Monday, August 07, 2006

Watching the Red Sox play Andre Agassi


It's routine, of course, but Mark Steyn knocks another one out of the park. Read it all.

...when an army goes to war against a terrorist organization, it's like watching the Red Sox play Andre Agassi: Each side is being held to its own set of rules. When Hezbollah launches rockets into Israeli residential neighborhoods with the intention of killing random civilians, that's fine because, after all, they're terrorists and that's what terrorists do. But when, in the course of trying to resist the terrorists, Israel unintentionally kills civilians, that's an appalling act of savagery.

Speaking at West Point in 2002, President Bush observed: "Deterrence -- the promise of massive retaliation against nations -- means nothing against shadowy terrorist networks with no nation or citizens to defend." Actually, it's worse than that. In Hezbollahstan, the deaths of its citizens works to its strategic advantage: Dead Israelis are good news but dead Lebanese are even better, at least on the important battlefield of world opinion...

Now consider nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. If there are no deterrents to use, methinks we have a very, very big problem.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Axis of Equivalence: CBS, CNN & Reuters' Adnan Riefenstahl


The J-Post is reporting that journalists from CBS and CNN allow themselves to be used as props in Lebanon (hat tip: RWNH):

...former Sunday Telegraph correspondent Tom Gross revealed that Hizbullah officers supervise CNN reports, that a CBS reporter admitted Hizbullah overseers determine what’s filmed, that repeated shots of several downed buildings lend Beirut the erroneous image of devastated WWII Dresden, that journalists are threatened, that Hizbullah holds their passports for ransom, that their analyses are skewed to curry favor, and so on...

Think about that for a moment, because it's almost unbelievable. The words and pictures carried by CBS and CNN are orchestrated by Hezbollah "public relations commandoes."

And CBS and CNN appear to be willing co-conspirators in these elaborate hoaxes. Why? Because they don't apprise viewers that their reporters operate under duress, their stories framed by terrorists and their backers.

Viewers believe they are seeing the unadulterated truth of the situation on the ground. Instead, they are fed the Al-Manar version of the truth, skewed to present Israelis in the worst possible light. Thus, in the information war, Israel is losing badly.

Eason Jordan and Saddam Hussein's Propaganda Machine


This isn't the first time CNN has been involved with weaving fables that would have done Brezhnev's Pravda proud. Recall that CNN, under the leadership of Eason Jordan, refrained from reporting Saddam Hussein's atrocities in order to "get the story." In 2003, Honest Reporting wrote:

In a shocking New York Times opinion piece, CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has admitted that for the past decade the network has systematically covered up stories of Iraqi atrocities. Reports of murder, torture, and planned assassinations were suppressed in order to maintain CNN's Baghdad bureau...

...Jordan has not always been so candid -- nor honest. Just six months ago on public radio, when challenged regarding the veracity of CNN's Baghdad reports, Jordan stated, "CNN has demonstrated again and again that it has a spine; that it's prepared to be forthright... we work very hard to report forthrightly, to report fairly and to report accurately and if we ever determine we cannot do that, then we would not want to be there [in Iraq]."

CNN has [now] turned sincere, admitting it buried stories that would smear Mideast dictators, perhaps the time has come for more comprehensive, honest reporting in the region...

Dare to dream. That was three years ago. It's now 2006 and CNN appears to be following the same script from the same tired teleprompter. They parrot Al-Manar's fabrications while failing to inform viewers that stories are spinning faster than a Barry Zito curveball.

What lies beyond the horse blinders affixed to the camera lens? If CBS and CNN had real reporters, we'd know.

Meanwhile, J-Post complains that Israel is losing the information war:

...Supply routes from Syria to Lebanon are often hit in Israeli air force raids. The inevitable claim from Hizbullah and Lebanese sources is that food-ferrying trucks are being bombed. The IDF rarely comments. That's plainly no way to do business...

Unfortunately, that's the way of war. The IDF can't reveal information that would lead to the disclosure of sources and methods. It's just blocking and tackling. And it's hard to compete with Reuters' methods.

Reuters Photoshop Express


Photo
Reuters issues a "picture kill"

While it's clear that Western media has been operating with a casual disregard for the truth, out-and-out fabrications appear to be rare. Or perhaps not.

Within the last few hours, the blogosphere seems to have caught a Reuters photographer using image-editing software (the ubiquitous Adobe Photoshop, perhaps?) to make Beirut look like Tokyo after the fire-bombing. HotAir, LGF, Left & Right, and others were front-runners in detecting and exposing the fraud. Photographer Adnan Hajj has created a unique gallery of Hezbollah-approved™ images that make Beirut look like Dresden. But Hajj never seems to catch a glimpse of those pesky rocket-launchers operating in civilian areas.

