Watcher's Council Nominations, 10/24/06

Every week, the Watcher's Council nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at our fearless leader's site Watcher of Weasels


Some great stuff this week - and given the usual high level of quality, that's saying something!

1. J O S H U A P U N D I T: Chairman of House Armed Services committee wants CNN imbedded reporters kicked out of Iraq This week, I chose to focus on CNN pimping a terorrist snuff film as propaganda a couple of week before the election. The Chairman of the House Armed Services committee wants their embedded reporters kicked out and asks, frankly `Does CNN want us to win this thing?' The answers obvious: `Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason?For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.'

2. Gates of Vienna: When Will the First IED Explode in Paris? Dymphna's fine essay examines round II of what French Authorities are now calling ` a permanent intifada'. Given that the junior jihadis are now setting up their own roadblocks, executing planned ambushes of police and torching an average of 112 cars a day in honor of Ramadan, I don't think we have too long to wait.

3.Done With Mirrors: A case of race Callimachus brings up an interesting question: just how do you classify something like race? He uses as a focal point the case of Lt.Stephen Swails, or as AP referred to him, "one of the first black commissioned officers in the U.S. Army." Swails was in fact half white and half black, just as Tiger Woods is half Thai and half black..but is always referred to as a pioneer `black' golfer. Given that there are very, very few `pure' blacks or `pure' whites or pure anything else after a few generations, especially in America, maybe, JUST maybe it's time we explored getting rid of this fallacy. I can hear race pimps like Jesse Jackson screaming from here...`stay away from my mealticket!'

4. Soccer Dad: Sharkey's flying machine Soccer Dad explores a mishap in midair.

5. AbbaGav : To Deter or Not, Time to Choose This is a serious subject, but I laughed out loud at AbbaGav's deadpan demeanor. Here's a sample: `Charles Krauthammer recently wrote an article on nuclear proliferation and deterrence. Of course, he wrote the article two weeks ago, but I was busy that day. Since the problem has not been solved in the intervening weeks, I've decided to comment anyway.' Gav talks about the various options we have to deter rogue states from getting nukes. I have a post next week which may or may not provide interested parties with a glimpse of the only possible soluton, IMO. A great piece of writing by AbbaGav.

6. Right Wing Nut House: A LIBERAL MANIFESTO AND OTHER HALLOWEEN FRIGHTS Rick Moran writes a fine essay examining what all Good Liberals should belive, according to the American Prospect..or else. Great fun!

7. The Sundries Shack: Wake up, please? Jimmie Bise is such a treasure..here with the simplicity of a Venn diagram, he lays out exactly what's facing us in the current war, in simple factual terms...and wonders how long we can keep ignoring the obvious.


8. Rhymes With Right: I Must Be A Threat To Someone... Greg deals with some hysterical moron who took exception to some of his language. I say, keep it coming bro..

9. ShrinkWrapped: Talkin' 'bout My Generation ShrinkWrapped examines the psychology of the Baby Boomers (to my mind, one of the most narcissistic and self-involved generations in history), the milestone of the 300,000,000th American and their relationship to the War on Jihad (OK, Shrinks doesn't call it that). An excellent and thought provoking bit of writing.

10. The Glittering Eye: Hostis humani generis Dave pulls a neat one out of the hat - he compares the campaign in the 1800's against piracy and draws some conclusions that are very relevant to the War on Jihad (OK, Dave doesn't call it that either). The Latin, BTW, translates as `an enemy of humanity.'

11. The Education Wonks: The Mexican Eagle Flies Over A Texas High School
EdWonk examines this incident - I gues it was only a matter of time. Flags from other countries are common in the US, in parades and even in schools....but there isn't any other nation like Mexico that is apparently trying to enforce a claim to another sovereign nation's territory by cultural imperialism.

12. AMERICAN FUTURE : Japan, North Korea and Nuclear Weapons Marc takes an in depth look at the strategic facts in East Asia now that Kim Jong Il has upped the ante. A worthy read.

That's this week's lineup..enjoy!

Canadian troops defeated by Taliban flower power!

