February 21, 2004

Policy Disputes Over Hunt Paralyzed Clinton's Aides

Between 1998 and 2000, the CIA and President Bill Clinton's national security team were caught up in paralyzing policy disputes as they secretly debated the legal permissions for covert operations against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Typical Clintonista WaPo claptrap in which they try to lay the blame on the CIA and not where it properly belongs--on Bill Clinton.
Check out the closing paragraph:

Some CIA managers chafed at the White House instructions. The CIA received "no written word nor verbal order to conduct a lethal action" against bin Laden before Sept. 11, one official involved recalled. "The objective [under the Clinton Administration] was to render this guy to law enforcement." In these operations, the CIA had to recruit agents "to grab [bin Laden] and bring him to a secure place where we can turn him over to the FBI. . . . If they had said 'lethal action' it would have been a whole different kettle of fish, and much easier."

William Jefferson Blythe, clearly one of the most ineffectual presidents in our history, as well as it most immoral, was perpetually hampered by overcerebration, overemphasis on the handling of international terrorism and murder as an intellectual exercise, complete dependence on popularity polls, and most of all, his innate loathing of the military which resulted in his consequent inability to deploy our forces properly as Command in Chief.
Thank Heaven we now have a President who is his complete opposite!
Not only have we bagged Saddam, 45 of the 55 Most Wanted of the Iraqi criminals and 2/3 of Al Queda leadership, but there have been increasingly frequent reports in the past few weeks, that we're closing the net on Osama (if he's still alive) in the mountainous badlands of eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan.
Good Hunting to the US military and thank God for President Bush, a President who has the political will to get the murderer Osama!

President and Mrs. Bush's Dog Spot Passes On
I am so saddened by this.
Dear Spotty...never more than a few feet away from President Bush's side for all of her 15 years.
And poor President Bush--after the bashing he's been taking the last few weeks from his nasty political enemies to lose this beloved friend and companion!
I know Spot is in Dog Heaven, chasing tennis balls in peace and happiness, awaiting the day when the President is once again by her side in Paradise.
Update: Some nice residents of Crawford, Texas have put together a Condolence page which you can sign and/or read with a message of sympathy for the Bush family on their loss.
It's easy to understand that Spot wasn't just the Bushes' dog but was really America's dog and we hope she's having endless fun with the other furry creatures up in Heaven (whom we've had to part with), playing with the best toys and enjoying the best eats!

Arnold Orders AG to Stop Gay Marriages

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the state's attorney general to take legal action to put an end to San Francisco's granting of marriage licenses to gay couples.

Schwarzenegger's directive to Attorney General Bill Lockyer was sparked in part by a judge's decision on Friday not to impose a temporary restraining order that would have halted San Francisco's weeklong parade of 3,175 same-sex weddings, said Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's communications director.

"Our civilized society and legal system is based upon a respect for and adherence to the rule of law," Schwarzenegger wrote in a letter to Lockyer. "The City and County of San Francisco's unfortunate choice to disregard state law and grant marriage certificates to gay couples directly undermines this fundamental guarantee."

The Republican governor "feels that we've come to a point where we're starting down a dangerous path and it leads to anarchy at some point," Stutzman said. "It's time for this to end."
[...]
Mathew Staver, a lawyer representing the Campaign for California Families, said he believes the court ultimately will find that Newsom acted illegally when he began allowing gay marriages last week.

"He can't decide to grant same-sex marriage licenses any more than he can declare war against a foreign country," Staver said.

Again, thank God that somebody put a stop to this nightmare out there on the Left Coast!
(And exploiting this on Valentine's Day, too. As if the "Vagina Monologues" dealie wasn't bad enough!)
Gov. Schwartzenhegger is quite right: leaving the "OK-ness" of gay marriage aside, if US city mayor and state judges are allowed to disregard standing laws, such as that against marriage in California between anyone who is not a biological male and a female of the age of consent and not related which was voted on by referendum when Proposition 22 was passed in 2000, then what's to say that any and every law of the 50 states or federal law can't be "defied" and broken?
It's a very slippery slope and the Left knows this only too well.
It is revolting and outrageous that these marrying homosexuals claim as a justification that they are being treated as "second class citizens" because they're barred from matrimony and that they compare their situation to the racial civil rights movement.
People of color everywhere should be disgusted.
None of the gay people I know suffer in any way from being "denied" their rights as American citizens because they're not "married."
And that crap about marrying for the "economic benefits" is just that, crap.
Here in Texas (which has a reputation for not being all that progressive), gays and unmarried people of whatever sex can get a mortgage and secure insurance benefits, which includes full participation in medical treatment of a "partner."
As for "inheritance," just leave a will leaving it all to your "lover," you morons!
Gay activists and their enablers on the Left won't stop with just these civil licenses; this is a 2-pronged attack on both the church and the state.
As you're no doubt aware, the assault on Christian marriage began a few months ago with the ordination of that gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Clearly, the Left is working to get both civil marriage and religious marriage for homosexuals as a "right" and as a Sacrament in this country.
The end goal for them is the nullification and eventual aboliton of marriage altogether or "anything goes," if you will.
I didn't want to pay attention to this because I think all of this "gay stuff" is just too awful, but this all started with the Supreme Court knocking down that Texas sodomy law.
IOW, Justice Antonin Scalia was right in his dissenting opinion.
If the United States is to remain a good and just country, with some kind of standard of Judeao-Christian morality as its foundation--which has never failed this country yet--it must protect and retain laws like the ones in all 50 states against gay marriage (or more specifically, the ones that don't mention gay marriage because no legislator before now had envisioned such a travesty).
Because of the visibility and relentless activitism of gay marriage advocates, we all will probably have to make a Defense of Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution as President Bush has indicated to head off the "full faith and credit" tactic of gay activists (meaning, if gay marriage is allowed in one state, like Massachusetts, the other 49 states constitutionally have to recognize those marriages).
Fine by me--I'll vote for it.
I was sort of ambivalent about it before all these San Francisco ceremonies in my effort to have a "live and let live" philosophy about it.
But I can see that that's not going to be enough.
Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.
This problem is the same as the one we've had with abortion (not civil rights, as they claim): Roe v. Wade and it's aftermath haven't been about giving women a choice to have a legal abortion. Oh, no. Abortion advocates weren't happy until they had secured the "right" to partial birth abortion, giving woman the "choice" to abort their "foetus" right up until (and including) the moment of its birth based on nothing more than the mother's "mental state" at the time, which is nothing less than child murder.
Mercifully, President Bush has now banned this barbaric practice.
America has plenty of tolerance for its homosexual citizens--they live rich, full lives already and are able to participate fully in realizing the American dream.
When homosexuals are thrown off cliffs and executed for their "sinful" lifestyles, as they are in Muslim societies, then gay activists can carry on about "discrimination."
But not here. Not now.
Stop the Insanity and Viellen Danke, Arnold!

