The Enemy Speaks

from the Netherlands and France.

Asia Times Online spoke to Nada al-Rubaiee in the Netherlands. Nada is a member of the central committee of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA), a collection of different Iraqi groups opposed to the US occupation of Iraq. It is based in Iraq, as well as in other countries, such as Syria, Jordan, France and the Netherlands.

That's some company you're keeping, Netherlands and France.

Read the rest of the article for some excellent taqiyya. These heroic resistance fighters, cowering in Paris and Amsterdam, know how to fool people fed on a strict diet of anti-Americanism. You know: Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

One Islamic view of taqiyya. Keep this in mind when speaking to any Muslim, reading articles by Muslims in the Western press, or listening to their television spokesmen (CAIR for example):

Notice that neither the above tradition nor the commentary are concerned with dealing with non-Muslims only.

Let me help explicate that without the double-negative: Lying to kuffar (unbelievers) is fine under all circumstances.

Welcome to Wahhabi World, U.S.A.

Only three miles from the former home of the World Trade Center, destroyed by Wahhabi Muslims.

Just three miles from the site of the World Trade Center, the government of Saudi Arabia is distributing hate materials expounding an extremist Wahhabi ideology, according to a new report by the Center for Religious Freedom.

The Washington-based center is part of Freedom House, America's oldest human-rights organization. While the group typically monitors the state of religious freedom under oppressive regimes abroad, the center has just concluded a year-long study of 200 documents that it said were collected in more than a dozen mosques across America, bear the seal of the Saudi government, and spread hateful indoctrination. The group called the propaganda a violation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to a press release and to the center's director, Nina Shea, the 89-page report, which was issued Friday, finds that the materials incite violence, inform Muslims that it is their religious duty to hate Jews and Christians, and even give specific instructions on how properly to express that hatred to one's infidel neighbors.

The Saudi-produced and -distributed materials denounce democracy - and democratic America - as un-Islamic. Ms. Shea said the materials are directed toward recent immigrants. According to the report, Muslim newcomers are told that, while in America, they should think of themselves as operating behind enemy lines and should use their time in America either to acquire information and resources for jihad or to convert the infidels to Islam.

Freedom House

Seymour Hersh, a true-believing Bush hater

Recently, I caught Seymour Hersh telling a huge lie.

Now I've found him admitting why he lies.

Seymour Hersh: About what's going on in terms of the President is that as virtuous as I feel, you know, at The New Yorker, writing an alternative history more or less of what's been going on in the last three years, George Bush feels just as virtuous in what he is doing. He is absolutely committed - I don't know whether he thinks he's doing God's will or what his father didn't do, or whether it's some mandate from - you know, I just don't know, but George Bush thinks this is the right thing. He is going to continue doing what he has been doing in Iraq. He's going to expand it, I think, if he can. I think that the number of body bags that come back will make no difference to him. The body bags are rolling in. It makes no difference to him, because he will see it as a price he has to pay to put America where he thinks it should be. So, he's inured in a very strange way to people like me, to the politicians, most of them who are too cowardly anyway to do much. So, the day-to-day anxiety that all of us have, and believe me, though he got 58 million votes, many of people who voted for him weren't voting for continued warfare, but I think that's what we're going to have.

It's hard to predict the future. And it's sort of silly to, but the question is: How do you go to him? How do you get at him? What can you do to maybe move him off the course that he sees as virtuous and he sees as absolutely appropriate? All of us - you have to - I can't begin to exaggerate how frightening the position is - we're in right now, because most of you don't understand, because the press has not done a very good job. The Senate Intelligence Committee, the new bill that was just passed, provoked by the 9/11 committee actually, is a little bit of a kabuki dance, I guess is what I want to say, in that what it really does is it consolidates an awful lot of power in the Pentagon - by statute now. It gives Rumsfeld the right to do an awful lot of things he has been wanting to do, and that is basically man hunting and killing them before they kill us, as Peter said. "They did it to us. We've got to do it to them." That is the attitude that - at the very top of our government exists. And so, I'll just tell you a couple of things that drive me nuts. We can - you know, there's not much more to go on with.

In other words, get Bush by any means necessary. That is Seymour Hersh's philosophy in a nutshell.

UPDATE: Max Boot of the LA Times agrees

Digging Into Seymour Hersh

You don't have to scratch too deeply to find an enormous reservoir of left-wing bias.....

.....Hersh...is the journalistic equivalent of Oliver Stone: a hard-left zealot who subscribes to the old counterculture conceit that a deep, dark conspiracy is running the U.S. government. In the 1960s the boogeyman was the "military- industrial complex." Now it's the "neoconservatives." "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military!" Hersh ranted at UC Berkeley on Oct. 8, 2004.....

.....It's hard to know why anyone would take seriously a "reporter" whose writings are so full of, in Ted Kennedy's words, "maliciousness and innuendo." That Hersh remains a revered figure in American journalism suggests that the media have yet to recover from the paranoid style of the 1960s.

What's the world coming to when a lunatic is viewed as a respected member of the Fourth Estate? Dan Rather, any comments?

Auschwitz was liberated 60 years ago today by the Red Army

A virtual tour of Auschwitz

"The same day I saw my first horror camp, I visited every nook and cranny. I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda."

- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Man Who Wanted to Bomb Auschwitz

Charles (Little Green Footballs) caused me to look this up. I continue to learn something new every day.

Thanks in part to Akzin's persistence, the WRB continued to press the War Department on the bombing issue in the months to follow. But each time Pehle presented a bombing request, it was rejected on the grounds that the department had already conducted a "study" and found that it was not militarily feasible. That claim was false. No such study had been done.

In fact, the War Department had already secretly decided, back in February 1944, that as a matter of principle it would never use military resources "for the purposes of rescuing victims of enemy oppression."

This policy was in accord with the policies of president Roosevelt and his State Department, who feared that saving Jews would create pressure to bring them to the United States. One internal State Department official specifically warned against the "danger" that the Nazis "might agree to turn over to the United States and to Great Britain a large number of Jewish refugees."

Good luck in that snakepit, Dr. Rice.

Senator Edward Kennedy is a Drunk Traitor Who Kills People

What do I really think, you must be asking. Don't hold back, you say.

Today I saw the senator who never loses at quarters say "our troops in Iraq are part of the problem." Ignoring the effect on troop morale, Teddy's full of flammable gas (a-gain).

Some Iraqis Want U.S. Troops to Stay.
Yeah, the smart ones who represent a majority of the population.

Until recently, leaders of the majority Iraqi Shiite community insisted that the Americans should leave after elections in 2005. The party platform of the United Iraqi Alliance -- the Shiite bloc expected to win the largest share of Sunday's vote -- called for a timetable for the withdrawal of multinational troops.

Now, Shiite leaders have changed their minds. In a move little noticed by the media, the alliance has dropped the call for a timetable from its platform.

