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tuesday, december 02, 2003

Jihad Watch points out a report at VOA that the two highest-ranking Bosnian Muslims will be facing trial at the war crimes tribunal in the Hague:

Prosecutor Ekkehard Withopf told the tribunal Tuesday that this trial shows members of all sides in the conflict committed war crimes. He said among the war crimes were ritual beheadings by 'Mujahedin,' or Muslim holy warriors, who came from Islamic countries to fight in the war and were under the commanders' leadership.

Shawn Deats has a good analysis of an encouraging development in Iraq, where the Governing Council appears to be resisting pressure from an Iranian-backed cleric (the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani) to rush into elections that would be dominated by the Shi'ite majority—and probably result in yet another Islamic dictatorship.

Another glimpse into the bizarre, twisted thinking that increasingly dominates political discourse in Europe: EU envoy: Anti-Muslim sentiment on rise.

European Union Ambassador Giancarlo Chevallard said Monday that while he can't say whether there has been an increase in European anti-Semitism, there has definitely been an increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab feeling.

Speaking at a press briefing in Tel Aviv, Chevallard said there is often "some confusion in Israel of criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Semitism."

He admitted there is "anti-Israeli policy" in Europe. "There is a lot of difficulty comprehending the route of the [security] fence and expansion of settlements," he said.

But when asked whether he believes there has been an increase in anti-Semitism, or whether it is just anti-Israel expression, Chevallard said, "I have no answer for you."

He said that while he is not "ready to agree" that there has been an increase in anti-Semitism, anyone who goes to Europe can feel that there has been an increase in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim feeling.

Jimmy Carter, in an interview at the farce in Geneva, said that if he had been reelected to a second term, he would have done what no one else has been able to do: Informal Peace Plan for Mideast Is Unveiled in Geneva. (Hat tip: Best of the Web.)

Mr. Carter, defeated in his quest for re-election by Ronald Reagan in 1980, speculated that "had I been elected to a second term, with the prestige and authority and influence and reputation I had in the region, we could have moved to a final solution."

Howard Dean was just loathsome last night on the Chris Matthews show; if anyone finds a transcript please post the link in the comments here. As he made an incredibly lame case that we need more international support for the War on Terror, the Washington Times this morning reports that 108 nations decline to pursue terrorists.

NEW YORK — A U.N. monitoring committee complained yesterday that 108 nations have failed to file required reports on their actions in the war against terrorism, such as freezing assets and reporting the names of suspected terrorists.

Frustrated committee members said they are considering asking for a stronger Security Council resolution with "more teeth" to force compliance from member states.

The reports are required under Security Council resolutions passed since 2001, which imposed sanctions first on the Taliban and later on al Qaeda and the 30 to 40 terrorist groups thought to be affiliated with them.

...and neither am I. In the United States, a person who negotiates with a foreign government without authorization can be prosecuted under the Logan Act. So why the hell is Colin Powell showing approval of the same borderline treasonous behavior when it’s carried out by Yossi Beilin? The double standard has rarely been more glaring: Israel Raps U.S. for Planned Talks with Geneva Authors.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert sharply criticized Powell for praising the unofficial Geneva Accord, whose co-authors are trying to capitalize on broad international support following its launch on Monday at a gala ceremony in Switzerland.

Both Israel's right-leaning government and Palestinian militants spearheading a three-year-old uprising have denounced the agreement, drafted by moderates from both sides, as "capitulation." ...

"I think he (Powell) is making a mistake," Olmert told Israel Radio of the expected talks. "I think he is not helping the process. I think this is a wrong step by a representative of the American administration."

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Reuters release without an example of blatant anti-Israel bias, as they put all blame for the “stalled road map” on Israel—with no mention of the bus bombings, the murders of infants, or the failure of Palestinian Arabs to implement even one tiny sub-clause of the road map:

U.S. officials say Powell is willing to meet the plan's co-authors in Washington later this week, a sign of growing impatience with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's foot-dragging on a stalled international peace "road map."

monday, december 01, 2003

In Geneva, the festival of clowns, buffoons, discredited politicians and lying terrorist enablers turned into a forum for bashing Israel. All in the name of peace, of course.

"The road map's first basic phase has been substantially rejected as the Israeli government has ignored mild American objection and continued to colonize Gaza and the far-reaches of the West Bank and to build an enormous barrier wall on Palestinian land," Former American President Jimmy Carter said.

A letter from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat endorsing the initiative that was read at the ceremony said the Palestinians have extended an olive branch and Israel has responded by building "a shameful and disgraceful wall."

Former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abbed Rabbo told of the plight of "farmers who have seen their land and trees sacrificed to the alter of the separation wall."

"A wall is being built through the heart of Palestinian land to ensure that the occupation will continue," Abbed-Rabbo said. "They hope that the separation wall and the annexation of Palestinian land will be the solution in place of a peace agreement.

But by doing this, Israel will become an Apartheid state. This is an alternative we will never accept."

One Palestinian speaker called Sharon a "fascist." Another called the fence "a Berlin wall that separates Palestinian land into bantustans."

The world has gone insane.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his “deepest solidarity” with the Palestinian Arabs and their desire to annihilate the state of Israel: UN's Annan announces 'solidarity' with Palestinians.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered a message of support to the Palestinians, saying he felt the "deepest solidarity" with their "continued suffering."

Just days after issuing a report denouncing the controversial security barrier Israel is building that cuts into the West Bank, Annan said Israeli actions have undercut hopes for peace in the Middle East.

"They have undermined efforts to curb violence and fuelled hatred and anger towards Israel. They have pushed back the day when Israel will live without fear within secure and recognised borders," he said in a statement.

"I wish to join with those from around the world who today express the deepest solidarity with the Palestinian people in their continued suffering. They remain stateless and oppressed."

The complete and abject moral emptiness of this man is stunning.

LGF has been linked in a hidden topic at the infamous ClearGuidance forum for bloodthirsty Muslim kidz, also known as “Islam on crack.” Do any lizardoid minions have a ClearGuidance password? If so, here’s the link.

A Palestinian boy carries a toy gun as he marches at the front of a small demonstration against the Geneva Accord, in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 1, 2003.

“A toy gun?” I don’t think so. Nice try, Associated Press. (Hat tip: zulubaby.)

Notice the Che Guevara banner to the left.

Speaking of awards, it’s time to open the nominations process for the 2003 Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year (Fiskie for short). Please post your nominations in the comments for this thread.