Red Cross Visits Saddam for First Time
This makes me furious!
When the Red Cross "mishandled" all those millions we gave to the 9/11 victims' families (and yes, I was one of them), it was bad enough, but now this.
Why couldn't the ICRC be bothered to visit all those thousands of prisoners Saddam put away during his years in power?
They musta been so busy...
And why is it the Red Cross (the Christian organization) and not the Red Crescent (their Muslim counterpart) that is going to all the trouble?
The ICRC knows full well that the U.S. is treating Saddam just fine: they made this empty gesture in a vain attempt to get some dirt on our "appalling mistreatment" of this thoroughly evil mass murderer.
As we used to say in the days of the Old West here in Texas: "Hanging's too good for him!"

February 19, 2004

Iran's conservative clerics urged voters not to boycott Friday's widely criticized elections, which hard-liners look sure to win and bring an end to President Mohammad Khatami's struggle to reform the Islamic Republic.

Leading reformist parties pulled out of the parliamentary polls after thousands of candidates were disqualified. Disenchantment with Khatami's failure to realize reforms during seven years as president means many voters are likely simply to stay at home, handing victory to conservatives.

"I won't be voting and everyone I talk to says the same," said Mohsen, 44, a retired military engineer from poor south Tehran. "They (politicians) just talk but they haven't done anything for the people. They only think about themselves."

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, whose surprise choice for the 2003 peace prize shone a global spotlight on the drive for human rights in Iran, said this week she would back the boycott campaign and stay away from the polling booths.

Reformists accuse Islamic hard-liners of rigging Friday's parliamentary polls to ensure a conservative majority by barring more than 2,500 mostly reformist candidates from the ballot.
[...]
A hardline win could stop in its tracks a seven-year experiment to reform the 25-year-old Islamic state that saw lively political debate and some relaxation of strict social codes in the oil-producing nation of 66 million people.
[...]
In what many reformers fear could be a sign of things to come, the hardline judiciary on Thursday sealed the campaign headquarters of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, led by Khatami's brother, and blocked access to its news Web Site.
[...]
Two of the most outspoken reformist newspapers were closed on Wednesday for daring to report an unprecedented scathing open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by dozens of the reformist lawmakers banned from Friday's poll.
[...]
Criticizing the absolute Islamic leader is an offence, and the Supreme National Security Council had ordered newspapers not to report the six-page letter in which deputies accused Khamenei of presiding over a system that trampled on people's rights.

Oh, Lord have mercy.
I think this situation in Iran is just tragic, but sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.
Keep the Iranian people on your prayer list--they are the ones who are really suffering.
While it's difficult to discern what's really going on in Iran and to know what to believe of what we read in the news, the general tenor of what we hear and know is pretty dismal, which leads me to believe that the whole truth is likely worse.
These Iranian elections are clearly a farce: if you vote for reform and for your rights, nothing much changes and if you don't vote, you get the same result.
Perhaps many Iranians are staying away from the polls tomorrow because they realize that even if they voted, it wouldn't matter to the mullahs.
Clearly, the Islamic rule of the mullahs needs to end.
We can hope and pray for the people to revolt, but I don't have any idea if that's probable or even possible.
Like their old neighboring rulers the Taliban and Saddam, the mullahs have everyone under lockdown in a vicious police state.
I am worried both about Iran's nukes and about the human rights violations of her citizens.
Stay alert, pray and hope for the best.
I am certain that Iran is overdue for a régime change, but how or when that will happen, only God knows.
Let's just pray and hope that when it comes, it will be effected with minumum violence and loss of life.
On a final note, I hope the Bush-bashers and haters here are paying attention to what happens to those who criticize the government in Iran (prison, torture, and often death) and how lucky they are when they can lie about, carp, whine, disrespect and trash President Bush and do it in all our major papers and TV stations almost 24/7. (Yes, this is a great, great country!)
And I also hope that Americans will be reminded that here, your vote does count and that voting is really your duty as a citizen the next time you're tempted to sit home because your vote "doesn't matter."

Dutch to expel thousands of asylum seekers

The Dutch government was in no mood to back down yesterday after pushing through legislation that provides for the mass expulsion of more than 20,000 failed asylum seekers.
    The governing center-right coalition has blocked all moves to soften the bill, passed Tuesday in the face of outraged howls from church and human rights groups.
    Under the law, the first of its kind in Europe, children reared in the Netherlands and settled refugees with stable jobs will be uprooted and deported as the government attempts to clear a years-old asylum backlog in one "clean sweep."
    About 26,000 rejected asylum seekers who arrived in the Netherlands before April 1, 2001, and have exhausted all appeals will be stripped of their asylum benefits and put on aircraft to go back home.

These include Afghans, Somalis and Chechens[Basically Islamist societies all. Isn't that an interesting coincidenc?--Jen] facing civil wars or life in regions with no functioning government.
    The Christian Democrat-led government has granted an amnesty for 2,300 asylum seekers considered to face the gravest risks if they return home. The Labor Party opposition had demanded amnesty for 8,000.
    Human Rights Watch accused the country of failing to consider "evidence of integration" into Dutch society and of violating the international Convention on the Rights of the Child.
[Contrary to what HRW says, these immigrants have not integrated into Dutch society for the most part and show no sign of doing so in the future.--J.T.]

