Iraq Improves Remarkably - And Dino Media Grudgingly Acknowledges It

What ever is the Angry left going to do? Iraq is improving remarkably, and even the NYT and the Washington Post can't get away with the same old `quagmire' nonsense any more.

In this WAPO piece, the reporter does his very best to urinate on the parade, but even he has to admit to the progress being made:

Iraqis are returning to their homeland by the hundreds each day, by bus, car and plane, encouraged by weeks of decreased violence and increased security, or compelled by visa and residency restrictions in neighboring countries and the depletion of their savings.

Those returning make up only a tiny fraction of the 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But they represent the largest number of returnees since February 2006, when sectarian violence began to rise dramatically, speeding the exodus from Iraq.

Many find a Baghdad they no longer recognize, a city altered by blast walls and sectarian rifts. Under the improved security, Iraqis are gingerly testing how far their new liberties allow them to go. But they are also facing many barriers, geographical and psychological, hardened by violence and mistrust.

Days after she returned from Syria, 23-year-old Melal al-Zubaidi and a friend went to the market on a pleasant night to eat ice cream. It was a short walk, yet unthinkable only a month ago for a woman in the capital. {...}

Over the past two months, the level of nearly every type of violence -- car bombings, assassinations, suicide attacks -- has dropped from earlier this year. The downturn is a result of a confluence of factors: This year, 30,000 U.S. military reinforcements were funneled into Baghdad and other areas. Sunni tribes and insurgents turned against the al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgent group and partnered with U.S. forces to patrol neighborhoods and towns. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, seeking to improve his movement's image, ordered his Mahdi Army militia to freeze operations.

U.N. refugee officials estimate that 45,000 Iraqis returned from Syria last month, while Iraqi officials say 1,000 are arriving each day.

The returnees find a capital that offers greater freedom of movement. Shops are open later in many neighborhoods, and curfews have been reduced.

But those freedoms still come with constraints. Weddings, accompanied by honking cars and lively bands, are reappearing on the streets, but they still end before darkness falls. Visits to relatives and friends across Baghdad are more possible but still hinge on which group or sect controls each neighborhood. Some stores are selling alcohol, but fundamentalists watch for those who breach their codes.

Luay Hashimi, 31, returned to his house in Dora with his wife and three young children last month after fleeing to Syria nine months ago. Since then, 11 other relatives who also had left for Syria -- Sunnis like him -- have come back, too.

Hashimi no longer sees bodies in the street when he opens his front door. Sunni extremists no longer man checkpoints to search his vehicle for alcohol or signs of collaboration with the government or the Americans. Roads are being paved, and municipal workers are sprucing up parks and traffic circles. His patch of Dora is now a fortress, surrounded by tall blast walls that separate entire blocks.

"It's totally secured," said Hashimi, who was an intelligence officer during the government of Saddam Hussein. But a few days ago, he drove across the main highway to another section of Dora. He felt a familiar fear. "You're lost there. You don't know who controls the area, Sunni or Shia, American soldiers or Iraqi security forces. It's still chaotic."

Melal al-Zubaidi is optimistic. When she fled to Syria, she was terrified to drive through Anbar province, where Sunni militants were pulling Shiites from buses and killing them. This time, the bus drove throughout the night.

"That comforted me," Zubaidi said. "I expect that security will improve day by day. People are tired of conflict."

Still, she has lines that she is not yet willing to cross. She has not visited her old university, fearing car bombs or kidnappings. In a nation where neighbors are often as close as relatives, Zubaidi is wary of trusting people in her community. "We're still afraid to meet new people," she said. "This district is still strange for me. . . . I don't want to take risks."

"The situation is much better, but it still feels soft, unsteady," Um Melal said. "Until now, we have not made a final decision to go back or stay. We're waiting to see what happens.

"I expect Baghdad will come back sooner or later," she continued. "But that needs time. If you want to build a wall, it takes you 10 days. But if you want to demolish the wall, it takes you 10 minutes."

Progress indeed, especially given Iraq's bloody history. Much of the rest, of course, will be up to the Iraqis themselves.

Terrorist Bombing Kills Thirteen In Indian Law Court

Terrorists hit India again today, this time in Utter Pradesh where 13 people, including four lawyers, were killed and over 60 injured by six bombs loaded on cycles parked outside the lawyer's chambers in three court complexes in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh today.

The bombs were synchronized to explode so as to cause maximum casualties.

The explosions occurred in courts where suspects linked to recent Islamist terror s bonbings have been attacked or denied presentation by lawyers, so it's pretty certain who the perpetrators are.

Pakistanis Mohammad Abid, Mohammad Yusuf and Mirza Rashid, who are all members of a Jaish-e-Mohammad cell that tried to assassinate Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi were assaulted by Lucknow lawyers when they were produced in the court on November 18.

As Islamist groupies often say, I condemn this violence...but you have to understand their rage (!)

Five other Jaish terrorists, accused of being involved in a horrific 2005 attack on the Babri Masjid complex, were denied representation by Faizabad lawyers, none of whomwanted to go near these murderers. The same thing happened when lawyers in Varanasi refused to defend Mohammad Waliullah, an Islamist cleric charged with facilitating the 2006 bombings of the city railway station and the Sankat Mochan temple.

