities have arrested Gudairi Mohamad, an alleged Abu Sayyaf terrorist thought to be involved in the kidnappings of 21 tourists in 2000.

• Eight people were wounded when two grenades targeted a bus and a marketplace in Manila the day before the Philippines celebrates its independence. Police believe the two attacks were unrelated. Local communist groups denied responsibility.

• 56 Indonesian MPs (of a total of nearly 500) have urged the president to abolish Sharia-based by-laws being instituted across the country. They said the laws risk undermining the secular Indonesian state.

• There's a great photo essay on North Korea, from a tourist (if that's the right word) who visited the DPRK. Apparently, communism isn't all its cracked up to be. Worth looking at, if only for the incredibly totalitarian architecture.

Africa

• The International Criminal Court has documented evidence of thousands of murders, hundreds of rapes and numerous massacres in Darfur, committed by Arab militias backed by the Sudanese government. Sudan's 'justice minister' says the ICC has no jurisdiction in Sudan.

• Sada al-Jihad - a new online al-Qaeda magazine (following the demise of the Saudi-based Sawt al-Jihad) - has an article about al-Qaeda's interest in Africa. With unstable governments, frequent conflict, and numerous resources, al-Qaeda would not only find valuable recruits amongst Africa's 'self-radicalised' Muslims, but a base of operations.

• More jihadi heroism in Algeria, where members of the GSPC have beheaded a prison guard. The announcement came as part of the GSPC's first online video - the murder was not shown. In other GSPC news, five gunmen were killed, arms seized and 30 hideouts destroyed in a major operation based on intelligence from former GSPC members. Two Islamic groups are reportedly considering surrender and reconciliation.

• The editor of an Algerian newspaper, Mohamed Benchicou, has been released from prison after two years. Benchicou was jailed following an article denouncing corruption under the Algerican regime, though he was charged with customs violations.

• Anuak rebels, an ethnic Ethiopian group, are suspected of amubshing a bus of civilians and killing 14 and wounding 40.

• The U.K. has announced that it would be willing to jail Liberia's former dictator Charles Taylor if he is convicted of war crimes. Taylor, incidentally, had a relationship with al-Qaeda.

• Sudan is undergoing a quiet economic boom, due to China's investment in Sudanese oil. Investors in Sudan-based businessse and hotels include, India, various Gulf states and Saif al-Islam Qaddafi.

• Janjaweed militias killed at least 117 Chadians in April, stealing cattle, and displacing around 50,000 people. Some areas are so dangerous that Chadians have fled to Darfur. There are also reports that Sudan-based Arab tribes are stirring up Arab tribes inside Chad to attack black Chadians.

The Global War

• The latest Pew Global Attitudes survey has been released (PDF). Tigerhawk has some interesting commentary. A few results: the WoT is less popular in Europe, Israel is more popular in Europe, Muslims like Iran, and a lot of them think Iran will use nukes on the West. There's a lot to digest, so have a look for yourself.

• The IAEA is desperate to question AQ Khan, and Pakistan is coming under pressure from Washington to allow it. The renewed urgency comes after fresh traces of enriched uranium were found on equipment used at an Iranian military site.

• Iran's presence at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation - a Chinese project intended to boost prestige and influence - has sparked fears of a major anti-Western alliance. The SCO comprises Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, with Pakistan, India, Iran and Mongolia holding observer status.

• A senior British military strategist says Western civilisation faces a threat akin to the barbarian invasions of Rome. Rear Admiral Chris Parry suggested a renewed threat of piracy from the Barbary coast, 'reverse colonisation' in Western cities by unassimilated immigrants, massive Third World immigration, cities so large as to be ungovernable, and challenges to U.S. dominance by rising powers. And more.

• A Saudi al-Qaeda group has named the 20th hijacker in the September 11th plot. Turki Bin Fheid al-Muteiri, rather than Zacarias Moussaoui, was intended to be the 20th man, according to the group.

• The Hot Air blog has video of President Bush's address to troops in Baghdad. President Bush has also made a rare reference to jihadists.

