A special report on the targeted killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians:

• More than meets the eye (Zarqawi)
• DEBKA: Jordanians Key to Zarqawi Elimination
• Al-Zarqawi is Dead, What is Next?
• At least he (DID) suffer
• Top Iraqi Security Posts Filled… Finally
• “Today Zarqawi has been terminated”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Maybe there’s a silver lining in the Palestinian elections which brought Hamas to power. Given a chance for democracy, Palestinians chose one of the world’s most feared terrorist groups to lead them. After the elections, a civil war has ensued, pitting Fatah against Hamas, despite the peoples’ will — in other words, Fatah is disregarding the election results. And the elected government has shown time and again that it is not a responsible member of the world community, refusing to renounce terrorism, and refusing to recognize the existence of a sovereign, neighboring nation, Israel.

So we have Palestinians showing the world their true sentiments — choosing violence — and squandering the democratic process. Case in point: Hamas’ “top Hamas enforcer in the Gaza Strip” is “happy whenever American soldiers are killed,” and tried to threaten Americans into submission:

“We are happy when any American soldier is killed anywhere in the world, because the American Army is an aggressor against all the people in the world, particularly the Arab and Muslim worlds,” he said. “The American people are known to be peaceful, so they are asked to move to bring down this terrorist government in Washington, so that the American people are safe from any attacks or retaliation.”

I say, “Bring it on.” Let Palestinians continue to show their true colors. Let them prove to the world that they are unfit to lead themselves and control they own territory and destiny. Hamas’ leadership has brought more accountability to Palestinian terrorists than ever before — certainly more so than after Oslo. Arafat’s Palestinian Authority literally got away with murder. At least now, funding for the Palestinians has been curtailed by the U.S. and EU as a result of Hamas’ leadership.

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by Michael Rubin
Prospect*
June 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/940
* Cross-posted with permission

On 31st May, Condoleezza Rice offered Iran a deal: suspend nuclear enrichment in exchange for a package of incentives, including de facto US recognition. But engagement alone will not solve the crisis. Between 2000 and 2005, EU trade with Iran almost tripled. But the Iranian authorities invested their additional income not into schools and hospitals, but rather into Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran has become conditioned to associating concessions with non-compliance. Indeed, further incentives may make a crisis more rather than less likely. President Bush is serious when he says: “the development of a nuclear weapon in Iran is intolerable.”

Iranian reformers do not offer a way out. While the rhetoric of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shocked Western officials, Iran’s nuclear programme is no recent phenomenon, but rather the product of the administrations of Ahmadinejad’s predecessors, the reformist Muhammad Khatami and pragmatist Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Nor should diplomats assume that Tehran is motivated by security concerns. Iran’s covert programme pre-dates US presence in both Afghanistan and Iraq. While Israel occupies a paramount position in regime rhetoric, no Iranian has ever died in a war with the Jewish state.

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The article from CBS is entitled, “Arrests Shock Canadian Muslims,” but the quotes from Muslims in Toronto express denial, not shock:

Several members of a suspected terrorist ring prayed daily at a storefront mosque in a middle-class city west of Toronto but never spoke of hurting others, one of their prayer leaders said.

“I will say that they were steadfast, religious people. There’s no doubt about it. But here we always preach peace and moderation,” Qamrul Khanson, an imam at the one-room Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, said Sunday.

Not one iota of revulsion for the horrors that might have been committed by these “steadfast, religious people,” i.e. terrorists.

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The Canadian terror suspects were all just splendid people — really. From CBS:

A Muslim leader who knew the oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, told The Associated Press that Jamal’s sermons at a local mosque were “filled with hate” against Canada.

The RCMP didn’t pick up on this?

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by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun*
June 6, 2006
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3654
* Cross-posted with permission

Might Muslim Zionism be stronger than Jewish Zionism?

Although the question may sound preposterous, it is not.

