Last of the Famous International Playboys

LE MONDE | 08.04.04 | 13:44

In 2003, at the moment when the American troops were invading Iraq, we recorded the anguish and hopes of the regulars at this meeting place. The same people, one year later.

Café Shabandar hasn't changed. A year after the fall of Saddam Hussein and the American victory, they still gather there every Friday to be in good company. It's there, at the end of Mutanabi Street, "the street of the book market," that Iraqi writers, artists and journalists discuss the events of the week, drinking tea and smoking from narghilehs.

"Yes, something has changed," murmurs Najid Hamid, a photographer who has documented life in Baghdad's oldest café for over a decade.

"When I look at all these faces in my photographs after I've got home, I realize that something has changed..." He looks around the room, all the men sitting on benches, discussing, complaining, laughing.

"The difference is joy," says Nahid. "Before the faces were closed and sad ; today they are open and joyous." The funniest part is that even those who can't stop cursing and predicting a "catastrophe," those who say "it was better before," reveal in Najid's photos a shining face that they did not show a year ago.

"Every Friday, it's a shouting match. Conversations among friends are at once greater and more difficult than before. We've lost our only common ground: life under the dictatorship," says Zuher Radwan. A political analyst and literary critic of Palestinian origin, Zuher, though an Arab nationalist opposed to the United States, admitted in 2003 that he wanted war. "I was right," he said. "The change is wonderful. It was well worth a war..." And Zuher repeats the argument of all his fellow Iraqis who favored the American intervention. "Alone, the Iraqis would never have been able to topple Saddam Hussein."

Zuher Radwan's life has changed and it is only for a few hours at café Shabandar that allows himself time to relax. "I'm an interpreter for foreigners, but careful — for journalists! Others, who work for the American occupier, I, too, call them, 'the traitors,' 'the colaborators,'" he smiles. "My life has been upended. I am rich. I travel across the country. I am going to become a correspondent for a Palestinian newspaper in Iraq. I will by a Mercedes next month and a house in two years. Of course, there's this lack of security but it's bearable. Before, I was a loafer. To-day I work like a madman! ..."

Zuher Radwan is nevertheless not so enthusiastic when talking of the state of his country. "I am free! Iraq, no!" He is worried. "Our path crossed that of the Americans. It was necessary to topple the tyrant. But the paths, after the fall of Saddam, took opposite directions," he explains. "The Americans have made only poor choices. They destroyed the country. I hate seeing these soldiers in our streets. I hate hearing their helicopters. The only solution is for them to leave, but not by abandoning the Iraqis to their fate. The ideal would be for an international UN force to relieve the American army. If Washington had made that decision on the evening of 9 April, there would be no guerilla movement." A choice that Washington, which has just opted for the military solution opposite the Shia insurgents, does not seem ready to make.

Still, Zuher praises American pragmatism and feels that "all is not lost." "The problem with the Americans is that they try all the bad solutions before finding the good one!" Almost all the Baghdadis at café Shahbandar are happy with the change that occurred last year. The young men Esam Pasha and Ahmed al-Safi, a painter and a sculptor, also talk of "liberation." Still, each one adds a few sour notes.

"To be Iraqi is to have the feeling of being handcuffed since birth, and this war was the feeling that at last someone came to remove our handcuffs," says Esam Pasha. "Artists now feel freer than they ever have. Of course, we are afraid of the unknown, of chaos. It is human. But I believe that Iraq will survive these trials and that it is destined for a brilliant future. Since last year, I've really had the feeling of being free for the first time in my life. Before, a painting could get you sent to prison; today, I can paint freely and dream of seeing the world..." While everyone claims to be disappointed with the Americans, Esam displays an especial disappointment with... the Iraqis.

"The worst was the looting. It was horrible. I cried when I saw my fellow Iraqis burn the National Library... With the Americans, it was a different disappointment. I worked for six months with them as an interpreter, because I wanted to help them understand Iraq and establish better relations with the population. Wasted effort..."

His friend, Ahmed al-Safi, speaks little of the American presence, unsure of his feelings. "I think Iraq is doing better since last year. All the Iraqis spend their time complaining, underscoring the bad parts of the occupation, but I still think that Iraqi is doing better. No one likes to see a foreign army invade his country but this was the condition for change." Like Esam and Zuher, Ahmed has progressively immersed himself in work. "The past year has obviously been the most important one in my life. A bizarre, unique, unexpected year, made up of encounters and novelties. A year without Saddam..."

Ihsan Charchatchi is, for his part, always collapsed on the stool in his book store and always of a "most sombre pessimism." A mutual friend who introduced us to him in the time of the dictatorship called him "Mohammed." Ihsan regained his identity and now talks freely. "We wanted the fall of Saddam but not this occupation and certainly not these people who know nothing about Iraq, its history, its culture. Like everybody, I've got mixed feelings: I wanted the end of Saddam but I don't like seeing American tanks in the streets of Baghdad... The most postiive change is the freedom of expression. But what good is it when no one is listening to you?... Here, in Mutanabi, it is good to see people pounce on books that were once forbidden, political and religious books. But when will I see students pounce on literature again? Iraq is ailing. Students don't study any more. They all think they'll get their degrees by force or by bribery. The situation is ceaselessly deteriorating, except for the new leaders and entrepreneurs..."

A businessman encountered last year, Nabil Hanna, a Christian who owns clothing stores and a restaurant on the sytlish al-Arasat Street, is even more despairing. His house was hit by a rocket during the war, then his restaurant was devastated by an attack on New Years Eve. "It was better under Saddam!" he says, though he also dreamed of "liberation" a year ago. "This insecurity is intolerable. There was the attack on my restaurant, probably because I admitted Americans and served alcohol. And there is the criminality. Friends are getting kidnapped almost every day and the bandits demand enormous ransoms. I live with a weapon and never go out without a body guard. I no longer recognize my Baghdad..."

Nabil has just decided that he will send his wife and two young children to live in Istanbul. "It's too dangerous here. They could be kidnapped at any moment. And then I'm expecting serious troubles between political and religious factions, between gangs. For a long time Iraq will suffer for the fact that there are no longer any rules!" Whence a certain nostalgia for the dictatorship. "Under Saddam, Bagdad was calm. No one attacked the police. No one attacked us, the Christians. And terrorism didn't exist. The Americans must admit that it was they after all who brought terrorism to Iraq by attracting al-Qaeda and I don't know who else!"

Back at the café Shahbandar, a man, perhaps the only one, claims, in this place vibrant with the freedom of speech, to be a partisan of the former system. Mouafak al-Kakhagoli is not just anybody. A noble descendant of one of Baghdad's oldest families, once an officer in the Iraqi army of the Ba'th, he mixes popular banter, in his djellaba and sandals, with an uncommon erudition, particularly in the ancient and lost languages of Mesopotamia.

