“Peace” in Palestine!

Aug 18, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Search Seizure

Aug 10, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

A solemn handful of plaintiffs surrounded New York Civil Liberties Union head Donna Lieberman last week as she announced the agency's latest lawsuit--this one targeted at new procedures allowing for the random inspection of bags carried onto the subways. This will not come as a surprise--the agency has had an exceptionally busy few years, since 9/11, campaigning against expanding police powers, increased surveillance and other antiterror measures, all of which, the NYCLU and likeminded watchdogs regularly inform us, pose a greater danger than any that might come from the terrorists themselves. ... The head of the NYCLU ... charged not only that the random bag searches didn't work but that they were also likely to lead to racial profiling. She explained how this would happen in a statement that would require, of those who read it, the deciphering talents of the Enigma codebreakers: "Although the NYPD claims that they are conducting searches that are purely random, the large number of people entering the transit system and the lack of control over that traffic result in people being selected for search in a discretionary and arbitrary manner, which creates the potential for impermissible racial profiling." ...

Ethnic/racial profiling may not, in fact, work very well as a security strategy--but the frenzy of the attacks it has excited tells more than we may want to know about our post-9/11 condition. Large numbers of citizens of every religion and ethnicity lost their lives in the terrorist attacks. Today, a strategy designed to help ensure that such a calamity will not again occur has been converted to a bizarre race-discrimination issue, subordinated to the concerns and ambitions of politicians. This won't, in the end, do much for the office-seekers and -holders now competing for the honor of delivering the most hysterical denunciations of ethnic and racial profiling. What, after all, can citizens (black and brown among them) think of leaders still prepared to argue that young Arab males receive no more scrutiny than the famous 80-year-old little grandmother--and that the people's security lies in measures clearly the least suited to assuring their safety?

IAEA Seeks Solution to Iran Nuclear Issue

Aug 10, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to press Iran on Wednesday to reverse its decision to resume a uranium conversion program. Iran restarted uranium conversion -- a step on the way to enrichment -- at its Isfahan nuclear facility Monday, saying it is for peaceful purposes only. Iran has insisted it has the right to have a nuclear fuel recycling program in its quest for greater reliance on nuclear energy. Western nations, however, fear this same uranium enrichment program could also be used by Iran as a front to develop atomic weapons. ... Britain, France and Germany -- the so-called EU-3 -- have led attempts to negotiate a solution with Iran. The United States, which has no diplomatic relations with the Islamic republic, has remained largely in the background. "Our strategy has been all along to work with Germany, France and Great Britain in terms of sending a strong signal and message to Iran," Bush, who once branded Iran as part of an "axis of evil" along with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, said on Tuesday.

IF it looks like a duck, cackles like a duck and flies like one, could it be anything other than a duck? This is the question that some of those interested in Iran's nuclear program have been asking for some time. The official line from Tehran has been that the program has solely peaceful purposes. Yet two events last week show that this Iranian discourse is the product of the old tradition of dissimulation known as "kitman." Put simply, this means hiding one's beliefs and practices in hostile environments and at hostile times.

Israel OKs Pullout; Netanyahu Resigns

Aug 9, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from his post Sunday to protest next week's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, a ministry spokesman said. Netanyahu, seen as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's biggest political rival within the Likud Party, submitted a letter of resignation during the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday. The resignation will take effect within 48 hours.

Netanyahu wrote that he cannot be part of what he described as a "process that ignores reality and proceeds blindly, creating a base for Islamic terror that will threaten the state."

"I am not prepared to be part of this irresponsible act that threatens the security of the Israel," he wrote.

Hamas launched a competition Saturday for the best design of a Gaza pullout poster, according to a statement posted on the Islamic group's web site. The design must portray the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a victory for Palestinian groups -- in particular, Hamas. The design must also show Israel's "desperation and defeat."

In recent weeks, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have been competing for credit for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, each preparing elaborate celebrations, commissioning thousands of flags and frantically sewing clothing with their trademarks.

