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June 29, 2005
Libya's New Bargain
The Libyans have successfully extorted more money out of the Europeans, this time for border control. Either pay us to guard our borders or be swamped by millions of African Muslims, Khaddafi said. They paid. Also, see Libya complaints about illegal immigration. Priceless. Here is a fascinating article on Brussels Journal, edited by my friend Paul Belien. He is a former contributor to the Wall Street Journal Europe, a free-market activist who started the Centre for the New Europe, and has just published a new book on the EU. It argues that the European Union—with its myriad official languages, socialist-minded regulators and desire to build an artificial state that transcends traditional borders—is simply an attempt to create Belgium on a continental scale. As such, the EU will face all of the problems now faced by Belgium. Buy it now.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 11:50 AM
June 28, 2005
Death to America! Pass the Donuts!
Here another account, written by a former Green Beret who was on the same trip to Gitmo as Simmons. Note the details. One interrogator bakes cookies for her subjects, while another hands out doughnuts. Officers there say that kind approach works, citing the river of intelligence derived since Gitmo opened. Fine. But how much more would the alternative, harsher methods have produced? And how much faster?
Posted by Richard Miniter at 07:22 PM
The Real Scandal at Gitmo: We're too Soft
Former intelligence operative (and now Fox News commentator) Wayne Simmons recently visited America's terrorist holding pens on the tip of Cuba. He took Air Force Two, along with some other worthies. He sent me this e-mail, which by his permission I will be quoting at some length. First, let me underline one point which is both original and frightening: Are the facilities so cushy at Gitmo that the terrorists have an incentive to delay talking in order to extend their stay? There have been cases, as one guard explained in another communication, that they actually had to force prisoners onto to planes to return to their home countries.
One other thing: Simmons is no talking head. He has conducted his share of interrogations of drug lords, narco-terrorists and enemies of order in Central and South America in the 1970s and 1980s. He is looking at Gitmo with a professional eye, the way your dentist brother-in-law can help noticing the problems of a waitress' bridgework.
Here's Simmons' eyewitness report:
After traveling to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Friday, June 25 to see first hand how the Enemy Combatants were being treated I have come to some startling conclusions. It became apparent to me that those on the Left trying desperately to undermine not only the President but also the United States are completely void of any real information about the treatment of detainees. It is clear now that along with some members of the press, the ACLU and other quasi-communist / socialist organizations and even some of our own members of Congress, the real play here was to spread false information about the treatment of detainees and undermine US efforts at Gitmo and in the war. Those who espouse these lies are liars. Those who have traveled to Gitmo and have seen the actual conditions and continue to espouse the lies are ignorant liars. From the clothing that the detainees are required to wear to the food they eat, everything is clean and healthy. They are provided soccer facilities and exercise areas. Some spend as much as 6 to 7 hours or longer a day relaxing outside playing chess or reading. The Koran is secured neatly on the wall above the ground. The exercise courts have an arrow painted on them pointing to Mecca. The cells have neatly folded blankets and prayer mats and most have air conditioning. They are provided prayer times every day 5 times a day. They are provided with 24 hour medical and dental attention. At about this point in the tour I started getting angry. Angry at those who had been telling the world how bad we were treating the prisoners and how bad the conditions were. Pure unadulterated BS. But the soft treatment didn't stop there. Along with the other military analysts we were allowed to view 4 interrogations. Interrogations? These were more like love fests or therapy sessions. If the terrorists tell the interrogators what they want to know and the intel proves true and beneficial, they are rewarded with chocolate and cookies or hard to get magazines and books. If the detainees throw feces or spit on the guards, which is done frequently, there are no repercussions. Only the hope that they will see our kindness and change.By the end of a long day, one that began at 2:30 a.m. for me, I soon
realized that several things were taking place at Gitmo. The most
important was that General Jay Hood was the right man for a very tough job. He had some of the very finest the military has to offer guarding our facility and the detainees. General Hood has demanded the best from them and they have responded.It also became apparent, to me at least, that though the interrogation techniques being used are finding some success, much stronger techniques should be used in conjunction with the techniques currently being used.