His portrait, painted by Ali Ketan, another regular, is enthroned on the wall. "The Americans are like Nazis!" he says. "They want to impose their culture on us, their democracy. Is that freedom? Having what the occupier wants imposed on you? ... I believe that the Shia and the Sunna will end up getting on in order to fight together the agents of the foreigner, the CIA and the Mossad, who have taken hold of the reins of power. The only solution is revolution!" For several days, the leaders of the Sunna insurgency and of the Shia "Madhi army" have had the same desires, hoping to join forces against the occupier. And since Mouafak likes the history of France, he finds it fitting to shout that "the Iraqi government is Pétain," and that the people "are waiting for a de Gaulle."

The others around him disapprove of his words. They grumble and grouse. "At least now Mouafak can talk freely," says one of his friends, a writer. "We, who are opposed to all dictatorships, were muzzled all our lives."

As for the painter Wesam Rady, he cannot stand to hear Mouafak speak. Imprisoned under Saddam Hussein, he is still struggling to purge his traumas. "Every time someone mentions Saddam, I still want to cry. I'm sorry..." Wesam, a former draftsman at the Ba'thi newspaper al-Jumhuriya still trembles when telling his story. "I was working at this newspaper because it protected my family who are Shia. I failed. I spent three years in prison because I made a joke about the president... Saddam was a catastrophe. He killed some of my friends and many Iraqis..."

Wesam has just had a commercial success by painting a series of seven tableaus reproducing the scene of the Iraqi dictator emerging from his hiding place in December, near Tikrit. "When I saw these images on television, I danced. I wept with joy and I took up my brushes. I painted Saddam with all the hatred that was inside me. I was surprised to be visited, once rumor got wind of these paintings, by American officers and journalists who bought them all. I have no more and I won't paint any more. That would be monotonous. But to have painted Saddam in that state liberated me a little..."

At the Shahbandar café, they kiss, embrace and say "see you next Friday!" Zuher repeats that "life is good, despite it all." Esam and Ahmed go off to ear grilled chicken. Mouafak is still cursing the "invader" and Najid, the old photographer, the portraitist of the joys and sadness of the new Iraq, furtively snaps a few final shots.

Rémy Ourdan
• PUBLISHED IN THE 09.04.04 EDITION

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 4/8/2004 11:48:08 PM

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Rwanda Revisted

Stephen Smith

This post should have come much earlier and for that I'm sorry. I meant to get to it last night but life prevented this.

Tonight, Erik flew in from Paris for a stopover on his way to Texas where he's pursuing a research project and he, Jonathan and I met at the Cedar Tavern for a — hic! — ¡No Pasarán! brain storming session. Now I'm home again and have had a moment to work on this post.

Today marks tenth anniversary of the first full day of slaughter in the Rwandan genocide. There have been a number of astounding revelations about French and Rwandan rebel involvement in the genocide. To cover them, Le Monde let loose its Africa specialist, Connecticut-born reporter Stephen Smith (above right). In a matter of days, his reporting set off a chain of international events and discoveries that have profoundly altered the state of public knowledge on the genocide and I thought I'd do the world a favor by putting them all in one place.

The world already knows that, since 1959, Rwanda's Tutsi minority had been the subject of periodic pogroms on the part of the country's Hutu majority. On 04.06.94, the private jet belonging to then Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana, a Falcon 50, was shot down, touching off in a matter of hours the most intense genocide ever recorded: almost a million people were killed in 100 days.

Recent developments began on March 9 when Le Monde published excerpts of the final 220-page report by the crusading anti-terror investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière following his six-year investigation in the airplane crash of Habyarimana's plane at the request of French nationals also killed in the crash. A firestorm of recrimination and scandal has followed the publication of this article.

Bruguière's report names former rebel leader and current Rwandan president Paul Kagamé is the main organizer of the attack and puts him at the top of a list of high-ranking rebel accomplices, members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR).

Bruguière's investigation collected hundreds of accounts, filed dozens of letters rogatory, required numerous missions abroad in collaboration with other investigators and included testimony from anonymous FPR dissidents under witness protection, of which one was a member of the "network commando," a clandestine group allegedly under Kagamé's direct control and allegedly responsible for carrying out the assassination.

This witness explained a hypothesis according to which Tutsi rebels sacrificed Rwanda's "interior Tutsis" (Tutsis who remained in Rwanda following the end of minority Tutsi rule in 1959) by provoking the Hutu into killing them so that the rebels could exploit the situation by seizing power: "Paul Kagamé had little care for the interior Tutsis who were almost assimilated to the Hutu in his eyes," says captain Abdul Ruzibiza. "The interior Tutsis were potential enemies that had to be eliminated, just like the Hutus, in order to take power, Paul Kagamé's main objective." Though under protection, Le Monde's sources claim Ruzibiza has received death threats.

The report quotes another dissident, Jean-Paul Mugabe, who corroborates this account with the following reservation: "The genocidal Hutus, who killed defenseless Tutsis and the other revisionists and extremist groups should not use this account to deny the existence of the genocide against the Tutsis and claim that Kagamé's crime against Habyarimana conferred the right to massacre the Tutsis with no relation to Kagamé. Those responsible for the 1994 genocide must be pursued in accordance with international law." According to Smith, Kigali has eliminated several of Bruguière's informants.

Bruguière's report also sheds light on the refusal of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, if not of the UN itself, to investigate the attack of April 6 or to attempt to identify those responsible. The report contains the examination of the Canadian Roger Lambo, once a UN air traffic control in Kigali in 1994 now working for the ICAO in Montreal, who claims that he retrieved the black box from the president's plane and sent it to UN headquarters in New York. On an official visit to Ottawa, Kofi Annan expressed his surprise at allegations that the UN actually had the black box, "because we have no interest in hindering either the investigations or the tribunal itself." Denying any obstruction, his spokesman in New York, Fred Eckhard, joked about the flight recorder: "Look! I've got it right here under the table." (He would soon regret this dearly).

He also stated that the UN would issue a more complete reponse to Bruguière's allegations. "Among other things," wrote Le Monde's Stephen Smith, it should explain "why,if Roger Lambo lied to judge Bruguière, UN investigators were removed from the investigation of the April 6 attack and why, despite three Security Council resolutions demanding the contrary, the UN never attempted to illuminate the event that plunged Rwanda into genocide."

