Jul 28, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw asked NBC's Richard Engel in Baghdad (as quoted by MRC):"Richard, as you well know, there's fresh video tonight as well of the bodies of Saddam's two sons after they were cleaned up by Army morticians. We want to warn everybody, the images are still very graphic, but are those new images any more persuasive to the Iraqi people?"
"They are not really more persuasive. But they certainly are more controversial. These bodies were quite radically altered. First, the men were shaved, then putty was used to remodel their faces, make-up was also applied to make them look more life-like. The Americans, however, say these are certainly the men and even displayed a metal plate that bears the identical serial number to a plate that was inserted in Uday's leg after an assassination attempt in the 1990s. All of this has been quite offensive to Islamic sensibilities here. Muslims are generally buried in a simple white shroud without any embalming process at all, Tom."
Jul 28, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Friday's New York Sun:New York lawmakers are criticizing the Bush administration for its decision to classify a portion of the Joint Select Committee on Intelligence's report on the September 11 attacks. Senator Schumer came out swinging yesterday, demanding that the 28-page classified section of the report be publicly released. The classified portion of the report is believed to contain damaging information about the role of Saudi Arabia in the September 11 attacks. 'I just don't understand the administration here. There seems to be a systematic strategy of coddling and coverup when it comes to the Saudis,' Mr. Schumer said.
Jul 27, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Thursday's New York Sun:The House late Tuesday evening adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Vito Fossella to withdraw American aid to any United Nations commission chaired by a country that has sponsored international terrorism. Mr. Fossella, a Republican, cited such absurdities as Iraq chairing a commission on disarmament as a reason to adopt his amendment. The State Department submitted a letter opposing the Fossella proposal to a House appropriator.
It's about time.
Jul 27, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From the BBC:George Bush confirmed on Friday that he has ordered the US military "in limited numbers" to head into the area to support a West African peacekeeping mission. But it is still unclear precisely what the role of these forces will be, or how they will be deployed. A three-ship naval task forces headed by the amphibious helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima, with up to 2,000 US marines aboard, has been steaming across the Mediterranean to be in a position to respond to the president's orders...
...It looks like US forces will be involved only in a support mission. They may not even set foot on Liberian soil in any significant numbers, but limit themselves to an offshore role. That may disappoint many of those who have been pressing for the Americans to take a lead. ["Uncertainties of US Liberia mission", 25 July, 2003, BBC]
Recommended Reading: Foreign Policy and Self-Interest: Liberia Campaign Would Be a Moral Crime
A foreign policy based solely on America's self-interest is not simply practical, but *moral*--which is why any "humanitarian" mission, such as the proposed campaign in Liberia, is a moral crime.
Jul 26, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From the UK Telegraph:Trapeze artists with one of the world's most famous circuses have been told to start wearing hard hats to comply with new EU safety rules. Jugglers, tightrope walkers and other acrobats with the Moscow State Circus, which is currently touring Britain, have also been instructed to don safety head wear because of European regulations covering workers employed at heights greater than the average stepladder.
...Goussein Khamdouleav, 48, who performs somersaults - without a safety net - as part of the highest indoor tightrope act in Europe, scoffed at the idea that a safety hat would be much use to him if he fell 45ft to the ring below.
...Mr Archer added: "The hats could be more of a liability than anything else. They could slip over the artists' eyes or throw the performers off balance. "This is just another loony law from Brussels and we are the only country stupid enough to pay any attention." [UK Telegraph, "Circus acts told to wear hard hats under new EU law", July 23, 2003]
Jul 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
Allen Forkum also writes:
The New York Post has an excellent article by Amir Taheri about The Real Iraq (Hat tip Jena Trammell). Excerpts:
"The daily Al Quds, another pro-Saddam paper, quotes from The Washington Post in support of its claim that 'a popular war of resistance' is growing in Iraq. Some newspapers in the United States, Britain and 'old Europe' go further by claiming that Iraq has become a 'quagmire' or 'another Vietnam.' [...] This chorus wants us to believe that most Iraqis regret the ancien regime, and are ready to kill and die to expel their liberators. ... Sorry, guys, this is not the case. [...] There are two Iraqs today: One as portrayed by those in America and Europe who wish to use it as a means of damaging Bush and Blair, and the other as it really exists, home to 24 million people with many hopes and aspirations and, naturally, some anxiety about the future."