Reuters has pulled the picture and replaced it with its ostensible original.

The Axis of Equivalence just doesn't seem to care. CBS, CNN, and Reuters all have a long history of moral equivalence. CNN's Eason Jordan didn't hesitate to protect Saddam Hussein's image during the important run-up to war:

...A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home... I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me...

In Jordan's defense, he did feel absolutely awful about this and other atrocities. Not awful enough to report them, mind you, but pretty awful nonetheless.

Now it's 2006 and it feels, for some historians, like Europe in 1938. Perhaps they're caught up in the spirit of the day, because from all appearances, the Axis of Equivalence seems to be employing their own Leni Riefenstahls.

For viewers here in the States, though, it would be helpful if media outlets could at least close-caption their Hezbollah propaganda clips as such. And if he were around today, I'm pretty sure Eason Jordan would approve.

Related:
EU Referendum: Qana: the Director's Cut
HotAir: The worst Photoshop I've ever seen
Left & Right: Reuters faking photos
LGF: Reuters Doctoring Photos from Beirut?
Publius Pundit: More enemy media hijinks?
RWN: Spinning Israel's Defeat

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Today's Quiz


A is Begala, B is NasrallahToday's quiz comes to us courtesy of EIB. Now don't cheat by clicking on the link! Here's the question: which of the following statements was uttered by Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah? And which was Democratic consultant Paul Begala's?

A: ...There's no peace. There's no stability, and there's no democracy. Things are getting worse... for Condoleezza Rice... to say... this is just the birth pangs of a new Middle East, [it's] one of the most... harmful statements...

B: ...Lebanon is the responsibility of Bush, Condoleezza Rice and Rumsfeld... Lebanon will [never] be Israeli, Lebanon will [never] be American. It will not be... Rice's new Middle East...

For the answer, position your mouse over Sheikh Nasrallah's helpful visage.

Main Event: Rumsfeld v. Clinton


It's a pity -- but entirely predictable -- that Thursday's network sound-bites from the Senate Armed Services Committee didn't include Donald Rumsfeld's point-by-point rebuttal of Hillary Clinton's carefully scripted statements.

The showdown between Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, and Rumsfeld, the public face of the Bush administration's war effort, included the strongest criticism of the Iraq war she has made to date... He rejected some of her specific criticisms as simply wrong and said the war against terror will be a drawn-out process.

"Are there setbacks? Yes," said Rumsfeld. "Is this problem going to get solved in the near term? I think it's going to take some time."

...Rumsfeld also vigorously defended the performance of American troops, who have come under fire recently for alleged atrocities against Iraqi civilians.

"Americans didn't cross oceans and settle a wilderness and build history's greatest democracy only to run away from a bunch of murderers and extremists who try to kill everyone that they cannot convert and tear down what they could never build," Rumsfeld said.

"We can persevere in Iraq or we can withdraw prematurely until they force us to make a stand nearer home. But make no mistake, [extremists] are not going to give up whether we acquiesce to their immediate demands or not," he said, adding, "Ultimately the sectarian violence is going to be dealt with by Iraqis."

Clinton's careful, GPS-guided triangulations now include an exquisitely balanced call for the SecDef to resign. EIB's response:

Why in the world should Donald Rumsfeld resign? Has anybody caught him with his pants down in the office with an intern? Has he been selling military secrets to the ChiComs for campaign donations to President Bush? Has Rumsfeld lied before a Senate committee while under oath or to a grand jury? Was he called in the Valerie Plame investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald? Did he lie to that grand jury? Has he been coaching other people in his office to lie at press briefings or what have you? Has he been selling Pentagon paraphernalia, memorabilia, even rooms to campaign contributors so people can spend the night in the Pentagon and see what that's like? Has he been doing any of that? Has somebody accused him of rape? Did I miss that? Has somebody accused him of sexual harassment? Will somebody tell me why Donald Rumsfeld should resign, because I must have missed a lot.

Howard Fineman, interviewed by Matt Lauer, called Hillary Clinton, "the exquisitely balanced center of gravity of the Democratic Party."

That's one way to put it.

Just look around


If there's a Pulitzer Prize for straight-talk, Victor Davis Hanson is an odds-on favorite this year (hat tip: Powerline):

These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the “quarter-ton” Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.

Yes, perhaps Israel should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.

In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around...

Victor Davis Hanson: Brink of Madness

Friday, August 04, 2006

Hewitt: So this is how the Thirties Felt


Hugh Hewitt has been doing yeoman's work sounding the alarm on the delusionary and messianic visons of Iran's leadership. Their startling statements -- promising the destruction of the West -- including the U.S., the U.K. and Israel -- echo Hitler's exhortations in Mein Kampf.