Kagamé, whose children are protected in France as political refugees, entirely denies the report's findings and an FPR spokesman has claimed that they are a product of "the animosity between official France and Rwanda." Last March, while Kagamé was on official visit to Brussels where he met with prime minsiter Verhofstadt and King Albert II, Belgian television broadcast an interview with Abdul Ruzibiza who accused Kagamé of planning Habyarimana's assassination. Ruzibiza reportedly said that Kagamé had "a long-standing plan" which he executed "at an opportune moment which he chose himself."

President Habyarimana's son, Léon, told Le Monde that his family has always been "convinced that it was the FPR that organized that attack." He added

It is astounding that the UN, which was responsible for the protection the Kigali airport in 1994, didn't even bother to investigate a terrorist attack that caused the death of two heads of state and that began a tragedy without precedent on the African continent. As a family, we have ceaselessly demanded an international investigation. We have written to successive UN Secretaries General, Boutros Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan. We have even filed a complaint at the Hague. But all these attempts met with blunt refusals. Obviously, we've wondered what this UN "inaction" — to say the least! — might be hiding.

A UNHCR report written by "international expert" Robert Gersony on atrocities committed by the FPR during the genocide was conveniently buried shortly after its completion. According to Le Monde, it concludes that FPR's "clearly systematic murders and persecutions" targeted men, women and children indiscriminately. (Yet some at the UN even claimed "the Gersony report doesn't exist.") In 1995 at Kibeho, a southern refugee camp, the FPR opened fire on a crowd of Tutsis and Hutu assassins mixed together, killing 5,000 people in front of passive UN blue helmets. Le Monde also cites Médecins san frontières as having claimed that FPR began "cleanup" of refugee camps in 1996, killing 200,000 people directly or through exposure and sending a further 400,000 fleeing in to the jungle.

On March 11, mere two days after Stephen Smith's revelations in Le Monde, UN headquarters miraculously discovered the flight recorder from President Habyarimana's plane. It was "in a closet" at the UNITAR offices. Fred Eckhard, Annan's spokesman who joked about having the black box under his desk, claimed that in 1994 the UN was "too busy" to realize that it belonged to Habyarimana's plane. Yet Lambo testified that, when he sent the box to New York from Nairobi, it was in good condition and contained a label with the name of the manufacturer and the serial number. As far as he knew, no other Falcon 50 had crashed in the region at that time. He sent the box to New York under orders from Andy Sequin, head of the air safety unit in New York. But Eckhard said, "You have to remember 1994 –- 70,000 peacekeeping personnel worldwide in 17 or 18 missions being managed by a small department of 200 people. You make quick judgements and move on to the next thing."

Kofi Annan was head of peacekeeping at the time.

While Annan repeatedly insists that the UN actively cooperated with judge Bruguière's inquiry, its final report asserts that, in a March 18, 1999 letter to the Security Council on his decision to start internal inquiry to UN activities relative to the genocide, Annan "does not at all mention the lack of any inquiry into the attack on the presidential plane."

Smith reports that "sources close to the French investigation" said on March 12 that they were "stunned to say the least" by the Secretary General's statements about "effective cooperation." They added, "a considerable number of the witnesses in this case returned to us after having bumped up against blunt refusals at the UN" both at headquarters and at the ICTR in Arusha. "Moreover, the transfer of several documents, such as the 'memorandum' drawn up by the former UN investigator in Kigali, Michael Hourigan, was denied us at the instructions of the New York Office."

Several hours before the presence of the "black box" at UN HQ was revealed, Kagamé repeated his denials of the report's findings from Belgium: "I think they wanted to attack Rwanda, and even Belgium." Prime minister Verhofstadt also came out against Bruguière's inquiry, which he said was "political litigation" by the French government.

On March 16, Kagamé tried to turn the situation on its head, telling Radio France Internationale that

the French were there at the moment the genocide occurred. They trained the killers. They were stationed at command positions within the armed forces that carried out the genocide. They also directly participated in the operations: they filtered the road blocks, identifying people on an ethnic basis, punishing the Tutsis and favoring the Hutus.

All this was done in broad daylight at the road blocks. We've got it all on video, numerous pieces of evidence of the participation of the French. Not the French people but certain elements acting on orders from the government and who were manning these roadblocks during the genocide. They knew. They supported it. They supplied arms and they gave orders and instructions to the killers. What more can I say?

France immediately denied the charges but in 1998, the Assemblée Nationale began a fact finding mission into the participation of French authorities in the genocide. It declassified 3,500 documents and heard from foreign policy officials from that time. CNRS sociologist Claudine Vidal said that the inquiry "arrived at a very severe judgment on French involvement in Rwanda, the goal of which was to prevent at all costs the military victory of the FPR. According to the report, 'at all costs' meant an 'underestimation of the authoritarian, sectarian and racist nature of the Rwandan regime.' It meant arming and organizing an army that 'some French military personnel may have felt they formed'. It meant a French military presence 'verging on military engagement on the ground.' Finally, it meant continuing to confer legitimacy on an interim government [put in place after the assassination of Habyarimana] while ignoring the reality of the genocide. Nevertheless, no direct participation by French soldiers in the genocide has been established by the mission."

Yet former Socialist defense minster Paul Quilès, the chair of the panel conducting the inquiry, said that the "military aide for the government forces verged on direct engagement: operational consultation at all significant levels of command, from the Chief of Staff to sector command posts, training of long range commandos, participation in check points at a time when Kigali was threatened by FPR troops."

An association called Survie accused the panel of "self-censorship" and of having "acquiesced in the face of government pressure." Survie was until recently chaired by Jean Carbonare, a former advisor to... Paul Kagamé. Under a new chair, François Xavier Verschave, Survie is launching a "citizen inquiry" with several other NGOs. Quilès denies the assertions of Survie and refuses to participate in its inquiry.

On March 25, Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, a reporter from Le Figaro published the book L'inavouable: La France au Rwanda ("That which cannot be confessed: France in Rwanda". It reads like a lyrical 300-page letter to former Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin:

Soldiers of our country trained, under orders, the killers of the Tutsi genocide. We armed them, encouraged them and, when the time came, evacuated them. I came upon this story unwittingly in the Rwandan hills. It was hot. It was summertime. The weather was lovely, magnificent. It was the season of genocide.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 4/7/2004 11:30:15 PM

Monday, April 05, 2004

wtf?

kind of an AFP bulletin is this?

Bourse-Ams Don't be left out From Elinor Cabrera 'VSCUESINUN@aol.com' To Lima 'lima@afp.com' An associate of yours has set
AFP | 05.04.04 | 19h01

you up on a romantic appointment with someone. Click here to accept the invitation: ].ª¹gain de 0,9% à 23,85 €.La compagnie aérienne KLM, qui a annoncé des chiffres de trafic positifs pour mars, a clôturé en progression de 2,7% à 17,45 €. L'offre publique d'échange d'Air France sur KLM s'est ouverte ce lundi.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 4/5/2004 01:22:49 PM

Public Service Announcement.