 The Dutch Council of State ruled two years ago that the convention does not apply to children of immigrants who have no right to residence in the Netherlands, a move widely branded a "dangerous precedent."
[I think that we here in the USA are more than familiar with this phenomenon!]
    Although the mass deportation has horrified the moderate-left enclaves of Amsterdam and Utrecht, it has been well received in working-class areas most threatened by rising unemployment.
    The law goes beyond the rhetoric of conservative politician Pim Fortuyn, who argued before his assassination two years ago that foreigners already living in the country should be allowed to stay.

Critics said the law would prove unenforceable because international rules prevent states from deporting refugees who have no documents, or who lie about their origin.
[Contrary to the beliefs of the Left, the world has no "international rules." Compliance with any global conventions or treaties is totally at the whim and the good will to cooperate of the offending party the world body in question goes after, viz. the ICJ and Israel over their fence.]
    The Justice Ministry conceded that many would have to be let loose on Dutch streets if they refused to accept a free flight home and a repatriation cash bonus after a two-month stint in a deportation center.
[Oh, brother. This is still going to cost the Dutch plenty!--Jen]
    "They will become illegal immigrants without any right to benefits. There is nothing else we can do," said a spokesman, acknowledging that they could be drawn into the criminal underworld.
[...]

Nearly 19 percent of the Dutch population of 16 million is of foreign stock, with sizable contributions from Turkey (340,000), Suriname[former Dutch Guiana] (320,000) and Morocco (295,000), according to Agence France-Presse.

New asylum applications have fallen steeply from 43,560 in 2000 to an estimated 10,000 in the past year, but the scale of past immigration -- mostly through family reunion -- has stirred fears that Dutch society is spiraling out of control.
    A parliamentary report last month concluded that the country's 30-year experiment in tolerant multiculturalism had been a failure, and has resulted in poor schools, violence, and ethnic ghettoes that shun intermarriage with the Dutch.

It found that 70 percent to 80 percent of third-generation Dutch-born immigrants imported their spouses from their "home" countries, mostly Turkey and Morocco.
The consequences of this were brought home after September 11, 2001, when the intelligence service discovered that terror network al Qaeda was "stealthily taking root in Dutch society."
    Immigrants make up almost 50 percent of the population of Rotterdam. Once a Labor stronghold, the city became the launching pad for Mr. Fortuyn's mass movement, which drew from the left as well as the right, warning that radical Islam posed a threat to the Netherlands' easygoing liberal values.

How do you say "Bravo" (or more correctly "Bravi") in Dutch?
This is a very courageous move on the part of the Dutch government and one that we can only hope will be imitated by the other European countries (except, of course, France, where they busy themselves futzing over Muslim headscarves).
I'm sure that the Dutch don't like to think of themselves as cruel, intolerant or mean, but they're doing what they have to do to save their country and their culture.
Just as we here are now facing doing something about America's illegal immigrants.
There's just no getting around the cold, hard fact that the entire world changed drastically on 9/11/01 and what we would put up with before that dark day is acceptable no longer.
Hard times demand hard choices.
The immigration problem is rather worse in Europe because they have millions of these Muslim immigrants from the failed societies of the Middle East, Africa and Asia and of course, they aren't separated by an ocean from most of them, but are attainable by land travel.
(Although I once was on an almost empty KLM flight from Cairo to Amsterdam that stopped in Turkey on the way and filled up with migrant workers going to work in Holland.)
These Muslim immigrants don't integrate, don't learn Dutch or embrace much else of Dutch culture.
Many live on "welfare" and don't work, because the multiculti socialist Nanny State they embraced for decades was set up that way.
The Netherlands is facing the same depressing demographics that the rest of Europe is: the average age of a large bloc of their citizens is approaching retirement, the cost of their many benefits like nationalized medicine is rising, while tax revenue from the younger working population is declining.
I'm proud of the Dutch for realizing that the situation wasn't getting any better and was probably going to get worse, so they're doing the right, painful thing to rectify the situation.
As for their contribution to America, they're not only vital participants in our Allied Coalition, but if this immigration reform is actually carried out, Holland will be one less place in Europe and the world where radical Islamists can stir up jihad, radicalize Muslim moderates, plot and plan terror attacks and set up IslamoNazi sleeper cells.

Weather forecasting, banned by Taliban, makes a comeback in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's weather office is still strewn with rubble from the day Taliban supporters sacked it and put an end to weather forecasting, a science they considered sorcery.

The main floor of the Afghanistan Meteorological Authority is filled with smashed equipment and charred sheets of paper, the remains of 100 years of weather records. In his office two floors up, Abdul Qadeer, head of the country's weather forecasting agency, explains that he is still reeling from the day in 1996 when Taliban decreed he could deliver today's weather, but not the forecast for tomorrow.

"They were allergic to the word 'prediction,' " Qadeer said of the Taliban's extreme interpretation of Islam.

"They said God only knows prediction, only God knows these things. We tried to explain that meteorology is not prediction, that it is forecast based on science. It didn't work."

This epitomizes how crazy, backward and primitive the Taliban culture (and any of the other Islamist/Islamic cultures) truly is.
I read that during the '90's, Saudi Arabia sponsored 2 astronauts on one of those commercial space missions for the purpose of determining--once and for all--if the world was flat.
I kid you not.
Something tells me that they weren't believed when they got back to Riyahd.
Is it any wonder the Islamic world stays mired in the 7th Century with their "if Allah wills it" philosophy?

February 18, 2004

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism Security

Hundreds of tons of explosives bound for Taleban in Kandahar believed aboard the train whose explosion killed at least 300 Iranians and destroyed five villages Wednesday.