The Australian has an op-ed by James Morrow that puts the "it's another Vietnam" bleating into perspective: US critics sink in mire of denial (Via LGF). Excerpt:
"Those who continue to try to play the quagmire card should look at, and recall, the facts. US involvement in Vietnam lasted a decade and cost more than 50,000 US lives. So far, it has been barely four months since US troops first crossed into Iraq, and since the end of major combat on May 2, just 33 US soldiers have been killed by the so-called 'Iraqi resistance' [as of July 24]. ... While every soldier's death is tragic (and it is touching to see so many on the Left suddenly concerned about the welfare of American men and women in uniform), it doesn't take a Stephen Hawking to figure out that these losses are nothing like those inflicted by the Vietcong."
A Voice of America News article (among others) quoted the head of coalition ground forces, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, as saying the reconstruction efforts "are way ahead of schedule".
Fox News ran the DoD's Timeline of Reconstruction Progress in Iraq as well as a general overview article: Despite Setbacks, Iraq Reconstruction Moves Ahead. Excerpt:
"Right now, we're in the process of rebuilding the country," Sgt. J.J. Johnson, of the Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad, said recently. "A lot of these problems were not problems we caused or the Iraqis caused themselves but they're issues we have to deal with. [...] We've got 20 years of neglect to make up for" that occurred during Saddam's regime. "A lot of that we can't do overnight."
And Scrappleface has this hilarious satirical take: Quagmire Index Revised to Reflect Death of Saddam Sons.
Jul 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
More fine investigative reporting from the Media Research Council:Short, dismissive shrift to Cheney. CNN's NewsNight, which two weeks ago relayed a false Internet story about how a CIA "consultant directly told the President that this African uranium deal was bogus," a fraudulent tale the show has yet to correct, on Thursday night skipped Vice President Cheney's address about how the pre-war National Intelligence Estimate warned that "if left unchecked, it [Iraq] probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade." But anchor Anderson Cooper did make time for a look at how Times Square now has a Red Lobster restaurant.
ABC, CBS and NBC all reported on Cheney's July 24 address to a group at the American Enterprise Institute in which he outlined how the consensus of the intelligence community was that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, but all three denigrated and dismissed Cheney's assessment of the late 2002 intelligence report.
CBS's John Roberts, for instance, gave Cheney a sentence before contending that "Cheney avoided other intelligence in that same paper, the now discredited reference to Iraq's desires for uranium." Roberts added that former CIA Director John Deutch "said the entire case about Iraq's weapons is beginning to look like a 'massive intelligence failure.'"
Over on the NBC Nightly News, David Gregory scolded the Vice President: "But Cheney failed to mention doubts within the intelligence community about" claims Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons, noting how the State Department "dissented." But, Gregory did not note, that dissent only appeared in an appendix.
ABC's Peter Jennings didn't even give Cheney a syllable of a soundbite, holding World News Tonight coverage to this short item in which Jennings undermined Cheney's credibility by highlighting how he "has been accused" of "pressuring agencies to come up with information that would justify an attack on Iraq." ...
...NewsNight has yet to correct regular anchor Aaron Brown's picking up of a rumor on July 9. He asked reporter David Ensor to comment on "a story that's been circulating on the Web today that there was at some point a conversation between the President and a CIA consultant where the consultant directly told the President that this African uranium deal was bogus." Brown's raising of such an uncorroborated story befuddled Ensor, who speaking slowly as he fumbled for words, told Brown: "I have no way to confirm that story and it is somewhat suspect I would say..."
Brown didn't cite his source, but he was quoting from a posting on CapitolHillBlue.com. But they, it turns out, retracted their one-source story at about 6pm EDT, four hours before Brown went on the air. CapitolHillBlue.com Publisher Doug Thompson discovered that his source, one Terrance Wilkinson, who identified himself as a CIA and FBI consultant, was a fraud.
Jul 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From David Holcberg at the Ayn Rand Institute:The U.S. government has committed a monstrous act: it sent back to Cuba the twelve escapees who managed, last week, to get within 40 miles of Florida's coast in a boat fashioned out of a 1951 Chevy pickup truck.