I am going to apologize in advance for cutting-and-pasting most of his post, but I think it is important enough to boldly emphasize Hugh's critical questions for the surrender-and-appeasement crowd to contemplate. Not that the New York Times will answer these questions - we all know they have more important things to do.

On Monday, President Ahmadinejad of Iran said, among other things:

"They have no boundaries, limits, or taboos when it comes to killing human beings. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they human beings? 'They are like cattle, nay, more misguided.' A bunch of bloodthirsty barbarians. Next to them, all the criminals of the world seem righteous."

"I hereby declare: The world must know that America and England are accomplices to each and every one of the crimes of the regime that has occupied Jerusalem. They must be held accountable."

"Today, the Iranian people is the owner of nuclear technology. Those who want to talk with our people should know what people they are talking to. If some believe they can keep talking to the Iranian people in the language of threats and aggressiveness, they should know that they are making a bitter mistake. If they have not realized this by now, they soon will, but then it will be too late. Then they will realize that they are facing a vigilant, proud people."

On Tuesday, The Supreme Leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei said, among other things:

"Bush and his American cohorts share the same degree of guilt in the disasters brought upon Lebanon as the evil and wicked Zionist regime.Yesterday, President Ahmadinejad.

The aggressive behavior of American and Israel will revitalize more than ever the spirit of resistance in the Islamic world and will make clearer the value of Jihad.

"The Islamic world and the Muslim youth in all Islamic nations should also realize that the only way to stand against the savage Wolf of Zionism and the aggressions of the Great Satan is by dedicated resistance.

Yesterday, Ahmadinejad was in Malaysia, and said the following:

"Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented...[Israel] is an illegitimate regime, there is no legal basis for its existence."

Commentators urging cut-and-run in Iraq have to tell us what the impact of such a retreat on the... extremists in Iran. They have to tell us what they would do about the nuclear ambitions of these people, and of their obvious desire to destroy Israel and wage war on the west. They have to tell us how Democratic majorities in either the House or the Senate, committed as they are to rapid retreat from Iraq, would not empower Iran in its war on Israel and the West.

(For an example of the paralysis confrontation with these facts produces in long time, strong supporter of Israel as well as committed partisan Democrat, find the transcript of my interview with The New Republic's editor-in-chief Martin Peretz when it is posted later tongiht.)

At least Hitler pretended to be appeasable. There is nothing of that farce that seduced Baldwin and Chamberlain in the raw hatred, clear speech and unlimited ambitions of the... leaders of Iran and their proxies in Hezbollah.

We are on the cusp of historical changes as terrorists bent on controlling and dispensing nuclear weapons further their messianic and apocalyptic delusions.

And the Axis of Ignorance (Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, and Frank Rich). Couldn't. Care. Less.

One final thought for the Party of Weakness. Were the U.S. not in Iraq, blocking Iran's direct access to resupply Syria and Hezbollah, would the Middle East have already erupted into a catastrophic and nuclear conflagration?

Hugh Hewitt: So this is how the Thirties felt

Thursday, August 03, 2006

The Modern Slave Trade isn't Dowd-Worthy News


If you strip away the Microsoft Word-generated Air National Guard memos, Hillary Clinton arguing with Donald Rumsfeld, Al Qaqaa, John Murtha tarring U.S. troops, staged photos of Hezbollah's human shields, Newsweek's fake but accurate Quran-flushing reports... if you strip away almost all of what passes for news over the past few years, what are we left with?

The real stories. The important stories. The stories that CBS, Newsweek, and the Gray Lady should be covering. But don't.

No, it's left up to the Bush State Department, vilified for lo these many years, to continue to expose the vast scope of the modern slave trade. Perhaps the mainstream media hasn't had enough time to research this "real news". After all, this is only the sixth annual Trafficking In Persons Report.

Hey, only about 800,000 people are bought and sold each year, so I suppose Abu Graib, Haditha, Halliburton, and the occasional, TV-friendly car bomb detonation should have top priority. Surely you can't expect the likes of Maureen Dowd to winch themselves off their ample derrieres, do some real investigation, and write about true evil and injustice?

After all, it only involves sexual slavery, child beggars, forced domestication, starvation, unreported rapes, beatings, and deaths, so I suppose these miserable souls -- numbering well under a million -- don't deserve any investigative reporting. Leave it up to the State Department! The mainstream media has fake but accurate stories to cover!