Imagine that, here in America - lawyers with moral standards....

There's also a chance that the bombings were timed to capitalise on protests by local Muslims against Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, an outspoken opponent of Islamists in her country.

There are some rich clues, this time, since two of the bombs failed to explode and were recovered complete with fingerprints and other forensic evidence.

And there's also a link with the Saudis, since one of the bags in which an unexploded device was found in the Lucknow court complex also contained an envelope addressed to Haji Nasir Ahmad in Riyadh.

Indian investigators say they're are now using computer phone records to analyze calls made between the three cities in recent weeks....stay tuned...

Thanksgiving And The Giving Of Thanks

Tommorow is Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday. OK, American and Canadian, though they celebrate it on a different day. While many cultures have a harvest festival at this time of year, Thanksgiving is different in that it clearly acknowledges divine providence as its source and inspiration.

Its direct ancestor was the Hebrew festival of Sukkot, as William Bradford and the Pilgrims were very familiar with the Hebrew Bible, and regarded themselves as akin to the Jews dwelling in the Wilderness.

On the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims celebrated and thanked G-d for their survival and reportedly gave a feast, inviting the local Indian tribes as guests. The holiday has endured ever since.

Over the years, Thanksgiving has acquired a number of traditions..foods like roast turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin pie, football on TV, travel madness for those leaving town to be with their extended families...and a feeling of thankfulness for G-d's bounty and closeness to our families, sometimes unexpressed but never absent.

As you celebrate, try something...take a moment to reflect on your blessings. Be thankful for that bountiful harvest,for your loved ones, for the fact that we live as free men in a free country. And remember that this is so because other men and women are willing to endure hardship and be away from their loved ones to keep it so.

Take a minute to spend some time and enjoy the feeling of being close to the people that have always been there for you, the ones you can't leave behind, as the song says.

And carry with you my best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving for you and yours.

May you be blessed...Selah.

The Saudis: Why We Punished A Rape Victim

Simply amazing...the Saudis attempt to explain why they punished a gang rape victim by sentencing her to two hundred lashes...

You'll remember that we discussed this case last week. The 19-year-old woman was originally sentenced to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male, but the case was retried and her punishment was more than doubled, mostly because she had the temerity to actually speak to the media about this gross injustice. Or, according to to what a court source apparently told the English-language Arab News, the judges decided to increase the woman's sentence further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."

In addition her lawyer was thrown off the case and has had his law license yanked for doing the same thing. Or in sharia parlance,he "exhibited disrespectful behavior toward the court, objected to the rule of law and showed ignorance concerning court instructions and regulations."

The fact that the young woman is a member of Saudi Arabia's minority Shiite community might have had something to to do with the harsh sentence as well.

In view of the media attention, The Saudi Justice Ministry issued a "clarification" of the sharia court's handling of a rape case and the increased sentence meted out to the rape victim by saying that new evidence against her came to ligh tduring the retrial.

And what was that new evidence? Apparently The woman was attacked by a gang of seven men after she deliberately went to a meeting with an unrelated man in Qatif on the kingdom's Persian Gulf coast, so she could retrieve an old photograph of herself from him, according to her lawyer, who also cited evidence that the man was trying to blackmail the woman. The photo itself was harmless by any standards..but apparently Saudi Arabia has its own standards.

Because the man said that the woman insisted on meeting him to get the photo back, so she's guilty..its illegal for a woman to meet with an unrelated male under Saudi Arabia's sharia law.

In a statement the mis-named Saudi Justice ministry said:

"We would like to state that the system has ensured them the right to object to the ruling and to request an appeal," the statement continued, "without resorting to sensationalism through the media that may not be fair or may not grant anyone any rights, and instead may negatively affect all the other parties involved in the case."

In other words, keep your mouth shut this time, sweetie or you'll get even worse.

Absolutely appalling...but then, that's the wahabi culture the Saudis are spending millions to import to the West - with our tacit consent.

The Invite List To Annapolis..

Hoo boy, talk about stacking the deck!

Here's a partial invite list for the planned mugging of Israel Annapolis peace conference. Just take a look at this:

List of invitees to Annapolis
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 20, 2007

The United States is inviting representatives from more than 40 countries, groups of nations, financial and other institutions and individuals to a Middle East peace conference it will host next week.

US embassies in the invited countries and diplomats accredited to the nonsovereign entities were to be notified as early as Tuesday to request the presence of their host governments at the foreign minister or other appropriate level, according to officials familiar with the process.

The following is a partial list of confirmed invitees, according to those officials, who provided it on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement of the conference to be held on November 27 in-between meetings in Washington:

The United States, host, to be represented by President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Israel, to be represented by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. ( That's scary all by itself!)

Palestinians, to be represented by President Mahmoud Abbas and senior officials.

Members of the international diplomatic "quartet" on the Middle East other than the United States:

The United Nations, to be represented by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The European Union, expected to be represented by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner and Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the bloc. ( Solana and Ferraro-Waldner are harsh critics of Israel and pro-Palestinian)

Russia, expected to be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ( Iran's pal)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the quartet special representative to the Palestinians. ( need I say more?)