Note that the Idiotarian of the Year Award is devoted to “honoring” the useful idiots of the world; the creatures who are so naive, willfully blind, or astoundingly Ivory Tower brilliant that they aid the causes of dictators, terrorists, communists, and/or the evil Presbyterian Conspiracy. Please don’t nominate outright murderers like Yasser Arafat or Osama bin Laden; these types of animals are not idiotarians so much as monsters, the type of monsters the idiotarians end up supporting and defending.

Last year the contest came down to a last minute runoff vote between Michael Moore and Dhimmi Carter (Carter won), and it’s likely that these two will be strong contenders again this year. But there are many, many deserving idiotarians from which to choose, and a dark horse could still leap out of the pack.

Let the nominations begin!

Wizbang has announced the 2003 Weblog Awards nominations, and yours truly is on the list of Best Overall Blogs: 2003 Weblog Award Nominees Archives.

Here are some pictures of the DHL cargo jet that was hit by a surface to air missile, while French journalists watched and took photos of the attackers: Eyeballing DHL Aircraft Hit by SAM. From the extent of the damage, it’s pretty amazing the jet didn’t crash. (Hat tip: reaganite.)

The Jerusalem Post has obtained a copy of the European Union report on antisemitism that was suppressed because it reached the (rather obvious) conclusion that Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were responsible for most of the incidents it examined: Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the European Union.

Abdurahman Khadr, recently released from Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan, admits that he spent three months at an Al Qaeda training camp—but still insists that the only reason he was detained by the US is because he is an Arab.

Abdurahman Khadr spent three months in 1998 learning to use Russian assault rifles at an Afghanistan training camp with links to al-Qaida, the former terror suspect admitted at a news conference.

But he remains adamant that his ethnicity was the only reason he was singled out and detained by Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I wish anybody that says there is something against me to bring it and show it to me," Khadr, 20, told a crush of reporters and photographers crammed into the tiny Toronto offices of his lawyer, Rocco Galati.

"The only reason I was arrested is because I was an Arab."

Khadr refused to talk about conditions at the top-secret Guantanamo Bay military prison where he spent the last nine months. His brother Omar, 17, is being held there after allegedly lobbing a grenade that killed an American in Afghanistan in 2002.

But Khadr did speak, albeit briefly, about the three months he spent at Camp Khaldan in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border - the same facility that trained would-be bomber Ahmed Ressam.

Absolutely astounding moral bankruptcy and history-challenged ignorance from Jimmy Carter in Geneva, who is seemingly on an end of the year push to retain his title as Idiotarian of the Year: Carter slams Israel, Bush in Geneva speech.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, blamed US
President George W. Bush for anti-American sentiment and worldwide terror.

"The present administration in Washington has been invariably supportive of Israel and the well-being of the Palestinian people has been ignored or relegated to secondary importance," Carter said.

"Without a resurrection of strong and unbiased American influence, Israeli and Palestinian extremists will prevail. There is no doubt that the lack of real effort to resolve the Palestinian issue is a primary source of anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East and a major incentive for terrorist activity. ...

In Geneva, Carter said Israel's settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the security fence are the main obstacles to peace. He called repeatedly for the return of Palestinian refugees to the territories, beyond what is called for in the Geneva Initiative.

"With massive financial and political incentives from the Israeli government over the past decade, the number of Israeli settlements have skyrocketed," Carter said. "No matter what leaders Palestinians might choose, no matter how fervent American interests might be or how great the hatred and bloodshed might become, there is one basic choice for the Israelis: Do you want peace with their neighbors or do you want to retain settlements throughout the occupied territories?

Carter said that is of equal importance that Palestinians renounce violence against Israeli citizens, but he said this must happen in exchange for commitment to the Geneva Initiative. Carter said the main flaw of the US-brokered road map is its step-by-step approach, which he said has allowed Israel to stop its advance by building "an enormous barrier wall" and with "the colonization of Gaza."

These statements prove once again that Carter’s disastrous mishandling of the Iran hostage situation was no fluke; the man actually seems to believe that the way to deal with terrorism (and there’s some doubt that he even believes it exists) is to appease the terrorists. Another disgusting performance from a thoroughly disgusting man.

Melanie Phillips takes apart Carter’s comments at her blog, asking, “Is this man Carter just terminally stupid, or evil?” Actually, I think the answer is ... neither. The key point about Jimmy Carter is that, rather than malevolent or even stupid, the man is simply ... very, very weak.

Iran says it is encouraged by the European Union’s willingness to look the other way while the Iranian Manhattan Project rushes toward its goal: Iran encouraged by EU's stance on its nukes. (Hat tip: Dr. Dweeble.)

Of course they’re encouraged. The EU and the UN, whose main intent is to obstruct the United States even though Iran’s nukes will threaten Europe long before the US, have shown once again that Iran will get all the time they need.

Tehran, Nov 30, IRANMANIA -- According to Iran's State News Agency (IRNA) Iran said Sunday that it is encouraged by Europe's stance regarding Tehran's nuclear program, including its refusal to submit to Washington's pressures to report Iran to the UN Security Council.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also said Tehran would further fulfill its commitments to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including by submitting complementary information about its nuclear program, whose peaceful nature has been verified by the watchdog agency.

"We will carry out whatever is needed in the framework of the safeguards and non-proliferation treaties (NPT) and submit the necessary information by the next February, when the next session is held," he told reporters during his weekly news briefing.

Asefi ruled out speculation that the bloc may now choose to backtrack on its stance, saying existing signs in this respect pointed to the contrary.

"The Europeans have acted in a committed way so far and we hope that they will be such in the future. The way they have been behaving is encouraging us to have a serious and constructive cooperation," he said.

At the New York Post, a look at the bizarre, psychotic motions being filed by Zacarias Moussaoui in his terrorism trial: How Terrorists Think. (Hat tip: Michael S.)

He labels Brinkema "little bitch" and "dirty joke" and "daughter of evil." He's furious that she's a woman in what he sees as a man's job. He mocks his Jewish lawyer with various anti-Semitic insults, refers to an Asian-American attorney as "Kamikaze" and calls others of his defense team "fat megalo pig" and "racist."

He barely comments on the prosecutors. These enemies are a fact of life to Moussaoui. Indeed, He wrote of his defense team: "The fact that I do not trust them - unlike the government - prevents me to receive legal advice. Let me be clear that I find them so repulsive as unbelievers that I never even shake their hand."

