Firing Cunning Lingusts

Hey Bush – What's All This Firing of Gay Arabic Linguist Specialists?
READ MORE: George W. Bush, 2006

Hey, Bush. How are you this morning?

You know, I think we're all very grateful the British Foreign Intelligence discovered that terrorist plot BEFORE it happened. That's really terrific.
I wonder if our intelligence is in as good shape? Can't tell yet.
And it makes me think of all those stories over the years about the Army firing soldiers who are Arabic linguists just because someone accused them of being gay.
Linguist, by the way, means they read and perhaps speak Arabic.
Boy, those language skills sound pretty helpful for the war on terror, huh?
Here's the latest one - a soldier named Bleu Copas was a decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist, and he was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy... though he didn't "tell" anybody, his dismissal was the result of a series of anonymous emails sent to superiors, accusing Bleu of being gay.

Now I admit it - his first name is scary. Bleu means "blue" in French. Why did his parents name him blue? And not only that but, judging from the picture that accompanies the CNN.com story, he's quite handsome. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/27/gaysmilitary.ap.ap/
So much so, I suppose it's possible that a straight soldier who felt really horny one day might choose to dally with him. Or if not a straight soldier, maybe another gay soldier might choose to dally with him. And, boy, the world would be a less worthwhile place if that happened, wouldn't it?

President Bush, I know you and your evangelical and fundamental Christian base really value abstinence. You and they think that if people can just go through their lives and NEVER EVER HAVE SEX, the world would be a better place. You even prefer that American teenagers and African men, women and children die of AIDS rather than let anyone tell them of how to use contraception to protect themselves. That's your position, right? ONLY TALK ABOUT ABSTINENCE.

You really are a card. I know Jesus Christ talks to you, but you know what - he talks to me too, and he thinks you're just nuts.

So, okay - I doubt I can convince you to support telling people at risk of AIDS about condoms. I know it's just too important to you and your base that people not touch their genitals. And, of course, that is one of the main teachings of Christ, it's in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are they who never touch their genitals, for they shall be pure as the innocent babe."

Fine, we'll grant you that nobody should hear about condoms, and that sex is bad, and that touching yourself is bad, except in marriage where it's fine but slightly repellent. (I'm sorry, I'm channeling Saint Paul on that one.)

But tell me - I know you talk about the war on terror. Do you think just possibly you might not keep firing solidiers who speak Arabic, and who could be used to protect us?
Do you remember that there was a backlog of email messages in Arabic that related to 9-11, but weren't translated until several days AFTER 9-11, because there was a backlog of non-translated messages because the intelligence services don't have enough translators?
And it's not just Bleu Copas, Mr. President.

Look at this quote from the CNN story: "But the GAO [General Accounting Office] also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California."

Yo Bush. Do you speak Arabic? Does Laura? Does Condi? I won't ask about Donald, because he seems ready for a rest home... any hope of that, he doesn't seem well, I worry for him.
But really... 55 gay people in the army who are proficient in Arabic and you want them fired?
Gosh, and here I thought you wanted to protect us all in your war on terror.
Whaddya say, President Bush?

Do you think for five seconds you could not cater to your fundamentalist base, and you might try to protect us FOR REAL rather than just with a lot of fancy talk?

How about reinstating those 55 maybe gay people who are proficient in Arabic? And maybe find out about the other 745 who had "critical abilities." Sounds like they might be helpful too.
What do you think? Any chance you'll consider putting the safety of America above worrying about whether someone is gay or not?

(Here's another article with more information on this case and this issue: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-2077.html It's from a British gay newspaper, I hope that doesn't scare the President or anyone else. I don't think it turns you gay to read such a newspaper. It's just it has some information that wasn't in the CNN one. So don't be afraid.)

Lord of the Flies

Bush and the "Lord of the Flies"
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 5:01am. Editorials
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Okay, we are back to our primary theory about the Bushevik Neo-Con one-party government: if you pile failure on failure, they believe it will add up to success.
It's kind of (as we implied yesterday) like sweeping up the dung of an elephant (how appropriate) and hoping that if you get the pile high enough, it will turn into mouth-watering fudge.

Guess what?

It doesn't happen. The more elephant shi* (to quote Mr. Bush) you pile up, the bigger the pile of shi*. Jesus turned water into wine, but Bush isn't Jesus. Bush can't turn dung into anything but more dung.

Here's the basic problem with Bush's pile of dung: it leaves many, many bodies in its wake. In fact, when you put together Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon (by proxy), you can say that tens of thousands of deaths have resulted from Bush's failures.

Of course, there is another pop psychology way of looking at this. Bush actually may be enthralled with having God-like powers over life and death -- especially the death part.
Remember how much Bush reveled in executing people when he was Governor of Texas -- and setting a record for the number of executions. It is about the only thing he has excelled at in his life; being the cause of people dying, that is.

So, failure to him IS success, because he is playing God.

And someone who plays God is all knowing and all powerful, right?

So what do you need democracy for, when the divine is at work in the White House, viewing world events through a "Biblical Lens" of life and death?

To understand this administration, you need to understand how Bush REALLY views himself, and what drives him.

And the above is a good point of departure.

Of course, behind every man who believes that he has God like powers, there is a Beelzebub (Satan's assistant) pulling the strings. Dick Cheney, you can come out of the bunker now.
"According to the renowned 16th century occultist Johannes Wierus, Beelzebub is the chief lieutenant of Lucifer, the Emperor of Hell, and presides over the Order of the Fly." (Wikipedia)
And, of course, flies feed off of dung.

Suspect

More evidence that this Red Alert is a wee bit suspect
by John in DC - 8/11/2006 08:22:00 AM

Check out the photo below. Yes, Ma'am, we think you might have highly explosive liquids in your possession that could kill thousands of Americans and blow up an entire airplane. So please pour the liquid out in front of these hundreds of passengers, including that small baby just three feet behind you, and into this large bucket mixed with all sorts of other unknown and possibly explosive (and reactive) liquids, including alcohol, peroxide, acids, and more. Yeah, that would be the smart way to dispose of suspected terrorist explosives.


These guys are either lying to us, or criminally negligent morons. But this is coming off as bad as the duct tape fiasco.



More here.

