Free Iran!

Shortly after the reelection of George W. Bush a website was established showing photos of young Americans holding signs apologizing to the world for, among many things, our country having spearheaded the toppling of one of the world’s most brutal regimes. A corollary could be post WWII Americans apologizing to the world for having helped end Nazi Germany’s genocidal tyranny. But those morally misguided Americans are not the only ones embarrassed and ashamed of their country. In fact, in the Middle East there is a nation whose behavior has compelled some of its sons and daughters to refer to themselves as “Persians” instead of “Iranians,” often because of the embarrassing associations connected with "Iran"... ...But unlike many Arab and other Islamic countries, the vast majority of Iranians are fed up with Islam dominating their lives. The 1979 Islamic Revolution that ushered in Islamic government has been an abject failure. It has turned Iran into an impoverished pariah state on a dangerous collision course with the West. The ruling clerics viciously oppress the entire Iranian population, especially religious minorities and secular Iranians. Perhaps most oppressed are two of Iran’s indigenous religions, Bahaism and Zoroastrianism The former is a harmless faith that teaches the unity and betterment of humankind. The latter is the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran whose motto is “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” The term “discrimination” does not do justice to describe the treatment meted out to Bahais and Zoroastrians; “decimation” is perhaps more apt. And then there are Persian Jews- the oldest Jewish community outside of the land of Israel. At one time a thriving community, since 1979 the majority fled the rabid anti-Semitism of the Islamic revolution. The remaining Jews are unable to visit or communicate with their relatives in Israel and live under constant intimidation by Iranian security services. But life in Iran is not much better for the majority Muslim population either. Shariah, or Islamic law, is the law of the land. Apostasy or leaving Islam are punishable by death. For women or young girls who have been convicted of extra or premarital sex, death by stoning is sometimes the preferred mode of execution. Unlike a hanging, death by stoning is an intentionally long and agonizing death. On numerous occasions Iran has executed children as young as fifteen. Iran is also a huge state sponsor of terrorism. The Lebanese-based Hezbullah, the “Party of God,” has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans since the 1980’s. Financed and trained by Iran, Hezbullah is the first Islamist group to perfect suicide bombings. Iran also supports Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas- two terrorist groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel and responsible for the deaths of nearly a thousand innocent Israelis. Belying the oft-heard mantra that “We only hate “Zionists, not Jews,” Hezbullah and Iran are widely believed responsible for the July 18, 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. This would be the equivalent of blowing up the Jewish Community Center in your own community. To this day it remains the most deadly anti-Semitic incident anywhere since World War II. Iran is also meddling in Iraq. According Iyad Allawi, Prime Minister of the Iraqi interim government, Iran has been attempting to destabilize Iraq by supporting radical Shiite groups; and according to Secretary of State Colin Powel, Iran has also lent support to arch-terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. And if all that weren’t enough, Iran is dangerously close to obtaining nuclear weapons capability. The danger of a country like Iran having nuclear weapons cannot be overstated. MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction, was the policy that prevented the US and the Soviet Union from all out nuclear war. The logic behind MAD being that the Soviets did not want to die, nor did we, and so a certain détente was reached. But how could MAD work with an adversary that worships death? On December 14, 2001 former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani declared that “the use of a nuclear bomb on Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.” In other words, tiny Israel would be destroyed by a single Islamic nuclear bomb, but the one billion-strong Islamic world would be able to withstand any Israeli counter-strike, despite the loss of millions of Muslim lives residing in the country that attacked Israel. This blatant call for genocide should be a wake up call for the world because by all accounts Iran is frighteningly close to having nuclear weapons capability, as well as the capacity to deliver such weapons as far as Europe. But the silver lining in all of this is that the clerics in Iran are intensely unpopular with most Iranians. The US and every peace-loving nation should do everything in their power to encourage Iranian democrats to topple the nightmare rule of the clerics once and for all. A democratic Iran would have far-reaching, positive implications for the region, not to mention the people of Iran. The world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism would be out of business. Iraq and Afghanistan would have a peaceful democratic neighbor. Terror-supporting Syria would lose its closest ally. Perhaps most importantly, the wider Middle East would take note that the first country to usher in Islamic revolution finally repudiated that ideology in favor of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Discarded Lies: Free Iran

John Kerry reprises his 1970 meetings in Paris

Charles at LGF provides the following take on John Kerry's visit to the Middle East. The short version? I don't know if he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice by meeting with Madame Binh in 1970 and '71. But I do know such an act didn't smell right then... and his recent actions smell worse today. Check it:

Fresh from his whirlwind tour of Arab dictatorships in Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, and Egypt, John Kerry wants us to know that they are very frustrated with US policies. CAIRO (Reuters) - Middle East countries are frustrated by U.S. policy in Iraq and feel too little is being done to end violence there, U.S. Senator John Kerry said on Wednesday on a visit to the region. Kerry repeatedly criticized the Bush administration’s Iraq policy during his failed bid to win the U.S. presidency from George W. Bush, who led the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. “All of the countries of the region have a significant stake in the outcome and yet they are frustrated,” Kerry said in Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “They are frustrated because they don’t feel that the steps necessary to be able to advance the stability of Iraq are really being taken,” he said. ArabicNews.com says Kerry “admitted the US committed terrible mistakes,” in a meeting with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University: Kerry to Al Azhar Grand Imam: Washington commited terrible mistakes in Iraq. Meantime, Kerry admitted that the US committed terrible mistakes in Iraq. During a meeting on Wednesday with grand Imam of Al Azhar Mohamad Sayed Tantawi, Kerry regretted the difficult conditions in Iraq. The Grand Imam urged all Iraqis to take part in the coming elections to be held on January 30. On his part, Kerry appreciated Al Azhar’s prestigious position all over the world, pointing out that there was a common ground between Islam and Christianity. The Grand Imam of Al Azhar is on record supporting suicide bombing as a legitimate form of “resistance” against “occupiers.” He has also said that suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq are permitted under Islamic law. Are these some of “the steps necessary to be able to advance the stability of Iraq?” I am now feeling an immense sense of relief that John Kerry is not President of the United States.

LGF: Kerry Kowtows to Despots and Islamists

Ignoring the Obvious

An Editorial Cartoon by Cox & Forkum

John Lott checks the NAS... before it wrecks itself

Last month, the National Academy of Sciences issued a 328-page report on gun control laws. The big news that has been ignored on all the blog sites is that the academy's panel couldn't identify any benefits of the decades-long effort to reduce crime and injury by restricting gun ownership. The only conclusion it could draw was: Let's study the question some more. The panel has left us with two choices: Either academia and the government have wasted tens of millions of dollars and countless man-hours on useless research (and the panel would like us to spend more in the same worthless pursuit), or the National Academy is so completely unable to separate politics from its analyses that it simply can't accept the results for what they are. Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents. From the assault weapons ban to the Brady Act to one-gun-a-month restrictions to gun locks, nothing worked. (Something that I have been the first person to investigate empirically for many of these laws, and I also had been unable to find evidence that they reduced violent crime.) The study was not the work of gun-control opponents. The panel was set up during the Clinton administration, and of its members whose views on guns were publicly known before their appointments all but one had favored gun control... ...It is hard to look through the NAS panel's tables on right-to-carry laws and not find overwhelming evidence that right-to-carry laws reduce violent crime... Overall, the panel's own evidence from the latest data up through 2000 shows significant benefits and no costs from these laws...