A top Hamas figure in Gaza, Ahmed al-Bahar says "Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today following more than four years of the intifada. Hamas's heroic attacks exposed the weakness and volatility of the impotent Zionist security establishment. The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that the resistance is the only way to pressure the Jews." A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri says likewise that the withdrawal is "due to the Palestinian resistance operations. … and we will continue our resistance."

Others are more specific. At a mass rally in Gaza City last Thursday, about 10,000 Palestinian Arabs danced, sang, and chanted, "Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem." The commander of Gaza's Popular Resistance Committees, Jamal Abu Samhadaneh announced Sunday, "We will move our cells to the West Bank" and warned "The withdrawal will not be complete without the West Bank and Jerusalem." The Palestinian Authority's Ahmed Qurei also asserts, "Our march will stop only in Jerusalem."

Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu believes that in the aftermath of Israel's upcoming departure, "Gaza will be transformed into a base for Islamic terrorism adjacent to the coast of the State of Israel." In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Netanyahu said the terror threat that would develop in a post-withdrawal Gaza would be a danger not only for Israel but for the Western world in general.

"This it isn't just our problem," he claimed.

"It's the West's problem as well because forces that are controlled, deployed and cooperate with Iran - and today Hizbullah and Hamas are controlled in a significant way by Iran - will receive an additional base of operations not only in close proximity to Israel's cities but also on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea not far from Europe."

[Netanyahu] timed his resignation not to make a difference, and torpedo the plan, but to make the maximum splash – and to best position himself to try again for Israel's prime ministership. This is the second time he has attempted this trick. In the 1990s for example he won office by opposing Oslo – and then in office continued to follow the Oslo policy. Only he did it in the worst possible way: never daring to withdraw from Oslo but instead carrying the policy out so haltingly and grudgingly as to earn Israel all the blame for Oslo's failure – without any of the putative benefits of actual escape from Oslo.

"In my view, the disengagement plan is a tragic mistake that will exacerbate the conflict with the Palestinians, increase terrorism and dim the prospects of forging a genuine peace." He also criticised Mr Sharon for pushing it through without demanding Palestinian security reforms in return. This is a refrain of the Israeli Right, which accuses Mr Sharon of weakness in promoting a "something for nothing" initiative.

Steven Vincent: American Journalist Killed in Iraq

Aug 6, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

BASRA, Iraq  — An American freelance journalist, who accused Basra's police of being infiltrated by Shiite militiamen in a recent New York Times column and his Internet blog, was found shot to death in the southern city after being abducted by armed men driving a police car. Steven Vincent, whose work also has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and his female Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint by five men Tuesday evening as they left a currency exchange shop, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said Wednesday.

Vincent's body was discovered Tuesday night on the side of the highway south of Basra. He had been shot in the head and body, al-Zaidi said. ...

In an opinion column published July 31 in the Times, Vincent wrote that Basra's police force had been heavily infiltrated by members of Shiite political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Vincent quoted an unidentified Iraqi police lieutenant as saying that some police were behind many of the assassinations of former Baath Party members that have taken place in Basra.

"He told me that there is even a sort of 'death car' — a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment," he wrote.

Vincent also was critical of the British military, which is responsible for security in Basra, for turning a blind eye to abuses of power by Shiite extremists in the city.

He was the author of "In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq," a recently published book that was an account of life in a post-Saddam Iraq.

His blog from Iraq — In the Red Zone — chronicled his experiences in Basra from late May to late July. The entries, written as letters to his wife, Lisa, were rich in detail and often humorous.

The most despicable misuse of terminology, however, occurs when Leftists call the Saddamites and foreign jihadists "the resistance."   What an example of moral inversion!  For the fact is, paramilitary death squads are attacking the Iraqi people.  And those who oppose the killers -- the Iraqi police and National Guardsmen, members of the Allawi government, people like Nour [an Iraqi woman who assisted him] -- they are the "resistance."  They are preventing Islamofascists from seizing Iraq, they are resisting evil men from turning the entire nation into a mass slaughterhouse like we saw in re-liberated Falluja.   Anyone who cares about success in our struggle against Islamofascism—or upholds principles of moral clarity and lucid thought—should combat such Orwellian distortions of our language.