Another point about this "liquid explosive." It was liquid explosives that were suspected in the plot back in 1995 that Clinton foiled, the one to blow up numerous US airlines over the Pacific. Why is it that since that time it's been okay to bring liquids on board planes, but now suddenly it's not? Why was it safe on Monday, but not safe on Friday? Bush knew at the start of his administration that terrorists had
tried to use explosive liquids to blow up American planes, so did he or didn't he prepare for that possibility, and if he did, then why are they now banning all liquids (since, in principle, they should have already had a way to monitor the liquids they've been letting us bring on over the past ten years)? Something isn't quite right.

Outfoxing FOX

James Fetzer does such a good job outfoxing FOX News and putting Ollie North and Alan Colmes in their place that they only let him discuss the issue for 4 minutes before abruptly kicking him off the air.

Lewis Black on Lieberman and Repubs

Lewis Black Goes After Lieberman and the Republican Candidates

By: Jamie Holly @ 2:43 PM - PDT

Lewis Black took "Connecticut’s most circumcised Senator", Joe Lieberman to the mats last night on TDS. He even got his digs in on "the kiss" as only Lewis Black can do. Afterwards he got on Katherine Harris and her sudden loss of support by the Florida GOP and then Mike DeWine and his altered 9/11 footage ads.

Video - WMV

Video - QT

This is classic black. He hits on the stories that most of the people out there may not have heard about and gives them that extra zing they need.

Misrepresentation on Stem Cell Research

Focus On The Family Misrepresents Women’s Views On Embryonic Stem Cell Research
In recent weeks, Focus on the Family has mailed brochures to more than 90,000 Missouri homes, arguing that stem cell research under the Missouri ballot initiative would exploit women by luring them into dangerous egg donations. The brochure, “Women’s voices against cloning,” quotes several women’s organizations to show “the risks that this measure [Missouri ballot initiative] poses to women’s health.”

Women’s organizations quoted in the brochure tell ThinkProgress that Focus on the Family has misrepresented their positions and that they actually oppose the organization’s aims to ban stem cell research.

Judy Norsigian, author of Our Bodies, Ourselves, said that while she has some concerns about the somatic cell nuclear transplant (SCNT) technique, she is actually “very supportive of most embryonic stem cell research.” She also said Focus on the Family was “obfuscating [her] language” to support its own political purposes.

Focus on the Family also quoted Sujatha Jesudason from the Center for Genetics and Society. We spoke to Emily Galpern from that same organization, who also said that her organization supports some stem cell research. “One of our concerns is that conservative folks are co-opting feminist language to suit their cause,” Galpern told the St. Louis Dispatch. Galpern told ThinkProgress that groups like Focus on the Family are “taking women’s health advocates language for their larger goal of trying to stop embryonic stem cell research.”

Bushevism

War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution
By R. Jeffrey SmithWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, August 9, 2006; A01

The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.

Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.

The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking.

Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as "outrages upon [the] personal dignity" of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women's underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- that fall short of torture.

"People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope," said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.
The plan has provoked concern at the International Committee of the Red Cross, the entity responsible for safeguarding the Geneva Conventions. A U.S official confirmed that the group's lawyers visited the Pentagon and the State Department last week to discuss the issue but left without any expectation that their objections would be heeded.

The administration has not officially released the draft amendments. Although they are part of broader legislation on military courts still being discussed within the government, their substance has already been embraced by key officials and will not change, two government sources said.

No criminal prosecutions have been brought under the War Crimes Act, which Congress passed in 1996 and expanded in 1997. But 10 experts on the laws of war, who reviewed a draft of the amendments at the request of The Washington Post, said the changes could affect how those involved in detainee matters act and how other nations view Washington's respect for its treaty obligations.

"This removal of [any] reference to humiliating and degrading treatment will be perceived by experts and probably allies as 'rewriting' " the Geneva Conventions, said retired Army Lt. Col. Geoffrey S. Corn, who was recently chief of the war law branch of the Army's Office of the Judge Advocate General. Others said the changes could affect how foreigners treat U.S. soldiers.
The amendments would narrow the reach of the War Crimes Act, which now states in general terms that Americans can be prosecuted in federal criminal courts for violations of "Common Article 3" of the Geneva Conventions, which the United States ratified in 1949.

U.S. officials have long interpreted the War Crimes Act as applying to civilians, including CIA officers, and former U.S. military personnel. Misconduct by serving military personnel is handled by military courts, which enforce a prohibition on cruelty and mistreatment. The Army Field Manual, which is being revised, separately bars cruel and degrading treatment, corporal punishment, assault, and sensory deprivation.

Common Article 3 is considered the universal minimum standard of treatment for civilian detainees in wartime. It requires that they be treated humanely and bars "violence to life and person," including murder, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture. It further prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity" such as "humiliating and degrading treatment." And it prohibits sentencing or execution by courts that fail to provide "all the judicial guarantees . . . recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples."

The risk of possible prosecution of officials, CIA officers and former service personnel over alleged rough treatment of prisoners arises because the Bush administration, from January 2002 until June, maintained that the Geneva Conventions' protections did not apply to prisoners captured in Afghanistan.

As a result, the government authorized interrogations using methods that U.S. military lawyers have testified were in violation of Common Article 3; it also created a system of military courts not specifically authorized by Congress, which denied defendants many routine due process rights.

The Supreme Court decided in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on June 29, however, that the administration's policy of not honoring the Geneva Conventions was illegal, and that prisoners in the fight against al-Qaeda are entitled to such protections.

U.S. officials have since responded in three ways: They have asked Congress to pass legislation blocking the prisoners' right to sue for the enforcement of those protections. They have drafted legislation allowing the consideration of intelligence-gathering needs during interrogations, in place of an absolute human rights standard.

They also formulated the War Crimes Act amendments spelling out some serious crimes and omitting altogether some that U.S. officials describe as less serious. For example, two acts considered under international law as constituting "outrages" -- rape and sexual abuse -- are listed as prosecutable.

But humiliations, degrading treatment and other acts specifically deemed as "outrages" by the international tribunal prosecuting war crimes in the former Yugoslavia -- such as placing prisoners in "inappropriate conditions of confinement," forcing them to urinate or defecate in their clothes, and merely threatening prisoners with "physical, mental, or sexual violence" -- would not be among the listed U.S. crimes, officials said.