I've been pretty sceptical of DEBKAFile in the past, but the world has gotten to be such a dangerous, wild place, especially since 9/11, that what used to seem "far-fetched" to me now seems plausible.
And I think they've been right a lot recently in the past year or so, as well.
Needless to say, when I heard what this train was carrying--fertilizer, gasoline, etc.--I thought "multi-unit rolling truck bomb" right off, so when I saw this Debka item, the explosives story made perfect sense.
The report goes on to suggest that this conflagration may have been the result of sabotage by Sunni Afghan refugees who wanted to get back at Iranian Shi'ite persecution and I think I suspected a hint that Debka believes U.S. Special Forces might have lent a helping hand (?).
With the death toll now at 300, it appears that many of the dead were Iran's Finest, firefighters, who went to put out the explosion.
May God (or Allah, if their families prefer) rest their souls.
Horrible.
The mullahs' day of reckoning is fast approaching.
With the parliamentary election only 2 days away, this will not help them.
I am sorry that so many innocent Iranians were killed, but if this train was filled with explosives to be used to kill and maim Coalition forces and our Afghan allies, then I'm not sorry the train of terror never made it to its destination.

Report: Gaza pullout only after US Presidential elections

Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of the settlements there will most likely take place after the US Presidential election in November, Army Radio reported a senior unnamed government official as saying Wednesday.

The source said that Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan might raise some difficult political issues for US President George W. Bush – from both Democrats and parts of the US Jewish community.
[...]
Senior Israeli diplomatic officials said the administration wants to ensure that whatever Israel is planning in terms of disengagement remains within the overall parameters of the road map and President George W. Bush's June 2002 speech calling for a viable, democratic Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The official said the US wants to ensure that the plan includes disengagement lines that will enable the establishment of a contiguous state, as Bush called for in his speech.

The officials said the US delegation is interested in giving US input before the plan is crystallized. There is speculation that the delegation will press Israel to put off implementation of any Gaza withdrawal until after the November US presidential elections, out of the fear that implementation could lead to a major Mideast crisis that Bush does not need on his watch just prior to an election.
[...]
The Yediot Ahronot daily said Sharon supports a quick, full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including a military pullout. Sharon is leaning toward leaving the settlements intact and handing them over to an international body that would distribute the homes and infrastructure to the Palestinians, the paper said.
[...]

"We are not making moves which are not fully in cooperation with the American administration," he said. "Israel is very careful to be attuned to Washington, our only real allies in the world."

Israelis know who their real friends are--the U.S.A. and President George W. Bush.
May God continue to bless both of our nations!

Meanwhile, back at the "Palestinian" ranch,
the current PM Queria is already seeing the need for "foreign peacekeepers" (either of the EU or the UN, I presume) in the new, independent Palestine that will be created upon the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Great plan, Ahmed! Then, *they* can be the new "occupiers" and we'll all be off to the races again.
As usual, neither Queria, Arafish or any other Paleostinian spokesman had anything to say about their part of the road map deal, i.e. ending Islamist terror.
Between the clueless Dimocrats and the murderous Paleostinians (separated at birth?), it's going to be a long 9 months until Nov. 3 election.
God help both Israel and America if the Democrat candidate wins: we'll need it badly.

Japan, Iran 'near oil deal'

Japan and Iran are nearing agreement on a major oil deal, Japan's government spokesman and media reports have said.

The pact would grant Japan full development rights to Iran's Azadegan oil field, which has been under negotiation for more than two years.

Japan, the world's second biggest oil importer, wants to diversify its energy supplies and alleviate concerns about its reliance on sources in the Gulf.

Agreement has been delayed by US concerns about Iran's nuclear plans.

Azadegan has 26bn barrels of estimated reserves, making it one of the world's largest potential oil developments.

Japan has been keen to reach agreement on developing Azedegan to meet its long term energy needs, and reduce its reliance on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which accounted for nearly two thirds of Japan's oil imports in 2001.

On top of everything else that's going on, this makes me nervous!
(Let's not forget that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was partly "retaliation" for an oil embargo we placed on Japan.)
Now that Japan has re-militarized, it's certainly a bad time for them to do business with a member of the Axis of Evil.
And why fight the jihadis in Iraq (as they're doing for their part in the Coalition) while getting in bed with their IslamoNazi brethren in Iran?
I hope that President Bush and President Koziumi still have their productive relationship, because this is not a good move.
There are plenty of other countries in the world, besides Iran (and SA and the UAE) that have vast oil reserves, like Canada, Mexico or even Vietnam!
The last thing the Iranian mullahs need now is another nation-state sugar daddy, aligning Japan to be to Iran what France and Russia were to Saddam's Iraq.

I did a spit take when I saw these and I bet you will, too!
Check out the others (yes, there are other Edwards "posters"
and they're ruder!) here:Allah Is In The House

If you haven't discovered the Allah's in the House blog, you're in for a delightful, if somewhat initially jarring, experience;
he may not be the "One True God" but he "akbar's" in the satire department!
(I am sick that Howie Dean's out if only because Allah's "coverage" of Dean-O's campaign was hilarious. "Bush knew!")
May peace, blessings and infinite LOLs be upon him!
DNC Chair Terry McAwful really oughtta call Allah. Seriously.

Pakistani leader rejects nuclear inspections, promises missile test

Pakistan would never allow foreign inspectors to monitor its nuclear facilities and has no intention of freezing its nuclear or missile programmes, President Pervez Musharraf said.

This is very, very, very bad news.
May I scream?

What is Pervez up to???
And why have talks with India about settling the Kashmir dispute when you intend to pump up the volume on your saber rattling???
Musharraf is practically daring President Bush to open up a fresh can of whoop ass!
Now is therefore the perfect time to blog about Bernard Henri-Lévy's excellent piece on the Pakistani nuke problem in yesterday's WSJ.
Make sure you read the whole thing, but here's some of the relevant parts about Musharraf:
Abdul Qadeer Khan:
We've not yet seen all the fallout from Pakistan's nuclear proliferation.

