May 18, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From BBC News:
Battered Indian shares have rebounded after their worst ever day of trading. The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex index closed 8.3% higher at 4,877.02. It had lost more than 16% during trading on Friday and Monday. The news that Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of the Congress party, was not planning to take the position of prime minister was a key factor in Tuesday's rally, traders said. She later confirmed the reports and withdrew from the race. A possible replacement is Manmohan Singh, a senior party member and the man who launched India's economic reforms in the 1990s. In an interview, he said that the new government's "policies will be pro-growth, pro-savings, pro-investment".
May 17, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From the BBC:
Government fears hit India shares Indian shares have recorded their biggest-ever fall in a single day's trading amid fears the new government could stall economic reform. The Bombay Stock Exchange plummeted more than 700 points, a 15% drop, before recovering slightly. Traders have fears about the economic plans of the new government, set to be led by Sonia Gandhi after her Congress party's surprise election win.
...The BJP is against the Italian-born Mrs Gandhi becoming prime minister because of her foreign origins. ["Government fears hit India shares"]
The BJP lost because it was unable to properly communicate the importance of market-reforms--which cannot instantly repair the decades of damage done by India's former socialist policies. Rather then focusing on the Italian-born Gandhi's "foreign origins" they should have focused on the origins of her suggested left-wing domestic policies. On the plus side, as a Roman-Catholic, she may symbolically help bring peace between India's warring religious-tribal groups as she is neither Muslim or Hindu--if she advocates the principle of individual rights as a solutuion, as opposed to the balkanization of promoting "group rights."
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share sensitive index fell 553.29 points in the first few minutes of trading, falling below the psychologically important 5,000-point mark and wiping billions of dollars off the value of India's listed companies. Trading was temporarily suspended but the index slid a further 200 points after it resumed, forcing a second suspension. The BSE sensitive index closed the day at 4,505.87 points, down 11%. Analysts say the market crashed after foreign institutional investors, who had invested some $10bn in the Indian stock markets over the past year, began to sell heavily...Investors fear the Communists, who hold the key to the new government, would block economic reforms especially privatization of state-owned companies.
...The BJP and its allies had been widely expected to win on the strength of a buoyant economy and peace moves with Pakistan.
Hopefully, the Gandhi government will understand that whatever reforms they make they should not attempt to derail the Indian economic engine my throwing a socialist wrench into its motor. If Gandhi continues the previous "free-market"-like economic reforms expect the Indian stock market to rise over time.May 16, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From the UK Telegraph:American athletes have been warned not to wave the US flag during their medal celebrations at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens for fear of provoking crowd hostility and harming the country's already battered public image....The plan is part of a charm offensive aimed at repairing the country's international reputation following the deepening crisis in Iraq and damaging revelations of torture and mistreatment of detainees by US forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Given Saddam's actual rape and torture of his own people (i.e., raping of 13 year old girls by his sons; chopping off of tongues and beheading for disobedience; throwing handcuffed dissenters off the tops of building; whips and slashes that make Mel Gibson's Christ-flick seem like kindergarten; thousands upon thousands murdered) while for nearly a decade U.N. bureaucrats under Kofi Annan moved billions into Swiss bank accounts in the "Iraqi oil money to U.N. crony Swiss Bank account" program, while the useful idiots at CNN drank champagne as they profited over Saddam's manufacture of Iraqi corpses--only a fool would have the gall to even hint that America's reputation has anything to do with Abu Ghraib prison.
"American athletes find themselves in extraordinary circumstances in Athens in relation to the world as we know it right now," said Mike Moran, a veteran former spokesman for the US Olympic Committee who has been retained as a consultant to advise athletes about the correct way to behave.
"Regardless of whether there is anti-American sentiment in Athens or not, the world watches Americans a lot now in terms of how they behave and our culture. What I am trying to do with the athletes and coaches is to suggest to them that they consider how the normal things they do at an event, including the Olympics, might be viewed as confrontational or insulting or cause embarrassment."