Here's a good place to go if you wish to know more about Jews.

Here's explaining why I felt compelled to make this announcement.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 4/5/2004 12:45:25 AM

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Israel-Palestine: impossible peace?

LEMONDE.FR | 29.03.04 | 19:01

Complete text of the debate with Frédéric Encel, researcher and author of La Géopolitique de l'aplocalypse (Flammarion), Monday, March 29.

THE ASSASSINATION OF SHEIKH YASSIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Bob: What is the situation in the Middle East since the assassination of sheikh Yassin?

Frédéric Encel: The targeted elimination of the leader of the Hamas Islamist movement does not fundamentally change the givens in the short term: having the objective of the total destruction of Israel and the strict application of sharia throughout Greater Palestine, the Palestinian Islamist movement has never sought anything other than out and out war.

We must remember that in 1994 and 1996, that is, at the height of the peace process, Hamas committed numerous suicide attacks which considerably troubled the pursuit of dialogues. In other words, even if Hamas seeks to avenge the death of its leader, its perceptions, its strategies and goals will remain the same. On the other hand, the elimination of Yassin could allow his rival Yasser Arafat to control the Gaza Strip the day the Israelis withdraw. In this, the assassination is good news for Fatah and for all democratic Palestinians. women, Christians, etc., who do not want to live under Islamist domination.

Pepito: In your view, what was Israel's real goal in killing sheikh Yassin?

Frédéric Encel: Ariel Sharon had few goals. The first, for internal reasons, consisted in restoring his people's morale, in sending a strong signal to public opinion after the bloody double attack in Ashdod. The second goal, for external reasons, was to demonstrate to the Palestinians that despite his willingness to leave the Gaza Strip, the Israelis remain masters of the game. Right now, it's obvious that on the diplomatic level, the operation has been a success since, on one hand, Washington did not condemn it and on the other, the Security Council is divided over it and, lastly, because the Arab summit in Tunis was postponed amidst commotion.

Forza: Could Yasser Arafat also be the subject of a targeted assassination? What will be consequences for peace?

Frédéric Encel: A central question: for three years, I've been repeatedly saying that Sharon has every reason to keep Yasser Arafat confined to Ramallah rather than see him triumph in the embassies and media of the whole world. Yasser Arafat will be neither exiled nor eliminated because this does not correspond to the Israeli interests of the moment. I'll add that if Sharon is truly the man of intransigence as he is depicted then he will not want to negotiate with the PLO's main lieutenants who are, unlike their boss, genuinely pragmatic.

Oiso2 nuit: What about the Geneva Pact?

Frédéric Encel: The Geneva initiative of December 1 2003 is interesting and innovative but was only signed by people who are not in power. Yasser Abed Rabbo is a courageous and moderate man but Yasser Arafat always left in the shadows with the other Palestinian leaders. So the Palestinians don't know him. As for the Israeli Yossi Beilin, he is faulted in Israel as the artisan of the Oslo accords and is hated by the traditionalist majority of the Israeli population. In other words, since Ariel Sharon, whose fourth year in office was last year, and Yasser Arafat, who doesn't seem to want to leave power, remain the two official leaders, the men of Geneva won't be able to implement their proposals in the short to medium term.

ARIEL SHARON, YASSER ARAFAT, THE ISRAELIS AND PEACE

Novembre: Are Ariel Sharon's legal woes enough to change the situation in Israel and in the region? Isn't he using this conflict for personal reasons?

Frédéric Encel: Yes. Ariel Sharon may have to leave power if he is indicted. In this scenario, elections would probably be held after a campaign of several months At the moment, it would be the nationalist candidate Netanyahou who would win. The potentially tragic paradox of the fall of Ariel Sharon would be the maintenance of the status quo in the Gaza Strip. Indeed, it is unlikely that someone other than the current Israeli prime minister should have t he will and the political capacity to evacuate Gaza.

Could the Israelis one day accept leaving the West Bank settlements in return for peace?

Frédéric Encel: A majority of Israelis favor giving up a certain number of settlements in return for peace. Two questions arise: will they accept the dismantling of the most populous and the most strategic of these settlements and, also, will they trust in the peace that is offered them? My answer is as follows: the majority of Israelis will accept the dismantlement of most of the smaller settlements while keeping the largest ones around Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv but for the time being they are not ready to put their trust in Yasser Arafat, whom they view as the initiator of the second Intifada. But as for the Gaza Strip, it is obvious that the Israelis will accept giving it up.

Paixpaix: What in your view is the percentage of Palestinians and Israelis in favor of peace?

Frédéric Encel: A large majority far and wide. But the perennial question is to determine at what cost. I think that the Palestinians will have trouble giving up the right of return for 1948 refugees to East Jerusalem, while Israelis will have trouble accepting the lack of guarantees of absolute security and of an explicit recognition of the legitimacy of Zionism.

Seize: Are there any Palestinian individuals in a position to replace Yasser Arafat?

Frédéric Encel: I am highly optimistic on this point since among the Palestinian political elite there are a considerable number of courageous and pragmatic democrats. An Abu Mazen, an Abu Alaa [Ahmed Qureia], a Hanan Ashrawi, a Mohammed Dahlan would in my view be responsible and effective leaders but for Arafat. But it is for the Palestinians to choose their leadership.

THE VIEWS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Mage: Why don't the United States intervene in a more "authoritarian" manner in the conflict? What do you think is preventing them from doing so?

Frédéric Encel: Two major reasons explain president Bush junior's non-interventionism in the Middle East. The first is his fear of falling into the same trap as his predecessor Clinton, who invested unprecedented effort and credibility in this for a disastrous result. The second reason corresponds to his very political reading of the Bible and to his sentimental and spiritual proximity with Zionism and the State of Israel. Finally, I'll add that with no rival superpower and opposite a severely divided Arab world, these presidents do not see a geopolitical necessity to intervene.

François: Do you think that the European Union's systematic condemnations help the peace process?

Frédéric Encel: The European Union plays a marginal role in the conflict. This is due to its division and to the absence of credible military means. These condemnations of terrorist attacks and of Israeli retaliations, remain more or less dead letters. In France, in Germany, in United Kingdom and other states in Western Europe, the presence of consequential Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities also raises the fear of the importation of the conflict. Whence a certain additional reticence with respect to the stance to take.

lehcim: If Europe plays a marginal role, how would you define a the role of France?

Frédéric Encel: France has sought to play an important role in the Middle East at least since 1967 but one could go back to the 1920s. Two things hinder France's progress in this aim: the first is Paris' relative weakness in the region when compared with Washington . The second one is the Israeli party's view that its positions are too staunchly pro-Arab. The regional balance of power favors Israel, which consistently prefers American and not French arbitration.