Do me a favor. Click on any of the following search links for 'modern slave trade' at the LA Times, the New York Times, CBS News, or ABC News, just as a little test. See if the Axis of Ignorance -- Dowd, Herbert, and Rich -- has called timeout on pillorying the Administration and the U.S. Military for a day to highlight what can only be called the inner rings of hell.

I'll sit here and whistle for a while as you go and peruse those links.

* * *

You see, the modern slave trade really isn't worth covering.

Because investigating this scourge on humanity would require scape-goating parties other than the Bush Administration and the U.S. Military. It would require delving into the true nature of evil. It would require reporting. And, heaven knows, the mainstream media doesn't have any time for that.

Related:
Fox News: U.S. Warns Germany to Do More to Stop Human Trafficking
Hugh Hewitt: So this is how the Thirties felt
State Department's 2006 Trafficking In Persons Report

Is the Media the Enemy?


In the case of the New York Times, the answer is almost assuredly yes


The New York Times suffered a major setback this week in its fight to keep reporters' phone records under wraps. A federal appeals court permitted the government access to the phone records. The government is investigating how two Islamic charities were tipped off to impending raids by the FBI.

The case began in 2004, after the Times discovered that the 2001 phone records of reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon were sought by prosecutors. During that time, the pair had authored stories on the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation, two organizations with suspected ties to terrorists.

Prosecutors claimed that the two reporters alerted the groups to FBI raids and a forthcoming freezing of assets. According to prosecutors, the phone records are central to the grand jury investigation.

Cooperative Research reports:

On December 3, 2001, New York Times reporter Judith Miller telephones officials with the Holy Land Foundation charity in Texas and asks them to comment about what she says is a government raid on the charity planned for the next day. Then in a December 4, 2001, New York Times article, Miller writes that President Bush is about to announce that the US is freezing the assets of Holy Land and two other financial groups, all for supporting Hamas. US officials will later argue that Miller’s phone call and article “increased the likelihood that the foundation destroyed or hid records before a hastily organized raid by agents that day...”

...Later in the month, a similar incident occurs. On December 13, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon telephones officials at the Global Relief Foundation in Illinois and asks them to comment about an imminent government crackdown on that charity. The FBI learns that some Global Relief employees may be destroying documents.

And just what are these Foundations?

Holy Land Foundation


In 2004, the U.S. Justice Department delivered a 42-count indictment against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was long suspected of raising funds for Hamas. The Foundation and its leaders were named as co-conspirators in their efforts to provide funding to a terrorist organization and the families of suicide terrorists. The group reportedly funneled more than $12 million to Hamas affilliates (interestingly, the indictment also states the HLF raised $57 million since its incorporation, but only reported $36 million to the IRS).

Global Relief Foundation


The Treasury Department reports that the GRF has provided support for Usama bin Landen (UBL), al Qaeda, and other known terrorist groups. The GRF is accused of providing financial aid to individual associated with Al Qaeda and the UBL-directed 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

These are the groups that Miller and Shenon allegedly tipped off.

The 2-1 decision reverses a lower court ruling and upholds the subpoenas for the phone records from late 2001 of two reporters, Ms. Miller and Philip Shenon...

In the current case, the Times had argued that the First Amendment freedom of the press should prevent the government from examining the phone records of its reporters. The disclosure of those records would reveal the identity of dozens of confidential sources, both reporters say in affidavits...

The ruling, written by Judge Ralph Winter of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, holds that because the case involves an alleged tip-off, the reporters are not entitled to the extra protection often afforded to the press under the First Amendment...

The case is New York Times v. Gonzales. The Times initiated the case in New York, in what some thought was an attempt to get a friendlier set of judges than it might get in Illinois.

Is the media the enemy? In the case of the New York Times, you can judge for yourself.

New York Sun: Court Hands New York Times a Setback in Miller Case

Kingdom of Nouns


For aficionados of programming languages, Steve Yegge explains why times are tough in Java-land: Kingdom of Nouns.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Don't wait in line: use SMS!


Now restaurants can let their most valued customers skip the line. Mobo provides priority access by allowing customers to order and pay for meals using SMS. So how does it work?

...Customers create an account, which includes their credit card details. After signing up for the service, they can order online... or by text message/sms. The order appears on the restaurant's in-store Mobo system, and is automatically billed to the customer's credit card. The restaurant confirms the order, and the customer receives a text message stating when the order will be ready for pick up.

Every Mobo restaurant has a separate Mobo Pick Up counter, so when their order is ready, Mobo users can walk straight to the counter, state their name and last four digits of their phone number, and pick up their food. For those customers that can't leave the office, Mobo also delivers...

If the service makes it any easier, expect to get a bib tied around your neck and spoon-fed when you show up.