Jewish Zionism evolved out of a steadfast three-millennium-old love of Jerusalem that flourished despite a dispersion that settled Jews far from their holy city. This love of Zion inspired the most extraordinary nationalist movement of the 20^th century, one that motivated a far-flung population to relocate to their ancient homeland, revive a dead language, and establish a new polity – and to do so against intense opposition.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Since the arrests of Canadian Islamists planning to detonate 3 tons of ammonium nitrate in and around Toronto hit the news, I’ve heard nothing but denial from the Great White North’s Muslim community. No deep self-reflection as to why young Canadian Muslims living in one of the world’s greatest liberal democracies would want to inflict unimaginable carnage on their own Canadian, and presumably non-Muslim, neighbors. (Remember it took just one ton to kill 168 people and injure hundreds of others in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.) Just xenophobic and incoherent fears that Muslims will be the “real” victims. No empathy for the people the Islamists were trying to annihilate. In fact, it is just the opposite. Zafar Bangash of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought has:

…suggested the arrests may have been timed to coincide with upcoming Supreme Court of Canada hearings into the constitutionality of security certificates, which allow the authorities to indefinitely detain, without charge, anyone considered a threat to national security.

A lawyer for several of the Islamist bomb-makers:

…agreed that the timing of the arrests looked suspicious, as was the massive show of force Saturday when several of the suspects appeared in court.

And then we have the profiles of the would-be terrorists, from the Toronto Star (oh, they were all just splendid people):

Fahim Ahmad, 21, is known as a “pretty good” basketball player by a group of teens he shoots hoops with at a Scarborough mosque every Friday.

“He had a very good personality. He used to treat us very good,” said Abdullah Mohammed, 15.

“Whatever they’re putting on him, it’s all bull—-,” Abdullah said.

A devout Muslim who never missed a prayer at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto in Scarborough, Ahmad was always “really calm,” said Zuhair Mohammad, 14.

“I’m hoping … they just made a mistake,” said Mohammad Alam, president of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, who says his organization serves 50,000 members.

…or…

Ahmad Mustafa Ghany is a 21-year-old health sciences graduate from McMaster University in Hamilton, according to his lawyer Rocco Galati.

Ghany, who lives in an upscale neighbourhood in Mississauga, was arrested during police raids late Friday night and charged along with 16 others in a suspected terrorism plot.

He was born in Canada and his father, a medical doctor, emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago to Canada in 1955.

Just your friendly neighborhood terrorists.

Canada is not exactly a gulag state — it has welcomed immigrants from all over the old Commonwealth. Walking in downtown Toronto or Montreal, one is overwhelmed by the colors, smells, diversity, orderliness, and cleanliness. Canada is quite a prosperous and healthy democracy, but whether it will remain that way will depend on how the core Canadian community will adapt to the newcomers and demand that immigrants assimilate values like tolerance, openness, peaceful resolution of problems, embrace of a free press, and engagement in the democratic process (i.e., not allow Sharia to be imposed).

When Islamists went on the rampage, killing, looting, and burning over a few Danish cartoons, the “moderate” Muslim reaction was to proclaim their religious beliefs were the real victim, and that all non-Muslims had to pay special dispensations to Islam so as to calm its rightfully-deserved wrath.

After the cartoon blow-up, British Muslim protestors didn’t denounce all the Muslim on Muslim violence in Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya. They carried placards which stated, “Massacre those who insult Islam;” “Europe you will pay, your 9/11 will come;” “Behead those who insult Islam;” “Be prepared for the real Holocaust;” and “Butcher those who mock Islam.”

But listening to Canadian Muslim reactions to the planned bombing (planned by Muslims), one hears unabashed clannishness:

Farhad Oryakhim, 17, an employee at an east-end shop, said he’s concerned about how Muslims in Canada are going to be treated in the wake of the arrests.

“It’s going to be a pretty hard time now,” Oryakhim said. “After this incident, people are going to look at the Muslims from a dangerous view.”

Oryakhim said he fears that non-Muslim customers will stop patronizing businesses in the area that are run by Muslims.

“It’s going to hurt our businesses,” he said. “Our life.”