"It's plain that this proposal would abrogate portions of Common Article 3," said Derek P. Jinks, a University of Texas assistant professor of law and author of a forthcoming book on the Geneva Conventions. The "entire family of techniques" that military interrogators used to deliberately degrade and humiliate, and thus coerce, detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Abu Ghraib "is not addressed in any way, shape or form" in the new language authorizing prosecutions, he said.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last Wednesday, however, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales complained repeatedly about the ambiguity and broad reach of the phrase "outrages upon personal dignity." He said that, "if left undefined, this provision will create an unacceptable degree of uncertainty for those who fight to defend us from terrorist attack."
Lawmakers from both parties expressed skepticism at the hearing. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the military's top uniformed lawyers had told him they are training to comply with Common Article 3 and that complying would not impede operations.

If the underlying treaty provision is too vague, asked Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), then how could the Defense Department instruct its personnel in a July 7 memorandum to certify their compliance with it? Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who had signed the memo, responded at the hearing that he was concerned that "degrading" and "humiliating" are relative terms.

"I mean, what is degrading in one society may not be degrading in another, or may be degrading in one religion, not in another religion," England said. "And since it does have an international interpretation, which is generally, frankly, different than our own, it becomes very, very relevant" to define the meaning in new legislation.

This viewpoint appears to have won over the top uniformed military lawyers, who have criticized other aspects of the administration's detainee policy but said that they support the thrust of these amendments. Maj. Gen. Scott C. Black, the Army's judge advocate general, said in testimony that the changes can "elevate" the War Crimes Act "from an aspiration to an instrument" by defining offenses that can be prosecuted instead of endorsing "the ideals of the laws of war."

Lawyer David Rivkin, formerly on the staff of the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office, said "it's not a question of being stingy but coming up with a well-defined statutory scheme that would withstand constitutional challenges and would lead to successful prosecutions." Former Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo similarly said that U.S. soldiers and agents should "not be beholden to the definition of vague words by international or foreign courts, who often pursue nakedly political agendas at odds with the United States."

But Corn, the Army's former legal expert, said that Common Article 3 was, according to its written history, "left deliberately vague because efforts to define it would invariably lead to wrongdoers identifying 'exceptions,' and because the meaning was plain -- treat people like humans and not animals or objects." Eugene R. Fidell, president of the nonprofit National Institute of Military Justice, said that laws governing military conduct are filled with broadly described prohibitions that are nonetheless enforceable, including "dereliction of duty," "maltreatment" and "conduct unbecoming an officer."

Retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, the Navy's top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000 and now dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center, said his view is "don't trust the motives of any lawyer who changes a statutory provision that is short, clear, and to the point and replaces it with something that is much longer, more complicated, and includes exceptions within exceptions."

Wednesday

‘I have the blood of American troops on my hands.’

Reporter and “Fiasco” author Tom Ricks: “I asked one officer why are you talking to me about these things, and he looked down at his hands, and he said because I have the blood of American troops on my hands. And I said what do you mean? And he said because when I said to Rumsfeld we need that division, and Rumsfeld said no, I gave up. I compromised. And he said U.S. troops died because of that. And he said that’s why I’m talking to you. … And he was practically crying as he spoke to me about this.”

Happy Birthday, Energy Policy Act!

In early 2001, Vice President Cheney brought together an energy task force made up of “utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries,” and “incorporated their recommendations, often word for
word,” into the administration’s energy plan.
One year ago today, President Bush signed that plan into law. It lavished $14.5 billion in tax breaks on energy firms, nearly 60 percent of which went to “oil, natural gas, coal, electric utilities and nuclear power.”

As recently as April, Bush claimed the energy bill would help take “pressure off the price of gasoline at the pump.” It hasn’t worked out that way, as the chart below shows. (Click here to see the full image, courtesy of the minority staff on the House Government Reform Committee.)

Meanwhile, President Bush’s 2007 budget proposed funding “less than half of what the recent energy bill promised for renewable energy and energy efficiency — the two most readily available opportunities to break our addiction to oil.”

Climate change is causing a Swiss mountain to crumble.

Visitors to the mountain “hope
to watch a rock the size of two Empire State Buildings collapse onto the canyon floor nearly 700 feet below, as retreating glacier ice robs a cliff face on the eastern edge of the Eiger Mountain of its main support.” August 8, 2006 4:02 pm Comment (18)

Filed under:

National Review Editor: ‘Global Warming Is Great’

It’s getting difficult to distinguish actual opposition to global warming science and
parody. FYI, the following is not a joke.
National Review editor James S. Robbins shares his thoughts today:

Personally, I don’t know what all the shouting is about. Global warming is great. Granted, maybe it isn’t really happening, and if it is there are strong reasons to doubt that humans have anything to do with it. But if the world is warming, I say “bravo.”

What are the benefits? According to Robbins, “vast regions” of Canada would become “comfortably habitable,” “more land will be available for cultivation,” and there will be a “land boom up the coastlines as people rushed on up for beachfront property.”
Robbins brushes off all negative consequences. He acknowledges that rising sea levels could create “some dislocations” but says that a
worldwide sea level rise of as much as 20 feet could be taken care of with “some form of sea wall.” The image above illustrates the impact a 20 foot sea level rise on Florida. Apparently, Robbins plans on building a sea wall around the entire state.
Robbins doesn’t even mention increased hurricane intensity, drought, wildfires and the other severe impacts of global warming — much less explain, as he claims, how these natural phenomena can “be overcome.”
Robbins concludes, when “you are enjoying the surfing at your beach house in upper Newfoundland, you won’t care what caused global warming,
you’ll just thank goodness it happened.” In so doing, he illustrates an important point. Intentional or not, his arguments are a joke.

DeLay likely to support write-in candidate.

Time magazine’s Mike Allen reports that Tom DeLay is “leaning” towards “stepping aside and supporting a write-in candidate for his old seat.”

Lohan to Iraq: Fully
Loaded.

Actor and pop singer Lindsay Lohan wants to go to Iraq, People magazine reports. “I’m not afraid of going,” she says. “My security guard is going to take me to a gun range when I get back to L.A., and I’m going to start taking shooting lessons.” Lock and load.