Members of the Arab League committee tasked with pursuing a Saudi initiative for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal:

Arab League, to be represented by Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
Algeria.
Bahrain.
Egypt.
Jordan.
Lebanon.
Morocco.
Qatar.
Saudi Arabia.
Sudan.
Syria.
Tunisia.
Yemen.

Other Arab nations:

Kuwait.
Iraq.
Libya.
Mauritania.
Oman.
United Arab Emirates. ( that's what a one tenth stake in the Carlyle Group buys you)

Members of the Group of Eight major industrialized countries not included in above categories:
France.
Germany.
Britain.
Canada.
Japan.
Italy.

Other nations:
China.
Norway. ( Norway!!)
Turkey.
Vatican.
Brazil.
Australia.

Financial and other institutions:

International Monetary Fund.

World Bank.

Organization of the Islamic Conference. ( ahhh, Israel bashing central)

This isn't a peace conference...it's a gang rape.

Ian Smith Vs. Robert Mugabe

Brit Blogpal the Huntsman has a piece today bears reading, occasioned by the death of Rhodesia's Ian Smith, the country's last white leader. In ` Smith And Mugabe: Who Is The Better Man?' the Huntsman examines the question in detail. Here's a slice:

"The commentators and obituarists all opine that without Ian Smith, who died yesterday, there would have been no Robert Mugabe. Yet a close observer of Rhodesia, Judith Todd, daughter of one of Smith’s predecessors and no friend of Smith, when asked if events had not proved him right, admitted: “You have to say they called it right.” I beg to differ with the said observers and suggest that their proposition is a lot of arrant nonsense. There was no Ian Smith in Uganda, yet it was reduced to penury by a bloody dictator, former Sergeant Idi Amin. There was no Ian Smith in Rwanda yet it too ended in a bloody genocide. There was no Ian Smith in The Congo and yet it has had a string of kleptocrat dictators. There was no Ian Smith in the Central African Republic, yet it brought forth one Jean-Bédel Bokassa who had a penchant for storing choice pieces of his opponents’ cadavers in the fridge before eating them. The examples of former colonies moving smoothly from colonialism to independence to bloody dictatorship without an Ian Smith to hold up the process are too frequent in their occurrence to sustain this accusation. {....}

Now Mugabe has ensured, as Smith predicted, that its people starve, reduced to a state of penury remarkable even by the egregious standards of post-colonial Africa. Its infrastructure lies utterly destroyed, with inflation at something like 10,000% per annum, its currency and economy utterly debauched by a kleptocrat clique of genocidal gangsters and torturers. Just today Mugabe has set about destroying the platinum and diamond mining industry, the last element which brings in any sort of benefit to the economy. He and his clique of criminals will not suffer of course and he cares not a jot at the misery and suffering the people of Zimbabwe are forced to endure. Was Smith so wrong in trying to prevent that happening?"

Read the whole thing here

UN Acknowledges AIDS Epidemic `Overstated'

The United Nation's top AIDS scientists say they will cut their estimates of the size and spread of the AIDS epidemic, after grossly overestimating it for years...and receiving funding based on those estimates, of course!

The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement.

AIDS remains a devastating public health crisis in the most heavily affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa. But the far-reaching revisions amount to at least a partial acknowledgment of criticisms long leveled by outside researchers who disputed the U.N. portrayal of an ever-expanding global epidemic. {...}

The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show.

Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS.

Whoopsie...

AIDS is still a serious problem, and that shouldn't be downgraded. But it's obvious that, like most things concerned with the UN, it's been a pretty nice pay day for certain people.

Lebanon's Presidential Election Postponed - Again

Lebanon's presidential election was postponed again for the fourth time as the Syria/Iran/Hezbollah faction and anti-Syrian March 14 faction continue to fail to pick a consensus candidate to succeed pro-Syrian president Emil Lahoud.

If the deadlock continues, Lebanon could devolve into chaos, with two separate governments fighting a civil war.

As I've written previously, Lahoud is a tool who's term was `extended' literally under the guns of the Syrian Army before they left Lebanon.Lahoud's been very valuable to Syria because he's been instrumental in blocking the efforts of the ongoing UN tribunal investigation into the murder of Lebanon's anti-Syrian prime minister, Rafik Hariri and others. That investigation has already found substantial evidence of the involvement of Syria in Hariri's murder that of other anti-Syrian figures. And the evidence implicates Basher Assad and the highest levels of the Syrian government.

In Lebanon, Parliament elects the president by a 2/3 majority,and what the Syrians and their Hezbollah and Amal allies have been doing to make sure that their control of Lebanon continues and the UN tribunal goes nowhere has been to block a vote while practicing their own version of `Arab democracy'.......killing off members of the anti-Syrian March 14 majority one by one to reduce the Siniora government's majority in parliament and send a message to the others that voting for the wrong man is not exactly a prescription for longevity.

The French, who helped set up Lebanon in the first place have been actively involved in trying to resolve the two factions. French Foreign Minister has been attempting to mediate, but with little success:

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who is mediating among the various factions in Beirut, said Monday that he was "less optimistic" than last week that a compromise candidate would emerge.