What disgusts him most are phony pals. Moussaoui believes his own defense lawyers - and the "death judge" - are just as committed to killing him as Bush and the prosecutors.

The same "logic" holds for "fellow" Muslims. In recent motions, Moussaoui has slammed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad as the "traitor of Golan" and Mohamed VI as the "Jewish King of Morocco" for cooperating with the "wicked Anglo-Zionist persecution" of fellow al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Zammar.

To al Qaeda, Islam is about death: Just days before the bombings in Turkey, Moussaoui chillingly declared, "Jihad Strike - Ramadan is the Jihad month where all the Mujahids increase their operations (especially suicide ones) . . . no drink, no food, no woman, only blood."

LGF reader “Deathberg” has a first person report from the anti-Israel hatefest held this weekend at the University of Toronto. Good work!

Another reader emailed to let me know that the key organizer of this conference from Al Awda is Fayyub Sbaihat—an active member of the Palestinian terror gang PFLP, listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.

A Palestinian teacher tells children to wave Islamic Jihad flags and shout slogans against the Geneva Accord, during a gathering of groups who oppose to the agreement, in Gaza City, December 1, 2003.

Palestinian kindergarten children carry Islamic Jihad flags during a protest against the Geneva Accord agreement, in Gaza City, December 1, 2003.

(Hat tip: Robert Hinkley.)

sunday, november 30, 2003

Arab News, the official English language voice of the House of Saud, mocks President Bush’s visit to Iraq: Imperial Majesty.

I watched, as I am sure did most of you, the little skit set up for President Bush this Thanksgiving in Baghdad.

Gen. Sanchez and Ambassador Bremer hammed it up on stage like they do on late night talk shows, but instead of a dainty starlet trotting in to entertain the troops, accompanied by the inevitable baying and wolf whistles, lo and behold: It was George Bush who trotted in.

He had slunk in under heavy secrecy lest some enterprising Iraqi insurgents lob some donkey-borne rockets freedom’s way and thereby spoil the photo-op.

Then, after two and half “whole” hours, the president slunk back out of Iraq.

We are told that this shabby little sketch was meant to raise the morale of US troops in Iraq. If that is so, then their morale must really have hit rock bottom.

Now, dear readers, you mustn’t laugh at the Americans; remember they are our friends and allies.

The author, Amr Mohammed Al-Faisal, obviously thinks he’s being unbearably clever with the following passage:

The conditions that must be met before we lift a finger to help the Americans get out of Iraq honorably are the following:

* The adoption by the US of Crown Prince Abdullah’s peace plan as the center piece of US policy in the Middle East.

* The halt to the vicious campaign of hatred and lies propagated in the US against Saudi Arabia. Administration officials starting with President Bush himself must spare no occasion to praise Saudi Arabia and inform the American people how lucky they are to have us as allies.

* The release of all Saudis detained in the US or in Guantanmo Bay into Saudi custody.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and other things may be added. Once these conditions are met, we should spare no effort to help the Americans get out of the Iraqi quagmire.

And they call Americans “arrogant.”

Just another poke in the eye from the people who gave us September 11. Remember this when the time comes for payback.

When Howard Dean left office as the governor of Vermont, he took the unusual step of putting a ten-year seal on his official papers: What’s in Howard Dean’s Secret Vermont Files? (Hat tip: Catbert.)

DEAN—WHO HAS BLASTED the Bush administration for excessive secrecy—candidly acknowledged that politics was a major reason for locking up his own files when he left office last January. He told Vermont Public Radio he was putting a 10-year seal on many of his official papers—four years longer than previous Vermont governors—because of “future political considerations... We didn’t want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time.” “Most of the records are open,” said Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright, adding there is “absolutely not” a “smoking gun” in those for which Dean has claimed “executive privilege.” Still, Dean’s efforts to keep official papers secret appear unusually extensive. Late last year, NEWSWEEK has learned, Dean’s chief counsel sent a directive to all state agencies ordering them to cull their files and remove all correspondence that bore Dean’s name—and ship them to the governor’s office to be reviewed for “privilege” claims. This removed a “significant number of records” from state files, said Michael McShane, an assistant Vermont attorney general.

Palestinians gather around a car following an explosion in the Rafah Refugee Camp, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003. A mysterious explosion ripped through the car, killing Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant Yusuf Matar, witnesses said. The witnesses had no explanation for the blast. No Israeli helicopters were seen in the area, apparently ruling out the possibility of an attempted Israeli targeted killing. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

No Israeli helicopters, eh? I wonder what could have caused Yusuf’s car to explode like that? I’m stumped. Anyone have a guess?

Maybe he got carried away seething about the Geneva delegates ... blood pressure soared ... started pounding the steering wheel ... chanting “No to treason” louder and louder ...

Suddenly ... spontaneous combustion!

It could happen.

(Hat tip: belize042.)

This report at the Jerusalem Post describes one of the worst cases of Palestinian child abuse yet noted here at LGF:

In one film clip released by the IDF, channel 10 news showed a group of terrorists escaping after having fired upon an IDF post. The group had abducted a small Palestinian child and were dragging him along with them, using him as a human shield against IDF soldiers who accordingly ceased firing.

Another paragraph shows that making concessions to Palestinian terror gangs in a misguided hope for peace will only lead to more attacks, as the honor/shame dynamic kicks in and the gangs smell weakness.

However, Army radio reports that the number of terror attacks in the Gaza district has doubled in the past 10 days since Israel declared its intention to unilaterally dismantle settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Here’s an interesting and somewhat encouraging story in the Straits Times about political Islam in Indonesia, that suggests the Islamist parties are having a hard time selling the 230 million people of Indonesia on shari'a law and an Islamic state—and that their cause is further undermined by their reluctance to renounce the thugs and killers in the “military wings” of their parties: Terror hurts Islamist parties in Indonesia.

The growth of political Islam in a nation in a democratic transition has its downsides too. Political Islam comes not with one voice, but several.

While most use the voice of peace, some use the voice of violence or, worse still, resort to violent practices.

While Islamic radicalism represents a tiny minority in the political Islam movement, it is vocal and therefore attracts publicity that often makes it seem much more powerful than it is.

Prior to the devastating bomb attacks at two Bali night clubs in October last year that killed more than 200 people, Islamist parties vehemently refused to acknowledge the role played by the radical Islamist groups.

Islamist politicians, including vice-president Hamzah Haz and the chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly, Mr Amien Rais, even came to the defence of radical groups when rumours initially surfaced of their role in the bomb attacks.