It is precisely because the world watches how Americans behave that America's athletes should set the opposite example. Despite its contradictions America is still the freest country on earth (heaven knows for how long given its anti-American intellectual climate). If anyone should be ashamed it should be the supporters of Saddam's regime.
Cartoon by Cox and Forkum
Humilty as a response for achieiving a long-range goal is to commit a moral fraud for the sake of flattering the of others. For an athlete to act humble for winning a gold medal is to spit in his own face. It is to dishonor his own accomplishments. Observe Aristotle's comments on the man of pride:
He must also be open in his hate and in his love (for to conceal one's feelings, i.e. to care less for truth than for what people will think, is a coward's part), and must speak and act openly; for he is free of speech because he is contemptuous, and he is given to telling the truth, except when he speaks in irony to the vulgar. He must be unable to make his life revolve round another, unless it be a friend; for this is slavish, and for this reason all flatterers are servile and people lacking in self-respect are flatterers.
The model for American athletes to follow is that of Mel Gibson in The Patriot: to wave the American flag proudly. Returning back to the UK Telegraph article:
"What I am telling the athletes is, 'Don't run over and grab a flag and take it round the track with you.' It's not business as usual for American athletes. If a Kenyan or a Russian grabs their national flag and runs round the track or holds it high over their heads, it might not be viewed as confrontational. Where we are in the world right now, an American athlete doing that might be viewed in another manner."
Why the double standard? Why is it that athletes of every present and former third world dictatorship can flaunt their countries' flag proudly, but the athletes of greatest country on earth--economically, politically, and morally--may not? No matter what American's do they will be condemned: if American athletes do not show pride it is their own admission of guilt; if American athletes do show pride it is proof of the evil of American arrogance. American's are dammed by the "international community" if they do, and they are dammed if they don't.
Cartoon by Cox and Forkum
It is entirely second-handed for Americans to base their actions on the irrational beliefs of others. The only thing that makes such a setup possible is America's moral sanction. It is far time that Americans withdraw that sanction. Given the moral cowardice and turpitude of America's congressman and diplomats, it is doubtful that the U.S. will withdraw from the U.N. But, America's athletes--the greatest in body, but not necessarily in mind--may take an intellectual, and profoundly moral stand: by withdrawing their moral sanction by refusing to appease the envy and ignorance of others.
The U.S. should have first taken out Iran, but that they deposed of Saddam Hussein without the permission of the U.N. is no grounds for condemnation, but for applause. Despite all his European defenders, Hitler had no right to exist--and despite all of his European supporters neither did Saddam have any right to exist either. Hopefully, Arafat and the monsters who rule Iran will be next--but then I am expecting far too much from President Bush, who waivers between the moral "cowboy" attitude of American self-assertivebess and the altruistic, immolation of Christian "turn the other check" self-sacrifice. The latter is shamefully evidenced in Bush's rule of permitting Americans to die, in order to save a pile of bricks used to protect terrorists who slaughter American troops, because those bricks are declared as a "holy site" of Islam. The proper viewpoint is that if any terrorist attempts to kill Americans while hiding in a "holy site", is to make that site into one big hole.
...And at an Olympic football qualifying match in Mexico earlier this year the American team was subjected to sustained barracking by a section of the crowd, including chants of "Osama, Osama".
Given the fact of September 11th this is proof of why Americans should wave the flag proudly--and why the trash who made such smears should be ignored.
...The irony is that finishing the Games as the most powerful nation is unlikely to endear them to the rest of the world.
The may the "rest of the world" be damned. American athletes--wave your flag proudly--and if you are silent, let it be in remembrance of your fellow American athlete Pat Tillman.