I am convinced that there is time sensitive intel not being extracted
and that some of the detainees are purposely withholding intel because they are allowed to continue in their cushy surroundings even if they don't cooperate with the interrogators. It became clear that ALL of the detainees being held at Gitmo have been proven to be Enemy Combatants. There were no mistakes. These are the worst of the worst. The most evil of the evil. It was while viewing one interrogation that I sensed evil in the room, a sensation that I had not felt since interrogating narcoterrorists over 20 years ago. These terrorists are capable of launching an attack within hours of being released from Gitmo. How do we know? Because at least 12 that were released did just that. Nursed back to health, given medical treatment, teeth fixed. In at least one case, given a prosthesis and released. He killed again within months. While flying away from Gitmo on Air Force Two with the sun slowly beginning to set, I faced the realization that we are not just facing Al Qaeda et. al. in this war on terror. We are facing attacks by those who, under the guise of humanitarian organizations, are attacking the US.Some are even here in the US striking from within. This time, we have
proven they are liars and are collaborating with the enemy. We must
continue to expose those members of Congress who lie to the American
public and essentially collaborate with the enemy. Members who claim our interrogation techniques are too brutal and compared us to Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler must be brought to task. This war is inside our sacred borders. If we do not continue to inform the American people with the truth, they will lose their resolve and we will lose the war. Americans can handle the truth.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 03:03 PM
Corruption, Sharon and the retreat from Gaza
I've long been hearing grumbling about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from Israelis, while the American Jews seem to think he walks on water. There are persistent rumors that Sharon or members of cabinet have been on the take for casinos based in the lands east of Jerusalem. Now, Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post, writes this column. I think it time for Americans to reevaluate Sharon and to put their faith in principles, not politicians. And to support the second only when they embody the first.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 02:58 PM
June 24, 2005
Euros for Iraq's terrorists?
A gaggle of European leftists have moved from vocal opposition to the war in Iraq to actually funding the anti-democratic terrorists, what they so charmingly call "the resistance." Nevermind that their money could be used to kill American and European troops, that Iraq is the only Arab democracy, or that al Qaeda opposes every human right the Left once cherished. Raising funds in the heart of NATO for America's enemies... It is hard to believe.
Check out this leftwing European web site (English edition). Launched in November 2003, here is their call for 10 euros (about $13) per person to help finance our enemies:
- We therefore invite all the anti-imperialists who oppose the American Empire without any ideological and religious precondition to start an international collection of funds supporting the Iraqi national resistance movement: we ask every person to donate 10 euros. The Iraqi national resistance front in formation will decide upon their utilisation.
- Committees, political, social and cultural organisations as well as individuals who endorse this proposal are asked to contact us. Our aim is to build an international popular campaign in support of the Iraqi resistance which also implies the creation of the appropriate international body.
The effort has already raised several million euros, according to this week's U.S. News and World Report. Some of this money has actually gone to fund weapons, according to one organizer. Here's the money quote:
The groups are an odd collection, made up largely of Marxists and Maoists, sprinkled with an array of Arab emigres and aging, old-school fascists, according to Lorenzo Vidino, an analyst on European terrorism based at The Investigative Project in Washington, D.C. "It's the old anti-capitalist, anti-U.S., anti-Israel crowd," says Vidino, who has been to their gatherings, where he saw activists from Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Italy. "The glue that binds them together is anti-Americanism."
Posted by Richard Miniter at 09:07 AM
June 16, 2005
Miniter on TV — Postponed!
The weenies at MSNBC called to postpone the interview. So sorry, guys, false alarm.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 09:43 AM
June 15, 2005
Miniter on TV
I will be on MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast with hosts Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley at approximately Noon (EDT) on Thursday, June 16. Tune in. We will be talking about reports that place bin Laden in Iran.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 08:55 PM
Zarqawi's car bomb maker arrested
Wanna buy a car bomb? $18,000. And remember, these are "friend prices." Those other jihadis, they pay more. Ask around the baazar. Terrorists who know shop here... Jassim Hazan Hamadi al-Bazi, also known by his al Qaeda name, Abu Ahmed, made and sold a variety of bombs and weapons for our enemies in Iraq. Now he is in Iraqi custody—and many lives have been saved as a result. Check out this story in Britain's Guardian newspaper. Dare I say it? One more sign that we are winning.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 08:35 PM
And you thought the Red Cross was neutral...
An acquaintance of mine, Mike Bussio, sent me the following e-mail.
I thought you readers might be interested in seeing it in full. I
haven't investigated it, but it sounds like the kind of bone-headed
thing the International Committee of the Red Cross would do.