Canadian troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan have have a new and unforseen hazard....almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.

Apparently the Taliban are using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

(Weekend Monkey, behave yourself)

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. ... And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," said General General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff.

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them," he said.

Whoo-wee!!


"A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action," Hiller said.

Oh, the horrors of war......contact highs!

Those Gaza greenhouses..before and after

Remember all those high-tech greenhouses the Israelis built in Gaza in places like Gush Katif and Neve Dekalim? They provided jobs for the Palestinians and produced a wonderful and plentiful assortment of fruits and vegetables in the middle of a barren desert. These were the same greenhouses that wealthy westerners like James Wolfenson bought at a cost of $14M and then presented to the Palestinians.

Here's what they used to look like, before the Israeli retreat:



As soon as the Palestinians took over, they were looted and destroyed, and are mostly used for missile launching sites or arms smuggling tunnels. Here's what these greenhouses look like now:



Big difference.

Of course, if the Palestinians were really serious about a second Arab Palestian state living in peace next to Israel, or even about the welfare of their own people, the first thing they would have done would have been to beg the prosperous farmersof places like Gush Katif to stay and help them build their economy.

But that's not exactly their agenda, is it?

If nothing else, this ought to convice any rational person that the idea of a second Arab Palestinian state is anything but an aid to peace in the region...

Ayatollah Khamanei warns of US, Israeli `plots'

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei urged Arab and Muslim nations to watch out for US and Israeli 'plots' .

"Today, what is considered a success for the American administration and the Israeli regime is a loss to all Islamic nations," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech marking the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

"All the nations should be vigilant. Our nation, the Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi nations, the nations in the region, and other Muslim nations should be vigilant," Mr Khamenei said, adding that they should all "retain their national unity".

"They should be cautious not to make a move which is in line with the fulfilment of the new hostile treacherous plots of the Americans and the Zionism," he said.

Are the Mullahs beginning to sweat a little?

Israelis take out 9 jihadis in Gaza; Halutz warns against fortified tunnel networks

The boys in the IDF had a busy day yesterday.

10 Qassam missiles were fired from Gaza into Israel over the last two days and the IDF launched an offensive to smoke the rats out of their holes. The Israelis engaged in a major firefight with the Palestinians and ended up killing 9 of them, including
Ata Shinbari, a senior Palestinian terrorist chief. Shinbari was a senior commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas branch that's active in the missile offensive and was Hamas’ partner in kidnapping Israeli soldier Gideon Shalit in June. Another three Palestinian fighters were killed in a shootout with Israel soldiers taking out arms smuggling tunnels on the strategic Philadelphi corridor in the south Gaza Strip. The IDF had no casualties.

Of course, `moderate' Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas accused the Israelis of perpetrating `a massacre on the first day of Eid el Fitr', the holiday that ends Ramadan. Damn those Jews for shooting back and trying to stop the Palestinians from lauching missiles into Israel!

Abbas also conveniently forgot that according to the Qu'ran, good Muslims aren't supposed to be fighting (or launching rockets at civilians) during the sacred months ..but we'll let that pass. That's what I love about Islam - anything that smacks of peaceloving behavior is always conditional.

The IDF, led by its IDF Bedouin scout units has unearthed 13 Palestinian smuggling tunnels this week in the Philadelphi-Rafah sector. This has had an effect on the Hamas arms buildup, but it's not decisive because most of the active tunnels have now been relocated to the west of this border sector. They are used by the Palestinians for moving contraband arms into the Gaza Strip by sea and land, although the Israeli navy has intercepted some of this traffic, mostly small vessels sailing from the northern coast of Egyptian Sinai.

Most of the new tunnels are located in the former locations of Israeli Mediterranean settlements.

According to Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Halutz,the Palestinians are building fortified tunnels in these areas, similar to the fortifications Hezbollah used in lebanon. That's probably no accident, since Syrian, Iranian and Hezbollah trainers are now instructing the Palestinians in tactics and, according to a briefing Halutz gave to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee, anti-tank rockets similar to those used against Israeli forces in Lebanon, have turned up in the Gaza Strip.