"I'm amazed, France is amazed, that something is stuck, something is blocked, something is derailed, and I would like everyone to assume their responsibilities," a visibly angry Kouchner told reporters after emerging from closed-door talks with leading Lebanese politicians.

He warned reporters that "France will let the whole world know who is responsible" for blocking steps to untangle the Lebanese political deadlock.

If the deadlock continues, the March 14 opposition is threatening to have a presidential vote with election by simple majority...which Hezbollah says it would consider a coup d'etat and a declaration of civil war. Or Syrian puppet Lahoud might simply extend his term unilaterally again, as an `emergency measure.'

What Hezbollah and the Syrians are pushing for is a `compromise' candidate who would leave the Siniora government with the official trappings of power but would give Syria and Hezbolah (and thus Iran) the real power in Lebanon. The man they want as president is Michael Aoun, a long time Syrian puppet.

Iran and Syria are hip deep in all this. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem and French special emissary Jean-Claude Cousseran have been in active negotiations, and Iran and Syria have rejected a slate of six compromise candidates put forth by the March 14 group in an effort to avoid civil war...which is one reason why Kouchner was so livid.

Of course, this also makes a mockery out of UN resolution 1701, which called for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Had that been done, the situation in Lebanon would be very different today.

The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars trying to prop up the Siniora government, which has essentially been paralyzed since the Hezbollah ministers withdrew from the government. If it comes to civil war, there's no question of the weakened democratic government of Lebanon being able to take on the rearmed and reorganized Hezbollah, especially since the Lebanese military is largely Shiite.

Lebanon's days as a free country may be numbered.

Bishop Tutu Gets A Well Deserved Whacking

Most of you already know how I feel about Jew haters like Bishop Desmond Tutu. Here, he gets a well deserved bashing from Simon Deng, pictured above... a native of the Shiluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, an escaped jihad slave and a leading human rights activist who works with the anti-Slavery activists here:

Disappearance of Bishop Tutu

By Simon Deng
Friday November 16, 2007

Late last month, I went to hear Bishop Desmond Tutu speak at Boston’s Old South Church at a conference on “Israel Apartheid.” Tutu is a well respected man of God. He brought reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. That he would lead a conference that damns the Jewish state is very disturbing to me.

The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families – even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools, and get the best medical care in the world. I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here. None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu’s South Africa.

I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label: My country, Sudan, is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to my people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than Apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Nothing. And most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders. Bishop Tutu, I see black Jews walking down the street here in Jerusalem. Black like us, free and proud.

Tutu said Israeli checkpoints are a nightmare. But checkpoints are there because Palestinians are sent into Israel to blow up and kill innocent women and children. Tutu wants checkpoints removed. Do you not have doors in your home, Bishop? Does that make your house an apartheid house? If someone, Heaven forbid, tried to enter with a bomb, we would want you to have security people “humiliating” your guests with searches, and we would not call you racist for doing so. We all go through checkpoints at every airport. Are the airlines being racist? No.

Yes, the Palestinians are inconvenienced at checkpoints. But why, Bishop Tutu, do you care more about that inconvenience than about Jewish lives?

Bishop, when you used to dance for Mandela’s freedom, we Africans – all over Africa – joined in. Our support was key in your freedom. But when children in Burundi and Kinshasa, all the way to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in particular in Sudan, cried and called for rescue, you heard but chose to be silent.

Today, black children are enslaved in Sudan, the last place in the continent of Africa where humans are owned by other humans – I was part of the movement to stop slavery in Mauritania, which just now abolished the practice. But you were not with us, Bishop Tutu.

So where is Desmond Tutu when my people call out for freedom? Slaughter and genocide and slavery are lashing Africans right now. Where are you for Sudan, Bishop Tutu? You are busy attacking the Jewish state. Why?

Hat tip and a commendation to long time Joshua's Army member Joyce C.

Weekend Monkey On Politics: The Real Banana, 11/19/07

Hideeho, Primates! Welcome to this week's Real Banana.

This week, the big howl in the political jungle is: who's got more testosterone, Shrillery or Obama yo' mama?

Based on the Dem shootout in Vegas, I'd have to go with Shrillery.

First of all, it looks like that little shank Wolfie Blitzer took the warning from the Shrillery campaign seriously and turned into a freakin' poodle. I mean, can you believe this garbage? I was half expecting him to bend down and massage Shrillery's feet between each question!

Shrillery, for her part came out swinging. After the last debate, where she was caught on national TV saying two different things in the space of about three minutes, she probably figured the best defense was a good offense. She was particularly good at whacking Obama around.

Obama came out looking like a stumbling fool.
When it comes to making dumbass quotes to his pals in the media and he has a chance to rehearse first, he can get by, but stick him on any situation where he's not sure what's coming and has to think fast and he comes across like a retard gibbon ape trying to scramble after two peanuts at once!



I mean, you can almost see the wheels turn.

Speaking of which, Chris Dodd, of all people came across as actually half way together for once. Musta gotten hold of some ibogaine or something...whooo!

And Bill Richardson once again put in another bid for the vice presidential nod by doing his bit to run interference for Shrillery and yakking about the personal attacks on her by the others. What a tool!