It has been suggested by Julie Taub, M.Ed., LL.B. Immigration Lawyer, Ottawa, Canada that when she receives a letter from the Red Cross soliciting funds, she sends a note back in their postpaid envelope stating that, since Israel's Magen David Adom (Israel's "Red Cross") is not recognized by the International Red Cross organization, she will withhold any contributions and will advise everyone she knows to do the same; until this wrong is corrected.If you agree please send this to everyone in your address book. It may
help get Magen David Adom on the funded list of that organization and
they sorely need the help.
If you wish to directly express your displeasure with this situation, sign the Simon Wiesenthal Center's petition addressed to the President of the Swiss Confederation.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 07:06 PM
Iraq's Version of Reality TV
Longtime readers of this site will remember a post about a popular Iraqi television show called "Terrorists in the grip of Justice," which featured battered terrorists in Mosul and elsewhere confessing to their murderous deeds. It was reportedly highly popular and has seemed to mobilze public opinion against the anti-democratic terrorists. Now Christopher Hitchens, who I bumped into at a dinner for the son of the late Shah of Iran, has written about the Iraqi show for Slate. You heard it here first, but Hitchens' piece is worth a read.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 06:14 PM
Why We Will Win in Iraq
Why can't the American military protect itself from roadside bombs and snipers of the Iraq's anti-democratic terrorists (whom the media charmingly call "insurgents")? Part of the reason is bureaucratic inertia. The military bureaucracy—which is essentially the motor vehicle department with heavy artillery—has not moved beyond the idea that the only way to armor vehicles is by welding on plates of steel. While heavy, these plates can only stop a handful of AK-47 rounds in the same spot before a deadly hole opens up. There has to be a better way, a lightweight solution that stops hundreds of rounds in the same spot. Meet David Warren, a former Marine with more than 20 patents to his name. (Full Disclosure: Warren is married to my sister, Susanne.) He has developed a new technology which promises to revolutionize the way we safeguard our soldiers. Hopefully, the military bureaucracy will listen...
As for the enemy, I think they have underestimated America. They are not just fighting our soldiers, but an army of inventors back in homeland.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 11:24 AM
June 13, 2005
Foucault and Khomeini
Anyone who studied philosophy in the 1980s or afterwards had to endure at least some of the writings of French thinker Michel Foucault. Most of it is rubbish designed to confuse the unwary.
But, as this article in the Boston Globe makes clear, the French S&M philosopher might be useful after all. He appears to be one of the very first left-liberals to be seduced by Islamic radicalism—even praising Ayatollah Khomeini for a time—before beating an unapologetic retreat when events revealed the depth of his misplaced hopes. Foucault's writings on Iran have just been translated into English (from French and Italian) and I think they will serve as an important milestone for understanding the strangest intellectual trajectory of our time: anti-religious progressives in the West rhetorically supporting the hyper-religious reactionaries of Islamism. Worth reading.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 06:09 PM
One more piles on
Kenneth Timmerman, a former Reader's Digest writer who warned readers about the threat from bin Laden in July 1998 entitled "This man wants you dead," has a new book that also claims that bin Laden is in Iran. As with Rep. Weldon, I believe Timmerman's source is a man I interviewed in 2004 for my book Shadow War. The case that bin Laden is in Iran is far from certain, but it would explain why the archterrorist has not been captured.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 02:24 PM
What took them so long?
A senior Bush Administration official publicly acknowledged that there is an emerging minority view in the intelligence community that bin Laden is in Iran. Of course, readers of Shadow War were already ahead of the curve on that one.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:16 AM
June 12, 2005
Marxists riot over flushing Das Kapital
This is funny and firmly tongue in cheek.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 11:58 PM
June 09, 2005
Marx's Revenge on Churchill
Colorado University professor Ward Churchill became an international celebrity by calling the victims of the September 11 attacks "little Eichmans." Now the families of the victims might want to call Churchill a "little liar." The long-haired professor has long claimed to be an American Indian. In fact, he received his position at the CU and his special status as a political activist on the basis of his Indian blood. What's more, he has continously represented himself to students and others as an Indian. So this Rocky Mountain News story is devastating to Churchill. There is no evidence that he or his family have any Indian blood, but there is ample evidence that they were slave holders.