The alliance has not yet publicized the change; it took me days and many trips to party headquarters to get hold of a copy of the revised version of the platform.

But the policy shift reflects a growing fear in the Shiite establishment that if the Americans leave soon, the Sunni Baathists who persecuted them under Saddam might make a comeback. The Shiite community is also under siege by radical Sunni Islamists from inside -- and outside -- Iraq who consider Shiite Muslims to be infidels. These fanatics are trying to foment civil war.

This is so obvious. Why don't idiots like Boxer, Kerry, and Kennedy get it? I fear they do get it and simply don't care. Moreover, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria don't want to see a democracy on their borders. Their governments are doing every covert thing they can to make Iraq fail. Lucky Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, the Leftist wing of the Democratic Party is helping them.

UPDATE: None Dare Call it Treason (WaTi - fairly noninvasive registration). Well, most don't dare anyway.

But wait, there's fire in the old warhorse yet. In a speech in Washington today, Mr. Kennedy became the first senator to call for the early withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Drawing a parallel with the Vietnam war (why is it that liberals are so hot to champion U.S. failure?), he declared that "the U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution. We need a new plan that sets fair and realistic goals for self-government in Iraq, and works with the Iraqi government on a specific timetable for the honorable homecoming of our forces."

In other words, let's ignore the sacrifice of those who have died to defeat a brutal dictator and to establish a fledgling democracy in the heart of the Middle East, and get the hell out as quickly as we can. Now that's statesmanship. Three days before courageous Iraqis risk their lives to vote in their first-ever democratic election. Now that's timing. To appease the Saddam holdovers who are brutally killing and maiming their own women and children to return to power. Now that's the American way.

And this is the man regarded by many as the senior statesman of the Democratic Party.

Senior just means outdated, spoiled, or decomposing in this case.

UPDATE: Iraqi president says U.S. troops should stay

BAGHDAD, Iraq-- Iraq's president said Tuesday it would be "complete nonsense" to ask foreign troops to leave the country now, although some could depart by year's end. Officials began the final vote tally from elections to produce a government to confront the insurgency.....

.....During a news conference, President Ghazi al-Yawer was asked whether the presence of foreign troops might be fueling the Sunni Arab revolt by encouraging rebel attacks.

"It's only complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power," al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, said.

He said foreign troops should leave only after Iraq's security forces are built up, the country's security situation has improved and some pockets of terrorists are eliminated.

"By the end of this year, we could see the number of foreign troops decreasing," al-Yawer said.

Yes, it would be nonsensical. Let's not repeat what happened after the Gulf War, where the Bush Administration (41) encouraged revolution but didn't support the revolution it encouraged. I cried when I saw our soldiers pointing at the Shiites being massacred within their eyesight, but our soldiers were under orders not to act. Realpolitik created real genocide.

The experiment in Iraqi democracy may not work, but the United States cannot be the reason it fails.

Back to the present with news you can use

Janet Daley, one of my favoUrite columnists in the UK, confirms my belief that European commitment to democracy is not even skin-deep.

It may sound apocalyptic, but I do believe that the democratic experiment in continental Europe, begun just over 200 years or so ago, is coming to a close.

The European Union is creating what it hopes will be a benign oligarchy. Real political power will reside once again within elite circles (as it does already in France) which will conduct their business in the corridors rather than in the assemblies.

"Sounding apocalyptic" is only sensible, Janet. EU strategy will bring it into conflict with the United States and Israel if present trends continue. Buy some sunglasses and practice putting your head between your legs.

Why would God follow Earth days before God created the Earth?

Are you an enviro-fundamentalist?
You know at least one person like this I'll wager. I know two or three. They lecture you on the environment while driving an old car which belches smoke like a coal-driven locomotive.

Speaking of belching smoke, Mt. St. Helens is Washinton's top polluter. Anyone want to present the Kyoto treaty to the Earth's subduction zones?

We are mired in a religious war.

We are now mired in a religious war in Iraq, and elsewhere. Our enemies, as witnessed by their astonishing willingness to slaughter themselves, are not principally motivated by political or economic grievances. Anyone who imagines that terrestrial concerns account for terrorism by Muslims must explain why there are no Palestinian Christian suicide bombers. They, too, suffer the ordeal of the Israeli occupation. Where are the Tibetan Buddhist suicide bombers for that matter? The Tibetans have suffered an occupation far more brutal than any we or the Israelis have imposed on the Muslim world. The truth that we must finally confront is that Islam contains specific doctrines about martyrdom and jihad that directly inspire Muslim terrorism.

Will the civilized world awaken in time?

I can't resist posting one article by "Dan Brown".

I pick up the phone. "Monsieur?", says the voice. "Sir, an important man is here to see you, s'il vous plait?" I wish Juanita would stop putting on a French accent. "A very important man," she pressed. That could only be my friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, the Royal Historian and Ambassador-Plenipotentiary to the Exchequer. He was awarded a knightency by Queen Elizabeth the II for his amazing volume on the House of Percy, in which he revealed for the first time the ninth earl's involvement in a Rosicrucian-Illuminati-Masonic conspiracy to do, er, something or other.

Iowahawk, is that you?

DaVinci Code (Part III) - Another very strange coincidence

If you look at the monk's left (from our perspective) knee you probably can't see a signature. But there is one. I'd never noticed it my entire life. My friend found it and pointed it out to me. Ostensibly, this should be the artist. But since France didn't legislate freedom of religion until 1905, would it have been smart to sign a name on this plate? Being charged with heresy, aside from legal jeopardy, would have been socially destructive. France used to be a very Catholic country.

What is written is not easy to make out. It looks like "La Montague" "La Monteque" - or something like that.

On page 409 of my paperback copy of Holy Blood, Holy Grail it states:

There are at least a dozen families in Britain and Europe today -- with numerous collateral branches -- who are of Merovingian lineage. These include the houses of....Montesquiou....

I realize the name does not match exactly. But I'm not even sure exactly what name the artist was trying to paint. The script is unusual. I will try to get a close-up photo with my digital camera.

UPDATE: Thanks for responding, "Anonymous".

"Am I sure I cannot find another one like it?"

Yes, I'm positive I cannot find another one like it. But I know I'm not an expert on decorative plates, or art of any kind for that matter. I've contacted several experts and one appraiser, all of whom were useless. Montereau and Creil is a famous French plate company. Barluet and Company made plates for Montereau and Creil from 1876-1884. If anyone, I ask again, can find a plate or painting like it please tell me. I've done hundreds of Google searches. Maybe there is a French person living in Montereau or Creil who could do some specialized research. But I'm in Florida.

"Where is the heresy?"

Monks are not supposed to mix with women at all. Notice the plate does not depict a priest but a monk. Monks do not take confessions. Monks are regular clergy. They are supposed to remain cloistered away from the outside world.