Now, Obama's latest little trick is to whine to Clinton not to `swiftboat' him! I mean, how pathetic can you get?

This latest rumble started when columnist Bob Novak ran an item in his column that the Clinton campaign had access to information about a secret scandal concerning Obama Yo' Mama and were waiting for the right time to release it. So what does Obama do? Buy it totally and start whining about it!

Now, Novak is an odious little toad, primates...but he's been moldering in DC a long time, and he knows people. And he's sticking by his story.

Shrillery, of course denied everything and said, essentially, that Obama Yo' Mama was out of his pea picken' mind, and just mouthing the talking points of the Great Rightwing Machine. So once again , Obama came out looking like an idiot.

Now, the funny part about all this is that there's plenty of dirt on Shrillery, even if a lot of it is still hidden in the Clinton library under lock and key.

But neither Obama or any of the other primates have what it takes to fling the poop right back at her.

Believe me, if this monkey had ever been allowed in these debates, you would have seen plenty of that...and Id likely be the Democrat front runner right now.

Think about it primates...every one of these clowns, including Shrillery was scared of Weekend Monkey! Can you imagine them running the country?

New Light On Saddam's WMDs

Ahh, the continued questions about Saddam Hussein's WMD program....

One of the biggest mistakes the Bush Administration made in Iraq, in my not too humble opinion was to publicize the fact that Saddam Hussein had an ongoing WMD program....and then take nineteen months piddling around with Kofi Anan and the rest of the `oil for food' cabal at the UN trying to get yet another UN resolution before doing anything about it.

I've often said that given that amount of time to hide, sell or otherwise dispose of anything Saddam had, I'd be surprised if we actually did find anything like that in Iraq. And, after putting two and two together,given what I've heard from some of my sources in the region, as well as what some of Saddam's own people have said publicly, I was always pretty sure that Basher Assad and Syria were one of the primary destinations. It's not well known, but among other things, Saddam had leased a luxurious villa in the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia on a long term lease for himself and his family, just down the road from Basher Assad's own complex.He was obviously planning to settle in there, but simply got caught in Iraq before he could get himself out.

Ted at the fine site Israpundit alerted me to a piece he crossposted by John Loftus, President of IntelligenceSummit.org, an independent intel think tank. It's a great article that summarizes a 9,000 word research paper, with actual citations to those captured documents from Saddam's own archives....the ones the Bush Administration hasn't seen fit to bother translating yet. And his conclusions? Saddam really did have WMDs after all, but not in the way the Bush administration believed:

"This Iraqi document research has been supplemented with satellite photographs and dozens of interviews, among them David Gaubatz who risked radiation exposure to locate Saddam’s underwater WMD warehouses , and John Shaw, whose brilliant detective work solved the puzzle of where the WMD went. Both have contributed substantially to solving one of the most difficult mysteries of our decade.

The gist of the new evidence is this..roughly one quarter of Saddam’s WMD was destroyed under UN pressure during the early to mid 1990’s. Saddam sold approximately another quarter of his weapons stockpile to his Arab neighbors during the mid to late 1990’s. The Russians insisted on removing another quarter in the last few months before the war. The last remaining WMD, the contents of Saddam’s nuclear weapons labs, were still inside Iraq on the day when the coalition forces arrived in 2003. His nuclear weapons equipment was hidden in enormous underwater warehouses beneath the Euphrates River. Saddam’s entire nuclear inventory was later stolen from these warehouses right out from under the Americans’ noses. The theft of the unguarded Iraqi nuclear stockpile is perhaps, the worst scandal of the war, suggesting a level of extreme incompetence and gross dereliction of duty that makes the Hurricane Katrina debacle look like a model of efficiency."

Not only that, but the untranslated documents were posted on a public website at the express orders of President Bush...and later had to be removed hastily when it was discovered that the documents, among other juicy tidbits, contained explicit instructions on how to make a nuclear bomb!

Absolutely a must read for Joshua's Army members.

UK Channel 4's `Undercover Mosque' Completely Vindicated

You may recall that I did a story previously on Britain's Channel 4 and its documentary, `Undercover Mosque', where Channel 4 actually went undercover and secretly filmed British imams at work preaching hatred at the usual Friday sermons (notably at the Green Line Mosque in Birmingham) and broadcast it as a documentary.

Of course, the British police did absolutely nothing about the mosques or the hate imams.Instead, they went after Channel 4, reporting them to the UK’s media regulatory agency, Ofcom and claiming that Channel 4 committed lapses of journalistic integrity.

That investigation has now been concluded, and Channel 4 has been totally vindicated, of course. Above is a video report on the matter.

And of course, those British imams are still preaching that same old stuff at places like the Green Line Mosque.

Is The Annapolis Summit Falling Apart?

It sure seems like it.Or, at the very least, it looks like it's been severely downgraded.

With the Israelis claiming that the Palestinians continue to renege on what they've agreed to, and the Palestinians continuing to up the ante for their demands,there's apparently very little possibilltiy of that joint statement of principles Condi Rice wanted so badly being issued as part of the summit.

