Last Monday, Australian authorities nabbed 15 people in Sydney and Melbourne — they were suspected of planning a terrorist attack Down Under. Those in custody may have been acquiring materials to build a bomb, and today it was revealed that the bomb’s target was a nuclear power plant:

Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor has been revealed as the Sydney group’s possible target.

The court documents allege that in December of last year, three of those arrested in Sydney were stopped by police near the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and that an access gate had been cut.

It is also alleged that the men had been trying to stockpile hundreds of litres of chemicals to manufacture a highly volatile explosive called TATP and that a range of guns, ammunition and other weapons were found in their homes.

Australians were shocked to learn that people they had welcomed as guests to their nation had set up “jihad” training camps on Aussie soil:

People in the western New South Wales have been shocked by allegations that two properties near Bourke have been used for training camps.

Federal Member for Parkes John Cobb says it is hard to believe terrorist training could have been taking place in his electorate.

“It’s amazing to think that, and I have no knowledge if it actually is or isn’t, but the suggestion that there is terrorist training in our region is a surprise,” he said.

The documents also allege the eight men arrested in Sydney were receiving “extremist advice and guidance” from the Melbourne-based cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika.

The riots in France are a wake-up call to Western nations. Today’s revelations from Australia should only confirm the many warnings about Islamism from experts like Daniel Pipes, and hopefully encourage Westerners to act.

by Michael Rubin
JCPA Jerusalem Issue Brief*
November 13, 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/788
* Cross-posted with permission

Ethnic Separatism in Perspective

Iran is more an empire than a nation. While Persian (Farsi) is the official language, half of all Iranians speak a different language at home.¹ The languages and dialects spoken along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea continue to engross linguists and anthropologists. The minority population is huge. More Azeris live in Iran, for example, than in independent Azerbaijan.² Both Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan have a history of separatism, the latter sparked not only by ethnic discrimination, but also by anti-Sunni religious oppression.

Azeris and Kurds are not alone in exerting regional identities and, on occasion, pursuing separatism. Iranian history is replete with struggles between the center and periphery. In the mid-nineteenth century, Zill as-Sultan, half-brother of the Shah, powerful governor of Isfahan and a number of other Iranian provinces, toyed with the idea of declaring southern Iran to be independent of Tehran. In the decades that followed, tribal sheikhs along the Gulf of Oman refused to remit taxes to Tehran and told European sailors that they were independent of Iran’s rule, a claim reflected on maps of the period. In times of chaos, separatism accelerates. In the years following World War I, famine and recession struck Iran. Tehran ruled in name only. In 1920, Mirza Kuchek Khan, a Robin Hood-like figure from the jungles of Gilan, declared a separate Soviet Socialist Republic of Iran along the southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea. Reza Khan, who would declare himself Shah in 1925, gained his popularity by crushing rebellions in Azerbaijan, Gilan, Kurdistan, Khuzistan, and among the southern Iranian tribes. Even detractors of his rule and that of his son, Muhammad Reza Shah (ousted during the 1979 Islamic Revolution), credit Reza Khan for reunifying the country.

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New evidence has surfaced pointing to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions:

New evidence suggests Iran has made significant progress in its pursuit of nuclear weapons and that should strengthen the case for increasing international pressure on Tehran to end the program, U.S. and European officials say.

The data, which in recent months was shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency and key countries, is “not definitive (but) it is strongly suggestive that Iran has made significant advancement toward weaponization,” one U.S. official told Reuters.

More info breaking at the New York Times.

An ailing German economy contributed to a loss of power by Gerhard Schroeder and his Social Democratic Party (SPD). German’s elected a more centrist government (some call it “conservative”), the majority of votes going to the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union. They have started to implement some long-overdue, albeit half-hearted, fiscal belt-tightening:

Germany’s Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel has called on Germans to make sacrifices to help reverse the economy’s “downward trend”. …

Among the measures are a 3% rise in VAT, higher income tax for top earners, and no protection from dismissal for the first two years in employment.

Pensions are being frozen, subsidies for first-time home owners are being scrapped and for the first time since the war, the budget deficit will not adhere to Germany’s constitutional rules.

I’m not sure the tax increases will help, but reigning in entitlements is a good start. Big government was fun while it lasted. Then the hangover set in: slow growth and high unemployment. It is about time for change.

Egypt, which receives billions in U.S. aid, has effectively put President Bush’s initiative for Middle East democracy on hold, reports the Washington Post:

President Bush’s democracy initiative in the Middle East suffered a serious setback Saturday when the Forum for the Future, an international meeting attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ended without a formal agreement on democracy promotion.

In a surprise move, Egypt, which accounts for more than half the Arab world’s population and is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid, scuttled the conference by demanding language that would have given Arab governments significant control over which democracy groups receive aid from a new fund.

Last-ditch diplomacy by the United States failed to get Egypt to budge, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit left before the conference broke up.

Egyptian President Mubarak has gotten too used to being dictator-for-life, despite recent domestic elections which he permitted. Makes you wonder about how effective U.S. aid to Egypt has been.

Can we get even a little respite from the politically correct clap-trap — just for one moment? No. Today, Newsweek published the rant, “Suicide Bombers Are People, Too,” about 2 touchy-feely films which will teach all us naive people to see the human side of terrorist murderers.

But “Paradise Now,” a film distributed in the United States by Warner Independent Pictures, is one of the first feature films that tries to show the potential killers/martyrs as people. Childhood friends Said (Kais Nashif) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) drink tea at work, play and quarrel with siblings at home, develop crushes on women out of their league and discuss such mundane things as water filters with their mothers just hours before they’re chosen by a militant group to carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

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Here’s a loaded statement from SFGate.com regarding the Amman bombing:

Singling out Jordan for punishment increases pressure on King Abdullah’s steadfast support for the U.S. war on terror and his refusal to break ties with Israel, even at the height of the Palestinian uprising.