May 15, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
James Taranto found this story of a courageous soldier from El Salvador:
One of his friends was dead, 12 others lay wounded and the four soldiers still left standing were surrounded and out of ammunition. So Salvadoran Cpl. Samuel Toloza said a prayer, whipped out his knife and charged the Iraqi gunmen. In one of the only known instances of hand-to-hand combat in the Iraq conflict, Cpl. Toloza stabbed several attackers swarming around a comrade. The stunned assailants backed away momentarily, just as a relief column came to the unit's rescue. [Washington Times, 4 May 2004]
May 14, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
InstaPundit has a good round-up regarding media coverage of the Berg execution: Why The Big Media Continue To Lose Their Audience. Excerpts from the post:
From Neal Boortz:This morning in most of the newspapers I scanned during my preparation for the show the top story was still the Iraqi prison abuse scandal. Nick Berg had already disappeared from many front pages, but the prison abuse stories remain. May I suggest to you that there is a reason for this? Maybe it's just this simple: The prison abuse scandal can damage Bush, the Nick Berg story can only help him. Given the choice many editors will chose the stories that serve their cause, getting Bush out of the White House, rather than one that hurts it.
From Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News:Our letters page today is filled with nothing but Berg-related letters, most of them demanding that the DMN show more photos of the Berg execution. Not one of the 87 letters we received on the topic yesterday called for these images not to be printed. My sense is that there's a big backlash building against the media for flogging the Abu Ghraib photos, but being so delicate with the Berg images. People sense that there's an agenda afoot here. As somebody, can't remember who, wrote yesterday, "Why is it that the media can show over and over again pictures that could make Arabs hate Americans, but refuse to show pictures that could make Americans hate Arabs?"
From Glenn Reynolds:These [media] guys are marginalizing themselves with their agenda-driven coverage. And they're so out of touch they don't realize it.
Michael Getler, ombudsman of The Washington Post, recently explained why it was important to publicize photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib: "The reality of war in all its aspects needs to be reported and photographed. That is the patriotic, and necessary, thing to do in a democracy." (Via Ace of Spades HQ via Gil Ronen)
Yet The Washington Post didn't publish photos of Nick Berg's execution. Apparently they don't consider it patriotic to publicize -- much less dwell on -- our enemies' atrocities.
If you want to see the pictures big media don't want you to see, the following link contains stills from the video of Al Qaeda beheading Nick Berg: WARNING: Extremely graphic images.May 12, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
Writes Allen Forkum:
After days of intense media coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, one could easily get the impression that certain American soldiers and their commanders are the most evil people in the world, much less Iraq.
The latest news should put things back into perspective: Video Shows Beheading of American in IraqAfter reading a statement, the men were seen pulling the man to his side and putting a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" -- "God is great." They then held the head out before the camera.
Perhaps now the media will have a better idea of who the real enemy is in Iraq. Perhaps CNN will create an in-depth investigation into the death-worship, oppression, racism and murderous barbarism that is "systemic" to the Islamist ideology driving the terrorists. Perhaps Reuters will pen an exposé on the insurgents' "chain of command" and shine the harsh light of journalistic truth on Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia for providing moral and material support to terrorists. Perhaps AP will ask Al Qaeda to apologize to the families of its victims. Then again, perhaps not.
At least President Bush seems to know better than the media who the enemy is. The question is: What's he doing about it? Will President Bush unleash our military to do whatever is necessary to arrest, kill or otherwise render harmless the Islamist threat in Iraq? Or are we going to risk still more American lives in deference to world opinion and Islamic sensibilities?
Regarding Nick Berg, the victim of this Islamist atrocity, CBS News reports: Slain Man Thought He Could 'Help'Last week, before Berg's fate was known, his father said that his son had gone to Iraq partly out of a sense of adventure, partly for the opportunity for work, and partly because he was a "staunch supporter of the government position in Iraq and he wanted to go over there and help."
***
It took mere hours. The story that displaced the Nick Berg murder story on CNN's main page is about Abu Ghraib: Senators to view abuse images Wednesday. And The New York Times follow-up is focusing on the one aspect of the story involving the American government in Iraq instead of focusing on the killers: From a Strange Encounter With Iraqi Police to Fatal Capture.
May 10, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
CNN reports: Lawmakers to review new Iraq prison images[Vice President Dick] Cheney issued a rare weekend statement Saturday in which he voiced support for Rumsfeld, calling him "the best secretary of defense the United States has ever had. People ought to let him do his job." Cheney is also a former defense secretary. [...]