According to the Jerusalem Post, senior diplomatic sources told them that the Palestinians had backtracked on all understandings that were reached on the joint statement. According to these sources, the Palestinians have "returned to square one, to [a point that] preceded the beginning of the negotiations."

Yet the Olmert government, instead of simply calling off the whole charade is still planning to attend, but calling the conference a success just because it happened!

"The joint statement is not imperative," one senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said. "Annapolis is about starting the process."

"Annapolis cannot be a failure because its very existence constitutes a success," Olmert said.

But wait a minute. Didn't Saeb Erekat and Mahmoud Abbas say that without a joint resolution calling for a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capitol and a full right of return for the Palestinian `refugees' AND a set time line, that there was no point in attending?

Condi Rice is still trying to figure out how to salvage this mess. She has no idea of how to reconcile the issue of Hamas and Gaza, or Hamas strength in the West Bank with her ideas of a `peaceful two-state solution'.

She reportedly also tried to convince some of the Arab governments to make token gestures towards Israel to prime the pump for Israeli concessions towards the Palestinians and Syria..and was confronted by Mahmoud Abbas lobbying the Arab countries to make sure they did nothing of the sort!

That, of course, left the option I'm sure Rice and her pals in the State Department refer to privately as Old Reliable - pressure on Israel.

Accordingly, the Israelis agreed to release 441 captured Palestinian terrorists without a quid pro quo from the Palestinians, and to freeze all `settlement ' activity in Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinians made another promise to try to do what they've failed to do since Oslo - disband terrorist groups on the West Bank.This just includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad, mind you, which Palestinian interior minister Abd Razzak Yihye called ` a cancer to be rooted out.' It most emphatically does NOT include the Tanzim and the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, Abbas' own terrorist militias who are still on his payroll.

Considering how poorly Abbas' US trained `special forces' did against a joint Hamas/Islamic Jihad force last week in Nablus, I have a feeling that working on that Hamas cancer is going to be another one of those messy jobs Abbas will simply put off. If he wants to keep breathing.

There was also no word about the Palestinians halting illegal construction in Jerusalem or elsewhere, of course, or stopping the constant drone of Jew hatred in their state-controlled schools and media.

So again, what we have are concrete concessions from Israel, as opposed to commitments from the Arabs that they have no ability to carry out, even if they wanted to.

Or, as Bart Simpson once famously said " I'm not going to promise to try. But I promise to try to try."

Rice and the State Department, of course, are caught in a trap of their own making. If, after all the expectations, the Annapolis Conference fails to amount to more than a photo op, The Palestinians and the Arab league will be livid. And understandably so...they were effectively promised by Rice that she would deliver Israel to them on a platter.

If Condi throws up her hands and calls off the summit, it reflects badly on her personally, and shows that the US is unable to pull off a conference of this type that involves the Sunni autocrats the Bush Administration is so fond of.

The only other way out for Rice and the State Department is to put massive pressure on Israel to give in to Abbas' and the Syrians' demands.

If Olmert caves in to every one of those demands, his government will fall and Rice can spin the failure of the`peace process' on Israeli intransigence.If he only partially caves in,or doesn't cave in at all, the Arabs can likewise reject it and blame Israel as `not being interested in peace.'

It's a case of heads they win, tails you lose, which is exactly why I said last week that Olmert was a fool for attending in the first place.

As for Condi Rice, her years as the protege of her anti-Israel, pro-Saudi mentors James Baker and Brent Scowcroft are becoming more and more obvious as time goes by.

The Latest On The al-Haramain Case

As regular members of Joshua's Army know, there's a court case at the infamous Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that's been brewing that has major implications of how America fights domestic Islamist terrorism and its funding.

If you'll recall, the case asks: does the United States Government have the right to conduct secret surveillance of terrorism suspects on American soil?

AL -Haramain was a Saudi funded `charity' that is a designated terrorist group, with various branches responsible for funding things like Hamas,al Qaeda, the Bali Bombings, he 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya and a host of other nefarious activities.

There are direct links to information about al-Haramain here.

Here's the case in a nutshell, if you've forgotten. A branch of al-Haramain opened in Ashland, Oregon. The US government got some confidential info and based on that, tapped the phones of the Oregon branch and heard evidence that they were helping to finance terrorist activities. The government then designated the Oregon branch as terrorists, and froze their assets. Al Haramain challenged this in court, unaware of the evidence the Feds had. Unfortunately, during the discovery portion of that litigation, a government employee accidentally gave top secret logs of the tapped phone conversations to Al Haramain's lawyers as part of a stack of documents.

As soon as they became aware of the surveillance, al-Haramain hooked up with the ACLU and other Leftist lawyers and turned this into a test case to challenge the legality of the surveillance, and by extension the legality of all secret surveillance in trials of this kind.The idea is to set a legal precedent to stop the Federal government from conducting surveillance on anybody, to prevent any similar surveillance in the future, and to make inadmissible any evidence gathered by surveillance in the past.

The implications if they get away with it are staggering.


The feds tried to play catch up on this major screwup by trying to suppress the evidence of the leaked document on grounds that its exposure would endanger national security. The Feds eventually got back all U.S. copies of the surveillance logs — but not before an unknown number of copies made their way overseas.