“Our life.” What narcissistic neurosis. No mention of the 100’s of Canadians and probably foreigners who would have been incinerated if this evil plot had succeeded. In this context, it is only a Muslim concern about Muslims. Unassimilated may be the most apt word here for Canada’s Mohammedans.

Many divergent groups have very successfully integrated into Western nations, like Britain, the U.S., Australia, Israel, Germany, etc. And keep in mind that assimilation doesn’t mean you have to give up all your customs, whatsoever. Look at Chinese and Hispanic immigrants, for example. The Navajos, albeit ancient immigrants, but now assimilating, are doing quite well in their homeland in the Four Corners. They’ve built a parliament in Window Rock, have their own police, publish their own newspapers, and certainly don’t try to blow up skyscrapers.

Historically, Jews have been mistreated because they “kept to themselves,” yet are now very assimilated into Western countries, and have permeated all levels of society from restaurant owners, to small software business owners, and up into the U.S. House and Senate. Yet Jews are by no means monolithic in their societal, economic, philosophical, and religious beliefs.

Take Israel for example. Can it ever form a coalition government easily? There are so many different schools of thought: Kadima, Labor, Likud… Some insist on negotiating with Palestinian terrorists, some won’t. All sorts of Jewish NGO’s run around in Israel filing suits on the behalf of Palestinians — even obstructing the security operations of their own military. But hey, that’s democracy. Muslims could learn a lot from Jews, but Jews are the most despised by Mohammedans.

Only in a truly pluralistic society can such forces work together in open debate. Unfortunately, pluralism hasn’t exactly caught on in the Muslim world (there are a few exceptions).

It seems that Canada’s Muslims, and many worldwide, are stuck in the One Newspaper, One Nation, One Religion, One World mindset. This mindset has produced one disaster after another.

Islamists massacred 344 civilians — half of them children — in Beslan, North Ossetia. They killed 62 in Delhi, India; murdered 50+ in Turkey; and have killed tens of thousands in Indonesia, Algeria, and Nigeria. Al-Qaeda slaughtered 88 innocent Egyptians last July 23.

1,095 innocent Israelis have been killed by Palestinian terrorists since September 2000. Thirty-thousand Iraqis, mostly Muslim, have been slaughtered by Islamist terrorists since the country’s liberation.

9/11 (3000 dead). Madrid (200 dead). London (50 dead). Bali (200 dead). Amman (57 dead). Three-hundred trampled to death in this year’s Hajj; 1,426 killed in the 1990 Hajj; 251 in 2004; etc. Sudanese Muslims have slaughtered 180,000 black Africans. Kuwaitis ethnically cleansed 400,000 Palestinians in 1991.

In countries like Iran, there is no figuring things out through consensus. There is the (Orwellian) Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has ultimate control over all decisions. His thugs banned Western music in December (no more “George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper,’ Eric Clapton’s ‘Rush’ and the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California…’” and “…tunes by saxophonist Kenny G.”). Iran’s theocracy hung two boys for being gay last July. Last month, the mullahs banned access to the BBC’s website. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map,” has denied that the Holocaust ever occurred, called for Israel’s Jews to be moved to Europe (ethnically cleansed), and has planned to host a conference to “prove” that Hitler’s extermination of Jews (and gypsies and gays) was a “myth.”

So one must ask, what will it take to convince Muslim immigrants in Western countries to assimilate? In the aftermath of the averted Toronto bombing, it will take a lot of hard work, tough love, an ever-vigilant public, and a long, long time.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

So if we throw the Republican bums out it November for their scandals, gay-bashing, unbridled spending, and betraying the American people on immigration, just what will we end up with to replace them? According to the AP, we’ll end up with House committees under the control of the likes of Charles Rangel, John Dingell, David Obey, George Miller, and Alcee Hastings. Enough to cause projectile vomit:

If the chips fall right for Democrats and their party seizes control of the House, President Bush’s agenda on Capitol Hill would fall into the hands of some of his most dogged opponents. …

As for those prospective Democratic chairmen, the group is overwhelmingly liberal-leaning.