Cheney's statement followed calls by several Democrats for Rumsfeld's resignation after an Army report found numerous instances of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" of Iraqis held at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
Charles Johnson highlighted a David Frum editorial on the reasons why Rumsfeld must stay:1) Resignation would be utterly unjustified. The abuses in Abu Ghraib were in no way Donald Rumsfeld's fault. Nothing he ever said or did could have given anyone in the chain of command beneath him any reason to think that he countenanced or would countenance the humiliation and degradation of prisoners.
2) Resignation would be pointless. The damage done by the Abu Ghraib pictures is irretrievable. The president could fire his entire cabinet, without changing a single mind in the Arab world -- or for that matter Europe -- about what happened and why.
Johnson also noted some spot-on comments from Senator Joe Lieberman regarding who's really owed an apology:"The behavior by Americans at the prison in Iraq is, as we all acknowledge, immoral, intolerable and un-American ... I cannot help but say, however, that those responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, never apologized. Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq, working to liberate Iraq and protect our security, have never apologized. And those who murdered and burned and humiliated four Americans in Fallujah a while ago never (apologized)..."
"I hope as we go about this investigation we do it in a way that does not dishonor the hundreds of thousands of Americans in uniform who are a lot more like Pat Tillman and Americans that are not known, like Army National Guard Sgt. Felix Delgreco, of Simsbury, Conn., who was killed in action a few weeks ago, that we not dishonor their service or discredit the cause that brought us to send them to Iraq, because it remains one that is just and necessary."
May 8, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
President Bush's apology for Iraqi prisoner abuse comes admid news of yet another taking of an American hostage, this time by a group called the "Islamic Rage Squadrons."
The first article notes that Bush is trying to counter a "worldwide wave of revulsion" over the prisoner abuse. Charles Johnson notes a disturbing double standard:Remember that "worldwide wave of revulsion" when a pregnant Israeli mother and her four daughters were murdered in cold blood by Arabs who videotaped the atrocity? Remember the "worldwide wave of revulsion" when four security contractors helping to rebuild Iraq were burned alive, ripped apart, and hung from a bridge by Arabs in Fallujah? Remember the "worldwide wave of revulsion" when an Italian hostage was murdered by Arabs on video? ... You don't?
If our government and media pursued justice against Islamist tyrants and terrorists with the same vigor they display in pursuing our own criminals, perhaps the war could be won.May 7, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From the New Zealand Herald:
Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, the rabble-rousing film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it. The admission, during an interview with CNN, undermined Moore's claim that Disney was trying to sabotage the US release of Fahrenheit 911...and lent credence to a growing suspicion that Moore was manufacturing a controversy to help publicize the film, a full-bore attack on the Bush administration...
In an indignant letter to his supporters, Moore said he had learnt only on Monday that Disney had put the kibosh on distributing the film, which has been financed by the semi-independent Disney subsidiary Miramax.
But in the CNN interview he said: "Almost a year ago, after we'd started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will not distribute it."
Did they recently pull the plug---one year ago? Perhaps Kerry is Moore's script writer.
...A front-page news piece in The New York Times was followed yesterday by an editorial denouncing Disney for censorship and denial of Moore's right to free expression.
Moore told CNN that Disney had "signed a contract to distribute this [film]" but got cold feet. But Disney executives insists there was never any contract. And a source close to Miramax said that the only deal there was for financing, not for distribution.
You have a contract Mr. Moore? Well show us the contract. 
Cartoon by Cox and Forkum
Legally, only the government can censor someone in the anti-freedom sense of the term. Censorship is when someone initiates force to physically prevent you from expressing your views, such as when Moore's hero Fidel Castro imprisons and tortures pro-democracy protestors in Cuba, or when the U.S. government's fines Howard Stern for making comments they do not like, or when a "peace protestor" in Berkeley shouts down a pro-Bush speaker to prevent him from expressing his views.