Volokh: John Lott responds

Ann Coulter goes OFF on CBS

I'll admit that Ann Coulter often comes off a shade too vitriolic for my personal tastes. Nonetheless, she's always interesting to listen to -- even when she's the proverbial bull in a china shop. In her latest column, she rips CBS a new bodily orifice and -- for good measure -- holds their head in the toilet and then flushes - repeatedly.

Read the whole thing: Liar, Liar - now you're fired

Top Ten Proposed Changes at CBS

Hugh Hewitt reports that he received an email that claimed to capture last night's Top 10 list from Letterman. As Hugh says, even if it wasn't... it shoulda been:

Top Ten Proposed Changes At CBS News 10. Stories must be corroborated by at least two really strong hunches. 9. "Evening News" pre-show staff cocktail hour is cancelled until further notice. 8. Reduce "60 Minutes" to more manageable 15-20 minutes. 7. Change division name from "CBS News" to "CBS News-ish" 6. If anchor says anything inaccurate, earpiece delivers an electric shock. 5. Conclude each story with comical "Boing" sound effect. 4. Instead of boring Middle East reports, more powerball drawings. 3. To play it safe, every "exclusive" story will be about how tasty pecan pie is. 2. Not sure how, but make CBS News more like "C.S.I." 1. Use beer, cash and hookers to lure Tom Brokaw out of retirement.

Hugh Hewitt

I guess they just forgot to run this story

The "non-biased" folks at CBS -- and the vast majority of other mainstream media all-stars -- somehow didn't report upon this interesting and -- one would think -- quite important news. I guess they just forgot. Yowzer, Dan, it's hotter in this studio than the July Fourth Chili cook-off in Austin, TX!

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. government ran a $1 billion budget surplus in December, helped by a rise in corporate tax payments, the Congressional Budget Office said in its latest budget report released on Friday. The surplus, which compared with an $18 billion deficit in the previous December, helped create a smaller fiscal deficit for the first three months of the 2005 fiscal year, than in the same quarter of the prior year.

Reuters: US Ran Budget Surplus in December

Update

PoliPundit reader CJ points out this little adjunct to the story:

"CBO is projecting that the deficit will narrow slightly to $348 billion in 2005″ Hows that for liberal media bias? In only a far left extremist mind could a whopping 16.7% reduction in the deficit in a single year as "narrowing slightly." Now a little math lesson for the mathmatically challenged donks. Bush has said his goal is to cut the deficit in half by 2009. Now we know that would be impossible with that paltry 16.7% reduction yearly cause Reuters said its just such a slight reduction. Get your calculators out, if you extrapolate that paltry 16.7% for each year until 2009 what number do you come up with? The answer is 168. As in the deficit will be at 168 billion in 2009. Well well well, even you donks can figure out thats a 60% reduction in the deficit from last year.

Oh, yeah, there was a 16.7% reduction in the deficit, too, that CBS (and the rest of the MSM) 'forgot' about.

The Party's Over

Over on MSNBC.com, Newsweek's Howard Fineman weighs in on the CBS scandal with a provocative piece arguing that for decades the "mainstream" media have in effect been a political party--the AMMP, or American Mainstream Media Party, as he infelicitously dubs it. "The notion of a neutral, non-partisan mainstream press," he argues, is "pretty much dead, at least as the public sees things." And it's been a long time in going: The seeds of its demise were sown with the best of intentions in the late 1960s, when the AMMP was founded in good measure (and ironically enough) by CBS. Old folks may remember the moment: Walter Cronkite stepped from behind the podium of presumed objectivity to become an outright foe of the war in Vietnam. Later, he and CBS's star White House reporter, Dan Rather, went to painstaking lengths to make Watergate understandable to viewers, which helped seal Richard Nixon's fate as the first president to resign. The crusades of Vietnam and Watergate seemed like a good idea at the time, even a noble one, not only to the press but perhaps to a majority of Americans. The problem was that, once the AMMP declared its existence by taking sides, there was no going back. A party was born. The broadcast in which Cronkite declared America "mired in stalemate" and urged withdrawal from Vietnam aired on Feb. 27, 1968. In November of that year, Democrats began an almost unbroken string of electoral losses, including seven of the past 10 presidential elections. If you accept Fineman's thesis, then the 2004 election was also a repudiation of the AMMP. As an erstwhile antiwar activist who never renounced his "war crimes" calumnies, Kerry was the perfect candidate of the partisan media. No wonder CBS and others tried to puff up Kerry as a "war hero" while obsessing over supposed deficiencies in President Bush's National Guard record. The New York Sun's Seth Lipsky calls the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "the flip side of the tarnished coin of CBS": One was the vaunted network that flubbed the story of a generation. The other was a true band of brothers, professional newsmen not, who had a story that none of the big institutions wanted. They put it on the air themselves with the contributions of more than 150,000 ordinary Americans and discovered that it resonated powerfully with an electorate that had grown tired of being treated with cynicism. If the downfall of CBS and the voters' rejection of Kerry are the denouement of the Vietnam War, it couldn't have come a moment too soon. For many in the media have been working feverishly to discredit another war--a war that, unlike Vietnam, America cannot afford to lose. CBS, though, still seems to be in denial about the whole thing. Here's an astonishing quote from the Baltimore Sun: Executives at the network--long a target of critics who detect a political agenda in its news division--are clinging to the panel's finding on political bias. "That for us was the big headline: That there was no political agenda, because that would have been terrible," said Linda Mason, CBS News' senior vice president for standards and special projects, whose position was created Monday in response to the report. "We were all greatly relieved to see that the panel did extensive work and gave us a clean bill of health in terms of it not being politically motivated." Lipsky writes that he is not "terribly troubled by the prospect of bias at one, or even several, of the big networks or newspapers": The First Amendment doesn't require that one must check his or her biases to enter journalism. On the contrary, to protect the airing of bias is precisely one of the purposes of the Founders in crafting the First Amendment. We're not sure we agree with Fineman's conclusion that the idea of a nonpartisan press is "pretty much dead." But if CBS won't acknowledge its bias even in such a clear-cut case, it's hard to see how that network can ever restore its credibility as a neutral source of news--or why anyone should bother to watch, especially with so many alternatives available. We wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the next decade the network decides to put its news division out of business altogether.

James Taranto: The Party's Over

Software Layering Principles

Martin Fowler recently solicited input from participants in an enterprise software workshop. The topic? Preferred software layering principles (hat tip: John Lim). Participants were free to suggest principles and vote on any with which they agreed or disagreed.

They didn't appear in any particular order in Martin's blog, but I thought I'd reorder them from agree-to-disagree ratio (first number-to-last number) so that we can easily see consensus.

I was especially interested to see how many folks preferred to throw exceptions between layers (highlighted). I couldn't agree more.