The conventional wisdom of a lot of the Israeli military establishment is that the disengagement from Gaza was a huge mistake and that it will be necessary to reoccupy it. This is kept pretty much under the surface for obvious reasons...the Olmert government can't exactly admit that Israel’s September 2005 retreat from the Gaza Strip’s Egyptian border was a major blunder, since most of the incumbents either supported it or actually had a part in executing it as part of Ariel Sharon’s government. Likewise, all those wonderful security arrangements put together by US Secretery of State Condi Rice involving Egypt, Israel and the Palestinians have completely broken down and proved useless.

How the Main Stream Media scripts things...especially on Israel

I reported today on the deal made by the Olmert government to bring Avigdor Lieberman and Center Right partyIsrael Beiteinu into the ruling coalition in Israel.

Lieberman's most extreme position has been the idea of negotiating with a Palestinian state to trade off areas in the Northern Galilee where Arabs live in exchange for annexing areas in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) where Jews live....in other words a partial exchange of populations, which is how every refugee issue in history has historically been resolved...except for the Palestinians. Aside from the fact that I don't support the idea of a second Arab Palestinian state, because it will never lead to peace and in fact is an obstacle to peace, it's not the most outrageous of positions.

But look at the headlines....

`Far-right party to join Israeli govt' -Sydney Morning Herald

`Outspoken rightwinger to join Israeli coalition' - The Guardian

`Far-right firebrand joins Olmert to shore up coalition' - The Times UK

`Far-right partner set to join Israeli government' -al Reuters

`Olmert enlists far-right partner' - al Jazeera

`Olmert appoints right-wing deputy' - the BBC

These are the same people who call Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh a `militant' and Arafat II Mahmoud Abbas and ex-Iranian President Rafasjani, who said the problem of Israel could be resolved by one nuclear bomb `moderates' !

For that matter, none of these news sources would ever refer to George Galloway, Labor leftist Amir Peretz or the Far left Meretz parties' Yossi Beilen as `far-left firebrands' or `outspoken Leftwingers.'

It wouldn't fit either the script or their prejudices.

In France..it's the `youths' again..

Their latest escapade involved torching a bus in Paris in broad daylight yesterday and then attacking the firefighters.

Police chief Jean-Francois Papineau said the bus attack in the southern suburb of Grigny, in the Essonne region, was “a planned ambush”.

He said: “The bus was forced to stop at a road block at around 2pm. “Two youths then entered the back of the bus to clear passengers before dousing it with petrol and setting it on fire.”

Get that..now, the `youths' are putting up their own roadblocks!

Bus drivers in the area have gone on strike over the incident.

There continues to be a virtually unreported second round of last years festivities, with an estimated 112 car per day being subjected to that quaint custom of the `youths, the car-becue.

A report by the intelligence agency of the interior ministry,the national police or RG dated October 11, was leaked to Le Figaro newspaper and states that conditions were ripe a renewal of last year's festivities.

'Most of the conditions which, one year ago, led to the collective violence over large parts of mainland France still exist.'

'We have noticed the beginning of a renewal of urban violence after the summer calm,' the police report noted, referring to several clashes between the `youths' and police officers.

The report says that while last year's violence appeared to have been mostly spontaneous, (HAH!) the report sais there was a likelihood of violent flare-ups that are 'structured and targeting one of the last institutional representatives still present in certain areas: the police.'

Oh, those kooky `youths' and their jihad hijinks....

UN envoy thrown out of Sudan

UN envoy Jan Pronk left Khartoum on Monday after the Sudanese government ordered him to leave as persona non grata.

Pronk was orderd to leave after he published comments on his Web site revealing that the Sudanese army lost two major battles to rebels in North Darfur, morale was low, and generals were relieved of command.

Sudan's jihadi government continues to ramp up the attacks on Darfur, as the Russians, Chinese and the Arab League continue to stonewall any international action.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Sudan's decision to expel Pronk "unfortunate in the extreme."