When joining a monastery, a person must take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. This means that the aspirant must surrender all worldly goods and never own personal property, must abstain from any sexual activity; and must obey the head of the house and the rules that regulate the community.

Look at the monk's curled toes. That suggests "sexual activity". France was particularly draconian when it came to prosecuting heresy, from the Albigensian Crusade, the persecution of the Templars, until the early 20th Century.

REMINDER: This plate is EXACTLY 13" wide. In decorative plates, from what I've seen, "Wendy's" notwithstanding, that's unusual. This is a great summary of the number thirteen superstition.

Here's a quick rundown on how the day got a bad rap.

The number 13 has been linked to the fact there were 13 people at the last supper of Jesus Christ, who was crucified on Good Friday. It's also been linked to the lunisolar calendar which has 13 months in some years. However, others say it goes back to medieval times. On Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, France's King Philip IV had the Knights Templar rounded up for torture and execution.

13 is the sixth-smallest prime number, the next is 17. It is the seventh Fibonacci number. Also, 13 goes into 999,999 exactly 76,923 times, so fractions with 13 in the denominator have six-digit repeating sequences in their decimal expansions.

Am I a nutty conspiracy theorist? No. But on this topic, all the so-called experts are.

11, 13 and 33

The Illuminati / Freemason Signature

The plate is 13", marked with a 33, shows a rose line and vessel which looks like many pictures of the Holy Grail, depicts a monk with a woman, and was made in France around the time of Sauniere.

You be the judge.

One last thing, it just so happens that one of the two Great Masonic Schisms, where the Grand Orient split off from the rest of Freemasonry over the issue of admitting athiests, happened in 1877.

Remember, Barluet and Company only made Montereau and Creil plates from 1876-1884.

"Beyond the DaVinci Code" -- (Part II)

I missed the first hour and a half of the two hour History Channel show called "Beyond the DaVinci Code". But I've set the timer to catch it later today. No wonder the producer never contacted me, assuming that is the producer who was supposed to contact me. The program draws a reasonable conclusion: there is nothing to the theories outlined in the DaVinci Code.

In my case, I could call that pre-April, 2004 thinking. Perhaps I should smash my father's plate and pretend none of this ever happened? I don't want to offend strict Christian beliefs. Moreover, this has caused me nothing but stress and aggravation.

But there is so much more to discuss. I wish the photograph of the plate on my weblog showed more close-up detail. Please bear with me.

I've focused on the background of the plate, specifically the roses leading up to the vessel on the right-hand side. I'd like to consider the vessel itself a bit more. If you look closely at the photograph you might be able to see that the vessel is marked with many vertical, and twin horizontal, lines.

Remember in my previous post, rose lines are supposedly one key to this mystery: roses, rose lines, Rosicrucianism, and so on. In Beyond the DaVinci Code, narrator Edward Hermann tells us that the rose line supposedly relates to a meridian line, or a longitude line traced on the ground.

The lines on the vessel look exactly like the longitude lines on a globe. The vessel also features twin latitude lines near the equator.

So if a single rose line leading to a vessel on a 13" plate marked with the number 33 doesn't suggest something, what about the longitude lines and the two equatorial lines on the vessel itself?

THE WHITE CLOTH UNDER THE MONK'S ARM

The monk on the plate has a small bit of white, tasseled, cloth under his arm.

This little detail fascinates me. Once I began looking closely at the plate I thought there had to be some symbolic meaning to the white cloth. It took months to find this, especially since the one person willing to help me sort this out borrowed my copy of Holy Blood, Holy Grail for several months. This is mentioned briefly in Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

What do you think?

Merovingians

The origin of the Merovingian family name comes from that of their progenitor, Merovee (also styled "Merovech" or "Meroveus"). The name is reminiscent of both the French word for "mother" and the French and Latin words for "sea." The legend is that Merovee was born of two fathers - the story that is told is no doubt allegorical and refers to the alliance of two dynasties through his birth. It was said that his mother was already pregnant by her husband when she went swimming in the sea. She was seduced by a sea creature who impregnated her for a second time. When Merovee was born therefore, the blood of two sources, that of his Frankish father, the ruler, and that of a "sea animal" ran through his veins.

From that time on, the Merovingians had a reputation for the occult and the supernatural. They were looked upon as priest-kings, much as the Egyptian pharaohs were regarded. The healing powers they were said to have possessed extended even to the tassels of their robes, which were believed to be of particular curative powers. As we shall see in Chapter Four, after the death of Berenger Sauniere a procession of people passed by his robed corpse, each removing a tassel from it. The Merovingian kings were said to have had a certain birthmark that took the form of a Templar type red cross, either over the heart or between the shoulder blades.

There is more fruity, crunchy, nuttiness -- coming in Part III. This might stretch to Part X or more.

Holy Grail plate (Part I) - DaVinci Code

I started this blog several months ago hoping I might get some help unraveling the mysteries of a plate my father left me. When I'm not rhetorically fighting against the global jihad, writing about religion, or analyzing news, I'm thinking about this plate mystery. I've yet to find another plate like it.

I've been hesitant to post the early results of my plate analysis. Everything in this post I've known since mid-April of 2004.

Having spent months reading articles like this, I really don't want to be the guy with a unique relic related to the DaVinci Code. Please, no torches and pitchforks at my front door.

I'm against royalty, world government, and Satan. I believe in representative democracy, limited government, and worship God. I'm somewhere between a Deist and a Unitarian. I like dogs and gardening. Ruling the world and forcing everyone to worship what I believe would really cut into my nap time.

My father hung the plate near our dining room table my entire life. Only after I read DaVinci Code in April, 2004 did I notice anything other than a monk 'flirting' with a woman. Who knew roses and what looks like a golf trophy could be so significant? I didn't.

As I noted months ago, my father's plate was made by Montereau & Creil (Barluet & Company) between 1876-1884. That's what I know with certainty from the markings ("B&C") on the back. The back is science, while the front is religious symbolism.

Keep in mind this evidence goes to what some French people believed at the end of the Ninteenth Century. Other than that, it doesn't prove anything.

1. The plate being 13 inches wide, and having the number 33 on the back, directly links it to the Freemasons. Thirteen, of course, goes all the way back to Jacques de Molay (Knights Templar Grand Master) being burned at the stake on Friday October 13th, 1307. That's where the number thirteen superstiton comes from.

The thirty-third degree is the highest degree of Freemasonry. thirteen and thirty three are considered by experts to be key numbers in the world of Freemasonry.

This would be a mere coincidence were it not for all the other clues.

2. The rose line is always associated with the Holy Grail mystery.

"The Rose: Rosicrucianism, the Rosy Cross, and rose-line symbolism is all over the place in this mystery."

Notice the rose line on the right side of the plate? It leads up to a vessel which looks like many artistic depictions of the Holy Grail.