James: Can the UN play a "credible and decisive" role in this persistent conflict?

Frédéric Encel: The UN is no more than a cenacle representing the balance of power at a critical moment. Currently, the United States are in the dominant position while, for various reasons, Russia, China and Europe are unable to be make their presence felt. As a result, the UN can hardly play an active role in the region. And only the United States could act as a credible force of arbitration and coercion between the belligerents.

ISLAMISM, THE SECURITY WALL AND THE FUTURE OF PEACE

Milan: If the Israelis withdraw from the Gaza strip, don't we risk seeing the rise of an Islamic regime? What is the future of Islamism in the region, in your opinion?

Frédéric Encel: This is a central question: it is likely that Gaza could ultimately be governed by an Islamo-nationalist leadership. Which would be a catastrophe, not only for the prospect of peace, but also for the Palestinian population. Now, such is to-day the lot of most Arab states: if the current nationalist or monarchist leadership were to fall, it would be to the profit of the Islamists. For this reason, the regional situation is therefore very serious and the West would be well inspired to give more support, particularly economic and social, to the authoritarian regimes that are more or less struggling with their Islamist oppositions.

Arnaud: Can you give us your view of the law suit currently being brought before the European Court of Justice over the "security wall"? It's immediate consequences?

Frédéric Encel: There will be no consequences because the opinion of the court will only be advisory. But, like the European embassies, including the French foreign ministry, I feel that the problem of Israel's unilateral separation is a political question and not a legal one.

Dafyd: Can we foresee the establishment of an Israeli-Palestinian federation?

Frédéric Encel: That is part of beautiful utopia and I have always thought that a negotiated separation that is respectful of the sovereignty of both parties should be encouraged. To sum up my thinking, Id say that a bad peace is better than a good war. The example of the cold peace between Israel and Egypt, agreed in 1979 and maintained until to-day, seems a horizon to be attained between Israelis and Palestinians. In general, the regroupings and forced federations don't last long.

Salam: What, in your view, would be the modalities of a just peace in the Middle East?

Frédéric Encel: 1) Mutual recognition of the legitimacy of having full national sovereignty; 2) the creation of a Palestinian state on the approximate 1967 borders; 3) absolute security guarantees for Israel; 4) a radical change in perception of identity and the teaching of the other [side's history].

Drinfeld: Is a separation possible given the thousands of Israeli arabs?

Frédéric Encel: Israeli Arabs are full-fledged citizens of the state of Israel. Even if a certain number of them maintain strong sympathies for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza strip. There would be a real problem if a majority of these citizens were to engage in an insurrection because then the authorities would have to take actions to protect the regime. That said, I don't see such likelihoods in the short term and the Arab Israelis convicted of complicity in terrorist acts are incarcerated in the same way that their Jewish fellow citizens having committed the same crimes would be. A separation in the middle Israel itself doesn't seem possible.

JCR: Is the wall an absolute necessity or an admission of weakness?

Frédéric Encel: It is a recognition of failure after numerous attempts at peace. For the time being, it is the only non-military solution found by the Israeli government to assuring the protection of its citizens in the face of terrorism. Without being absolute, this security measure clearly offers better capacities for resistance in the face of suicide operations.

Paixpaix: Don't both peoples have their backs to the wall after so many years of conflict?

Frédéric Encel: "backs to the wall..." is that a joke? This notion of the ineluctability of peace is erroneous and, alas, we have seen longer and bloodier conflicts. That said, exhaustion among the two peoples is indeed tangible and I am convinced that the potential exists some place or other to arrive in fine at a negotiated settlement.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/30/2004 11:30:13 PM

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Zeyad's Cook

"'How many young men did this @#%$ send to death by brainwashing and fooling them into carrying out suicide attacks? How many innocent people had he killed?' he shouted to the doctor, 'And how many thousands of dollars did he get in his Swiss bank accounts by pimping on the Palestinian cause?. If he was truly such a hero and a believer in Jihad how come he didn't rig his wheelchair with explosives and blow himself up at some Israeli checkpoint? I say fuck him.'" — Zeyad's cook, with Sheikh Yassin banged to rights.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/28/2004 10:06:27 PM

Routine Apology

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything here in a while. As I always say, I've been very busy recently and when I found time I posted to ¡No Pasrarán! because I thought that blog needed a boost.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/28/2004 08:50:48 PM

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

DF on SY

Sauf erreur:

demonstrations were held across central Iraq to protest the killing of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin by Israeli rockets in the backstreets of Gaza Monday.

In Ramadi, a volatile, Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad, those demonstrations turned violent after protesters shouting anti-American slogans attacked a police car, setting it ablaze.

Anxious police fired their weapons into the air to disperse the stone-throwing crowds and wounded at least two Iraqis. One man ran down the street cradling a small boy in his arms.

In Baghdad, large numbers were expected to gather in the rundown Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City later Tuesday to start three days mourning for Yassin organized by Moqtada al-Sadr, a staunchly anti-American cleric.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/23/2004 01:11:14 AM

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Aie!

What did France do to help Iraq free itself from the dictator and then to help Iraq regain its sovereignty? Nothing!

Over at ¡No Pasarán!, you can see my discussion of my translation of a biting article that recently appeared in Le Monde (with links).

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/20/2004 05:40:42 PM

Friday, March 19, 2004

wtf?

Matt Yglesias is claiming that New Haven has the best pizza in the US.

Go fuck yourself, Matt.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/19/2004 09:09:18 PM

memories...

On April 11, 2003, Libération ran the following story:

Bagdad

French and German buildings emptied

by Christophe AYAD
Friday 11 April 2003

t the entrance to the French Cultural center in Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris, a plaque reads, "The center's activities are postponed until further notice." The pane of glass protecting it has been smashed. Inside, there is nothing left but books and sheets of paper scattered on the ground. "We resent France, China and the Russians," says Qassem. "Why didn't they help us get rid of Saddam Hussein? How is Jacques Chirac these days, now that his friend Saddam is gone?"