* Business layer only uses abstractions of technological services. 14/0 * Layers should be testable individual. 12/0 * Separation of concerns. 11/0 * Layers are a logical artifact that does not imply distribution between layers. 11/0 * Low coupling between layers, high cohesion within them. 10/0 * Inbound external interface modules (eg web service handlers) should not contain business logic. 10/0 * User interface modules should contain no business logic. 10/0 * Business logic layers contain no user interface and don't refer to user interface modules. 8/0 * No circular references between layers. 8/0 * Layers may share infrastructural aspects (eg security) 7/0 * Layers should be shy about their internals. 8/0 * Lower layers should not depend on upper layers. 6/0 * Adaptability: be able to change. 2/0 * Layers should be substitutable. 2/0 * Layers should be independently maintainable and versioned. 2/0 * A layer should be wary of exposing lower layers to upper layers. 1/0 * Layers can have multiple adjacent upper layers. 2/1 * Every layer should have a secret. 3/2 * Layers should be agnostic of consumers (a layer shouldn't know who's on top of it.) 4/4 * Prefer layers to interact only with adjacent layers. 4/4 * Always wrap domain logic with a service layer. 4/5 * Layers should only interact with adjacent layers. 2/3 * The domain layer should not talk to external systems - the service layer should do that. 2/3 * Changing a lower level layer interface should not change upper layer interfaces. 2/5 * There are at least three main layer types: presentation, domain, and data source. 3/9 * Separate development teams by layer. 1/22 * Layers should have separate deployment units (eg separate jars or assemblies for each layer). 0/7 * Rethrow exceptions at layer boundaries. 0/15 * Distribute at layer boundaries 0/18

Martin Fowler: Layering Principles

And the Dead shall Walk the Earth (and Vote)

I wonder if Barbara Boxer will break down and cry, while standing on the Senate floor, as a protest against the outrageous cheating in the Washington Gubernatorial election?

Democrat Christine Gregoire will be sworn in as Washington’s Governor today, possibly thanks to voters such as Mary Coffey, James Courneya and Rosalie Simpson. Why do we mention them in particular? Because, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently reported, they’re all dead–and have been since well before the first absentee ballots were even mailed out. Revelations of the formerly living casting ballots in elections isn’t new to American politics, although it’s something most of us thought was a relic of the late Richard Daley’s Chicago. But this isn’t the only jaw-dropper to have come out of Washington’s gubernatorial race, which Ms. Gregoire claims to have won–on a third recount, by 129 votes–over Republican Dino Rossi. Now Mr. Rossi is contesting the result in state court, hoping a judge will find enough evidence of fraud or incompetence to order a revote, a prospect Ms. Gregoire calls “absolutely ludicrous.” Mr. Rossi certainly has a mountain of evidence on his side. In December, officials in King County, which includes Seattle, discovered 573 “erroneously rejected” absentee ballots, plus another 150 uncounted ones that showed up in a South Seattle warehouse. There were reports that hundreds of voters were registered in storage rental facilities and private mailboxes, that felons had voted, and that military ballots were sent out too late to be counted. Then we learned that several hundred provisional ballots had simply been fed into voting machines, making it impossible to authenticate their legality. Now it turns out the number of votes cast in King County exceeds the total number of voters by about 1,800...

And the Dead shall Walk the Earth (and Vote)

Open-source Convergence News

The always-useful News.com reports that the promise of enterprise acceptance of open-source technologies is helping to reshape the IT services market. A host of new companies are jumping on the OSS bandwagon, hoping to deliver design, development, and support services.

The new companies include SpikeSource (co-founded by Kim Polese of Marimba fame), SourceLabs, and Optaros... among many others. Support and maintenance (e.g., simplified upgrades) appear to be the low-hanging fruit for several of these companies. The primary products for which services are offered are enterprise application serving platforms, i.e., LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP), Tomcat, and other wildly popular technologies.

Let's put this into context. Zend, the maker of PHP's engine and a variety of open- and closed-source support tools for PHP just yesterday announced a new offering called Platform. Platform is a suite of tools; personally, however, the most interesting (and strategic) component is the following:

PHP/Java Interoperability - Bridges the gap between PHP and Java by providing a practical, efficient means of leveraging existing Java/J2EE applications. Rather than launching a separate Java Virtual Machine (JVM) instance for each Java call, Zend Platform uses a single JVM, requiring minimal server resources and making composite PHP/Java applications a reality. PHP/Java Interoperability makes interoperability between your applications practical.

In other words, Zend has gotten a lot smarter about tying the power of J2EE back-end objects (i.e., persistence, fault-tolerance and transactional integrity) to the ease-of-use that has always been a hallmark of PHP.

The convergence of improved service offerings around LAMP and the introduction of dramatically superior PHP/J2EE integration are big wins for the PHP community at large, Zend, and enterprise developers in general.

Zend Platform

Sandy Berger Update: Destroying Classified Documents

Gee, I wonder why Berger was, by his own admission, pilfering and destroying documents? If you want your blood pressure to stay within its normal systolic/diastolic range, please don't read the last line of the following article from the Post.

The criminal probe into why former Bill Clinton aide Sandy Berger illegally sneaked top-secret documents out of the National Archives — possibly in his socks — has heated up and is now before a federal grand jury... ...Berger admits removing 40 to 50 top-secret documents from the archives, but claims it was an "honest mistake" made while he vetted documents for the 9/11 commission's probe into the Twin Towers attacks. Berger has also acknowledged that he destroyed some documents — he says by accident... ...The documents include multiple drafts of a review of the 2000 millennium threat said to conclude that only luck prevented a 2000 attack. That story conflicts with Berger's own testimony to the commission, in which he claimed that "we thwarted" millennium attacks by being vigilant — rather than by sheer luck, as the review reportedly suggests. The probe was touched off last spring when stunned archives staffers reported seeing Berger sneak classified documents out of a top-secret reading room in his pants and socks while vetting Clinton-era items for the commission. They then ran a sting operation in which they coded some documents and confirmed they were missing when Berger left. The documents were classified Code Word, the highest security classification, above Top Secret. The commission report makes clear that Berger had a habit of writing candid notes in the margin of memos, sometimes flatly rejecting plans for action. He nixed a plan to capture Osama bin Laden with one word: "No."

NY Post: Sandy Berger Update: Destroying Classified Documents

Today, I was Unprofessional

Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular: "See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..." After which he and many of my Euro collegues laughed out loud. And then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster. I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose - "Hmmm, let's see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want? Something with its own inexhuastible power supply? Something that can produce 900,000 gallons of fresh water a day from sea water? Something with its own airfield? So that after producing the fresh water, it could help distribute it? Something with 4 hospitals and lots of open space for emergency supplies? Something with a global communications facility to make the coordination of disaster relief in the region easier? Well "Franz", us peasants in America call that kind of ship an "Aircraft Carrier". We have 12 of them. How many do you have? Oh that's right, NONE. Lucky for you and the rest of the world, we are the kind of people who share. Even with people we don't like. In fact, if memory serves,once upon a time we peasants spent a ton of money and lives rescuing people who we had once tried to kill and who tried to kill us. Do you know who those people were? that's right Franz, Europeans. Theres is a French Aircraft carrier? Where is it? Right where it belongs! In France of course! Oh why should the French Navy dirty their uniforms helping people on the other side of the globe. How Simplesse... The day an American has to move a European out of the way to help in some part of the world it will be a great day in the world, you sniggering little f**knob..." The room fell silent. My hindi friend then said quietly to the Euros: "Can you let your hatred of George Bush end for just one minute? There are people dying! And what are your countries doing? Amazon.com has helped more than France has. You all have a role to play in the world, why can't you see that? Thank God for the US Navy, they dont have to come and help, but they are. They helped you once and you should all thank God they did. They didnt have to, and no one but them would have done so. I'm ashamed of you all..." He left the room, shaking and in tears...