Americans disapprove

of Bush’s handling of every major national security issue facing the country, a new Washington Post/ABC poll shows. 50 percent disapprove of his handling of terrorism (vs. 47 percent approval), 50 percent disapprove of his handling of the
Israel-Lebanon situation (vs. 43 percent approval), and 62 percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq (vs. 36 percent approval). August 8, 2006 11:21 am Comment (48)

Filed under:

Gen. George Casey: Civil War Is ‘The Most Significant Threat Right Now’ In Iraq

In an interview with ABC News, Gen George Casey — the top U.S. commander in Iraq — said a civil war in Iraq “certainly is possible.” He described a potential civil war as “the most significant threat right now” in Iraq.
Casey adds his voice to a chorus of top generals — including CentCom commander John Abizaid and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter
Pace — who warn that Iraq is in danger of sliding into civil war. Watch it:

//
Yesterday, President Bush dismissed the concerns expressed by Casey and other Generals. Bush said “You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.”
Read the full transcript of ABC’s interview with Casey.

ThinkFast: August 8, 2006 »

Democracy not on the march, says Justice Kennedy. “Our best security, our only security, is in the world of ideas, and I sense a slight foreboding,” Kennedy said in a speech. “Make no mistake, there’s a jury that’s out. In half the world, the verdict is not yet in” on Western-style democracy.
“A plague of jellyfish along Europe’s beaches has become the latest environmental hazard to be blamed on global warming.”
What friends are for: Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) reportedly met with Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) last week to “urge him to step aside, reminding him that” if he lost his seat, “Ney could not expect a lucrative career on K Street to pay those tuition bills [for his children], along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees piling up.”
Defenders of Ann Coulter’s “scholarship” have repeatedly pointed to the hundreds of endnotes contained in her books. MediaMatters examined the endnotes of her most recent title, “Godless,” and found them “rife with distortions and falsehoods.”
Congress is all in the family. USA Today
finds that there are 53 U.S. senators and representatives closely related to governors or other members of Congress, up from 24 in 1986. expand post »

Despite bipartisan objections, the Bush administration is producing the first new landmines “in over 10 years,” placing the U.S. “on the same short list of nations that includes Iran, North Korea and Burma, a list of countries producing landmine weapons banned by an international treaty.”

New study shows that children on Medicaid or with no insurance have a death rate twice as high as that of children with private insurance. “Nationwide, providing more primary and preventive care to those children could save an estimated $5 billion a year.”
38,000. Number of veterans at risk of identity theft (again) because “a Veterans Affairs Department subcontractor lost a desktop computer containing their sensitive personal data.”
And finally: First a Stanford professor, then Secretary of State, and now…a member of Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed List. The magazine cited Condoleezza Rice as “immaculately groomed and formidably dignified but with an audacious renegade streak.”

Since Hannity & Colmes had such a liberal tilt…

Conservative comedian Dennis Miller “is joining Fox News as a contributor to ‘Hannity & Colmes’ this autumn, according to a network executive.” Miller did a stint on H&C in 2003, which led to a now-cancelled CNBC primetime show. A preview of what you can expect.

July 2006 was second hottest on
record.

“The heat wave broke more than 2,300 daily temperature records for the month and eclipsed more than 50 records for the highest temperatures in any July, according to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.”

Click on the image above to see how your state stacked up.

Think Tank Fires Fellow For Criticizing Bush

Last month the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, fired John Hulsman. Heritage refuses to say exactly why they let him go, but the New Republic reports the “reasons for Hulsman’s departure” are “perfectly evident”; he criticized the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Hulsman previously had kept his dissent to himself, but “years of insurgency, civil war, and general chaos” in Iraq led him to speak out.
In an essay last year for The National Interest, Hulsman took issue with Bush’s policy in Iraq:

[N]eoconservatives, through their policies of expending blood and treasure for problematic gains such as Iraq, are significantly retarding America’s ability to act against the true barbarians at the gate - Al-Qaeda and Islamist extremists.

And Hulsman criticized the Bush administration’s refusal to talk to regimes it dislikes, specifically Iran:

America, on the other hand, having determined the mullahs in Iran were evil, disdained to engage them. But we cannot only conduct diplomatic relations with Canada; I have always naively thought a major reason for diplomacy was talking to those one didn’t agree with, in
an effort to modify their behavior to suit one’s own national interests.

These critiques may seem mild, but as Chris Preble of the Cato Institute explains: “At Heritage, anything that smacks of criticism of Bush will not be tolerated.”

Rep. Doolittle: A Devoted Friend of Sex Slavery

The Northern Marianas are the site of America’s most shoddy labor practices. Human “brokers” bring thousands there to work as sex slaves and in cramped sweatshop
garment factories where clothes (complete with “Made in U.S.A.” tag) have been produced for all the major brands.
The workers are “paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage,” and are “forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed.”
Thanks to Jack Abramoff, who lobbied against better worker protections, that’s the way conditions stayed. But Abramoff couldn’t do his work alone. McClatchy reported this weekend:

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) helped Jack Abramoff secure a lucrative lobbying contract with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1999 and then assisted the now-disgraced lobbyist’s efforts to route federal money to the islands and defend its garment industry, newly obtained documents show.
The California Republican accepted $14,000 in contributions from Abramoff… The first contribution came just a few weeks before Doolittle endorsed the election of a key commonwealth politician crucial to Abramoff winning the contract. The last Abramoff contribution came as the Northern Marianas lobbying contract was expiring in December 2001.

Doolittle’s excuse: he had “traveled to the Northern Marianas in 1999 on a congressional trip and saw none of the abuses or ‘reported inhumane working conditions.’” Which obviously means they weren’t happening.

tues

Lieberman concedes to Lamont;Vows to run as independent...

Sens said Lieberman would be on his own if he lost

Hank Johnson declares victory over Rep McKinney

McKinney campaign claiming name left off ballots...

Evangelicals find hope in mid-east warReligious leaders excited that rating scale is 13 points above 'Apocalypse.'

'Rape' platoon got high on cough syrupTroops 'driven nuts' from stress; 20+ die amid Baghdad violence today.

Turf wars still plague Homeland SecurityCritics say after nearly 5 years, fight against terrorism a chaotic work in progress.

Israel shuts down southern LebanonThreatens to blast moving vehicles; 800 people have died in 4 weeks of fighting.