Is this political looting aimed at the two Western countries most hostile to war or blind vandalism? The French cultural center and the German embassy were sacked the same day. It seems only the lure of booty motivated the looters, many of whom didn't even know where the buildings were. If both the buildings were looted, it's because neither was defended. At both the cultural center and the German embassy, the result is the same. From the ground to the ceiling, it's all gone: the chairs, the lecterns, the blackboards, the bathrooms, the computers, the faucets, the air conditioners, the lamp fixtures and even the electrical outlets. Just the seats in the screening room, riveted to the floor, were able to resist. The safe was eviscerated with a blowtorch. The one from the German embassy, which was heftier, was abandoned in the garden. Yesterday afternoon, Baghdadis of all sorts, Shia from Saddam City, Christians from Kerada district, Sunna from Kadhimiya district , continued to empty the library of the French cultural center, tossing books from the Pléiade collection out the window. "We've become savage beasts. For 25 years, we've only done thing: sing "with our blood, by our soul, we sacrifice ourselves for you, O, Saddam." The crowd answers by laughing. No one took volume I of the Compete Works of Saddam Hussein.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/19/2004 06:23:41 PM

Thursday, March 18, 2004

The explosion in Baghdad gouged a crater 10 feet deep and 20 feet wide in front of the hotel, where people dug through the rubble with their hands.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/18/2004 03:06:39 PM

Un-hunh

"They say the band carried on playing as the Titanic went down. Well, we're not holed yet; we've just been brushed by a small iceberg. But the look-outs and the crew are all staring at the bridge, where the Spanish first lieutenant is having a stand-up row with his British mate, the Italian cook is badmouthing the American engineer, and the French midshipman is admiring himself in the mirror, while much larger icebergs loom ahead." — Timothy Garton Ash in to-day's Guardian. (Hat tip: Mårten)

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/18/2004 10:32:10 AM

Right

I understand that many Spanish voters felt lied to by their rightist government over who was responsible for the Madrid bombings, and therefore voted it out of office. But they should now follow that up by vowing to keep their troops in Iraq — to make clear that in cleaning up their own democracy, they do not want to subvert the Iraqis' attempt to build one of their own. Otherwise, the Spanish vote will not be remembered as an act of cleansing, but of appeasement.

My dream is that the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Spain announce tomorrow that in response to the Madrid bombing, they are sending a new joint force of 5,000 troops to Iraq for the sole purpose of protecting the U.N.'s return to Baghdad to oversee Iraq's first democratic election.

The notion that Spain can separate itself from Al Qaeda's onslaught on Western civilization by pulling its troops from Iraq is a fantasy. Bin Laden has said that Spain was once Muslim and he wants it restored that way. As a friend in Cairo e-mailed me, a Spanish pullout from Iraq would only bring to mind Churchill's remark after Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler: "You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war."— Tom Friedman in to-morrow's Times.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/18/2004 12:24:45 AM

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

More Horror

``Long live U.S.A.,'' said Ali Mohammad, a 36-year-old Iraqi graduate student and friend of Mr. Mohammad. ``We support the U.S.A.'' — Burns, Filkins and Gettleman, all over the latest attrocity.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/17/2004 02:30:04 PM

Stook!

Guide for the perplexed:

"How's she cuttin'?"

"Well, I'm only banjaxed."

"Why? What happened?"

"A machine broke down in work and held up the whole place. Anyway, I get on the phone to a mechanic and, be the hokey, he was as thick as a ditch. Firstly, the stook says 'Sure we'll pull this for the crack' and he nearly... nearly whatchamacallit, oh yeh, electrocutes himself. When everything quietened down, yer man, the gobdaw, asks me to get the yoke. 'What yoke?' says I. 'The hammer!' he says as if I should have known. Then the eejit nearly took the finger off himself. Be the holy man, that was enough for me so I left."

"Begob, that's a quare story alright!"

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/17/2004 10:56:04 AM

My shit don't explose...

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/17/2004 10:29:06 AM

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Madrid, AQ and Iraq

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that, according to police, Madrid bombing suspect Jamal Zougam "had ties to Ansar al-Islam."

Just to jog your memories: according to HRW:

PUK officials have repeatedly accused Ansar al-Islam of having links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, and that its members included Arabs of various nationalities who had received military training in Afghanistan. The PUK also said some fifty-seven "Arab Afghan" fighters had entered Iraqi Kurdistan via Iran in mid-September 2001. While Human Rights Watch did not investigate these alleged links, the testimonies of villagers who had fled Biyara and Tawela and were interviewed in September 2002 appeared to support this contention. A number of them, including former detainees, said that there were foreigners among Ansar al-Islam forces, that on occasion they were interrogated by non-Iraqis speaking various Arabic dialects, and that they had heard other languages spoken that they did not recognize.

There are also other indications of possible Ansar al-Islam connections with al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. Documents discovered in an al-Qaeda guest house in Afghanistan by the New York Times discuss the creation of an "Iraqi Kurdistan Islamic Brigade" just weeks prior to the formation of Ansar al-Islam in December 2001, and some Ansar al-Islam members in PUK custody have described in credible detail training in al-Qa'ida camps in Afghanistan. The existence of any ongoing links between al-Qa'ida and Ansar al-Islam is unknown.

Human Rights Watch has not investigated the alleged links between the Iraqi government and Ansar al-Islam, and is not aware of any convincing evidence supporting this contention. On the other hand, the location of the group's bases very close to the Iranian border, taken together with credible reports of the return of some Ansar al-Islam fighters to Iraqi Kurdistan through Iran, suggest that these fighters have received at least limited support from some Iranian sources. Villagers living under Ansar al-Islam control, and mainstream Islamists who have visited those areas, reported to Human Rights Watch that Iranian agents had been present on occasion. However, the exact nature of relations between the two sides is unclear: PUK and other sources acknowledged that Iran had played a mediating role aimed at ending the clashes between PUK and Ansar al-Islam forces.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/16/2004 10:41:41 AM

Monday, March 15, 2004

'Democratic' Frenzy in the Arab World

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Ever since the United States invaded Iraq, some Arab leaders have been acting out of character, talking about big changes in the works and using all the proper keywords: democracy, transparency, choice, human rights.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/15/2004 01:26:16 PM

If that had happened...

French forces nearly captured Bin Laden — perhaps several times

AP Paris Osama bin Laden narrowly escaped capture by French troops working with American forces in Afghanistan, perhaps several times, the head of France’s armed forces said Monday.
.
French soldiers are determined to capture the fugitive head of the al-Qaida network by the end of the year, Gen. Henri Bentegeat said Monday.
.
‘‘Our men were not very far,’’ Bentegeat told France’s Europe-1 radio station. ‘‘On several occasions, I even think that he slipped out of a net that was well closed.’’

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/15/2004 12:10:16 PM

Diversion

Mia Hamm showed once again that she can pass as well as score, dishing for three assists, and scoring on a penalty kick, all in the first half of the U.S. Women's National Team's dominating 5-1 win over France in the opening game of the 2004 Algarve Cup. — Recent soccer triumph and needed symbol.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/15/2004 12:27:02 AM

Saturday, March 13, 2004

z'y vont l'ôtre!