Ahmadinejad: "The (nuclear) capability of our nation has multiplied 10-fold over the same period last year.”

Iran's president Ahmadinejad continue's to taunt the West.

In a nationally aired speech today in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said that Iran’s nuclear capability has increased "10-fold" in spite of Western efforts to stop Iran from enriching uranium and violating the Nuclear Prolifieration trraty.

“The enemies, resorting to propaganda, want to block us from achieving (nuclear technology)" Ahmadinejad told the crowd.

"But they should know that today, the capability of our nation has multiplied 10-fold over the same period last year."

Ahmadinejad also boasted that "the power of our enemies is less than one-tenth of their power in last year".

As a matter of fact, Iran is expanding its Uranium enrichment program.

Having seen how ineffectually the UN dealt with North Korea and with assurances that the Russians and Chinese will not back any meaningful action by the UN, Ahamadinejad and Iran obviously feel like nothing is in the way of their nuclear program.

If they're this arrogant now, can you imagine how arrogant and warlike they would be if they actually had nuclear weapons?

Israel brings center right nationalist party into government

Avigdor Lieberman


Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert made a major change in his ruling coaliton today, and one that could see a major change in israeli policies.

Today, Olmert and party leader Avigdor Lieberman agreed that the Israel Beiteinu party will join the government coalition.

Israel Beiteinu (`Israel our home') is a center right nationalist party with a large Russian emigre' component that won 11 seats in the last election. Lieberman's party platform, among other things, calls for annexing Jewish areas in Judea and Samaria and trading them to the Palestinians for largely Arab populated areas of Israel in the Northern Galilee.

Lieberman will reportedly be given the posts of Vice Premier and Minister for Strategic Affairs, which will focus on Iran.

It was speculated that Lieberman will also receive the chairmanship for the Knesset's Finance Committee.

This, aside from shoring up Olmert's government on the security end means that he will not have to continue to clear everything with Peretz and the Leftist Labor Party. As Olmert himself said: "I decided that the present makeup of the coalition would not be enough to maintain a stable government...I think that Labor will be wise enough to remain in the government because I was not prepared to continue dealing with a situation in which every important coalition vote required negotiations with another coalition MK."

It also symbolizes a turn to the Right in Israeli politics...existential threats have a way of doing that.

In another related development, Olmert and his cabinet signed on to Lieberman's proposal for a major change in the way Israel governs itself from a parliamentary system to US style. It would entail US style presidential rule rather than the current parliamentary system, although the chief executive would still be called the prime minister. This has been submitted to the Knesset for a vote.

Chairman of House Armed Services committee wants CNN imbedded reporters kicked out of Iraq

The Chairman of the House Armed Services committee asked the Pentagon to remove CNN reporters embedded with U.S. combat troops because of the terrorist propaganda snuff film CNN aired with impunity.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote: "CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier.

I think Americans like to think we're all in this together," Hunter said. "The average American Marine or soldier has concluded after seeing that film that CNN is not on their side."

Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Carlsbad), who with Hunter and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, called the film "nothing short of a terrorist snuff film."

That's exactly what it is.

They have yet to recive a response from Rumsfeld.

CNN, of course, said it broadcast the brief video to show the threat that insurgent snipers posed to U.S. troops.

Horse manure.

There were no dates on the video..is it a coincidence that CNN's Michael Ware received it through `intermediaries' from Islamic Army leader Ibrahim Shammari and CNN aired this a couple of weeks before the elections? Just whom are they trying to kid?

When President Bush made the comparision between what's going on in Baghdad right now and the Tet offensive , he was speaking, I think, more about the strategy the enemy is using than actual similarities in the overall situation - get the leftist Main Stream Media on your side and bring the casualties into America's living rooms so they'll think they're losing.

Tony Snow, White House spokesman alluded to this as well. Snow, at his regular news briefing in Washington, said the video was misleading because it made it appear that Americans were "sitting ducks" and that insurgents were winning the war. In truth, he said, insurgents "are dying in much greater numbers and suffering much greater damage."

Indeed they are. But they have allies here at home.