• A less-than-PC discussion of Islam in Canada's National Post discusses whether Islam truly is a religion of peace. Conclusion: probably not, but interpreting Islam in a peaceful manner is a worthy challenge.

No, seriously...

• Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting take Tom Friedman to task for his 'the next six months are crucial for Iraq' bit - a line he's been repeating over and over since 2003.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.

« ok, I'm done now

Senators have jumped to third parties or splinter parties and won re-election, and Jim Jeffords from Vermont is a recent case of a Senator who left his party but not his party's principles.

Looking back a bit, one of the rare true independents to have served in the Senate was Abe Lincoln's friend David Davis, well-known to Civil War buffs.

He was a Whig before the Republicans absorbed them, and he followed most of his fellow partisans into the new party, but his first loyalty was to Lincoln. Lincoln rewarded him in 1862 with a seat on the Supreme Court, where he served into the 1870s. During that time Davis took care to disassociate himself from partisan politics and chart a course as an independent. Illinois elected him to the Senate and he resigned from the Supreme Court in 1877 to serve in the other branch.

Thanks to a partisan deadlock in the Senate in 1881, Davis probably was the only independent ever to serve as President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

An ideal presiding officer, the judicious Davis was described as "a neutral statesman who finds little of good and much of evil in each party."

Which agrees with the judgments of many modern historians who look back on the era. Careless listings of U.S. Senators continue to give Davis an "R" affiliation, but he had left that behind by 1877.

A career that might hew closer to Lieberman's is that of George W. Norris, a cantankerous Nebraska lawyer who served in the Senate as a Republican from 1913 to 1936.

He fought furiously to block Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's measures to involve the United States in World War I, filibustering against legislation to arm U.S. merchant ships in the Atlantic against German subs.

"Under this bill," Norris said, "the president can do anything; his power is absolutely limitless. The Constitution says the Congress has sole power to declare war. This in effect is an amendment of the Constitution, an illegal amendment. We are abdicating, we are surrendering our authority." After the war, he fought against ratification of the Versailles treaty.

But he had always had widespread Democratic support in Nebraska, and he campaigned for Al Smith (1928) and F.D.R. (1932, 1936). By 1936 he was a firm New Dealer and the Republicans had essentially read him out of their rolls. Norris won another Senate term that year as an independent. He lost his bid for re-election in 1942 to a Republican.

Among his Senate accomplishments was writing the Twentieth Amendment which pushed up presidential inaugurations from March to January.

Some have compared Norris to Nebraska's current maverick Republican, Chuck Hagel.

A closer, and more recent, example for Lieberman would be Wayne Morse, the “Conscience of the Senate,” an Oregon progressive Republican on the model of LaFollette, who broke from the GOP over the choice of conservative Richard Nixon as VP candidate in 1952, "[s]ymbolically placing a folding chair in the aisle separating the parties in the Senate chamber," and survived the better part of a term as an independent before being absorbed into the Democratic Party in 1955.

But he was independent among the Democrats, too, and in 1964 he was one of only two Senators to vote against the Johnson Administration's Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Morse lost his seat in 1968 -- to Bob Packwood. Morse once wrote, "as long as I serve on this job I am going to serve my own master under obligation to no one."

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A WaPo op-ed observes,

[T]he amnesty plan is likely to include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops, according to a top Iraqi adviser. The adviser characterizes those attacks as "a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland." "These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe," the adviser said. "We can see if somehow those who are so-called resistance can be accepted if they have not been involved in any kind of criminal behavior, such as killing innocent people or damaging infrastructure, and even infrastructure if it is minor will be pardoned."

PM Maliki himself said,

Reconciliation could include an amnesty for those "who weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood," Maliki told reporters at a Baghdad news conference. "Also, it includes talks with the armed men who opposed the political process and now want to turn back to political activity."