So what the three judge panel from the Ninth Circuit was ruling on is this: does the plaintiff, al-Haramain have the legal right to sue the government? In order to be able to sue, they have to prove the surveillance, and to prove that,they have to use the only evidence which proves this, the logs..which the feds claim was inadmissible evidence because of national security concerns. Al -Haramin and their lawyers actually wanted to proceed with the case based on the memories and descriptions of the document, using testimony from the various people that saw it before it was given back to the government.

The trial was conducted before two Clinton appointees and a superannuated Carter appointee with a reputation as one of the most Left-leaning appellate judges in America.

As I predicted, this is headed for the Supreme Court as the Ninth Circuit court mostly ruled in favor of the jihadis but with an interesting twist or two that renders the decision a legal absurdity...nothing new for the Ninth Circuit, the most reversed appellate court in America.

On the one hand, the court ruled that al-Haramain's lawsuit could continue and they could sue the government...and on the other, that the controversial document that's al-Haramain's basis for the suit, the surviellance phone logs, is inadmissable, is covered by the State Secrets Act and cannot be reconstructed by al-Haramain or its lawyers, even from memory.

Or to translate it another way, it's like saying you can prosecute a burgler for theft, but you can't use any of the evidence that shows a theft occurred!

To get around this, the court made the Bush Administration's warrantless surveillance program itself the issue, and left open whether provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would allow the lawsuit to proceed by allowing the courts to use `special proceedings' to hear classified evidence.

So, will the lawyers and the ACLU gut the US government's efforts to protect us from domestic jihadi terrorism? We'll see...

We have by no means heard the last of this.

The Battler - Australia's John Howard On The Eve Of Elections

I'll make no secret of the fact...Australia's PM John Howard is one of my favorite world leaders, period. In terms of guts, competence and plain spoken honesty,PM Howard sets a huge standard.That's why our pals in Oz have voted for him and the Liberal Party to lead the country since 1996.

In one week, Australia holds its parliamentary elections , and the polls don't look good for Howard and the Liberals, who are behind by 7-10 points, depending on what you look at.

Howard's opponent, Labour's Mark Rudd has a very typical Left agenda - sign Kyoto,get Australia's troops out of Iraq, and more government gimmees on health care and education.

Like Tony Blair in Britain and a certain politician here in America, Rudd is masking his agenda by claiming to be a `new type of Labour leader' and a `fiscal conservative'.

Howard, for his part has presided over an unprecedented boom in Australia's prosperity. He very rightly asks the question: do you really want to trust Labour with the economy? In view of Australia's challenges with Islamist terrorism, do you really trust Labour to protect the country?

Sound familiar?

The Oz press has picked up on the dichotomy of a Labour politician trying to be more conservative than a Liberal, dubbing Howard and Rudd `Him and Me Too.'

Part of what John Howard is facing is simple voter fatigue. After 12 years, a lot of Australians want change for changes' sake.Other issues involve rising interest rates on Australian mortgages, which has hurt the incumbents and the usual assortment of governmental gaffes.

In many ways, this election is also a referendum on Australia's future.

John Howard is a staunch friend of America and the West,and favors Australia's traditional culture and alliances.

Some Australians, frankly, see that as a drawback and want Australia to pursue a more independent, Asia oriented direction. To these people, Mark Rudd,who speaks Mandarin Chinese and favors closer ties integrating Australia with Asia is the future they prefer.

Will the Battler pull it out? Both the polls and the bookies are betting against it..but then, John Howard has been behind in the polls before.

We'll find out in about a week.

Israel Wins!

Israel's Barda celebrates a goal.

You'll remember last week that I had a lot of fun looking at England finally cheering for an Israeli victory for a change....on the sports field against Russia, so that England's football team could have a chance at making it into the `08 Euro finals.

Well the underdog `Zionists' came through for England by beating Russia in an upset victory 2-1, giving England another lease of life. Since the Israelis won, all England has to do is to tie Croatia to make it into the finals.They might be able to manage it.

Amazing it is, to see headlines in the British press referring to `Israeli heroics' and `Israel's triumph' instead of the usual hatred thinly veiled as `anti-Zionism'.

England's manager, Steve McClaren, likely took my advice and buttonholed every rabbi he could get his hands on to pray over the Sabbath for an Israeli victory. Not only did it save England's chances of getting into the finals, it probably saved McClaren from getting lynched live on TV at Wembley stadium by an outraged mob next Wednesday.

Now, that would have been a high circulation cut on YouTube!

Bechatzlechah, chaverim. Like I said, I was rooting for you to win this one for yourselves, not for England.

One Of G-d's Small Miracles, 11/16/07

David Morris - This Week's Miracle

From time to time, I'm going to try and post items that may not have much to do with the overall theme of this site...or then again, they may everything to do with it.

This week's miracle comes from Wrexham, England, where a man who suffered a debilitating stroke has made a miraculous recovery, is back at work and is now in training - to run the London Marathon.

David Morris, 22, stunned his doctors with what they describe as a "miracle recovery" from a near fatal stroke.

David suffered bleeding in his brain from the stroke, which robbed him of movement down his right side and led to the loss of 50 per cent of his speech.