These courageous escapees, who risked their lives to be free in America, will no doubt be thrown in prison and tortured--if not executed like the three men who hijacked a ferryboat to flee Cuba in April--by the murderous Castro regime.
It is highly hypocritical for President Bush--and other American politicians--to talk about bringing freedom to the world while sending freedom-seeking refugees back to a totalitarian dictatorship.
Suggested reading:
Cuba's Cruel Joke
The once-muscular Cuban economy is in tatters and its much lauded social safety net a cruel joke. In Cuba, the poor are bled to support the lifestyles of the government elite, which lives in luxury - the driveways of the Havana honchos sport Mercedes - while its populace goes hungry.
Fidel Batista! Fidel Castro Out-Thugs Fulgencio Batista
Forty-four years into the Revolution, Fidel Castro will have achieved all the failings, real and perceived, that Cuba had under Batista, and it will have retained few of the virtues.
Torture in Castro's Cuba
Surprise! Surprise! Wolves are once again slaughtering ranchers' cattle, but this time it's the overtaxed Canadian who is forced to compensate the rancher (albeit at 80% of the value).
An America President in Communist Cuba
Carter's historic visit to Cuba, the first by an American president, current or past, since totalitarian rule was first instituted in 1959, will never provide Cubans -- including Elian Gonzalez -- with what they need most: Freedom.
Jul 24, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From the folks at the Media Research Center:...In reporting on the killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein, on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News Jim Miklaszewski griped about how "there are questions today why the U.S. military used such heavy firepower to take down a few lightly armed men." But his complaint about overkill in firepower came after he recounted how the U.S. forces escalated their weaponry to overcome the resistance as the four men in the house opened fire and injured three soldiers, prompting the U.S. servicemen to "pound the house with rockets, grenades and heavy machine gun fire while helicopter gun ships fire rockets through the roof." Yet, in Miklaszweski's own term, "unbelievably" those inside continued to shoot back.
Every heard of the term "overwhelming force"?
...At the White House press briefing on Wednesday, ABC's Terry Moran wanted to know if President Bush felt "bound" by the Geneva Convention rule that the dead are "honorably interred...according to the rites of the religion to which they belong." A few hours earlier in Iraq, international reporters grilled U.S. Army General Ricardo Sanchez about why the lightly armed Uday and Qusay were not waited out so they could be taken alive and questioned. One reporter insisted the operation represented "a failure" because "you didn't use commandos to come and surprise them both." CNN's Aaron Brown also wanted to know: "Why not wait 'em out, starve 'em out? Try and take 'em alive?"
In other words why not spend an extra few months in Iraq, or risk a few more American troops?
...Odai and Qusai Hussein, as the AP spells their first names, are the lucky beneficiaries of the fact "that the Bush administration has not bothered to enforce the prohibition" on "political assassinations," AP reporter George Gedda asserted in the lead of a July 23 story. "Odai, Qusai Deaths Go Against U.S. Ban," announced the AP's headline.
Another war crime against that President Bush? Perhaps this is why CNN's Aaron Brown wanted them taken alive. Oh, another lost interview--"Tell our CNN audience, Odai, is it true as some commentators and editorialists have stated, that the American embargo forced you and your brother to the dark side."
...The best news in weeks, if not since the taking of Baghdad three months ago, came out of Iraq on Tuesday with the announcement of the killing of Saddam Hussein's two henchmen sons, second only to Saddam himself in brutality and instilling fear, but Katie Couric led Wednesday's Today by pairing the news with how the good news was "tempered" by how "two more American soldiers have been ambushed and killed today." In contrast, ABC's Good Morning America led by trumpeting the good news of the killings ("a triumphant day for President Bush") as well as Jessica Lynch's return to her hometown.
This is sad news. It is also the reason why the U.S. should use "overwhelming" force more often to prevent such ambushes.
...Of the gunfire in Baghdad after the killing of Uday and Qusay, "some of it was most certainly" in "anger," insisted CBS's Byron Pitts in the capital city. His assertion on the Wednesday Early Show followed a Tuesday Evening News contribution in which he expressed confusion over whether the gunfire was prompted by "anger or jubilation."
Obviously Bryon Pitts is still angry. He probably voted for Al Gore.