On Tuesday evening freelance American journalist Steven Vincent was kidnapped and murdered in Basra. Vincent, who in pre-September 11 America earned his living as an art critic, set out to fight this war after he watched the Twin Towers explode from his rooftop in the East Village in Manhattan. And Tuesday he gave his life in the fight. Vincent did not join the army. He took up his pen and he went to Iraq in the wake of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime by the US-led coalition in the spring of 2003. No one sent him there. He heard the call to battle from his rooftop that terrible morning and he answered it in the only way he knew. He became a chronicler of post-Saddam Iraq. ...

What came through clearly in his writings is that Vincent grasped that the global jihad, as it manifested itself in New York and Washington on September 11 and as it manifests itself on a daily basis in Iraq and indeed throughout the world, is rooted not in terrorism but in culture and religion. And the only way for the US and the rest of the free world to emerge victorious in this war is to expose and destroy the cultural base that spurs millions of Muslims throughout the world to kill and destroy and to support killing and destruction in the name of Islam.

Err America: Financial Scandal Rocks Leftist Radio Network

Aug 5, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Media: Rush Limbaugh's prescription drug troubles were splashed all over the media. Yet a financial scandal rocking a leftist radio network rates no coverage. The mainstream media, fixated on bringing down Karl Rove, have so far deemed apparent funding irregularities at Air America unworthy of note. But that doesn't make them any less of story. Here's the gist, according to The New York Sun — which is giving the scandal the coverage it deserves — and a few others, mostly bloggers and columnists, who are providing a public service: New York City's Department of Investigation is looking into charges that $875,000 from a Bronx nonprofit group and an affiliate whose budgets are generously stuffed with local, state and federal grants was inappropriately used to fund Air America, the left's counterattack on the colossal success of conservative talk radio. ...

Public funds used to prop up a business! Just the kind of scandal that left-leaning media would die for. Yet for some reason they're giving this one a pass. Is it because there are no mean ol' conservatives to blame? When Limbaugh's problems with painkillers came to light, the mainstream media could hardly contain themselves. They called him a "pill popper" and hypocrite and cheered for release of his medical records. And when he returned to the air, they couldn't talk enough about his stay in rehab. ...Nothing wrong, mind you, with reporting on Limbaugh's woes. Nothing, that is, as long as the media cover flaws of those on the left with equal enthusiasm.

Islam Likely Main Basis for Iraqi Law

Aug 3, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

CAIRO, Egypt - The framers of Iraq's constitution appear likely to enshrine Islam as the main basis of law in the country — a stronger role than the United States had hoped for and one some Iraqis fear will mean a more fundamentalist regime. Arab constitutions vary widely over the role of Islamic law, ranging from Lebanon, where the word "Islam" never appears, to Saudi Arabia, which says the Quran itself is its constitution. Culture weighs far more heavily than the constitution and law, particularly when it comes to women. In Gulf nations — where the constitutions spell out a slightly lesser role for Islamic law, or Sharia, than in Egypt — women are more segregated and wear more conservative veils covering the entire face. Kuwait, for example, bans alcohol and only gave women the right to vote this year, in contrast to Egypt, where beer, wine and liquor are sold openly and women have been voting since the early 20th century. Yet most Gulf nations' constitutions state that Sharia is "a main source" of legislation, while Egypt takes the more definitive phrasing of "the source" — a fine distinction taking on major importance in Iraq.

Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat amended the constitution during the 1970s, changing the language from "a source" to "the source" to beef up his Islamic credentials rather than to start implementing Sharia. But in Iraq, some fear the Shiite Muslim leaders who want similar wording in Iraq's constitution hope to lay the groundwork for a more fundamentalist rule, at least in Shiite-dominated areas. Already, Shiite leaders in some southern cities have tried imposing Islamic-based rules, pressuring women to wear headscarves and forcing liquor stores and music shops to close.