Varifrank: Today, I was Unprofessional

Silent in the face of out-and-out brutality

I wonder if Nonie Darwish is describing the "mainstream" American-Islamic groups like CAIR? Hat tip: Charles at Discarded Lies.

Most Islamic studies professors and Islamist groups in America exercise their freedom of speech given to them by America, but only when speaking against America, Judaism, Christianity, President Bush and Pat Robertson. However, they never dare to criticize their culture of origin and some even still have respect for the tyranny of the old country. They leave the job of ridding the Muslim world of terror to the victims of terror, namely America and Israel. Whenever they criticize the Muslim world it is in the context of blaming America for supporting dictatorships. However, when America attempts to bring democracy and get rid of Arab dictators they turn around and accuse America of occupation or empire building. No matter what America does, they voice criticism. That can only mean they do not seem to be serious about reformation in Muslim countries. They are, however, very serious about embarrassing, criticizing and hurting America. Many Muslim groups and Middle East studies professors are aligning themselves with the liberal ‘hate America’ crowd in Western academia and media. Three days after the Tsunami in South Asia, I saw an Arab-American leader criticize America’s response as “slow and too little, too late” on CNN. They have the audacity to criticize America and give a free pass to the oil rich Arab countries that should be the first to respond financially to save their poor Muslim brothers and sisters in Indonesia. Islamism and the old defeated and failed ideology of pan-Arabism is what many Islamic groups in America are advocating. They are silent in the face of Muslim poverty, corruption, neglect of human rights, oppression of women, honor killings and the brutal and unusual punishments such as cutting off limbs, flogging and stoning. They are not using American freedoms as an opportunity to change their countries of origin, but as an opportunity to influence and change America to be like the countries they came from. Their goal is also to keep Muslim-Americans under their control and the control of Muslim world mullahs, sheiks and dictators they should have left behind. How can any one take them seriously when they do not lift a finger to protect human rights in Muslim countries, but are militant in turning Arab-Americans into yet another voting block to influence American politics? They take no stand to protect the life of the Muslim woman being stoned and explain away such atrocities and beheadings while crying ‘profiling’ in America by the FBI.

Silent in the face of out-and-out brutality. Also, if you can handle the graphic reference material, see Sumka and HolyCrime (caution: extremely graphic).

The Threat: Europe

Interesting -- and ominous -- news. German authorities indicate that there is a significantly increased threat from Al Qaeda-linked extremists on the European continent. Hat tip: JihadWatch.

BERLIN -- Islamic extremists accused of plotting to kill Iraq's prime minister in Germany are smuggling fighters from Iraq to Europe, raising a potential new terrorist threat on the continent, according to German officials. More than 20 alleged supporters of Ansar al-Islam have been arrested in Europe in the past year as authorities move against the group linked with Al Qaeda and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been leading attacks in Iraq. Ansar al-Islam is suspected of spiriting dozens of young Muslims to Iraq to join the insurgency, but the latest raids in Germany heightened concerns that the organization also could pose a menace outside Iraq.

AP: Terrorists targeting Europe

The Protest

It's not easy to determine who benefits from the Democratic protest of electoral vote certification.

The Democrats? Not likely. To most observers, it appears like little more than sour grapes... fermented, perhaps. There is no credible evidence that the election was anything but legitimate.

The American People? Hardly. To most, it appears to be a feeble attempt to chip away at the foundations of the Republic.

This isn't doing anyone any good, least of all the Democratic party.

Mark Steyn on the Democrat’s protesting the electoral vote certification: A Democrat chum said to me on Thursday, oh, well, they’re just doing this to toss a bone to the base. But they’re running out of bones to toss, and the base needs a reality check, not more pandering. One reason why the party has shriveled away to Greater New England plus the ‘’minority neighborhoods'’ of a few cities is that it’s all fringe, and no mainstream. The base is out of control; the kooks still holding their post-election vigil outside one of John Kerry’s mansions sound no loopier than the big-time senators. The party has no urge to move on from moveon.org. Indeed, on Thursday, one Democrat senator and 31 Democrat House members voted to decertify Ohio’s electoral votes and disenfranchise 62 million people who voted for President Bush. Among the “honorable” members of Congress who took this outrageous action were: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), former presidential candidate Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), son of former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson These aren’t just kook grassroots Democrats. They’re high-ranking elected officials who would hold significant sway over public policy if the Democrats ever managed to take back the House or Senate.

PoliPundit: The Protest

Plastination

The Body Worlds exhibit at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, through Jan. 23, delves into "plastination," a process for preserving cadavers to better represent the structures of the human body. The traveling show has sparked controversy for some of its more graphic portrayals. Plastination was invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens at the Institute for Anatomy at Heidelberg University in 1977. Most plastinated bodies have been donated by people who declared while living that they want to advance human knowledge. The exhibit includes about 200 "plastinates," including individual organs, body parts, transparent slices and whole body plastinates. It travels next to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, where it will go on display starting Feb. 4. In plastination, reactive polymers (such as silicone rubber, epoxy resins or polyester) replace water and fat content and then harden to retain tissue structures. For a full body, the process takes about 1,500 hours...

News.com: Plastination Exhibit

The Five D's of Dodgeball

I saw the movie Dodgeball again last night. When dodgeball legend Patches O'Houlihan taught his young charges the five D's of dodgeball ("Dodge, duck, dip, dive and... dodge"), it reminded me of nothing less than the Gonzales hearing. How? When the question arose of whether the use of torture would ever be justified, the Left dodged, ducked, dipped, dived... and dodged again.

These are the hard thinkers, the academics, the intellectual leaders of the Left. And they can't answer the question. The following transcript tells the story.

SPECTER: And now with three individuals who are more, perhaps, academicians or at least in part academicians, we could explore a subject which we have not taken up, a delicate subject, and that is the issue of the so-called ticking bomb case on torture. There are some prominent authorities -- and I do not subscribe to this view but only set it forth for purposes of discussion -- that if it was known, probable cause, that an individual had a ticking bomb and was about to blow up hundreds of thousands of people in a major American city, that consideration might be given to torture. ...Dean Koh, start with you. Are considerations for those tactics ever justifiable, even in the face of a ticking-bomb threat? KOH: Well, senator, you're a former prosecutor, and I think that my approach would be to keep the flat ban, and if someone -- the president of time of the United States -- had to make a decision like that, someone would have to decide whether to prosecute him or not. But I don't think that the answer is to create an exception in the law, because an exception becomes a loophole, and a loophole starts to water down the prohibition. I think what we saw at Abu Ghraib is the reality of torture.

Hmmm... peel the veneer of academia away, present the tough questions of the real world, and what do we get? Nothing. He can't answer the question. And Abu Graib is related to this question... how?

Here's Admiral Hutson, the judge advocate general during the Clinton administration.

SPECTER: Dean Hutson, what do you think? Ever an occasion to even consider that? HUTSON: I agree with, uh, with Dean Koh that it is always illegal. Now, you may decide that you are going to take the illegal action, ummm, because you have to.

So Hutson agrees with a non-answer. Let's see what Douglas Johnson, director of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, has to say.

JOHNSON: On the specifics of the -- of the ticking time bomb, I think that it's very overblown in our imaginations, and -- and it's very ripe with what I would...could only call fantasy and mythology.

Quite telling. The Academicians of the Left can't answer that single, simple and eminently important question.