Only two of 20 earned grades of less than 90 percent on last year’s voting records from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action interest group. Half had perfect scores of 100 from the ADA — or would have had it not been for missed votes. …

In a potential power switch between the parties, more than an unrelenting string of liberal Democrats are positioned to take over committees.

What a choice…

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Iraq’s new government still cannot fill the cabinet posts for the national security, interior, and defense ministries, and the sectarian slaughter continues:

Masked gunmen stopped two minivans carrying students north of Baghdad Sunday, ordered the passengers off, separated Shiites from Sunni Arabs, and killed the 21 Shiites “in the name of Islam,” a witness said.

As a long-time supporter of regime change in Iraq, this nightmare is getting harder and harder for me to follow. Can there be any hope for a society that produces such violence?

Middle East Quarterly*
Spring 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/938
* Cross-posted with permission

For more than a decade, the European Union has pursued economic engagement with the Islamic Republic of Iran arguing that trade, rather than confrontation or sanctions, could best reverse Tehran’s terror sponsorship, human rights abuses, and nuclear ambitions. Between 2000 and 2005, European trade with Iran almost tripled.

Rather than moderate its behavior, the Iranian government used the influx of hard currency from both trade and the rise in oil prices to further its nuclear program. Two and a half years of diplomacy by Great Britain, France, and Germany (”the EU-3″) have little to show in terms of results. On September 24, 2005, the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency found Iran to be in “non-compliance” with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but declined to refer the Islamic Republic to the U.N. Security Council.[1]

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By Canadian Coalition for Democracies

Ottawa, Canada Friday, 2 June 2006 - The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) is pleased to announce the appointment of David Harris as CCD Senior Fellow for National Security.

David Harris is a lawyer, and Director of the International Terrorist Intelligence Program, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc. Prior to his role at INSIGNIS, he served as a former Chief of Strategic Planning of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS). As a regular commentator on issues of terrorism and national security, Harris’ analyses have received national and international attention. He has appeared on numerous Canadian television programs on the CBC, CTV, and Global TV, as well as in many Canadian newspapers. Internationally, Harris appeared as a witness at US Congressional subcommittee hearings in Washington, DC. He was quoted in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and international news services. He also appeared on programs ranging from television’s “America’s Most Wanted,” CBS’s “60 Minutes”, NBC’s “Dateline” and the “Today Show” to “The CBS News with Dan Rather” and CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports”.

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I was happy when Canadians chose Stephen Harper as their new prime minister. I hope today’s terrorist raids in Toronto will reinforce Canada’s new-found political sentiments, and not convince the great while north to placate the Islamo-fascists:

Police in Canada have arrested and charged 12 men who they say were planning an “al-Qaeda-inspired” bombing campaign in and around Toronto. …

Police seized bomb-making materials in a series of raids in Toronto, including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate. …

“To put it in context, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one ton of ammonium nitrate,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assistant commissioner Mike McDonell. …

Police said those arrested on Friday were all Canadian residents “of different origins”, most of them citizens - some were students, some employed, others unemployed.

The suspects appeared to have “chosen a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaeda”, said Luc Portelance, assistant director of operations for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada’s spy agency.

Of course there will be Canadians who will rush to hide under their beds and try to bring the Liberals back to power, just as the Spanish did after 311. Let’s hope Canadians will be smarter.

By Andrew L. Jaffee

The BBC is painting the American public with a broad stroke, labeling groups trying to get a bit of control over the 10,000-a-day flood of immigrants into the U.S. as “Right-wing.” Yet British Broadcasting is very sensitive when describing American citizens who support the flood. The BBC goes even as far as to claim that “anti-immigrant” groups are working only the political side of the issue. But the Beeb doesn’t mention how many Democrats also want to gain control of our borders. From the BBC, and notice the labeling and non-labeling, depending on which side each group is on:

The issue has polarised politics and US society. Right-wing groups have protested against illegal immigrants, while millions of people marched in support of them last month.

The second sentence implies that only “Right-wing groups” are concerned about the flood of illegals — it explicitly labels them as “against” illegals, and intimates this is some type of racial movement. But many Democrats are calling for stringent measures against illegals (more on that later).