In summary, we have a 13" plate, marked with the number 33, including a rose line, leading to a vessel which looks just like the Holy Grail in many works of art.

That's it for Part I.

For more information, click "Resources for Researchers".

Dan Brown's list of books is useful if none of this makes any sense. It didn't make any sense to me less than a year ago. Join the club.

A Tsunami New Year

Is it fair to ask what simple systems were in place to track major seismic events and consider their impacts on the victim nations? How could a government ignore a huge earthquake thinking issuing a warning might hurt the tourism industry? Huge tsunamis, without warning, hurt the tourism industry.

Why do 'experts' say these events are once-in-a-lifetime? Each active geologic region on Earth will not produce spectacular events all the time. But as a planet, Earth has a history of major earthquakes, many producing tsunami. Human history is filled with stories of volcanic eruptions, giant earthquakes, and fire from the sky.

Indonesia produced the Krakatoa eruption of 1883.

There are many active volcanic regions in the world right now, from Mt. St. Helens, Monserrat, and Iceland, to Hawaii and Indonesia.

But the Indonesian Krakatoa eruption of 1883 was particularly spectacular:

A series of large tsunami waves generated by the main explosion, some reaching a height of nearly 40 meters (more than 120 feet) above sea level, killed more than 36,000 people in the coastal towns and villages along the Sunda Strait on Java and Sumatra islands. Tsunami waves were recorded or observed throughout the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the American West Coast, South America, and even as far away as the English Channel.

But nothing in modern history tops Mt. Tambora eruption in 1815, also in Indonesia.

Tambora erupted in 1815 killing 92 000 people. 1816 became the year without a summer as the global climate effects were felt. Aerosols from the Tambora eruption blocked out sunlight and reduced global temperatures by 3 deg C. Europe missed a summer, and India had crop failures following the Tambora eruption. 100 cubic km of magma was erupted. Ten thousand people were killed immediately from the pyroclastic flows and the eventual toll due to starvation and diseasme may have been as high as 117,000.

The Year Without a Summer, and the Year of Famine

Even in New England, the weather was dramatically colder.

What Made 1816 So Cold?
The meteorological facts of life during 1816 have been laid out. The period March to September was marked by a series of strong and frequent invasions of dry arctic air across New England. While the movement of arctic air masses through this region is not uncommon in other seasons, their appearance in the summer as cold and frequent as in 1816 is indeed unusual. The question arises, why? Various theories have been put forward.

The most likely cause was volcanic influences. Proponents note that a number of major volcanic eruptions preceded 1816: Soufriére and St. Vincent in 1812: Mayon and Luzon in the Phillippines during 1814; Tambora in Indonesia during 1815. The volcanic theory of climatic influence relates increased volcanic activity with decreased temperatures due to the increased reflection of solar radiation from volcanic dust blown and trapped high in the atmosphere. The Tambora eruption has been estimated to be the most violent in historical times. The explosion is believed to have lifted 150 to 180 cubic kilometres of material into the atmosphere. For a comparison, the infamous 1883 eruption of Krakatau ejected only 20 cubic kilometres of material into the air, and yet it affected sunsets for several years after.

It is fair to say Indonesia has produced three of the largest geologic disasters in modern history.

So religions ask How could God let this happen?

God hates people who live near sea level? The biggest tsunami is defeated by high ground. Why didn't someone in charge tell people to get to high ground? As the bodies pile up, maybe those in charge can answer some of the obvious questions. The Indonesian government should educate its citizens on the volcanic and dangerous national history.

Islam Divided?

Though many Muslims value unity within the Muslim community above all other values, there are brave voices speaking out against the barbarism being carried out in their name. The 'unity' in Islam is often superficial. The Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, Salafi (Wahhabi), and Takfir views on Islam vary a great deal. There are sects within sects. In Iraq, some Sunni are hunting Shiites south of Baghdad. "They act according to their own religious edict: If you kill a Shiite, you go to paradise."

From "speaking out":

Earlier this month, a group of about 3,000 Arab and Muslim intellectuals signed a petition demanding that prominent Muslim clerics known for inflammatory views face an international court on charges of encouraging terrorism. Among those they singled out was Egyptian Sheikh Youssef al- Qaradawi, based in Qatar, who has condoned attacks on American civilians in Iraq and sanctioned kidnapping in wartime.

These critics risk religious rulings calling for their deaths. There are very real and dangerous consequences when Muslims don't follow the radicals, and when they do.

Firstly, I was expelled from my school. “Being a good mother doesn’t require education”, Imam said. Secondly, I was forced to wear hijab all the time. Even that I had some problems with breathing, it didn’t matter. I was told to pray to Allah to save my life. Thirdly, I couldn’t use buses, trains and so on. I could only go out with my father. And finally, my mother wasn’t allowed to work. And we plunged into poverty.

Try to understand me, it wasn’t the secular law. We could bring legal proceeding against these criminals. But we could also be killed by our own neighbors for not obeying. And I WANTED TO LIVE, no matter how awful my life was.

At home we always discussed Islam. We read Koran and then compared it with reality. We were stunned. But not by reality. We were stunned because this awful life was required by Koran and Mohammed. It wasn’t terrorism. It was real Islam.

We made up our minds to escape as soon as possible. We saved all our money for a one-way ticket. And while doing it, I went to mosque; was beaten by Muslim boys because my name wasn’t Arab. I was beaten by Imams because I asked too many questions. I was beaten all the time.

After a few years, an awful event happened. My grandfather converted to Christianity openly and was killed near church. I didn’t know why he converted so openly; after all he understood that he would certainly be killed. But when he was at home writhing in pain, he confessed that he had cancer and knew that his death was somewhere nearby. He said he didn’t want to die a Muslim. It would be too shameful for him. I hope now he’s in Heaven or if Heaven doesn’t exist then I hope he’s now safe and happy.

From the "radicals" link:

The Takfir movement's limitless suspicion of outsiders and elusive tactics create huge complications for monitoring and infiltrating. Among Takfir precepts is "taqiyya," or use of deceptions that include blending into non-Muslim societies. This led some U.S. investigators to suspect Takfir links to some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, though no clear evidence emerged.

There's also worry about a trend toward smaller, independent Takfir cells that follow their own random agendas.

"Now we have a new generation of fundamentalists," said Mohamed Salah, an expert on Islamic radicals and the Cairo bureau chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. "The atmosphere in the world now makes it easy for someone to get two or three people together and form a group."

Takfir has cropped up on the fringes of recent terrorist probes.

In Jordan, one of 13 suspects accused of plotting to bomb American targets earlier this year is an alleged Takfir adherent. Moroccan officials have targeted Takfir followers in raids. Last year, French anti-terrorist agents detained more than a dozen suspected Takfir members.

Also last year, Lebanese forces arrested dozens of suspects accused of planning to assassinate the U.S. ambassador and other plots. Some suspects were reportedly Takfir followers.