A Case for Sharansky

Natan Sharansky was born in the Ukraine and became a mathematician. His early involvement with the human rights movement led to his emergence as a spokesman and dissident for freedom. In 1973, he applied for an exit visa to Israel, and was refused. He was subsequently convicted of treason and spying on behalf of the U.S., and spent 16 months on Moscow's infamous Lefortovo prison.

After frequent isolation in solitary confinement -- and a special "torture cell" -- he was then transferred to a Siberian gulag prison camp.

During his years of imprisonment, he became a symbol for repressed human rights. Freed in 1986, he became the Minister of Industry and Trade in Israel. He is the author of Fear No Evil and, more recently, The Case for Democracy.

Unlike those that mouth platitudes about freedom, but have never experienced a day without Starbucks and their daily newspaper, Sharansky has lived in a society of utter fear and repression, torture and lost opportunities.

I heard Sharansky give a talk about his [latest] book at the American Enterprise Institute, and I was very moved... Sharansky made three points. One, democracy is good for everybody in all countries. All people of all races and cultures desire freedom. Two, democratic countries make the world safer: [I]t's much better for any country to deal with democracy which hates this country than with dictator who loves this country, because democracy which hates you, there is very little chance that it will start a war against you, but dictatorship which loves you, tomorrow can lead the campaign against you for its own soil. Three, we have the power to spread democracy around the world, and it is our role to do so: [T]he free world has the great power, the great weapon, as I said, the only nonconventional weapon which nobody else has except the free world. That's the weapon of freedom and democracy....Security and human rights and democracy are inseparable, and we have to unite our efforts. Having experienced life under the cruelly repressive Soviet regime, including spending 9 years in the gulag, Sharansky spoke passionately and powerfully from personal experience. He had a wonderful turn of phrase too--"free societies and fear societies" and "weapons of mass construction" stick in my mind. It was a fantastic speech, and I'm looking forward to reading the book. The Bush Doctrine sounds very much like this Sharansky Doctrine, and while I don't know if Bush was aware of Sharansky's case for democracy (which he has been making for years) when he formulated his post-9/11 foreign policy, he certainly is now--both Bush and Condi Rice met with Sharansky in the White House last month to discuss his book. Sharansky told Bush: In spite of all the polls warning you that talking about spreading democracy in the Middle East might be a losing issue — despite all the critics and the resistance you faced — you kept talking about the importance of free societies and free elections. You kept explaining that democracy is for everybody. You kept saying that only democracy will truly pave the way to peace and security. You, Mr. President, are a dissident among the leaders of the free world. What a breathtaking compliment. It makes me proud to have Bush as my president.

A Case for Sharansky

CNN's Crossfire to be snuffed

Hugh Hewitt reports the following welcome news, which simply could not happen fast enough. Here's a suggestion for a replacement show: simply find two talented representatives from the left and the right and let them go at it, perhaps with a centrist also represented. Oh, wait, Britt Hume already hosts that show on Fox every night at 6PM. Okay, just forget it.

CNN has announced plans to snuff Crossfire. The Wall Street Journal reports that Crossfire "averages 447,000 viewers each weekday, down 21% from the previous season." I hadn't realized the show had fallen so far. That's the sort of number you get from patients in hospitals who can't change reach the remote and airport lounge prisoners. It wasn't the format that killed the show, it was Begala, who is unwatchable except by the Michael Moore left.

Hugh Hewitt: CNN's Crossfire to be snuffed

East Boston Gang tied to Al Qaeda

This ain't good. Hat tip: LGF.

A burgeoning East Boston-based street gang made up of alleged rapists and machete-wielding robbers has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, prompting Boston police to ``turn up the heat'' on its members, the Herald has learned. MS-13, which stands for La Mara Salvatrucha, is an extremely violent organization with roots in El Salvador, and boasts more than 100 ``hardcore members'' in East Boston who are suspected of brutal machete attacks, rapes and home invasions. There are hundreds more MS-13 gangsters in towns along the North Shore... In recent months, intelligence officials in Washington have warned national law enforcement agencies that al-Qaeda terrorists have been spotted with members of MS-13 in El Salvador, prompting concerns the gang may be smuggling Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into the country. Law enforcement officials have long believed that MS-13 controls alien smuggling routes along Mexico. The warning is being taken seriously in East Boston, where Raed Hijazi, an al-Qaeda operative charged with training the suicide bombers in the attack on the USS Cole, lived and worked, prosecutors have charged. Also, the commercial jets that hurtled into the World Trade Center towers in New York City were hijacked from Logan International Airport... MS-13 members congregate near the Maverick Square train station sporting white and blue bandannas, their skin inked with spider webs and ``laugh now, cry later'' clown faces. ``MS-13 is the most dangerous gang in the area,'' Fiandaca said. ``They are big. They are mobile. Now they have a terrorist connection.'' The theory that Salvadoran criminals manage to smuggle people over the border was bolstered this month when two Boston men described as MS-13 leaders were spotted on the North Shore days before Christmas - a year after they were deported by Boston Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators for gang-related crimes...

East Boston Gang tied to Al Qaeda

Delay's Gaffe

Tom Delay's choice of words is... inappropriate at best. Let it never be said that I condone unacceptable behavior, from the Right or the Left.

By all means, let's have a debate over terrorist interrogation

The White House appears to be dreading today's confirmation hearings for Alberto Gonzales now that Democrats seem ready to blame the Attorney General nominee for Abu Ghraib and other detainee mistreatment. But this is actually a great chance for the Administration to do itself, and the cause of fighting terror, some good by forcefully repudiating all the glib and dangerous abuse of the word "torture." For what's at stake in this controversy is nothing less than the ability of U.S. forces to interrogate enemies who want to murder innocent civilians. And the Democratic position, Mr. Gonzales shouldn't be afraid to say, amounts to a form of unilateral disarmament that is likely to do far more harm to civil liberties than anything even imagined so far. The dispute here stems from the Bush Administration's decision, in early 2002, that Taliban and al Qaeda detainees didn't automatically qualify for prisoner of war status. This caused a fuss in some quarters. But it was in accord with the plain language of the original Geneva Conventions, which require POWs to have met certain criteria such as fighting in uniform and not attacking civilians. The Administration understood what critics don't want to admit --namely, that POWs may not be interrogated, period. The Geneva Conventions forbid even positive reinforcement such as better rations to coax them to talk...

WSJ: By all means, let's have a debate over terrorist interrogation

Winter got you down?

Take a gander at the pictures from last year's Harbin Ice festival, courtesy of R. Todd King.

Feds Search for Attempted Ammonium Nitrate Purchaser

The ATF is searching for a man of apparent Middle Eastern descent -- and false construction documents -- who attempted to purchase large amounts of ammonium nitrate. You may remember that substance from the catastrophic Oklahoma City bombing; it's what Timothy McVeigh used to destroy the Federal Building (hat tip: LGF):

“We’re still running down leads. But we thought it would be prudent putting out an advisory to the fertilizer industry,” said Tom Mangin, an ATF agent in Phoenix, where the investigation is centered. The suspect also made several Internet email inquiries to vendors seeking to buy between 500 to 1,000 metric tons of the explosive — a quantity larger than McVeigh used to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building in April 1995 but smaller than amounts companies typically might buy in bulk for construction, explosives or farm work. The International Society of Explosives Engineers, based in Cleveland, sent an e-mail Wednesday alerting its members and asking them to call ATF in Phoenix to report any suspicious activity. “ATF has recently been made aware of a suspicious attempt by an individual to purchase mass quantities of ammonium nitrate, specifically between 500 to 1,000 metric tons,” the alert said. “This individual, who uses a Middle Eastern name, purports to be a representative of a construction corporation. However, indications are that this is most likely false. ”The individual has previously made contact with other industry members via e-mail seeking the large amounts of ‘fertilizer grade’ ammonium nitrate," the alert said...