Four Alarm Fire over at ¡No Pasarán!.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/13/2004 05:24:32 PM

Friday, March 12, 2004

Scores of Iranian Kurds arrested after demo

Tehran, March 10 (AFP) — Around 100 Iranian Kurds were arrested after staging demonstrations to show their solidarity with Iraqi Kurds following the signing of Iraq's new interim constitution, two ethnic Kurdish MPs told AFP.

"Over the past few days, residents of several Kurdish towns have taken to the street to show their joy and their solidarity with the Iraqi Kurds, who have gained the right of autonomy after years of repression," said Jalal Jalalizadeh, a deputy from the western Iranian town of Sanandaj.

"In many of the towns, security forces acted quickly, but unfortunately in some towns the demonstrators committed riotous acts and the police arrested around 100 people as a result," he said.

According to the MP, unrest was seen in the towns of Mahabad, Boukan and Marivan, with some protestors demanding "democracy in Iran and autonomy for Iranian Kurdistan".

Under the interim Iraqi constitution signed in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi Kurdistan will retain its federal status, while Kurdish is recognised as one of the two official languages of Iraq.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/12/2004 01:31:22 AM

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Mozzer gets a job?

...and then I found a job.

hat tip: Ignacy, via boingboing.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/11/2004 12:19:12 PM

Gli italiani chiavano!

Over at ¡No Pasarán!, I posted a brief translation from Jean-François Revel's book Pour l'Italie. Much of the book as an argument about sexual politics and the liberation of women, criticizing Italian misogyny in stark terms. There isn't so much of that in the following part but I thought it would be interesting nonetheless!

[p. 121] That night, I parked for a long while by the front door of a brothel on via della Spada. Nothing surprises me more than the speed with which Italians get down to it. Vespas stop. Their owners get off, go in and come back out five minutes later. If one subtracts the time taken to go up and down the stairs and possibly a minute's wait downstairs, there remain thirty to fifty seconds for the act itself. For a time, I watch this revolving-door. Professors, employees, older students, business travelers come to get sent off. The go in. They come out. They piss against a wall, breathless, mount their Vespas (or get back in their cars) and run off in the euphoria of noisy backfiring. Ah! They won't have to limit the time for parking here: such admirable discipline...

What are all these runaways coming here for? For what's called la marchetta, that is, a brief sally for five hundred lira and without taking off one's pants. In theory, only unbuttoning them is permissible.

In matters of love, most Italian men know only la marchetta until they marry. But one can also take fifteen minutes for three thousand lira [n. 1954].

I, too, go in. A smell to take the horns off a cow. And yet this is said to be one of the most luxuriant houses in the city. I am made to sit in a kind of salon, rather a booth for a concièrge, to judge from its dimensions. Someone pushes open the door. A woman appears, adipose, gelatinous, old, who holds out her hand towards me. I tilt my head politely, thinking she has only come to offer herself and that other possibilities will be shown to me. But, horror! I learn yet again that the idea of choice is inconceivable here. Each one goes with the whore who happens to be free when he arrives. Aghast, for a moment, I consider pretending to have forgotten my wallet in order to flee. But I am snatched up and find myself in a disgusting room on the first [i.e. second] floor where I announce my decision to take the fifteen minutes at three thousand lira — to give myself the time to breathe. I get completely undressed and lie down on the bed. The woman, turning around after having washed herself, stops, stunned in the middle of the room.

"Ah, you. You are not Italian," she says.

"Oh, no? Why?"

"Because you took off your socks. Italian men never take off their socks."

Alas, the fact that I am not wearing socks in insufficient to arouse me, and, in the presence of this unacceptable flesh, I seek to substitute speculation for practice and strike up a conversation about the ways of making love and the place of women in Italy. It is the whore who defends the married man's point of view:

"Why would I let you even take tea with my wife? Not that!" (Perché ti lascieri andare a prendere il tè con mia moglie? Questo no!)

At last, crestfallen, I put the dreaded socks back on with my other clothes. At this point, her nationalism is aroused:

"Italians fuck!" she shouts at me in the stairwell. "And remember that Italian women are the best in the world, myself included! (Gli italiani chiavano! Ricordati che le donne italiane sono le migliori del mondo, compressa me!)

★

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/11/2004 01:05:25 AM

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Sorry, Dennis! Sorry Dennis? ... Dennis?

The AP reports:

Washington (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was admitted to a Cleveland-area hospital on Monday with a stomach flu possibly caused by food poisoning, spokesman Doug Gordon said.

The Ohio congressman was on his way to a campaign event in Selma, Ala., on Sunday when he experienced "severe abdominal discomfort" and called his doctor, Gordon said. Kucinich checked into the hospital Monday morning for tests and is expected to remain overnight.

He was diagnosed with gastroenteritis, which his doctor says may have been "brought on by food poisoning," Gordon said. Kucinich was expected to be released from the hospital in 24 to 48 hours.

The long-shot candidate will participate by telephone in several campaign events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Florida. He is expected to resume a full campaign schedule later this week.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/9/2004 09:37:49 PM

Monday, March 08, 2004

CounterPunch?

Over at ¡No Pasarán!, I recently blogged an article in Le Monde that repeated the same embarrassing errors that Tim Blair had exposed in his "Beat Up of the Week."

In response to this article, I used some of Blair's links in the following letter to the readers' editor.

Sirs,

The list of reader-recommended articles on lemonde.fr offers at first place an article on "The Climactic apocalypse scenario... that the Pentagon wanted to hide." Contrary to the claims made by The Observer — the obvious source for Mr. Kempf's reporting — this report (also available here) was neither secret nor hidden. Moreover, since Mr. Kempf refers to the article in Fortune Magazine (which is not a newspaper), he should have read the following paragraph:
The result is an unclassified report, completed late last year, that the Pentagon has agreed to share with FORTUNE. It doesn't pretend to be a forecast. Rather, it sketches a dramatic but plausible scenario to help planners think about coping strategies.
Can the Pentagon agree to share a report with the press if they also want to hide it? On February 16, the authors of the report told the BBC:
...the report that we put together for the Pentagon is an extreme scenario, in the sense that most climatologists would say that this is low probability, in the sense of it happening soon, and as pervasively. But it is the Pentagon's job to think about many cases, the worst-case scenario.
These are statements Mr. Kempf could have obtained himself had he made the slightest effort to contact the two authors of the report (which is an ethical requirement, isn't it?). If the Pentagon had sought to hide the report, wouldn't Messrs. Schwartz and Randall, who, it seems, aren't hesitating to talk to the press, have something to say about this?

Mr. Kempf also writes that this report "would have stayed in the bowels of a computer if the press hadn't got wind of it." That is very interesting but how does he know this? I dare say he doesn't since he offers no fact supporting this speculation. His duty was to transcribe reality and not simply the published reports of his colleagues who are capable — and how! — of making mistakes.