Belgian investigators, meanwhile, are looking for possible ties between the Van Gogh slaying and threats against political figures including the justice minister and a lawmaker with Moroccan parents, Mimount Bousakla, who has challenged conservative Muslim social codes. Bousakla went into hiding after receiving anonymous calls that included a threat "to ritually slaughter her," Belgian officials said Wednesday.

Van Gogh was shot and then his throat was slashed. He had recently collaborated with Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a parliament member, on a film criticizing Islam's treatment of women. She also has moved to a secret location.

"You can't dismiss the influence of Takfir on contemporary terrorism at some level," said Omid Safi, a religion professor at Colgate University. "It brands everyone it opposes as an infidel - including Muslims - and that makes it that much easier to inflict violence on them."

What actions can be taken to create a more moderate, less violent, Islam? This Stephen Schwartz article from Tech Central Station suggests a practical approach. Schwartz assumes the Koran, Hadiths, and Sira will never be changed, and he's probably right.

Some also insist that it is simplistic to blame Wahhabism alone for the present offensive by radical Islam. That is because they do not grasp the nature of Wahhabism or the solution to it. Wahhabism abolishes the tradition of pluralistic interpretation of Qur'an, the hadith, and Islamic law for which the religion was always previously known. To discuss the issues that have been forced on Islam by the terrorists, such as jihad, Muslims must first reclaim the right to discuss the religion on its own terms. That means ending the Wahhabi monopoly on discourse. When I published an exposé of the "Wahhabi Qur'an," in which statements that might be applied negatively to Jews and Christians were printed as if they unquestionably assailed those faiths, I was accused of diverting attention from the original malice allegedly present in the text. But Islamic pluralism, and Islamic moderation, embody the unchallengeable presumption that Qur'an, the hadith, and Islamic law are and always were open to differing interpretations. (Debate over textual interpretation is not the same as ijtihad, or originality in legal judgments, but that should be taken up elsewhere.) Wahhabism, which dominates mosques in the United States no less than in the Saudi kingdom, wipes out such a diversity of views, and replaces them with a single totalitarian dispensation.

The enforced uniformity of Wahhabism must be overthrown; then, with the restoration of Islamic pluralism, every verse in Qur'an, every hadith, and every precedent in Islamic law can be analyzed anew. I believe much can and will be reaffirmed as a foundation for moderation. But it is doubtful that Muslim tradition will be reordered according to the dictates of simplistic and bigoted non-Muslim demagogues. It is peculiar to me, in this context, that the long-standing recognition that Islam is divided between a fundamentalist minority and a nonfundamentalist majority seems to have disappeared from the minds of many Westerners; to them, as to the Muslim radicals, there is only one Islam. Some Western propagandists work overtime to convince the world that fundamentalist Islam is the only expression the faith ever produced, or that because Qur'an has not been expurgated, Muslims will always turn in that direction. Such analysts of the past think little of the future; removing controversial parts of Qur'an or any other part of Islamic tradition would only make them forbidden fruit, and even more attractive as weapons of radicalization.

When these brave pioneers in Islamic thought attempt to bring new, or old, insight into Islamic scripture, I suggest they do so with their heads down and powder dry. The Takfirs and Wahhabis would like nothing more than to kill the "infidels".

"Anonymous" has a good point

Anonymous:

The Vatican does damn well in worrying about secularism in Europe as much as about Islam.

My reply:

I think you are mostly correct. Secularism in Europe goes far beyond avoiding the "establishment of religion".

Cardinal Ratzinger:

"In this sense, a struggle exists and so we must defend religious freedom against an ideology which is held up as if it were the only voice of rationality, when instead it is only an expression of a 'certain' rationialism."

European secularism is of the evangelical, sectarian variety. Holding moral values derived from religion has nothing to do with advocating a state religion.

What is prohibited in the U.S. Constitution is the establishment of a state religion. The "wall of separation" between church and state was coined by Jefferson in a letter to a Baptist who advocated a national day of fasting. Jefferson's "wall of separation" letter to the Danbury Baptists (scroll to bottom). Jefferson's letter is often overstated. Jefferson was referring to the federal government, only. Nor was Jefferson an absolutist. How could he be an absolutist? The two religion clauses of the First Amendment are in opposition to one another, and require constant balancing between competing interests.

Recently an Italian politician, Rocco Buttiglione, was ambushed by socialist EU politicians for professing mainstream Catholic beliefs. When the Roman Catholic Church must advocate for religious freedom, and has solid ground on which to stand, secularism has become a religion unto itself.

In the United States the "wall of separation" between church and state is secure. Courts have probably built the wall too high in many cases. Secularists are now crusading against any vestige of religious symbolism in the public square. The United States is not a "Christian nation". Neither is the United States a nation where Christian symbols or beliefs should be hunted to extinction within the public realm. It will always be a balancing act between the "free exercise" of religion while avoiding the "establishment" of religion. But when the 'great' battles involve nativity scenes on the lawns of public buildings, "under God" in the Pledge, and tiny crosses on flags, methinks the secularists doth protest too much.

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


HOWEVER, radical Islam poses a threat to the socialist distopia EU politicians are trying to create, the Vatican, and basic human rights. I still maintain the jihad is a greater immediate existential threat to Europe. But the secular fundamentalists tend to side with radical Islam for its willingness to confront the United States using terror tactics. The cooperation between medieval theocrats and socialists never fails to amaze me. They are united in their hatred of the United States, and not much else.

News of the Islamic Whirled

Summary: Still Theocratic and Dangerous

British Jihad, like all jihad, is organized and encouraged in the mosques by imams and radical commanders. Mosques, or wherever Muslims meet to pray five times a day, are the command and control network for militant Islam.

More women being killed for walking in public unveiled

According to some Muslims, these practices are not Islamic: female genital mutilation, honor killings, and veiling. But they only occur in Muslim society. What should I believe: my lying eyes, or Muslim apologists?

European Muslims Fight for the Soul of Islam, allegedly.

If there is any proof the radicals have serious competition, I'd love to know about it. I hope it's not too late to avoid a clash of civilizations which kills millions in the West, but tens or hundreds of millions in the Islamic world. The author has three ideas which should have been implemented six years ago with Usama's open declaration of war on the West, and particularly the United States.

The above suggests three important tasks for Muslim leaders and intellectuals in the immediate future:

First, de-legitimize the political ideology of militant Islamism by exposing its departures from true teachings of Islam; refute its underlying conspiracy theories, its quasi-Marxist blueprint and its misuse of traditional Islamic sources.

Second, help the Western powers formulate better policies to overcome centuries of distrust and misunderstanding.

Third, construct a new interpretation of Islam that will help Muslims break free from medieval traditions and develop modern attitudes compatible with the Islamic faith and morality.

The mullahs of Iran are playing a dangerous game.