Related: Saddam Hussein's Real Ministers of Disinformation Come Out of the Closet
Jul 24, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From the Globe and Mail:Tehran stepped up the war of words with Ottawa on Thursday, accusing Canadian police of killing an Iranian man in Vancouver and demanding that the Canadian government bring those responsible to justice.
...The accusation appears to be escalating a heated dispute sparked by the death of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was beaten and died while in Iranian custody. [Related item: Canadian Journalist 'Beaten to Death' Iran.] She was buried in Iran this week against the wishes of her son, leading Ottawa to recall its ambassador to Tehran and threaten further action.
Wire services cited Iranian state radio accusations that police in Vancouver had "attacked" three young Iranians on Tuesday, and killed one of them identified as Keyvan Tabesh. A young Iranian émigré was, indeed, killed in Vancouver -- although it occurred several weeks ago. Port Moody police say that a young man identified as Mr. Tabesh was shot dead by an out-of-uniform police officer as he ran at the officer waving a machete.
...A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tehran suggested that there is a lack of freedom in the Canadian media, saying that controls are imposed by the Canadian government and that "the strong censorship of this story creates more ambiguities."
The spokesman called for "an explicit and transparent and satisfactory explanation" and the punishment of those responsible, a near-echo of Ottawa's demands in the Kazemi case. ["Iran accuses Canadian police of killing Iranian", Globe and Mail, Jul. 24, 2003]
Considering the irrational standards many Canadians use to label the U.S., the label is appropriate. Rationally, there is no story here. Iran is just trying to play the same moral equivalentalism with Canada, that American intellectuals play against the Bush administration. Truth is, with its "hate crimes" legislation Canada does impose strong censorship on its own people.
Jul 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
Oh, those 'patriotic' maggots in the media. Related item.
Jul 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Salon:At 10 p.m., Camilla rings the doorbell as I'm touching up the dark on my lashes. We're bound for a trendy salsa club packed with rich tourist men. I look at myself in the mirror, a strange confidence reflecting back at me. I've made up my mind. With my bank account dwindling, and employment here impossible, I've reluctantly joined the ranks of the Cuban demimonde. Educated. Professional. Hopeful. And part-time hookers. With Camilla as my mentor, I'm going dancing.
The jockey has an outfit. A whip. Riding boots. Jodhpurs, the breeches with reinforced patches at the knee and thigh where the rider's legs grip the beast. "Jinetera," the Spanish word for a female jockey, means much more in Cuba. It's a fitting metaphor for what many educated and beautiful Cuban women do after hours to feed their families as well as their dreams. I'm American, but I'm also Cuban. And to live on my island home, the place I was born, the land where my family surely resides, I've little choice if I want to stay. So I jockey. I ride the beast. I control the beast.
Is this why NBC's Couric praises the Cuban 'education system' so much?
Jul 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Opps! California Democrats Caught in the Act! From the SF Gate:Unaware that a live microphone was broadcasting their words around the Capitol, Assembly Democrats meeting behind closed doors debated prolonging California's budget crisis for political gain.
Members of the coalition of liberal Democrats talked about slowing progress on the budget as a means of increasing pressure on Republicans.
A microphone had been left on during the closed meeting Monday, and the conversation was transmitted to about 500 "squawk boxes" that enable staff members, lobbyists and reporters to listen in on legislative meetings.
Some members of the group, including Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, said if the budget crisis were extended, it could improve chances for a ballot initiative that would make it easier for the Democrats to raise taxes by lowering the threshold for passage from two-thirds to 55 percent. ["Open microphone catches California Democrats talking about prolonging budget crisis", July 22, 2003]
[Tip: J. Imhoff]
Jul 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Another gem from Hitchens:I notice that, in covering the continuing violence and sabotage in Iraq, the New York Times has begun to use the descriptive term "the Iraqi resistance" to characterize those responsible. This makes me queasy for two reasons. First, it is too broad. Many of those fighting are either part of the former secret police of the regime or imported from jihad groups outside the country. The term "resistance" suggests, for most people, in addition to its honorable historic associations, the idea of a civilian insurgency. Second, it is too narrow. There have been many Iraqis and Kurds over the past decades who have, at great risk to themselves, fought against Saddam's dictatorship. Do they not deserve the "resistance" title at least as much? Or do they have to fight against coalition forces in order to earn that distinction? The Times is more precise when it comes to the al-Qaida and Taliban elements in Afghanistan. Now might not be the ideal moment to give credit in advance to Saddamist "irregulars"--the most euphemistic or neutral term that seems permissible.