Disney's refusal to promote the Time's pet monkey is not censorship--it is their inalienable right--just as it is the right of the New York Times--the so-called "champions of free expression" (if you expressing the views of the Far Left) --to refuse to publish my comments. (In their latest round of published letters all of the letters were pro-Moore.)
Disney actions are not a sign of "cowardice" but a sign of courage by standing up to the Far Left who seeks to destroy the difference between true censorship--committed by the government, violent student rebels, and the Mafia--and the right of a company to decide how it spends its own money. The only one guilty of "craven behavior" is the New York Times for perpetuating and encouraging Moore's farce.May 4, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Here's what's going on at Rutgers:
The illustration featured on the cover of a Rutgers University [satirical] student newspaper shows a frightened Jewish man suspended on a carnival-style contraption. Below him is a burning oven. "Knock a Jew in the oven!" reads the caption underneath the cartoon. "Three throws for one dollar!" A contestant is throwing a ball at a target. The headline reads: "Holocaust Remembrance Week: Springfest 2004." [NYSun]
The editor directly responsible for running the cartoon says he's Jewish and knows Holocaust survivors.May 3, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
Reuters: U.S. Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners Inflame Arabs."The liberators are worse than the dictators" ... "That really, really is the worst atrocity" ... Arab satellite televisions, seen by millions of Arabs and Muslims, began their news bulletins with the pictures, which they said showed the "savagery" of U.S. troops. ... "Americans are racists and cowards, that's what I understood from these pictures."
The article mentions the following only in passing:The U.S. military has brought criminal charges against six soldiers relating to accusations of abuses from November and December 2003 on some 20 detainees, including indecent acts with another person, maltreatment, battery, dereliction of duty and aggravated assault.
After the Fallajah ambush and mutilations, or after the suicide bombings in Basra, or after the gunning down of four Israeli children and their pregnant mother, did anyone hear the 'Arab street' declare criminal charges should be -- much less would be -- brought against anybody?May 3, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
InstaPundit pointed to a Reuters article that indicates the worthlessness of the 9/11 commission before which President Bush and Vice President Cheney appeared yesterday.Two Democrats on the panel, Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton and former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, left the session about an hour early. Hamilton, a former congressman from Indiana, was said to have had a prior commitment to introduce visiting Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at a lunch.
May 2, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Is Bush crazy? Here's from a front-page article in the New York Sun on April 23:
Lakhdar Brahimi is the United Nations official that President Bush has now put in charge of establishing a new Iraqi government that will take over from America on July 1. But back in October of 1989, Mr. Brahimi was... the Arab League's envoy in the Lebanese civil war and an author of an agreement known as the Taif Accord that encouraged Syria's enforcement of peace in Lebanon. [Lebanese Prime Minister Michel] Aoun asked Mr. Brahimi how he could be sure that the Arab League would enforce the provisions of the Taif Accord that would guarantee Lebanese independence in the face of Syrian "peacekeepers...." "He laughed and smiled," the former prime minister said. "He did not have too much to say. He knew very well what he was selling to me. He was doing his job. He was doing the job of the Arab League."
Mr. Brahimi, 70, now works for the United Nations, but his remarks this week sounded as though they could have come straight from the Arab League's headquarters in Cairo. On Wednesday he told the radio station France Inter, "There is no doubt that the great poison in the region is this Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians, as well as the perception by the body of the population in the region, and beyond, of the injustice of this policy and the equally unjust support of the United States for this policy." [NYSun]
From Cox and Forkum:
May 1, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Here's the "rehabilitated" Colonel Ghadafi speaking to journalists in the company of European Commission president Romano Prodi:
"Libya did its duty when duty had to be done by arms," he said. That included firing missiles at American fighter aircraft in the 1980s and setting up training camps for "freedom fighters" from around the developing world, for which he said Libya was "unjustly" accused of a "kind of terrorism." Now that Libya has given up its weapons programs, it has become "an example to be followed," he asserted, calling on countries "from China to America" to do the same..."Hopefully nothing would force us to go back to the days when we use our cars and explosive belts, to put explosive belts around ourselves or on our women so we will not be searched and harassed in our bedrooms and in our homes as is happening in Iraq and Palestine." [NYSun]
Apr 30, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Lead articles from the Sun Thursday and Friday:
Intelligence reports indicate that some "Middle Eastern men" are casing big coastal oil refineries in Texas, leading some intelligence analysts in Washington to be fearful of a strike on one of the oil facilities before Election Day. [NYSun]
In early 2002, the FBI concluded in an internal review that between 50 and 100 Hamas and Hezbollah operatives had already infiltrated America. The operatives were in America working on fund-raising and logistics, and they had received terrorist and military training from Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East, according to current and former intelligence officials....