Another top general says "civil war this, civil war that" by Joe in DC - 8/08/2006 11:07:00 AM
You'd think that when top generals are talking about the danger of Iraq erupting in to civil war, the President might listen. Well, that's what you'd think if we had a real President, not Bush. Think Progress has a clip of ABC's interview with General George Casey (the top U.S. commander in Iraq) who said civil war is "possible" and the "most significant threat." Instead, you may recall that just yesterday Bush blew off what "people say" about civil war:
Yesterday, President Bush dismissed the concerns expressed by Casey and other Generals. Bush said “You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.”Abizaid, Casey and the other generals warn of civil war in Iraq. Bush hears yadda, yadda, yadda.

George Bush, the lame duck of destruction by John in DC - 8/08/2006 10:12:00 AM
From MilitaryWeek.com:
The evangelical in the White House crossed a milestone this week.For the rest of the world, this milestone passes largely unnoticed in the midst of Middle East fear, death, and destruction in Iraq, in Gaza and the occupied territories, and now in Lebanon. Specifically taking a back seat to the Israeli-Hezbollah war is the ongoing and tragic status of American-occupied Iraq.But in Washington, history was made when George W. Bush finally, and for the first time, used his presidential veto power to reject a piece of legislation from his loyal Congress.The veto, as Bush explained in a public ceremony framed by chattering toddlers, was done to prevent American taxpayers from being “… compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos.'He went on, “Crossing this line would be a grave mistake and would needlessly encourage a conflict between science and ethics that can only do damage to both and harm our Nation as a whole.'Science and ethics are two areas where George W. Bush cannot be accused of knowing too much, thinking too deeply, nor retaining even a shadow of personal humility....

Another massive privacy violation by John in DC - 8/08/2006 09:03:00 AM
That's two this week, and it's only Tuesday.

Clash over Israel

Bush and Condi clash over Israel; president overrules her for the first time
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush during an Aug. 7 press conference in Crawford, Texas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become increasingly dismayed over President Bush's support for Israel to continue its war with Hezbollah.State Department sources said Ms. Rice has been repeatedly stymied in her attempts to pressure Israel to end strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. The sources said the secretary's trip to the Middle East last week was torpedoed by the Israeli air strike of a Lebanese village in which 25 people were killed."I've never seen her so angry," an aide said.The U.S. response to the Israeli-Hezbollah war was said to have divided both the administration as well as the family of President George W. Bush. At the same time, it marked the first time since Ms. Rice became secretary of state that the president has overruled her."For the last 18 months, Condi was given nearly carte blanche in setting foreign policy guidelines," a senior government source familiar with the issue said. "All of a sudden, the president has a different opinion and he wants the last word."The disagreement between Mr. Bush and Ms. Rice is over the ramifications of U.S. support for Israel's continued offensive against Lebanon. The sources said Mr. Bush believes that Israel's failure to defeat Hezbollah would encourage Iranian adventurism in neighboring Iraq. Ms. Rice has argued that the United States would be isolated both in the Middle East and Europe at a time when the administration seeks to build a consensus against Iran's nuclear weapons program.Instead, Ms. Rice believes the United States should engage Iran and Syria to pressure Hezbollah to end the war with Israel. Ms. Rice has argued that such an effort would result in a U.S. dialogue with Damascus and Tehran on Middle East stability."The United States and Israel must understand that it is not in their long-term interests to allow themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the world," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Rice ally and senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Both Damascus and Tehran must hear from America directly."Ms. Rice has garnered support from several senior Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee, including chairman Sen. Richard Lugar. Members of the inner circle of Mr. Bush's father, the former president, have also been advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, with subsequent pressure on Israel for a diplomatic settlement with the Palestinians.Ms. Rice's biggest supporter has been Brent Scowcroft, who served under the first Bush administration as national security advisor. Sources said Mr. Scowcroft, regarded as Ms. Rice's mentor, has been sending messages to his friends in Congress and the White House that U.S. support for the Israeli war could jeopardize relations with Gulf oil suppliers, particularly Saudi Arabia."A comprehensive peace settlement would not only defang the radicals in Lebanon and Palestine, and their supporters in other countries, it would also reduce the influence of Iran -- the country that, under its current ideology, poses the greatest potential threat to stability in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan," Mr. Scowcroft wrote in a column in the Washington Post on July 30.The sources said Mr. Bush's position has been supported by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and to a lesser extent National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. They have urged the president to hold off international pressure and give Israel more time to cause strategic damage to Hezbollah as well as Iranian and Syrian interests in Lebanon."I think if you think of what's happening in Lebanon and Israel right now, you see the face of the beginning of the 21st century," Mr. Rumsfeld said in a radio interview on Aug. 2.Aides for Mr. Cheney have argued that the United States should have targeted Hezbollah and Syria during the war against Iraq in 2003. They said despite U.S. intelligence warnings Hezbollah was allowed to dominate Lebanon and build a formidable force along the Israeli border."There was talk of taking care of Hezbollah and Syria, but Condi and [then-Secretary of State Colin] Powell said 'no way. We don't need another front,'" an official said.Mr. Bush's support for Israel has also struck a chord with most Americans. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll reported that 59 percent supported Israel in the war against Hezbollah and only 13 percent of respondents backed an immediate ceasefire.But the sources said Mr. Bush has been dismayed by the Israeli failure to defeat Hezbollah. They said several high-ranking Republicans have expressed amazement at the plodding Israeli advance into Lebanon."One Jewish friend of Bush actually called up a senior Israeli official and began yelling, 'What the hell's going on here,'" a source said. "'Are you going to fight or what?'"

Mel Gibson - Jew Hating Schmuck

This is the original trailer to Braveheart that Mel doesn't want anyone to see...needless to say, the plot of the movie was changed...

Gay New Jersey pastors want right to marry

Video: Gay New Jersey pastors want right to marry

David Edwards

Published:
Monday August 7, 2006

A New Jersey Supreme Court ruling could make the state the second to legalize marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

Dennis Winslow and Mark Lewis are Episcopal Priests who are fighting the State of New Jersey--and their own church--for recognition of marriage rights for the couple. Winslow has ministered to President George H.W. Bush as well as the current president's two daughters.

Church leaders have appealed to the Episcopal Convention to not bless same-sex unions. Conservative pastors say the Bible prohibits gay marriage. Pastors Winslow and Lewis believe that the bible has been misinterpreted by those seeking to continue the status quo.

Reuters doctored Beirut photo

p://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286966,00.html

Reuters admits altering Beirut photo

Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged

Yaakov Lappin

A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage.