There were embedded reporters during WWII, men like Ernie Pyle who performed exemplery service in bringing the war home to Americans, letting them know why we were fighting, giving people on the home front an idea of what their loved ones were sacrificing for them. The difference was that unlike many of today's reporters, they considered themselves loyal Americans first, rather than part of `the global village'.

I still recall a clip I heard some pompous ass of a reporter from CBS telling the then head of the US provisonal government in Iraq Paul Bremer that he'd `been talking to a faydayeen fighter..'

"You were in touch with a terrorist?" Bremer inturrupted " why didn't you turn him over to us?"

"Well," the reporter intoned, "that's not our function..we report."

"I'm in charge of security here" Bremer responded "that guy could have American blood on his hands. Next time you run into these guys, you turn them over to me."

That little exchange says it all. Or, as congressman Hunter put it during a followup interview in a direct challenge to CNN's Wolf Blitzer "Do you guys at CNN want us to win this thing?"

Blitzer didn't have a direct answer, but I think the answer's obvious.

What upsets me most about this is not CNN..I expect this sort of nonsense from the network that covered for Saddam's atrocities .

But what makes me livid is that Rumsfeld and the Commander in Chief aren't ripping these boys a new one. A commander in chief should show more concern about his men being treated in this fashion than he does about imprisoning a few of them who may have done their jobs a little too well.

If Bush had the spine, he could rally the whole country on this issue. I wish he would.

Amir Taheri - Security Council to Iran: Go for it!

Iranian expatriate Amir Taheri consistently writes some of the best and most insightful analysis on Iran.

Here in an article in the Jerusalem Post, Mr. Taheri does a superb rundown of what the UN Security resolution on North Korea conveyed to Iran, and gives a fine portrait of the nature of the relationship between Iran, Russia and China. Recommended.

Vlad and Mo..Brokeback buddies...


Our good pals Putin and the Russians once again went public, warning that Russia would oppose any effort to use the UN Security Council to punish Iran with sanctions or to promote `regime change'.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published today, "We cannot support and will actively oppose any attempt to use the Security Council to punish Iran or to use Iran's nuclear program in order to promote the idea of regime change."

The interview with Lavrov was done yesterday and the transcript was released by the foreign ministry (surprise!) just as he was sitting down for talks in Moscow with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in the Russian capital today.

How `bout that?

"We believe that the Iranian side must finally bow to the constructive proposals that have been made and fully co-operate with the IAEA to answer all currently outstanding questions'' about its nuclear ambitions, Lavrov said.

In another knee slapper, Lavrov said without breaking into wild laughter, that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog agency, has no way of telling whether or not there was a military component to Iran's nuclear program.

Like the Russians weren't aware of the Iranian clandestine nukes program even before it was outed by Iranian dissidents? Like Russia didn't facilitate missile and weapons technology shipments from North Korea..for a fee?

Like Lavrov and the Russians aren't aware that any nuclear technology is like any other energy - the same technology can be used for lighting a city or fashioning nukes to destroy it?

To wrap up his stand up routine, Lavrov reiterated Russia's position that only IAEA nuclear inspectors had the expertise and the access to determine whether or not Iran's nuclear program did indeed pose a threat, and insisted this idea was at the core of the UN resolution on Iran adopted in July.

Not Iran's blatant disregard of the NPT they signed, not the lying and the stonewalling, not the threats to wip out another sovereign nation..just more scrutiny from Inspector Clouseau Mohammed El Baradi and the rest of the clowns at the IAEA who weren't able to find their behind with both hands in Iran for almost a decade! Or who, as some have suggested, just quietly looked the other way.

Is President Bush paying attention to this? I hope so...

Happy Dewali!

Today marks the Hindi celebration of Dewali, the Festival of Lights.

Diwali — or Deepavali as it's known in Sanskrit — is one of the most important holidays of the year for Hindus. It marks the victory of good over evil and light over darkness, which is represented by lighting candles inside homes and setting off fireworks.

FF wishes all his Hindu readers a wonderful and happy Dewali.

Ganga Snanam Aacha? I hope so!