Then the Beeb presupposes that actions being taken by Texas’ governor is only politically, and Republican, driven:

The Texas governor announced his plans for streaming the border surveillance camera footage over the internet at a meeting of police officials on Thursday.

“A stronger border is what Americans want and it’s what our security demands and that is what Texas is going to deliver,” Mr Perry said.

The cameras will cost $5m (£2.7m) to install and will be trained on sections of the 1,000-mile (1,600km) border known to be favoured by illegal immigrants.

Web users who spot an apparently illegal crossing will be able to alert the authorities by telephoning a number free of charge.

Mr Perry, a Republican, is running for re-election in November.

This is not an oversight, or a misunderstanding of immigration in America; this is pure editorializing — leaving out import facts. Like the fact that polls in predominantly Democratic Massachusetts reveal that:

…Bay State lawmakers advanced a series of hard-edge proposals to crack down on illegal immigrants whose impact is being felt in communities statewide.

“Clearly, there is a public outcry over this,” said state Sen. Steven Baddour (D-Methuen). “The public is really paying attention to this issue, and so are the legislators.”

Yesterday’s action by the Democrat-dominated state Senate, which passed a measure to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining public housing, stood in stark contrast to the compromise plan pushed forward by the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate.

It looks like the Republican-dominated Senate is poised to pass an immigration bill which most Americans oppose. From the AP:

Senate supporters of landmark immigration legislation looked ahead Wednesday to passage of a measure along lines set by President Bush, but they also signaled a willingness to seek common ground with conservatives whose House version would be far tougher on millions of men and women in the country illegally.

So not only is the BBC out of wack, but so are the President and the Senate:

A new opinion poll by Zogby International indicates Americans are hardly pleased with the Bush administration on the subject of illegal immigration.

The poll, cited on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” program yesterday, noted a huge majority – 81 percent – believes local and state police should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal immigration. Only 14 percent disagreed.

Voters were also asked, “Do you support or oppose the Bush administration’s proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?” Only 35 percent gave their support, and 56 percent said no.

“A majority opposed illegal immigration,” pollster John Zogby told CNN. “In fact, when you combine those two terms, ‘illegal and immigration,’ it really conjures up a considerable amount of negatives. And, in fact, we find that it’s really across the board.”

According to the report, the greatest opponents of illegal immigration are Democrats, African-Americans, women and people with household income below $75,000, those with the most to lose in the job market.

When it came to the status of the nation’s borders, respondents were asked, “Do you agree or disagree that the federal government should deploy troops on the Mexican border as a temporary measure to control illegal immigration?” A clear majority – 53 percent – agree, while 40 percent disagree.

What a mess. Some in the main-stream media are overtly pro-immigrant. Our Republican President and Senate are out of touch with the pulse of the people they represent. Right now, I don’t see this going well. The Republicans could be putting the nail in the coffin of their long tenure of controlling the White House and Congress. And I’m even starting to think about voting Democratic in November in a kinda “throw the bums out” protest. But there’s a long time between now and November.

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by Michael Rubin
National Review Online*
June 1, 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/939
* Cross-posted with permission

It did not take long for Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to slap down Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s offer of direct talks. “Rice’s comments can be considered a propaganda move,” Ahmadinejad told the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Rice’s announcement that U.S. officials were prepared to both offer the Iranian regime new incentives and sit down with it was a strategic fumble. Not only did Rice provide Ahmadinejad with an opportunity to humiliate the “arrogant power” to his domestic audience, but she also undercut what little international credibility the U.S. retains.

On its surface, the U.S. initiative was traditional diplomacy. Rice offered both carrots and sticks: “We are agreed with our European partners on the essential elements of a package containing both the benefits if Iran makes the right choice, and the costs if it does not.” But the devil is in the details. The stick—if Iran remains noncompliant—is a vague European and Russian commitment to consider sanctions at the United Nations. What specific sanctions? Not decided. What time frame? Undetermined.

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