The photograph showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. Reuters has since withdrawn the photograph from its website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors.

Reuters withdraws doctored image

In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience."

Ignored

Israeli war deaths go largely unnoticed / Yaakov Lappin Hours after mother and two daughters are killed in Hizbullah rocket attack, media outlets around world fail to report deaths; meanwhile, British press continues anti-Israel tirade Full Story

Reuters' head of PR Moira Whittle said in response: "Reuters has suspended a photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to a photograph showing smoke billowing from buildings following an air strike on Beirut. Reuters takes such matters extremely seriously as it is
strictly against company editorial policy to alter pictures."

"As soon as the allegation came to light, the photograph, filed on Saturday 5 August, was removed from the file and a replacement, showing the same scene, was sent. The explanation for the removal was the improper use of photo-editing software," she added.

Earlier, Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog , which has exposed a previous attempt at fraud by a major American news corporation, wrote : "This Reuters photograph shows blatant
evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop "clone" tool to add more smoke to the image."

News version of photo (Photo: Reuters)

Johnson added: "Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. There's really no question about it."

A series of close ups are then posted on the blog, showing that "it's not only the plumes of smoke that were 'enhanced.' There are also cloned
buildings." The close ups do appear to show exact replicas of buildings appearing next to one another in the photograph.

The Sports Shooter web forum , used by professional photographers, also examined the photo, with many users concluding that the image has been doctored.

Threat From Reuters

Reuters employee issues 'Zionist pig' death threat / Yaakov Lappin Worker suspended after telling American blogger: 'I look forward to day when you pigs get your throats cut' Full Story

'Looks so obviously doctored'

"I'll second the
cloned smoke...but it looks so obvious that I don't know how the photographer could have gotten away with it," wrote one user.

After further research, Johnson posted a photograph he says is the original image taken before distortions were made, showing much lighter smoke rising.

Other blogs have also analyzed the photographs, and reached similar conclusions, such as Left & Right , which states: "The photo has been doctored, quite badly."

The author of the Ace of Spades blog wrote: "Even I can see the very suspicious "clonings" of picture elements here. And I'm an idiot."

The Hot Air blog also looked at the photo, describing the image as "the worst Photoshop I have ever seen."

Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana � which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged.

Kicked Out

ABC's Good Morning America covers story of gay Arabic speaker kicked out of military by John in DC - 8/07/2006 06:30:00 AM

ABC says that he was one of the few Arabic speakers in military intelligence. The military launched a witch hunt against him, in violation of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, and kicked him out.To the Republicans running our government, finding gays is more important than finding Osama. George Bush is jeopardizing the war on terror, risking another September 11, in the pursuit of the Republicans' far-right cultural agenda. Is this what Americans really want to vote for in November?

Open Season on Jewish Women

Open Season on Jewish Women

By Phyllis Chesler and Nancy KobrinFrontPageMagazine.com August 1, 2006

This past Friday, 30-year-old Naveed Afsal Haq, a supposedly lone and “mentally ill” Muslim-American of Pakistani origin, took a 13-year-old girl hostage in order to gain entry to the Jewish Federation Building in Seattle. Declaring himself “angry with Israel,” Haq announced that it was a “hostage” situation, and began shooting only women, including a pregnant woman. Five women were wounded and one, 58 year-old Pam Waechter, was murdered. Several other women were shot in the abdomen.

Haq's brutal attack is no ordinary crime. It is the product of an Islamic culture that denigrates women in general and a jihadist culture that specifically seeks to destroy life. Thus, many Islamic suicide killers will purposely target pregnant women or women with small children before they blow themselves up. It should come as no surprise, then, that Haq is also up on a misdemeanor charge for lewd conduct -- accused of exposing himself in a public place.

Like the parents of many other jihadists, Haq’s parents were shocked to learn of what their son had done. Their reaction is reminiscent of the friends and relatives of male serial killers, who could never believe that such a nice fellow could be capable of so gruesome a crime.

What is sure, however, is that a pattern is emerging. Haq follows in the bloody footsteps of Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy, the Seattle-based Green River killer, all of whom preyed either on prostitutes or vulnerable women of a certain age and “type.” Unlike Haq, these killers did not emerge from ideological or political cults. Washington state’s Green River Killer murdered more than forty prostitutes and Ted Bundy (who also operated in and around Seattle), murdered more than a hundred women across the country. Yet they did not target Jewish women, nor was their misogynist rage fueled by jihadist politics.

Like Mohammed Atta, Haq had no interest in sexually assaulting Jewish women, only in killing them. Given Haq’s indictment for “lewd” behavior in public, but absent a jihadist influence we might expect him to (merely) become a sexual predator, and not necessarily a killer. Or, if his sexualized rage became murderous we might expect him to kill women—not just Jewish women.

Haq’s act is chillingly reminiscent of the Montreal Massacre which took place on December 6, 1989. Marc Lepine entered the engineering school at the University of Montreal and gunned down fourteen women and wounded fifteen others. Lepine, who had been rejected by both the Canadian Army and the engineering school at the University of Montreal, said in his suicide note that he was after the “feminist viragos” who had ruined his life.

The Canadian police saw this as an isolated act of a madman (as American police had once viewed Ted Bundy’s bloody trail of femicide). What the Canadian police failed to understand was the importance of certain biographical and childhood factors. For example, Lepine was born Gamile Rodrigue Gharbi to an Algerian Muslim father and a French-Canadian mother who had formerly been a nun. Lepine’s father, Liess Gharbi, physically and psychologically brutalized both his son and his wife. He probably taught his son that women are chattel property who deserve to be beaten even when they are obedient—and perhaps murdered when they are not. What is important to note is that Gharbi/Lepine blamed women for the considerable crimes of his father. As Dr. Chesler recounts in her book, The Death of Feminism, in 2001 an angry mob of 300 Algerian men conducted a three-day pogrom against Algerian women in which they tortured, stabbed, mutilated, gang-raped, buried alive and murdered women in Hassi Messaoud.
In Dr. Chesler’s 1978 book, “About Men,” she posited that the paternal abandonment of, and cruelty towards sons may be a crucial component in mother- and woman-hating. Dr. Nancy Kobrin, in her forthcoming book The Sheik’s New Clothes: The Naked Truth About Islamic Suicide Terrorism, posits that the absolute degradation of Arab and Muslim women by a shame- and honor-society means that sons must perpetually rid themselves of the “contamination” that contact with women represents; and that sons must psychologically abandon their mothers—which they may also experience as being abandoned by their mothers. Many such sons are trained to mistrust, police, routinely batter, and sometimes even murder their female relatives.

