Gee. Naiive me. I already thought Syria was a pariah. From the Times Online:

THE Bush Administration has offered Syria’s beleaguered President a “Gaddafi deal” to end his regime’s isolation if Damascus agrees to a long list of painful concessions.

According to senior American and Arab officials, an offer has been relayed to President Assad that could enable him to avoid the looming threat of international sanctions against his country. The matter could come to a head as early as next week when Detlev Mehlis, the head of the United Nations team investigating the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, is due to submit his report to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General.

While details of that report are not yet known, it is widely expected that senior figures in the Syrian intelligence services, which until earlier this year were in control of Lebanon’s security, will be named as accomplices. The assassination was widely blamed on Damascus, and consequently relations have been badly damaged with key Syrian allies such as France and Saudi Arabia. Already strained relations with Washington have become even more fraught. Evidence of Syrian complicity could lead to international sanctions and make the country a pariah state.

Of course, Syria has denied everything.

Press release from www.theisraelproject.org

Washington, D.C. — Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is due to arrive in Washington on Thurs., Oct. 20 to meet with President Bush, just days after the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, a faction of Abbas’ Fatah party, claimed responsibility for two drive-by shootings in the West Bank. The two leaders are slated to discuss measures necessary to resume the Middle East peace process, with Bush expected to ask Abbas to demonstrate that the PA has made promised reforms such as disarming militant groups.

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Robert Mugabe, one of the last remaining Castro-like, post-colonial dictators, has decided to lecture the West on morality — while at the same time calling his own people “filth.” As Mugabe is on the road denouncing President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, his henchmen are busy at home:

In its policy of forced evictions and mass displacement, the Zimbabwean government has violated the human rights of hundreds of thousands of its citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Speaking at a UN Food Agency meeting in Rome today, Mugabe ranted:

“Must we allow these men, the two unholy men of our millennium [Bush/Blair], who in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed their unholy alliance, formed an alliance to attack an innocent country?”

Some idiots in Rome cheered Mugabe on, but there was at least one sane person involved:

…Ambassador Tony Hall, who said he was “amazed” that Mugabe was invited to the meeting when his policies were contributing to the starvation of his own people.

I’ve known Hall, a Democrat, for years. He’s a good man and does not throw words around cheaply.

What complete perversion. Mugabe was speaking at a UN conference on food aid while he is starving his own people, whom he callously terms “filth.” Again, HRM :

The humanitarian consequences of �Operation Murambatsvina� (”Operation Clear the Filth”) have been catastrophic. Thousands of men, women and children are now internally displaced and are living without access to humanitarian assistance, particularly in the rural areas where acute food shortages are looming and humanitarian agencies have had difficulties tracing those in need of assistance.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 700,000 people have been evicted and their houses and properties demolished since the government launched the operation on May 19.

Human Rights Watch said that women, children, persons living with HIV/AIDS and foreign-born residents were particularly hard hit by the evictions. Accounts of the victims share a common thread: all cite a similar process of forced, indiscriminate and often violent displacement at the hands of police coupled with consistent orders to move to rural areas.

by Patrick D. O’Brien
Clarity & Resolve*
October 14, 2005
http://clarityandresolve.com/archives/2005/10/jihad_notes_fro_2.php
* Cross-posted with permission

CENTCOM has published the full version of the endearing piece of Islamocorrespondence from Papa Jihad’s cavemate/soulmate, Ayman al-Zawahiri to Jordanian mujahid emir upstart/infidel beheader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (although the birthday mix CD he burned seems to have gotten through—this time): ZAWAHIRI-ZARQAWI COMMUNIQUÉ

I think it’s important to underscore the continuing affinity between the holy warrior killers (Michael Moore’s Minutemen) who have their eye on the brass ring of Iraq, and America’s angry left who have their eye whatever they can use to condemn the U.S. Sometimes when I read the embittered, rambling screeds of Islamosupremacists, it seems to me that they are borrowing from the hackneyed drivel found on Democratic Underground, or vice versa. There’s always talk of it’s a war for oil (I’ll take my share of that free oil right now, by the way, if it’s all the same), the Zionists, and we need to force the American imperialists to go home. These Islamic lowlifes who slice the heads off of living civilians and who kill countless kids every day in deliberate attacks on civilian centers, are the new Che Guevara for the hateful leftocrat bloc.

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Despite attacks on the offices of a Sunni party which supports the new Iraqi constitution:

Sunni Arabs - who largely boycotted January’s vote - were reported to have come out in force, many of them saying they wanted the charter to fail.