Their support slowly waned once it was established that the attacks were conducted by people associated with JI. Similarly, the Indonesian authorities have tracked subsequent bombings at a McDonald's outlet in Sulawesi in December last year and the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August to the same group.

While Islamist parties and their leaders have publicly condemned these terrorist attacks, they have been reluctant to denounce openly the organisations or the individuals who had, at one time or another, been their allies in political Islam.

Last Wednesday every news agency in the world carried a story that a 9-year old Palestinian boy had been shot in the head and killed by the IDF, quoting “Palestinian medical sources:” Palestinian boy shot dead by Israelis in Gaza.

Today the Palestinian Authority has been forced to admit that the boy was killed by his own brother—and his father helped cover up the crime, hoping to get a martyr payoff from the terror gangs: Boy shot in Rafah by brother. (Hat tip: zulubaby.)

Palestinian Authority has admitted that IDF troops were not responsible for Thursday's killing of a 9 year-old boy on Thursday in Rafah, accusing instead his brother.

Earlier, the PA had accused Israeli troops of shooting the boy, but IDF sources say that there were no troops in the area.

The IDF has speculated that the boy's father put blame on the Israelis in order to receive funds from one of the terror organizations, such as Hamas.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Reuters, AP, and AFP to correct their scandalous willingness to believe and report the words of many-times-proven liars.

The launch of the “Geneva Agreement” between the Israeli hard left and Palestinian liars is now officially a complete farce: Key Palestinian Negotiators to Skip Summit.

At the last minute, the four negotiators — all members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement — said they were skipping Monday's ceremony in Geneva after Arafat refused to give written approval for the agreement.

Their absence threatened to weaken the impact of the "Geneva Accord," which has no official standing but signaled to Israelis and Palestinians that a peace deal is still possible. The withdrawal of the Palestinians sent a message to Israelis that there may not be a reliable peace partner on the Palestinian side.

No reliable peace partner? Ya think?

Maybe the likelihood of being tortured, shot, and strung up in a public square for a mob to desecrate had something to do with their withdrawal.

The negotiators who backed out of the ceremony are: Cabinet ministers Qadoura Fares and Hisham Abdel Razek and lawmakers Mohammed Horani and Khatem Abdel Khader. On Saturday, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group with ties to Fatah, issued a leaflet branding the four as "collaborators."

UPDATE: No ... wait ... this just in ... the liars will be attending after all! Whew. This will be a huge load off Richard Dreyfuss’s mind: Palestinian Negotiators Agree to Summit.

Two Palestinian Cabinet ministers and two legislators at first said Sunday they would withdraw from the ceremony that is to take place in Geneva on Monday, but changed their minds by the end of the day.

The change of heart came after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat backed the group's participation, overriding criticism from hardliners in the ruling Fatah group.

"We said that we are not going without the clear authorization," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Qadoura Fares. "Now we have received a clear authorization from the head of the Palestinian Authority."

saturday, november 29, 2003

We knew that France had financial and oil interests in Iraq, but Michael Gonzalez looks deeper and finds that France has been bankrolling America’s enemies for quite a long time. (Hat tip: ploome.)

"Follow the money" is an old adage, and it means that economic interest will eventually explain much human behavior. That France opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein because he owed millions to French banks is proof of this. Less well known, but much more troubling, are key French financial links with other U.S. enemies. They raise the belief that the Franco-American conflict over Iraq was just one slice of the action. For France was not just Baathist Iraq's largest contributor of funds; French banks have financed other odious regimes. They are the No. 1 lenders to Iran and Cuba and past and present U.S. foes such as Somalia, Sudan and Vietnam.

This type of financing is shared by Germany, France's partner. German banks are North Korea's biggest lenders, and Syria's--and Libya's. But France is the most active. In Castro's sizzling gulag, French banks plunked down $549 million in the first trimester this year, a third of all credit to Cuba. The figure for Saddam's Iraq is $415 million. But these pale in comparison with the $2.5 billion that French banks have lent Iran. The figures come from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, and were interpreted by Iñigo Moré for a Madrid think-tank, the Real Instituto Elcano. As he says, "one could think that Parisian bankers wait for the U.S. to have an international problem before taking out their checkbooks." French banks seem to be almost anywhere U.S. banks are absent. They lend in 57 such countries, and are the main lenders in 23 of those. (His report can be read at www.realinstitutoelcano.org.) The report offers reasons why Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin really ought to stop using the phrase "our American friends" every time he talks about the U.S.

A Saudi prince was ambushed and murdered by “suspected extremists” in Algeria yesterday while hunting rare gazelles in the desert: Saudi prince killed in Qaeda ambush.

The reports said the prince, identified as Talal bin Abdelaziz Arrachid, was shot and killed during the night of Thursday-Friday in a confrontation in which nine people were killed and several injured.

He was described as a wealthy businessman and the editor of the Saudi illustrated magazine Fawasel.

Algerian newspapers said he was part of a group of several Saudis accompanied by Algerian security forces that had been hunting rare desert species such as gazelles and great bustards for several weeks.

The hunters’ convoy was ambushed in the Djelfa region, 250km south of Algiers, the reports said. Three Saudis and four Algerians were taken hostage and later rescued in an operation by security forces, the daily El Khabar said.

The reports said the attack was probably carried out by the largest Islamist extremist movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which in September claimed its allegiance to Al Qaeda.

Uh... if anyone cares, you might be interested to see what the Democratic Underground Morlocks are saying about LGF: Right-wing hate site discusses DU. An anger management therapist could make millions, if the raving nutbags at DU could be convinced they have a huge problem and need help.

But first, they have to want to change. I won’t hold my breath.

Despite being surrounded by millions of sworn enemies doing their best, both openly and secretly, to destroy the relatively tiny Jewish state, Israel’s high-tech sector is becoming a powerhouse of innovation. (Hat tip: E. Nough.)

On Tuesday, Eastman Kodak Co. said it was buying Israeli-based Scitex Corp.'s digital printing division for $250 million. The deal came days after Kodak picked up Algotech Systems Ltd., an Israeli developer of medical-imaging archiving systems, for $42.5 million.

In another sign of recovery, venture investment in Israeli high-tech companies has risen for three straight quarters, reaching $283 million in the most recent quarter, according to the IVC Research Center. However, that remains a far cry from the $1.1 billion raised in the same quarter three years earlier.