Churchill could be torn apart by the inherent contradictions of the
modern Left, which places so much emphasis on the issue of identity. In that world view, only a Indian can speak or write authentically about Indian affairs, Asians about Asian affairs and so on. So his Indian status is what enables him to carry out his profession as an Indian specialist. To lose that is to lose his livelihood. The relation to documented slave masters just compounds the problem. If the classical liberal view were prevalent today, than the issue of his identity would
be moot. Only the quality of his work would matter. But those days of
old-fashioned liberalism are long gone on America's campuses. Churchill has prospered under the New Left's doctrines and now he may suffer under them.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 08:05 PM
Iran, Rep. Weldon and secret sources
Here is my review of a book by Congressman Curt Weldon, the maverick vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The book will out in a week or so. While I don't endorse everything in Weldon's book, I think you will find the review and the book interesting.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 04:25 PM
Press Bias, Fisk and Thucydides
This article by Keith Windschuttle is very interesting. He comes close to asking a question that has been on my mind ever since my first trip to Iraq in 2003. Why are reporters reporting the last war? It used to be generals who were accused of fighting the last war, but campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq were utterly new and weren't even similar to each other, let alone Vietnam. Windschuttle also makes some interesting points comparing Fisk's descriptions of bin Laden to British colonial descriptions of Arab leaders and details how press coverage has been skewed.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 02:07 PM
June 08, 2005
Eye-gouging terrorists at Gitmo
Here is what Gitmo is really like. This report in the Washington Times, based on interviews with two U.S. Army ""block guards" who served in Guantanimo Bay, Cuba, shows what the military has to put up with. Don't expect this article to be too widely circulated. Bear this in mind when you wonder why they are hooded and shackled when transported.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 01:28 PM
There They Go Again
Ceci Connolly of the Washington Post charges that some 100 prisoners in US military custody have died at their hands. No evidence is offered, except vague "Pentagon reports." If Connolly has such a scoop, why not, ahem, write for the front page of the Post? But really, it is unfair to question her.. I guess when the military isn't busy targeting journalists, "outsourcing" the hunt for bin Laden to locals, rendering terrorists to the tender mercies of their home country's intelligence service, they have a few moments to kill poor, innocent al Qaeda members. Somebody call Amnesty International.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 12:12 PM
June 07, 2005
Prisoners abuse Korans 3 times more often than guards
That is actually a fair summary of Gen. Hood's report, as John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker explains here. He also details the extraordinary political correctness and carefulness with which the militarty handles these terrorists captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan and elsewhere. This is the best article on the phony "Koran abuse" scandal that I've seen. By the way, when did the Koran become a protected item in American law? Where is the ACLU demanding a separation
of mosque and state?
Posted by Richard Miniter at 03:41 PM
O Jerusalem
Are hundreds of Arab Jerusalem residents secretly training in Palestinian areas to wreak havoc in the world's most contested capital? Yes, according to this report by Caroline Glick. Read the whole thing.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:09 AM
Last Man Out
Here is part one of truly riveting story of a Canadian man's escape from the south tower of the World Trade Center on 9-11. He was one of only four people who were working above the floors where the plane struck to make it out alive. It is a gripping read.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 07:00 AM
June 06, 2005
If only the EU would do this...
Sometimes the Sunday Telegraph (of London) can be more far-seeing that the eurocrats, who now suffered defeat twice in two weeks. I think the "torygraph" is wrong about abolishing the European Parliament (instead its budgetary and investigatory powers should be strengthened against the Commission), but the rest seems fairly sensible.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 09:16 AM
June 05, 2005
Kissinger attacks a straw man
Former Secretary of State and dean of so-called "realist" school of foreign policy, Henry Kissinger, recently fired back at the "idealists" who want to implement the "freedom agenda" around the world. He doesn't engage the idealists' best arguments, but debates a series of straw men. Too bad. And he keeps talking about the changing strategic stituation, without acknowledging that it was Bush's idealist agenda that effected that change. Disappointing.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:27 PM
June 04, 2005
Iran and al Qaeda
This is a big story. While Gary Metz over at Regime Change Iran, Michael Leeden at the American Enterprise Institute and I have been trying to get the media's attention about the growing links between Iran and al Qaeda, the issue has mostly drawn yawns from the MSM. Maybe this Associated Press dispatch signals a coming change. Worth reading.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:00 PM
Irony in Israel
My friend Dore Gold, Israel's former United Nations ambassador and author of books on Saudia Arabia and the United Nations, has angered terrorists, Islamists, and the PLO. So when I heard he came to grief on the streets of Jerusalem this past week, I feared the worst. But God has a sense of humor. Gold was not hurt by a car bomb, but a large dog that knocked him down as he was walking his own dog. He is on the mend and we should be grateful that he is still with us. If you haven't read him, here's your invitation. You won't be disappointed.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 02:50 PM
June 03, 2005
How Saddam helped CNN and vice versa
Check out this account of CNN founder Ted Turner, at a conference attended by CNN employees:
Before the war, Iraqi journalists attended the annual conferences in Atlanta, Turner said."We made friends with the Iraqi television people like we've made friends with everybody in the room," he said, pointing to the crowd.