Don't wait in line: use SMS

Representative Dingell (D-MI) is "not against Hezbollah"


Scott at Powerline notes the following snippet of interview highlighting the vast gulf that exists between the two parties:

Yesterday John posted a link to video clip of Democratic Rep. John Dingell on YouTube and posted the audio of the clip here. John accurately quoted Dingell as follows:

"I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah; I don't take sides for or against Israel." Asked, "You're not against Hezbollah?" Dingell answers, "No..."

...The exchange occurs in the context of questioning on Dingell's vote against House Resolution 921 supporting Israel and condemning Hezbollah that I commented on here; Dingell was one of the seven Democratic "no" votes on the resolution...

Lest we forget, Hezbollah has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. servicemen.

Of course, you won't be reading about Dingell's outrageous statements in the Old York Times. True to form, they've decided to censor this news, too (along with the 500 WMDs found in Iraq since 2003, the Project HARMONY database disclosures tying Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein, and the Al Qaqaa stories that mysteriously exited stage left the day after the President's reelection).

I wonder how close rocket explosions would have to get to the offices of the New York Times before they: (a) recognize the gravity of the global war on terror; and (b) begin to back the U.S. military. One would have thought the gaping hole a couple of blocks away would have done the trick.

In the mean time, the Axis of Ignorance (Dowd, Rich, and Herbert) will continue its attempts to earn Pulitzer Prizes in the always competitive categories of cognitive dissonance and moral equivalence.

The Clock Ticks for Hezbollah


Interesting analysis of the Baalbek raid and the current state of Hezbollah. Steve Schippert opines that Syria and Iran have been forced into watching from the sidelines as Israel puts a boot on Hezbollah's throat (hat tip: Hugh Hewitt).

Apparently, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad loves eating grapes in his cozy palaces far more than he cares for Sheikh Nasrallah.

ThreatsWatch: Hizballah Is On The Ropes

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Times chooses Party over Country


Taranto, in his usual debonair manner, hoists the opposition party on its own petard. Or, in this case, the very words of their official party organ: the New York Times (or as I like to call it, Pravda's Manhattan Bureau, due to their egregious history of censorship).

A news story in the New York Times isn't exactly news: Democrats and Republicans, the paper reports, are divided over Iraq! The paper reports that each party blames the other for the breakdown of foreign-policy bipartisanship:

Democrats say the Republicans repeatedly broke the old rules, treating national security as a wedge issue to make Democrats look weak and unacceptable, especially in 2004. "George Bush decided to make foreign policy partisan in a way that Ronald Reagan or the first George Bush never did," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, "The divisions over Iraq and national security are the house that Karl Rove and George Bush built."

But Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the war and national security were entirely appropriate issues for election campaigns.

"I don't think we're politicizing the war," Mr. Mehlman said. "I think the fact is that there are legitimate and important differences, and it is the job of a campaign to clarify between individual candidates on what is the central question our nation faces, which is, How do you win this global war on terror?"

On the same day, the Times editorial board endorsed antiwar zillionaire Ned Lamont's Democratic primary challenge to Connecticut's Sen. Joe Lieberman:

In his effort to appear above the partisan fray, he has become one of the Bush administration's most useful allies. . . . [President Bush's] administration has depicted any questions or criticism of his policies as giving aid and comfort to the terrorists. And Mr. Lieberman has helped that effort. He once denounced Democrats who were "more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq" than on supporting the war's progress. . . .

By suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support. . . .

This primary is not about Mr. Lieberman's legislative record. Instead it has become a referendum on his warped version of bipartisanship, in which the never-ending war on terror becomes an excuse for silence and inaction. We endorse Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for Senate in Connecticut.

The Democrats can deny that it is they who have treated foreign policy as a partisan issue, but the Times can't deny that it [has] encouraged them to do so.

In short, despite the Times' childish mocking of the "never-ending war on terror", said war is perceived by most Americans as reality on the ground. Having witnessed extremist attacks in Manhattan, Washington, Bali, Beslan, Madrid, London, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Israel, Mumbai, Kashmir, Thailand, Darfur, Somalia, Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines (not a complete list), most realists with a lick of sense can put two and two together.

Of course, no one ever said the Times has a lick of sense. Issuing regular paychecks to the Triad of Ignorance (Dowd, Herbert, and Rich) is conclusive proof that the Times isn't running on all cylinders.

Jacoby: Hezbollah at war with America


One of the few voices of reason on the Boston Globe op-ed page is Jeff Jacoby. He took time yesterday to remind us of Hezbollah's unceasing and murderous attacks on Americans. Like an elephant, we should never forget.