Now, just 11 months later, with 100% of his speech and most of his movement returned, he is in training for the marathon which takes place on April 13 next year.

"I have been accepted to run the London Marathon in April – I've even got my shirt already. I have been training hard and I'm hoping to do it within four hours. I am running for CLIC Sargent because they help children who are ill and I want to do something to help."

CLIC Sargent is a major British charity that aids children with cancer.

Appropriately enough, David was training for last year's marathon, until the stroke stopped him. Although apparently the setback was only temporary!

"I did actually train for it last year but I was not able to do it. I started training in August, doing 10 miles a week and I can now run 20 miles in one go - so I'm not far off."

Morris admits that his running style has changed since his illness, but it hasn't stopped him.

"It's harder to run now and I run in a weird way – not like I used to. But if I stay how I am now for life – I'd be happy."

Some people might be embittered at having a stroke at 22, or use the illness as an excuse for giving up...but David Morris obviously isn't among them.

The miracles we can create through our belief in ourselves, with G-d's grace and help are truly amazing.

Have a peaceful Sabbath.

"England Expects That Every `Zionist ' Will Do His Duty...."

Israeli star Gal Alberman


This is a special for my readers on the other side of the pond.

The Brits are finally supporting Israel and cheering for an Israeli victory....on the football field.

Israel is squaring off against Russia in a match that will probably decide whether England qualifies for the Euro `08 championships. The Brits are praying that the pesky `Zionists' manage to tie or beat Russia. If the Israelis hold up their end in the game Saturday night, England has another shot with its final qualifier, at home against Croatia, on Wednesday.

If Russia wins, England's hopes of qualifying are dead in the water, and England's much maligned manager Steve McClaren will have the wonderful experience of being subjected to the tender mercies of a frustrated and angry 90,000-capacity crowd of British football hooligans cursing his name for the whole 90 minutes next Wednesday in a meaningless game.

If I were McClaren, I'd be buttonholing every Rabbi he can get his hands on between now and game time to pray for the Israelis during the Jewish Sabbath!

Canada Tells US Deserters To Get Out!

There's some very good news out of Canada today...

The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear appeals from two men, Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey who deserted the US Army and fled north, seeking `refugee' status.What's more, the Canadians want them to leave, and quickly.

The court decision backed up decisions by Canada's immigration authorities and two subsequent court cases that these deserters were not entitled to refugee status.

These two deserters claim to oppose the Iraq war on political grounds, and headed for the Great White North when they found out their units were going to be deployed to Iraq.

If they're deported to the United States, they say they face a court martial and up to five years in prison.

"Canadians want a refugee system that helps true refugees," said Mike Fraser, spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley.

"All refugee claimants in Canada have the right to due process and when they have exhausted those legal avenues we expect them to respect our laws and leave the country."

(Translation: hey, Yanks...don't throw your garbage down here, eh?)

Needless to say, the two deserters are being aided and abetted by their forebearers, who deserted their country and found asylum in Canada during the Vietnam War.Lee Zaslofsky an ex-American who went over the hill during the Vietnam War is spokesperson for something called the War Resisters Support Campaign, which has been advocating for them.

"They won't be deported tomorrow; there is a process," said Zaslofsky. He said the two deserters were entitled to ask for a "pre-removal risk assessment," which can take a few months.It's designed to judge whether these two would be at risk of torture, death or cruel and unusual punishment in the US.

In contrast to the Vietnam era, when Canada was a destination of choice for thousands of draft evaders and deserters, even the War Resisters Support Campaign is only aware of 50 or so deserters in Canada since 2004...and most if not all of of them are in the process of being booted out.

To the Canadians, the fact that these people are volunteers rather than conscripts apparently makes a difference. I would imagine the brave efforts of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan does too.

As for the deserters, we're well rid of them. Since the Canadians likewise don't appear to want people of this ilk as citizens of their country, maybe Sweden would be a better destination. And I'm sure Cuba, Venezuela or Iran would welcome them with open arms.

Watcher's Council Results, 11/10 /06

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels

This weeks' winner is:
JoshuaPundit:`Land For Peace' American Style In which I took a look at the coming Annapolis conference and decided to apply the 'land for peace' formula as presented to the Israelis to some other territory that certain people consider occupied.

In second place, there was a tie between two fine entrees:

Rhymes With Right: School District & Cops Agree -- Ignore The Law A great screed by Greg in which he decried a particularly egregious instance of political correctness nullifying our immigration laws.

And:

Bookworm Room: Racist Talk About Education Ms. Bookworm's well written piece on the role of race and culture in the disparate academic achievements of different ethnicities.


For non-Council, the winner was Austin Bay: A Conversation In Bagram, Afghanistan A great post that addresses the question of why we're fighting this war.

In second place for non-Council, another tie between:

Elder of Ziyon: November 1947 And Annapolis Déjà Vu A bittersweet look at how little has changed in the Middle East and how the old, failed ideas and the appeasement of the Arabs by the West keeps leading to failure.

And:

Selwyn Duke: Stereotyping 101 a nice piece in American Thinker that tackles the nature and criteria of stereotyping.

Hearty Kudos to all the winners!