Maybe they are voting “no,” but they are voting. While I do not believe that Sunnis can muster enough votes to kill the new constitution, they are engaging in the democratic process. This lesson is not something that should be underestimated.

Just Thursday, Iraq’s largest Sunni party agreed to support the country’s new constitution:

The deal hints at further Sunni participation in politics as many Sunni leaders believe they can win a significant minority in the next parliament election in December. After boycotting elections in January, they have only a few seats in the current 275-seat parliament that drafted the constitution.

Hopefully more and more Sunnis will turn to the parliamentary process. Is it true that they “fear the break-up of the country?” More likely many Sunnis fear the loss of their former hegemony — and loss of the oil reserves underneath the feet of their former captives, the Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north.

Good news so far in today’s vote:

Conditions in many areas were described as calm, in contrast to the violence of January’s election when insurgents carried out dozens of lethal attacks.

A briefing by Ilan Berman
Middle East Forum*
September 14, 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/774
* Cross-posted with permission

Mr. Berman is vice president for policy at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. An expert on security issues in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia, he has consulted for the CIA and the Pentagon and is a frequent guest on radio and television. His writings have appeared in The National Interest, the International Herald Tribune, Financial Times and Middle East Quarterly (here and here). He is adjunct professor at the National Defense University and editor of the Journal of International Security Affairs.

The Danger

The Iranian government is moving aggressively towards acquiring nuclear capability that it could easily transform into an offensive nuclear arsenal. The nuclear endeavor is clear: the authorities have hidden sites, are involved in plutonium conversion and uranium enrichment, and they have prevented the IAEA inspectors from entering certain sites. Further, sites that were inspected have been sanitized by removal of certain equipment.

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Imagine a George W. Bush who can do the disco-down splits on the Samurai Night Fever dance floor. His face sports that “I’m darned determined but happy” expression. At the press of your couch-potato, remote control buttons you can make Bush do the Michael Jackson Moonwalk; another button makes Bush do the John Travolta-inspired Bus-stop; one button activates Bush’s softer side, and makes him leap like a fairy-drama-queen; and, of course, you can make him do a big-time Cha-Ching, among other things. And you thought Bush was uptight.

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Victor Davis Hanson is eloquent as usual, taking on and thoroughly Fisking an op-ed piece by Zbigniew Brzezinski. With his unparalleled knowledge of history and adroit prose, Hanson picks apart Brzezinski’s accusation that the Bush administration is engaged in “suicidal statecraft.” Hanson proves that “things are becoming better rather than worse — even as the media and now the public itself believes that a successful strategy is failing.”

Here’s an excerpt, but you should read the whole article:

The war against the terrorists may be entering the fifth year, but despite over 2,000 combat fatalities, we have still only lost a little over 2/3s of those killed on the very first day of the war, almost 50 months ago — quite a contrast with the over 400,000 American dead at the end of World War II. And a wrecked Japan and Germany were not on a secure path to democracy until six years after America entered the war, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan that were defeated without killing millions and already have held plebiscites on new constitutions.

After German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s defeat in national elections, rumors have been swirling as to what he will do next. Some have suggested he was considering becoming an adviser for Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, but Klaus Uwe Benneter, Secretary General of Schroeder’s own party says otherwise:

“These are rotten rumors. Gerhard Schroeder cannot simply retire. Probably he will have more free time. But I am absolutely convinced that he will remain in politics,” Benneter said in a Tuesday interview with N-24 TV channel.

While Schroeder could make beaucoup bucks shilling for Gazprom, getting involved in the dirty world of Russian money and politics might not be the best thing for Schroeder’s political future. After all, Gazprom is state-owned, and Putin and the rest of his ex-KGB goon-squad are running the show.

by Daniel Pipes
DanielPipes.org*
October 14, 2005
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/520
* Cross-posted with permission

Danger Signs of Militant Islam At “[Finding Moderate Muslims:] Do You Believe in Modernity?” I formulated questions to ask of Muslims to discern whether they are moderates or not. The United America Committee has now issued a useful list of complementary danger signs to discern signs of radical Islam, which I list here:

1. Justification of any Islamic Terrorism, Palestinian or otherwise
2. Supporting or refusing to condemn Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Hamas, or other terrorists or terrorist organizations by name
3. Promoting jihad for Muslims to fight against what they determine is “injustice” or “aggression”
4. Demands for Sharia law in the West, or denying that Sharia forbids equal rights for women and members of religions other than Islam
5. Demanding that Americans accommodate the public expression of Islamic laws, customs, and practices that conflict with, or are harmful to American laws, customs, and practices
6. Denying that Muslims were involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and other attacks around the world
7. Charges or complaints of Muslims being unfairly targeted in the War On Terror

I submit that while free trade and rapid transit are a great boon, they do have their drawbacks. Case in point: bird flu/avian flu/H5N1. If a few asymptomatic but infected people were to board passenger jets to New York, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Berlin, and/or Johannesburg, we could be looking at a world-wide pandemic. This is precisely what EU officials are worried about, now that suspected infections have appeared in Turkey and Romania.

In defense of globalization, H5N1 probably showed up in Turkey and Romania due to migration of wild birds…

by Olivier Guitta
Middle East Quarterly*
Fall 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/772
* Cross-posted with permission

With just one-fifth the population of the United States, France boasts the world’s second largest contingent of diplomats, and its consulates and embassies number just eight fewer than the State Department’s 260.[1] The French investment in its foreign ministry is likewise heavy and demonstrates the importance the French government places on French prestige and grandeur. Under President Jacques Chirac, French foreign policy has become increasingly assertive. Francois Heisbourg, director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (Foundation for Strategic Research), summed up French foreign policy as “oppose just to exist.”[2] Such descriptions are not entirely fair, though. While Chirac inherited a French foreign policy already tilted toward the Arab world, his pursuit of close personal ties to Arab leaders and his outreach to Islamists, rejectionist Arab states, and groups considered terrorists by the U.S. government is part of a broader strategy to increase French influence in the region.

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Jonah Goldberg of the National Review reminds “liberals” to look into their dictionaries before throwing the word “crony” around vis-a-vis Harriet E. Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court:

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Bali was Australia’s 911, but the Aussies have not been deterred by terrorist cowardice — neither in the micro nor macro sense.

Today, the survivors and family members who lost loved ones bravely ignored warnings of another terrorist attack to remember the 202 innocents killed in Bali in 2002. They:

…gathered at the site of the attacks on Wednesday to remember the 202 people killed and to send a defiant message to the al-Qaeda linked terrorists who allegedly carried them out. …

Among those attending was Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose nation lost 88 citizens in the bombings. Four Australians were also among the victims in this month’s blasts. …

But it is important to take a determined stance against terrorists, he said, noting that Australia has been working with Indonesian law enforcement agencies to hunt down the perpetrators of violence.

Many of those present brushed off warnings by foreign governments that tourists should stay away from Indonesia because more terrorist attacks were likely, and said that this month’s strikes made them more determined to come.

In the big picture, Australians dashed the hopes of the terrorists and their sympathizers by re-electing John Howard’s Liberal-National coalition late last year. While Howard supported the Iraq war and defiantly keeps his troops in Iraq, his opponent Mark Latham had promised to bring the troops home. Australians liked Howard.

Howard handily won a fourth consecutive term as Prime Minister. His coalition took 46.7% of the vote, with Latham’s Labor Party trailing at 37.6%. Turnout was an amazing 94.69%.

It will be up to the Anglosphere — Britain, the U.S., Australia, India, Israel, Singapore — to maintain the lead in the war on terror. Thank G#d Australia can be penciled into the right column.

The full text of a letter written by al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been published by the U.S.’s Director of National Intelligence (in English; in Arabic). The letter, from al-Zawahiri and addressed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in charge of al-Qaeda’s terrorism operations in Iraq, basically confirms the Bush administration’s strategy in the war against Islamo-fascism.

Beyond al-Zawahiri’s abject racist statements, he confirms al-Qaeda’s vision of Islamic conquest on a grand scale:

I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting battle in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam’s history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era, and what will happen, according to what appeared in the Hadiths of the Messenger of God about the epic battles between Islam and atheism. It has always been my belief that the victory of Islam will never take place until a Muslim state is established in the manner of the Prophet in the heart of the Islamic world, specifically in the Levant, Egypt, and the neighboring states of the Peninsula and Iraq; however, the center would be in the Levant and Egypt. …

As for the battles that are going on in the far-flung regions of the Islamic world, such as Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Bosnia, they are just the groundwork and the vanguard for the major battles which have begun in the heart of the Islamic world. We ask God that He send down his victory upon us that he promised to his faithful worshipers.

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