Dr. Kobrin believes that such psychological dynamics may play a crucial role in contemporary Islamic terrorism. Furthermore, the Jewess is the most denigrated female in Islamic ideology. Think about Zaynab bint Al-Harith, the Khaybar Jewess, who was falsely accused of poisoning the prophet Muhammad after having witnessed the be-heading of her entire male community in the Battle of Khaybar after the Jewish men had surrendered. Not coincidentally, Hezbollah calls its missiles "Khaybar." We have also been told that a new Iranian television station is also known as “Kaybar.”

A Jewish woman who knew the murdered Pam Waechter told us that Waechter was born a Lutheran and converted to Judaism. “She was a better Jew than I or most of us could ever be,” she said. Jewish tradition believes that messianic redemption will enter the world through the good deeds of women converts to Judaism, beginning with Ruth, the ancestor of King David. Let us learn the necessary lessons about redemption from Pam Waechter’s martyrdom.

At the same time, let us not forget that innocence is no defense against fanatical killers driven by hatred of women and Jewish women above all. Jewish women in America, many of whom are progressives and liberals, must now wrestle with the tragedy in Seattle. It will not do to blame Israel for Haq’s crime. The fact is that all Jewish women, whatever their political views, are targets of jihadists who will shoot first and never make inquires about where their victims stand on the question of Israel and Palestine.

Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D is the author of thirteen books including The New Anti-Semitism and the forthcoming The Islamization of America. She may be reached through her website www. Phyllis-Chesler.com. Nancy Kobrin, Ph.D is a psycho-analyst and Affiliate Professor at the University of Haifa.

Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com.

Sunday

Hezbollah rocket attack kills ten

Hezbollah has fired an enormous barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel, killing at least ten people and wounding 20 others, rescue services said. One of the rockets hit a building in the northern town of Kfar Giladi, causing many injuries, rescue officials said. Army Radio said a synagogue was also hit and there were fatalities in the barrage. "There are several wounded, many of them in very serious condition," Eli Bean, director of the Magen David Adom rescue service, told Israel's Channel Two. Witnesses reported the barrage was going on more than 15 minutes after it had begun. One rescue service reported at least two rockets directly hit homes.
US and France agree UN resolution

The US and France have agreed on a draft UN Security Council resolution that seeks a full halt to fighting in Lebanon. This breaks a three-week impasse caused partly by Washington's refusal to press Israel to end its offensive against Hezbollah. Despite the agreement, fighting raged on. Israeli naval commandos struck the southern port of Tyre before dawn, while Israeli air raids killed at least eight people across Lebanon and a rain of Hezbollah rockets on northern Israel killed three civilians.

Iran defies UN on nuclear programme

Iran has vowed to expand - not suspend - uranium enrichment activities in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution giving the Islamic Republic until August 31 to halt nuclear activities or face the threat of political and economic sanctions. Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani called the UN Security Council resolution issued last week "illegal" and said Iran won't respect the deadline. "We reject this resolution," he said.

57 die in China tropical storm

The death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon jumped to 57, with 16 more people missing, after the storm knocked down houses and set off landslides and flash floods in China, news reports said. Hardest hit was Guangdong province, where 38 people have been killed since Prapiroon roared ashore on Thursday. In neighbouring Guangxi region to the west, 19 people were killed, including six migrant farm workers whose shelter was swept away by a flash flood in the city of Laibin, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Egyptian group 'joins al Qaida'

Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader said in a new video that an Egyptian militant group has joined the terror network, the first time that al Qaida has announced a branch in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation. The Egyptian group, Gamaa Islamiya, is apparently a revived version of the biggest militant group that waged a campaign of violence in Egypt during the 1990s but was crushed in a government crackdown. "We announce to the Islamic nation the good news of the unification of a great faction of the knights of the Gamaa Islamiya ... with the Al-Qaida group," Ayman al-Zawahri, the deputy leader of al-Qaida said in the videotape aired on the Al-Jazeera news network.

Castro 'coming along well'

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage sought to dispel growing speculation about Fidel Castro's health, saying he does not have stomach cancer and is recuperating well after surgery that prompted him to step aside temporarily. "He is coming along well. He does not have stomach cancer," Lage told reporters during a visit to Bolivia for the opening of a constitutional assembly. "He's been made well by the operation and is recuperating favourably."

Pair held over US serial shootings

One of the two suspects in a series of apparently random late-night killings that terrorised residents of Phoenix, Arizona, discarded a trash bag in which police found a map with red and blue dots representing the locations of the attacks, court documents said. The bag also contained an expended .410-gauge shotgun shell and a piece of paper referring to serial violence, according to a probable cause statement. The trash bag had been tossed into a bin at the suburban Mesa apartment complex where Dale S Hausner and Samuel John Dieteman lived, the report said. The men, accused of shooting two dozen people, including six fatally, were arrested late on Thursday after police tailed them for a week.

Nato soldier killed in Afghan crash

One Nato soldier was killed and three injured when their armoured jeep crashed in southern Afghanistan, a Nato statement said. The crash, in Kandahar province where four Canadian troops were killed earlier in the week, was not caused by enemy action, the statement said. The soldiers were accompanying a supply convoy, it said.

Friday

Justice Dept. threatens to sue Maine to stop domestic spying lawsuit by Joe in DC - 8/04/2006 12:42:00 PM

The Bush administration is threatening to take Maine to court if they even investigate whether Verizon broke the law:

The Bush administration is threatening to sue if Maine regulators decide to investigate whether Verizon Communications illegally turned over customer information to the National Security Agency.Verizon customers in Maine have asked the state's Public Utilities Commission to investigate whether the telecom giant violated privacy laws by cooperating with a domestic surveillance program. The PUC is expected to decide Monday whether to open such a probe.In a July 28 letter to the PUC, the U.S. Department of Justice cites national security as a key reason for its opposition to a state investigation. The seven-page letter suggests a lawsuit is likely if Maine regulators decide to investigate."We sincerely hope that, in light of governing law and the national security concerns implicated by the requests for information, you will decline to open an investigation and close these proceedings, thereby avoiding litigation over the matter," the letter reads.Verizon sure has a lot of power within the Bush administration. What comes after the lawsuit? An invasion? It is about national security after all.