[A] former senior FBI counterterrorism agent, Ken Piernick..., was the chief of the unit inside the FBI's counterterrorism bureau that handled Hamas and Hezbollah. He told the Sun yesterday that Hamas and Hezbollah logistical cells that have been used by the organizations with success to raise money and send materiel to Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank could be quickly turned into operational terrorist cells. [NYSun]
Apr 28, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
"Why We Are Losing the War on Terrorism", by Yaron Brook
Wednesday, April 28, 7:00pm; 228 Natural History Bldg
Information: Doug Peltz peltz@uiuc.edu
Recommended Reading:
America's Compassion in Iraq Is Self-Destructive (April 24, 2004)
Fighting a compassionate war is immoral; it is costing the lives of American soldiers in Iraq and emboldening our enemies throughout the Islamic world.
America's Timid War on Terrorism (September 9, 2003)
Despite America's military prowess, she is not winning the war. The tragedy is that we lack not weapons, nor military prowess, nor bravery; our military is the most powerful in the history of the world. The problem lies not with our armed forces, but with the ideas guiding our military campaign.
Apr 27, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From CBS.MarketWatch.com "Erbitux powers ImClone profit surge" (April 27, 2004):
ImClone Systems said Tuesday that first-quarter revenue improved dramatically, largely as a result of sales of the cancer drug Erbitux. The New York-based biotech company (IMCL: news, chart, profile) said revenue in the first quarter increased fivefold to $109.6 million. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had forecast sales of between $36 million and $74 million...."We were pleased with the sales of Erbitux in just over five weeks of product shipments during the quarter, as they appear to indicate that physicians are rapidly integrating this first-of-its-kind antibody into patients' treatment regimens," Chief Executive Daniel Lynch said in a press release.
Recommended Reading:
ImClone's Sam Waksal Should Have Read Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'
If Sam Waksal had read 'Atlas Shrugged,' he may have walked free.
The SEC's "Insider Trading" Witch Hunt Against ImClone's Sam Waksal: Scapegoat for the Sins of the FDA
Observe the injustice involved here. The FDA obstructed the launch of a product; then the SEC forced the termination of that product's primary creator. Yet it's not any regulator but the creator -- Sam Waksal -- who faces jail time for helping his family mitigate regulatory destructiveness.Apr 26, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Here's Michael Ledeen--quoted in James Taranto's "Best of the Web Today" back on April 20--on his theory about why Al-Jazeera didn't air the tape of the Italian hostage being murdered:
The terrorists present the world with an endless supply of lies, which generally take the form of accusing us of what they do (and we don't). Many of their actions are staged precisely for the benefit of reporters (like the horror scene of the four dead American contractors a couple of weeks ago). They brought in the television cameras the other day to film the execution of an Italian hostage, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, but something went wrong. After forcing him to dig his own grave, they put a hood over his head and ordered him to kneel so he could be killed. He wouldn't go for it. He tried to remove the hood, and defiantly yelled at them "I will show you how an Italian dies." The scene was a propaganda disaster for them, and good old al Jazeera, the modern mother of lies, announced that they had the tape but wouldn't release it because it was too terrible to witness. It was terrible, but not in the way al Jazeera wanted us to think. It showed Western bravery, not Arab domination, so they couldn't show it.