"We consider [America] to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate our governments, our regimes, and our peoples," railed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, at an enormous rally in February 2005... "...Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: 'Death to America!' "

And from tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters came the answering cry: "Death to America! Death to America! Death to America! Death to America!"

These are anything but empty threats. Prior to 9/11, Hezbollah was responsible for more American casualties than any other terrorist organization in the world. Among its victims was Army officer William F. Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut who was abducted by Hezbollah in March 1984 and who died after 15 months in captivity of torture and illness.

And the young Navy diver Robert Stethem, singled out during the 1985 Hezbollah hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and brutally beaten before being shot to death.

And William Higgins, a colonel in the Marine Corps and commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, who was seized by Hezbollah in February 1988, tortured, and eventually hanged. (As Michelle Malkin perceptively noted last week, the tape of Higgins, bound and gagged and swinging from a rope, was one of the first publicly disseminated jihadi snuff films.)

And the 241 US servicemen murdered by Hezbollah on Oct. 23, 1983, when a suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with 12,000 pounds of TNT into their barracks at the Beirut airport.

And the 19 US servicemen killed in the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.

...9/11, it was said time and time again, "changed everything." No longer would Americans walk around with eyes wide shut, oblivious to the threat from the [extremists]. Not our war? Listen again to the Hezbollah hordes: "Death to America! Death to America!"

They're serious about it -- deadly serious. Why aren't we?

Why indeed.

Boston Globe: Hezbollah is our enemy, too by Jeff Jacoby

Monday, July 31, 2006

Tell me something I didn't know


Here's another essential news item that you won't be reading in the Old York Times anytime soon. The invaluable NewsBusters is reporting the results of a Pew Research Center study that demonstrates, "Rush Limbaugh Listeners Top Chart for 'High Knowledge'."

Heh.

Which party controls the U.S. House? Who is the current Secretary of State? Who is the president of Russia?

If you know all three questions, you could be a Rush Limbaugh listener. According to a new study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Rush Limbaugh listeners place second in the category of "high knowledge." This is above the pretentious New Yorker, the almost as pretentious NPR, news magazines like Time, the "News Hour with Jim Lehrer," and cable news outlets.

Doesn't "acting" smart count for something? It only does in New York socials and in "An Inconvenient Truth."

50% Weekly Standard/New Republic
48% Rush Limbaugh
44% New Yorker/Atlantic
42% O’Reilly Factor
41% News magazines
41% Online news (daily)
39% NPR
38% Daily Show
36% Sunday AM Talk
36% Talk Radio
33% Business Magazines
32% NewsHour

I can't help myself... Heh again.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Pravda's Manhattan Bureau Chief to print that. Maureen Dowd would sooner write a column praising "Rummy" than point out that most of her twelve Times Deselect™ readers are, uhm, challenged when it comes to history and world events.

When is a deleted file not deleted?


If this Ars Technica report is accurate, when Windows Vista uses its default setting of "System Protection." In this mode of operation, users' files and folders are automatically copied. These shadow copies are called Previous Versions; they will reportedly be available via a right-click properties menu option called "Restore Previous Versions."

This feature is rife for abuse. AT warns that corporate users will want to be especially cognizant of the feature, since it shadow-copies files on network drives. In addition, any user concerned with personal information security should be aware that Vista will make it possible to restore deleted files (in this case, the folder that originally held the file can be analyzed for "previous versions").

I'm not much of a fortune teller, but it's easy to envision some public relations nightmares as the logical outcome of this "feature." I think the authors of Vista may want to review the rules of data-sharing (the hard lessons learned vis a vis ADS, BHOs, and LSPs).

Ars Technica: Recycle Bin not enough, Microsoft adds "Previous Versions" support on the file system level

Sunday, July 30, 2006

OpenDocument Format Gains Fans in Government


The governments of Malaysia and Bristol have joined Belgium and Massachusetts in requiring the use of the OpenDocument file format (ODF). It appears that Denmark is also moving in this direction.

Among technology companies, Google also recently announced its intent to support ODF.

Hitchens slams the door shut on Wilson


Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate, has nailed the credibility coffin shut on the ridiculous Joe Wilson in, "Case Closed: The truth about the Iraqi-Niger "yellowcake" nexus. The eyewitness evidence is incontrovertible:

...In February 1999 one of Saddam Hussein's chief nuclear goons paid a visit to Niger, but his identity was not noticed by Joseph Wilson, nor emphasized in his "report" to the CIA, nor mentioned at all in his later memoir. British intelligence picked up the news of the Zahawie visit from French and Italian sources and passed it on to Washington...