On CNBC, Hitchen's also mentioned that newspapers like the Times have identified to the American forces who are busy routing out Saddam's thugs as "occupiers." What are these journalistic thugs thinking?
Jul 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Good stuff from Christopher Hitchens' (author of The Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq) at Slate:The overwhelming consensus among inspectors and monitors, including Hans Blix's sidekick Mohammed ElBaradei, is now to the effect that Iran's mullahs have indeed been concealing an enriched-uranium program. For good measure, it is a sure thing that they are harboring al-Qaida activists on their territory. Will the "peace" camp ever admit that Bush was right about this? Or about the "evil" of North Korea: a demented starvation regime now threatening to export ready-to-use nuclear weapons (which Saddam Hussein, say, might have been interested in buying)? Don't make me laugh: The furthest the peaceniks will go is to say that Bush's rhetoric made these people turn nasty. I am not teasing here: The best of the anti-war polemicists is Jonathan Schell, who advanced this very claim in a debate with me earlier this month. Meanwhile, the overwhelming moral case for regime change in both countries is once again being left to the forces of neoconservatism, with the liberals pulling a long face while they wait to be reluctantly "persuaded."
Here is another gem from Hitchens published in Slate:
The report of June 25 was followed by an article of extraordinary importance by Rolf Ekeus ("Iraq's Real Weapons Threat," Washington Post, June 29). Ambassador Ekeus was the chairman of the U.N. inspectors in Iraq between 1991 and 1997. He pointed out that Saddam's chemical and nerve agents had a tendency to decay in storage and that the regime's nuclear projects "lacked access to fissile material but were advanced with regard to weapon design." His conclusion, written just before the unearthing of the centrifuge but published just after it, was:
This combination of researchers, engineers, know-how, precursors, batch production techniques and testing is what constituted Iraq's chemical threat--its chemical weapon. The rather bizarre political focus on the search for rusting drums and pieces of munitions containing low-quality chemicals has tended to distort the important question of WMD in Iraq and exposed the American and British administrations to unjustified criticism.
Jul 22, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
In his book Time and Money, (a book on "Austiran macroecomics") economist Roger Garrison, takes the Von Mises approach to analyzing economic issues, and argues that deficits are more damaging to the economy than taxes because of the uncertainty they create which distorts the process of economic planning:In effect, the government is putting the private sector on notice: "We're taking $1.25 trillion in accordance with the established tax codes. And we're taking another $250 billion as well, but we're not saying just how, just when, or just whose." Taxes, complex and distasteful as they are to both the business community and the consuming public, are a known quantity. We make plans around them, we pay our accountants to minimize them, and we brace ourselves for them. But the deficit is a different story...
...No matter how certain a large deficit may be, there is no effective way for either business people or the rest of us to minimize it, plan around it, or hedge against it. It could hit us with high interest rates [if financed out of domestic savings], with inflation [if monetized by the Fed], with weak export markets [if financed by foreigners], with increased taxes, or with some combination...
...But until the government's fiscal strategy takes some definite form, the $250 billion of intent to appropriate funds in some yet-to-be-specified way looms large as a cloud of uncertainty over the private sector."
Hat Tip: Rob Tarr.
Jul 22, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
So just suppose Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Then why wouldn't he have proved it to the world so that sanctions against Iraq would have been lifted? Here's what Saddam's former diplomats are saying:Nobody at the [Iraqi mission to the United Nations] said they had any knowledge about the whereabouts of the weapons of mass destruction. It was from here that they had been telling the world so emphatically no such weapons existed. But their instructions, it seems, were also to make sure that no respectable weapons inspector could believe those denials. It was all a big ruse, said Mr. Ahmad, who now gets his salary from the American-led administration of occupied Iraq. More than anything, he said, Saddam was interested in leaving intact the international sanctions imposed on the country since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. "He wanted Iraqis to be poor so they can work all day to feed their families," rather than thinking about rebellion, Mr. Said said. Poverty and constant wars were the regime's way of keeping Iraqis down and the regime in power. [NY Sun]
[What empowered Saddam was that no one with power, until George W. Bush, opposed him.--Editor]