It's certainly no coincidence that Maliki's announcement coincided with the opening of a widespread and vigorous offensive against insurgents, conducted by American and Iraqi forces. (It does make me uneasy, though, to think some Iraqi insurgents may now think they can off an American or three in coming days and get off scot free by then applying for amnesty. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too!) As for the devil of the details: it's yet to be stated how an amnesty applicant can prove he attacked only Americans, or whether a simple declaration will suffice. The amnesty proposal specifically does not cover criminal activity and explicitly does not include anyone who killed or wounded any Iraqi, whether civilian or not. Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, a top adviser to Maliki, said,

"The government has in mind somehow to do reconciliation, and one way to do it is to offer an amnesty, but not a sort of unconditional amnesty," Kadhimi said in a telephone interview. "We can see if somehow those who are so-called resistance can be accepted if they have not been involved in any kind of criminal behavior, such as killing innocent people or damaging infrastructure, and even infrastructure if it is minor will be pardoned." The reconciliation effort pioneered by South Africa after the collapse of apartheid might be a model, Kadhimi said. "One way was to admit what you have done and you will be forgiven, and maybe parts of this can be considered. Because once we see people coming forward to admit what they have done, and it's within the areas the government has the right to pardon, it could happen."

Even eventual pardon of Iraqi-killers was not ruled out by al-Kadhimi, who indicated that such pardons would need to include a means by which families of the slain could receive compensation in some way.

When assessing the amnesty proposal, we need to keep the main thing the main thing, however emotionally unpleasant that may sometimes be. And the main thing is ending the insurgency, but not necessarily by killing all the insurgents, so that a free, democratic and peaceful Iraq may emerge.

Financial Times continues,

A broad-based but targeted amnesty to reunify Iraqis and isolate the extremists may be the last chance to save the country from breaking up into a series of warring states run by militias. An amnesty is indispensable, even if it may not be enough.

As the FT points out, the interim government of Iyad Allawi floated this kind of proposal two years ago, but the Bush administration knocked it down. Since then, Sunni and Shia militias and warlords have waxed in power. "[T]he essential nature of the conflict has changed from a guerrilla war against the US-led occupation to a sectarian war between the winners and losers in the new order ... ." Captain Ed says of the amnesty proposal,

This sounds appalling, but it probably reflects the reality of Iraq today, and will be the only realistic way to bring an end to the infighting. We can demand that Mailiki rescind the offer, but a refusal would only burnish his credentials as an independent leader. In fact, we should protest to give him that chance. I would like nothing more that to see the cowards hand from the nearest gallows, but insisting on that point would likely make almost everyone ineligible for the amnesty. Maliki has already narrowed down eligibility to those who have not attacked civilians, which will prove problematic enough to enforce. At some point, Iraq needs a national reconciliation if it is to avoid a civil war. The Shi'a and Kurds will have to find ways to connect to the Sunni minority on a rational political basis, and the best way to get to that stage is to combine a crackdown on insurgents and a ban on militias with a general amnesty for those who wish to return home and live normal lives. Their motivation has not been radical Islam in most cases but sectarian hatreds and a reaction to occupation. If we want to stabilize Iraq, we will probably need to bend on this concern, as hard as it will be, in order to hasten that reconciliation and help the Iraqis move farther away from politics at gunpoint.

Quite so. I would also suggest that amnesty objectors in Congress or elsewhere might consider some history. Harper's Weekly reported on May 13, 1865:

By his proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, President LINCOLN granted a full pardon —with certain exceptions which we will presently state—to all who had been in rebellion, with a full restoration of all rights of property except in slaves and in cases where the rights of third parties had intervened, and upon condition of taking and subscribing and keeping in-violate an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the Union under it, and to abide faithfully by all the laws of Congress, and by the proclamations of the President in regard to slaves, so far as they are not repealed or declared void by the Supreme Court.

Exceptions to this amnesty were those who held Confederate government posts, served as the CSA's diplomats and any CSA general officer or CSA navy lieutenant or above, and some other exceptions. But Confederate soldiers up to colonels were offered amnesty if only they swore allegiance to the US Constitution and pledged not take up arms against the Union again. Furthermore,

On April 9th 1865, when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the men and officers were "allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside." This stipulation allowed Confederate soldiers to return to their homes without the threat of trials for treason.