In the summer of last year, Iranian intelligence agents in Tehran began planning something quite spectacular for September 11, the two-year anniversary of al Qaeda's attack on the United States, according to a classified American intelligence report. Iranian agents disbursed $20,000 to a team of assassins, the report said, to kill Paul Bremer, then the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq. The information was specific: The team, said a well-placed source quoted in the intelligence document, would use a Toyota Corona taxi and a second car, driven by suicide bombers, to take out Bremer and destroy two hotels in downtown Baghdad. The source even named one of the planners, Himin Bani Shari, a high-ranking member of the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group and a known associate of Iranian intelligence agents.

Muslims always underestimate America's will to defend itself. They are part of a long tradition. So did Nazi Germany, the Japanese Empire, and the Soviet Union.

Dear jihadists, let me introduce you to the United States Marine Corps

They say that for the new jihadists the appeal of Iraq has surpassed Afghanistan, a magnet for a generation of Islamic militants seeking to fight the Soviet communists in the 1980s.

"Iraq is an open battleground for jihadists to confront America directly. In the space of a few hours, volunteers can leave their countries and find themselves in the heat of battle (in Iraq)," said a top security official.

Iraq has given Islamic extremists the opportunity to secure a "ticket to heaven" through martyrdom. Easily accessible and with the enemy all around, it has overtaken the Palestinian territories and Chechnya as the battleground of choice.

"The Americans gave the militant extremists a chance they had long dreamt of ... now their enemy has come to them," said a Jordanian ex-intelligence officer.

Only a fool thinks we can appease or reason with this type of warrior. They fight us because their religion tells them it's the only sure way to get to heaven. If we don't fight them in Iraq, our other options include our passenger planes, large celebrations, sporting events, or schools.

But, of course, the actual cause of this jihad philosophy foists the blame on us:

"It has turned many gentle clerics and young men with strong religious convictions, but who (previously) could not stomach the sight of blood, into eager suicide bombers and executioners," said Sheikh Yusef Abu Kutaiba, a Muslim cleric.

Oh, yes, such gentle young men who cannot stand blood. That's why beheading videos are the LOTR trilogy of the Middle East. That's why al-Jazeera is so successful airing beheading videos in prime time, the Muslim aversion to blood.

Muslim clerics really think we are morons.

Our 'friends' the Saudis, and other Islamic topics

With Friends Like These...

When the State Department recently designated Saudi Arabia as a "country of particular concern" in its annual religious-freedom report, few took notice. But this unprecedented step may — just may — signal the start of a tectonic shift for the better in the troubled U.S.-Saudi bilateral relationship, and in the broader war against Islamist terrorism.


Saudi Arabia's welcome, if belated, addition to State's religious-freedom blacklist — along with the likes of Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Vietnam — fulfills the clear policy mandate of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). This measure explicitly recognizes that religious freedom is inseparable from the full range of other basic human rights, whose promotion and observance in turn advance vital U.S. interests and reflect basic American values. Where religious freedom is threatened or denied, so too are other basic human rights; and such violations of universally agreed-upon norms often reflect wider threats to international public order. Consider only this year's rogues gallery and their handiwork, from ongoing genocide in Sudan to nuclear proliferation efforts by Iran and North Korea.

As part of the annual religious-freedom report, State must designate particular countries that have "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom" under applicable international law. Designation may or may not result in sanctions, which may be as minimal as a mild private rebuke in the form of a diplomatic note. But what's often overlooked is that this designation is in itself a highly effective sanction, since governments are almost preternaturally averse to public criticism, whether from other states, international organizations, influential NGOs, or the media. And the bigger the megaphone, the sharper the sting of being named and shamed.

Few states are as image conscious and as institutionally thin-skinned as Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, "Islam is the official religion, and the law requires that all citizens be Muslims." But the regime's official version of Islam is a narrow, intolerant interpretation of the majority Sunni tradition followed only by a distinct minority of fellow Sunnis around the world:

"The Government enforces a strictly conservative version of Sunni Islam. Muslims who do not adhere to the officially sanctioned Salafi (commonly called "Wahhabi") tradition can face severe repercussions at the hands of the Mutawwa'in (religious police). The Government continued to detain Shi'a leaders. Members of the Shi'a minority continued to face political and economic discrimination, including limited employment opportunities, little representation in official institutions, and restrictions on the practice of their faith and on the building of mosques and community centers."

The situation is grimmer still for non-Muslims, including at least one million Christians among a population of six to seven million guest workers. All public worship is prohibited in principle, and private manifestations of faith (such as possession of Bibles) are often severely punished in practice.

'Fault Lines' of Radical Islam Growing

You know what happens near fault lines? Earthquakes and volcanos.

-----
The most recent hot spots zigzag around the atlas — from Liberia in West Africa to the Netherlands to Southeast Asia. They join a growing roster of places already feeling the strains of religious conflict and terrorism along the edges of the Islamic world — regions as diverse as Chechnya, Nigeria, Spain, Central Asia and the Philippines. Even China is worried about separatist sentiment in its vast and mostly Muslim western province of Xinjiang.

"The militant voices on the street are gaining credibility in more and more places," said Gerges. "That's a worrisome trend."

Part of the reason, many Islamic experts say, can be traced to global communications that forge common points of reference such as al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's defiance or the guerrilla attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. But even more powerful rallying cries come from firebrand imams and opinion-shapers: that Islam is under threat and it's the duty of followers to take a stand.
-----

Please notice that it's the "firebrand imams and opinion-shapers" who are causing this. Root causes? Do I smell root causes?

Muslims Say Their Faith Growing Fast in Africa

"There is a kind of statistical warfare with Islam said to be growing by leaps and bounds on one side, and growing Christianity, especially Pentecostalists and charismatics, on the other," said Isaac, an Ethiopian."Statistics have influence. People like to be on the winning side."

But Bah Thierno Amadou, 36, a Sierra Leonian Muslim living in Madagascar, has no doubt his religion is on the march.

"More Africans are converting to Islam. There was hardly any Islam in Sierra Leone in the 1960s. Now it has a big following, and it's getting bigger in each generation," said Amadou, who also lived in Liberia for 16 years. If people like to win, that implies a war or competition of some kind.
-----

Notice what comes next though:

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He says the wars pursued by President Bush are powerful recruiting tools for Islam in many parts of a continent with long memories of 19th century cooperation between European missionaries and colonisers.

"He (Bush) says he's a Christian and he does things to destroy people's lives and property who are Muslims. Africans identify with the victims of Bush, because they suffered under the European colonisers, also Christians," Amadou said.
-----

Balanced, and confusing. Muslims want to win and listen to their leaders, but complain about the other side trying to win. Girlie men.

Nuclear news, views, and spews

Enough Brinksmanship tracks some of the ideas I expressed when I suggested many people have misread the lessons of the Cold War. I feel the real lesson is that the United States and the Soviet Union fought many proxy wars, killing millions, conducted dangerous and deadly clandestine operations on one another, and nearly blew up or irradiated a good chunk of the Planet Earth.