I think Bush is preparing the American people for an all-out disaster in Iraq by John in DC - 8/04/2006 08:12:00 AM
You don't get two top generals warning of a possible "civil war" in Iraq on the same day unless their words were scripted. These are not folks known for their spontaneity, or honesty, particularly as it pertains to this war. So the fact that they're even talking about a civil war - when we all know that Iraq is already in a civil war - tells us something.And what it tells us is that Iraq is lost, Bush now knows it's lost, and his generals are throwing out trial balloons to the American people, slowly getting us accustomed to the idea that Iraq may fail. Sure, it already has failed, so the generals are lying like the good banana republic generals they are, but still, there's movement in their message, and that is most certainly not a coincidence.

Presidential policy is based foremost on Bush's Christian Fundamentalism by Joe in DC - 8/03/2006 09:46:00 PM
Via Froomkin:
Former Newsday and Knight Ridder White House correspondent Saul Friedman writes on NiemanWatchdog.org: "I believe this to be the first time in modern American history that a president's religion, in this case his Christian fundamentalism, has become a decisive factor in his foreign and domestic policies. It's a factor that has been under-reported, to say the least, and that begs for press attention. . ."It may help explain George W. Bush's single-mindedness, his oblivious inability to face reality as his war in Iraq, his war against terror and his policies towards Arabs and Israeli have collapsed."Scary. Very scary. And, of course it's under-reported, like every other scary thing from Bush.

Nonie Darwish

Nonie Darwish
Bio

08.03.2006

The Muslim Majority Must Break Its Silence

Arabs today are at a critical crossroads. They must decide whether to live in a constant state of war and terror or to denounce their own terrorists. Terrorists are working to prevent moderate Arabs from making the right choice. Terrorist groups rely on a tribal culture and the sympathies and emotions of the Arab street whenever they get into trouble.

Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda get recruits and support only by provoking hostilities with Israel and other parts of the world, and creating crises wherever they can.

Hamas's and Hezbollah's unprovoked attacks on Israel from the two areas Israel withdrew from -- and no longer occupies -- illustrates how this happens. Israel responded and two weeks later we all saw the particularly horrifying images from Qana, Lebanon on our television screens. But responsibility for this terrible tragedy must be laid at the feet of the people who deliberately hide among civilians in order to fire rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians. Hezbollah and its supporters are responsible for those deaths. Only the Jihadists benefit from the deaths of innocent civilians benefit, not Israel.

Despite initially blaming Hezbollah, the Arab street's sympathies have now shifted to Hezbollah. Terror groups count on that support. People in the West do not understand why the silent Muslim majority stays silent. The reason can be found in the old Arab saying, "My brother and I against our cousin, but my cousin and I against a stranger." Supporting fellow Muslims, right or wrong, is a fundamental cultural obligation among Arab society, which is tribal Arab radicals exploit this powerful cultural motivation time and time again.

I was a child in Gaza in the 1950's, when Gaza was in Egyptian hands. Gaza's infrastructure and economy were neglected while the land became a launching pad for terror attacks on Israel. Fifty years later, the two areas evacuated by Israel - Gaza last year and Lebanon six years ago -- are used for the same purpose, and everything is being sacrificed by Arabs in order to kill Jews. The hatred of Jews by Arabs in the areas surrounding Israel is more important than a mother's love for her children.

In 1955, an intifada broke out in Gaza. But it was not against Israel; it was against the oppressive rule of Egypt's President Nasser. To divert attention from this uprising, the Egyptian government intensified the fedayeen operations against Israel under the command of my father, Lt. Colonel Mustafa Hafez. Israel's defense against the fedayeen, including their killing my father, ended the intifada. This pattern of Arabs increasing terror attacks against Israel as a way of dealing with threats to their governments continues until today. The fedayeen of the 1950's became the model for today's terror organizations.

However, it is time for the Arab street to get smart. The terror groups' have distracted Arabs from solving their real human challenges while bringing them humiliating defeats. Arabs must join the world community and turn away from self-destructive patterns and tribal obligations. They must come to understand there is more pride in protecting their homes, families and society than in having fake pride by supporting reckless terror groups and attacks against Israel. Otherwise, Arab society is doomed to destruction, terror and despair.

Every moderate Muslim must be appalled by the likes of Hezbollah, which means the party of Allah. Hezbollah is desecrating God's name and is destroying the lives of Muslim men for a promise of heaven with 72 virgins. Religious leadership has failed Muslim young men, who must be taught that they are needed right here on earth to help make it a better place.

We Arabs must abandon this obsession to destroy Israel and tend to more important issues, such as honor killing of Muslim girls, stoning of Muslim women, killing and torturing of gays, amputation of limbs of criminals, female genital mutilation, the murder of apostates who leave Islam, polygamy and its devastating effects on family relations, and the imprisonment of Arab reformists and writers and cutting the tongues of those who speak out. We must speak out against the self-anointed and hateful Ayatollahs and Sheikhs who incite violence, rage and anger from the pulpits of mosques. They are condemning the beautiful Middle East society to a permanent condition of war, terror and jihad.

No longer do we want to hear our religious leaders proudly curse non-Muslim infidels and Jews in Friday prayer sermons, calling them "apes and pigs" and "enemies of God." We are all God's creation. The Arab street must not sympathize with Hezbollah. The silent Muslim majority must abandon its silence and "dark-age mentality." We must join the 21 st century's civilization.

Huffs

Sen. Clinton: Rumsfeld Should Resign...

Senators Slam Rumsfeld At Hearing: “Under Your Leadership, There Have Been Numerous Errors In Judgement”...

Fed Up With Iraq: 55% Want Complete U.S. Pullout By This Time Next Year…

Confidential Memo To Tony Blair Warns Of Iraq Civil War...

Gonzales Says Govt May “Indefinitely” Hold Guantanamo Prisoners...


Eric Boehlert: Fox News Continues to Suggest Israel Did Not Bomb Qana

Constitutional Crisis

Cafferty: Conyers’ Constitutional Crisis

Rep. John Conyers has alleged that the Bush Administration has broken 26 laws and policies. Jack Cafferty talked about some of the charges against the president.



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