On May 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson provided for amnesty and the return of property to those who would take an oath of allegiance. However, former Confederate government officials with the rank of colonel and above from the Confederate army or lieutenant and above from the Confederate navy, and people owning more than $20,000 worth of property had to apply for individual pardons. Though it was difficult for ex-Confederates to ask for a pardon for something they did not believe had been wrong, thousands did ask for and receive amnesty from President Johnson.

On Christmas Day 1865, Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all Civil War participants except high-ranking military and civil officials. In May 1872 the Congressional Amnesty Act gave the right to hold office again to almost all Southern leaders who had been excluded from public office by the 14th Amendment.

Fascinating Fact: President Johnson was so liberal in granting pardons that the Radical Republicans believed he was giving away the Northern victory.

I'll give the last word to Rick Moran:

I don’t like it any more than you do.

The prospect of granting a limited amnesty in Iraq – especially to those Iraqis who participated in attacks on Americans – sticks in my craw. I believe that amnesty would cheapen the sacrifice made by the more than 2,500 Americans who have given their lives in Iraq and would be a slap in the face to the families of the fallen.

But all things considered, it may be the price of a full, unqualified victory in Iraq – a stable democratic government that promises full political participation for all Iraqis and that would be an example to follow for the rest of the autocratic Middle East.

This was the goal when we initiated the overthrow of Saddam. And achieving that goal would hearten democrats in the entire Muslim world while striking a huge blow at al Qaeda and their brothers in terror across the Middle East.

Yes, We have to keep the main thing the main thing, however bitter that may be.

Cross-posted at Donald Sensing.com

Update: I was talking with a former Marine with combat service in Iraq who told me that his fallen compatriots died for Americans, not Iraqis. "If amnesty makes America more quickly secure then it honors their sacrifice because that's what they died trying to accomplish."

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The testing threw up significant variations in the level of filtering. While yahoo.cn censors results as strictly as baidu.cn, search engines google.cn and the beta version of msn.cn (beta.search.msn.com.cn) let through more information from sources that are not authorised by the authorities. While Microsoft has just said it does not operate censorship, Reporters Without Borders found that the Chinese version of its search engine displays similar results to those of google.cn, which admits to filtering its content. Searches using a "subversive" key word display on average 83% of pro-Beijing websites on google.cn, against 78% on msn.cn. By contrast, the same type of request on an uncensored search engine, like google.com (http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN), produces only 28% of pro-Beijing sources of information. However, Microsoft like Google appears not to filter content by blocking certain keywords but by refusing to include web sites considered illegal by the authorities.

The press freedom organisation is particularly shocked by the scale of censorship on yahoo.cn. first because the search results on "subversive" key words are 97% pro-Beijing. It is therefore censoring more than its Chinese competitor Baidu. Above all, the organisation was able to show that requests using certain terms, such as 6-4 (4 June, date of the Tiananmen Square massacre), or "Tibet independence", temporarily blocked the search tool. If you type in one of these terms on the search tool, first you receive an error message. If you then go back to make a new request, even with a neutral key word, yahoo.cn refuses to respond. It takes one hour before the service can be used again. This method is not used by any other foreign search tools; only Baidu uses the same technique.

Go read their whole study. And when Google, Yahoo, and MSF try and tell you they're "the good guys", keep it in mind. I'll join in calling bull**** on that and asking the Yahooligans "how do you sleep at night?"

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It's a better world to have al-Zarqawi gone. Good riddance. Time's x-treatment of al-Zarqawi makes an interesting statement about what constitutes a threat in this age. Time's first two x-covers marked the end of malevolent regimes that controlled nation states. Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan were corrupt governments bent on empire. Their commonality was their nationalist ideologies of racial superiority and their view that all others were to be conquered, giving them license to commit great human atrocities like Nanking and Auschwitz. They were still nation states, nonetheless. They had economies, cities, borders, populations, courts, militaries and diplomats. As evil as the German and Japanese regimes were, they had a basic commonality with the world, being a part of the Westphalian order.