...This means that both pillars of the biggest scandal-mongering effort yet mounted by the "anti-war" movement—the twin allegations of a false story exposed by Wilson and then of a state-run vendetta undertaken against him and the lady wife who dispatched him on the mission—are in irretrievable ruins. The truth is the exact polar opposite. The original Niger connection was both authentic and important, and Wilson's utter failure to grasp it or even examine it was not enough to make Karl Rove even turn over in bed. All the work of the supposed "outing" was inadvertently performed by Wilson's admirer Robert Novak. Of course, one defends the Bush administration at one's own peril...

...But the facts are still the facts, and it is high time that they received one-millionth of the attention that the "Plamegate" farce has garnered...

That Hitchens! What a dreamer!

It's fascinating to me that Wilson maintains a shred of credibility with the "reality-based community," when his stories are just a little less sturdy than cardboard left soaking in a tub for hours. If you look up "debunked" in the dictionary, odds are good you'll see Joe Wilson's mug staring back at you.

Of human shields, despots and missiles


The tragedy in Qana -- an inarguable anomaly in an Israeli campaign designed to avoid civilian casualties -- has resulted in the predictable outcry. The EU, Spain, France, and Iran issued various condemnations. The Lebanese prime minister reportedly requested a UN Security Council meeting that would demand a ceasefire.

Perhaps the Security Council could also take that opportunity to revisit its resolution 1559, which expresses:

“[Grave concern] at the continued presence of armed militias in Lebanon, which prevent the Lebanese government from exercising its full sovereignty over all Lebanese territory,

“Reaffirming the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory...

“3. Calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias;

“4. Supports the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory...

Perhaps any new UN resolutions will also take into account the failures of 1559.

Al Jazeera -- not exactly Israel's bosom buddy -- reports that Hezbollah's use of human shields may be to blame:

...An Israeli foreign ministry official, Gideon Meir, said: "We deeply regret the loss of any civilian life and especially when you talk about children who are innocent.

"One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields. The Israeli defence forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone."

Further, Israeli officials -- including Olmert, Halutz, and Peretz -- have apologized for the deaths in Qana.

No word on Hezbollah apologies for the 90 rockets targeting civilians on Saturday with 100 more on Sunday. The latter attack reportedly utilized Syrian Fajr-5 missiles, each of which was packed with over 200 pounds of explosives, the first time this type of ordnance has appeared on the battlefield. These weapons, along with Katyusha rockets packed with ball-bearings, are intended solely to shred civilians. That is why -- in addition to hundreds of thousands of Lebanese refugees -- over half a million Israelis are living in bomb shelters or have fled south.

To their credit, Israel has been resolute:

"Hizbullah, like other Islamic terror movements, threatens the entire civilization. When we decided to respond, we knew that we would need to be strong in the face of difficult situations," said Olmert.

Olmert said that the area was a focal point for the firing of Katyusha rockets on Kiryat Shmona and Afula. He said that from the outset of the conflict, "hundreds of rockets have been fired from the Qana area."

Defense Minister Amir Peretz was also profoundly repentant for the fatal strike, saying, "this is a tragic incident that is a result of war. Hizbullah operates in the heart of populated centers with the full knowledge of endangering the lives of innocent civilians."

...IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz also expressed sorrow over the loss of innocent life. "We were operating in a place from where Katyushas are being fired and we distributed notices to residents... "We have been attacking in Qana for three days," the high-ranking IAF officer said. "They have fired dozens of rockets from there over the past week at Kiryat Shmona, Afula and Ma'alot."...

It is indeed a world turned upside down. A terrorist organization has defied UN resolutions. It has targeted US Marines as well as Israeli soldiers and civilians. It has encouraged Arab civilian deaths -- women and children especially -- by employing human shields. It has packed bombs with ball-bearings to ensure maximum collateral damage.

But it has used the mainstream media more effectively than the Israelis. And certain useful dupes are more than willing to oblige.

Update 10:53 ET: the IDF reportedly has video of Hezbollah firing rockets from the location in Qana that was hit.

Update 18:00 ET: Interesting news out of Israel as the IDF reports that the Qana building fell hours after strike:

...An IDF investigation has found that the building in Qana struck by the Air Force fell around eight hours after being hit by the IDF.

“The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear,” ...the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning... ...The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse.

Another possibility is that the rickety building remained standing for a few hours, but eventually collapsed. “It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said.

”I’m saying this very carefully, because at this time I don’t have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap," he added...

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Leslie Gelb and the Culture of Repeated Mistakes


The op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal are routinely populated with analyses that pull no punches. Opinion pieces laced with barbs pillorying both parties for various failings. And a thoroughly clear-eyed view of national security.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to see Leslie Gelb receive a forum in these pages. Gelb is a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a self-described foreign policy think thank populated with the likes of Madeline Albright and Robert Rubin. Gelb also served as assistant secretary of state for the Carter administration.