While activity slowed during the downturn, Israel's corporate research centers, obscure university labs, shadowy military tech units and scrappy startups continued to produce. Their high-tech work tends to focus in three areas: communications, software and life sciences.

Intel developed its new line of Centrino chips for wireless gadgets in Israel. Sphericon Ltd., a startup founded by an aeronautics expert, is developing a system that can alert drowsy drivers before they fall asleep by analyzing steering patterns.

This month, scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology created a tiny self-assembling transistor using DNA. The project, touted as a crucial step in the development of nanoscale devices, could help build speedier computers.

When I posted this entry last week, some readers drew an equivalence between the toy guns for sale in Gaza and the toy guns for sale in American toy stores.

Then when I posted this entry, some readers said the game of “Arabs and Jews” was no worse than American kids playing “Cowboys and Indians.”

But see, here’s the thing.

When American kids play “Cowboys and Indians” with the toy guns they receive for Christmas, you don’t see real masked terrorists hanging around.

A Palestinian boy stands with his toy gun next to a masked Palestinian gunman from the militant group Hamas in the area where an Israeli Army bulldozer was demolishing a structure near the border with Egypt, in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2003.

The “toy gun” this boy is brandishing is practically indistinguishable from a real handgun. What kind of parent lets their child go out and play with realistic toy guns in an area where the Israeli Defense Forces are carrying out an operation, and hang around with masked killers armed with real weapons?

Silly me. A Palestinian parent does this. If the child is shot by the IDF, either in the mistaken belief the gun is real, or in an attempt to take out the Hamas murderer using these children as human shields, where’s the downside? The child is shaheed and goes immediately to heaven, and the Palestinians get another propaganda club with which to beat the Israelis when the international media screams about another Palestinian child killed by the IDF.

A Jordanian Muslim jihadi who’s in Iraq trying to kill Americans and other infidels talks to the San Francisco Chronicle about his motivation: Foreigners in Iraq say Koran requires fighting U.S.

The well-dressed, slight-built mechanical engineering student from the University of Jordan said he was drawn to fight in Iraq purely by religious conviction -- not because of any link to al Qaeda or other terror organizations, and despite his intense dislike for Saddam Hussein's supporters.

"There's no way for al Qaeda to contact us, and we don't need al Qaeda to bring us here," he said during a 90-minute interview, sitting in a tiny village on the outskirts of Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

"If you read the Koran closely, it says you must fight against infidels who occupy your country," said the student, 25, who asked to be named in print as Abu Zobayer. "This is clear. There is no choice."

Would someone please tell Abu Zobayer that jihad means an inner struggle for self-improvement, and that a tiny minority of extremists have perverted his religion?

He seems to have gotten the wrong idea somehow.

The University of Toronto is allowing the Toronto Palestinian Solidarity Conference to be held this weekend, despite the conference organizer’s (a Muslim student group called Al Awda) open support of Palestinian terrorism and denial of Israel’s right to exist: U. of T. allows pro-Palestinian meeting. The conference was originally cancelled because Al Awda planned to require attendees to sign an agreement they call the “Basis of Unity:”

1. We support the Palestinian right of return. It is non-negotiable.

2. A two state solution is not a viable or acceptable option for the Palestinian people.

3. Israel is a racist apartheid state.

4. Our activism is imbued with an anti-colonial feminist practice. [Ed. note: What the hell is this supposed to mean?]

5. We support the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli and colonialism by any means of their choosing.

6. Actions that we organize out of this conference will be developed under the framework of respecting a diversity of tactics.

But when Al Awda changed this requirement, the University decided to allow the conference to proceed.

UPDATE: At the Al Awda web site, Palestinian Solidarity Conference organizers boast that they have duped the University, and that attendees will still be forced to sign the “Basis of Unity” document supporting Palestinian terrorism and denying Israel’s right to exist:

The original 6 point basis of unity is then listed on the form, and attendees of the conference are required to sign the form to attend the conference.

The conference organizers feel that this agreement, which was reached after a week of pressuring and negotiating with the University, will achieve our goal of having a successful conference which will provide a safe space for anti-racist, feminist and pro-Palestinian activists and which will also be free of Zionist provocations and disruptions. It is a clear and resounding victory, not only for us, but for all student activists, and it will allow us to carry out our fundamental goals of discussing the criminal activities of the Israeli state and working to build a solidarity movement in support of the Palestinian people here in Toronto.

(Hat tip: Diana M.)

UPDATE: Also see Lee Kaplan’s report on the Palestinian Solidarity Hatefest at Ohio State University.

A fourth person has now been charged with violating security at the Guantanamo Bay prison: Guantanamo Officer Charged With Breach.

U.S. Army Col. Jack Farr was charged Saturday with "wrongfully transporting classified material without the proper security container on or around Oct. 11, and making a false statement in the course of the investigation into his handling of classified material," said a statement from the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.

The former Muslim chaplain at the base, Army Capt. James Yee, has been charged with carrying away sketches of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where he counseled prisoners accused of links to Afghanistan's deposed Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network.

Yee was held for 67 days before being released Tuesday, when the military announced new charges against him of storing pornography on a government computer and committing adultery.

He faces a preliminary hearing on Monday at Fort Benning, Ga.

Yee is one of three men who had contact with the terrorism suspects at Guantanamo to face charges.

An Arabic translator, Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, has pleaded innocent to charges of espionage and aiding the enemy.

A civilian interpreter, Ahmad F. Mehalba, was arrested last month in Boston and charged with lying to federal agents by denying computer discs he was carrying had classified information from Guantanamo. He also has pleaded innocent.

Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated against terrorism and for democracy yesterday in Baghdad, but the world press reports it only as a footnote in their ongoing campaign of negativism: Hundreds protest violence in Baghdad as US soldier killed in mortar attack. AFP uses the word “violence” in their headline, even though the purpose of the march was explicitly to protest terrorism.

Iraqi police and US forces closed off Baghdad's main commercial thoroughfare as hundreds marched through the city centre to demonstrate against terror amid persistent fears of attack by anti-US insurgents or Islamic militants.

Security services were taking no chances with a rally bound to be seen as pro-American by the insurgents and a heavy Iraqi police presence accompanied the marchers while two US military helicopters hovered ahead.

"This is the picture of the martyr Adnan. He is a martyr of terror," said Hassan Rehemi, holding aloft a photograph of his 20-year-old son, who died in a blast north of Baghdad last week.