Time's 1945 x-covers marked the defeat of clear threats to the international order. It's interesting to note that no x-cover came out in December, 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. The lack of an x-cover to mark the end of the Cold War suggests we were reluctant to declare victory since the divide within the West deepened during that long struggle. Perhaps the West's relationship with socialism is complex, making declaring victory untenable. Maybe we just didn't want to rub it in the Russian's faces that they lost the war. The absence of a Cold War x-cover is the invisible marker that christens the era we are in now, where threats are not obvious and our determination defeat them is not unanimous.

Hilterism died in May, 1945. Japanese imperialism died in September, 1945. Soviet international communism died in December, 1991, even without a Time x-cover. Ba'athism was wounded in April, 2003 -- perhaps mortally. But Syria's Ba'athists live on, and many of Saddam's lurk in Iraq. Though Ba'athism is unlikely to revitalize, it nevertheless is not dead. And Islamicism is not dead with al-Zarqawi's demise. At best, we can celebrate the destruction of a petty thug who had tacit support from al Qaeda, a man who visited great violence on the innocent. But al-Zarqawi commanded no army that we can fully oppose. He was a part of an ideology that hates infidels and dreams of a global caliphate; but he was not in control of that ideology. Al-Zarqawi was really not in control at all -- he was an acolyte in a virtual empire, far outside of the international system. He disrupted and killed on its behalf. He waged effective asymmetrical warfare through mid-scale terror. This man is now in the rarified company of Hitler, Tojo and Saddam on the cover of Time Magazine. How far we've come.

Taken in their order of appearance, the Time x-covers illustrate how the world has changed. Relatively obscure people can quickly surface and become international threats. Medieval revivalists like al-Zarqawi are strikingly modern, in spite of their dark dreams of a restored caliphate; they're amplified by technology to the degree that they really can threaten the world order. This phenomenon will increase as technology continues to empower on the individual level. Modern technology puts control in the hands of 'the user' as much as possible. If the user is a fanatic, he might get a Time X-cover with his face on it.

There is no stopping technological innovation, nor should we attempt it. But we should recognize when it changes the rules. Whether or not Time realizes it, their four x-covers tell a story, when history moved from a top-down world to a bottom-up world. We reap many benefits from this change, but take on many risks. Al-Zarqawi is one of them.

Looking at Time's four x-covers, one can see that the threshold of what constitutes an international threat is lowering to non-state actors, even below the stature of bin Laden. Small, petty men were once made large by controlling the power of the state. Now they're made large by leveraging the power of the Internet, telecommunications, modern media and weaponizing the very things we depend on for modern life.

Time's x-covers will probably become more frequent, splashed with obscure faces whose deaths mark not the end of tyranny, but its defining moment.

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I'll make the obvious argument first. Academic freedom is under attack for pretty much the same reasons that liberalism itself is under attack. American universities tend to be somewhat left of center of the American mainstream, particularly with regard to cultural issues that have to do with gender roles and sexuality: the combination of a largely liberal, secular professoriate and a generally under-25 student body tends to give you a campus population that, by and large, does not see gay marriage as a serious threat to the Republic. And after 9/11 again, for obvious reasons many forms of mainstream liberalism have been denounced as anti-American. There is, as you know, a cottage industry of popular right-wing books in which liberalism is equated with treason (that would be Ann Coulter), with mental disorders (Michael Savage), and with fascism (Jonah Goldberg). Coulters book [sic] also mounts a vigorous defense of Joe McCarthy, and Michelle Malkin has written a book defending the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War Two. In that kind of climate, it should come as no surprise that we would be seeing attacks on one of the few remaining institutions in American life that is often though not completely dominated by liberals.