We will find that, since Pakistan is steered by the iron hand of its secret service and its army, it is inconceivable that Khan operated alone without orders or cover....
[...]... To put it simply and disconcertingly: Pakistan's nuclear weapons need to be secured. They cannot--will not--be secured by Pakistan alone.
[...]
But we must not shift our gaze from the president [Musharraf] himself, whose knowledge of Khan's dark machinations no one in Islamabad doubts, and who, at the very moment of his confounding, celebrated Khan once more as a "hero."
[...]

And at last, sooner or later, we will come to the real secret: that of al Qaeda; and of Khan's links to Lashkar-e-Toiba, the fundamentalist terrorist group at the heart of al Qaeda; and the fact that this "mad scientist" is first of all mad about God, a fanatical Islamist who in his heart and soul believes that the bomb of which he is the father should belong, if not to the Umma itself, at least to its avant-garde, as incarnated by al Qaeda. So let us not shrink from measuring the probability of a nightmare scenario: to wit, a Pakistani state which--in the shelter of its alliance with an America that is decidedly not counting inconsistencies--could furnish al Qaeda with the means to take the ultimate step of its jihad.

How much time will it take for all this to be said? How much longer will Islamabad's masquerade endure? Next month the American Congress will vote on the question of three billion dollars in aid to Pakistan: Will this aspect of things be taken into account? Will demands be made, at last, in exchange for this aid, for inspections of Pakistani sites, as well as the installation of a double-key system--a system that some of us here in Europe have been calling for?
How timely M. Bernard-Lévy's remarks look a mere day later.
So now you know how this situation's shaping up and what we all need to do:
Write your Congressperson and Senators NOW and demand that this $3 billion in aid NOT be granted to Pakistan if they persist in their proliferation!

Election 2004 Presidential Tracking Poll
I found this at The Drudge Report, where else?!
Matt notes that Kerry's previous lead over the incumbent president fell by 6 points in 24 hours! Woo-Hoo!
You don't think the drop has anything do with that wonderful, terrible "rumor" Drudge was airing about Kerry having an affair with an AP intern young enough to be his granddaughter, do you?
Even without a dalliance with Miss Pollier, Kerry sucks the big poison weenie(™ Bill Quick) on all fronts--his Senate record, his past activities like war protesting with Hanoi Jane and taking Chinese campaign cash in the late '90's, his other sexual forays including marrying heiresses, and just general all-around sleaziness!
Plus, I don't like the way he looks or talks!
So there.<----sticking out tongue
(As if I wouldn't vote for President Bush again and would actually consider a Dimocrat, particularly a Dim like Kerry who's so far Left, he makes Clinton look like a "centrist.")

Blair set for 'big three' talks

Tony Blair is to hold a mini summit with his French and German counterparts on Wednesday, amid criticism from other European Union nations.

Boosting job prospects and economic growth will dominate the meeting between the UK prime minister, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin.
[And, of course, what the BBC doesn't mention is that Joint EU "Defense Force" which would be in potential opposition to NATO.--Jen]

They want to get the EU on course for its target of being the world's most competitive knowledge economy by 2010.
[Good luck with that. Britain might make strides, but with California leading France now and Germany being drug downby the former East German "republic," combined with their gloomy demographics, I wouldn't bet on it.]

But some EU countries fear the three will decide policies among themselves.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has claimed any efforts by the trio to dictate to the rest would cause a mess.

Portugal is among those saying the group should only make suggestions, not decisions.
[...]
On Tuesday evening, Mr Berlusconi said: "Europe doesn't need any directorate. It's just a big mess.
[Viva Silvio! He rulz!]

"This is my opinion which is completely shared by other European countries, with the exception of the three countries involved."
[...]
The summit is also likely to underline the trio's desire to cap EU spending at 1% of nations' GDP.

That is at odds with the European Commission's proposal to raise the budget when 10 new countries join the union later this year.

Poor Tony. He does fine when he acts on the global stage (particularly as the US's ally in the WOT) and he seems to love democracy, but his faith and dedication to the dream of transnational progressivism, which is just tarted up Socialism/Marxism, just won't cease and he's deluded in his perception that these "Big 3" can make that a reality for the EU.
Pity.
There's nothing in this triumvirate for Britain but "blood, sweat, tears and toil," to quote his most distinguished fellow PM Winston Churchill.
Oh, yeah and money. Lots of money. Jacques and Gerry Schroeder's favorite thing.

ARNIE URGES END TO GAY-WED BLITZ

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last night called for San Francisco to terminate its ongoing gay-marriage marathon.

"Californians spoke on the issue of same-sex marriage when they overwhelmingly approved California's law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. I support that law, and I encourage San Francisco officials to obey that law," the former actor said.

It was the first time Schwarzenegger weighed in on the controversy since San Francisco's new mayor last week ordered city officials to lift the ban on gay marriages there, a move that openly defies the state's Proposition 22.

Schwarzenegger has said he opposes gay marriage but supports domestic partnerships.

Conservatives have gone to court to argue that San Francisco is violating the state's constitution. A judge yesterday delayed ruling on the case until at least Friday.

Gotten danke! Thank God!
Arnie certainly took long enough to make a stand on this! (Seemingly his first real mis-step as Governor.)
Prop. 22 was passed by over 60% of the electorate and was done so almost 4 years ago.
The people have already spoken and it's not for the mayor of San Francisco to say differently!
And Arnold should and must uphold the law.
I just wish he'd chosen to do so before the gay rush to a version of matrimony on Valentine's weekend.

February 17, 2004

Then check out this actual AP headline by Scott Lindlaw in The Guardian:

Bush Tries to Boost Troop Morale in La.
UNBELIEVABLE.
"Bush tries..."
As if it's hopeless, either for Bush to succeed in raising morale or for our troops to be uplifted by him.
And this was about our fine wartime President in one of the "leading" newspapers of our biggest ally.
I guess Mr. Lindlaw and his like-minded anti-war, anti-American friends think that the U.S. and her Coalition should just give up and come home, huh?
Because he makes it sound like we're losing the WOT with just one snippy headline!
(Our President's ineffectual, our troops are disheartened, yadda, yadda, yadda.)
Is there no end to this Leftist editorializing and brainwashing in the Western media disguised as "news?"
No wonder I see talk of a real "fifth column" everywhere I look these days!