In a speech, Aziz al-Yasser, the coordinator of the rally organisers, the Alliance of Iraqi Democratic Forces, called on ordinary people to help the US-led coalition in the fight against insurgents.

"We have to help the coalition -- the call issued by some for the withdrawal of occupation forces is suspect, Iraq will drown in a lake of blood if they withdraw," he said, adding that the attacks were delaying the end of the US-led occupation.

Here’s a great column at the Guardian from Julie Burchill, who is leaving the paper because its open editorial antisemitism has finally gotten to be too much for her to stomach: Good, bad and ugly. (Hat tips to all who emailed this.)

Not only do I admire the Guardian, I also find it fun to read, which in a way is more of a compliment. But if there is one issue that has made me feel less loyal to my newspaper over the past year, it has been what I, as a non-Jew, perceive to be a quite striking bias against the state of Israel. Which, for all its faults, is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist, could bear to live under.

I find this hard to accept because, crucially, I don't swallow the modern liberal line that anti-Zionism is entirely different from anti-semitism; the first good, the other bad. Judeophobia - as the brilliant collection of essays A New Antisemitism? Debating Judeophobia In 21st-Century Britain (axt.org.uk), published this year, points out - is a shape-shifting virus, as opposed to the straightforward stereotypical prejudice applied to other groups (Irish stupid, Japanese cruel, Germans humourless, etc). Jews historically have been blamed for everything we might disapprove of: they can be rabid revolutionaries, responsible for the might of the late Soviet empire, and the greediest of fat cats, enslaving the planet to the demands of international high finance. They are insular, cliquey and clannish, yet they worm their way into the highest positions of power in their adopted countries, changing their names and marrying Gentile women. They collectively possess a huge, slippery wealth that knows no boundaries - yet Israel is said to be an impoverished, lame-duck state, bleeding the west dry.

When Coptic Christians in Egypt began putting fish bumper stickers on their cars as a symbol of their faith, Muslims responded in their well-known peaceful way—with fish-hungry sharks: Stickers Produce Unique Battle in Egypt. (Hat tip: newscaper.) The AP headline is incorrect; there’s nothing unique about this battle. It’s simply another manifestation of the violent, supremacist nature of the Religion of Peace, and as the quote below illustrates, it’s intended to intimidate Egyptian Christians.

"All I wanted to say is that I am a Christian, kind of expressing my Coptic identity," said 25-year-old Miriam Greiss, who has a fish sticker on her car. "I think choosing a shark doesn't make sense, as if someone is saying, `I am a violent, bloody creature, look at me.'"

Emad, a Muslim, laughed when asked about the competing symbols but was unapologetic about the two shark stickers on his car.

"The Christians had the fish so we responded with the shark. If they want to portray themselves as weak fishes, OK. We are the strongest," said Emad, who would give only his first name.

friday, november 28, 2003

Here’s the enemy’s take on President Bush’s visit to Iraq, at the World Socialist Web Site—otherwise known as the last well-funded bastion of the failed genocidal doctrines of Communism: Bush's PR stunt in Baghdad underscores US crisis.

It’s almost funny to watch the Nine Dwarves stumble over their feet as they try to dance the dance of defeatism around President Bush’s visit to Iraq, clumsy and falling out, even with the determined coaching of the New York Times: Democrats Temper Praise for Bush Visit With Criticism.

The surprise visit stunned and confused his rivals, who struggled in the midst of Thanksgiving dinner to balance praise for the president's gesture with renewed criticism of his Iraq policy, which they said would be among his greatest vulnerabilities in next year's election.

"It's nice that he made it over there today, but this visit won't change the fact that those brave men and women should never have been fighting in Iraq in the first place," said Jay Carson, a spokesman for Howard Dean, one of the biggest critics of the war among the nine Democrats vying for the party's presidential nomination.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts issued a statement saying that the trip was "the right thing to do for our country." But, he added: "When Thanksgiving is over, I hope the president will take the time to correct his failed policy in Iraq that has placed our soldiers in a shooting gallery."

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, described the visit as a "daring move and great politics," but added: "I think these kids need more. I'm sure they were buoyed by his coming, but they need more."

The latest duplicitous Democratic mantra: “More! They/we need more! FEED ME!”

Reuters and the Associated Press and the rest of the anti-American world media are doing their best to portray President Bush’s Iraq visit as a tiny blip on their radar screen of negativism, but an Iraqi blogger named Alaa has an eloquent post that refutes them all with the simple logic of the heart: Ahalan Wa Sahlan; GWB.

IN THE NAME OF GOD THE COMPASSIONATE; THE MERCIFUL

Ahalan (= Kinsmen: it means you have come amongst kinsmen)

Wa = and

Sahlan (= Plateau or plain easy land: meaning you have trodden welcoming land)

These are the traditional words of welcome in the Arabic language.

Yes GWB, though the visit was brief, it was very meaningful. We know that you have come, not as the President of an invading nation, but as the friend who wishes to renew commitment to our people, and as long as your intentions are what you have repeatedly said (and we don't doubt your sincerity), the land and the hearts welcome you.

It gives us pain that the visit is so short and that the masses cannot in the present circumstances come out to give you the welcome that you deserve, but the day will come, the day will come (God's Willing). Yes the day will come when the millions will come out to welcome the best friend that the Mesopotamian people have ever had, and he will be amongst the most devoted and allied people that America will ever have.

The bones in the mass graves salute you, Avenger of the Bones.

Hail, Friend and Ally, Hail, Sheikh of Sheikhs, GWB; Descendant of the Noble Ancient Celt.

Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, the infamous Iranian “hanging judge” who desecrated the bodies of US soldiers killed in Jimmy Carter’s failed hostage rescue attempt, has finally died at the age of 77. The tales of his atrocities hold a chilling vision of the birth of the Islamic Republic of Iran—a state conceived and born in torture, murder, and Islamic terror: Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali.

Khalkhali, known as "the butcher" to his compatriots, brought to his job as Chief Justice of the revolutionary courts a relish for summary execution that would have made Judge Jeffries seem like a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Khalkhali acted as prosecutor, judge and jury in his own cases, regarding his rulings as "the judgment and conscience of 35 million people". He developed a new judicial concept called "obvious guilt" - whereby the accused is presumed guilty if his or her "crimes" were "very clear" prior to the trial.