Feds Search for Attempted Ammonium Nitrate Purchaser

The Western Media's Abuse of Power

The Power Line crew points us to a startlingly well-written speech given by Melanie Phillips. It's an important statement and one certain to resonate for months, if not years, to come.

A friend went into Blackwells university bookshop in Oxford and asked the counter clerk: 'Do you have a copy of Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel?' 'There is no case for Israel', the counter clerk replied... Britain is gripped by an unprecedented degree of irrationality, prejudice and hysteria over the issues of Iraq, the terrorist jihad and Israel. All three are intimately linked; all three, however, are thought by public opinion to be linked in precisely the wrong way. This is because all three have been systematically misreported, distorted and misrepresented through a lethal combination of profound ignorance, political malice and ancient prejudices. This systematic abuse by the media is having a devastating impact in weakening the ability of the west to defend itself against the unprecedented mortal threat that it faces from the Islamic jihad. People cannot and will not fight if they don’t understand the nature or gravity of the threat that they face, so much so that they vilify their own leaders while sanitising those who would harm them... The outcome is a society which no longer understands how to distinguish truth from lies, no longer understands or accepts the desirability of objectivity and no longer is capable of rational debate based on facts and logic. Instead, all evidence is filtered through prism of prior political prejudice and emotion to which it is wrenched to fit. It replaces evidence by propaganda, rationality by gullibility. And it is perhaps the single greatest incitement to terror. Terrorism is designed to achieve maximum publicity and to manipulate public revulsion so that pressure is put on the leaders of the democracies to surrender. It cannot be said too often that what drives al Qaeda is not the exercise of disproportionate force by the west but the perception of its weakness and incapacity or unwillingness to fight in its own defence. But even al Qaeda must surely have been taken aback by the craven willingness of the British media to fall into line by abusing and persecuting their own leaders at a time of war. These terrorists know that the more barbaric their acts, the more hysteria and pressure the British media will direct at Blair and Bush. So al Qaeda has every incentive to ratchet up the atrocities. That’s why the hostage Kenneth Bigley was videoed sobbing for his life in a cage; and the media duly do what the terrorists want and put it on their front pages and news bulletins, and the pressure on Blair to split from America becomes more and more intolerable. The appalling result of all this is that, if a terrorist outrage in London were to claim the lives of hundreds or thousands of people, the reaction of many Britons might not be a revival of the spirit of the Blitz and an iron determination to defeat fascism and tyranny. It might be instead to turn on Tony Blair and blame him directly for bringing about the slaughter. And that, of course, is precisely what makes such a terrible outcome more likely. There can be little doubt that al Qaeda, such a shrewd judge of western decadence and the differences in moral fibre between the countries of the west, will have noted the fact that in Britain, the worse the terrorist outrage that is committed, the more the public will turn on Tony Blair. Every single defeatist, distorted or dishonest article about Iraq, Israel and the war on terror makes another barbaric atrocity more likely. It is this weakness and moral confusion that comprise the great goal of terrorist strategy; it is this that has characterised the west’s response to Islamic terror for many decades; it is this that has brought us to where we are today. In the war that has been declared upon the free world, the western media’s abuse of power is perhaps the most lethal weapon of all.

Melanie Phillips

Security Holes That Run Deep

Interesting discussion from SecurityFocus on some implementation details in ASP.NET (Microsoft's strategic web application serving platform) that have dramatic ramifications for its overall security posture.

The specific flaw Beaumont found was deceptively simple: by using a backslash instead of a forward slash you could access secure ASP.NET resources that normally required authentication. So, if accessing www.example.net/secure/private.aspx is supposed to require authentication, anyone who wants to could still access the file by entering the URL as www.example.net/secure\private.aspx (or using %5C instead of the backslash in IE). Even if you set NTFS permissions to block anonymous users from accessing the file, ASP.NET still allowed access. As simple as it was to exploit, the existence of the bug told us a lot about ASP.NET's basic security posture -- none of it good.: * ASP.NET was not always using NTFS permissions to enforce file access. * You can fool ASP.NET by disguising the file path. * ASP.NET did not properly filter URL requests. * ASP.NET authentication fails open rather than failing closed. ...The ASP.NET authorization code determines if the resource requires authentication or not by checking the configuration file of the current application, and looking for rules that match the requested URL. If the URL does not match any of those rules, it checks the configuration of the parent application for a match. If it still finds no match, it continues up to each parent application until it reaches the machine configuration. By default, the machine configuration allows anyone to access anything without authentication. This means that if you can disguise a URL so that it doesn't match any rule, you will eventually end up at the default rule that says there is no need to authenticate you to access this file. In other words, if ASP.NET thinks everyone is authorized to access the file, it won't bother running its authentication code to see if a particular user is authorized to have access. ASP.NET opens the file with the security context of the ASP.NET machine account (ASPNET), unless you specifically configure the application to use impersonation. Therefore it completely bypasses any NTFS permissions you might have set on the file...

Security Holes That Run Deep

Journalists Shouldn't be Cheerleaders

I know who I would pick to win a fight between a young Mailer, pictured at left, and a young Rumsfeld, below.

Hat tip: LGF...

It’s hardly a shocker that Norman Mailer could show up at a place like Cambridge, Mass., and win big applause with a speech attacking President Bush. After all, employees of Harvard University gave more money to John Kerry’s presidential campaign than people who work anywhere else (except the University of California). What made the standing ovation for the novelist so disappointing, though, was that it came from a great big pack of journalists. Claims of media bias were a major theme during this past election year - from Dan Rather’s doctored documents questioning Bush’s military service to a convention of minority journalists loudly cheering Kerry when he addressed them in August. But conservatives who want proof of their longstanding claims that the mainstream media harbor a liberal bias could do worse than ordering the audio recordings of the Cambridge conference that are on sale from its sponsor, Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. They would hear laughter and applause from reporters after Mailer said he wished he "was young enough to thrash" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and scattered applause when he claimed that it was not Jesus but "the devil who speaks to George Bush every night." Admittedly, some of the attendees were academics, publicists and students, so it’s hard to say who was laughing at which remark. But the thousand-member audience was dominated by freelance writers and editors and reporters from nearly every major paper in the country. None of the dozen people who stood up to question Mailer challenged any of his political assertions. And only a few failed to stand and applaud at the end of a speech that had characterized Bush as “lord of the quagmire” in Iraq. "I’m a newspaperman - these people don’t seem to understand what their role in society is," said Jack Hart, managing editor of the Portland Oregonian, which cosponsored the conference along with the Boston Globe and the Poynter Institute (which owns the St. Petersburg Times and Governing magazine, where I work). "It makes me very uncomfortable."

Journalists Shouldn't be Cheerleaders

THE WHIG HUT

The The Anagram Server is awesome (hat tip: Hugh Hewitt, whose anagram is the heading of this post).

The Nuke Trader

The Jersusalem Post reports (hat tip: LGF) more disturbing news about AQ Kahn. You'll remember Kahn as the ringleader of the Pyongyang/Tripoli/Islamabad nuclear parts network, which thrived for years under the Clinton administration and was exposed and dismantled once George W. Bush took office.