The Palestinians celebrate 9/11

Courtesy of Charles and the good people at lgf, here's some graphic MSNBC Footage of Palestinians celebrating 9/11.

According to Charles, this footage, shot on September 11, was only aired on that day.

There was quite a bit of filming of the Palestians enjoying the death of 3,000 of our fellow Americans on 9/11, but Arafat sent his goons out to physically stop much of the filming and to confiscate as much of the footage as they could. Arafat even directly told media people in the Palestinian areas that he couldn't answer for their safety if they were caught filming the great Jihad hoedown.

Not so well known is the fact that there were also American celebrations of 9/11 in places like Dearborn, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey, both cities with a high concentration of Arab residents. I've seen that footage before and some stills as well as a couple of buried news reports and have tried to locate them, but they appear to have disapeared..or been destroyed.

The BBC - Unmasked

It's no secret that the BBC, once the standard for unbiased broadcast journalism throughout the world has been guilty for some time of the most blatant and outrageous bias when it comes to its coverage of a good many issues..the Middle East, Israel, multiculturism, Islam, the War on Jihad, America in general and President Bush in particular to name just a smattering.

British citizens are assesed a fee for the privilege of being in the same country with this government owned and operated franchise whether they listen or not, which has had the effect of making the Beeb unaccountable.

In spite of being outed for some of the most unbelievably slanted coverage, particular when it comes to Israel, Islam and the Middle East, the BBC has always denied it has an agenda and maintained the fiction of being an unbiased news source.

Well, the mask has slipped, and more than a little.

In leaked account of an 'impartiality summit' called by BBC chairman Michael Grade the lead broadcast personalities of the BBC News admitted `we are biased' and that what they've been criticized over for years is largely true: the BBC is dominated by leftists who are biased against israel, the US, and Christianity and in favor of multiculturalism.

The leaked account reveals that the Beeb's executives would let the Bible be thrown into a trashcan on a TV comedy show, but not the Koran, and that they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden if they got the chance. It also reveals that the BBC's 'diversity tsar'Mary Fitzpatrick is pushing for Muslim women newsreaders to be allowed to wear veils while on the air and has said that the BBC should not use white reporters in non-white countries.

Political reporter Andrew Marr said: 'The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.'

Washington correspondent Justin Webb said that the BBC is so biased against America that deputy director general Mark Byford had secretly agreed to help him to 'correct', it in his reports. Webb added that the BBC treated America with scorn and derision and gave it 'no moral weight'.

One veteran BBC executive said: 'There was widespread acknowledgement that we may have gone too far in the direction of political correctness.

'Unfortunately, much of it is so deeply embedded in the BBC's culture, that it is very hard to change it.'

Actually, the BBC is working very hard to make sure things don't change.

The BBC has spent thousands of pounds of licence payers' money in a court fight to keep a critical report secret which is believed to be highly critical of its Middle East coverage...and they are, as we speak, mounting a landmark High Court action to block the release of The Balen Report under Britain's Freedom of Information Act, a tool BBC reporters use all the time to gain access to information for their stories.

The report, which is believed to run to 20,000 words and to include evidence of anti-Israeli bias in news programming. Nothing new, to anyone who's heard or read the borderline anti-Semitic ranting of Orla Guerin or Barbara Plett and others of that ilk.

If the Beeb loses, it will have to release thousands of pages of other documents that have been held back.

The original action was filed by Steven Sugar, a lawyer, to get access to the report originally compiled by Malcolm Balen, a senior editorial adviser to the BBC in 2004.

For more information on the BBC's biased reporting go here, and here.

Watcher's Council Results, 10/20/06

The Council has spoken! Complete results can be found here on the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels





This week's winner is:
ShrinkWrapped: Trauma, Passivity, & the Fear of Aggression ShrinkWrapped compares what he considers the feminization of our culture and its effect on our ability for self-defense. Congratulations, ShrinkWrapped!

There was a four way tie for second:

Right Wing Nut House : NO GREATER LOVE In which Rick Moran spotlights the heroism of Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor. Rick, as usual, is superlative.