In Iraq:

5 Held in Iraq Council Killing

[...] aq's Interior Ministry said late Monday that police had last week arrested five suspects in the assassination of Akila al-Hashemi, a member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council.

"They were paid money from a Baathist. They carried out the assassination," an Interior Ministry official said, referring to Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

Gunmen fired on a car carrying Hashemi, a career diplomat from a prominent Shi'ite family, near her home in a Baghdad suburb on September 20. She died five days later.

And in Pakistan:
Pakistan Arrests Pearl Murder Suspect, Colleague

Pakistani police have arrested two Islamic militants, including one suspected of involvement in the kidnap and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, an officer said Tuesday.

The two men, Sajid Jabbar and Mohammad Athar, were arrested in an overnight raid in the port city of Karachi and belong to the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, Fayyaz Leghari, chief of the investigation branch of Karachi police, told Reuters.

I seem to remember President Bush saying on Sept. 20, 2001 that we would bring Justice to our enemies or bring these terrorists to Justice.
Good work, everyone, but we're not through yet!

Cigar-loving Arnie plans a 'smoking plaza' at state capitol

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's cigar-smoking governor, is to tear a roof off the state capitol so that smokers can enjoy their vice inside the legislature.

The Austrian-born actor, elected governor last November, is facing protests for deciding to turn a courtyard in the building into a "smoking plaza". It will include a drinking area. Part of the roof will be removed to get round a California law banning smoking in offices, bars and restaurants.

What a great story!
Not only does this make me happy because I'm a smoker and I'm sick and tired of us being barred from every public place for indulging (politely!) in a legal habit but this is just one of many things Ah-nold's doing out there on the Left Coast that's driving those Libs crazy!

President George W. Bush (C) speaks with NASCAR drivers, including Tony Stewart (left of Bush, in orange), and Bobby Labonte (green hat), on pit road prior to the running of the 46th annual Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida, February 15, 2004.

Kerry Accuses Bush of 'Playing Race Card' at Daytona

George W. Bush became the first presidential candidate in 2004 to "play the race card" by appearing at the Daytona Speedway Sunday, according to John Forbes Kerry, the presumed Democrat nominee.

If you're not familiar with Scrappleface's (Scott Ott's) humor, it's high time you got acquainted...
although the illuminati over at Rantburg thought that this satire was so close to the nastiness and insanity of the DNC's attacks on the President and of John F'n Kerry's campaign in particular, they thought it almost wasn't all that funny!
Air Force One does a flyby of the Daytona International Speedway as President George W. Bush arrives for the Daytona 500, in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 15, 2004.

U.S. President George W. Bush bends over to speak with three-year-old Elena Mia O'Brien upon his return from Florida to the White House in Washington, D.C., February 16, 2004.
I just had to post this pic because it was so adorable!

The strangely named "Wretchard," who is clearly sharp and therefore not wretched, gleaned this important fact out of this USA Today report on the jihadi attack on Iraqi installations in Fallujah on Saturday:

No American troops were involved in the fighting. Officers from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed a 10-minute drive away could hear the battle clearly. They offered help but the Hammad said it wasn't needed. The Americans did provide additional ammunition and weapons, including light machine guns.

After the battle, soldiers at the civil defense base proudly displayed a light machine gun and a pair of rocket propelled grenade launchers they had captured from the attackers.

The Iraqis are "getting it;" they are realizing that they now have a chance to remake their country into a good and democratic place and are taking the responsibility for it into their own hands so that that will happen.
Good for them!
Of course, the Liberal media won't help us see that but thankfully, Wretchard has!
Read the whole post here in his post
Their Finest Hour.
I'll be visiting the Belmont Club blog more often!

Arabs in U.S. Raising Money to Back Bush

Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite Bush supporters who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election.

This new crop of fund-raisers comes as some opinion polls suggest support for the president among Arab-Americans is sinking and at a time when strategists from both parties say Mr. Bush is losing ground with this group. Mr. Bush has been criticized by Arab-Americans who feel they are being singled out in the fight against terrorism and who are uneasy over the administration's Palestinian-Israeli policies.

Yet the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq have been a catalyst for some wealthy Arab-Americans to become more involved in politics. And there are still others who have a more practical reason for opening their checkbooks: access to a business-friendly White House. Already, their efforts have brought them visits with the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., as well as White House dinners and meetings with top administration officials.

The fund-raisers are people like Mori Hosseini, the Iranian-born chief executive of ICI Homes, a home builder in Daytona Beach, Fla. Mr. Hosseini is a Ranger, gaining the top designation after raising $200,000 from his family and acquaintances. (The minimum level of money raised for a Ranger is $200,000, while it takes $100,000 to be a Pioneer.)

Never before has Mr. Hosseini been this active politically. But he said he was inspired by Mr. Bush's "decisive" action, especially in Iraq, and Mr. Hosseini's efforts have led to an invitation to a White House Christmas party and a private meeting with the president and a handful of other donors at a recent fund-raiser at Disney World.

"He has saved Iraq," said Mr. Hosseini, who left Iran when he was 13. "He's the savior, if not of Iraq, but also of the other countries around Iraq. They want freedom. I am so sure of this because I am from that part of the world."

Mr. Hosseini's enthusiasm runs counter to what some polls say is a drop in Mr. Bush's popularity among Arab-Americans. In a recent release, the Arab American Institute, a nonprofit organization representing Arab-American interests in government and politics, said Mr. Bush's support had fallen sharply since the 2000 election. A January poll conducted for the group by Zogby International, which is headed by John Zogby, a Lebanese-American, found that Mr. Bush's approval rating among Arab-Americans had fallen to 38 percent from as high as 83 percent in October 2001.
[Interesting. A month after the 9/11 attacks, huh?--Jen]

The biggest reason for this drop-off, according to the institute's poll, is concern over Arab-Americans' No. 1 issue, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. To many Arab-Americans, the administration's actions are seen as more pro-Israel than evenhanded, especially its support of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister.