Stories of his cruelty were legion. One of his first victims was Amir-Abbas Hoveida, the Shah's prime minister for eight years. After sentence had been passed, pleas for clemency poured in from all over the world and it was said that Khalkhali was told by telephone to stay the execution. Khalkhali replied that he would go and see what was happening. He then went to Hoveida and either shot him himself or instructed a minion to do the deed. "I'm sorry," he told the person at the other end of the telephone, "the sentence has aleady been carried out."

Some of Khalkhali's victims were no more than children. When a 14-year-old boy he had had executed turned out to be innocent, Khalkhali remarked that the child was not on his conscience because he had "sent him to heaven". His critics maintained that in his early life Khalkhali had spent time in a mental institution for torturing cats; it was said that strangling cats remained one of his favourite pastimes.

Part two of Larry Elder’s interview with Robert Spencer has been posted at Town Hall: Islam: A religion of peace? -- Part II.

If you missed part one of the interview, it’s here: Islam: a religion of peace?

Anti-Terror Raids Target Islamists Across Europe.

MILAN/BERLIN (Reuters) - Police hunting Islamic militants across Europe capped a dramatic series of anti-terror raids in three countries with the arrest of a suspected Algerian extremist in the German port of Hamburg on Friday.

Abderrazak Mahdjoub, 29, was held at the request of Italian authorities investigating an alleged network involved in recruiting Islamists to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq.

A copy of an arrest warrant, obtained by Reuters, showed that one of the recruits was suspected of complicity in an October rocket attack on a Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying.

Separately, British police were questioning a suspected would-be suicide bomber arrested in southwest England on Thursday. The government has said the 24-year-old Muslim man may have links with al Qaeda.

The European police operations coincided with the charging of three Kenyans in connection with a previously undisclosed plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi -- the same mission that was destroyed by suspected al Qaeda bombers in 1998.

While described as breakthroughs, the developments highlighted the fact that Islamic radicals and al Qaeda sympathizers, suspected of carrying out deadly suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey this month, apparently remain active across a wide variety of other fronts.

David Reinhard has a good opinion piece on the trial of the Portland Seven, the jihad group that included Intel software engineer Maher “Mike” Hawash: The Squad of Death: What lies beneath. (Hat tip: Morgan.)

The defendants complained that the prosecution trafficked in "distortions and half-truths" but did not dispute any of the central facts in the government's sentencing memo. In sum, Ford and Battle were ready to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan or fight violent jihad somewhere else in the world (Chechnya, Kashmir) prior to 9/11. That explains why our "Portland Seven" had their own name for their little outfit: "Katibat Al-Mawt." Loose translation: "The Squad of Death."

Ford and Battle came up with all kinds of lame excuses for their exploits. We just wanted to protect innocent Afghan Muslims from the United States! We wanted to help the weak against the strong! President Bush made us do it! But the most self-serving drivel came when they talked about the love they felt for their sons. This from men who abandoned their families and left their kids without visible means of support. Men who went off to kill the sons and fathers of other Americans. Men who wanted to impress someone -- Osama bin Laden -- who had slaughtered fathers and sons and more on one sun-splashed September day.

Spare us their tears for fatherless sons or sonless fathers. Or even their own sons.

Of course, the sentencing memo suggests that fathers and sons, mothers and daughters of non-Muslims -- "kaffirs" or unbelievers -- don't count for much in Ford and Battle's twisted minds. Battle considered Americans "pigs," and Ford said in one taped conversation that Christians and Jews were "the same as apes and pigs." In another taped conversation with another Squad of Death member, Ford refers to a TV show he was watching on the Holocaust. "I wish you was watching this, brother, it's about the poor little Jews, ohh, and the Holocaust" -- and he goes on to call Jews "lampshades."

As horrifying as the attitudes of the Portland Seven—no, scratch that, more horrifying—is what Reinhard reveals about the reaction of spectators in the courtroom, when the judge uttered a PC comment about the Religion of Peace:

But something equally chilling -- and perhaps equally instructive -- happened in Jones' courtroom Monday, and the two Squad of Death members were not the culprits. Having listened to Ford and Battle use Islam to justify their crimes, Jones had a bellyful. He told Ford, "You are an insult to the Muslim religion."

Jones' comment should have prompted cheers from true defenders of Islam. Instead, snarls and muttering filled the courtroom's peanut gallery.

I've wondered how some Portlanders could stand by and do nothing as they watched traitors operate in our midst. Now, we may have a answer: There are apparently people in this city besides Patrice Lumumba Ford and Jeffrey Battle who share their contorted view of Islam.

This does raise a question: is it the spectators who hold a “contorted view of Islam” ...or is it Judge Jones and David Reinhard?

Palestinian children play a game called 'Arabs and Jews' in the Rafah refugee camp, south of the Gaza Strip, on the third day of Eid al-Fitr. (AFP/Mohammed Abed)

The Bush-hatred is overflowing at Democratic Underground, where they’ve been driven into a frothing nightmare frenzy over the President’s visit to Iraq, even suggesting that it was an impersonator who made the trip:

F_ckin A Bush is a paranoid narcissitic _sshole. He wouldn't even get out of his bullet proof caddy in London.

You really think Bush went to Baghdad? There was an attack on a DHL plane just days ago and yet Bush is flying into Iraq?

Saddam has over 100 doubles according to the press and we have all seen the fat and thin Osama tapes....did W really fly into Iraq?

Personally I think Bush never left Crawford. Just my humble opinion but I just don't see how they could have cleaned the sh_t off his pants if he actually went into Iraq.

(Hat tip: Jheka.)

Here’s the explanation for why LGF has recently been seeing an increasing number of attempted hack attacks from Arab countries—a fatwa approving cyber terrorism against sites “hostile to Islam,” issued by the highest official cleric of Saudi Arabia. (Hat tip: Thom.)

WASHINGTON DC, December 2, 2002 -- The Saudi Information Agency has obtained a fatwa approving cyber terrorism issued by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Shaikh Abdul Aziz Al-Alshaikh, the highest official cleric in the country.

The mufti, who enjoys a position of a government minister, published the fatwa in the government financed religious magazine Al-Dawa, headquartered in Riyadh.  Al-Alshaikh also heads of the official Council of Senior Religious Scholars, which issues religious rulings for the state.

Following the fatwa numerous Saudi hackers started to attack many websites that included the FBI and Pentagon websites, according to a hacker interviewed by Al-Riyadh newspaper September 5, 2001. The hacker told the paper he attacked over 1000 websites in the USA. Attacked websites included: www.ifccfbi.gov, www.mms.gov, and www.kiss.com.