Simply put, be begins by understating the bias and misrepresenting the opposition as a bunch of right-wing kooks. No doubt there's a little hyperbole in the submissions of the three critics he mentions (though at this point he omits more credible critiques, such as Alan Kors' The Shadow University), but sometimes a little hyperbolics are necessary to get the boulder rolling. Recent polls indicate that left self-identification in the humanities within American universities varies from a high of 88% (English) to a low of 77% (Sociology and History), while less than 10% identify with the right in those disciplines. More to the point, there are no longer any reliably conservative disciplines anywhere in academia. Even campus departments traditionally viewed as conservative tend to be more "liberal" than the general population, including business and engineering. According to Stan Rothman's recent testimony to the "Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on American Faculty Ideology", 49% of business and 51% of engineering faculty self-identify as "on the left or liberal" while a minority of 39% in both disciplines self-identify as "on the right or conservative". Moreover, the major shift leftward has been relatively recent. In 1969 the Carnegie Commission found that 45% of faculty identified as left/liberal and 28% as right/conservative. Over the next two decades the situation didn't change much, but then by 1999 72% identified as on the left with only 15% on the right. What changed?

It's difficult to imagine how this change could have been effected without the "piling on" of a cultural orientation that generally attempts to reward like-minded people, and either inadvertently or deliberately excludes oppositional voices. And the shift also coincides with the emergence and rapid ascendance of the multiculturalism theme in academia, which provided effective "cover" for this "piling on" approach. Most people believe "diversity" and "multiculturalism" are simply synonyms for "variety", rather than products of the cultural remapping of Marxist ideology produced by the Frankfurt School. But not only have multiculturalism and diversity become wildly popular concepts (mostly within academia, however) but the concepts have even displaced tried and true leftist iconic prescriptions like "equality of condition". According to the new campus ideology traditional ideological watchwords such as"equality", "freedom", and "liberty" no longer apply to individuals, but to groups. Group rights now not only trump individual rights in nearly every corner of society, but they even trump "academic freedom"! If you doubt this go to any university website and enter these words to compare the number of hits produced. You'll find that there are almost no exceptions to the rule that "diversity" trumps everything. Now try it with a few other institutional website search engines, and compare.

Given these apparent preferences it seems reasonable to at least consider the possibility that such commitments to group rights undermine the set of commitments that, according to Ladd, Lipset, and others define an American Identity. How does it not amount to slander to label this equivalent to racism, and what sort of weak substitute for such a robust rights orientation does "multiculturalism" really represent?

But the second issue is probably more important, though a great deal more difficult to nail down. Ironically it involves the same confusion that sometimes afflicts people on the libertarian right. This involves the notion that freedom is an apparently infinitely extensible attribute, and that absolute freedom is something that one ought to aspire toward or desire, like being rich or thin. In fact, if academia is able to convince both itself, and others, of the truth of this conceptual meme they're liable to find themselves stranded in an airless wasteland where the only movement they'll be able to produce is a helpless Brownian agitation. As the great economist from the London School of Economics, Ralf Dahrendorf, once observed in his book Life Chances (paraphrasing) "Freedom without obligation might as well be obligation without freedom."

Even if we completely discount the "social contract" concept that Berube argues isn't applicable to academic freedom it's nonetheless a fact that failure of the academy to obligate itself in some realistic way will lead to complete ineffectiveness and marginalization, like a weightless untethered astronaut in outer space. That's not the fault of the kooky right. It's just the effect of bad judgment.

In his essay Berube betrays no awareness of this danger at all. The argument is simply that academic freedom is, by definition, without obligation (or that all freedom is, by definition, unobstructed by obligation). If this is freedom, it'll prove useless and powerless. And if achieved it'll feed radicalization on the theory that powerlessness must be someone else's fault.

Michael then addresses the testimony of National Association of Scholars President, Stephen Balch, to the Select Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Nov. 9, 2005):

More seriously, Balch is drawing on the history of affirmative action and employment discrimination law in order to argue that universities should make good faith efforts to hire people more to his ideological liking. This is a common theme in right-wing attacks on universities, especially among those critics who have become alarmed that affirmative action has gone too far, insofar as fully five percent of all doctorates are now awarded to black people.