In 1990, as war clouds gathered, "We had the position where we were liked over there and we were also known as being fair, and the Iraqis kind of chose us—if there was going to be anybody broadcasting out of there."
Turner also credited former CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan for
ensuring the network had the technical capability to broadcast from
Baghdad when no one else could."Basically, by making friends all over the world, which included the Iraqi television people and (Deputy Prime Minister) Tariq Aziz—the secretary of information or whatever he was—we got access that others didn't, and when the war started, we were broadcasting and nobody else was.
"You know, by being nice, sometimes it works out real well. On the other hand, being nice to Gerry Levin didn't."
Turner was referring to the Time Warner chief executive who signed off on the merger with AOL in 2001. Levin has since left the company.
"I'd rather put myself in the Iraqis' hands than in some Americans'," Turner said.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:22 PM
The Saudi time bomb
Why do the Saudis fear democratic reformers more than terrorists? That's the question raised by London-based critic of Saudi Arabia Mai Yamani in the June 2 edition of Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 05:47 PM
Why the death of journo may shake Syria
Here's more on Kassir. An editorial in today's New York Sun—which like the WSJ continues the tradition of reporting in editorials—adds some details and some context to Kassir's murder. After arguing that Syria is behind the murder, here's the money quote:
The Syrian dictatorship is tottering and weak. President Bush has decided that Bashar al-Assad will be gone and that the route to Iran is through Syria. Someday historians will see the murder of Samir Kassir, like the recent Syrian missile attack on Turkey that the New York Times was reporting last night, as a last desperate gasp of a failing regime that realized that the mere existence of a semi-free press in a neighboring state was enough to pose a mortal threat to its own existence. It is a fact that tells much about the nature of the Syrian regime and why its end can't come soon enough.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 11:31 AM
Is Syria Still Killing in Beirut?
Check out this Agence France-Presse story about the car bomb blast that killed a prominent pro-independence Lebanese leader, Samir Kassir. The son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was murdered in February by Syrian intelligence, was quick to tie his father' murder to that of Kassir, saying "the blood-stained hands that assassinated Rafiq Hariri are the same ones that assassinated Samir Kassir."
Here are some excerpts:
- Calling the murder a "terrorist act," Saad Hariri said it &qout;proves that the military-police regime to which the martyred journalist was opposed cracks down and continues to defy the Lebanese and the international community."
- Kassir's brother, Sleiman, told AFP he "lived all his life in danger." When asked about a possible motive for the killing, he said: "He used to write all these articles against Syria."
- "He was a great defender of freedoms in the Arab world. This is an act of state terrorism and I expect more such crimes," prominent Syrian opposition figure and filmmaker Omar Amiralay, a close friend of Kassir, told AFP.
- A prominent member of the Democratic Left, an opposition group, Kassir was a professor of political science at the Jesuit Universite; Saint Joseph and published several books on the Lebanese civil war. He was married to Giselle Khoury, a star talk-show host on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 03:01 AM
June 01, 2005
Our Corrupt Allies
Jordan has long been identified as a model or moderate Arab land and, in many ways, it is. Civil socitety, an array of institutions from unions to mosques to clubs that is free of state control, still exists. But corruption, that third-world cancer, is no stranger and it is metasizing. If Bush is serious about democratic reform in the Middle East, it will mean turning our "friends" out of power as well as our enemies. No worries. We have plenty of friends in the streets when corrupt regimes fall. If we wait, and try to save those regimes, the people in the streets become our enemies—because we have acted like theirs. Here is an interesting article from a former Wall Street Journal correspondent. I know that this appears in the Nation; it is worth reading anyway...
Posted by Richard Miniter at 01:53 PM