Iraqi women took their fight for equal rights to American lawmakers yesterday, urging them to use their influence to see that women's rights are protected in the new constitution. With just 10 days until delegates in Baghdad present the final draft of Iraq's basic law, it is still not clear how large a role will be given to Islamic Shariah law, which traditionally subordinates women to men. "The [American] men and women, the brave people who went there to free [Iraqis] from Saddam [Hussein], they didn't free them to put them under another dictatorship; that is very clear to all of us," said Basma Fakri, president of the Women's Alliance for a Democratic Iraq. During an appearance in Washington yesterday, she said it was entirely appropriate for President Bush, the Senate and House to let Iraq's constitutional negotiators know "that Iraq should be free." "That was the mission. We don't want to go back in time, we don't want to create another dictatorship. That should be clear and loud to the Iraqi government and to the constitutional committee," she said.

The Disintegration of Coercive Union Power Is a Cause for Celebration

Aug 2, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

So Bad Even the UN Can’t Keep Quiet

Jul 31, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Zimbabwe's destruction of urban slums is a "disastrous venture" that has left 700,000 people without homes or jobs, violated international law and created a grave humanitarian crisis, a harshly worded U.N. report said Friday. [...] The report detailed the devastating extent of Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, for the first time. It said a further 2.4 million people have been affected by the countrywide campaign that began with little warning on May 19 and has seen thousands of shantytowns, ramshackle markets and makeshift homes demolished. "While purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, (the operation) was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering," the report said.

[...] Annan urged Zimbabwe to stop the destruction and sought to shift the attention from blame to rebuilding. "Criticism, while fully justified, is not enough," Annan said in a statement. "We have a duty to help those in need."

[...] The state-owned Herald quoted the country's U.N. representative, Boniface Chidyausiku, as saying: "The President will make a comment at the appropriate time. Zimbabwe is not under any inquisition to warrant 48 hours of responding." He demanded the international community raise funds so Zimbabwe can provide cheaper housing for its people. "One would call upon Britain and the European Union to stop their campaign to vilify our economy. Were it not for their sanctions, our economy wouldn't be where it is today." [...]

[Opposition legislator Trudy Stevenson of the Movement for Democratic Change] welcomed Tibaijuka's description of the evictions as a breach of international law, recalling they left at least 20,000 of her constituents without shelter in the midwinter cold. The sick and elderly had died and children had been left orphaned, she said. "So let's get them (the government) in the international courts," Stevenson said. Stevenson's MDC alleged that "Operation Murambatsvina" aimed to victimize those who voted for the opposition in March 31 parliamentary elections and drive them back to rural areas, where they could be intimidated by blocking their access to relief food.

[...] U.N. agencies estimate 4 million Zimbabweans need relief following the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms and the collapse of the agricultural-based economy. [...] African nations on the 15-member Security Council have so far kept the crisis in Zimbabwe off the council's agenda. But several U.N. diplomats said they are hoping to get Tibaijuka to brief members on the report next week.

TV Lecture: The Abolition of Antitrust

Jul 29, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Gary Hull, editor of the book "The Abolition of Antitrust," argues that antitrust laws are harmful. Mr. Hull and other contributing writers assert that these laws are based on bad economics and the misinterpretation of American business history. Gary Hull is joined by Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, to examine several antitrust cases, including General Electric, Visa/MasterCard, and Kellogg/General Mills. [Hat Tip: HBL]

No US Aid to Cuba

Jul 22, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

What terrorists in London?

Jul 11, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Now that the bombs have exploded, and thousands of newspaper pages and entire days of air time have been devoted to the horror of it all, and to the poor, decent people who are dead and missing, and to the misguided criminals responsible, perhaps we can stand back from it all and catch our breath.["London bombs need calm response"]

Solving Poverty in Africa

Jul 10, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor. [...] Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.

When there's a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program -- which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated. [...] and at some point, this corn ends up in the harbor of Mombasa. A portion of the corn often goes directly into the hands of unscrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN's World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It's a simple but fatal cycle. [...] Hunger should not be a problem in most of the countries south of the Sahara. In addition, there are vast natural resources: oil, gold, diamonds. Africa is always only portrayed as a continent of suffering, but most figures are vastly exaggerated.