The implication that racism is attributable exclusively to the conservative opposition is a meme so dear to the left that it inevitably proves irresistible. So perhaps we can excuse Michael for being "in the tank." But I think Dr. Balch was employing irony to make the point that there are distinctly credible arguments against such notions as "multiculturalism" that have been effectively silenced within the academy due to the dominance of a contrived ideological formulation, insisting on the "inherent racism" of privileged cultures. S.M. Lipset, who with Everett Ladd produced one of the seminal studies of academic bias, The Divided Academy, once said that in the 1960s and '70s, when he and Ladd conducted their analysis, the ends of the competence spectrum were relatively immune to social pressure in hiring, tenure and promotion. That is, people of extremely high ability were hired and promoted irrespective of their ideological views or race, while those of manifestly low ability simply didn't make the grade no matter how ideologically servile or white they were. But for the vast majority in the middle their "ability to fit in" was the primary determinant of hiring, tenure, and promotion.

This suggests that, at least at the time, people of extraordinary gifts tended to really be free of the threat of social pressure. And if there's a rationale for academic freedom, providing the benefit of independence in research and education, it was only this smallish group that achieved such an absence of limitation during that post-Vietnam era. More recently, another analysis conducted by Stan Rothman suggests that the situation has become worse rather than better, though descrimination is no longer on the basis of race. In other words, not even people of exceptional talent can depend on their abilities to see them through the ideological gauntlet. In such a situation "academic freedom" is starved of significance. It might as well be a straight jacket.

And again, Berube suggests that concerns about bias in the academy are being fomented by the "radical right":

There is a sense, then, in which traditional conservatives are procedural liberals, as are liberals themselves; but members of the radical right, and the radical left, are not. The radical rights contempt for procedural liberalism, with its checks, balances, and guarantees that minority reports will be incorporated into the body politic, can be seen in recent defenses of the theory that the President has the power to set aside certainlaws and provisions of the Constitution at will, and in the religious rights increasingly venomous and hallucinatory attacks on a judicial branch most of whose members were in fact appointed by Republicans.

The first sentence suggests that at least the principle of liberalism is intact for some members of the academy. But I think Berube misrepresents the problem. He'll first have to address the issue of whether or not we're at war; since in most wars certain liberties have been interrupted for the sake of preserving the context responsible for maintaining freedom in general, not by the "radical right" but by the President who emancipated the slaves and by a number of Democrats, most notably Wilson and Roosevelt. It isn't clear to me, for instance, why we'd support a demand for MIT to pay the salary of Noam Chomsky if he persists in giving aid and comfort to sworn enemies of the US, including those who decapitated Daniel Pearl, any more than we'd allow the German/American Bund to schedule campus demonstrations during WWII. Tolerating such activity during wartime may simply be too much to ask. One needn't be a "wing nut" to scratch one's head over the wisdom of such masochistic tolerance.

It seems to me that until the ideology of multiculturalism began to infuse the universities in the early '80s, academia was more or less capable of self-correction, simply because it was able to recognize that its bread wasn't buttered on the edge. But the doctrinally relativist commitments involved in the new ideology apparently undermine even that kind of pragmatic judgment. Nonetheless, there are some decent models for dissensus within academia that could contest this now-pervasive ideology, if we opened the door a little--to a new degree of freedom.

In summary, I can conceive of but three methods to correct the dysfunctions noted above: open or veiled quotas based on ideology that attempt to ensure ideological diversity; some abrogation or alteration of the common conception of "academic freedom" to include revocation of tenure; or some institutional arrangement that allows the creation of new departments or programs that can open career paths for competent people of more traditional classical liberal values. Or perhaps some combination.

Of course, anyone who is liberal, in the classical sense, will oppose quotas and will recognize the dangerous precedent they set. That leaves the latter two. It's important to recognize that freedom must be balanced by obligation of some sort, and that this is less a matter of principle than necessity. If academia were populated by people wise enough to perceive this necessity themselves there'd be no problem. But since it apparently isn't, we may need to open the door to markets by ending or attenuating the practice of tenure. I regard this as a loss, so perhaps we could try something else first?

We may need institutional arrangements that at least establish the conditions for a credible contest between the "multi-culti left" and the classically liberal or even theo-conservative right, in order to infuse a little wisdom into the self-satisfied academy. If academia wants relevance, this may be the price.

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