In addition, a program begun after 9/11 that required thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with the immigration officials has sent chills through Arab-Americans, as has the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, which Arab-Americans say is a threat to their civil liberties.

Even so, prominent Arab-Americans have kept the money flowing.

"It's like the Catholic Church," said Mr. Zogby, whose brother, James, is president of the Arab American Institute. "The total dollars are up, but the number of donors is down."

One reason may be that Arab-Americans are not a monolithic group. The term is used generally to refer to people from Arab countries, but they may have diverse religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, like Lebanese and other Arab Christians or Muslims from Egypt and Pakistan. Many Arab-Americans left their countries because of political and economic oppression and are now small-business owners or entrepreneurs who say the Republican Party best represents their values.

As with any specific group, it is impossible to determine exactly how much of Mr. Bush's campaign money comes from Arab-Americans.

Fred Pezeshkan counts himself among the Republican hard core. For the past 25 years, Mr. Pezeshkan has lived in Naples, Fla., where he is president of the Krate Construction Company. He is also a first-time Ranger, having raised $200,000 for Mr. Bush. In previous years, except for voting Republican, the Iranian-born Mr. Pezeshkan was not politically active.

But to Mr. Pezeshkan, the invasion of Iraq shows "a strong American interest to go to those countries in the Middle East and bring democracy, culture, education, hospitals and the things that they need."

Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, said that the campaign was "working hard to maintain" support given by Arab-Americans in 2000, but that it had no special outreach programs for them.

George Salem, chairman of the Arab American Institute and a political adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush, said the younger Mr. Bush was "a more difficult sell to some segments" of the Arab-American population, especially because of the new antiterrorism law.

Mr. Salem, a Washington lawyer, said Mr. Bush had two big selling points: he was the first president in recent memory to call for an independent Palestinian state, and he made two high-level Arab-American appointments, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., whose father is from Syria.

One of the largest concentrations of Arab-Americans is in Detroit, home to Yousif Ghafari, a Lebanese Christian who came to the United States in 1972 and now heads his own engineering firm.

For years Mr. Ghafari donated to the Republican Party, but this year he stepped up the pace, raising $350,000 to become a Ranger. He said that "the 9/11 situation was a bad situation for us" but that he supported Mr. Bush for "taking the initiative" to oust Saddam Hussein and believed that Mr. Bush had the capacity to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"The Western-educated and business-motivated know that the whole Middle Eastern region has to change," said Mr. Ghafari, who collected donations from non-Arabs as well.

One of those Mr. Ghafari tapped is Tim Attallah, a Dearborn lawyer and a first-generation Palestinian-American. Mr. Attallah, who donated $2,000, said he was having a hard time reconciling his personal beliefs with some of the Bush administration's policies.

In 1993, Mr. Attallah stood on the White House lawn as an invited guest when the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord was signed. But now, he said, he is troubled by the administration's stance in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and is concerned about the antiterrorism law and the lack of Republican leaders campaigning for Arab-American votes.

"These are tough times for us, and we have not seen our friends," Mr. Attallah said.

Big donations have brought high-level access for Dr. Malik Hasan, a native of Pakistan and the former chief executive of Foundation Health Systems of Denver, one of the largest health maintenance organizations. In the past decade, Dr. Hasan has given several hundred thousand dollars to Mr. Bush and the Republican Party, including a $100,000 check to the Bush inaugural committee.

This year, Dr. Hasan is a Pioneer. In the past few months he has met personally with Mr. Bush, once at a White House dinner and again at a fund-raiser in Washington. He visited with Mr. Bush at the president's ranch, and Dr. Hasan's wife, Seeme, has been brought into high-level meetings on Arab-American concerns.

The couple say they are still fans of Mr. Bush, even though, Mrs. Hasan said, their American-born son was recently surrounded by the police and detained at an airport for no apparent reason other than his ethnic background.

"As a Muslim I felt it was wonderful that Saddam Hussein was removed," Dr. Hasan said. "The rest of the Muslim countries were standing there doing nothing. Honestly, I wrote to the president and said I adored his accomplishments."

What a great piece! (Did it kill the NYTimes to print it? And they did a pretty "fair and balanced" job, too!)
Well, God (or Allah) bless these fine people and peace be upon them!
They know that President Bush does the right things for the right reasons.
It will be Muslim men and women like the ones mentioned who can help bring the reform and moderation so needed to Islam and the societies it dominates.
They and their children are Islam's and the Middle East's future, as well as American citizens who make rich contributions to our society as well.
A good news story that gives me hope and joy!

Democratic Realism:

An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World

This is the text of a speech that Charles Krauthammer gave on Feb. 12 at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, before which he was introduced by VP Dick Cheney.
I cannot and do not wish to excerpt from this because you need to read the whole, brilliant piece, even though it's a bit long.
It's a very thoughful explanation and elucidation of the Bush Doctrine in action and emphasizes why it should be the direction our nation goes in the foreseeable future.
Here are his closing paragraphs to give you an idea of how insightful Krauthammer's remarks are:

[...]
In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile crisis, we came to the edge of the abyss. Then, accompanied by our equally shaken adversary, we both deliberately drew back. On September 11, 2001, we saw the face of Armageddon again, but this time with an enemy that does not draw back. This time the enemy knows no reason.

Were that the only difference between now and then, our situation would be hopeless. But there is a second difference between now and then: the uniqueness of our power, unrivaled, not just today but ever. That evens the odds. The rationality of the enemy is something beyond our control. But the use of our power is within our control. And if that power is used wisely, constrained not by illusions and fictions but only by the limits of our mission--which is to bring a modicum of freedom as an antidote to nihilism--we can prevail.

February 16, 2004

Israeli TV: Army to Collect Gas Masks

Israel will collect gas masks from its citizens, who have had them for more than a decade as protection against possible chemical and biological attacks, according to a television report Sunday.