Given that history -- a deep association with appeasers and failed negotiators -- one would think Gelb would have been mortified to submit the likes of his WSJ piece, "Time to Talk." Some of the lowlights:

Mr. Bush needs to use the present crisis to justify new and wide-ranging talks with Syria and Iran, and, if necessary, indirectly with Hamas and Hezbollah...

...negotiations are the most effective way to exercise American power, by arraying and making concrete the good things we could offer as well as deny them...

...Tehran supplies the money and rockets to Hezbollah, and will keep on doing so unless Washington gives them incentives to stop... ...Such an effort could also restore Mr. Bush's power and prestige for the tough decisions he will face in his last two White House years.

So Gelb's brilliant plan: appease despots and terrorists by sending... wait for it, wait... for... it... diplomats! And negotiating! Absolute genius.

No mention, though, of fellow CFR board-member Madeline Albright's disastrous negotiations with Kim Jong-Il, the result of which was a nuclear-equipped tyrant in North Korea. According to PBS, "...the CIA, working with evidence that it had been collecting since the middle of Clinton's second term, [found] that North Korea [was] secretly pursuing a uranium enrichment program". In other words, Gelb's colleagues -- Jimmy Carter and Albright -- engaged in just such a strategy of appeasement with an unspeakably evil despot.

In 2004, Amnesty International described the humanitarian impact of North Korea's regime in stark terms:

For more than a decade, the people of North Korea... have suffered from famine and acute food shortages. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and many millions more have suffered from chronic malnutrition. The actions of the North Korean government exacerbated the effects of the famine and the subsequent food crisis, denying the existence of the problem for many years, and imposing ever-tighter controls on the population to hide the true extent of the disaster...

The direct result of appeasing pure, unmitigated evil: a humanitarian disaster of unbelievable proportions and  a nuclear-equipped dictator.

Of course, Gelb fails to mention this intriguing slice of history, which can be laid directly at the feet of his CFR associates.

Further, Gelb has the gall to omit the central thesis behind Iran and Hezbollah: their stated goal of the destruction of Israel and the United States. Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Nasrallah has never been shy in espousing his desire to see the utter destruction of Israel :

"...There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel... Peace settlements will not change reality, which is that Israel is the enemy and that it will never be a neighbor or a nation..."

Gelb has yet to explain how one can negotiate a deal with another who simply wants you dead.

He also ignores Iran's venomous and existential threats against the United States, England and Israel:

We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization...

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years... Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable...

...We have established a department that will take care of England. England's demise is on our agenda...

Never mind that Gelb fails to mention the last significant effort at diplomacy in the Middle East. The Israelis withdrew from southern Lebanon to create peace. They withdrew from Gaza to create peace. But instead of building schools, businesses, and the other infrastructure that would benefit their populations, Gelb's prospective negotiating parties turned those areas into rocket bases.

Put simply, Gelb's impotent essay blithely ignores the central issue: negotiating with the irrational (or borderline insane) leads to even more death and destruction. Just as ignoring a festering wound leads to severe infection or death, so too are the inevitable results of appeasing evil. But the scourges of Communism and Nazism -- and recent experiences with North Korea -- apparently haven't penetrated Gelb's feeble cranium as representative outcomes.

Mark Steyn said it well in the Sun-Times last week:

...when bombs went off in Bali killing hundreds of tourists plus local waiters and barmen, ...a former Aussie diplomat... had no doubt where to put the blame... he told Australia's Nine Network: "The root cause of this issue has been America's backing of Israel on Palestine."

Suppose this were true -- that terrorists blew up Oz honeymooners and Scandinavian stoners in Balinese nightclubs because of "the Palestinian question." Doesn't this suggest that these people are, at a certain level, nuts? After all, there are plenty of IRA sympathizers around the world (try making the Ulster Unionist case in a Boston bar) and yet they never thought to protest British rule in Northern Ireland by blowing up, say, German tourists in Thailand...

Gelb's advocacy for negotiating with suicidal fanatics is as sensible as erecting a radio tower during a summer lightning storm. Odds are you'll receive a shocking lesson.

Based on Gelb's history and his most recent chicken-scratching, I'd say his efforts to advance American foreign relations are roughly equivalent to Gary Coleman's contributions to the cinema. He'd be better off finding a new line of work.

Related:
Expose the Left: Bolton slaps around Kerry
Hugh Hewitt: A history of mental illness
The Real Ugly American: Moral Equivalence, Disproportionality, and Stupidity