AbbaGav: Running Down the MiddleAbbaGav examines Arianna Huffington's supposed `concession speech' for Democratic senate candidate Ned Lamont after he loses to Joe Lieberman in a typically incisive and well written piece.

Rhymes With Right: So Julia Wilson And Her Parents Are Idiots, But Hey What Else Is New? Greg looks at the case of a teenager who put up an anti-Bush page threatening President Bush's life on `My Space'...and her parent's reaction. Greg shows exactly why these folks need some tuff love, to say the least.

AMERICAN FUTURE - Trying to make sense of a world in turmoil � Sanctions on North Korea: The Weakest Link Marc at American Futures scores in his debut post on North Korea...well done, Marc.

For non-council,the winner was my own nominee, Prison Jihad? by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a fascinating account on how Saudi funded radical Islamic charities exploit their access to the prison system. A must read.

Hearty Kudos to all the winners!

Weekend Monkey Sez: `Hey, I've gotten over it..why haven't you?'

G-d bless all of you....have a great weekend and I'll see you shortly.

***********UPDATE*****

There's a hidden meaning behind Weekend Monkey's message this week.

As you know, he's quite popular, and has become more `difficult' each week, demanding to be more than just another pretty face. He, in fact, has developed a ba-ad case of the `star' mentality. He threatened to go on strike unless I acceeded to his demand for his own weekly column.

AND......(the @##@ nerve!) his own e-mail address for his many fans.

I decided to deal. Weekend Monkey can now be reached at: WendMonkey@Yahoo.com

He welcomes all comments, queries, offers for paid university lectures, personal appearences and speaking engagements, free booze, bananas and goodies of all kinds and interaction with any young unattached female monkeys.

His interests are somewhat different than mine..I'm not sure what we're going to end up with here, but it can't be worse than the article about the animal bordellos. At least I hope not.

See ya!

Ahmadinejad to Europe: `Support Israel, and you may get hurt'

Iran's President Ahmadinejad had a few more caustic remarks to make. This time he centered on Europe:

"You should believe that this regime (Israel) cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?" he said in a speech broadcast on state radio.

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbors of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt."

"Today, with the grace of God, the efforts to establish this fake regime have failed totally.... You should believe that this regime is disappearing" he said in Friday's speech to mark Qods Day (Jerusalem Day) when Iranians are officially required to demonstrate in support of the Palestinians.

Ahmadinejad also called Israeli leaders a "group of terrorists" and threatened any country that supports the Jewish state, as millions of Iranians took to the streets for anti-Israel protests.

"You imposed a group of terrorists ... on the region," Ahmadinejad said, addressing the U.S. and its allies. "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tommorow."

By the way, he means it. Just in case you had any doubts.

Hamas Boss Haniyeh survives assasination attempt

Car swarm, everybody!!

Hams PM Ismail Haniyeh survived a Fatah hit on a motor convoy he was travelling in earlier today, which destroyed one vehicle in a burst of flames. Fatah and Hamas supposedly reached a 'cease fire' less than twelve hours ago. (LOL!!)

Haniyeh had just finished a rant at a Gaza mosque, where he said that Hamas would reject any moves by Fatah boss Mahmoud Abbas to call for fresh elections or dissolve the Islamist government and warned him not to try it.

Apparently the media is now reporting that the shooters were relatives of a Fatah goomba killed in recent fighting with the Hamas enforcers, and are playing down any suggestions that it was an assassination attempt.

I think it was more in line of a `warning' to Haniyeh, if you get my meaning.

Given the nature of the Hezbollah/Iran involvement with Hamas and the new American love affair with Abbas and Fatah, this is shaping up as a proxy war...which might be the hidden key as to why Bush and Condi Rice have been so generous and supportive of `our terrorists' in Fatah lately.

UPDATE: Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar also weighed in today.

"Israel is an abscess supplanted onto our lands. It has no historical, religious or cultural justification, and we will never have relations with this ‘abscess’. We will never recognize Israel, and that is a final decision and is not up for negotiation."

Doesn't sound too promising.