The Fatwa

Question: If there were websites on the internet that are hostile to Islam, and broadcasting immoral materials. Is it permissible for me to send it viruses to disable and destroy these websites?
-- Abdul Aziz Saleh Al-Morashid – Erqa

Answer: If these websites are hostile to Islam and you could encounter its evilness with goodness; And to respond to it, refute its falsehood, and show its void content; that would be the best option. But if you are unable to respond to it, and you wanted to destroy it and you have the ability to do so, its ok to destroy it because it is an evil website.

Source: AlDaawa Magazine, issue 1741, May 11, 2000.

Speaking, appropriately enough, in Belgium, former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix says he hopes the US learned a lesson in Iraq.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector, was quoted on Friday as saying he hoped Washington had learned its lesson in Iraq about the need for multinational cooperation.

Blix also told the Belgian daily De Morgen the United States could not simply choose to leave Iraq after toppling Saddam Hussein.

"The United States is on the ground, they can't leave now. But...they don't have much experience in reconstructing a country," said Blix, the former Swedish foreign minister who for 16 years headed the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That’s true; the US has almost no experience in rebuilding countries. It isn’t common knowledge, but that old Marshall Plan thing that rebuilt most of Europe after World War II was actually planned, funded, and implemented by Belgium, with help from Sweden.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has issued a demand that Israel immediately cease all attempts to defend its citizens, and allow Palestinian suicide bombers easier access to buses and restaurants: UN Says Israel Fails to Meet Demand to Halt Wall.

Evil warmonger Mark Steyn lists the five regimes that must go, urging President Bush to stop listening to Tony Blair’s advice to slow down.

Profound changes in the above countries would not necessarily mean the end of the war on terror, but it would be pretty close. It would remove terrorism’s most brazen patron (Syria), its ideological inspiration (the prototype Islamic Republic of Iran), its principal paymaster (Saudi Arabia), a critical source of manpower (Sudan) and its most potentially dangerous weapons supplier (North Korea). They’re the fronts on which the battle has to be fought: it’s not just terror groups, it’s the state actors who provide them with infrastructure and extend their global reach. Right now, America — and Britain, Australia and Italy — are fighting defensively, reacting to this or that well-timed atrocity as it occurs.

Ariel Sharon warned Palestinian Arabs yesterday that unless they begin making honest steps toward peace, they risk losing more land. Palestinians reacted with rage and duplicitous whining, counting on the world press to ignore that Palestinians have not fulfilled even the very first condition of the “road map:” Palestinians Angry With Sharon Warning.

"You do not have unlimited time," Sharon told a news conference on Thursday, addressing the Palestinians.

He added that if he feels the Palestinians are not serious about negotiating a peace deal, he may take unilateral steps. "Maybe (the Palestinians) can get things now that they won't be able to get then."

The Palestinians, who claim all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a state, responded to Sharon's warning of impatience and annexation with a sharp rebuke.

"This is an unprecedented, arrogant statement. It is rude and it lacks any vision," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said. "He should declare that he is committed to the 'road map' and implement all the Israeli commitments that are in this map," referring to a U.S.-backed peace plan.

This article contains another sighting of the much-used Palestinian lie about a “mentally retarded man.” The “retarded man/boy/girl” is a recurring theme in Palestinian dissembling, and the press eats it up every time, reporting it as if it were fact and only occasionally mentioning the Israeli version of events.

Also Friday, a Palestinian intelligence officer was shot and killed by Israeli troops after he approached the fence of the Gaza Strip settlement of Nissanit, witnesses and hospital officials said. Witnesses said the officer was trying to rescue a mentally retarded man who had wandered into the area.

The army confirmed a Palestinian man was killed, but said he was shot as troops tried to disperse a crowd of more than 40 Palestinians near the fence. The area is off limits to Palestinians to prevent militants from infiltrating into the settlement, the army said.

A rare sighting of a possible liberal Muslim in today’s New York Times, with an op-ed that puts the blame for the spread of jihad ideology in the Islamic world squarely where it belongs—on the hatred and incitement that passes for education in Saudi Arabia: Telling the Truth, Facing the Whip. (Hat tip: Ben F.) The author, Mansour al-Nogaidan, has been sentenced to 75 lashes for writing articles like this one.

The most recent government crackdown on terrorism suspects, in response to this month's car-bombing of a compound housing foreigners and Arabs in Riyadh, is missing the real target. The real problem is that Saudi Arabia is bogged down by deep-rooted Islamic extremism in most schools and mosques, which have become breeding grounds for terrorists. We cannot solve the terrorism problem as long as it is endemic to our educational and religious institutions.

Yet the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs have now established a committee to hunt down teachers who are suspected of being liberal-minded. This committee, which has the right to expel and punish any teacher who does not espouse hard-core Wahhabism, last week interrogated a teacher, found him "guilty" of an interest in philosophy and put on probation.

During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, imams around the country stepped up their hate speech against liberals, advocates of women's rights, secularists, Christians and Jews — and many encouraged their congregations to do the same. I heard no sermons criticizing the people responsible for the attacks in Riyadh, in which innocent civilians and children were killed. The reason, I believe, is that these religious leaders sympathize with the criminals rather than the victims.

I cannot but wonder at our officials and pundits who continue to claim that Saudi society loves other nations and wishes them peace, when state-sponsored preachers in some of our largest mosques continue to curse and call for the destruction of all non-Muslims. As the recent attacks show, now more than ever we are in need of support and help from other countries to help us stand up against our extremist religious culture, which discriminates against its own religious minorities, including Shiites and Sufis.

But we must be aware that this religious extremism, which has been indoctrinated in several Saudi generations, will be very difficult to defeat. I know because I once espoused it. For 11 years, from the age of 16, I was a Wahhabi extremist. With like-minded companions I set fire to video stores selling Western movies and even burned down a charitable society for widows and orphans in our village because we were convinced it would lead to the liberation of women.

Then, during my second two-year stint in jail, my sister brought me books, and alone in my cell I was introduced to liberal Muslim philosophers. It was with wrenching disbelief that I came to realize that Islam was not only Wahhabism, and that other forms preached love and tolerance. To rid myself of the pain of that discovery I started writing against Wahhabism, achieving some peace and atonement for my past ignorance and violence.

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frank says:

Consider for a moment any beauty in the name Ralph. -- In an interview with Joan Rivers who had just asked him why he gave his children such odd names, Frank gave the reply above.

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