The implications of the latest revelations? Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia may have acquired some sort of nuclear weapons capability through Kahn. But that's not all. Intelligence sources also indicate serious terrorist efforts to acquire nukes:

Days after former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy expressed fears that Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia might have acquired some kind of nuclear capability via an illicit weapons trafficking network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief architect of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Israeli military sources have told The Jerusalem Post that, thanks to Khan, one of those three Arab states now has the potential to achieve a "significant nuclear leap." The sources said that Israel is aware of Khan's contacts with all three countries, but that he had provided to one of them expertise and material to manufacture nuclear bombs. They would not specify which country. The sources also spoke of an assessment in the IDF that Arab terrorist organizations are stepping up their efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs. They noted that there is now evidence of increased debate as to whether Islamic law could allow for the deaths of Muslims as part of the price when tens of millions of heathens are killed – a debate whose very nature, the sources said, implies that thought is being given to the notion of using weapons of mass destruction...

Jerusalem Post: The Nuke Trader

How the Left Betrayed my Country - Iraq

This article by Naseer Flayih Hasan has gravitas. Heft. Power. Emotion. Read the whole thing. Hat tip: Power Line.

Before the last war, we Iraqis spent decades cut off from the outside world. Not only did the Baathist regime prevent us from traveling during the Iran-Iraq conflict and the period of the sanctions, but they punished anyone possessing satellite television. And of course, internet access was strictly limited. Because of our isolation, most of us had little idea or sense about life beyond our borders. We did believe, however, that democracy and human rights were important factors in Western civilization. So it came as a shock to us when millions of people began demonstrating across the world against America’s build-up to the invasion of our country. We supposed the protests were by people who had no idea about the terrible atrocities that the regime had inflicted upon us for decades. We assumed that once they learned what had happened in Iraq, they would change their minds, or modify their opposition to the war... ...We came to understand how these "humanitarians" experienced a sort of pleasure when terrorists or former remnants of the regime created destruction in Iraq—just so they could feel that they were right, and the Americans wrong! Worse, we realized it was hopeless to make them grasp our feelings. We believed—and still believe--that America’s removal of the regime opened a new way for democracy. At the same time, we have no illusions that the U.S. came to Iraq on a white horse to save our people. We understand this war is all about national interests, and that America’s interests are mainly about defeating terrorism... ...I have become disillusioned, at least with the Leftists I met in Iraq. So noble in their rhetoric, they looked to the stars, yet ignored what was happening around them, caring only about what was inside their minds. So glorious in their ideals, their thoughts were inflexible and their deeds unnecessary, even harmful. In the end, they proved to me how dogma and fanaticism had transform peace activists into—lifeless peace "statues."

How the Left Betrayed my Country - Iraq

Iraqis Undeterred By Violence

Power Line:

We've said before that, with few exceptions, those who want to postpone the elections in Iraq are those who would prefer that they never take place at all. Haider Ajina adds further support for that view with this translation of poll results that appeared in the Iraqi Arabic newspaper Alsabaah this morning. The poll was of 4,974 Iraqis living in and around Baghdad: Will the security problems cause you to? Not come out and vote the day of elections = 18.3% Come out and vote the day of elections = 78.3% No opinion = 3.4% Do you support military action against the terrorists? Yes = 87.7 % No = 11.1% Don’t Know = 1.2% My guess is that the turnout in Iraq at the end of the month will exceed what we normally get in a Presidential election here in the U.S. If the terrorists aren't deterring the Iraqis, why should they deter us?

Power Line: Iraqis Undeterred By Violence

DEBKAfile: Saddam Hussein Speaks

The Israeli strategy and intelligence site Debka had an interesting, second-hand interview with Saddam Hussein based upon conversations with one of his attorneys. Topics covered included the ex-dictator's health; complaints about his American guards and the Red Cross; and his impressions of the war and postwar insurgency. Granted, it's hearsay, but worth reading nonetheless.

For me, the most interesting segment came at the end.

...When Duleimi [ed: his attorney] informed him that five million Iranians infiltrated Iraq in advance of the January 30 elections to register as voters, Saddam retorted: "This is nothing new as far as the Persian traitors are concerned. We always knew they wanted to grab southern Iraq and that this was the objective of the Badr Brigades. Now the Americans are discovering this for themselves." But, he added, in any case, the Americans and Allawi will not succeed in bringing the elections off. They will fail, he declared. Finally, the former Iraqi president said: “I fear for Syria. I warned Bashar Assad that the Americans had not only targeted Iraq, but Syria too.” DEBKAfile’s military sources add: Saddam Hussein touched inadvertently on the most burning issue between the Bush administration and Iraq’s interim prime minister Iyad Alawi. Ever since the December 21 suicide attack on the US forward base in Mosul, when 22 Americans were killed, Allawi has been urging Washington to launch attacks from Iraq on points in Syria – singling out military locations known to intelligence as bases used to assist and train terrorists preparatory to their infiltration of Iraq. The Iraqi prime minister believes that without military action against Syria, three key goals will remain out of reach: 1. A general election on January 30 orderly enough to be a success. 2. An effective deterrent to Tehran’s meddling in Iraq. 3. Victory in the war against the guerrillas. Sunday, January 2, US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage arrives in Damascus with a final warning from Washington. The Syrian ruler will be informed that the administration is closer than ever before to acceding to Allawi’s demand.

DEBKAfile: Saddam Hussein Speaks

Half the Story

In propagandizing the "Iraq = Vietnam" meme, some in the mainstream press have forgotten one teensy, tiny detail. Our side (we'll call them the good guys) are fighting for a Democratic government against extremist, suicidal Islamofascists who would like nothing better than to kill Americans (and for that matter, anyone who is not their co-religionist), either here or abroad. Nothing to do with the situation is similar to that in Vietnam, and the sooner the MSM picks up on that fact, the better for everyone. You'd think their arthritic circulation numbers would have provided the hint.

Haider Ajina sent us this translation of an article that appeared today in the Iraqi Arabic newspaper Nahrain: A press release by the Iraqi ministry of defense. 1. At 1 am Iraqi National Guard (ING), the Mahmudih division, arrested 217 individuals suspected of being terrorists and confiscated a large cache of light and heavy caliber weapons and ammunition. 2. At 2 am the same ING division arrested Hatem Alzobaae, a suspected terrorist cell leader. 3. At 2:30 am ING in Hillah arrested the terrorist Ali Mehsan Ghnajar. In his possession were 19 grenades, three 28mm mortars. 4. At 4 am, based on a tip that he had returned from Syria, the criminal Ali Latief was arrested by the ING. Four men who are part of his cell were also arrested. 5. At 4 am 10 terrorists were arrested after returning from Mosul by the ING Mahmudiah division. 6. At 4 am ING raided the Hai Alaskari area based on a tip. As a result of the raid the ING arrested 10 terrorists one of which resisted and was wounded and arrested. 7. At 4 am terrorists attacked the Hadbaa police station and were repelled with 2 terrorists killed and their weapons confiscated. 8. At 5 am ING started a security clean sweep of Bab Shams. They confiscated a large number of hand grenades and mortar weapons and rounds. Haider adds these comments: I keep seeing more and more of this type of terrorist cleansing activity. What is more interesting is that the Iraqi National Guard is more and more active in these arrests. I have also noticed that more and more actions based on tips are being reported. Check your local newspaper tomorrow morning and see whether these successes by the Iraqi National Guard have been reported. Then ask yourself whether any successful terrorist attack, whether via car bomb, attack on a police station, kidnapping, or whatever, has ever gone unreported in your local paper. Then ask your local paper why half of the story is missing.