What is the implication here? That Abdullah should break ties with Israel? Did SFGate already forget that 4 high-ranking Palestinian officials were killed in the Amman bombing?

The Palestinians killed in the Amman blasts include Bashir Nafa, the PA’s West Bank intelligence chief, as well as the PA’s cultural attache in Egypt, the former Palestinian Interior Ministry director general, and a senior official in Abbas’ office.

Meanwhile, all Palestinian organizations condemned the series of bombings in Amman, referring to them as “terror attacks.” Abbas also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah on the phone and expressed his condolences.

This is the best SFGate has to offer while Jordanians are chanting, “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!,” and Palestinians are condemning the atrocities?

By the way, the “Palestinian uprising” has pretty much been ended by well-targeted Israeli missiles. The king has rightfully criticized the Palestinian leadership, and knows that the long-term viability of Jordan lays with the West, not with the jihadis. That’s why he has seen economic and security cooperation with Israel strengthened.

When Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh had his throat slit by an Islamist thug in downtown Amsterdam, Hollywood was silent. I’m sure it will remain silent after losing one of its own in the Amman atrocity:

Syrian-born Hollywood producer Moustafa Akkad - who was behind the Halloween horror films and the Anthony Quinn epic The Message - died on Friday of wounds sustained in the bombing.

His 33-year-old daughter Rima was killed in the blast.

Senator John McCain yesterday called for increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq by 10,000, stating that the “stakes are higher than they were in Vietnam.” He also took Senator John Kerry to task for shilling for a defeat in Iraq. From the Financial Times:

He [McCain] criticised the Bush administration’s relentless message about progress in Iraq. “We need to portray events on the ground even if they are negative, it is better to describe difficulties right now, and to announce things have improved only when they have… In Vietnam there was light at the end of the tunnel and it turned out to be a train.”

I would argue that Bush should be harping on progress in Iraq, to help counter the media’s portrayal of Iraq in mainly a negative light. But back to McCain:

Democratic Senator John Kerry, the defeated presidential candidate, has laid out an alternative strategy that would enable the return of 20,000 US troops.

But Mr McCain called that plan “a major step on the road to disaster”.

“If we leave now the most likely result would be full-scale civil war. No American leader would want our nation to suffer that moral stain.”

Late on Thursday, Sen Kerry said Mr McCain had “mischaracterised” his plan.

“Mischaracterised” is politico-speak for “I wish I hadn’t said that.” Poor Kerry – always misunderstood, e.g., incomprehensible.

Since 2002, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party have been chiseling away at the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But the AKP was dealt a blow today by the European Court of Human Rights. The court upheld the ban on wearing of Muslim veils in Turkish universities. From the BBC:

According to the court’s ruling, which is final, the headscarf ban is based on the Turkish constitution’s principles of secularism and equality.

In a society where men and women are equal, it said, a ban on religious attire such as the headscarf was justified on university premises.

“The court did not lose sight of the fact that there were extremist political movements in Turkey which sought to impose on society as a whole their religious symbols and conception of a society founded on religious precepts,” the court’s ruling added.

From the Financial Times:

The European Court of Human Rights found that the purpose of the restriction was “to preserve the secular character of educational institutions”. The ban, it said, met the “legitimate aims of protecting the rights and freedoms of others and maintaining public order”.

The decision has significant implications for the struggle between secularists and Islamists in Turkey and adds heat to a debate already raging in Ankara over whether a woman wearing the traditional Muslim headdress can represent “modern Turkey”.

The words of a wedding guest who survived the Amman terrorist atrocities, from the Beeb:

“There were a lot of injured people and some dead people. Some of them are from my family and some are from my wife’s family,” the groom, Ashraf al-Khaled, said.

“We tried to save as many people as we could, but God took some.

“I lost my father and my father-in-law on my wedding night,” he added. “The world has to know that this has nothing to do with Islam.”

By Kamal Nawash

For the last two weeks, France has experienced riots the likes of which it has not seen in decades. In terms of destruction, the unrest is France’s worst since World War II.

More than a thousand cars have been burned along with several buildings and hundreds have been arrested. For the most part, the riots are being carried out by the children of poor immigrants most of whom are Muslim.

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Hmmm… I thought al-Qaeda was fighting for the Palestinian cause. Apparently not:

Among those killed [in the Amman bombings] were two high-ranking Palestinian officials - Maj Gen Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, and Col Abed Allun, a Preventive Security forces official.

They both died in the attack on the Hyatt hotel, Atallah Khairy, the Palestinian representative in Jordan, said.

Al-Qaeda, the front for Islamo-fascism, said today:

…Jordan became a target because it was a haven for “Jews and crusaders … a filthy place for the traitors … and a center for prostitution.”

when referring to its terrorist extravaganza in Amman yesterday. Well, excuse the rest of the world for existing. It must be lonely at the top, when everyone is an enemy. Arabs, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews – all enemies of al-Qaeda. And lots of civilians – the more the merrier.

And, of course, kill more Iraqis:

Two homicide bombers blew themselves up near a restaurant frequented by Baghdad police, killing at least 33 people and seriously injuring 19, while a car bomb killed seven army recruits in Saddam Hussein’s hometown, police said.

Don’t forget al-Qaeda’s allies:

The two villagers who were beheaded were abducted by suspected Taliban rebels in southern Uruzgan province on Monday, Khan said. Their bodies were discovered Wednesday.

But maybe, just maybe, al-Qaeda is starting to wear out its welcome:

Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied Thursday outside one of three U.S.-based hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting, “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!” after the terrorist’s group claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed at least 56 people.