Enough Brinksmanship
Rethink nuclear nonproliferation, before it's too late.
by Henry Sokolski
AS THE UNITED STATES and its allies give Tehran its fifth chance in nearly two years to suspend activities that could bring it within weeks of having enough enriched uranium for a large arsenal, the question arises: Isn't there a better way to prevent states from getting nuclear weapons? The answer is yes, but only if we and our partners are willing to be much more aggressive in adapting existing nonproliferation efforts to today's threats.

NUCLEAR TERRORISM: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe (Times Books / an imprint of Henry Holt & Co.; August 9, 2004).

Sometimes a book title is good enough.

Israel's Nuclear Weapons suggests that there may be over 400 deployed nuclear weapons awaiting any enemy, or enemies, of Israel.

Playing a game of national chicken against Israel, as Iran is doing, may well result in a head-on collision which destroys most of Iran and several surrounding nation-states.

Black Dog Menaces Guardian - More articles clogging up my favorites menu

Big Black Blogging Shepherd Watching You, Guardian! (see previous entry) She's a beauty, don't you think?

Vatican awakening to jihad? I sure hope so.

Can we stick a fork in the "root causes" crap which permeates socialist-leftist thinking yet? It's done.

You'd never know there was any good news in Iraq unless you read this Opinion Journal feature which comes out every two weeks. Or you can read military blogs.

Amir Taheri is a great editorialist who I've mentioned before. Iraq: time to look to the future is brilliant.
What has happened in Iraq, however, was not imposing democracy by force. It was removing those who used force to prevent the emergence of democracy. Using force to remove impediments to democracy is nothing new. It has happened many times in history. The English and French revolutions were instances of using force to break the structures of tyranny that prevented democracy from emerging. Today, India is the world’s largest democracy because the British used force there to destroy the feudal society of Maharajas and Nawabs and other despots who would never have allowed the people any say in decision-making.

I think Prince Charles has converted to Islam. This exegeses on Islam is as one-sided as they get.

If you are like me, a Bush voter, you might be sick of the name-calling from the many leftists who can't imagine any reason for your vote other than assuming you are a theocratic, redneck, bigot. The Values-Vote Myth by David Brooks (NYT) is a good refutation. It's the Moderates, Stupid by a Clinton Democrat is even better.

The Vatican is still battling "secularism" in Europe. I think they should deal with the jihad first.

Here are two great articles from TCS. Wired Islam, can it help defeat the jihad? Yes and no. The jihadis are all over the Internet. Two, Elections and the Muslim World makes several critical points. One, terrorism is not new to Iraq. Saddam's regime waged an ongoing terror war against his own people. When the government has a monopoly on terrorism, it destroys any competition. Also, it's another example of leftist bigotry (my description) to say Muslims are not capable of freedom and democracy.

The obvious link between these claims is, broadly, the belief that the Muslim world is impervious to democratic change and that any action by us to implement it will only raise greater obstacles to progress. One must first understand that this stereotypical conception of global Islam is grossly ignorant and prejudiced. It much resembles the common Western apprehension that all Muslim countries live under exclusive sharia law, that none is pluralistic, and that Islam is universally jihadist. None of these views is accurate.

Let us begin with the issue of American invasion and the purported reaction to it. It has become a cliché of Bush-haters to assert that Islamist terrorism has grown since the intervention in Iraq, but even a superficial examination of Islam worldwide reveals a much better situation than many Westerners imagine. In Iraq itself, the Saddam regime exercised murderous terrorism against the Shia majority and the Iraqi Kurds, but with Saddam gone, that can hardly be said to have increased. The rebellion of Moqtada ul-Sadr has been neutralized and Iraqi Kurdistan is essentially pacified. The Saudi-inspired terrorists in Falluja have already begun to alienate their base by their attempt to transform the city into a fundamentalist redoubt.

When I said Osama was endorsing Kerry I only had the early translations. As it turns out, he promised to attack the Red States. I'm glad this had almost no effect on the election (according to exit polling). Even Kerry would have chased Osama, I'm pretty sure.

Janet Daley is one of my favorite new columnists. Bush's 'crime'? Just being a patriot.
Like most expatriate Americans living in Britain, it was a phenomenon I am unlikely ever to forget. The response to the deaths of 3,000 civilians, by comment writers in the Left-wing newspapers and the producers of "flagship" BBC current affairs programmes, was to orchestrate abuse of the bereaved country. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read a leader in Saturday's Guardian which pronounced with brazen sanctimoniousness: "The attack of September 11 2001, an event of historic seriousness, created an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity worldwide."

Oh really? Well, then the Guardian must have been wildly out of step with world solidarity at the time because it was gleefully leading a chorus of "America got what it deserved". And the BBC - sorry to return to this again but it remains burnished in my consciousness - staged an edition of Question Time in which anyone who expressed sympathy for the US was howled down.

Anybody who says that this kind of pathological hatred - the kind that relishes the loss of innocent life as a well-deserved "lesson" - would evaporate with the election of John Kerry, or any other contender who was remotely in tune with the American political culture, is trying very hard to deceive himself or the rest of us.

Perhaps there is a clue to the psychological logic of this argument in the Guardian leader's triumphal conclusion: "Three years later, much of that solidarity has been squandered."

Are the people who attacked the US at the time of 9/11 now trying to justify that gratuitous viciousness by claiming that it has been, as it were, retrospectively justified by the invasion of Iraq?

Will we ever know the truth about Flight 800? Clinton wanted terrorism which could help him politically. Fighting the jihad might have reduced his Muslim vote.

Watching the Guardian 

Osama Bin Laden's October Surprise: he's a politician, going for 'swing voters'

I've never doubted Osama's intelligence or his ability to manipulate the media. Osama's recent video statement (thanks, zombie) has convinced me that he is a masterful genius of politics. Osama has moved from speaking to his base in the Islamic world to gaining converts among 'swing voters' in liberal democracies.

The first thing to notice about the statement is that it is geared for the American and European audience. There are none of the usual calls to kill the Americans, pagans, Zionists, polytheists, Christians, Europeans, or infidels on Muslim lands. Quite the opposite. Osama recycles many of the Left's talking points. That his statement received applause on last night's Bill Maher show is a testament to Osama's genius as a politician. Sadly, Osama's statement is a greater testament to the failure of the mainstream media, and to Leftist stupidity, or the Left's outright support for the terrorists' goals.

The mainstream media has never made much of Osama's fatwahs. The 1996 and 1998 fatwahs provide more insight into Osama and the jihadist movement than any ten 'terror experts' on television or in the print media. I've spent hours pouring over the fatwahs. What Osama did in his latest statement is carry over many of his earlier talking points from the fatwahs and geared them to the American -- but especially the European -- public. Osama's only mistake, which will not be pointed out by the mainstream media wholly behind John Kerry, was using too many of the Democrat's talking points, including Michael Moore. Osama knew he could take this risk because there is no higher goal in mainstream journalism than electing John Kerry.