Powerline: Half the Story

Of Car Bombs and Spectrometers

There's something that's been eating away at me regarding the security situation in Iraq. Too many good people are being killed or maimed by car bombs in Iraq. I'm definitely no physicist, but doesn't it seem feasible to position spectrometer-based sensors on major intersections in the Sunni triangle to detect these fascists?

Heck, maybe this already exists. But, if so, it would be good to hear about some successful interceptions (or, as I like to call them, "premature detonations") of car bombers.

Use the Comments feature, below, if you have an idea why this is so difficult to achieve.

Fave Blog Moment '04: Hugh Hewitt, Calm in the Storm

This is probably a bit esoteric, but one of my favorite blog moments was election day. Specifically, when the exit polls were pointing towards a stunning Kerry victory.

What the heck was happening? How could that be?

More than anyone else, Hugh Hewitt provided the calming rally point first; marshalling the forces of good through his insistence that the exit poll data was bogus.

The facts rolled in and PoliPundit and others provided the quantitative basis for disputing the polls.

On that day, Hewitt, PoliPundit, and others demonstrated the mettle that only true leaders possess. The calming influence they exerted may very well have turned the tide in Ohio.

I'll explain the picture... I simply did a Google image search for "Hewitt" and that's what I came up with. Odds are that's Jennifer Love and not Hugh.

Whither Old Media?

PoliPundit has the answer.

In a nutshell: catastrophic losses in readership for newspapers. And the demographic trends must truly be frightening. Younger readers are ignoring newspapers in ever greater numbers.

Where are readers turning? You know the answer as well as I. Blogs.

Study: Blog creation, readership jumped in ’04

Ocean's Twelve

I saw Ocean's Twelve a couple of days ago and was, as most critics were, very underwhelmed. All that talent and so little story. Let's count the plot devices, many of which were flimsier than Scott Peterson's alibi...

Warning: spoiler alert!

Skip to the next section (in which I rewrite the plot of Ocean's Twelve) if you have not, and intend to, see the current movie. These are the things that really, really pissed me off about the screenplay:

1) Okay, so how does the Nightfox steal the priceless, incredibly well-protected treasure from antiquity, the Faberge Egg? Yes, that's right - he dances over randomly oscillating "laser beams" using a combination of yoga moves and Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning exercises. Let's not even mention that this plot device is a recurring theme in Catherine Zeta-Jones movies, given that she used an identical set of moves in the stunningly underwhelming Entrapment. That's it. The entire Nightfox plan for stealing the egg. And it works! Oh, and let's not even get into the nom de guerre of Nightfox. Let's just say that David Hasselhoff and the Chevrolet Camaro factory are considering separate lawsuits.

2) In a matter of two days' time, Ocean's team (a) acquires six (6) huge, highly sophisticated, computer-controlled hydraulic jacks (that, by the way, must be capable of operating underwater); (b) installs said jacks underneath a house in Amsterdam in pitch black water; and (c) commandeers a submarine -- in the middle of downtown Amsterdam, mind you -- from which to coordinate the house lifting operation. Uhmm, how about using a f**king ladder on the rooftop to get the bow angle they need... instead of jacking the house up? I guess jacking the house up was... easier?

3) Julia Roberts playing Tess, who then pretends to be Julia Roberts? Bruce Willis playing Bruce Willis? 'Nuff said. I know many reviewers picked on this outrageous escape valve, claiming that it was effective as a 12-foot sailboat in a hurricane. Or that it was an "egregious, ineffective plot device that highlighted the writers' complete lack of ability and creativity". Okay, maybe they didn't say any of that, but they should have said it... and worse.

I could go on... but, thankfully, I won't. What I will do, dear reader, is tell you how I would have plotted Ocean's Twelve. So sit right back and you'll hear a tale... a tale of a fateful robbery...

Ocean's Twelve: the Remake

Terry Benedict has never forgotten the humiliating and monstrously large theft at his casinos. It tarred his reputation, diminished his ego, and made him, for a time, the laughingstock of the casino industry.

His minions have been searching for Daniel Ocean for months, offering an immense reward to those who might provide information on his whereabouts. Knowing Ocean's central weakness - a propensity for "visiting" high-end jewelry stores -- Benedict's team mass mails every jewelry store in the country with a flyer of Ocean and an offer of reward: one million dollars.

Sure enough, Ocean is spotted perusing diamond earrings in Tiffany's at Copley Plaza in Boston. Benedict's goons grab Tess and hold her as ransom while a startling ultimatum is delivered to Danny: repay the stolen money, with interest, in six months' time. Otherwise, Tess is toast and Benedict will track down the entire team -- and their families -- and kill them all. Their total tab? $190 million.

Ocean assembles his original team... even Sol, who realizes that his beloved wife may pay the ultimate price for his crimes. But it is Rusty (Brad Pitt) who has the best idea. It evolved as he courted Amsterdam's leading stolen art detective, Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Amsterdam is home, of course, to the world-famous Van Gogh museum, which possesses many of Van Gogh's finest works. Rusty knows the ins and outs of not only the museum, but also the identity of a mysterious Japanese art collector willing to pay for the entire Van Gogh collection. The amount? How does a quarter of a billion dollars sound? Best of all, there are... no questions asked.

An escrow account is arranged with the Japanese principal. And the meticulous planning, a hallmark of Danny Ocean, begins. The heist itself is a doozy: the Van Gogh museum possesses triply redundant security systems and two completely independent teams of security guards. The latter team is a quick-react force possessing all the tactical equipment of a major city SWAT team, including night vision.

There are perimeter alarms at every door and entry-way... motion detectors... pressure-sensitive switches... and even infrared sensors that can detect body temperature changes through the museum. All must be dealt with.

Ocean dispatches two members of his team to Las Vegas; they are tasked with filming the faces of Benedict's key security personnel and gaining access to Benedict's personal safety deposit box at the Belaggio.

He also sends two of the team to the Rembrandt House, Amsterdam's premiere historical venue, to perform reconaissance. The Rembrandt House was home to the immortal Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn and his wife Saskia from 1639 to 1658; this is where the master painted some of his most memorable works, including "The Night Watch".

On the critical night, a burglar alarm and a fire alarm both go off at the Rembrandt House, occupying the Fire and Police departments. During the hullabaloo, three police cruisers pull up at the back entrance of the Van Gogh Museum. The police officers alert the security guards to the ongoing emergency at the Rembrandt house and gain access to the museum. And then they take over, handcuffing the security guards and stripping the place clean of Van Gogh's works.

As far as the security cameras are concerned, Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) has seamlessly spliced the facial images of Benedict's goons on the museum's security tapes using advanced, computer-generated imaging. Ocean also anonymously alerts the authorities to the fact that a stolen Van Gogh painting is in Benedict's personal safe at the Bellagio.

Closing scene: Terry Benedict is led off in handcuffs, with bail certain to be denied by the man who orchestrated the theft of dozens of Van Goghs. With Benedict behind bars, Ocean's Twelve is now safe and sound. And, oh by the way, in possession of $250 million. Roll credits!