Channel Two TV said the masks would be stored in army warehouses, reflecting a perceived decrease in the threat of such attacks against Israel after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

It seems things are truly starting to look up in the Middle East because the US and her Coalition partners and friends put some real force into all those UN resolutions last year.
Clearly, Israeli intell, as well as the CIA and President Bush (and every other intell agency on the planet), thought Saddam posed a true WMD threat for at least 10 years and prepared accordingly and at great expense, according to this story.
I only hope that Saddam didn't wheel some of his bio/chem weapons over into Syria and Lebanon and that the Israelis aren't giving up these gas masks prematurely...Fingers crossed.

Blogopoly
Aaron (the Liberal Slayer) has concocted a warblogger version of Monopoly and I'm delighted to tell you that my blog rated a fabu Rosie gamepiece!
Thanks, Aaron! Rant on and keep slaying those Libs!
There's still far too many of them.

February 15, 2004

Hizbullah arsenal explodes in Lebanon

A series of explosions Sunday destroyed a two-story ammunition dump in south Lebanon that belonged to Hizbullah, according to Lebanese security officials.

They said the explosions were set off by a short circuit caused by lightning during a strong storm shortly before dawn Sunday.

There were no reports of casualties. The ammunition dump was located in the basement of a building between the villages of Majadel and Shehabiyeh, some 20 km. from the border with Israel.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. said the dump contained mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades.

Was it the IDF's "Jewish lightning" or should we ululate and yell "Jehovah Akbar?"
You make the call!
(Didn't the Syrians Lebanese insist that there were no Hezbollah in their borders? Oops.)

George W. Bush -- grand strategist

The Boston Globe -- the respected, liberal newspaper owned by the New York Times -- ran an article last week that Bush critics may wish to read carefully. It is a report on a new book that argues that President Bush has developed and is ably implementing only the third American grand strategy in our history.
    
The author of this book, "Surprise, Security, and the American Experience" (Harvard Press) to be released in March, is John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett professor of military and naval history at Yale University. The Boston Globe describes Mr. Gaddis as "the dean of Cold War studies and one of the nation's most eminent diplomatic historians." In other words, this is not some put-up job by an obscure right-wing author. This comes from the pinnacle of the liberal Ivy League academic establishment.
   
 If you hate George W. Bush, you will hate this Boston Globe story because it makes a strong case that Mr. Bush stands in a select category with presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and James Monroe (as guided by his secretary of state, John Q. Adams) in implementing one of only three grand strategies of American foreign policy in our two-century history.

As the Globe article describes in an interview with Mr. Gaddis: "Grand strategy is the blueprint from which policy follows. It envisions a country's mission, defines its interests, and sets its priorities. Part of grand strategy's grandeur lies in its durability: A single grand strategy can shape decades, even centuries of policy."
   
 According to this analysis, the first grand strategy by Monroe/Adams followed the British invasion of Washington and the burning of the White House in 1814. They responded to that threat by developing a policy of gaining future security through territorial expansion -- filling power vacuums with American pioneers before hostile powers could get in. That strategy lasted throughout the 19th and the early 20th centuries, and accounts for our continental size and historic security.
    
FDR's plans for the post-World War II period were the second grand strategy and gained American security by establishing free markets and self-determination in Europe as a safeguard against future European wars, while creating the United Nations and related agencies to help us manage the rest of the world and contain the Soviets. The end of the Cold War changed that and led, according to Mr. Gaddis, to President Clinton's assumption that a new grand strategy was not needed because globalization and democratization were inevitable. "Clinton said as much at one point. I think that was shallow. I think they were asleep at the switch," Mr. Gaddis observed.

That brings the professor to George W.Bush, who he describes as undergoing "one of the most surprising transformations of an underrated national leader since Prince Hal became Henry V." Clearly, Mr. Gaddis has not been a long-time admirer of Mr. Bush. But he is now.
    
He observes that Mr. Bush "undertook a decisive and courageous reassessment of American grand strategy following the shock of the 9/11 attacks. At his doctrine's center, Bush placed the democratization of the Middle East and the urgent need to prevent terrorists and rogue states from getting nuclear weapons. Bush also boldly rejected the constraints of an outmoded international system that was really nothing more that a snapshot of the configuration of power that existed in 1945."
    
It is worth noting that John Kerry and the other Democrats' central criticism of Mr. Bush -- the prosaic argument that he should have taken no action without U.N. approval -- is rejected by Mr. Gaddis as being a proposed policy that would be constrained by an "outmoded international system."

In assessing Mr. Bush's progress to date, the Boston Globe quotes Mr. Gaddis: "So far the military action in Iraq has produced a modest improvement in American and global economic conditions; an intensified dialogue within the Arab world about political reform; a withdrawal of American forces from Saudi Arabia; and an increasing nervousness on the part of the Syrian and Iranian governments as they contemplated the consequences of being surrounded by American clients or surrogates. The United States has emerged as a more powerful and purposeful actor within the international system than it had been on September 11, 2001."
    
In another recent article, written before the Iraqi war, Mr. Gaddis wrote: "[Bush's] grand strategy is actually looking toward the culmination of the Wilsonian project of a world safe for Democracy, even in the Middle East. And this long-term dimension of it, it seems to me, goes beyond what we've seen in the thinking of more recent administrations. It is more characteristic of the kind of thinking, say, that the Truman administration was doing at the beginning of the Cold War."

I'll be looking forward to reading this book and I hope you'll read it, too, if you care about America's role in the world and the future and the part we all play in it as American citizens.
I have felt the greatness of President Bush's policies and strategy for at least the last 2 1/2 years, but it's nice to have this "feeling" confirmed by such an esteemed academic and to know that President Bush, who I'm certain will be one of America's greatest presidents, was in office at a critical time when the USA and the whole world needed a good leader with vision and purpose.
So, it's official: Bush is now a member of a very distinguished and select American club.
(Bet this beats even Skull and Bones at Yale!)
I hope that Professor Gaddis is prepared for the shunning he will receive from his fellow Liberal Bush-hating colleagues in Academia, though.