Osama's greatest accomplishment was giving a statement which could be interpreted as support for Kerry, or if one is a contrarian for Bush. Though I am a contrarian by nature, the facts on the ground preclude the conclusion Osama would like to see George W. Bush retain his office. President Bush is the first American president to attack private terror funding sources, nations which support the terrorists, and to topple two governments which harbored terrorists and provided them with logistical support and training. Osama is on the run, unable to carry out the huge attacks he did throughout the 1990's, culminating in the second WTC attack on September 11, 2001.

The unholy alliance between Osama and the Left is nothing new. Al Qaeda released a statement during the Democratic primary season which used Howard Dean's talking points. Will the Left or the mainstream media ever wake up and realize they are being used? I doubt it. The anti-American obsession is the defining characteristic of the Left in America and Europe. Osama has learned how to use this to greatest advantage. The media has already decided to bury (thanks, LGF) the real story, Osama's use of leftist talking points.

What was Osama trying to accomplish? Some suggest he has endorsed Kerry, as I did above. It is not that simple. Osama knows there is no greater hatred in Europe than the hatred for the United States. Osama's goal is to further divide Europe from their only means of military protection, the United States. Osama knows Sweden, which he mentions by name, is a nation with a large, growing, and radical Muslim population. Unlike Norway, Sweden is in full PC denial about any potential dangers from this population. There is no more anti-American nation in Europe than Sweden, except perhaps France, Germany, and Belgium. The Swedish are particularly sympathetic to the so-called Palestinian cause (Palestine is actually a province of the Roman Empire). Osama made excellent use of this wedge issue in the statement.

Osama has several goals. Yes, he would like to see George Bush defeated in the upcoming elections. Nothing would rally his followers more than a defeat of President Bush. But more importantly he wants to justify European hatred for the United States. As I said, most people are unaware of the real Osama due to media negligence. The media focuses on his phony political goals for the most part. His religous motivations are covered up so as not to offend CAIR. By reinventing himself, like Madonna, Osama hopes to gain European support, especially non-Arab recruits into his cause. Osama may be the modern master of divide and conquer. He knows how to manipulate the media, the Left, and Europe. Islamists everywhere, take note. Al Zarqawi is just a little amateur compared to the reigning champion, Osama.

So what are his chances? Actually, they are quite good. Decades of anti-American propaganda in the European state-controlled media should propel Osama right up there with Che, Lenin, Michael Moore, and Chomsky.

For France - Qur'an (Koran), the root cause of terrorism

The search for root causes of Islamic terrorism and barbarism which can be funded away continues. It is a natural desire of bureaucrats, soluble problems using traditional means of governance. Modern bureaucracy assumes the legitimacy of the nation-state. Too bad Islam does not recognize the secular nation-state.

The French are in such a desperate situation with their Islamic population it could be likened to 1940. But the invaders are already in their cities, controlling over 800 "no-go zones" in France itself. Too bad the French never read the 'holy' book of the population they chose to embrace. Instead they consume themselves with guilt over the Crusades. Which, by the way, happened over 900 years ago.

"Allah" uses terror as a major tool of 'persuasion' and suggests its use by his foolowers (sic). I've left out many other references to terror in the Koran.

3.151 - YUSUFALI: Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers!

7.004 - PICKTHAL: How many a township have We destroyed! As a raid by night, or while they slept at noon, Our terror came unto them.

8.012 - YUSUFALI: Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them."

8.060 - YUSUFALI: Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly.

16.112 - YUSUFALI: Allah sets forth a Parable: a city enjoying security and quiet, abundantly supplied with sustenance from every place: Yet was it ungrateful for the favours of Allah: so Allah made it taste of hunger and terror (in extremes) (closing in on it) like a garment (from every side), because of the (evil) which (its people) wrought.

17.059 - YUSUFALI: And We refrain from sending the signs, only because the men of former generations treated them as false: We sent the she-camel to the Thamud to open their eyes, but they treated her wrongfully: We only send the Signs by way of terror (and warning from evil).

33.026 - YUSUFALI: And those of the People of the Book who aided them - Allah did take them down from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts. (So that) some ye slew, and some ye made prisoners.

59.002 - YUSUFALI: It is He Who got out the Unbelievers among the People of the Book from their homes at the first gathering (of the forces). Little did ye think that they would get out: And they thought that their fortresses would defend them from Allah! But the (Wrath of) Allah came to them from quarters from which they little expected (it), and cast terror into their hearts, so that they destroyed their dwellings by their own hands and the hands of the Believers, take warning, then, O ye with eyes (to see)!

59.013 - YUSUFALI: Of a truth ye are stronger (than they) because of the terror in their hearts, (sent) by Allah. This is because they are men devoid of understanding.

All the News Clogging Up My Favorites Menu

I used to respect the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Telegraph (UK)
Kerry the "ferocious fighter" is one of the least goofy claims in this article.

"He did it all simply because he is a fighter, and a ferocious one. I am quite certain that if Kerry had been president on September 11 he would have reacted more violently than Bush, sending bombers into Afghanistan, not just Special Forces scouts, and demanding immediate co-operation - or else - from Saudi Arabia, not just Pakistan. European anti-militarists have really picked the wrong guy as their hero."

Um, dude, we did use bombers in Afghanistan, lots of bombers. The SF scouts were actually Air Force commandos there to laser-designate targets for the bombers.

Ten Commandments going to Supreme Court. I think one problem is where you put the display, and who does it. A giant Ten Commandments rock placed in front of the courtroom of a federal judge, by that judge, is probably unfair to Hindus who might have to appear.

Saddam the "secular leader" takes a bashing in Slate, of all places. This is yet another leftist catechism which never made any sense. But if it's repeated enough, people will believe it.

The French have a way with fighting anti-Semitism. Put a Jewish slur on a picture of Jesus. Yeah, that's the ticket. At least the French get tough with schoolgirls. The French deal with Saddam and Hezbollah, but crack down on little girls. That must be the "third way".

Europe from Venus? Just wait until they start fighting over imported cheap goods from the new EU members. Economic sanctions will not work on global terrorism which has no respect for borders. Neither will giving every terrorist a lawyer.

Foreign Affairs is a pretty good magazine. But this guy is clueless. The article suggests America needs to regain legitimacy. One thing to notice: there is NO mention of the UN Oil-for-Food scandal - the largest scandal in human history. The author needs to reassess whose legitimacy is in question. Even Kofi Annan has been forced to admit the UN looks bad. Russia, France, and China never would have supported ousting their sugar daddy, Saddam.

At least we humans have an excuse for all this stupidity.