A false alarm, this has already been the cause of one case of humiliation, that of The Observer. Let's hope that Le Monde will be able to avoid a similar fate by recognizing this error.

regards,

Douglas
Messieurs,

La liste des articles recommandés sur lemonde.fr nous propose en première place un article sur "Le scénario climatique d'apocalypse... que voulait cacher le Pentagone." A la différence de ce que prétendait The Observer - la source évidente du reportage M. Kempf - ce rapport n'était ni secret ni caché. Par ailleurs, si M. Kempf fait référence à l'article du Fortune Magazine (ce qui n'est pas un "journal"), il aurait du lire le paragraphe suivant:
The result is an unclassified report, completed late last year, that the Pentagon has agreed to share with FORTUNE. It doesn't pretend to be a forecast. Rather, it sketches a dramatic but plausible scenario to help planners think about coping strategies.
Le Pentagone, peut-il être d'accord pour partager avec la presse un rapport qu'il désire cacher? Le 16 février, les auteurs du rapport disent à la BBC:
...the report that we put together for the Pentagon is an extreme scenario, in the sense that most climatologists would say that this is low probability, in the sense of it happening soon, and as pervasively. But it is the Pentagon's job to think about many cases, the worst-case scenario.
Ce sont des propos que M. Kempf aurait pu recueillir lui-même s'il avait fait la moindre tentative de contacter les deux auteurs du rapport (une impérative déontologique, n'est-ce pas?). Si le Pentagone avait voulu cacher le rapport, MM Schwartz et Randall, qui paraît-il, n'hésitent pas en parler aux journalistes, n'auraient-ils pas des commentaires à faire là-dessus?

M. Kempf écrit également que ce rapport "serait resté enfoui dans un ordinateur si la presse n'en avait eu vent." C'est très intéressant mais comment le sait-il? J'ose dire qu'il ne le sait pas puisqu'il ne nous offre aucun fait étayant cette spéculation. Son devoir était la retranscription d'une réalité et non simplement des reportages de ses confrères qui peuvent - et de quelle façon! - se tromper.

Fausse alarme, ceci est déjà la cause d'un cas d'humiliation, celle de The Observer. Espérons que Le Monde saura éviter un sort pareil en reconnaissant cette erreur.

Bien à vous

Douglas

This morning, I received the following response from Hervé Kempf

Sir,

I thank you for your attentive reading and for the questions you have put to us. The article you mention did not have "The Observer" as its only source but also two bulletins from the AP and AFP and an article dug up from the "Christian Science Monitor," as well as material found of various sites on the Internet, particularly that of GBN. However, I did not call the two authors of the report and you are right to point this out. The considerable time difference (they are in California) [at 7 pm in Paris, it's 10 am in San Francisco] and the time constraints for closing the article are, I agree with you, not a sufficient excuse.

It remains that on the basis of these various written sources, I stand by the sentence, "the document would surely have remained confidential if the newspapers Fortune and The Observer had not spoken of them," and confirm the factual statement by Mr. Marshall's spokesman.

On the very nature of their scenario: it's a scenario, presented as such, which is based on common scientific hypotheses, which have the weight of "hypotheses." They are familiar to all those who take an interest in the climate, particularly with climatologists, who are the most trustworthy source in this area. For example, I suggest, on this subject, you read in this month's La Recherche the article, "Could the climate go haywire?"

My sincerest salutations,
Hervé Kempf
Monsieur,
Je vous remercie de votre lecture attentive et des questions que vous nous posez.
L'article que vous mentionnez n'avait pas pour seule source "The Observer", mais aussi deux dépêches d'A.P. et d'AFP et un article fouillé du "Christian Science Monitor", ainsi que la consultation de divers sites sur Internet, et notamment celui de GBN. En revanche, je n'ai pas appelé les auteurs du rapport, et vous avez raison de le souligner. Le grand décalage horaire (ils sont en Californie) et les impératifs du bouclage pour cette page sont, j'en conviens avec vous, une excuse insuffisante.

Toujours est-il que, sur la base de ces diverses sources écrites, je maintiens la phrase, "Le document serait sans doute resté confidentiel si les journaux Fortune et The Observer n'en avaient parlé", et confirme la déclaration factuelle du porte-parole de M. Marshall.

Sur le caractère même de leur scénario : c'est un scénario, présenté comme tel, qui s'appuie sur des hypothèses scientifiques courantes, qui valent comme "hypothèses". Elles sont familières à tous ceux qui s'intéressent au climat, à commencer par les climatologues, qui sont la source la plus fiable en la matière. Je vous invite par exemple, dans cet ordre d'idées, à lire dans "La Recherche" de ce mois-ci, "Le climat peut-il basculer ?".

Avec mes meilleures salutations.
Hervé Kempf

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/8/2004 12:58:40 PM

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Update: the conspiracy of Nicks

Some additions to my list of the growing number of Nicks in the British press corps. (Sadly, it looks as though there may be a few in the US, now. This one's only freelance, though. And this guy's name isn't really Nick; it's Joe. This one's only a trainee, and he's in Oz, which carries the Union Jack on it's flag.) Note that this Nick, while working in Canada, was "born in England." There could be some sort of perverse insurrection afoot as this one quit his job to deliver papers instead.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/6/2004 11:49:42 AM

The Army killed my lover's sex drive

A YOUNG woman has complained to the Defence Ministry that her fiancé refuses to have sex with her because the army is draining him of all his energy.

According to Ministry spokesman Antonis Kritiotis the woman said her fiancé would return home on overnight leave exhausted and fell asleep almost straight away, not even aware of her presence.

| † | // posted by Douglas @ 3/6/2004 11:02:38 AM

Thursday, April 08, 2004

At the Shahbandar café

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Rwanda Revisted

Monday, April 05, 2004

wtf?

Public Service Announcement.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Israel-Palestine: impossible peace?

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Zeyad's Cook

Routine Apology

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

DF on SY

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Aie!

Friday, March 19, 2004

wtf?

memories...

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Un-hunh

Right

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

More Horror

Stook!

My shit don't explose...

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Madrid, AQ and Iraq

Monday, March 15, 2004

Recommended Reading

'Democratic' Frenzy in the Arab World

If that had happened...

Diversion

Saturday, March 13, 2004

z'y vont l'ôtre!

Friday, March 12, 2004

Scores of Iranian Kurds arrested after demo

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Mozzer gets a job?

Gli italiani chiavano!

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Sorry, Dennis! Sorry Dennis? ... Dennis?

Monday, March 08, 2004

CounterPunch?

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Update: the conspiracy of Nicks

The Army killed my lover's sex drive

Expats In Iraq

News & Comment

Links

France

Fitba!

ARCHIVES