If one were to believe all the horrorifying reports, then all Kenyans should actually be dead by now. But now, tests are being carried out everywhere, and it turns out that the figures were vastly exaggerated. It's not three million Kenyans that are infected. All of the sudden, it's only about one million. Malaria is just as much of a problem, but people rarely talk about that. [...] AIDS is big business, maybe Africa's biggest business. There's nothing else that can generate as much aid money as shocking figures on AIDS. AIDS is a political disease here [...] Millions of dollars earmarked for the fight against AIDS are still stashed away in Kenyan bank accounts and have not been spent. Our politicians were overwhelmed with money, and they try to siphon off as much as possible.

[...] and they flood our markets with that stuff. We can buy these donated clothes cheaply at our so-called Mitumba markets. There are Germans who spend a few dollars to get used Bayern Munich or Werder Bremen jerseys, in other words, clothes that that some German kids sent to Africa for a good cause. After buying these jerseys, they auction them off at Ebay and send them back to Germany -- for three times the price. That's insanity [...]

Why do we get these mountains of clothes? No one is freezing here. Instead, our tailors lose their livelihoods. They're in the same position as our farmers. No one in the low-wage world of Africa can be cost-efficient enough to keep pace with donated products. In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria's textile industry. By 2003, the figure had dropped to 57,000. The results are the same in all other areas where overwhelming helpfulness and fragile African markets collide.

Live 8 Message

Jul 3, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Central American Free Trade Pact

Jul 1, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

The Senate did well to approve the Central American Free Trade Pact.

The government should eliminate all tariffs and quotas on imported products because Americans have the moral right to pursue their self-interest and buy cheaper goods from abroad, without government interference.

The proper purpose of government is to protect the rights of its citizens, not to protect the market share of domestic producers.

The right to trade is part of the right to life and liberty, and is essential to the survival and prosperity of all individuals. An individual's right to trade is based on his right to the use and disposal of his property, and is a basic human right.

Government's role in trade should be to protect it, not to forbid or obstruct it. As long as trade is done voluntarily, there should be no legal impediments to block it.

Eminent Domain Is Eminently Immoral

Jun 30, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Onkar Ghate on BBC Radio

Jun 29, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

Night Waves: Wednesday 29 June 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
 

Make Poverty History is the latest manifestation of the rich helping the poor. But what lies behind the urge to do good to others while expecting nothing in return? In Night Waves: Undercurrents, Philip Dodd and guests deconstruct the philosophy, morality and practicality of altruism. Duration: 45 minutes "We are all here to help others. What I can't figure out is what the others are here for." So wrote W.H. Auden. In this evening's Night Waves: Undercurrents, Philip Dodd and guests will consider the subject of altruism.

When the Asian tsunami devastated millions of lives six months ago, individuals and governments around the world donated money and effort in almost unprecedented quantities. And with Live8 and the G8 summit about to take place, attention will once again focus on aid to Africa.

But what lies behind an individual's desire to help others in a selfless way? Auguste Comte, the French founder of positivism, believed that individuals have a moral obligation to serve the interest of others, even at one's own cost. Yet the writer Ayn Rand challenged both philosophical and conventional ethics and presented strong arguments against altruism in its various forms. And to what extent is the concept of altruism an evolutionary trait?

Philip Dodd will be joined round the table by the eminent evolutionary biologist and author of The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins; Frances Cairncross, former senior editor at The Econiomist; theologian Phillip Blond; and on the line from Geneva, Hugo Slim, specialist from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, who has spent many years working for a variety of charities across the world. So, is selflessness really possible? Join Philip Dodd for Night Waves: Undercurrents live at half past nine here on Radio 3.
 

House Passes Flag-Burning Amendment

Jun 26, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses

For my own part, I believe that, if someone wishes to burn a flag, he should be free to do so. In the same way, if Democrat senators want to make speeches comparing the U.S. military to Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, they should be free to do so. It's always useful to know what people really believe.